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----------------------------------------------------------------------
OS/2 2.x CONFIG.SYS FILE DESCRIPTION - Version 8 - February 12, 1994
Compiled By Rick Meigs, 7032 SW 26th Street, Portland, OR, 97219
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (c) 1992-94 by Rick Meigs. If you find errors or have some
helpful information, please do contact me at the address above. I
also hang around the FidoNet OS/2 conference, so you can drop me a
note there also, or at my InterNet address: Rick.Meigs@nwcs.org.
ENCOURAGEMENT: This ASCII file may be freely distributed (and you're
encouraged to do so) on a not-for-profit basis, but the copyright
notice may not be removed nor may the file be modified. This file is
Freeware (that means you can use it at no cost and pass it on to your
friends), but its not in the public domain (that simply means its a
copyrighted file).
VIEWING FILE: Using OS/2s Enhanced Editor will allow you to see line
numbers which can help your locate specific items in this file. See
CONTENTS. Regardless of what editor you use, do so with word wrap OFF
and use a monospaced (like System Monospaced) font.
PRINTING FILE: Now in enhanced JB format (75 column) for easy printing.
INF FORMAT: Don Parr of Riverside, CA., another OS/2 zealot, has
taken it upon himself to convert this file to the INF format. Version
7 is out and circulating. Version 8 will be along after I release
this into the system. Watch for it on FERNWOOD, OS/2 SHAREWARE and
OS/2 CONNECTION. Thanks Don for this great effort!
--CONTENTS-----------------------------------------------Line #----------
1. Caution, warning and disclaimer. 127
2. Initial Comments. 155
3. The program CNFGINFO.EXE 196
4. CONFIG.SYS main file description. 210
CALL=C:\OS2\XCOPY.EXE 216
IFS: HPFS.IFS 256
PAUSEONERROR 363
PROTSHELL 372
SET Command 392
SET USER_INI 428
SET SYSTEM_INI 448
SET OS2_SHELL 464
SET AUTOSTART 487
SET RUNWORKPLACE 501
SET RESTARTOBJECTS 526
SET COMSPEC 557
LIBPATH 566
SET PATH 586
SET DPATH 594
SET PROMPT 601
SET HELP 642
SET GLOSSARY 647
SET DIRCMD 651
SET IPF_KEYS 695
PRIORITY_DISK_IO 709
PRIORITY 716
FILES 730
DEVICE: TESTCFG.SYS 739
DEVICE: PMDD.SYS 748
BUFFERS 756
IOPL 789
RUN: CACHE.EXE 806
DISKCACHE 897
MAXWAIT 947
MEMMAN 963
SWAPPATH 1016
BREAK 1080
THREADS 1091
PRINTMONBUFSIZE 1109
COUNTRY 1125
SET KEYS 1170
SET DELDIR 1182
BASEDEV 1196
SET BOOKSHELF 1229
SET EPMPATH 1241
SET EPATH 1241
DEVICE: SASYNCDA.SYS 1246
DEVICE: SASYNCDB.SYS 1246
PROTECTONLY 1256
SHELL 1264
FCBS 1279
RMSIZE 1298
DEVICE: VEMM.SYS 1313
DEVICE: VMOUSE.SYS 1335
DOS= 1343
DEVICE: APM.SYS 1386
DEVICE: VXMS.SYS 1394
DEVICE: VDPX.SYS 1404
DEVICE: VDPMI.SYS 1410
DEVICE: VWIN.SYS 1416
DEVICE: EXTDSKDD.SYS 1420
DEVICE: PCMCIA.SYS 1424
DEVICE: VPCMCIA.SYS 1424
DEVICE: VCDROM.SYS 1434
IFS: CDFS.IFS 1443
DEVICE: OS2CDROM.DMD 1454
DEVINFO=SCR 1458
DEVICE: VVGA.SYS 1465
SET VIDEO_DEVICES 1471
SET VIO_VGA 1471
DEVICE: VSVGA.SYS 1471
DEVICE: POINTDD.SYS 1479
DEVICE: MOUSE.SYS 1488
DEVICE: COM.SYS 1501
DEVICE: VCOM.SYS 1522
DEVICE: SIO.SYS 1534
DEVICE: VSIO.SYS 1534
DEVICE: MVPRODD.SYS 1544
DEVICE: AUDIOVDD.SYS 1544
DEVICE: ANSI.SYS 1550
DEVICE: LOG.SYS 1562
RUN: LOGDAEM.EXE 1586
CODEPAGE 1609
DEVINFO=KBD 1666
SET ZOCDEVICE 1705
DEVICE: VDISK.SYS 1710
DEVICE: VNPX.SYS 1734
5. Novell NetWare Network Support 1746
6. Obscure CONFIG.SYS settings. 1847
7. Sample CONFIG.SYS files. 1999
8. How to restore a damaged CONFIG.SYS file from 2079
a backup copy.
9. REXX Support from within the CONFIG.SYS file. 2113
---------------------------------------------------------------------
1. CAUTION, WARNING AND DISCLAIMER.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
<<=CAUTION=>> Because of the way in which OS/2s Enhance PM Editor
(EPM.EXE) handles word wrapping, using it to edit your CONFIG.SYS file
is unwise. For best results, use the OS/2 System Editor (E.EXE).
<<=WARNING=>> If you plan on changing any line in your current
CONFIG.SYS file, please be sure to create a backup --BEFORE-- you
start experimenting! This has saved me more than once. Remember,
make the backup --BEFORE-- you change your CONFIG.SYS file. If you
backup the file after you make changes, then if something is wrong,
your backup is also incorrect and it will do you no good. If you
are viewing this information using CNFGINFO.EXE, use its Backup
option before you proceed any further.
Making a backup copy will do you know good if you don't know how to
restore a damaged CONFIG.SYS file with the backup. Therefore I have
included the procedure at the end of this file.
<<=DISCLAIMER=>> I CAN'T BE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT YOU DO WITH
YOUR SYSTEM OR YOUR CONFIG.SYS FILE BASED UPON WHAT YOU MAY LEARN
FROM THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS FILE. EVERY EFFORT HAS BEEN
MADE TO MAKE THIS FILE AS ACCURATE AS POSSIBLE, BUT NO WARRANTY OR
FITNESS IS IMPLIED. THE INFORMATION IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS"
BASIS. USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
2. COMMENTS.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
This whole process started in 1992 when I began researching what many
of the CONFIG.SYS file commands were for. This ever growing file is
the result of that ongoing research. It briefly describes most of the
common and some of the more obscure commands. Naturally, not all
possible commands are listed (especially the many hardware device
drivers), but there is a lot here for you to work with. Version 6 was
the first version updated for OS/2 2.1.
This file has become something more than I had anticipated when I
first released version one. Even after two years I'm still finding
out new things about OS/2s CONFIG.SYS file. Actually, this
CONFIG.SYS file description has become as much an optimization
"handbook" as it is a description. I assume someday all that can be
said about the CONFIG.SYS file will have been said. At that point
I'll be able to sit back and just let the last update circulate :^).
Even with all the hours I've put into this description, I still find
the CONFIG.SYS file to be somewhat of a mystery. Still, mystery or
not, to get the most out of OS/2 and your system, you just may need
to spend a little time editing your CONFIG.SYS. So don't hold back!
------------------ IMPORTANT NOTE AND WARNING ----------------------
Unlike the DOS CONFIG.SYS file which is read sequentially, OS/2
reads the entire file before it invokes the commands listed.
Therefore, except for several exceptions which have been noted, it
really doesn't matter where a command is placed. That beings said,
on several of the "nets" and in a file called CNFGSORT.ZIP it has
been suggested that if you organize your CONFIG.SYS file in a certain
way, you can significantly shorten the boot time of OS/2. I find
this sorting to be of little or no help for the vast majority of
OS/2 users. Further, you can cause yourself a lot of problems if you
do it incorrectly--including not being able to boot your system! So
be very careful (and have a backup CONFIG.SYS file) if you attempt
this sorting "tip".
---------------------------------------------------------------------
3. THE PROGRAM CNFGINFO.EXE.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm really not much of a programer, but I have written a REXX program
called CNFGINFO.EXE which uses this file to allow you to analysis your
own CONFIG.SYS file. After it reads in your CONFIG.SYS file, you just
point and click on any line and information from this file is dis-
played. It also will backup, edit and print your CONFIG.SYS file. You
can also print this file. Its Freeware (that means you can use it at
no cost and pass it on to your friends), but its not in the public
domain (that simply means its a copyrighted program). The "" symbols
are used by CNFGINFO, so please do not remove them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
4. BEGINNING OF CONFIG.SYS FILE DESCRIPTION.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The order of this description area generally followes that of the
"standard" CONFIG.SYS file.
CALL=C:\OS2\XCOPY.EXE C:\OS2\*.BK1 C:\OS2\*.BK2
CALL=C:\OS2\XCOPY.EXE C:\OS2\*.INI C:\OS2\*.BK1
Two files are essential to the operation of OS/2: OS2.INI and
OS2SYS.INI. If these files should get trashed, OS/2 isn't going to
function. Backing them up is very important. In OS/2 version 2.0,
once booted, OS/2 will not let you access or copy these critical
files. One way to circumvent this is to create your backups BEFORE
OS/2 is booted. This CALL will do the trick. It creates first a
backup of your backup and then creates a backup of the original
files. This gives you a two generation backup. This process will
add time to your system boot.
Generally OS/2 does not care where you place something in the
CONFIG.SYS file. This CALL is an exception in version 2.0. It
must appear before any other line because you need to complete
this backup process before OS2.INI AND OS2SYS.INI load.
<<=NOTE=>> In version 2.1, the INI files can be copied using the
normal OS/2 COPY command, but you may wish to consider adding this
CALL to your CONFIG.SYS file to automate the process.
<<=TIP=>> OS2.INI and OS2SYS.INI can also be reconstructed at boot
by holding down Alt-F1 during boot BEFORE the OS/2 logo appears.
You may need to hold the keys down for at least 20 seconds. During
your initial installation of OS/2, the installation process stored a
copy of its original INI files in the folder called INSTALL. When
you press Alt-F1 at boot, OS/2 moves these "backup" files into the
OS/2 folder to replace the current versions.
<<=WARNING=>> Use the Alt-F1 key combination as a last resort
because you will lose all customization and changes you have made to
the WpS.
<<=TIP=>> Add the following additional line, CALL=C:\OS2\XCOPY.EXE
C:\OS2\*.BK1 C:\OS2\INSTALL\*.INI, before the first CALL above.
This will replace the INI files in the INSTALL folder with a more
recent version. So when you have to use Alt-F1, you'll reboot
with little or no lose of your WpS customization.
