PC97 Software/SOFTWARE_97.iso/QEMM.97/DISK3/TECHNOTE.QIP/STEALTH.TEC

Text File | 1997-05-15 | 22KB | 460 lines

                 Troubleshooting Stealth ROM

 Quarterdeck Technical Note #205             Filename: STEALTH.TEC
 by Quarterdeck Testing & Compatibility    CompuServe: STEALT.ZIP
 Last revised: 4/02/95                       Category: QEMM

 Subject: Troubleshooting and resolving rare problems with Stealth
          ROM, and extensive information on how Stealth ROM works.

 Stealth ROM may seem mysterious and cryptic, but it really is not.
 This note tells you how to diagnose and solve problems related to
 the Stealth ROM feature of QEMM. Although this note may appear
 lengthy, it is detailed and informative. For those who are more
 interested in fast solutions, the path to resolving a problem is
 quite straightfoward and quick.

 Q. What do I need to know first?

 Before beginning the steps outlined in this technote, please
 review the information in Quarterdeck Technical Note #248,
 "Product Compatibility Information" (PRODUCTS.TEC), which contains
 information on various hardware and software products that may
 require specific treatment with Stealth ROM. This bulletin can be
 found in your QEMM\TECHNOTE directory.

 If you are reading this technote because QEMM displayed the
 message "Disabling Stealth ROM becauase QEMM cannot find the ROM
 handler for INT xx", you should instead refer to Quarterdeck
 Technical Note #233, "QEMM and the XSTI Parameter" (XSTI.TEC).
 This note can also be found in your QEMM\TECHNOTE directory.

 You may also wish to consult Quarterdeck Technical Note #168,
 "QEMM's Stealth ROM Technology" (STLTECH.TEC") for background
 information on Stealth ROM and how it works.

 Q. How do I resolve a conflict with Stealth ROM?

 In almost all cases, the OPTIMIZE program that comes with QEMM
 will detect and resolve automatically any aspect of your system's
 hardware or basic configuration that is incompatible with Stealth.
 OPTIMIZE cannot, however, anticipate the behaviour of programs
 that are not run as part of your CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, or
 other batch files that are CALLed as part of your system's startup
 process.  The following troubleshooting procedure is divided into
 simple steps, contained in several sections, to address
 compatibility issues with programs that are not run as part of the
 startup process, or that manage to evade OPTIMIZE's automatic
 handling of Stealth ROM.

                         SECTION ONE

 1) The first step is to ascertain whether Stealth ROM is involved
    with the problem. Remove the Stealth ROM parameter (ST:M or
    ST:F) from the QEMM device line in your CONFIG.SYS file and
    rerun Optimize. When Optimize completes, try to duplicate the
    problem. If the problem still happens, then Stealth ROM is not
    causing the problem, and you should refer to the
    troubleshooting section of your QEMM manual for further
    information. However, if removing ST:M or ST:F solves the
    problem, proceed to Step 2.

 2) Now that we have proven that Stealth ROM is involved in the
    problem, add the Stealth ROM parameters ST:M and XST=F000 to
    the QEMM device line in the CONFIG.SYS file. Your QEMM line
    would look something like this:

    DEVICE=C:\QEMM\QEMM386.SYS RAM ST:M XST=F000

    Reboot the computer. If this step solves the problem, go on to
    Step 3 immediately below; if it does not, go to SECTION TWO.

 3) If XST=F000 solves your problem replace this parameter with
    X=F000-FFFF, reboot your computer, and try again to create the
    problem. The QEMM line in your CONFIG.SYS file would look
    something like this:

    DEVICE=C:\QEMM\QEMM386.SYS RAM ST:M X=F000-FFFF

    If the problem persists, go to Step 4 below. If you cannot
    recreate the problem with the above line, add the parameter
    FSTC to the end of the line as follows:

    DEVICE=C:\QEMM\QEMM386.SYS RAM ST:M X=F000-FFFF FSTC

    and reboot. If this step solves the problem, continue on. If
    it does not (and FSTC may not work in all circumstances) then
    remove the FSTC parameter and reboot with the previous QEMM
    line. In either case, run Manifest (by typing MFT from the DOS
    prompt) and look at the QEMM/Analysis screen. The last line
    should look something like this:

