Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr28/blts992.zip/DRDOS6.TXT

Text File | 1993-03-01 | 18KB | 349 lines

LANtastic Network Operating System version 4 Compatibility Bulletin
Product Reviewed:  DR DOS v6.0 by Digital Research Inc.
Classification:  Operating Systems
Date:  6/5/92
Engineer:  JAG


Compatibility Statement:
DR DOS version 6.0 is compatible with LANtastic NOS version 4.xx.

Product Overview:
DR DOS v6.0 is an operating system for 8088- and 80x86-based personal
computers.  It is similar to Microsoft's MS-DOS v5.0 and supports similar
characteristics as well as providing its own extended features.  A partial list
of features includes:  Upper Memory Area (UMA) and EMS support; the ability to
load DOS into the High Memory Area (HMA); on-line command help; disk
caching and on-the-fly file compression utilities; a task switcher; disk and
file recovery utilities; and support for hard disk partitions up to 2 GB.  In
addition, DR DOS-based and MS-DOS-based workstations and servers can co-exist on
the same LAN.

Test Equipment Configuration:
The following machines were used for DR DOS 6.0 testing.  All machines use
Artisoft AE-2 NICs.  Testing was completed using LANtastic NOS v4.0 with
AILANBIO.EXE and AE2.EXE v2.03.  Machines running as LANtastic peer-to-
peer servers are designated by (S).

    -   Tandon 486/33:  486DX/33, DR DOS 6.0 (S)
    -   Northgate 386:  386DX/20, DR DOS 6.0 (S)
    -   CompuAdd 220:   286/20, DR DOS 6.0 (S)
    -   CompuAdd 333:   386DX/33, MS-DOS 5.0 (S)
    -   Clone 286:      286/12, MS-DOS 3.3

Additionally, the Tandon 486 was configured with a SuperStor-ed C: partition
and ran the Super PC Kwik disk caching software during the majority of the
testing.

Product Installation Notes:
Installing DR DOS is easily done via a menu driven interface.  You must
boot the PC with the DR DOS installation diskette in the A: drive and then
follow the on-screen instructions for configuration.  During installation, you
can also save the old operating system for later use by the UNINSTAL command.
The following is an overview of each feature presented during installation and
its compatibility with LANtastic NOS.  For full details on each feature, refer
to the "DR DOS User Guide."

    MemoryMAX:  Provides support for HMA, UMA, and EMS services on
    machines with 286 or higher CPUs.  All services in this area may be used in
    conjunction with LANtastic.  See the "Product Execution Notes" section below
    for further details.

    TaskMAX:  Installs/configures the TaskMAX task switcher and optionally
    modifies the AUTOEXEC.BAT to load it at boot time.  TaskMAX can be used
    on either a LANtastic server or a workstation since it is not a true multi-
    tasker.  Note that disk redirections made before starting TaskMAX will be
    available to all tasks, while those made within a particular task will be
    accessible only within that task.  Printer redirections made within any
    task are available to all tasks.

    DiskMAX:  Furnishes support for virtual disks, disk caching, deletion
    tracking, and on-the-fly disk data compression.  All of these features may
    be used with LANtastic 4.0 with the following exceptions:

    1) The Super PC Kwik caching utility must be configured with delayed
    write caching disabled if you intend to run it and the LANtastic SERVER
    program on the same machine.  This cannot be done while running the
    DR DOS installation routine, but must be done before starting the
    LANtastic SERVER program.  See the "Compatibility Notes" section
    below for details.

    2) The DELWATCH utility may not be used to monitor deletions on
    network drives or on a machine running SERVER.  It should work
    correctly on the local disk drive of a workstation, however.  DISKMAP
    may be used on the local drive of either a server or a workstation, but
    will not work on a network drive.

    3) Before enabling data compression via the SuperStor device driver in
    conjunction with LANtastic, Artisoft and Digital Research recommend that
    you obtain Technical Tip #1200 from Digital Research.  See the "Product
    Execution Notes" section below for further information.