IFS=C:\OS2\HPFS.IFS /CACHE:512 /CRECL:4 /AUTOCHECK:CD
IFS stands for "Installable File System". This OS/2 command
installs the High Performance File System (HPFS), if you want to use
it instead of FAT. The syntax is IFS=DRIVE:PATH\FILENAME,SWITCHES.
There are three switches:
/CACHE:nnn sets up a disk cache and its size. The default on most
systems (shown in Table 1.0 below) is to low in my opinion.
<<=TIP=>> Change the size of your disk cache based upon the
information provided in Table 1.1 below. This great stuff was
"provided by Proportional Software based upon a great deal of OS/2
system tweaking done by the DCF/2 development team."
<<=Warning=>> Keep this one truth in mind about cache size: an
excessive cache takes memory directly out of RAM available for
programs and therefore could have a negative impact on overall
system performance. E.g. if you set a 2MB cache on a 6MB system,
you will notice a substantial negative performance hit.
OS/2s Command Reference and other IBM sources indicate that the
maximum cache size for HPFS is currently 2MB (2048), but IBM does
not recommend using a cache larger than 1.5MB (1536). Personally,
I have 16MB of RAM and have my HPFS cache set to the max: 2048.
If this switch is omitted, the default is 10% of the available RAM.
========================== Table 1.0 ==============================
If you have formatted your system with only HPFS partitions, the
cache size in this statement, as set by OS/2 during installation, is
that noted under ONE FILE SYSTEM in the table below. If you have
both FAT and HPFS partitions, then OS/2 2.x set the cache sizes to
those noted under TWO FILE SYSTEM. The file system which uses the
greatest amount of your disk space gets the larger default value.
MEMORY SIZE IN MB TWO FILE SYSTEM ONE FILE SYSTEM
4 128/64 128
5 128/64 128
6 256/64 256
7 256/128 256
8 256/256 384
9 256/256 384
10 - 16 512/512 1024
17 - 32 1024/1024 2048
===================================================================
========================== Table 1.1 ==============================
You can get better performance from your system by using your
available RAM in the most efficient and effective way. Select the
case that best describes the file system or amount of RAM you use.
CASE 1: You use only HPFS or only FAT, but not both.
HPFS only. FAT only.
System memory of at least: Set CACHE to: Set DISKCACHE to:
16 MB 2048 2048
12 MB 1536 1536
8 MB 1024 1024
CASE 2: You use both HPFS and FAT with HPFS active and FAT passive.
System memory of at least: Set CACHE to: Set DISKCACHE to:
16 MB 2048 512 -1024
12 MB 1536 256 - 512
8 MB 1024 128 - 256
CASE 3: You use both HPFS and FAT with HPFS passive and FAT active.
System memory of at least: Set CACHE to: Set DISKCACHE to:
16 MB 1024 2048
12 MB 768 1536
8 MB 512 1024
<<=NOTE=>> For purposes of the table above, "active" and "passive"
are descriptors for the way a partition is used. If it is seldom
used, it is "passive." If a lot of disk intensive I/O occurs on the
partition, it is "active."
===================================================================
/CRECL sets the maximum record size for caching, from 2k to 64k in
multiples of 2k with a default of 4k; and,
/AUTOCHECK:nn tells the system to run CHKDSK and sets the drives to
be checked at startup.
<<=TIP=>> If you are using only FAT partitions, then you should REM
this IFS statement and save yourself about 130k of RAM.
<<=TIP=>> If you have drive partitions larger than 80 or so
megabytes, then HPFS will give you better performance than FAT. On
partitions of less than 80MB, most authorities indicate that there
is only a small performance difference between HPFS and FAT.
consider the following when comparing the relative merits of the
HPFS versus FAT: On large partitions of identical size, the HPFS
will generally give you about 15% more space and improve performance
by about 28% (Information provided by Proportional Software).
<<=NOTE=>> Lazy write is on by default. If you want Lazy write
off, see the RUN=C:\OS2\CACHE.EXE command and note the discussion
of the version 2.1 bug.
PAUSEONERROR=YES
This OS/2 only command tells OS/2 to stop for a moment if it cannot
process a line in the CONFIG.SYS file correctly. If you don't
include this statement in your CONFIG.SYS file, the default will be
YES. It is generally the best choice since an error message will
appear and scroll off the screen so quickly with a NO setting that
you may not notice it or be able to read it.
PROTSHELL=C:\OS2\PMSHELL.EXE
This OS/2 command loads OS/2s user interface program (PMSHELL.EXE)
which allows you to make full-screen and window sessions work. The
current interface program is the Workplace Shell (WpS), but in
theory you could purchase or develop your own user interface and use
it instead of the WpS, much like Norton's Desktop is available for
the Windows environment. If you delete this line from your
CONFIG.SYS file, OS/2 will load CMD.EXE by default.
<<=NOTE=>> There is a beta version of a new interface from IBM
called TSHELL.EXE. TShell is a character-based, protected-mode shell
for OS/2 2.x. With TShell you can start and switch switch between
OS/2 and DOS sessions, including WIN-OS2. Every TShell session will be
full-screen only. As always, you still use alt-esc to switch around
sessions and control-esc to show a list of sessions. You can download
this program as TSHELL.ZIP from most OS/2 BBSs. There are several
other alternatives also including MSHELL.ZIP AND PMP203.ZIP (I like
this one). Check out your OS/2 BBS for these files.
SET COMMAND: The SET command in the CONFIG.SYS file sets up
environment variables for the entire system. These environmental
variables are stored by OS/2 in memory and are shared by any
applications which calls on them. There are a number of these
"environment variables" covered below.
<<=NOTE=>> These variables can also generally be changed at an OS/2
command prompt.
<<=TIP=>> If you want to see what variables are set in your system,
at an OS/2 command prompt type the word SET and press return. You'll
get a list like the following:
WP_OBJHANDLE=87103
USER_INI=C:\OS2\OS2.INI
SYSTEM_INI=C:\OS2\OS2SYS.INI
OS2_SHELL=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE
AUTOSTART=PROGRAMS,TASKLIST,FOLDERS
RUNWORKPLACE=C:\OS2\PMSHELL.EXE
COMSPEC=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE
PATH=C:\OS2;C:\OS2\SYSTEM;C:\OS2\MDOS\WINOS2;C:\OS2\INSTALL;
C:\;C:\OS2\MDOS;
DPATH=C:\OS2;C:\OS2\SYSTEM;C:\OS2\MDOS\WINOS2;C:\OS2\INSTALL;
C:\;C:\OS2\BITMAP;
PROMPT=$E[1;33m[$P]$G
HELP=C:\OS2\HELP;C:\OS2\HELP\TUTORIAL;
GLOSSARY=C:\OS2\HELP\GLOSS;
DIRCMD=/ON /P
IPF_KEYS=SBCS
KEYS=OFF
BOOKSHELF=C:\OS2\BOOK
EPMPATH=C:\OS2\APPS;
VIDEO_DEVICES=VIO_SVGA
VIO_SVGA=DEVICE(BVHVGA,BVHSVGA)
WORKPLACE__PROCESS=NO
SET USER_INI=C:\OS2\OS2.INI
Tells OS/2 the name and locations of the file that contains your
desktop setup information and the options saved from various OS/2
applications. OS2.INI is the default file name.
This file remains open the entire time OS/2 is booted and operating.
It only closes upon Shutdown. If it should become "trashed",
MAKEINI.EXE, which ships with OS/2 and is in the OS2 directory, can
be used to build a new set of INI files. You will have to boot from
an OS/2 floppy to do so.
<<=NOTE=>> OS2.INI is a critical file for the proper operation of
OS/2 and should not be deleted or modified. It is not an ASCII file
and, if it should become damaged, cannot be modified with an ASCII
editor. You should consider backing up this file by using the CALL
lines shown above or with a program such as WPSBKUP. It is one of
several shareware programs design for this purpose. Check your
favorite OS/2 BBS.
SET SYSTEM_INI=C:\OS2\OS2SYS.INI
Tells OS/2 the name and location of its INI file (OS2SYS.INI).
OS2SYS.INI tells OS/2 what kind of equipment your system uses.
NOTE: OS2SYS.INI is a critical files and should not be deleted or
modified. It is not an ASCII file and can't be edited. You should
consider backing up this file by using the CALL line shown as the
first line above or with a program such as WPSBKUP, a shareware
program you can obtain on many OS/2 BBSs.
This file remains open the entire time OS/2 is booted and operating.
It only closes upon Shutdown. If it should become "trashed",
MAKEINI.EXE, which ships with OS/2 and is in the OS2 directory, can
be used to build a new set of INI files. You will have to boot from
an OS/2 floppy to do so.
SET OS2_SHELL=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE
OS2_SHELL directs OS/2 to load the command line shell (CMD.EXE) when
you ask for an OS/2 command line from the WpS.
<<=WARNING=>> Be careful with this line, OS/2 will not start
without it.
<<=TIP=>> If you wish to run some other command line shell, such as
4OS2, change this line and the SET COMSPEC=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE line,
substituting the appropriate EXE file for CMD.EXE.
<<=TIP=>> If you have a need to have a .CMD file invoked when you
launch any OS/2 full screen or windowed session, just as AUTOEXEC.BAT
is invoked for DOS sessions, modify this command line as shown below
and it will cause AUTOEXEC.CMD to be invoked each time you start an
OS/2 session.
SET OS2_SHELL=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE /k C:\AUTOEXEC.CMD
Of course you can choose any file name you wish for the CMD file.
AUTOEXEC.CMD is used just as an example.
SET AUTOSTART=PROGRAMS,TASKLIST,FOLDERS
This command is used to start parts of the OS/2 WpS. There is one
other parameter: CONNECTIONS. This starts any network connection
in use when the system was last shutdown.
<<=WARNING=>> If you remove any of these statements, then you may
not get OS/2 to respond or you will be restricted from accessing
portions of the shell. For example, if you leave out FOLDERS,
Folders, including the Desktop which is also a folder, can not be
opened. If you delete TASKLIST, then you will not obtain the OS/2
TASKLIST when you press Ctrl-Esc and if PROGRAMS is not included,
only programs in your startup folder will be available.
SET RUNWORKPLACE=C:\OS2\PMSHELL.EXE
This line tells the system what interface program is to be used. In
this case it is the Workplace Shell.
