Program Metropolis - Software Boutique 95/SOFTWARECD.iso/qemm75/read.me

Text File | 1994-09-16 | 22.3 KB | 463 lines

                 QEMM Version 7.50 - READ.ME File

  This file includes tips to help you get the most out of QEMM,
  last-minute information that did not make it into the manual and
  a few corrections to the manual. If you want to print this file
  for future reference, be sure you are in the QEMM directory and
  type "COPY READ.ME PRN:" at the DOS prompt.


                            PRODUCTS.TEC

  The technote PRODUCTS.TEC, in the TECHNOTE subdirectory of the
  directory into which you installed QEMM, contains a list of
  compatibility issues between QEMM and other hardware and
  software products.  Please read this technote before beginning
  any troubleshooting procedure.  All of the QEMM technotes may be
  viewed by running QSETUP, either from DOS or from Windows;
  QSETUP incorporates a file viewer that allows you to read these
  notes easily.  The Windows version of QSETUP features a Windows
  Help file that also incorporates versions of these notes.


             CREATING A QEMM GROUP IN MICROSOFT WINDOWS

  If you install QEMM using its Microsoft Windows installation, it
  will automatically create a QEMM group in your Windows shell,
  and add to that group icons for QSETUP, Manifest, and the QEMM
  READ.ME.  QEMM's DOS installation does not add this group and
  these three icons to your Windows shell.  If you have installed
  QEMM using the DOS installation, and want to add the QEMM group
  and icons to Windows, you can either add them manually or else
  reinstall QEMM using the Windows installation.  See the
  Installation manual for instructions on installing from Windows.
  If you wish to add the programs manually, the file name for
  QSETUP is QSETUP.EXE, and for Manifest is MFT.EXE. The QEMM
  READ.ME (this file) can be added to Windows as a Notepad
  document; or, you can read the READ.ME file from within QSETUP's
  Help, without installing it separately.


                 QEMM AND SUPERSTOR DISK COMPRESSOR

  If you are using the SuperStor disk compressor, you may need to
  manually increase the size of the uncompressed drive to allow
  enough room for QEMM to install. See your SuperStor Manual for
  information on increasing the uncompressed drive size.


                           MANIFEST COLORS

  The Windows version of Manifest uses a color scheme that is not
  the same as that of the DOS version.  For those who prefer a
  more vibrant color set, we have included a file called
  MFTBRITE.INI. To use this file instead of Manifest's default
  color scheme:

  1) Go to the QEMM directory, typically C:\QEMM.

     CD \QEMM

  2) Copy the file MFT.INI to MFTWIN.INI.

     COPY MFT.INI MFTWIN.INI

  3) Copy MFTBRITE.INI to MFT.INI.  If you are prompted to confirm
     that you wish to overwrite the file, press Y for Yes.

     COPY MFTBRITE.INI MFT.INI

  Manifest will now appear in its new color scheme.  You may
  modify your copy of MFT.INI if you wish.  The settings in the
  file are commented, but modifications that you make to it are
  not supported by Quarterdeck.


                    MICROSOFT WINDOWS AND FILES

  Manifest's report of the total number of DOS file handles on
  your system will often be different inside Microsoft Windows
  than outside of it. This is because Windows often increases the
  number of files on the system.  You may also observe that a
  different number of files is available to a Windows application
  than to an application running in a Windows DOS window. Manifest
  reports these different numbers accurately.


                    MICROSOFT WINDOWS AND EGA VIDEO

  Various display problems occur on EGA systems if you use
  Install, QSETUP, and Manifest as Microsoft Windows programs.
  These utilities were designed for VGA or later graphics systems.
  If you have an EGA system, you should run Install from DOS, and
  QSETUP and Manifest from DOS or from a DOS window in Windows,
  rather than as Windows programs.


             COMMUNICATIONS PORTS AND MANIFEST FOR WINDOWS

  Manifest, when running as a Windows program, may be unable to
  determine the correct status of the communications ports.  This
  is because Windows conceals information about the ports from
  Windows programs.  Manifest can give correct information about
  the communications ports when it is run from the DOS command
  line, either inside a Windows DOS window or outside of Windows.


               SAVING DISK SPACE FOR WINDOWS-ONLY USERS

  If you work exclusively in Microsoft Windows, you can delete the
  contents of the QEMM\TECHNOTE subdirectory, at a savings of
  about 270K of disk space.  All the QEMM technotes are also
  included in the Windows Help file, and can be read using the
  Technotes button on the QEMM Setup for Windows main menu.


