Tech Arsenal 1/Tech Arsenal (Arsenal Computer).ISO/tek-07/blts893.zip/MSDOS5.TXT

Text File | 1993-04-21 | 16KB | 325 lines

Technical Bulletin
11.13.91 DOS50 JAG
OPERATING SYSTEMS: Microsoft DOS 5.0
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Installing MS-DOS 5.0:
In general, the user should follow the instructions for installing
MS-DOS 5.0 that are provided in the Getting Started booklet
included in the 5.0 upgrade. For most PCs, this is as easy as
putting the DOS Upgrade Disk #1 in the floppy drive and typing
"a:setup" at the DOS prompt. When running SETUP on a LANtastic
Network, there are three general issues to consider:

1.   SETUP cannot be run while the LANtastic SERVER program is
     running on a PC. If this is attempted, SETUP reports: "Setup
     detected an error in identifying the hard disk partition your
     system starts up from" and indicates that it cannot install
     MS-DOS 5.0 on the hard drive. To run SETUP on a server, bring
     the PC up without the SERVER program running and run SETUP as
     documented. SETUP will run correctly on a LANtastic
     workstation (i.e. a PC running the REDIR program but not
     running SERVER).

2.   "Chapter 3 Updating Networks for MS-DOS Version 5.0" of the
     MS-DOS 5.0 "Getting Started" booklet includes documentation
     for upgrading to MS-DOS 5.0 when LANtastic versions 2.5x
     through 3.02 are also installed on the PC. These notes
     indicate that when running NOS versions 2.5x through 3.01 (See
     note 1) , DOS will display two "Incorrect DOS version"
     messages after installing MS-DOS 5.0 and attempting to install
     the LAN software. These error messages are actually generated
     by the REDIR and SERVER programs, not by DOS. However, by
     following the instructions in the booklet, the user can use
     the new DOS SETVER command to eliminate the error messages and
     run the LAN software normally. The SETVER command does not
     need to be used with LANtastic versions 3.02 or higher. For
     more information on the new SETVER command, see the 'new
     features of MS-DOS 5.0' section below and Chapter 15 of the
     Microsoft "MS-DOS User's Guide and Reference."

3.   If the DOS EMM386.EXE Expanded Memory Manager is included in
     the CONFIG.SYS and the PC has an Artisoft 2Mbps or Enhanced
     2Mbps (E2Mbps) adapter installed, the RAMBASE address of the
     card must be excluded from use by EMM386.EXE. This also
     applies to LANtastic/AI installations with adapters that use
     a RAMBASE address, such as the WD80x3 adapters and some ARCNET
     NICs. To exclude the RAMBASE, use the "X=mmmm-nnnn" switch in
     the DEVICE command for EMM386.EXE in CONFIG.SYS. See the
     "Notes on EMM386.EXE" section below and Chapter 15 of the "MS-
     DOS User's Guide and Reference" for further information on
     EMM386.EXE.


New Features of MS-DOS 5.0
This section is not intended to completely document MS-DOS 5.0's
new features, but to provide a brief overview for experienced DOS
users. MS-DOS version 5.0 introduces some powerful new abilities
and commands as well as improving on many of the familiar DOS
functions. See the "MS-DOS User's Guide and Reference" for full
descriptions of new features.

On 286, 386 and 486 machines, MS-DOS can now be relocated to the
High Memory Area (HMA), making more conventional memory available
for applications to use. On 386 or higher machines, it is also
possible to load some device drivers and memory resident software
in upper memory. Using the new LOADHIGH, or LH, command, all of the
LANtastic NOS TSRs (version 3.03 or higher) can be loaded into
upper memory assuming that there is enough RAM available.
Relocating the NOS this way provides even more space for
applications to execute in conventional memory.

The MS-DOS Shell (DOSSHELL) has been improved and now includes a
task switcher which allows you to swap between DOS applications.
Since it uses the same task switching conventions as Microsoft
Windows in Real mode, it is possible to use the DOS Shell task
switcher on a LANtastic non-dedicated server.

Microsoft has licensed several disk utilities from Central Point
Software (PC Tools): UNFORMAT, UNDELETE, and MIRROR. MIRROR stores
information about the hard drive (it is NOT disk mirroring
software) and can also track file deletions for later use by
UNDELETE and UNFORMAT. MIRROR, UNDELETE, and UNFORMAT cannot be
used on a server's drives, either locally or through the network
from a workstation. However, it may be used on the local hard
disk(s) of a LANtastic workstation. If MIRROR is included in the
AUTOEXEC.BAT file on a server it can be used to take a 'snapshot'
of the hard disk(s) at boot time. If the NOS is loaded in
AUTOEXEC.BAT on a LANtastic server, MIRROR must be run before the
SERVER command is executed and cannot be loaded in its TSR form.

Help is available through the new HELP [COMMAND] command. Help for
all DOS commands can also be invoked at the DOS prompt by typing
the desired command followed by /?.