<<=TIP=>> If you want to run OS/2 with only a command line
interface, you can do so by changing this line to read SET
RUNWORKPLACE= C:\OS2\CMD.EXE. This brings OS/2 up without the WpS
and gives you one screen session. Without the WpS, you lose much of
OS/2s functionality, but you can start other sessions using the
START or DETACH command. Otherwise, operated just like you were in
DOS. If you have started more than one session, switch between them
using Alt+Esc. For those who want the power of OS/2 and like to
work only from a command line, give this a try. I'm running in this
mode right now just as a test and it appears to work fine.
This is also a way to improve performance on 4MB RAM systems, since
the WpS take up LOTS of ram.
<<=WARNING=>> If you run without the WpS as noted in the <<=TIP=>>
above, you can not perform a "shut down" from a command line. To do
a shut down, at a command line, type PMSHELL and press enter. This
starts the WpS. Once the WpS is open, you should be able to perform
a standard shut down.
SET RESTARTOBJECTS=YES
This command tells OS/2 what applications to start after you suspend
operations with or without doing a Shutdown (as in doing a Ctrl-Alt-
Del because some faulty program has locked up your system). If this
statement is not in your CONFIG.SYS, then the default is YES, i.e.,
start all objects that were running at the time of Shutdown or
reboot. Other options are:
NO = do not start any applications that were running at time
of shutdown or reboot.
STARTUPFOLDERSONLY = start objects only in the Startup
folder. This parameter is also handy for another
purpose. If you have one or more programs in the Startup
folder and do a shutdown without closing the programs
(i.e. left the programs open at shutdown), then reboot,
OS/2 will restart the programs left open AND the Startup
folder will start another copy. Thus you will have two
copies running. Setting this parameter eliminates this.
REBOOTONLY = Start objects only if the OS/2 WpS is starting
from a reboot (Ctrl-Alt-Del) or at power on. Objects
will not restart if the WpS is restarted as a result of
its own error correction recycling.
<<=TIP=>> You can also circumvent the auto-starting of programs by
holding down Left/Ctrl-Left/Shift-F1 all at the same time during
boot. It must be done AFTER your mouse pointer (or clock) is seen
(but not to soon after it appears), but before any icons appear.
SET COMSPEC=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE
This line identifies what OS/2 command line shell is to be used and
where its at. In DOS, COMMAND.COM is equivalent to CMD.EXE.
<<=TIP=>> If you wish to run some other command line shell, such as
4OS2, change this and the SET OS2_SHELL=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE line,
substituting the appropriate EXE file for CMD.EXE.
LIBPATH=.;C:\OS2\DLL;C:\OS2\MDOS;C:\;C:\OS2\APPS\DLL;
This is an OS/2 command. It tells OS/2 where to locate Dynamic Link
Libraries (DLLs). LIBPATH is similar to DPATH and PATH, but the
statement can only be used in the CONFIG.SYS file and OS/2 does not
search the current directory for DLLs unless you include it in the
LIBPATH statement. You don't need to use the SET command with
LIBPATH, it is not an environment variable.
<<=TIP=>> To reduce the search time for OS/2 to locate the file(s),
be sure that the various PATH statements contain the correct path to
your program and other files. You can also have OS/2 search the
current directory by including a period "." right after the equal
"=" symbol. This causes OS/2 to look in the current logged
directory first.
One final item that will reduce search time: Be certain that the
PATH, LIBPATH and DPATH statements in the CONFIG.SYS are arranged
with the most frequently accessed subdirectories listed first.
SET PATH=C:\OS2;C:\OS2\SYSTEM;C:\OS2\MDOS\WINOS2;C:\OS2\INSTALL;
C:\;C:\OS2\MDOS;C:\OS2\APPS;
Just like in DOS, it tells both DOS and OS/2 where to find programs.
<<=WARNING=>> Your path statement should contain at least the
following directories: \OS2, \OS2\MDOS, \OS2\SYSTEM.
SET DPATH=C:\OS2;C:\OS2\SYSTEM;C:\OS2\MDOS\WINOS2;C:\OS2\INSTALL;
C:\;C:\OS2\MDOS;C:\OS2\APPS;
This is an OS/2 command. It tells OS/2 programs where to look for
data files. It is similar to the DOS APPEND command, but unlike
APPEND, DPATH only works with programs designed to use it.
SET PROMPT=[$P]$G
Like the same DOS command, this line sets how your OS/2 command
prompt will appear. (This is for OS/2 only. Set the DOS PROMPT
default in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.) In the setting shown here, the
command prompt will appear showing the current directory of the
default drive enclosed in [] followed by the greater than symbol,
i.e. [C:\]>. Having brackets [] around the drive and directory
information lets you quickly know when you are at an OS/2 command
line verse a DOS command line.
If you type PROMPT without a parameter, OS/2 will return its default
prompt [$p].
Options include:
$B = The | character
$C = The open parenthesis (
$D = Current date
$E = ASCII code 27 (escape) so you can work with ANSI. See
<<=TIP=>> below.
$F = The close parenthesis )
$G = The "greater than" > symbol
$H = BACKSPACE over the previous character
$I = Turns help line on
$L = The "less than" < character
$N = Default drive
$P = Current directory of default drive
$Q = The equal = character
$S = The space character
$T = Current time
$V = OS/2 version number
$_ = Carriage return or line feed
<<=TIP=>> You can also add ANSI control sequences to your prompt.
For example, to help me know visually whether I'm working with an
OS/2 command line, I've add $E[1;33m to my prompt line, i.e. SET
PROMPT=$E[1;33m[$P]$G. This sets text to display in bold yellow
characters. Bold yellow characters means OS/2 command line. White
characters means DOS command line.
SET HELP=C:\OS2\HELP;C:\OS2\HELP\TUTORIAL;
Tells OS/2 where the help files are located. OS/2 will only look
for a program's help files in the path shown.
SET GLOSSARY=C:\OS2\HELP\GLOSS;
Tells OS/2 where Glossary and Master Help files are located.
SET DIRCMD=/ON /P
An undocumented command that is the OS/2 equivalent of the DIR
command in DOS. Since DOS 5, you can tell DIR how to present file
information. To do this in OS/2, use the DIRCMD command. For
example: SET DIRCMD=/ON /P tells OS/2 to display the DIR
information in alpha order and place a pause at the end of each
page.
This is for OS/2 only. Set the DOS default in your AUTOEXEC.BAT
file.
Options include:
/A list files with specific attributes. E.g. /AH list only
hidden files. Other options are S A & R. If you place a
negative (-) sign in front of your specified attribute,
all files will list except those with the attribute
specified. E.g. /A-H-S will display all files except
hidden and system files.
/B list directories and files without heading and summary
information.
/F list files with the full drive and path information.
Date, time and size are omitted.
/L displays information in lowercase.
/N lists files on a FAT drive in the same format used for a
HPFS drive, i.e. date, time, size, name.
/O list files according to sort option specified. Sort
options are:
G = Display directories first.
N = alphabetize by file name
-N = reverse-alphabetizes by name
E = alphabetize by extension
-E = reverse-alphabetizes by extension
D = by date, oldest first
-D = by date, newest first
S = by file size, smallest first
-S = by file size, largest first
/P pauses after a full screen of files is listed.
/R displays long file names if applicable.
/S searches and displays all directories.
/W displays file names across the screen. Date, time and
size are omitted.
SET IPF_KEYS=SBCS
The character set for most languages can be represented as data
using an 8-bit byte since their characters sets are each less than
256 characters. These are Single Byte Character Sets (SBCS).
Languages such as Japanese, Korean and Chinese can only be
represented as data using two 8-bit bytes or 16-bits. These are
Double Byte Character Sets (DBCS).
This command tells the Information Presentation Facility (INF and
help files) which type of character set is being used, i.e., Single
or Double Byte Character Set. This is an Environment variable.
Removing it from my system did not seem to have any impact.
PRIORITY_DISK_IO=YES
This command determines whether programs running in the foreground
have priority access to disks. The default is YES. If you want a
program, like a BBS, running in the background to have equal access
to your disks, then change this statement to NO.
PRIORITY=DYNAMIC
OS/2 automatically assigns processing priorities to each thread of a
program as it begins processing. A thread running in the foreground
will generally have priority over a thread running in background.
Thread priorities are adjusted, generally based upon how active they
are, by OS/2 on an ongoing basis to make sure each thread has
adequate processing time. On the rare occasion that you need to run
a program which must never change in priority, you should set
PRIORITY=ABSOLUTE, otherwise, don't mess with it.
This is another OS/2 only command and does not have to be in your
CONFIG.SYS. If it is not, then OS/2 defaults to PRIORITY=DYNAMIC.
FILES=20
This is a standard DOS command which sets the maximum number of
files that DOS can access at the same time. OS/2 sets the default
at 20, but some DOS programs may require that you increase this
number. The maximum parameter is 255. FILES is for DOS only and
has no effect on OS/2 sessions which can have up to 64,000 files
open at the same time.
DEVICE=C:\OS2\TESTCFG.SYS
TESTCFG.SYS is used during the install process to test your systems
configuration. It is also used by the Selective Install process and
during device driver installations.
<<=NOTE=>> Because this driver is also used by the Selective
Install process, it should not be deleted.
DEVICE=C:\OS2\PMDD.SYS
OS/2 loads and uses this driver to provide pointer draw support
along with POINTDD.SYS.
<<=WARNING=>> OS/2 will not start without this line in your
CONFIG.SYS file.
BUFFERS=30
Tells OS/2 how many disk buffers to set aside. Range is from 3 to
100. Each buffer takes up to 512 bytes of RAM. 30 is the default
and usually works well. If you are using HPFS only, see tip below.
Disk buffers are blocks of memory set aside by OS/2 for use in
reading and writing blocks of data. For example, if a program wants
to change 80 bytes of a file, it needs to read the 512 byte sector
that contains the original data, change the information and then
write the corrected 512 byte sector back out. A "buffer" is the 512
byte temporary staging area for this partial sector operation.
According to source at IBM, "OS/2 allows multiple simultaneous I/O
operations to be queued up for both diskette and hard disk. Each
'concurrent' operation may need a buffer. If there are not enough
buffers, overlap can be inhibited. Because OS/2 has more
'simultaneous' queued I/O than DOS, it needs more buffers."
<<=TIP=>> Generally, you can speed up your system by increasing the
number of BUFFERS. But, keep in mind that as you increase the
number, you reduce available memory. 30 is the default, but you may
wish to experiment with a higher number, like 50 or 60. Be careful
about using a lower number unless you only have 4MB of RAM. With
4MB of RAM you may wish to set BUFFERS to 20. This gives you some
more valuable memory.
