Tech Arsenal 1/Tech Arsenal (Arsenal Computer).ISO/tek-07/drdos6.txt

Text File | 1992-01-19 | 17KB | 338 lines

LANtastic Network Operating System v4.00 Compatibility Bulletin
Product Reviewed:  DR DOS v6.0 by Digital Research Inc.
Classification:  Operating Systems
Date:  12/16/91
Engineer:  J Gerring


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 512 MB.
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 very easy and done via a menu driven interface.  The user
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, it
is also possible to 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.  However, 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 this machine will be a server on the LAN.
        This cannot be done while running the 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 users 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 work-
    station 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 an inter-
    national keyboard driver is required on an installation in the U.S.,
    contact Artisoft for information on obtaining an international version
    of LANtastic.

    System Parameters: Allows the user 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,  all other settings in this section may be used with LANtastic.
    On machines that are to be servers, it is mandatory to enable the "File
    sharing support (SHARE.EXE)" option in order to support DOS file and record
    locking.  The number of concurrent file locks for SHARE should be
    determined 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.  It may be used with LANtastic.

All of the above options may be changed 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 higher 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
management.

    On a machine with a 386 or higher 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
        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 can be used 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 version 2.14 began shipping with LANtastic NOS version 4.0 and
is now able to use XMS memory for caching.  On 286 machines that use the
HIDOS.SYS driver, 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.SYS is used, the
LANCache's TYPE switch will be set to XMS if the memory manager is not
performing any 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 server.  Artisoft
and Digital Research strongly recommend that users desiring this
configuration 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, run the INSTALL program.  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 had 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 the user desires to use the Super PC Kwik disk caching program that is
provided with DR DOS on a LANtastic server, the cache's delayed write
caching feature must be disabled.  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 it is possible to 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 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 is not included in the currently shipping
release of LANtastic 4.0, users requiring this driver will need to contact
Artisoft Technical Support for an update.

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 if the "Floppy
    Direct" Server Startup LANCache's 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, the Microsoft linker's EXEPACK
option as well as their EXEPACK utility has 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: these final items are currently being investigated by Digital Research.
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 4.0.  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 and
Digital Research expects to release a formal patch in December, 1991.

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:.  Once this NET USE has been done, any commands issued
on drive C: 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.


Vendor Information
Digital Research Inc.
70 Garden Court/P. O. Box DRI
Monterrey, 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.