home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
OS/2 Shareware BBS: 36 Tips
/
36-Tips.zip
/
WPDINI.FAX
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1995-01-03
|
21KB
|
496 lines
OSWPDESK - WARP DESKTOP PROBLEMS & RECOVERING USER INI FILES
11/14/94
================================================================
WARP DESKTOP PROBLEMS, RECOVERING CONFIG.SYS & USER INI FILES
================================================================
Please Read Entire Document for Full Explanation of Procedures
----------------------------------------------------------------
DESKTOP PROBLEMS
================================================================
Following are solutions to problems you might have with the
Desktop after installing OS/2 WARP.
SYMPTOMS:
THE SYSTEM STOPS AND THE KEYBOARD AND MOUSE DO NOT RESPOND.
1. Press Ctrl+Esc or Alt+Esc and wait for a few seconds to
see if the system responds.
2. Determine if you can move the mouse but cannot select
any object when you press mouse button 1.
3. Press the Caps Lock and Num Lock keys to see if their
status lights come on.
4. Record a description of what you were doing when the
system stopped. If any messages were displayed on the
screen, be sure to record the message text and number.
5. Refer to the Service and Support brochure in the OS/2
package for instructions about calling for additional
assistance.
MISSING ICONS
After restarting the system, some of your Desktop icons might
be missing.
Check the documentation for the hard drive and the controller
card to ensure that their settings are both set for the ASYNCH
mode or the SYNCH mode.
STACKED ICONS
If the objects on the Desktop appear to be stacked on each
other, you can refresh the Desktop:
1. Position the mouse pointer on a blank area of the
Desktop.
2. Press mouse button 2. A pop-up menu appears.
3. Select Refresh.
4. If the screen goes blank, press Alt+Esc to switch
between programs and force the "repainting" of the
screen.
DOS AND WINDOWS PROGRAMS NOT ADDED TO THE DESKTOP
During the installation of OS/2, the existing DOS and Windows
programs are automatically added to the OS/2 Desktop. However,
the installation program might not find all programs, for
example, programs located on remote servers. If this happens,
restart the system, and run the Add Programs to Desktop utility
program. Add Programs to Desktop is located in the System
Setup folder, which is located in the OS/2 System folder.
OS/2 2.X PROGRAMS NOT ADDED TO THE DESKTOP
If you installed OS/2 on a system that already had OS/2 2.x
installed on it and the OS/2 2.x programs were not added to
the Desktop, do the following:
1. Turn on the computer. If the computer is already on,
press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart the system.
2. When a small white box appears in the upper left
corner of the screen, press Alt+F1.
3. When the Recovery Choices screen appears, press C.
4. Delete the DESKTOP directory.
5. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart the system. The Desktop
should be re-created.
6. If the problem continues, re-create the INI files.
Follow the instructions below in "Rebuilding Your
Desktop".
If you moved program groups off the Desktop and into a folder,
you should move them back on the Desktop before installing
OS/2. Otherwise, duplicate icons could appear on the screen.
If you try to delete these icons, the original icons will also
be deleted.
BLANK DESKTOP AND MISSING OBJECTS
If the Desktop is blank, objects are missing, you cannot delete
an object, or you have another program that involves objects,
run the CHKDSK (check disk) program until the results indicate
there are no errors. To run CHKDSK, do the following:
1. Insert the Installation Diskette in drive A:.
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart the system.
2. When prompted, remove the Installation Diskette and
insert Diskette 1.
3. Press F3 in the Welcome screen to exit the command
prompt.
4. Insert Diskette 2.
5. Type: CHKDSK C:/F:2 and press Enter (where C is the drive
where OS/2 is installed).
OBJECT CANNOT BE DELETED
If you cannot delete an object, do the following:
1. Create a folder.
2. Drag the object you want to delete to the new folder and
drop it.
3. Drag the new folder to the Shredder and drop it.
If you cannot shred the folder, do the following:
1. At an OS/2 command prompt, type:
CD DESKTOP and press Enter.
2. After the DESKTOP directory opens, type:
RD directory and press Enter.
(where directory is replaced by the name of the directory
(folder) that you want to delete).