    Fn00 IIII IIII IIII IIOO

    Since the entire F000-FFFF range is EXCLUDEd, Analysis here is
    suggesting that the last two 4K pages of the F region are Okay
    (that is, the EXCLUDE is appropriate for the region FE00-FFFF)
    and that the other pages are INCLUDEable (that is, the EXCLUDE
    is not needed for these pages). This is so because some program
    or piece of hardware is trying to read the contents of the last
    two pages of ROM directly, rather than accessing them through
    interrupts. QEMM must be prevented from mapping High RAM over
    this ROM to allow the ROM to be be accessed directly. This is
    done by using the EXCLUDE parameter. In our example the target
    region is FE00-FFFF; thus appropriate EXCLUDE is X=FE00-FFFF
    and the QEMM line would look like this:

    DEVICE=C:\QEMM\QEMM386.SYS RAM ST:M X=FE00-FFFF

    This EXCLUDE allows Stealth ROM to do its job and costs only 8K
    of High RAM. If you are at this point, your problem is solved
    and you do not need to continue with this technical note.

 4) If XST=F000 solves your problem while X=F000-FFFF does not, try
    changing ST:M to ST:F, and remove XST=F000. You may end up with
    more High RAM with ST:F than with ST:M and XST=F000. However,
    if ST:F fails, remove ST:F and place ST:M and XST=F000 back on
    the QEMM386.SYS line.


                         SECTION TWO

 This section is ONLY for systems that have video ROMs--that is,
 systems with an EGA or VGA video card. CGA color and
 Hercules-compatible monochrome systems do not have video ROM; If
 you have one of these systems, proceed to Section Three.

 Manifest, on its First Meg Overview screen will identify the ROMs
 on your system when Stealth ROM is inactive. On most systems, the
 Video ROM is located at C000-C7FF and uses 32K of upper memory
 address space. Some machines (particularly Micro Channel machines
 such as the IBM PS/2 family) have a video ROM elsewhere, generally
 at E000. If this is true of your system, you should use E000 (or
 wherever your video ROM begins) instead of C000 in the QEMM386.SYS
 lines that follow.

 5) If XST=F000 does not solve your problem, try XST=C000. The
    QEMM line of the CONFIG.SYS would look like this:

    DEVICE=C:\QEMM\QEMM386.SYS RAM ST:M XST=C000

    If XST=C000 does not work, go on to Section Three. If XST=C000
    does work, proceed to Step 6 immediately below.

 6) If XST=C000 solves the problem, try placing the page frame at
    C000 by removing XST=C000 and adding FR=C000 to the QEMM386.SYS
    line. Do this only if the entire C000 range is available--that
    is, no device is using address space between C000 and CFFF for
    Adapter ROM or RAM. The QEMM line of the CONFIG.SYS would look
    like this:

    DEVICE=C:\QEMM\QEMM386.SYS RAM ST:M FR=C000

    If this works, you may find this an acceptable solution. All
    the address space in which High RAM can be created is being
    used in this configuration, and you will want to stop
    troubleshooting here. If this step does not work (or if you
    cannot put the page frame at C000) go on to Step 7 below.

 7) If XST=C000 solves the problem but you do not want to put the
    page frame at C000 (or cannot for some reason) then try the
    parameter F10:N (or FASTINT10:N). By default QEMM uses its own
    code for some video functions, rather than the video ROM's own
    code. The F10:N parameter tells QEMM not to perform this
    function. The QEMM line of the CONFIG.SYS would look like this:

    DEVICE=C:\QEMM\QEMM386.SYS RAM ST:M F10:N

    If this step works, all ROMs are being Stealthed at the expense
    of some speed. You may find this satisfactory, at which point
    you may stop here. If you do not find the modest decrease in
    speed acceptable, or if this step does not work, proceed to
    Step 8 immediately below.

