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  • What's "IBMLZRW.EXE" for?

    From Louis Ohland@ohland@charter.net to comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware on Sat Aug 1 09:14:07 2026
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware

    While confusing folks about refdisks, I was snuffling about, looking for
    a wide variety of things. SC.EXE versions, DEV129.DGS versions, string theory...

    Looking through the 9576/9577 Diagnostics diskette, https://ardent-tool.com/disks/7677diag.zip

    I noticed "IBMLZRW.EXE", and being a file name that I cannot EVER
    remember seeing, it drew me in.

    Using a hex editor, the only human readable stuff was sparse:

    USAGE: IBMLZRW [/u] [/d]
    $Licensed Material - Property of IBM (C) Copyright IBM Corp. 1981, 1993
    All Rights Reserved.IBMLZRW not loaded
    $IBMLZRW removed
    $IBMLZRW cannot be removed
    $IBMLZRW already resident

    "LZRW" is a compression technique AFAIK.
    http://ross.net/compression/index.html

    The author of LZRW walked away from it after some patents were
    published. Nowadays, with monstrously XBOX HUUGGEE drives and GB of RAM, compression is nowhere near as significant as it was.
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Louis Ohland@ohland@charter.net to comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware on Sat Aug 1 09:29:02 2026
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware

    Just took a pass through the other diags disks... The 9576/9577 Diags
    disk seems to be the ONLY refdisk or diags disk to have "IBMLZRW.EXE"

    The truth is out there...

    Louis Ohland wrote:
    While confusing folks about refdisks, I was snuffling about, looking for
    a wide variety of things. SC.EXE versions, DEV129.DGS versions, string theory...

    Looking through the 9576/9577 Diagnostics diskette, https://ardent-tool.com/disks/7677diag.zip

    -aI noticed "IBMLZRW.EXE", and being a file name that I cannot EVER remember seeing, it drew me in.

    Using a hex editor, the only human readable stuff was sparse:

    USAGE: IBMLZRW [/u] [/d]
    $Licensed Material - Property of IBM (C) Copyright IBM Corp. 1981, 1993
    All Rights Reserved.IBMLZRW not loaded
    $IBMLZRW removed
    $IBMLZRW cannot be removed
    $IBMLZRW already resident

    "LZRW" is a compression technique AFAIK. http://ross.net/compression/index.html

    -aThe author of LZRW walked away from it after some patents were
    published. Nowadays, with monstrously XBOX HUUGGEE drives and GB of RAM, compression is nowhere near as significant as it was.
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Louis Ohland@ohland@charter.net to comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware on Sat Aug 1 09:31:02 2026
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware

    I wonder if LZRW is for a compressed drive, and does not work on the ROM image. Akin to "Stac"

    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Louis Ohland@ohland@charter.net to comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware on Sun Aug 2 07:09:25 2026
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware

    https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/whats-ibmlzrw-exe-for.1258414/post-1512500

    Bloodycactus wrote:

    looks more like it provides an interface on int 0x2F and 0x21 (and can
    load like a .sys file).

    dont load ibmlzrw, use a tool like (list.com) to look at diags.com, its
    a pile of compressed junk.

    now load ibmlzrw, and use list.com to look at diags.com again.....

    it basically decompressed a file executed or loaded that has the
    signature. (maybe the EDSY marker).

    think of it more like PKLite or LZEXE, but it doesnt put the
    decompression runtime onto each executable, the runtime is provided by ibmlzrw.
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