                         OPTIMIZE AND PCMCIA

  QEMM's Optimize program can now detect the presence of PCMCIA
  cards that use the PCMCIA Card Services interface.  However, the
  Card Services driver on your system must support version 2.1 of
  the PCMCIA specification.  Ask your manufacturer for an upgrade
  if your Card Services driver supports only PCMCIA version 2.0.


        OPTIMIZE'S HARDWARE DETECTION PHASE AND EXPANDED MEMORY

  The Optimize program has added a Hardware Detection Phase at the
  beginning of the Optimize process to improve its detection of
  adapter RAM and PCMCIA devices.  During this phase, Optimize
  prevents QEMM from allocating expanded memory, so that it may
  monitor the upper memory area more accurately.  This means that
  expanded-memory-using TSRs and drivers in your CONFIG.SYS and
  AUTOEXEC.BAT files may behave differently or refuse to load
  during this phase.  This should not be cause for alarm: Optimize
  will restore expanded memory after the Hardware Detection Phase,
  and expanded-memory-using programs will then work properly
  again.


                   QSETUP AND THE CONFIG VARIABLE

  MS-DOS 6 and PC DOS 6 support multiple paths of execution
  through CONFIG.SYS.  DOS 6 can use the CONFIG environment
  variable and the GOTO %CONFIG% batch statement to support
  separate paths of execution in the AUTOEXEC.BAT that correspond
  to the different CONFIG.SYS configuration paths.  When you use
  QSETUP to add a new path to your DOS 6 multiple configuration
  CONFIG.SYS file, QSETUP does not create an entirely new branch
  in the AUTOEXEC.BAT to correspond to your new CONFIG.SYS path.
  Instead, QSETUP makes sure that the new configuration path and
  the existing one that it was based on will execute the same
  commands in AUTOEXEC.BAT.  If you want the new path to execute
  different AUTOEXEC.BAT commands than the path from which it was
  created, you must edit your AUTOEXEC.BAT file to create two
  separate branches to replace the common branch that QSETUP
  creates. See the DOS 6 manual for more information on the CONFIG
  variable.


            OPTIMIZE AND MULTICONFIG INCLUDE STATEMENTS

  QEMM 7.5's Optimize program does not support more than one level
  of INCLUDE statements in a CONFIG.SYS with multiple
  configurations.  You can use INCLUDE statements with Optimize,
  but you cannot use an INCLUDE statement inside a CONFIG.SYS
  block that has already been included in another block.  If you
  have more than one level of INCLUDE statements, you must edit
  your CONFIG.SYS file before running Optimize and make sure that
  all INCLUDE statements below the first level are replaced with
  the actual CONFIG.SYS lines which the INCLUDE statement formerly
  invoked.


                    FIXINT13.SYS AND ULTRAFIX.SYS

  The driver FIXINT13.SYS (described in Chapter 12 of the
  Reference manual under the erroneous name INTFIX13.SYS) is a
  replacement for the driver ULTRAFIX.SYS, which was formerly
  distributed on the Quarterdeck bulletin board and other
  electronic forums.  If you use ULTRAFIX.SYS, replace it with
  FIXINT13.SYS.


             FLOPPY-DISK-ONLY INSTALLS AND DISKETTE SPACE

  Appendix B of the QEMM Installation Guide explains how to
  install QEMM on networked machine without a hard drive.  On
  floppy-disk-only workstations, the boot floppy must have a
  minimum of 770,000 bytes free for the QEMM files for
  installation to work correctly.  When the QEMM files have been
  transferred, you may conserve space on the boot floppy by
  removing MCA.ADL (if you are not using a Micro Channel machine)
  or by removing QDPMI's files QDPMI.SYS, QDPMI.COM, and
  QDPMIVM.OVL (if you are not using Quarterdeck's DPMI Host).

  When using INSTALL with the /B option, to copy the necessary
  QEMM files to a boot disk, the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS must
  already exist on the boot disk.  Otherwise, the AUTOEXEC.BAT and
  CONFIG.SYS files will be created for you on the boot disk, but
  no files will be copied to it.