 8) If XST=C000 solves the problem but FR=C000 or FASTINT10:N does
    not (or you either cannot put the Page Frame at C000 or do not
    want to use FASTINT10:N) then replace XST=C000 with
    X=C000-C7FF. The QEMM line of the config.sys would look like
    this:

    DEVICE=C:\QEMM\QEMM386.SYS RAM ST:M X=C000-C7FF

    If replacing the XST=C000 parameter with X=C000-C7FF does not
    work then you should replace the X=C000-C7FF with XST=C000,
    which will avoid all Stealth conflicts with your system's video
    ROMs; you may stop troubleshooting here.

    If replacing the XST=C000 parameter with X=C000-C7FF works, add
    the parameter FSTC to the QEMM line:

    DEVICE=C:\QEMM\QEMM386.SYS RAM ST:M X=C000-C7FF FSTC

    Reboot your computer. If this step works, continue on; if this
    step does not work (and FSTC may not work in all circumstances)
    then remove the FSTC parameter and reboot with the previous
    QEMM line.

    In either case, run Manifest (by typing MFT at the DOS prompt)
    and look at the QEMM/Analysis screen. The Cn00 line should look
    something like this:

    Cn00 OIII IIII OOOO OOOO

    This indicates that the first 4K region of the C000 range (in
    the video ROM) is being accessed directly. This portion of the
    address space must be EXCLUDED from QEMM's use when Stealth ROM
    is enabled. The appropriate QEMM line in the CONFIG.SYS would
    be:

    DEVICE=C:\QEMM\QEMM386.SYS RAM ST:M X=C000-C0FF

                     SECTION THREE

 9) On some machines there are other ROMs that can be Stealthed.
    Typically these are disk ROMs; sometimes they are associated
    with network cards or with other peripherals. To determine if
    your system has one of these other ROMs, boot your system
    without ST:M or ST:F and check the First Meg / Overview screen
    in Manifest. If you see more than two ROMs listed, than your
    system has another ROM. Troubleshooting Stealth ROM with these
    ROMs involves a similar procedure to those above; that is, add
    XST=??00 (using the beginning address of that particular ROM).
    If this solves the problem, replace the XST=??00 with the
    appropriate EXCLUDE (X=??00-!!FF, replacing ??00 and !!FF with
    the beginning and ending addresses of the ROM) to determine
    whether the problem is related to Stealth or to the fact that
    some portion of the ROM's address space needs to be directly
    accessible.

    If some portion of the address space must be EXCLUDED for
    Stealth ROM to work you should check Analysis with the FSTC and
    X=??00-!!FF parameters on the QEMM line in a manner similar to
    that detailed in Step 3.

    The trick of placing the page frame at the beginning of the ROM
    may also work here as well. If XST=??00 solves your problem,
    try replacing it with FR=??00. This is possible if there is a
    64K portion of the address space that is either ROM or RAM
    beginning at ??00, and if ?? is a multiple of 16K.

 10) Use XST=F000, XST=C000, and XST=??00 simultaneously for all
     ROMs being Stealthed. Then replace the XSTs one by one with
     the appropriate regular Exclude (X=F000-FFFF, X=C000-C7FF,
     X=??00- !!FF...) and look at the QEMM/ Analysis screen of
     Manifest to see what portions of the address space need to be
     directly available.

 11) If ST:M with XST on all Stealthed ROMs fails, add the
     following parameters to the QEMM line we used in Step 10:

     FB:N UFP:N VHI:N F10:N

     If this works, remove the XSTs one at a time to determine
     which one(s) you actually need. If an XST alone does not solve
     the problem, turn back to SECTION ONE for help in determining
     the appropriate XST or EXCLUDE while keeping the above
     parameters. The parameters are explained later in this
     technote as well as in your QEMM manual.

 12) If ST:M does not work, try ST:F instead. If ST:F does not
     work, try ST:F XST=C000 (and XST=??00) for Stealthed ROMs
     other than the one(s) the page frame overlays.

 13) If none of these steps solves the problem, Quarterdeck's
     Testing and Compatibility Department wants to know what
     program or device is failing (and at what point). Please
     contact our Technical Support staff so that our technicians
     can get all the necessary information about your problem.

