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- .TOPIC:
- VBBS - OS/2
- VBBS 6.12 Documentation --11-C-1
-
- ╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
- ║ CHAPTER 11 ANNEX C VBBS - OS/2 ║
- ╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
-
- GENERAL
- ═══════
-
- This appendix will attempt to provide information particular
- to VBBS-OS/2, and not a rewrite of the entire body of VBBS documents.
- Generally, VBBS 6.1 DOCS will apply, but where this document and
- VBBS 6.1 DOCS conflict, this document applies with regards to
- VBBS-OS/2.
-
- Why VBBS-OS/2 OS/2 System Considerations
- VBBS-OS/2 VConfig Running VBBS-OS/2
- VBBS-OS/2 Networking OS/2 and LANS
- VBBS-OS/2 Working with VBBS-DOS
-
- .TOPIC:
- Why VBBS-OS/2
-
- Why VBBS-OS/2?
- ══════════════
-
- OS/2 is a powerful operating system, allowing multithreaded
- multitasking at the operating system level without kludgey OS
- shells. OS/2 virtualizes ram; unlike DOS which swaps memory in
- and out of the "base" 640 ram that DOS addresses directly. OS/2
- has superior (and faster) I/O control in multiuser applications.
- Now, with OS/2 2.x adding functional DOS and WINDOWS support,
- REXX and more, OS/2 is a viable OS for many people with high end
- PC's. In every way, OS/2 has been designed to be a superior
- multitasking environment to DOS.
-
- The one drawback to OS/2's performance has been the inefficient
- way it handles DOS and WINDOWS communications programs. Because
- these programs require a great deal of CPU attention, they degrade
- OS/2 system performance significantly, compared to equivalent OS/2
- programs.
-
- VBBS has been designed from the start to be a multiline
- communications program. Written in assembly and Quick Basic, it
- is a very efficient program. Since an OS/2 compiler is readily
- available for programs written in Quick Basic and most of the
- code could be a direct port, the marriage of VBBS and OS/2
- became the next logical step in the evolution of VBBS. No other
- move could have produced such dramatic performance results for a
- single machine, multinode VBBS so easily at this point in time.
-
- From the users standpoint, VBBS-OS/2 is identical to VBBS-DOS.
- Every function is identical.
-
-
-
- VBBS 6.12 Documentation --11-C-2
- .TOPIC:
- OS/2 System Considerations
-
- OS/2 System Considerations
- ══════════════════════════
-
- HPFS vs. FAT
-
- Although HPFS is generally regarded as faster (higher
- performance) than FAT file systems, it is only advantageous
- under certain circumstances. For a reason unknown at this time,
- VBBS disk intensive operations are at least twice as fast with
- FAT as they are with HPFS. It is strongly recommended that HPFS
- NOT be used to run VBBS at this time. Booting with HPFS is fine,
- as long as VBBS is run from a FAT partition or a NETWORK drive.
-
- Virtual Technologies is working with IBM to resolve the HPFS
- performance issue. Up to date information on this progress will
- be posted in the VirtualNet sub "VBBS OS/2 Support",
- AUTOSUBSCRIBE sub type 472629.
-
- We recommend the following hard drive partitioning scheme if
- HPFS is to be used:
-
- BOOT MANAGER
- (1) 60 MB PRIMARY HPFS partition (Enough for OS/2, SWAPFILE, ETC.)
- (1) 1 MB PRIMARY FAT partition (Just enough to boot DOS)
- (1) Extended FAT partition (To run applications such as VBBS from)
-
- NOTE: Using this arrangement will result in EITHER primary
- partition (whichever is selected as active) being mapped as the C
- drive and the extended DOS partition will always be the D drive.
-
- OS/2 1.3
-
- Though not tested, VBBS-OS/2 should run fine in multinode
- situations on a single 80286 based machine, running OS/2 1.3
- with a minimum of four megabites of RAM and a 60 megabyte hard
- drive. Many OS/2 old timers that do not use DOS applications
- still prefer OS/2 1.3 because of it's leaner system
- requirements.
-
- OS/2 2.x
-
- OS/2 2.x requires at least a 386sx to run. To run VBBS-OS/2
- effectively, at least 8 megabites of RAM and a 125 megabyte hard
- drive should be used. Though OS/2 2.x will run on lesser
- systems, performance and storage space will quickly become
- issues on systems configured in such a manner.