RECOVERY PROCEDURES
================================================================
The following procedures provide information for recovering
from Desktop problems and system failures, including:
A. A damaged, unusable, or unstartable desktop.
B. An invalid CONFIG.SYS file.
C. A damaged INI file.
D. Hard disk errors.
E. A forgotten lockup password.
NOTE: Backing up the system regularly might help avoid
having to re-create files if there is a system
failure.
If your Desktop becomes damaged, unusable, or unstartable, you
can recover in two ways:
A. Use the Archive/Recover utility program to restore the
Desktop to a previously saved state.
B. Rebuild the exiting Desktop.
RECOVERING ARCHIVED SYSTEM FILES
OS/2 can archive key system files as well as the DESKTOP
directory each time you start OS/2. The default setting for
this feature if OFF. (The Archive function can be turned ON
using the Archive page of the Desktop Settings notebook.)
When the Archive function is turned ON, the state of the key
system files and Desktop as they existed at the last three
"starts" of OS/2 are saved. Each time you restart OS/2, the
oldest set of archived System files is deleted and the current
System files are saved. OS/2 also keeps a permanent archive of
the Desktop and key files as they existed when OS/2 was first
installed, so you can always restore the system to its
original state.
SYMPTOMS:
1. Folders Open and Close Immediately
Use the instructions below:
2. Missing, Empty, or Multiple Objects on Desktop
A. The Desktop is missing objects or there is more than
one icon for the same object.
B. One or more Desktop folders are empty.
C. After you shutdown the computer and start it again,
the objects on the Desktop are not displayed the
same as when you shut down.
Follow the instructions below:
NOTE: If this does not fix the problem, proceed to
the instructions below for "Rebuilding Your
Desktop".
To use the archived System files, do the following:
1. Turn on the computer. If the computer is already on,
perform a shut down, then press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart
it.
2. When a small white box appears in the upper left corner
of the screen (before the OS/2 logo screen appears),
press Alt+F1.
3. A screen appears, listing the three most recent
archives. Do one of the following:
A. Type the number of the archive you want to use to
restore the system.
B. Type X to restore the system to its original
state (as it was when you first installed OS/2).
C. Type C to get an OS/2 command prompt (for
example, if you want to edit the CONFIG.SYS
file).
D. Type V to reset the primary display to VGA (for
example, if you think your Desktop is not damaged
but cannot be seen because you need to reinstall
your VGA device drivers).
RECOVERY CHOICES DURING RESTART
================================================================
The Recovery Choices screen lets you specify how the system is
to restart while a restart is in progress. Display the
Recovery Choices screen during the restart by pressing Alt+F1
when a small white box appears in the upper left corner of the
screen. If you want the system to display the Recovery Choices
screen each time it restarts, select Display Recovery Choices
At Every System Restart on the Archive page of the Desktop
Settings notebook.
On the Recovery Choices screen, you can:
1. Select the set of archived system files that the system is
to use to restart.
2. Continue using the originally installed system files to
restart, and go to a command line
3. Continue using the original installation files to restart,
and reset the primary display to VGA.
4. Restart the system using a customized CONFIG.SYS file that
you have created.
Each set of archived files appears on the Recovery Choices
screen with the date and time when the files were archived.
The choices are numbered 1, 2, 3 or, for the original
installation files, X. Select the files that you want the
system to restart with by pressing 1, 2, 3, or X on the
keyboard. The system continues to restart using the set of
archived files represented by the number or character you
pressed.
To go to a command line without changing the system files,
press the C key on the keyboard.
To reset the primary display to VGA, press the V key on the
keyboard.
The character keys that you press can be uppercase or lowercase
letters.
To restart the system using a customized version of the
CONFIG.SYS file, enter an alphabetic character that corresponds
to the name of a of a CONFIG.SYS file that you created.
CREATING CONFIG.SYS FILES
In some cases, you need different CONFIG.SYS files to create
environments specific to the kinds of work you are doing. For
example, when you use a laptop computer with a docking station,
you might want a CONFIG.SYS file that supports your laptop
computer and one that supports your desktop computer.
You can create different versions of the CONFIG.SYS file, and,
during restart, specify from the Recovery Choices screen which
version the system should use. You can also customize the
Recovery Choices screen to display your customized CONFIG.SYS
file choices.