    ViewMAX:  Supplies a graphical interface to DR DOS and optionally
    configures it to load at boot time.  This may be used on either a
    workstation or a server.

    Country and Keyboard:  Users in the United States should not change this
    setting from its default value or LANtastic will not run.  If you need
    an international keyboard driver for an installation in the U.S.,
    contact the Artisoft Sales Department for information on obtaining an
    international version of LANtastic.

    System Parameters: Allows you to configure and customize CONFIG.SYS
    and AUTOEXEC.BAT parameters.  See the "LANtastic Network Operating
    System Reference Manual" for Artisoft's recommendations regarding these
    settings.

    Optional Device Drivers and Utilities:  The "GRAFTABL display support"
    and the "Code page switching" options may not be used on U.S.
    installations.  However,  you may use all other settings in this section
    with LANtastic.  On machines that are configured as servers, it is mandatory
    that you enable the "File sharing support (SHARE.EXE)" option in order to
    support DOS file and record locking.  Determining the number of concurrent
    file locks for SHARE by approximating the maximum number of files all users
    logging into this server will have open at one time.

    Security:  This optionally enables a security feature that requires a
    user to enter a password each time the computer is booted before any
    access to files or programs is allowed.  You may use this feature with
    LANtastic.

You may modify any of the above options once the installation program has
completed and the machine has been rebooted by running the SETUP program
at the DOS prompt.

Product Execution Notes:
The DR DOS commands and command line interface are essentially identical to
those provided by MS-DOS.  Some of the more technical issues relate to DR
DOS' memory management and how it interacts with the LANtastic software.
This section is not intended to completely describe all functions of DR DOS
memory management, but to provide an overview for experienced DOS and
LANtastic users.  For further information regarding memory management, refer
to chapter 12 of the DR DOS User Guide.

  The Memory Managers

    Memory management in DR DOS is provided by a set of programs
    collectively referred to as MemoryMAX.  To use MemoryMAX functions, a
    machine must have a 286 or greater processor and at least 1MB of memory.
    On a 286 machine, the HIDOS.SYS driver can be used to relocate the DR
    DOS kernel to the High Memory Area (HMA, the first 64K above 1MB).  On
    machines that support shadow RAM (generally machines with Chips and
    Technologies NeAT or LeAPSet chip sets), it can also provide Upper Memory
    (the UMA, available RAM addresses between 640K and 1MB) which can be
    used as space to load device drivers, some operating system data, and TSR
    programs. If the machine also has extended memory (above 1MB),
    HIDOS.SYS also provides eXtended Memory Specification (XMS) memory
    mangement.

    On a machine with a 386 or greater processor, the EMM386.SYS driver can
    be used to provide LIM EMS 4.0 support; relocate the DR DOS kernel to the
    UMA or HMA; provide UMA for DOS data, TSRs and device drivers; and
    copy ROM to RAM for increased performance.  In general,  the DR DOS
    INSTALL program will detect which drivers to load and which options the
    drivers are able to provide on a specific machine, as well as allowing the
    user to change or fine-tune the driver settings.

    Loading LANtastic into the UMA:
    Once DR DOS is booted and the memory manager is running, it is possible
    to load the LANtastic NOS 4.0 TSR programs (for example, LANBIOS2, AE2
    or AEX, AILANBIO, REDIR, SERVER, LANPUP, and LANCache) into upper
    memory utilizing the HILOAD command, provided that there is enough
    available RAM in the UMA.  For example, the following batch file could be
    used to start the LAN:

    MEMMAX +U
    HILOAD AEX IOBASE=340
    HILOAD AILANBIO
    HILOAD REDIR MYSERVER
    HILOAD LANCACHE /TYPE=XMS
    HILOAD SERVER
    MEMMAX -U

    The command MEMMAX +U is used to "open" upper memory so that
    HILOAD can access that memory.  The MEMMAX -U command at the end of
    the batch file then "closes" upper memory.  Note that the DR DOS INSTALL
    and SETUP programs automatically close the UMA by default.  HILOAD will
    load a program into UMA if it determines there is a large enough block
    available for the program, otherwise it loads the program into base memory.
    Unfortunately, HILOAD does not report where it actually loads a program, but
    DR DOS provides the MEM command that you can use to determine where a
    TSR has loaded.  MEM /U is used to view the status of upper memory, while
    MEM /B will display the state of base memory.