 The following section contains questions and answers on various
 aspects of Stealth and its parameters. Again, you may wish to
 consult Quarterdeck Technical Note #168, "QEMM's Stealth ROM
 Technology" (STLTECH.TEC") for background information on
 Stealth ROM and how it works.

 Q. I have a ROM that is not being turned in High RAM by
    Stealth ROM. Why?

 A. QEMM's Stealth ROM feature relocates ROMs which are accessed
    through the use of interrupts. A ROM that is not Stealthed may
    still have regions that are never used during the system's
    normal operation. Some disk ROMs, video ROMs, and devices that
    only use their ROMs during bootup (before the CONFIG.SYS is
    loaded) fit into this category. You may be able to get more
    High RAM by INCLUDING these unused regions on the QEMM386.SYS
    device driver line in CONFIG.SYS. To find out what addresses
    you can include, run the Analysis procedure, then use the
    INCLUDE parameter to include these addresses. Refer to your
    QEMM manual for further information on Analysis.

 Q. What is FASTINT10:N?

 A. When Stealthing a video ROM, QEMM replaces some of the video
    ROM's routines with code written by Quarterdeck. This
    replacement code is suitable for almost all video cards. The
    FASTINT10:N parameter (which may be abbreviated F10:N) tells
    QEMM not to use its code but the code of the video ROM instead.
    This in no way limits the amount of High RAM Stealth ROM
    creates and may be an acceptable solution for those users who
    need it. It should only be necessary on unusual video cards. If
    placing the page frame at the beginning of the video card's ROM
    works or if a small regular exclude also solves the problem you
    may choose to use F10:N instead.

 Q. What is FSTC?

 A. In addition to program code, ROMs contain various tables of
    information. A ROM may itself access these tables directly.
    When the ROM is being Stealthed normally, Stealth ROM will
    prevent direct access to the ROM by copying various tables into
    QEMM's own data area, which uses some extra memory -- usually
    in High RAM. When a ROM is being Stealthed but the address in
    which the ROM resides is EXCLUDEd (as with X=C000-C7FF), QEMM
    cleverly figures out that it does not need to make copies of
    these tables in its own data area. QEMM therefore saves memory
    by not making copies of the tables. However, if the copy is not
    made, portions of the ROM where these tables are stored will be
    accessed directly. This will cause Analysis to report that a
    portion of the address space is OK when EXCLUDED even though it
    would not be accessed directly were it not EXCLUDED.

    FSTC (which stands for ForceStealthTableCopy) makes the
    Analysis procedure accurate by forcing QEMM to make copies of
    these tables so that inappropriate EXCLUDEs are not
    recommended.

    Some system and video ROMs may not function properly with the
    FSTC parameter. If this is the case on your system you will
    have to perform the Analysis procedure without the FSTC
    parameter. However, you should be aware in this case that some
    of the EXCLUDE statements that Analysis prompts you to use may
    not be necessary. You can try reducing these EXCLUDES on a
    trial-and-error basis if you wish.

    FSTC should only be used when you are testing a portion of a
    ROM's address space for direct access by excluding the whole
    ROM. It is not an appropriate parameter for a final
    configuration.

 Q. What is FB:N?

    FB:N, short for FRAMEBUF:N, disables QEMM's feature of breaking
    up disk reads into the page frame and disk writes from the page
    frame. FB:Y is the default with Stealth ROM; FB:N is the
    default without Stealth ROM.

 Q. What is UFP:N?

 A. When Stealth ROM is active, and when no program is using
    expanded memory, QEMM unmaps the memory left in the page frame.
    This allows the ROM underneath the page frame to be visible, in
    case some program reads that ROM directly. However some
    programs use expanded memory and then free an EMS handle (which
    is tantamount to ceasing to use that expanded memory) and yet
    expect the page frame to contain the memory that they last
    mapped there. The UFP:N (abbreviation for UNMAPFREEPAGES)
    parameter tells QEMM not to unmap the EMS page, which will make
    such programs work with Stealth ROM. Of course such programs
    violate the EMS specification by abandoning the EMS handle (and
    apparently common sense) but expecting the page frame to
    contain the memory just released. UFP:N is the default without
    Stealth ROM.