<<=TIP=>> If you are using only HPFS (i.e., no FAT partitions), set
BUFFERS to 3. With HPFS you don't need BUFFERS. Remember that 3 is
the minimum parameter. If you set BUFFERS to 1 or 2, OS/2 will
default to 30 since 1 and 2 are out of range. There is one exception
to this tip. If you access your floppy disks a lot, then a reduced
BUFFERS setting will impact floppy performance.
IOPL=YES
An OS/2 command that, when set to YES, lets programs that need to
bypass OS/2, and its device drivers, and work directly with hardware
devices, do so. One example is Lotus 123/G. YES means that all
programs can access the hardware directly. NO means that no program
can access the hardware directly. YES is the default and is
generally best, since its hard for most of us to know when a program
is written is such a way as to need direct access to hardware.
IOPL stands for Input/Output Privilege Level.
<<=TIP=>> You can also specify a list of programs that are allowed
to work directly with the hardware. For example,
IOPL=WS.EXE,123.EXE would allow only these two programs to access
hardware directly.
RUN=C:\OS2\CACHE.EXE /MAXAGE:2500
This line runs CACHE.EXE which allows you to modify the parameters
for the HPFS cache. CACHE.EXE is only used for HPFS partitions.
(The DISKCACHE command sets up a cache for FAT.) There are four
switches for CACHE.EXE:
/LAZY: Determines if lazy writes is ON or OFF, that is,
whether the contents of the cache will be written to your
hard disk immediately (/LAZY:OFF) or when your hard disk
is idle (/LAZY:ON). The default is ON. I like lazy
writes ON because it improves performance, but keep in
mind that since the system delays writing data to your
hard disk, you can lose data if your system should crash.
In the CONFIG.SYS file line above no switch is specified
therefore the default remains in effect, which is ON.
<<=TIP=>> Lazy writes can also be turned ON or OFF at an
OS/2 command prompt.
<<=WARNING=>> If you include the /LAZY switch, then the
CACHE statement will IGNORE ALL OTHER SWITCHES in the
line. Therefore, if you want to turn lazy writes off (or
on) and also change some other parameter, you will need
two RUN statements.
<<=WARNING=>> There is a bug in OS/2 version 2.1. I
verified it on my system. You can not turn lazy writes
off from the CONFIG.SYS file. The WpS always turns lazy
writes ON when it loads regardless of what your CACHE.EXE
command sets. So, if you want lazy writes off, you will
need to run the CACHE command AFTER the WpS starts.
Create a CMD file to turn it off and place it in your
startup folder. The WpS has already done it's thing when
the objects in the startup folder are opened. You can
also turn it off from a command prompt. (Thanks to Denis
Tonn for this critical information).
/MAXAGE: Sets how long data waits in the cache before it is
moved to another area of the cache where less used
information is stored, or how long data waits in the
cache before it is written to the hard disk. It is
expressed in milliseconds. The default is 5,000 or about
5 seconds. In the CONFIG.SYS file line above, the wait
is set at 2,500 milliseconds or about two 1/2 seconds.
I've done this to reduce the chance of data loss.
/DISKIDLE: Sets how long your hard disk must be idle before
it will accept data from the cache. Express in
milliseconds and the default is 1,000 or about one
second. In the CONFIG.SYS file line above no switch is
specified therefore it defaults remains in effect.
/BUFFERIDLE: Sets how long the cache buffer must be idle
before its contents MUST be written to your hard disk.
Express in milliseconds and the default is 500 or about
1/2 second. In the CONFIG.SYS file line above no switch
is specified therefore it defaults remains in effect.
According to one source at IBM, there are two other undocumented
parameters. I have not pursued their verification, so I can't tell
you much.
/DIRTYMAX: The threshold number of dirty buffers before
immediately flushing of least recently used (LRU) data
blocks is needed.
/WRITECACHE: The threshold number of bytes that HPFS will
cache for a lazy write.
<<=NOTE=>> The HPFS IFS CONFIG.SYS file line sets up the cache and
uses the system defaults. This CONFIG.SYS file line is only used to
modify the cache parameters.
<<=TIP=>> You can check to see what parameters the HPFS cache is
currently set at by going to an OS/2 command prompt and keying in
the word CACHE and pressing the enter key.
<<=TIP=>> Table 2.0 contains information on optimum settings for
each of the main parameters. This great stuff was "provided by
Proportional Software based upon a great deal of OS/2 system
tweaking done by the DCF/2 development team."
=========================== Table 2.0 =============================
Parameters: LAZY WRITES /LAZY:ON
MAXAGE >7,500
DISKIDLE 60,000
BUFFERIDLE 60,000
===================================================================
DISKCACHE=256,LW,32,AC:C
If you are using the FAT file system, this command sets up a RAM
disk cache. The DISKCACHE line noted here sets up a 256k cache.
The default cache size is based upon your RAM. See Table 3.0.
<<=TIP=>> If you have the RAM, increase the size to improve system
performance, but don't get carried away by using to much of your
RAM--this will hurt performance. Maximum FAT cache size is 14MB.
See the information on optimum cache sizes contained in Table 1.1
above.
=========================== Table 3.0 =============================
If you have formatted your system with only FAT partitions, the
default cache size in this statement will be that noted under ONE
FILE SYSTEM. If you have both FAT and HPFS partitions, then OS/2
2.x defaults to the cache size noted under TWO FILE SYSTEM. The
file system which uses the greatest amount of your disk space gets
the larger default value.
MEMORY SIZE IN MB TWO FILE SYSTEM ONE FILE SYSTEM
4 128/64 128
5 128/64 128
6 256/64 256
7 256/128 256
8 256/256 384
9 256/256 384
10 - 16 512/512 1024
17 - 32 1024/1024 2048
===================================================================
LW: Enables lazy writes. If you don't want lazy write enabled,
then remove ",LW".
32: The third number set the threshold size. It is express in
number of sectors which are 512 bytes each. Data requests from your
disk that are larger than this number will not be cached. The
default is 4. Thirty two (32) is said to be an optimum number. One
hundred twenty eight (128) is the maximum allowable. This setting
has no impact on RAM.
AC:C: If you want CHKDSK to automatically check your startup
partition (usually C), then add this switch to end of the DISKCACHE
command: AC:n where n is your startup partition, e.g. AC:C.
<<=TIP=>> If you are only using HPFS, then you should REM this
statement and save some RAM (don't delete, you may need or want it
later).
MAXWAIT=3
This OS/2 command sets the longest period a program will have to
wait to execute before OS/2 ups its priority. This makes sure
that no program is put on hold forever while some other program
hogs the system. You can set MAXWAIT from 1 to 255 seconds. The
default is 3 seconds.
<<=TIP=>> When running heavy background programs, such as a BBS,
change the setting to 1, i.e. MAXWAIT=1. This will keep the BBS
software or other background programs running at top speed. For
general use, it appears that setting MAXWAIT=2 makes the system a
little livelier.
<<==NOTE==>> MAXWAIT only has an effect if PRIORITY=DYNAMIC.
MEMMAN=SWAP,PROTECT
OS/2 can run more programs and use more data than can actually be
stored in memory at any given time. This is done by swapping large
amounts of memory to your hard disk and then reading the data back
into memory when needed. This is called virtual memory. For
example, if you only have 4MB of memory (Get MORE memory fast! You
need 8MB minimum with OS/2 2.x.) you will see lots of disk activity
while you are working with your system. A lot of this is OS/2
swapping memory to your hard disk. Lots of memory swapping will
slow down your system and cause your hard disk to fragment quicker
than normal.
The MEMMAN command controls the swap process. The syntax is
MEMMAN=s,m,PROTECT,COMMIT where s=SWAP or NOSWAP; m=MOVE or NOMOVE.
The default is to have virtual memory on. To turn off virtual
memory, which is NOT recommended, the CONFIG.SYS file line should
read: MEMMAN=NOSWAP.
PROTECT allows the allocation and use of protected memory. Unless
you are a programmer who needs this set to NOPROTECT, leave the
default.
<<=NEW 2.1 PARAMETER=>> A new parameter with version 2.1 is COMMIT.
With this parameter included, OS/2 will allocate space in the swap
file whenever a program commits memory. Increase your SWAPPER.DAT
file (in the SWAPPATH line below) by the amount of memory you are
likely to use when using the COMMIT parameter.
<<=TIP=>> You can also use the COMMIT parameter another way.
Without COMMIT set, the minimum free noted in you SWAPPATH specified
the point at which OS/2 gives you a message warning that your disk
space is running low. When you set COMMIT, the minimum free value
noted in your SWAPPATH statement becomes the amount of hard disk
space that will always remain free on the swap file partition.
Thus, with COMMIT set, you can never run out of disk space on your
swap file partition.
<<=CAUTION=>> When messing with the MEMMAN line, I changed it to
MEMMAN=NOSWAP. As a result, I had to boot from my OS/2 Installation
disk and recover my backup CONFIG.SYS file to get the system to
boot. I don't know why, but use caution.
<<=NOTE=>> The MOVE/NOMOVE parameter has no effect under OS/2 2.x
and is only provided for OS/2 version 1.x compatibility.
<<=NOTE=>> NOPACK PARAMETER. When OS/2 initially loads a 16-bit
OS/2 application, it packs the segments into pages and copies them
to the swap file for faster recovery when needed. This can be
disabled by using the NOPACK option on the MEMMAN line. However,
the performance decrease and larger working set will rarely offset
the potential of a reduced swap file size.
SWAPPATH=C:\OS2\SYSTEM 512 4096
OS/2 can allocate more memory than it actually has available. It
does this by swapping memory to a hard disk file called SWAPPER.DAT.
The syntax is SWAPPATH=DRIVE,PATH,mmm,nnn where DRIVE AND PATH is
the location where you want the SWAPPER.DAT file to be placed; mmm
is a number from 512 to 32767 and specifies how large the
SWAPPER.DAT file can grow before it stops consuming hard disk space.
The size is stated in the negative. In other words, if you have the
mmm set to 512, then the SWAPPER.DAT file can grow until there is
only 512k left on your hard disk. The variable nnn is the starting
size of the SWAPPER.DAT file. In the CONFIG.SYS file line above,
the starting size is 4096 or 4MB.
The default SWAPPER.DAT size is set based upon the amount of RAM
your system has available as shown in Table 4.0.
============================ Table 4.0 ============================
MEMORY IN MB MINFREE (KB) INITIAL SIZE (KB)
4 4096 6144
5 4096 5120
6 4096 5120
7 2048 4096
8 2048 4096
9 2048 3072
10 2048 3072
11 - 32 2048 2048
===================================================================
<<=TIP=>> When your swap file grows beyond the initial size you
have specified, OS/2 starts to manage the swap file. This will
negatively impact your systems performance because of the additional
system overhead. Therefore, if your swap file always exceeds its
initial size, consider increasing the files initial size.