    Using LANtastic's LANCache with MemoryMAX and SpeedStor:
    LANCache versions 2.14 and higher began shipping with LANtastic NOS
    version 4.0 and can use XMS memory for caching.  On 286 machines that
    use the HIDOS.SYS driver, LANCache will require that you specify the type
    of memory for it to use, for example:

    LANCACHE /TYPE=XMS

    On 386 and higher machines on which EMM386.SYS is used, the TYPE
    switch will be set to XMS if the memory manager is not configured for EMS
    emulation.  TYPE may be set to EMS if EMM386 is configured to convert all
    or part of the machine's extended memory to EMS.

    Artisoft has also successfully tested LANCache in combination with the DR
    DOS SuperStor disk compression utility on a LANtastic peer-to-peer server.
    Artisoft and Digital Research strongly recommend that you read DRI's
    Technical Tip #1200 before attempting this.  In addition, these steps should
    be closely followed when creating a SuperStor partition:

NOTE:  To avoid possible loss of data,  LANtastic software must NOT be
running during this process!

    1) Back up any existing data on the hard drive, and run DISKOPT or
    another hard drive optimizer on the disk you will be SuperStor-ing.
    Also, see Chapter 13 (section 13.3) of the "DR DOS User Guide" for
    further cautionary information.
    2) If DR DOS is not already installed, boot the machine with the first
    installation disk in the A: diskette drive to perform the INSTALL
    process.  In the DiskMAX options section, set the "SUPERSTOR
    device driver" setting to YES.
    3) If DR DOS is installed, run the SETUP program and specify the setting
    indicated in step 2 above.
    4) After completing DR DOS configuration, exit INSTALL or SETUP,
    selecting the option to reboot the computer.
    5) Once the system is back up and at the DOS prompt, ensure that no
    TSRs are running and then run the SSTOR configuration utility to
    actually create the SuperStor partition.
    6) Install LANtastic from the installation diskettes if it has not yet
    been installed.

    It is highly recommended that the user study and understand the
    functionality of SuperStor before attempting to create a compressed
    partition.  Failure to do so could result in lost or unrecoverable data.

Compatibility Notes:
1.  If you want to use the Super PC Kwik disk caching program that is provided
with DR DOS on a LANtastic server, you must disable the cache's delayed
write caching feature.  This is accomplished by adding the /H- and /D-
switches to its command line in autoexec.bat.  For example, after adding
these switches, the line for invoking the cache in AUTOEXEC.BAT could look
like this:

    SUPERPCK /A+ /R:0 /H- /D-

Note that you may enable write caching on a LAN node that is not a
LANtastic server (not running the SERVER.EXE program).

2.  To run Microsoft Windows 3.0 or 3.1 in 386 Enhanced mode over DR DOS
6.0 and LANtastic 4.0, it is necessary to have a LANTASTI.386 driver from
Artisoft dated 8-16-91 or later.  This driver was not included in the release
version of LANtastic 4.0, so users requiring this driver need to contact
Artisoft Technical Support for an update.  The correct driver is included with
LANtastic NOS v4.10.

3.  Some utilities included with DR DOS 6.0 will not function and will return an
error message if run on a redirected (network) drive or on a machine running
the LANtastic SERVER program. These utilities are:

    Utility         On SERVER?      On network drive?
    CHKDSK              N                       N
    DELPURGE            N                       N
    DELWATCH            N                       N
    DISKMAP             Y                       N
    DISKOPT             N                       N
    FDISK               N                       N
    FORMAT              Y*                      N
    PASSWORD            Y**                     N
    RECOVER             N                       N
    UNDELETE            Y                       N
    UNFORMAT            N                       N

      *FORMAT may be used on a server's local floppy drives only if the
      "Floppy Direct" Server Startup Parameter is set to "enabled" within
      NET_MGR or on the SERVER command line.
      **Files on a server protected by PASSWORD cannot be accessed from
      LAN workstations, even when the correct password is provided.  They
      may, however, be accessed at the server on its own physical drive.