MS-DOS 5.0 provides the MS-DOS Editor (EDIT), a new full screen,
CUA compliant ASCII file editor similar to the editor supplied with
Microsoft Quick BASIC.

Disk partitions up to 2 gigabytes in size are now directly
supported. MS-DOS 5.0 no longer requires SHARE to be loaded for
partitions greater than 32 MB. However, any PC that functions as a
LANtastic server must still use SHARE for network file and record
locking support.

MS-DOS 5.0 includes DOSKEY, a TSR program that allows the user to
recall commands previously typed at the DOS prompt in order to re-
issue and/or edit them. DOSKEY also has a macro feature that
enables easy recall of frequently used command sequences.

The SETVER command is provided to allow programs that expect a
specific version of DOS to run under MS-DOS 5.0. This command can
be used with the LANtastic version 2.5x through 3.01 SERVER and
REDIR programs to permit them to run under MS-DOS 5.0. SETVER
performs two basic functions. First, when run as a device driver in
the CONFIG.SYS, it loads a table into memory consisting of program
names and the MS-DOS version number to report for these programs.
DOS then checks this table each time a program is executed to see
if a version number other than 5.0 needs to be reported to the
program. Second, when invoked at the command line, it modifies the
copy of the version table stored on disk, either adding or deleting
table entries. Therefore, the machine must be rebooted after
running SETVER from the DOS prompt for the changes it makes to the
table on disk to take effect. For SETVER to work correctly with
LANtastic's REDIR and SERVER programs (versions 3.01 and lower),
make sure that CONFIG.SYS contains this line:

DEVICE=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE

Then execute the commands:

setver redir.exe 4.0
setver server.exe 4.0

at the DOS prompt. SETVER only needs to be run one time each for
REDIR and SERVER, thereafter MS-DOS will remember what version
number to report to the programs. Once again, the PC must be
rebooted in order for these changes to take effect. It has also
been found that it may be necessary to use SETVER to solve certain
lockup problems that occur during execution of LANtastic's NET.EXE
utility. To do this, run

SETVER NET.EXE 4.0

at the DOS prompt and reboot the PC.

Notes on Using EMM386.EXE
MS-DOS 5.0 provides enhanced support for loading DOS into high
memory and for loading device drivers and other TSR programs into
upper memory. When installing MS-DOS 5.0 on a 286 or higher machine
which has more than 640K of RAM, the SETUP program automatically
alters the CONFIG.SYS to include two statements that will load DOS
into the high memory area (HMA, See note 2). The two lines are:

DEVICE=c:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DOS=high

This allows DOS to be loaded in HMA, but does NOT allow for device
drivers and TSRs to be loaded into upper memory. MS-DOS 5.0
considers these separate issues, and in order to load programs into
upper memory, Upper Memory Blocks (UMBs, also called the upper
memory area or UMA) must be created by invoking EMM386.EXE. To do
this, CONFIG.SYS must contain these statements:

DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DOS=high,umb
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS

Note that EMM386 will only work on 386 or higher processors with at
least 384K of extended memory. It has two separate functions: The
first is to provide expanded memory emulation of LIM 4.0 EMS in the
eXtended Memory Specification (XMS) memory managed by HIMEM.SYS,
and the second is to enable UMBs. If EMM386 is run without any
switches, it creates 256K of EMS and does not enable the UMA. To
enable UMBs, the RAM or NOEMS switches must be used. Use the NOEMS
switch to enable UMBs and disable EMS simulation, and the RAM
switch to enable both UMBs and EMS emulation. If the RAM switch is
used, the UMA will be smaller in order to accommodate the required
64K EMS page frame. Once EMM386 is installed using the RAM or NOEMS
switches, the DEVICEHIGH and LOADHIGH commands can then be used to
load device drivers and TSRs into the UMA. In the above example,
the NOEMS switch tells EMM386 to enable UMBs but to leave all
extended memory as XMS memory. The following command would be added
to CONFIG.SYS in order to enable the UMA and allocate 512K of LIM
4.0 EMS for use by any DOS program that requires it:

DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE 512 RAM

If the PC has more than 512K of extended memory, then the remainder
is treated as XMS. Which switch is used depends on the applications
that will be run on the PC and what type of memory they require.
See Chapter 15 in the "MS-DOS User's Guide and Reference" for more
information about EMM386.

