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OS/2 Addons: File­Free­dom, Fonts, Icons & Virtual Desk­tops

Boost your Desktop experience with the eComstation and OS/2.
Install new Fonts, Icons and get a tree view file manager and a desktop switcher for OS/2 Warp.


Sprache: Deutsch, English,  


OS/2 Warp: Installation and Update Manual
Free Games: Amusing Games for OS/2, the eComstation and DOS/Linux (Hexxagon)

Icons

We ship with more than 4433 free icons for your desktop here. A few more high quality icons designed especially for some games can be found in the games section.

Fonts

Ever wondered if you could obtain a more diverse set of fonts including a lot of fantasy fonts, a hanzi-ka Chinese font or a cyrillic font? Here they are: 262 different fonts for OS/2 and WIN-OS/2. The standard set of fonts for OS/2 Warp 4 only includes Arial, Courier [New], Helvetica, Line Printer, Roman, Swiss, Symbol [Set], Times New Roman and Wingdings. We will tell you in the following how to install all these fonts properly.

Fonts ship with three different file formats *.PFB, *.PFM and *.AFM (Adobe Font Metrics). For OS/2 the .PFB is copied into C:\PSFONTS and the .AFM is converted to the .OFM (Open Font Metrics) format in the same place. Win16-OS/2 uses the .PFB and the .PFM located in C:\PSFONTS\PFM; i.e. the .PFB files are shared for both environments.

Installation for OS/2: System → System Setup → Font Palette → Edit Font → Add → input the font path and press add select all by ctrl/shift → add

Installation for WinOS/2: install the fonts via the ATM Control Panel, then/ before that make the ATM fonts available via the WinOS/2 settings and restart your WinOS/2 programs/sessions: System → System Setup → &WinOS/2 Configuration → WinOS/2 Settings → WinOS/2 Settings → WIN_ATM: On; right click all your WinOS/2 program links and also set WIN_ATM on in the settings.

Addons for OS/2 Warp

With the eComstation there already ship preinstalled replacements for lswitcher and the addons in this section which should at least be as good as the addons presented here; i.e. if you run an eComstation then you may skip this section.

FileFreedom

FileFreedom is a tree view file manager with two views: one for the tree and one for the current directory content. Just the way things are with the Konqueror under KDE or the file explorer under Windows. Usage Hint: Use View → Move Divider Right/Left or simply [Ctrl]+[E/F] to give more or less space to the directory tree view listing. All other GUI functions are quite intuitive and we leave their exploration to you.

Virtual Desktop Manager

The Virtual Desktop Manager allows you to switch between different virtual desktops. All windows not being on the current virtual desktop become minimized and will still be visible in the task bar. Just the way as things currently are with the eComstation though it is said to have a better quality assurance than you have with installing just a bunch of shareware programs.

Multiple Users and Desktop Settings for OS/2 and the eComstation

The MultiUser program arranges for a totally different desktop to be booted into depending on what user has logged in. It does so by saving and putting back in place the respective c:\os2\os2.ini and c:\os2\os2sys.ini. That means that you can also configure different graphics modes or printers for 'different users'.

Install the program like the following listing shows you:

> md c:\os2\muser > cd \os2\muser > unzip s:muser066.zip > minstall > epm c:\config.sys > grep -ni muser c:\config.sys 14: CALL=C:\OS2\muser\muser.exe C:\OS2\muser > copy MyFirstUserName.ini MySecondUsername.ini

The *.ini files in the muser directory are compound archive files containing both the respective os2sys.ini and os2.ini of the user which carries the same name as the compound .ini file. To create a new user at best simply copy all the settings from an old user. You may also enter 'newuser' at the login prompt on bootup to initialize a fresh user account any time. Note however that no printer drivers will be preinstalled for a new user and that the graphics mode will reset to the defaults.

Download Area

As you can see all discussed programs are ready for download at elstel.org.

Program Download FileSize sha256sum
Fonts fonts.zip 8916202 8943802f5745ba321b28cbe4ed677ddcf1fcb62e745def90fde5d3d47cb76d8c
Icons os2icons.zip 2583571 2f5e23482b1709ce93efab9d62f64e43415cc86d4db18c43335e692ef2008a0c
FileFreedom filefrdm.zip 124978 7b05d7934195ef068340b91df656131c5ebaac6ee5f4b67ee9e9c9dfc4bf8558
MultiUser muser066.zip 65933 cc7596569feae59264245d7d3d1a8b624594ce47ead59d6839699bbac4a3545c
Virtual Desktops pmvd025.zip 22364 fbe8c796cf29bc005f169a0bb29a9a4a498a5712e818936ab2db85a2205b707e
System Status Bar sysinf.zip 54873 4e6af345fde851ecad36b87d6877577157f92d8340e29de0e4855d0a276e118a
USB support for OS/2 Warp WarpUSB.zip 2312046 665ae492ffea16bf9a0a0d1ed9701e0d1358a9e6e54d3b18700684d2b78d017c

Sound Support: mp3, vorb & flac

  1. Install your sound driver: Support for builtin sound drivers is given via System → System Configuration → Install / Remove → Customize Installation; more drivers are supported via [en.]ecomstation.ru. If you do not know about your sound card it may be necessary to boot with a Linux live medium first and run lspci or hwinfo --all there respectively.
  2. for OS/2: download 'MMAudio Pak' from r6.ca and run minstall in the same directory where you have unzipped the MMAudio Pak by the OS/2 command line. That will install mp3, vorb & flac support.
    for an eComstation: download mmecs_mp3 from hobbes and run install.cmd: Only mp3 support needs to be installed with hindsight; vorb & flac support is built in.
  3. though files can be played via the system interface of OS/2 after a restart of pmshell you may want to have a more elaborate audio player with support for *.m3u and other playlists: install the pm123 player from hobbes: unzip it into the desired destination directory and run makewps.cmd to install icons for your desktop. m3u-playlists are simple files which can be created with dir /b >my.m3u or ls -1 >my.m3u.