-
- Although VBBS-OS/2 should run fine on OS/2 1.3, it has been
- tested extensively only on OS/2 2.x. As a result, there are some
- system settings that we can pass on as a result of our experience
- that may help you.
-
-
- VBBS 6.12 Documentation --11-C-3
-
-
- CONFIG.SYS Settings:
-
- TIMESLICE=32 (Minimum timeslice OS/2 will use)
- MAXWAIT=1 (Number of wait units system will wait before
- checking other tasks)
-
- SWAPPATH=C:\OS2\SYSTEM 4096 8192 (This controls the size of
- the swapfile. If you have
- room on you HD, increasing
- the start size to 4 MB and
- the max size to 8 MB seems to
- help when running with 8
- MB DRAM)
-
- DEVICE=C:\OS2\VDISK.SYS 16 128 16 (This will create a Virtual
- disk to use for the
- CONTROL.DAT directory. Place
- this at the end of your
- CONFIG.SYS file.)
-
- VBBS-OS/2 has been tested with OS/2 version 2.0 through each
- beta version of 2.1 and now the 2.1 GA release. OS/2 2.1 is
- recommended because most users report superior stability.
-
- Digiboard
-
- OS/2 drivers are available for Digiboards from the manufacturer
- for both 1.3 and 2.0.
-
- Communications Ports
-
- OS/2 will not allow programs to share interrupts (except on
- properly configured Microchannel machines). The easiest
- way to run two nodes would be to use a bus mouse, making
- comport 1 and comport 2 available for modem use.
- .TOPIC:
- VBBS-OS/2 VConfig
- VBBS-OS/2 VCONFIG
- ═════════════════
-
- Installing and running VBBS-OS/2 is nearly identical to the
- procedure used for VBBS-DOS.
-
- The main difference is that the VBBS-OS/2 Control Panel has
- been stripped down. Most WFC functions are not needed, since WFC
- functions can be handled as separate tasks.
-
- Channel configuration is handled identically to the DOS ver-
- sion, HOWEVER the OS/2 2.x GA release does NOT support locked com port
- speeds of over 19,200 baud with supplied COM.SYS drivers. Since
- VBBS-OS/2 is untested under OS/2 1.3 as of this writing, locking the
- com port at speeds over 19,200 baud is not recommended without ex-
- perimentation. OS/2 1.3 and 2.0 have 16550 UART support.
-
-
- VBBS 6.12 Documentation --11-C-4
-
- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:
-
- Communications performance can be greatly enhanced by locking
- the com port at 38400 instead of 19200. Since the stock com drivers
- supplied with OS/2 do not allow this, replacement drivers must be
- used. We recommend Ray Gwinn's SIO drivers. These are shareware, and
- curently registration is only $15.00 for four ports. Additional ports
- are supported at an additional cost. They really are outstanding
- drivers, and well worth the money for all OS/2 communications, not
- just VBBS. SIO is available at:
-
- The Rubber Room, 203-877-5856 and 203-876-0695
- Virtual Technologies, 616-399-8791 and 616-399-4818
-
- 1. Obtain a copy of Ray Gwinn's SIO102.ZIP.
- 2. Unzip it into a directory something like this:
- C:\SIO
- 3. Modify your config.sys file, removing the COM.SYS and
- VCOM.SYS drivers, and replacing them with SIO.SYS and
- VSIO.SYS. EX:
-
- REM DEVICE=C:\OS2\COM.SYS
- REM DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VCOM.SYS
- DEVICE=C:\SIO\SIO.SYS
- DEVICE=C:\SIO\VSIO.SYS
-
- 4. No special parameters are necessary for normal operation of com
- ports 1 and 2. Com ports can be configured however needed by
- specifying the port, base address and IRQ.
-
- EX:
-
- DEVICE=C:\SIO\SIO.SYS (1,3F8,4) (2,2F8,3)
- DEVICE=C:\SIO\VSIO.SYS
-
- .TOPIC:
- Running VBBS-OS/2
- RUNNING VBBS-OS/2
- ═════════════════
- VBBS-OS/2 is started similarly to VBBS-DOS. Different
- channels are started by passing the channel number to VBBS.EXE as a
- parameter just as in the DOS version. A CMD file is included to get
- started. The shareware version supports two active nodes and one
- local node. EX:
- BBS 0 Starts Local Channel;
- BBS 1 Starts Channel 1;
- BBS 2 Starts Channel 2;
- :
- BBS 8 Starts Channel 8.