Loading LANtastic into Upper Memory
LOADHIGH can be used to load the LANtastic NOS TSRs into UMA. This
has been verified for versions 3.03 and 4.0 of the NOS. For
example, if a user wishes to run Microsoft Windows in 386 Enhanced
mode (which requires XMS memory), to load device drivers and the
LANtastic E2Mbps NOS 4.0 TSRs into UMA, and to load DOS into HMA,
the following lines would be included in CONFIG.SYS:

DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS X=D800-DFFF DEVICEHIGH=C:\ANSI.SYS

Then, in the STARTNET.BAT (or other batch file that loads LANtastic
NOS), the LOADHIGH, or LH, command would be inserted on the command
lines for the NOS TSRs. For example:

lh lanbios2 irq=15 rambase=D800
lh redir host logins=10
lh share
lh server

An important switch included in the example CONFIG.SYS lines above
is the X=D800-DFFF on the DEVICE line for EMM386. X= is the short
notation for the EXCLUDE= switch which is used to protect an
address range in upper memory from being converted into UMBs. In
this example, the excluded range is the default RAMBASE address (a
shared memory address in the 640K to 1MB range) for the LANtastic
Enhanced 2Mbps adapter. Since this address is in the middle of the
UMA, excluding it will cause fragmentation of the UMA and limit the
size of TSRs that can be loaded in upper memory. To reduce UMA
fragmentation, it would be necessary to move the adapter's RAMBASE
to an address range just above video memory and then exclude that
address from being converted to UMBs by EMM386. On a PC with VGA,
the B000-B7FF range (monochrome display memory) can usually be used
for the LAN adapter's address. For a machine with a monochrome
display, the A800 or the C000 ranges could be used. Also, other
adapters that require a RAMBASE address will also require EMM386 to
exclude the address they use. Using the example of a machine with
a LANtastic Enhanced 2Mbps adapter and VGA card installed, the
EMM386 line in the CONFIG.SYS would be:

DEVICE=c:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS x=B000-B7FF

The command to load the LANBIOS2 program into upper memory would be
changed to:

lh lanbios2 irq=15 rambase=B000

It is not necessary to exclude an upper memory range when using the
Artisoft AE-1/T, AE-2 or AE-3 adapters as they do not use a RAMBASE
address.

LOADHIGH will load a TSR in UMA if there is enough upper memory
available, otherwise the program is loaded in conventional memory.
Unfortunately, LOADHIGH does not report where it loaded the
program. However, MS-DOS' new MEM command can be used to find out
where the TSR was loaded. In general, the MEM command is used to
display the amount of free memory in the PC. It has several
switches that can be used to view both free and occupied memory in
various ways. One such switch is the /C or /CLASSIFY switch which
displays programs that are loaded into both conventional memory and
the UMA and the amount of memory used by each, and also lists
available memory blocks. Therefore, entering MEM /C at the DOS
prompt will show where a TSR or device driver was actually loaded.
For a full discussion of the MEM command, see the "MS-DOS 5.0
User's Guide and Reference." Note that the DEVICEHIGH command is
used in CONFIG.SYS to load device drivers into UMA.

Using LANcache with MS-DOS 5.0 Memory Management LANcache version
2.14 began shipping with LANtastic NOS version 4.0 and is now able
to use XMS memory for caching. On 286 and higher machines on which
HIMEM.SYS is installed, loading LANcache v2.14 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.EXE is also used, the
LANcache's TYPE switch will be set to XMS if NOEMS is specified
when the EMM386 device driver is loaded, or TYPE may be set to EMS
if EMM386 is performing EMS emulation (see the "Notes on Using
EMM386.EXE" section above for details).

LANcache version 1.31, which shipped with LANtastic NOS 3.02 and
3.03, was not capable of using XMS memory for caching. For this
reason, EMM386 must be used to simulate EMS in order to run
LANcache v1.31. Note that this means that LANcache v1.31 cannot be
used in conjunction with HIMEM.SYS on 286 processors. Upgrading to
version 2.14 of LANcache and 4.0 of LANtastic NOS will resolve this
limitation.

SHARE.EXE Issues
MS-DOS version 4.0x required SHARE to be installed in order to
support hard disk partition sizes greater than 32 MB. If SHARE was
not explicitly installed in the CONFIG.SYS, MS-DOS 4.0x would
automatically install it with default parameters. Therefore, it was
recommended to load SHARE in CONFIG.SYS using the INSTALL=
directive if values greater than the defaults were needed. This is
no longer required in MS-DOS 5.0, but may still be done if desired.
For example, a user may wish to load SHARE in CONFIG.SYS on a
server with version 4.0 of LANtastic so that the NOS TSRs may
removed from memory at a later time. SHARE cannot be unloaded, so
if it is installed after the NOS is loaded, then the LANtastic TSRs
also cannot be removed (See the LANtastic NOS Reference Manual for
further information on removing the NOS from memory).

Conclusion:
MS-DOS version 5.0 is compatible with the LANtastic Network
Operating System versions 4.xx through 5.xx, and provides new
utilities and services that were previously available only through
third-party manufacturers.

Vendor Information:
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052-6399

NOTES:
1.   Artisoft did not officially ship a version 3.01 of the NOS,
     but Microsoft's notes apply to any NOS version less than 3.02
     and greater than or equal to 2.50.

2.   The HMA is the first 64K of RAM above 1 MB that HIMEM.SYS
     creates by enabling the A20 address pin on 286 and higher
     machines.
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ARTISOFT, Inc. makes no warranties as to the completeness or
accuracy of this document. LANtastic is a trademark of ARTISOFT,
Inc. Company names, brand names and product names are trademarks or
registered trade marks of their respective companies.