The following steps describe how to create and use multiple
CONFIG.SYS files. In these steps, ? is any unique single
alphabetic character EXCEPT: X, x, C, c, V, or v. These steps
use C as the root directory. If you installed OS/2 on a drive
other than C, replace the C in the path name with the drive
letter of the root directory.
1. Save a copy of the current CONFIG.SYS file.
You can save a copy of the current CONFIG.SYS file by copying
it to a diskette. Otherwise, you can copy the current
CONFIG.SYS file to the C:\OS\BOOT subdirectory, and rename it
to CONFIG.?. If you copy and rename CONFIG.SYS, be sure to
make a note of the new name and directory so you can restore
it later.
2. Copy C:CONFIG.SYS to C;\OS2\BOOT\CONFIG.?
A. Customize the new file with the modifications that you
need.
3. Copy the customized CONFIG.? file to the current CONFIG.SYS
file.
There are two ways to copy the CONFIG.? file. You can enter
the copy command at the OS/2 command prompt, or you can
create an OS/2 batch file that runs during restart AFTER
the system processes C:\CONFIG.SYS.
A. Replacing Your CONFIG.SYS file with CONFIG.?
If you have only one customized CONFIG.? file, or if you
do not plan to change between CONFIG.SYS and CONFIG.?
often, you might choose to copy over CONFIG.SYS with
the customized CONFIG.? file. Copying over C:\CONFIG.SYS
with your customized file the default CONFIG.SYS file.
The command to copy your customized file to the current
CONFIG.SYS file is:
COPY C;\OS2\BOOT\CONFIG.? C:\CONFIG.SYS
Using your customized CONFIG.? file as the default file
allows you to restart without selecting a CONFIG.? file
at the Recovery Choices screen.
You can now restart the system. When you restart, the
system automatically uses the file in the root
directory named CONFIG.SYS.
B. Creating a Batch File to Replace CONFIG.SYS with CONFIG.?
If you have several customized CONFIG.SYS files, using
the batch file allows you to specify the CONFIG.? you
want to use without entering multiple copy commands. You
can simply change the ? character in the batch file, and
enter that character in the batch file, and enter that
character at the Recovery Choices screen.
Create a batch file on C:\OS2\BOOT, and name it
ALTF1?.CMD, where ? is the character that you used in the
name of the CONFIG.? file. Put the following COPY
command in the batch file.
COPY C:\OS2\BOOT\CONFIG.? C:\CONFIG.SYS
Display the Recovery Choices screen by pressing
Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart the system and then pressing
Alt+F1.
At the Recovery Choices screen, press the key for the ?
single character in the name of the CONFIG.? file you
want to use.
The system continues the restart using the customized
CONFIG.? file.
NOTE: If you enter a character from the Recovery Choices
screen for which there is no corresponding
CONFIG.? or ALTF1?.CMD batch file, the system
returns to the Recovery Choices screen.
EXAMPLE:
The following example shows how to create a CONFIG.SYS
file named CONFIG.A, and a batch file to copy it during
restart. The system is installed on the C drive. Before
you start, save a copy of the current CONFIG.SYS file.
1. Copy the system version of CONFIG.SYS into a new file
called CONFIG.A:
COPY CONFIG.SYS C:\OS2\BOOT\CONFIG.A
2. Change to the C:\OS2\BOOT directory.
3. Edit CONFIG.A to customize it, and save your changes.
4. Create a file called ALTF1A.CMD:
E ALTF1A.CMD
5. Put the following COPY command into ALTF1A.CMD, and
save the changes:
COPY C:\OS2\BOOT\CONFIG.A C:\CONFIG.SYS
6. Restart your system by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del. Press
Alt+F1 when the small white box appears in the upper
left corner of the screen.
7. When the Recovery Choices screen appears, type the
letter A.
DISPLAYING CONFIG.SYS CHOICE ON THE RECOVERY CHOICES SCREEN
You can customize your Recovery Choices screen to display the
list of customized CONFIG.? files that you created.
To customize the Recovery Choices screen, edit the file
C:\OS2\BOOT\ALTF1BOT.SCR. (if you installed OS/2 on a drive
other than C, specify the drive on which OS/2 is installed.)
You can add up to 6 lines of text to the bottom of this file.
Each line that you add, should represent a single CONFIG.?
file that you created. Each line should include the alphabetic
character that identifies that CONFIG.? file. You might also
want to includu a brief, one-line description of when to use
that version of the CONFIG.? file.