4.  The LANtastic NET_MGR Max Files Open parameter cannot be set to a
value other than zero (0) when running on a DR DOS-based server.  This
option is only available on servers running MS-DOS.  This means that
servers with DR DOS installed will only support a maximum of 255 open files
at a time.

5.  By design and to avoid potential problems, DR DOS detects executable files
that have been "EXEPACKed" by the linker when the executable (.EXE file)
was created.  EXEPACKing is a process in which the executable code is
compressed and then a very small uncompressing utility is added to the start
of the EXE file.  Thus, when a program is run, the utility first unpacks the
code into memory, then jumps to the start of the uncompressed executable to
start the actual program.  Unfortunately, both the Microsoft linker's EXEPACK
option and their EXEPACK utility have a bug which causes the unpacking
routine to report the error "Packed file corrupt" and abort when the
EXEPACKed program is loaded within the first 64K of base memory.  Since
DR DOS' memory management utilities make it very likely that programs will
load within that critical region,  the command interpreter checks each
executable and will load it above 64K if it is EXEPACKed.  If the program is a
TSR, this means that its effective base memory overhead is increased by as
much as 30K to 40K, making less base memory available for DOS
applications.  All Artisoft programs are EXEPACKed using an IBM linker that
does not exhibit the bug, but DR DOS cannot determine which linker was
used, only that a file is EXEPACKed.  Two solutions exist:  First, all NOS
TSRs can be loaded into the UMA, if there are enough upper memory blocks
available.  Second, if there is not enough space in the UMA or the NOS
TSRs must be loaded in base memory for another reason, a program such as
PKLITE (a shareware program available on Artisoft's Arti-Facts BBS as
PKL113.EXE) can be used to re-pack the executable so that it will not be
identified as an EXEPACKed file.  For more information, contact Artisoft
Technical Support.

Note:  The following items have been reported to Digital Research.  Inquires as
to their status should be directed to DRI Technical Support.

6.  A rare problem has been reported in which use of server paths (e.g.
\\servername\devicename) from a Microsoft Quick Basic application was not
handled correctly under DR DOS 6.0 and LANtastic 4.xx.  The problem
appears to be caused by DR DOS incorrectly parsing the '\\' at the start of the
server path.  This problem does not affect most normal LAN operations.
Contact Digital Research for patch information.

7.  A server running DR DOS may not redirect a physical drive back to itself
through the network. For example, a server named SERVER1 may not issue
the following sequence of commands:

    NET LOGIN SERVER1 USER
    NET USE C: \\SERVER1\C-DRIVE

In this example the C-DRIVE device would be defined in NET_MGR to have
a link path of C:.  If this NET USE is issued, all further commands  will result
in an "Internal Error Code 001" error message.

8.  The LANPUP utility does not display redirections correctly.  For example,
LANPUP should normally display a redirection of drive E: as:

    E:    =>  \\SERVER1\C-DRIVE

When run with DR DOS, redirected drives are displayed as:

    E:    =>  E:

The redirections are in fact intact, and LANPUP may still be used to establish
and remove network drive and printer connections.

9.  The LANtastic NET PRINT command will return "ERROR: The printer port
must be redirected to a server."  This can be remedied in two ways: First, the
COPY command can be used to send a file to the printer - for example

    COPY TEST.BAT LPT1

Second, you can obtain a patch from Artisoft Technical Support which will
allow the NET PRINT function to work.


Vendor Information:
Digital Research Inc.
70 Garden Court/P. O. Box DRI
Monterey, CA  93942
408/646-6464
408/646-8209 (fax)


ARTISOFT, Inc. Makes no warranties as to the completeness or accuracy of this
document.  LANtastic is a trademark of ARTISOFT, Inc.  Brand names, company
names, and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective companies.