-
- If you start it up from a full screen command line session, or if
- you specify full-screen OS2 session under program object settings,
- VBBS-OS2 and all of its externals run in full screen mode. If you
- start it up from a windowed command line session, or if you
- specify windowed OS2 session under program object settings, VBBS-OS2
- and all of its externals run in a window.
-
- VBBS 6.12 Documentation --11-C-5
-
-
- Multiple VBBS nodes can be started under OS/2 in the startup
- sequence by including the following in the STARTUP.CMD file:
-
- --- Begin STARTUP.CMD ---
-
- start bbs 0
- start bbs 1
- start vsysmon
-
- --- End STARTUP.CMD ---
- .TOPIC:
- VBBS-OS/2 Networking
- VBBS-OS/2 NETWORKING
- ════════════════════
-
- VBBS-OS/2 fully supports FIDO type and the new Vnet type
- networks using the VXY protocol.
-
- Care must be taken to make sure that if VBBS-DOS and VBBS-OS/2
- will share databases, that network configurations do NOT allow
- HSLINK, as this protocol is not currently available for
- VBBS/OS2. A setting in VCONFIG allowing DSZ for Virtualnet
- type networks will enable VXY's ZMODEM.
- .TOPIC:
- OS/2 and LANS
- OS/2 AND LANS
- ═════════════
-
- VBBS-OS/2 can be connected to other VBBS workstations (OS/2
- or DOS based) via Novell Netware, or IBM's LAN Server
- products. VBBS-OS/2 has been tested using OS/2 2.x and
- Novell 3.11 very successfully. The requestor for OS/2 2.x is
- available from Novell for about $40.00, and the requestor
- for 1.3 comes with Novell Netware.
- .TOPIC:
- VBBS-OS/2 Working with VBBS-DOS
- VBBS-OS/2 WORKING WITH VBBS-DOS
- ═══════════════════════════════
-
- VBBS-OS/2 has been fully tested and is VBBS-DOS compliant.
- VBBS-OS/2 can be installed directly over VBBS-DOS, taking the place
- of the DOS base program or it can be installed parallel to the DOS
- program, working with it using the same databases and control.v file.
- VBBS has been tested with the following path configuration:
-
- VBBS-DOS Executables:
-
- \VBBS\DOS
-
- VBBS-OS/2 Executables:
-
- \VBBS\OS2
-
- All other paths shared by VBBS-DOS and VBBS-OS/2.
-
- Special considerations for VBBS-OS/2:
-
-
- VBBS 6.12 Documentation --11-C-6
-
-
- * If upgrading from VBBS-DOS, remember to remove DSZ and
- HSLINK protocol options in VCONFIG, as well as any other
- DOS protocols.
-
- * Remove DOS Doors from the door configuration in VCONFIG.
-
- (NOTE: Although it is possible to run DOS BBS doors from
- VBBS-OS/2 with OS/2 2.x, it is not recommended. DOS DOORS
- slow overall system performance terribly, since almost none
- were written with OS/2 awareness in mind.
-
- * Remove references to DOS programs called in scripts (SCAN,
- etc.) unless you have OS/2 equivelents.
-
- * Remove ARJ, LHA and other miscellaneous archive utility
- configurations from VCONFIG. A bound version (meaning it
- will run natively both in OS/2 and DOS) of PKZIP 1.10 is
- available at the Rubber Room BBS, 1@1203000 and at Virtual
- Technologies, 1@1 as PKZ102-2.EXE.
-
- SCRIPTS
- ═══════
-
- VBBS-OS/2 should now be able to share scripts with VBBS-DOS.
- No special provisions must be made for VBBS-OS/2 for properly
- written scripts. VBBS-OS/2 does come with it's own OS/2 script
- compiler.
-
- DOORS
- ═════
-
- It is known that the SIO.SYS and VSIO.SYS drivers replacing
- COM.SYS and VCOM.SYS, (written by Ray Guinn) with OS/2 2.1 will
- make DOS doors run under OS/2 2.x. To make this possible, modify
- the SIO command line, adding port speed and a - to the command
- line as follows:
-
- DEVICE=C:\SIO\SIO.SYS (1:38400,3F8,4, -) (2:38400,2F8,3, -)
-
- Even so, this is not recommended, as opening a DOS comm-
- unications session will significantly impair system performance,
- virtually defeating the purpose of running OS/2 in the first place.
- Additionally, a certain degree of reliability is traded off.
-
- Using ONLY OS/2 Door programs is recommended.
-
-
-
-