                QUICKBOOT AND EXPANDED MEMORY RAM DISKS

  With some expanded-memory-using RAM disks, the QuickBoot feature
  may not clear the contents of the RAM disk when you QuickBoot.
  QuickBoot does not intentionally preserve the contents of any
  RAM disk and should not be relied upon for this purpose.  To
  ensure that your RAM disk is cleared, warm boot normally by
  pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del twice in quick succession, thus bypassing
  QuickBoot.


                                XMS.COM

  QEMM ships with a utility program called XMS.COM that reports on
  extended memory usage via the XMS specification, and allows you
  to manipulate XMS handles.  See the document file XMS.DOC in the
  QEMM directory for information on how to use this program.


                   THE HMAMIN PARAMETER AND DOS=HIGH

  QEMM386.SYS's HMAMIN=nn parameter (described in Chapter 7 of the
  QEMM Reference Manual) stops any program from using the XMS High
  Memory Area (HMA) unless the program requests at least nnK of
  the HMA's memory. However, HMAMIN does not stop DOS from using
  the HMA when the DOS=HIGH statement is specified in the
  CONFIG.SYS file. DOS requests all 64K of the HMA, even when it
  doesn't use all of it.


                     NEW QEMM386.SYS PARAMETERS

  BOOTCOLORS:nn:rr:bb:cc:ss:tt (BC:nn:rr:bb:cc:ss:tt) tells QEMM
  what colors to use for the QuickBoot menu (visible if you use
  the BOOTTIMEOUT parameter) and the QuickBoot logo (which appears
  whenever you QuickBoot).  Each of the numbers nn, rr, bb, cc,
  ss, and tt are hexadecimal numbers between 0 and FF that
  represent a standard text-mode attribute byte; for instance, the
  attribute byte 71 represents a blue letter on a white
  background.  Consult any IBM PC reference book for the colors
  that correspond to each attribute byte. nn represents the
  QuickBoot menu colors used to show the drive that is not
  currently selected as the boot drive; rr represents the reverse
  QuickBoot menu colors used to show the drive that is currently
  selected as the boot drive; bb represents the colors of the
  border of the QuickBoot menu and logo; cc represents the
  QuickBoot menu colors used for the word "Countdown"; ss
  represents the QuickBoot menu colors used for the elapsing
  seconds; and tt represents the color of the QuickBoot logo text.

  BOOTIFEXCEPTION:Y (BIX:Y) tells QEMM to reboot the computer when
  the processor generates exception errors #6 (invalid opcode),
  #12 (stack exception), and #13 (general protection). By default,
  QEMM posts an error message when an exception occurs, offering
  potentially useful information on the state of the system at the
  time of the error, and asking you if want to terminate the
  current program, reboot, or try to continue. The Optimize
  program places the BOOTIFEXCEPTION:Y parameter on QEMM during
  the Optimize process, so that it can better detect compatibility
  problems. You can use this parameter if you want QEMM to reboot
  your system and not to post an error message when an exception
  occurs.

  ERRORFILE or ERRORFILE=file_name (EF or EF=file_name) is an
  internal parameter set by Optimize.

  XB=xxxxx:yyyy tells QEMM to exclude a small portion of a High
  RAM area.  (The EXCLUDE parameter always affects entire 4K pages
  of memory; XB, which stands for eXcludeByte, can affect areas as
  small as one byte.) xxxxx, the beginning of the area to be
  excluded,  must be a linear address (five hexadecimal digits),
  not a segment address (four hexadecimal digits). For example, if
  the beginning of the area that you wish to exclude is located at
  C000:014F, the linear address that you would provide to XB is
  C014F. yyyy is the number of bytes (in hexadecimal) that you
  want to exclude. The XB parameter may be useful when a program
  needs to have access to a small area of a ROM (such as a ROM
  signature) that QEMM has Stealthed out of the address space.

  NOUSERAM=xxxxxxx-yyyyyyy (NUR=xxxxxxx-yyyyyyy) tells QEMM not to
  scan the address range xxxxxxx-yyyyyyy when it searches for
  unreported memory with the USERAM, USECMOSMEMORY, or
  USEEISAMEMORY parameters. NOUSERAM should be used in situations
  in which QEMM's scanning disturbs a memory-mapped I/O port at a
  known address, or any other hardware located in the middle of an
  address range that QEMM is scanning for unreported memory.  For
  example, NOUSERAM=16000K-16384K tells QEMM not to scan the 384K just
  below the 16 megabyte mark.