<<=TIP=>> Normal operation of OS/2 2.x involves considerable disk
activity as operating system functions are loaded and pages are
moved in and out of the swap file. Here are a couple of tips to
improve performance. (1) Consider dedicating a separate partition
for the swap file. This helps avoid fragmentation of the swap file,
because other files will not be added or deleted from the dedicated
partition. (2) If you have both FAT and HPFS partitions, put the
swap file on the HPFS partition to take advantage of the better
performance of HPFS. (3) If you have a system with two hard disk
controllers, put the swap file on a disk managed by the least used
controller. (4) Keep your swap file on the MOST used partition
of the LEAST used hard drive.
<<=WARNING=>> Never put your swap file on a networked drive.
<<=NOTE=>> Your swap file will grow (in 1MB increments), but it
also shrinks when two conditions are met. One, when the amount of
free space in the swap file is greater than 1.5MB, the swap file
will be compressed during system idle time. (It will not shrink if
there is a constant "hit" on the drive by a program such as a swap
file monitor.) Two, during the compression, free space is moved to
the end of the swap file. When this free space at the end of the
swap file exceeds 1MB, the swap file will be shrunk.
<<=NOTE=>> See the discussion of the new COMMIT parameter for the
MEMMAN CONFIG.SYS line including the <<=TIP=>>.
BREAK=OFF
For DOS programs only. Many DOS programs can be stopped by holding
down the Ctrl key and then pressing the Break key. BREAK controls
how quickly DOS programs stop when you interrupt them with the Ctrl-
Break sequence. If BREAK=OFF, DOS will stop the program only when
the programs next reads a character from the keyboard or writes to
the screen or printer. With BREAK=ON, DOS will check for the Ctrl-
Break on a more frequent basis. Remember that this extra checking
can make your DOS programs run slower.
THREADS=256
OS/2 programs can have several different processes running at the
same time. These are called threads. This OS/2 command sets the
maximum number of threads, from 32 to 4095, that OS/2 can run at the
same time.
<<=TIP=>> On systems with only 4MB of RAM, set THREADS to 128 to
free up memory. If you only have 4MB of RAM, get more fast. You'll
be amazed at the difference another 4 or 8MB of RAM will make!
<<=TIP=>> If you have more than 8MB of RAM and run lots of OS/2
specific programs, you may be able to improve system
responsiveness by increasing the number of threads. Why? Because
well written OS/2 programs will use threads to improve program
performance. Therefore, the more OS/2 programs in use, the more
threads that could be needed. But still keep in mind that this only
holds true if you are using a fair number of OS/2 specific programs.
For example, I opened the Enhanced Editor, AmiPro for OS/2, ZOC (a
communications program for OS/2)and KWQ Mail/2 and still I was only
using 47 threads.
PRINTMONBUFSIZE=134,134,134
This OS/2 command sets the size of the print buffers for your
parallel ports. The syntax is PRINTMONBUFSIZE=LPT1,LPT2,LPT3 where
LPT1 is the buffer size for the parallel port LPT1, LPT2 is the
buffer size for LPT2 and LPT3 is the buffer size for LPT3. The
default and minimum is 134 bytes and the maximum is 2048 bytes.
<<=Note=>> You must define a buffer for LPT2 and LPT3 even if you
don't use these ports. You will get an error message at startup if
you don't.
<<=TIP=>> You may be able to improve printer throughput by
increasing buffer size. I have my LPT1 set to 402. On systems
with less than 6MB of RAM, don't increase the size of these buffers.
COUNTRY=001,C:\OS2\SYSTEM\COUNTRY.SYS
Customizes your system for the country you wish to use. It
establishes which defaults to use when it comes to decimal
separators, date and time formats, currency symbols, etc. The
syntax is COUNTRY=xxx,PATH,FILE NAME. xxx is a three-digit code
number that tells what country to use. The number is usually (but
not always) the same as the international telephone dialing prefix
for the country desired. Table 5.0 contains various country codes.
=========== Table 5.0 =============
COUNTRY COUNTRY CODE
Arabic-speaking 785
Asia (English) 099
Australia (English) 061
Belgium 032
Canada (French) 002
China 088
Czechoslovakia 042
Denmark 045
Finland 358
France 033
Germany 049
Hebrew-speaking 972
Hungary 036
Iceland 354
Italy 039
Japan 081
Korea 082
Latin America 003
Netherlands 031
Norway 047
Poland 048
Portugal 351
Spain 034
Sweden 046
Switzerland 041
Taiwan 088
Turkey 090
United Kingdom 044
United States 001
Yugoslavia 038
===================================
SET KEYS=OFF
When using the command line, KEYS tells CMD.EXE whether to remember
previous keystrokes so they can be recalled with the up arrow key.
OS/2 maintains a 64k buffer for storing keystroke history. KEYS can
be ON or OFF.
<<=TIP=>> On systems with only 4MB of RAM, SET KEYS to OFF, you
need the memory more than this feature. Even with 8MB of RAM, since
I don't use the feature I have turned it off to get a small memory
boost.
SET DELDIR=C:\DELETE,512;
To use OS/2s UNDELETE command, you must first establish a directory
in which to store the deleted files. To do this, create a directory
called DELETE in your root and then remove the "REM" from this
CONFIG.SYS file line.
This command points OS/2 to the directory you created to place
deleted files in. It also indicates the maximum number of files
that will be stored in the DELETE directory. If the number of
deleted files exceeds the maximum number that you specified, then
files are automatically removed from the directory on a first-in-
first-out basis.
BASEDEV=PRINT01.SYS
BASEDEV installs a base device driver used by OS/2 when it is first
started. The statement cannot contain either a drive or path
because OS/2 cannot process such information at the stage at which
these statements are process. Other base device drivers include:
PRINT01.SYS supports attached printers on non-Micro Channel PC's.
PRINT02.SYS supports attached printers on Micro Channel PC's.
IBM1FLPY.ADD supports diskette drives on non-Micro Channel PC's.
IBM2FLPY.ADD supports diskette drives on Micro Channel PC's.
IBM2SCSI.ADD supports SCSI disk drives on Micro Channel PC's.
OS2SCSI.DMD supports non-disk SCSI devices.
IBM1S506.ADD supports non-SCSI disk drives, non-Micro Channel PC's.
OS2DASD.DMD is a general purpose driver for disk drives.
IBM2ADSK.ADD supports non-SCSI disk drives on Micro Channel PC's.
IBMINT13.I13 supports non-Micro Channel SCSI adapters.
OS2CDROM.DMD supports CD-ROM drives.
FD16-700.ADD support driver for Future Domain 1670 SCSI.
FD8XX.ADD supports Future Domain FD8XX devices.
TMV1SCSI.DMD supports Media Vision CD-ROM/ProAudio SCSI.
<<==NOTE==>> Try adding the following switches to the
BASEDEV=IBM1S506.ADD line: BASEDEV=IBM1S506.ADD /A:0 /U:O /SMS, and
use /V (/V=verbose) to see if the /SMS works. This is supposed to
speed up those IDE drives that support the SMS feature. It will
not work on all IDE drives, but it will not damage anything either.
<<==TIP==>> If you wish to prevent users from using the floppy
drives under OS/2 (to keep them from loading non-authorized programs
or in a workstation situation), REM the BASEDEV=IBMxFLPY.ADD line
(where x is 1 for ISA and EISA machines, or 2 for Microchannel).
SET BOOKSHELF=C:\GAMMA32;C:\OS2\BOOK
This command points to the online documentation (INF files) provided
with OS/2 and to any online documentation provided by other OS/2
programs. I have the GAMMATECH utilities installed on my system
which contains online documentation.
<<=TIP=>> If you an HPFS partition, copy all of your online
documentation (INF files) to this partition. Then change this
parameter to reflect the new path. You will notice a substantial
improvement in search speed since HPFS is much faster than FAT.
SET EPMPATH=C:\OS2\APPS
Replaced SET EPATH=C:\OS2\APPS; in version 2.0. According to one
source in IBM, EPMPATH is used by the Enhanced Editor (EPM.EXE).
DEVICE=C:\OS2\APPS\SASYNCDB.SYS
DEVICE=C:\OS2\APPS\SASYNCDA.SYS
This device driver loads communications support for the PM Terminal
applet.
<<=TIP=>> If you don't use PM Terminal, REM this line to save a
little memory. In fact, if you are not using PM Terminal you may
wish to consider deleting the files to save some disk space also.
PROTECTONLY=NO
An OS/2 command. Allows you to choose between a shared DOS and OS/2
operating environment or just an OS/2 environment. If you plan to
run only OS/2 programs, then set PROTECTONLY=YES. If you plan to
run DOS programs (this includes Windows programs also), then set
PROTECTONLY=NO.
SHELL=C:\OS2\MDOS\COMMAND.COM C:\OS2\MDOS /P
This line identifies and loads the DOS command processor COMMAND.COM
which you must have to make DOS sessions work. The /p switch keeps
the command processor in memory until shutdown.
This is the line where you can also specify the size of the DOS
environment variable. The range is 160 through 32768. For example,
to set a 1024 byte environment you would add the following to the
end of the SHELL command line: /E:1024
<<=TIP=>> You can also load and run other command processor's such
as 4DOS. To do so, just put 4DOS in your MDOS directory and change
the SHELL line to read 4DOS.COM instead of COMMAND.COM.
FCBS=16,8
A file control block (FCBS) is an outmoded record that gives
information about a file to DOS. This CONFIG.SYS file line tells
DOS how many FCBS can be open at once, or, when DOS needs to open
more FCBS than are available, how many currently open but not active
FCBS may be closed to make room for new ones.
The syntax is FCBS=a,b where a=the number of FCBS that DOS can have
open at one time and b=the number of FCBS DOS cannot close to make
room for new FCBS. "a" can be as high as 255. "b" can have a value
of 0 to 254, but must be less than "a". Unless you get some kind of
error message when running a DOS program that tells you the program
doesn't have enough FCBS, leave the default as set.
<<=TIP=>> You may wish to experiment with a smaller number. If you
can get by with a smaller number, you will get back a little memory
in each of your DOS sessions.
RMSIZE=640
This is a DOS command and sets the amount of memory available for
use by each DOS session. The maximum is 640k. Since some DOS
programs require 640k, its best to have RMSIZE set to 640.
<<=TIP=>> If you only have 4MB of RAM or don't have any DOS
programs that need a full 640k, you should consider reducing this
parameter to 512. Many DOS applications will run in a 512k DOS
partition. Doing this will free up some additional RAM which will
help performance.