For example, to display the option for the CONFIG.A file on the
Recovery Choices screen, you might add the following to the
file:
C:\OS2\BOOT\ALTF1BOT.SCR:
REBUILDING THE DESKTOP
================================================================
SYMPTOMS:
1. Missing Objects in the OS/2 System Folder.
2. Missing Empty or Multiple Objects on Desktop
Note: This may be performed after using the Recovering
Archived System Files, and the problem still is
not fixed.
3. Installing and on final restart, the system has a blank
desktop with or without a clock on the screen.
PROCEDURES:
1. Turn on the computer. If the computer is already on, press
Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart the system.
2. When a small white box appears in the upper left
corner of the screen, press Alt+F1.
3. When the Recovery Choices screen appears, press C.
4. Change to the OS/2 directory on the hard disk. Type the
following commands and press Enter after each:
CD\OS2
MAKEINI OS2.INI INI.RC
MAKEINI OS2SYS.INI INISYS.RC
5. Delete the hidden file WP?ROOT.?SF from the startable
partition. Type the following commands and press Enter
after each:
ATTRIB -h -s -r \WP?ROOT.?SF
DEL \WP?ROOT.?SF
6. Remove the diskette and restart the system.
Recovering the CONFIG.SYS File
The CONFIG.SYS file contains command statements used
to configure the system during startup. If the file is
changed incorrectly, you might not be able to restart the
system or edit the file. For example, some programs write
information to the CONFIG.SYS file when they are installed. In
some cases, this information can cause the CONFIG.SYS file to
be unusable. To recover the original version of the
CONFIG.SYS file (as it was created when OS/2 was installed),
do the following:
1. Turn on the computer. If the computer is already on, press
Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart the system.
2. When a small white box appears in the upper left
corner of the screen, press Alt+F1.
3. When the Recovery Choices screen appears, press C.
4. Rename the damaged CONFIG.SYS file. for example, type:
REN CONFIG.SYS CONFIG.BAD
5. Press Enter.
6. Copy the backup version of the CONFIG.SYS file to the root
directory of the drive where the operating system resides.
(The CONFIG.SYS backup file was created during OS/2
installation). Type:
COPY C:\OS2\INSTALL\CONFIG.SYS C:\CONFIG.SYS
7. Press Enter.
8. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart the system.
If you made any changes to the CONFIG.SYS file after the
original installation, you must edit the newly copied
CONFIG.SYS file and add those changes.
Recovering the USER INI File
The OS2.INI file, also referred to as the user INI file, is an
operating system startup file that contains system settings
such as program defaults, display options and file options.
The OS2SYS.INI file, also referred to as the system INI file,
is an operating system file that contains information about
installed fonts and printer drivers. If you receive a message
that the OS2.INI file has been "corrupted", replace both the
OS2.INI file and the OS2SYS.INI file on the hard disk.
Use the following procedure to replace these two files with
versions containing default values:
1. Turn on the computer. If the computer is already on, press
Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart the system.
2. When a small white box appears in the upper left
corner of the screen, press Alt+F1.
3. When the Recovery Choices screen appears, press C.
4. Type CD \OS2 and press Enter.
5. Type ATTRIB -s -h-r OS2*.INI and press Enter.
6. Type REN OS2.INI OS2.OLD and press Enter.
7. Type MAKEINI OS2.INI INI.RC and press Enter.
8. Type REN OS2SYS.INI OS2SYS.OLD and press Enter.
9. Type MAKEINI OS2SYS.INI INISYS.OLD and press Enter.
10. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart the system.
You can protect the INI files by having them automatically
backed up each time you start the system. For example, if you
include the following statements in the CONFIG.SYS file, a
backup copy of the current INI files and a backup copy of the
INI files as they existed at the previous system startup is
be made. (Note that this example assumes that OS/2 is
installed on drive C. Use the letter of the drive on which you
have OS/2 installed.)
CALL=C:\OS2\XCOPY.EXE C:\OS2\*.INX C:\OS2\*.INY
CALL=C:\OS2\XCOPY.EXE C:\OS2\OS2*.INI C:\OS2\*.INX
By copying the INI files, you can always recover a recent
version of these files if the INI file becomes damaged.