 Q. What are advanced disk features? What is VHI:N?

 A. The BIOS has a set of function calls intended for use by
    multitasking programs. These are INT 15h, functions 90h and
    91h. The system ROM or disk ROM may issue the INT 15h, Fn 90h
    call while it is waiting for the disk controller to read or
    write a sector, allowing other programs to execute during this
    wait. When the sector is ready, the disk interrupt handler
    issues an INT 15h, Fn 91h, signalling the multitasking program
    that the disk information is ready to be processed by the
    system or disk ROM.

    The "advanced features" of some disk caches hook this call to
    allow your system to go ahead and execute your current program
    while the system or disk ROM is waiting for its requested
    sector. Although such caches properly preserve the stack and
    register state for the BIOS and the application when doing this
    pseudo-multitasking, they do not preserve the mapping of the
    page frame. Therefore, if a BIOS call causes the page frame to
    be used (as is the case with Stealth ROM active), conflicts and
    system failures could result. Since most disk caches do not
    preserve the page frame properly, QEMM automatically suppresses
    INT 15h, Fn 90h calls from the BIOS, effectively disabling
    advanced disk features. Caches that save and restore the page
    frame when using advanced disk features can use a programming
    interface to QEMM to re-enable advanced disk features.

    You may defeat QEMM's defeating of this feature with the
    VIRTUALHDIRQ:N (VHI:N) parameter on the QEMM device line in
    your CONFIG.SYS file. If your cache uses INT 15h Fn 90h as one
    of its advanced features, and does not save and restore the
    page frame you will crash or corrupt data on the cached
    drive(s).

 Q. Can I load a driver that uses ROM before QEMM?

 A. You can load a device driver that uses a ROM before QEMM and
    still Stealth that ROM by loading the driver HOOKROM.SYS (found
    in your QEMM directory) before you load this driver. directory.
    Here is an example of a CONFIG.SYS file that loads HOOKROM,
    then a driver that uses a ROM, then QEMM with Stealth ROM
    enabled:

    DEVICE=C:\QEMM\HOOKROM.SYS
    DEVICE=C:\DISK\ROMDRIVER.SYS
    DEVICE=C:\QEMM\QEMM386.SYS RAM ST:M

    For a more detailed explanation of HOOKROM, refer to XSTI.TEC
    in your QEMM\TECHNOTE directory.

 Q. Why does my computer's BIOS Setup program fail when I use ST:M?

 A. Many machines have a built-in System Setup program in the BIOS
    ROM that can be popped up via a keystroke. Stealth ROM may make
    this feature inaccessible to you after your system has booted.
    Because the Setup program accesses the ROM directly, you must
    EXCLUDE the portion of address space where it is stored in
    order for it to work after QEMM has been loaded and Stealth ROM
    enabled. On most machines this Setup program is found in F000-
    F7FF.

    You may decide that you would rather have access to the Setup
    program ONLY on bootup and use this portion of the address
    space for High RAM. Since you must reboot your computer after
    making changes in your CMOS Setup anyway, most users consider
    this a fair trade.

 Q. How does Stealth ROM work? What can cause it to fail?

 A. Refer to consult Quarterdeck Technical Note #168, "QEMM's
    Stealth ROM Technology" (STLTECH.TEC") for background
    information on Stealth ROM and how it works and what can
    interfere with it.

 SUMMARY:

 The Stealth ROM technology has been exhaustively tested. Due to
 the wide variety of software and hardware in the PC world,
 however, Stealth ROM cannot be guaranteed to work with every
 configuration. The actual Stealthing of interrupts is very
 successful. Most failures are due to programs (or other ROMs)
 trying to access a portion of the ROM directly rather than by
 means of interrupt, and most of these failures can be resolved via
 the techniques in this note.

 If you experience a problem that you are unable to resolve using
 the steps outlined in this technical bulletin, Quarterdeck would
 very much like to hear about it.

 ******************************************************************
 *      Trademarks are property of their respective owners.       *
 *   This and other technical notes may be available in updated   *
 *     forms through Quarterdeck's standard support channels.     *
 *          Copyright (C) 1996 Quarterdeck Corporation            *
 ******************** E N D   O F   F I L E ***********************