<<=TIP=>> If you need maximum memory (more than 640k), see tip
under DOS=LOW,NOUMB.
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VEMM.SYS
VEMM.SYS lets DOS programs use expanded memory unless you override
it by changing a DOS programs SETTINGS.
Three of its switches are:
/S=n Sets the limit of EMS memory in blocks of 1024k.
Default is 2.
/L=n Size of conventional memory that can be remapped.
Default is none.
/F=nnnn Memory frame address to be used to map EMS.
Default is AUTO.
<<=NOTE=>> Settings you specify in a DOS session will override
these switches.
<<=NOTE=>> The VEMM.SYS device must be listed in your CONFIG.SYS
file before the VXMS.SYS device.
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VMOUSE.SYS
Identifies and loads the mouse driver to let you use a mouse with
DOS. Mouse support for OS/2 is loaded below.
<<=NOTE=>> If you don't have this line (or you REM'd it), you will
not have mouse support in your DOS sessions.
DOS=LOW,NOUMB
This is a standard DOS command that lets you control how DOS uses
memory. The OS/2 default is DOS=LOW,NOUMB and is considered by many
to be the best setting for it conserves memory for OS/2. DOS=HIGH
(including ,UMB) reduces available memory for OS/2, but increases
the available memory in EVERY DOS session. Few DOS sessions need
maximum memory. Also remember that you can move DOS HIGH for a
specific program by changing that programs DOS. This is done in the
programs Settings Notebook and is likely the better way to go.
Finally, keep in mind that in OS/2 many device drivers are not
taking up room in your 640k DOS area. So you generally have more
memory in the typical OS/2 DOS session than in a standard DOS
session.
The following is the amount of memory my system reports in each DOS
session with DOS=LOW,NOUMB. The vast majority of all DOS programs
will run just fine with this amount of memory.
655360 bytes total memory
655360 bytes available for DOS
618208 largest executable program size <---- About 604k.
With DOS=HIGH, the amount of memory reported is:
655360 bytes total memory
655360 bytes available for DOS
643632 largest executable program size <---- About 629k.
<<=TIP=>> If you have need for maximum available RAM in a DOS
session and can get by on CGA or MONO, change RMSIZE=639 (See
description of this parameter three command lines above) in your
CONFIG.SYS file (has to be 639k due to a bug in OS/2). Then in DOS
Settings of your applications Settings Notebook, change
VIDEO_MODE_RESTRICTION to CGA or MONO. (Note that there are some
reports from users that this procedure does not work on their
hardware.) The amount of memory reported after doing this on my
machine is:
752640 bytes total memory
752640 bytes available for DOS
740656 largest executable program size <---- About 724k.
DEVICE=C:\OS2\APM.SYS
Device driver for ADVANCED POWER MANAGEMENT system used with laptop
systems. If you have this line in your CONFIG.SYS file and you are
NOT using a laptop, REM or delete the statement. If you are using a
laptop, see the OS/2 README file for more details on its operation.
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VXMS.SYS /UMB
VXMS.SYS is a device driver that provides Extended Memory management
to DOS sessions. XMS allows DOS programs to access more than one MB
of memory. You need the /UMB switch at the end if you want upper
memory block support in DOS sessions.
<<=NOTE=>> The VXMS.SYS device must be listed in your CONFIG.SYS
file after the VEMM.SYS device.
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VDPX.SYS
Driver required when using VDPMI in the CONFIG.SYS file line below.
One authority said that this driver "provides V86 to Protected Mode
translation for DPMI memory". Well that's enough to lose me.
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VDPMI.SYS
Provides "virtual" DPMI (DOS Protect Mode Interface) memory for DOS
and Window sessions. I don't know much about this, but I've been
told not to remove it.
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VWIN.SYS
Assists in the process of providing seamless Windows support.
DEVICE=C:\OS2\EXTDSKDD.SYS
EXTDSKDD.SYS supports external disk drives.
DEVICE=C:\OS2\PCMCIA.SYS
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VPCMCIA.SYS
These two drivers are new to version 2.1. They provide support for
computers that have PC Memory Card International Association
(PCMCIA) adapters.
<<=TIP=>> If you don't have any PCMCIA devices, then you should REM
these drivers to save a little RAM.
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VCDROM.SYS
This is a CD-ROM device driver.
<<=TIP=>> If you don't have a CD-ROM installed, then you should REM
this line to save a little RAM. Remember, the more RAM OS/2 has--up
to 16MB--the better it runs. After 16MB it doesn't seem to improve
much, overall.
IFS=C:\OS2\CDFS.IFS /C:4
This OS/2 command is needed if you have a CD-ROM. It installs
CDFS.INF which is the "Installable File System" for CD-ROMs. Your
CD-ROM is not going to run without it.
<<=TIP=>> You can add cache to your CD-ROM IFS by adding the /C:n
switch. The variable "n" is a number which represents units of 64kb
of memory. For example, /C:4 would set up a 256kb cache (4 x 64kb =
256kb).
DEVICE=C:\OS2\OS2CDROM.DMD /Q
OS/2 CD-ROM driver used on many, but not all CD-ROM's.
DEVINFO=SCR,VGA,C:\OS2\VIOTBL.DCP
This command prepares your monitor to display information based upon
the CODEPAGE specification. VIOTBL.DCP is the file that contains
the video fonts for displaying characters for each of the CODEPAGES
supported by OS/2. See the CODEPAGE command line below.
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VVGA.SYS
Your CONFIG.SYS file will contain various device drivers for various
devices based upon your systems hardware configuration. This device
driver for supporting VGA video cards in DOS sessions.
SET VIDEO_DEVICES=VIO_SVGA
SET VIO_SVGA=DEVICE(BVHVGA, BVHSVGA)
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VSVGA.SYS
Your CONFIG.SYS file will contain various device drivers for various
devices based upon your systems hardware configuration. These
device driver are for a SVGA video card.
DEVICE=C:\OS2\POINTDD.SYS
POINTDD.SYS is the file that contains information on what the mouse
pointer looks like and draws it on you screen.
<<=WARNING=>> In order for MOUSE.SYS to work effectively, this
driver must be loaded by OS/2. Do not remove it from your
CONFIG.SYS file.
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MOUSE.SYS SERIAL=COM1 QSIZE=10
Lets you use a mouse or track ball with OS/2. This line also
identifies the type of mouse you have and which COM port it is on.
QSIZE is a number from 1 to 100 which indicates how many mouse
actions are to be saved when you execute mouse actions faster than
your system can handle them.
<<=NOTE=>> The MOUSE.SYS statement must come before the COM.SYS
because COM.SYS will take over any unused COM port. If COM.SYS
takes over the COM ports before MOUSE.SYS is loaded, MOUSE.SYS will
not have any COM ports available, thus no mouse support.
DEVICE=C:\OS2\COM.SYS
Lets you use the communications ports one and two (COM1 and COM2).
(If you want to use COM3 or COM4 or change the IRQ of a COM port,
see <<=TIP=>> below.) This line MUST appear after any driver that
uses a communications port. Use COM02.SYS for IBM PS/2 model 90
and 95.
<<=TIP=>> There are two very good replacement drivers for
COM.SYS\VCOM.SYS called SIO.SYS\VSIO.SYS. It can be obtained on
most OS/2 BBSs. If you utilize communications software on a regular
basis at high speeds (e.g. 14,400), I recommend you consider
SIO.SYS. Replace VCOM.SYS (below) with VSIO.SYS which comes with
SIO.SYS. SIO.SYS and VSIO.SYS are Shareware, not Freeware.
Register them if you use them!
<<=TIP=>> To add support for COM3 and COM4 at location 3E8 with IRQ
4 and 2E8 with IRQ 3 respectively, add (3,3E8,4) (4,2E8,3) to the
DEVICE line, e.g. DEVICE=C:\OS2\COM.SYS (3,3E8,4) (4,2E8,3). You
can also use this method to change a COM ports assigned IRQ.
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VCOM.SYS
Lets you use the communications ports for DOS and Windows sessions.
Must appear after the COM.SYS driver.
<<=NOTE=>> If you are using COM3 and/or COM4, add the appropriate
parameters to the COM.SYS line above only. It is not necessary to
add any parameters to this line. VCOM.SYS inherits its parameters
from the COM.SYS line.
<<=TIP=>> See TIP under DEVICE=C:\OS2\COM.SYS regarding SIO.SYS.
DEVICE=C:\OS2\SIO.SYS
DEVICE=C:\OS2\VSIO.SYS
Excellant replacement drivers for COM.SYS and VCOM.SYS. If you
utilize communications software on a regular basis at high speeds
(e.g. 14,400), then these two drivers are the way to go. Be sure
you have REM'd out COM.SYS and VCOM.SYS when using. SIO.SYS and
VSIO.SYS are Shareware, not Freeware. Register them if you
use them!
DEVICE=C:\MMOS2\MVPRODD.SYS /I12 /D3 /N:PAS161$
DEVICE=C:\MMOS2\AUDIOVDD.SYS PAS161$
These two drivers are for MediaVision's ProAudio Spectrum sound
card. The first driver is shown set for IRQ 12, DMA 3.
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\ANSI.SYS
This is the traditional DOS command most are familiar with. It only
affects DOS sessions. This line is not added to your CONFIG.SYS
file by default. If you want it, you need to add it.
OS/2 sessions have ANSI support by default. If you are unsure if
ANSI is on or off in an OS/2 session, go to an OS/2 command prompt
and type ANSI. You will get a message like: "ANSI extended screen
and keyboard control is on." For an OS/2 session, turn ANSI off or
on by typing ANSI OFF or ANSI ON at an OS/2 command prompt.
DEVICE=C:\OS2\LOG.SYS
This optional device driver installs OS/2s error log file. If you
want a log of errors that occur on your system, then add this and
the next line to your CONFIG.SYS file. If you are interested in
such things, you may wish to play with it, but be forewarned, the
error log information is cryptic. For example, only error codes are
reported. To learn what these codes mean, you need to have IBMs
Systems Network Architecture Formats (GA27-3136-12) or, for a
reasonable overview, get OS/2 2.1 Unleashed, 1993, SAMS Publishing.
The switch /E:<kb> sets the size of the error log buffer. The range
is from 4kb to 64kb with 8kb as the default. I've not used this
switch in the CONFIG.SYS file line above, therefore the default will
be used.
You will get a short and quick message during boot up indicating
that Logging has been installed and what the buffer size is.
<<=NOTE=>> LOG.SYS has its limitations. It will not log an
application error unless the application has be written to make
use of LOG.SYS. Some routine system errors will not log either
because OS/2 opens an error message box on screen to report these.
