From: sandmann AT clio DOT rice DOT edu (Charles Sandmann)
Message-Id: <10303281926.AA13106@clio.rice.edu>
Subject: NTVDM.EXE crashing in Windows 2000 SP3, Windows XP, with DJGPP 2.03 building vim
To: wbriscoe AT ponle DOT demon DOT co DOT uk
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2003 13:26:54 -0600 (CST)
Cc: vim-dev AT vim DOT org, djgpp AT delorie DOT com
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> >SP3 machine (copying first to the dllcache to thwart WFP.)
> >It worked, but a drastic solution..

Using a patched SP2 ntvdm.dll does seem to work fine.

> Either the author of ntvdmpat.zip referenced from
> http://clio.rice.edu/djgpp/W2K_workaround.htm did not get an email I
> sent on 2003-03-23 or it was not worth a reply; his postings to
> comp.os.msdos.djgpp made on 2003-03-25 and 2003-03-27 suggest activity.

I didn't get any message.  It might have been caught in the spamtrap;
an exact sender and subject would allow me to tell you if it ever 
arrived on the system and if so - why it was rejected.

> That URL says "2) Optional: Patch Windows NTVDM.EXE
> If you have Windows 2000 (Original, SP1, SP2) you can modify your NTVDM
> image to avoid crashes ...". I thought that file probably predated SP3
> and a download was worth a trial. The trial succeeded; the patch does
> not work on SP3! It might be friendly to add a sentence: "This patch
> does not work on later releases of Windows." 

Added.

> Is there no mileage in
> getting microSoft to fix the problem? I failed to find any history on
> the phenomenal analysis of this bug.

http://clio.rice.edu/djgpp/w2kbug.zip contains the file ntvdmcrash - you
can see the date.  This is the date it was reported to Microsoft.  They
told me they might fix it in .net server, but no plans to put it in 
service packs at that time.  My original contact with Microsoft on this
was almost 2 years ago.

They made significant changes to the internal code of NTVDM between
SP2 and SP3 (different compiler?) that makes figuring out a patch 
very time consuming.  At the time the original patch was researched
we didn't have a fixed crt0 or release to build new images, much less
a binary patch for the DJGPP images.  The research on the bug told us
how to fix it - it just so happened there was an easy internal fix
also.  Now that there isn't, I suggest patching the DJGPP binaries
instead, or rebuilding them.

> That URL has a link entitled "DJGPP 2.03 Update Page" to
> http://clio.rice.edu/djgpp/win2k/main_203.htm
> I was able to use that informative page to download a set of files which
> allowed me to make -f Make_djg.mak to make vim without hitting the crash
> in ntvdm.exe which previously disturbed me.

I'm glad you found it useful.
 
> That URL says it was "Released to Simtel January 8"; the year is not
> specified. 

Fixed.

> A link entitled "gcc2953b.zip GCC 2.953" is dead; it has the
> comment "1781 Kb (or gcc30xb.zip from Simtel)".

I'm unhappy these were removed from Simtel - but I've fixed the 
link to the Clio version for those looking for 2.953.  

> I preferred to grab the later file; I was too lazy to hunt for it;

I added a link.

> It (main_203.htm) has a link entitled "Visit the the (sic) DJGPP Test

fixed.