RUN=C:\OS2\SYSTEM\LOGDAEM.EXE /E:C:\OS2\LOGFILE.DAT /W:16
This RUN command states the logging process and must appear AFTER
you have installed the LOG.SYS driver noted in the CONFIG.SYS file
line above. The two switches are:
/E:<path><filename> This is the path and file name of the
test file where the errors will be logged. You can place
it anywhere you want and call it anything you wish.
NOTE: Like the OS/2 INI files, this file is "locked" and
you will not be able to access it with your standard text
editor or the OS/2 System Editor. You will get a
"violation error". The Enhanced Editor will open the
file.
/W:<kb> This is the size of the file named with the /E
switch. The default size is 64k, but with this switch
you can set the value from 4k to 64k. I've set the file
size at 16k in the example line above.
<<=NOTE=>> Use SYSLOG.EXE from an OS/2 command line prompt to view
your log file.
CODEPAGE=437,850
Lets you use the alphabet of various countries and languages. The
syntax is CODEPAGE=ppp,sss, where ppp is the number of the primary
national alphabet to be used and sss is a secondary alphabet number.
437=US English alphabet and 850=multinational alphabet. The
multinational alphabet contains most of the accented letters used in
various European languages. Several other alphabets that can be
supported by your version of OS/2. See Table 6.0.
<<=WARNING=>> Japan, Korean and Chinese require a special version
of OS/2 and special hardware.
<<=NOTE=>> If there is not a CODEPAGE statement in your CONFIG.SYS
file, your keyboard will use an alphabet based on the COUNTRY
statement found earlier in your CONFIG.SYS file, but your screen and
printer will use their built in defaults.
================== Table 6.0 =====================
COUNTRY PRIMARY SECONDARY
CODE PAGE CODE PAGE
Arabic-speaking 864 850
Asia (English) 437 850
Australia (English) 437 850
Belgium 850 437
Canada (French) 863 850
Czechoslovakia 852 850
Denmark 850 n/a
Finland 850 437
France 437 850
Germany 850 437
Hebrew-speaking 862 850
Hungary 852 850
Iceland 850 861
Italy 437 850
Japan 932 437, 850
Korea 934 437, 850
Latin America 437 850
Netherlands 850 437
Norway 850 n/a
Peoples Republic of 938 437, 850
China
Poland 852 850
Portugal 850 860
Spain 850 437
Sweden 850 437
Switzerland (French) 850 437
Switzerland (German) 850 437
Taiwan 437 850
Turkey 857 850
United Kingdom 437 850
United States 437 850
Yugoslavia 852 850
==================================================
DEVINFO=KBD,US,C:\OS2\KEYBOARD.DCP
Tells the keyboard which international character set to use and
where to find the file KEYBOARD.DCP which translates keystrokes.
The syntax is DEVINFO=KBD,cc,DRIVE,PATH,FILENAME. The parameter cc
equals the character set to be used, e.g. US = United States. See
Table 7.0 for character set codes.
=============== Table 7.0 ================
LANGUAGE COUNTRY CODE
Arabic AR
Belgian BE
Canadian French CF
Czech/Czech CS243
Czech/Slovak CS245
Danish DK
Dutch NL
Finnish SU
French FR
German GR
Hebrew HE
Hungarian HU
Icelandic IS
Italian IT
Latin American LA
Norwegian NO
Polish PL
Portuguese PO
Spanish SP
Swedish SV
Swiss (French) SF
Swiss (German) SG
Turkish TR
United Kingdom UK
United States US
Yugoslavian YU
==========================================
SET ZOCDEVICE=COM2
Command used by ZOC, the excellant OS/2 communications program
from Germany.
DEVICE=C:\OS2\VDISK.SYS 512
As in DOS, this driver installs a RAM disk. In this example, the
RAM disk is 512k with the sectors and directories parameters set at
the default level (64-byte sectors and 64 directory entries). With
DOS, a RAM disk could significantly improve system performance, but
because OS/2 handles your memory far more efficiently than DOS and
has its own sophisticated caching routines, using a RAM disk is not
recommended.
<<=CAUTION=>> Because a RAM disk takes available memory away from
OS/2, you may negatively impact system performance on systems with
less than 12MB of RAM. Unless you have lots of RAM or have a very
specific need, don't install a RAM disk.
<<=NOTE=>> If you do install VDISK.SYS and you also have
EXTDSKDD.SYS installed, VDISK.SYS much be placed after EXTDSKDD.SYS
in your CONFIG.SYS file. Check your online Command Reference for
information on EXTDSKDD.SYS.
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VNPX.SYS
This device driver works with your systems math coprocessor. Some
have suggested that if you add it to your CONFIG.SYS file you will
see an enhancement in your systems performance. Not so. There is
no reason for it to be added to your CONFIG.SYS file. IF YOU HAVE
A MATH COPROCESSOR, OS/2 WILL LOAD THIS DRIVER AUTOMATICALLY. If
you add it to your CONFIG.SYS file, a second copy of the driver will
be loaded. In doing so, many have reported that no DOS programs
would run.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
5. NOVELL NETWARE NETWORK SUPPORT.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Novell's NetWare is the most popular PC Network software around today.
We use it at work and I've used our CONFIG.SYS file entries as the
basis for this section of information.
<<==NOTE==>> I'm not very knowledgeable about networks, so if
someone would like to expand on this information and send it to
me, I'd love to give you credit and include it here.
REM --- NetWare Requester statements BEGIN ---
DEVICE=C:\NETWARE\LSL.SYS
Loads Link support Layer driver. It is the lowest layer in the
Novell Open Data Link Interface model and is required at all times
for the requester to be active.
RUN=C:\NETWARE\DDAEMON.EXE
A daemon is a background process that usually carries out
administrative tasks for the system without you knowing it. This
"daemon" is required for the requester to be active.
DEVICE=C:\NETWARE\TOKEN.SYS
This line differs depending on the network board you have.
DEVICE=C:\NETWARE\ROUTE.SYS
No information available.
DEVICE=C:\NETWARE\IPX.SYS
Provides Novell IPX protocol support and is required for access to a
NetWare server.
DEVICE=C:\NETWARE\SPX.SYS
Provides Novell SPX protocol support. It is my understanding that
this command is required for some Novell printing utilities, but is
optional in most cases.
RUN=C:\NETWARE\SPDAEMON.EXE
Loads a daemon process that handles SPX packets.
REM DEVICE=C:\NETWARE\NMPIPE.SYS
Loads the support for client-only Named Pipes support.
REM DEVICE=C:\NETWARE\NPSERVER.SYS
Loads support for your workstation to function as a Named Pipes
server.
REM RUN=C:\NETWARE\NPDAEMON.EXE NP_COMPUTERNAME
This line is required for either the client or the server NetBIOS
support to be active and is a daemon program that is part of the
Named Pipes support.
DEVICE=C:\NETWARE\NWREQ.SYS
This is the CORE REQUESTER MODULE. This line must follow any lines
that support IPX, SPX, or Named Pipes.
IFS=C:\NETWARE\NWIFS.IFS
This installed the networks Installable File System. This enables
OS/2 to see the network drives just the same as local drives.
RUN=C:\NETWARE\NWDAEMON.EXE
Another daemon program, but I'm not sure for which process.
DEVICE=C:\NETWARE\NETBIOS.SYS
Loads support for the NETBIOS protocol.
RUN=C:\NETWARE\NBDAEMON.EXE
Loads the NETBIOS daemon process.
DEVICE=C:\NETWARE\VIPX.SYS
Loads support for multiple virtual DOS machine support. It is
required both to have multiple DOS boxes on the network and to run
the NetWare DOS based utilities.
DEVICE=C:\NETWARE\VSHELL.SYS
Loads the network shell. It is automatically used for all DOS and
WIN-OS/2 sessions that require it.
REM --- NetWare Requester statements END ---
---------------------------------------------------------------------
END OF CONFIG.SYS FILE DESCRIPTION
---------------------------------------------------------------------
6. OBSCURE CONFIG.SYS SETTINGS.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
What follows are some very obscure CONFIG.SYS file settings. They are
here only for informational purposes. Unless you have a very specific
need and know what you're doing, please don't experiment with these.
SET SHELLEXCEPTIONHANDLER=OFF
The WpS has its own exception handling routines which allows it to
recover from most errors. You can turn this "exception handling" off
with this command. Could be useful when debugging an object.
SET OBJECTSNOOZETIME=45
Useful when programming certain types of object DDLs.
TIMESLICE=128,256
This command allows you to manually control the minimum and maximum
amount of processor time any thread can receive at once. The syntax
is TIMESLICE=x,y where x is the minimum time slice (in milliseconds
and must be at least 32) and where y is the maximum length (must be
less than 65536).
<<=TIP=>> OS/2 handles time slicing dynamically. This means that
the system is adjusting the time slice values based on the actual
processes active on the system as the workload changes. Therefore,
it is best not to attempt to manually set TIMESLICE. OS/2 can
handle this process far better than most of us can.
TRACE=ON
Helpful for System Administrators and programmers. Assists in the
tracking of system problems by turning TRACE on (or off) and
establishing a buffer (4k is default. You can increase this using
the command TRACEBUF) to store tracing data. You can also start
TRACE from an OS/2 command prompt.
TRAPDUMP
Trap errors are routed to disk for analysis.
DUMPPROCESS
Dump process is the procedure for writing memory contents to disk
for analysis, i.e., the dump process could not write to drive A.
PROTECT16
Haven't found out about this one yet. Comments?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
7. SAMPLE CONFIG.SYS FILES.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------
FILE FOR CLONE WITH 8MB OF RAM AND VGA RUNNING ONLY HPFS
--------------------------------------------------------
CALL=C:\OS2\XCOPY.EXE C:\OS2\*.BK1 C:\OS2\*.BK2
CALL=C:\OS2\XCOPY.EXE C:\OS2\*.INI C:\OS2\*.BK1
IFS=C:\OS2\HPFS.IFS /CACHE:1024 /CRECL:4 /AUTOCHECK:C
PROTSHELL=C:\OS2\PMSHELL.EXE
SET USER_INI=C:\OS2\OS2.INI
SET SYSTEM_INI=C:\OS2\OS2SYS.INI
SET OS2_SHELL=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE
SET AUTOSTART=PROGRAMS,TASKLIST,FOLDERS
SET RUNWORKPLACE=C:\OS2\PMSHELL.EXE
SET RESTARTOBJECTS=YES
SET COMSPEC=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE
LIBPATH=.;C:\OS2\DLL;C:\OS2\MDOS;C:\;C:\OS2\APPS\DLL;
SET PATH=C:\OS2;C:\OS2\SYSTEM;C:\OS2\MDOS\WINOS2;
C:\OS2\INSTALL;C:\;C:\OS2\MDOS;C:\OS2\APPS;
SET DPATH=C:\OS2;C:\OS2\SYSTEM;C:\OS2\MDOS\WINOS2;
C:\OS2\INSTALL;C:\;C:\OS2\BITMAP;C:\OS2\MDOS;C:\OS2\APPS;
SET PROMPT=$E[1;33m[$p]$g
SET HELP=C:\OS2\HELP;C:\OS2\HELP\TUTORIAL;
SET GLOSSARY=C:\OS2\HELP\GLOSS;
SET DIRCMD=/O /P
SET IPF_KEYS=SBCS (New with version 2.1)
PRIORITY_DISK_IO=YES
FILES=20
DEVICE=C:\OS2\TESTCFG.SYS
DEVICE=C:\OS2\DOS.SYS
DEVICE=C:\OS2\PMDD.SYS
BUFFERS=50
IOPL=YES
REM * DISKCACHE=1024,LW,32,AC:C
RUN=C:\OS2\CACHE.EXE /MAXAGE:7500 /DISKIDLE:60000/BUFFERIDLE:60000
MAXWAIT=2
MEMMAN=SWAP,PROTECT
SWAPPATH=C:\OS2\SYSTEM 512 4096
BREAK=OFF
THREADS=256
PRINTMONBUFSIZE=402,134,134
COUNTRY=001,C:\OS2\SYSTEM\COUNTRY.SYS
SET KEYS=OFF
REM * SET DELDIR=C:\DELETE,512;
BASEDEV=PRINT01.SYS
BASEDEV=IBM1FLPY.ADD
BASEDEV=IBM1S506.ADD
BASEDEV=OS2DASD.DMD
SET BOOKSHELF=C:\OS2\BOOK
SET EPMPATH=C:\OS2\APPS
REM * DEVICE=C:\OS2\APPS\SASYNCDA.SYS
PROTECTONLY=NO
SHELL=C:\OS2\MDOS\COMMAND.COM C:\OS2\MDOS /P
FCBS=16,8
RMSIZE=640
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VEMM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VMOUSE.SYS
DOS=LOW,NOUMB
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VDPX.SYS
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VXMS.SYS /UMB
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VDPMI.SYS
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VWIN.SYS
REM * DEVICE=C:\OS2\PCMCIA.SYS (New with version 2.1)
REM * DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VPCMCIA.SYS (New with version 2.1)
REM * DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VCDROM.SYS <<-- Assumes no CD-ROM.
DEVINFO=SCR,VGA,C:\OS2\VIOTBL.DCP
SET VIDEO_DEVICES=VIO_VGA
SET VIO_VGA=DEVICE(BVHVGA)
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VVGA.SYS
DEVICE=C:\OS2\POINTDD.SYS
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MOUSE.SYS SERIAL=COM1
DEVICE=C:\OS2\COM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VCOM.SYS
CODEPAGE=437,850
DEVINFO=KBD,US,C:\OS2\KEYBOARD.DCP
-----------------------------------------------
FOR CLONE WITH 8MB RAM AND VGA RUNNING ONLY FAT
-----------------------------------------------
Make the following two changes in the CONFIG.SYS listing above.
o REM this line: IFS=C:\OS2\HPFS.IFS /CACHE:1024 /CRECL:4
/AUTOCHECK:C
o Remove the REM from this line: REM DISKCACHE=1024,LW
--------------------------------------------------------
FOR CLONE WITH 8MB RAM AND VGA RUNNING BOTH FAT AND HPFS
--------------------------------------------------------
Make the following changes in the CONFIG.SYS listing above.
o Remove the REM from this line: REM DISKCACHE=1024,LW
o Change the DISKCACHE size to 256, i.e. DISKCACHE=256,LW
----------------------------------------------------
FOR CLONE WITH 16MB OF RAM AND VGA RUNNING ONLY HPFS
----------------------------------------------------
Make the following changes in the CONFIG.SYS listing above.
o Increase the HPFS cache to 2048, i.e., /CACHE:2048.
o Change BUFFERS=50 to BUFFERS=75.
o Change FILES=20 to FILES=30
o Reduce SWAP file size, i.e. SWAPPATH=C:\OS2\SYSTEM 512 2048.
o Increase your print buffer: PRINTMONBUFSIZE=2048,134,134.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
FOR CLONE WITH 4 OR 6MB OF RAM AND VGA RUNNING FAT (Never run HPFS)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
CALL=C:\OS2\XCOPY.EXE C:\OS2\*.BK1 C:\OS2\*.BK2
CALL=C:\OS2\XCOPY.EXE C:\OS2\*.INI C:\OS2\*.BK1
REM * IFS=C:\OS2\HPFS.IFS /CACHE:1024 /CRECL:4 /AUTOCHECK:C
PROTSHELL=C:\OS2\PMSHELL.EXE
SET USER_INI=C:\OS2\OS2.INI
SET SYSTEM_INI=C:\OS2\OS2SYS.INI
SET OS2_SHELL=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE
SET AUTOSTART=PROGRAMS,TASKLIST,FOLDERS
SET RUNWORKPLACE=C:\OS2\PMSHELL.EXE
SET RESTARTOBJECTS=YES
SET COMSPEC=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE
LIBPATH=.;C:\OS2\DLL;C:\OS2\MDOS;C:\;C:\OS2\APPS\DLL;
SET PATH=C:\OS2;C:\OS2\SYSTEM;C:\OS2\MDOS\WINOS2;
C:\OS2\INSTALL;C:\;C:\OS2\MDOS;C:\OS2\APPS;
SET DPATH=C:\OS2;C:\OS2\SYSTEM;C:\OS2\MDOS\WINOS2;C:\OS2\INSTALL;
C:\;C:\OS2\BITMAP;C:\OS2\MDOS;C:\OS2\APPS;
SET PROMPT=$E[1;33m[$p]$g
SET HELP=C:\OS2\HELP;C:\OS2\HELP\TUTORIAL;
SET GLOSSARY=C:\OS2\HELP\GLOSS;
SET DIRCMD=/O /P
SET IPF_KEYS=SBCS (New with version 2.1)
PRIORITY_DISK_IO=YES
FILES=20
DEVICE=C:\OS2\TESTCFG.SYS
DEVICE=C:\OS2\DOS.SYS
DEVICE=C:\OS2\PMDD.SYS
BUFFERS=20
IOPL=YES
DISKCACHE=64,LW,12,AC:C
MAXWAIT=2
MEMMAN=SWAP,PROTECT
SWAPPATH=C:\OS2\SYSTEM 512 6144
BREAK=OFF
THREADS=128
PRINTMONBUFSIZE=134,134,134
COUNTRY=001,C:\OS2\SYSTEM\COUNTRY.SYS
SET KEYS=OFF
REM * SET DELDIR=C:\DELETE,512;
BASEDEV=PRINT01.SYS
BASEDEV=IBM1FLPY.ADD
BASEDEV=IBM1S506.ADD
BASEDEV=OS2DASD.DMD
SET BOOKSHELF=C:\OS2\BOOK
SET EPMPATH=C:\OS2\APPS
REM * DEVICE=C:\OS2\APPS\SASYNCDA.SYS
PROTECTONLY=NO
SHELL=C:\OS2\MDOS\COMMAND.COM C:\OS2\MDOS /P
FCBS=16,8
RMSIZE=512
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VEMM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VMOUSE.SYS
DOS=LOW,NOUMB
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VDPX.SYS
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VXMS.SYS /UMB
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VDPMI.SYS
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VWIN.SYS
REM * DEVICE=C:\OS2\PCMCIA.SYS (New with version 2.1)
REM * DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VPCMCIA.SYS (New with version 2.1)
REM * DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VCDROM.SYS <-- Assumes no CD-ROM.
DEVINFO=SCR,VGA,C:\OS2\VIOTBL.DCP
SET VIDEO_DEVICES=VIO_VGA
SET VIO_VGA=DEVICE(BVHVGA)
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VVGA.SYS
DEVICE=C:\OS2\POINTDD.SYS
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MOUSE.SYS SERIAL=COM1
DEVICE=C:\OS2\COM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VCOM.SYS
CODEPAGE=437,850
DEVINFO=KBD,US,C:\OS2\KEYBOARD.DCP
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. HOW TO RESTORE A DAMAGED CONFIG.SYS FILE FROM A BACKUP COPY.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Boot OS/2 from the OS/2 Installation Disk.
2. Insert OS/2 Disk #1 when asked.
3. Press the ESC key when you get the first text screen. By doing
this you will be put into OS/2s command line mode.
4. Assuming that your backup copy of CONFIG.SYS is in the root directory
of "C" drive and is named CONFIG.SAV, enter the following command:
COPY C:\CONFIG.SAV C:\CONFIG.SYS
Press the ENTER key.
5. Remove OS/2 Disk #1 and reboot the system.
What if you didn't make a backup copy? IBM thought about you. When
OS/2 was first installed on your system, the installation program made
a backup copy of your original CONFIG.SYS file. It stored this file
in C:\OS2\INSTALL. To restore from this file follow the same steps
above, EXCEPT, in step #4 enter the following command instead of the
one shown:
COPY C:\OS2\INSTALL\CONFIG.SYS C:\CONFIG.SYS
<<=TIP=>> Replace the CONFIG.SYS file saved by the OS/2 installation
program in the INSTALL directory with your most current version, thus
allowing you to restore from it. If you are viewing this information
using CNFGINFO.EXE, the Backup option is set to do this for you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
9. REXX SUPPORT FROM WITHIN THE CONFIG.SYS FILE.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The question of whether REXX programs can be called from within the
CONFIG.SYS file has been asked by a number of people. Keith Medcalf's
response to the question is one of the best I've seen. Thanks Keith!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 07-30-93, 08:06 Number: 483
From: Keith Medcalf Refer: 477
To: Russ Williams Recvd: No
Subj: REXX from CONFIG.SYS Conf: Ibm.Os2se
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday July 28 1993 16:34, Russ Williams wrote to All:
RW> Can anyone tell me what restrictions there are on running REXX
RW> programs from CONFIG.SYS (via "CALL=")? It doesn't work for
RW> me, and the online help is no help.
You cannot. The DLLs required to support Rexx are not loaded until
Presentation Manager is loaded. If you require Rexx support
earlier, look for a program call SRVREXX at a fine BBS near you.
Adding the line RUN=SRVREXX.EXE to the config.sys will immediately
initialize Rexx. You will then be able to access Rexx with or
without PM being loaded.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
//END//