  PENTIUM:VME:xx (P:VME:xx) tells QEMM to intercept software
  interrupt xx (where xx is a hexadecimal number between 0 and FF)
  in protected mode before passing it to a real-mode handler.  By
  default, QEMM takes advantage of the Virtual Mode Extensions
  features, available on Pentiums and some 80486 systems, to pass
  most software interrupts directly to real-mode programs, thus
  saving the overhead that would be required to pass these
  interrupts from protected-mode handlers to real-mode handlers.
  The PENTIUM:VME:N parameter (described in Chapter 7 of the
  Reference manual) tells QEMM to intercept all software
  interrupts in protected mode; PENTIUM:VME:xx tells QEMM to
  intercept only the single interrupt xx.  See the description of
  the PENTIUM:VME:N parameter for more information.

  STEALTHTHUNK=xxxx or STEALTHTHUNK=xxxx-yyyy (S=xxxx or
  S=xxxx-yyyy) tells QEMM to fill the range xxxx-yyyy with special
  instructions that will give control to QEMM if a program tries
  to execute code in that range.  (If you specify xxxx instead of
  a range, QEMM will fill the 4K page containing xxxx with these
  special instructions.)  Optimize sometimes places the
  STEALTHTHUNK=xxxx-yyyy parameter on QEMM when it detects that a
  program is jumping directly to an address in a ROM that QEMM has
  Stealthed away. QEMM can then intercept the attempt and put the
  Stealthed ROM back into the page frame so that the ROM code can
  be executed.  The range covered by the STEALTHTHUNK=xxxx-yyyy
  parameter cannot be used for High RAM or expanded memory
  mapping. The STEALTHTHUNK=xxxx-yyyy parameter is more
  memory-efficient than the EXCLUDE parameter for solving problems
  of direct ROM access, because STEALTHTHUNK need be applied only
  to a range containing the entry point of the ROM routine,
  whereas EXCLUDE must be applied to a range covering the entire
  ROM routine.  Although you can in theory use STEALTHTHUNK
  manually, there is no easy way to determine the proper range of
  addresses to specify to it. Therefore STEALTHTHUNK will be used
  principally by Optimize.

  SWAP:N disables QEMM's support for disk compression programs
  that swap DOS drive letters in the CONFIG.SYS file before QEMM
  loads. There is no known reason to use this parameter.

  SYSTEMROMBREAKPOINT:N (SRBP:N) tells QEMM not to try to
  accommodate the attempt of Microsoft Windows enhanced mode to
  find a breakpoint in the F000-FFFF area.  By default, QEMM finds
  the breakpoint instruction that is closest to the top of the
  F000-FFFF system ROM, and makes sure that High RAM is not mapped
  over this byte, so that Microsoft Windows can make use of this
  byte when changing processor modes.  QEMM's default procedure is
  designed to give the maximum compatibility with different
  configurations of Windows.  SYSTEMROMBREAKPOINT:N, which returns
  QEMM to the methods used in QEMM 7.04 and earlier releases, may
  give you a small additional amount of High RAM in a few unusual
  cases. However, if you use the SYSTEMROMBREAKPOINT:N parameter,
  you may also need to specify the SystemROMBreakPoint=false
  statement in the [386Enh] section of Windows' SYSTEM.INI file;
  and, depending on the amount of available conventional memory on
  your system, you may also have to reduce the value specified to
  the MaxBPS=xxx statement in the same section of SYSTEM.INI.
  SYSTEMROMBREAKPOINT:N should be used mainly as a troubleshooting
  parameter.

  USECMOSMEMORY:Y (UCM:Y) tells QEMM to use the system CMOS
  settings to attempt to determine the amount of memory on the
  system.  If you specify this parameter, QEMM checks the
  appropriate values in the CMOS to see if they report the same
  amount of memory as did the BIOS.  If the CMOS reports more
  memory than did the BIOS, QEMM scans the appropriate addresses
  to verify the accuracy of the CMOS report, then includes the
  memory in its memory pool. USECMOSMEMORY:Y can be used if you
  think that QEMM is not finding all the memory on your system;
  however, the USERAM parameter (see below) may be the most
  reliable way of making QEMM find unreported memory.  QEMM will
  ignore USECMOSMEMORY:Y if a program has allocated extended
  memory before QEMM loads.

  USEEISAMEMORY:Y (UEM:Y) tells QEMM to use EISA configuration
  settings to attempt to determine the amount of memory on the
  system.  If you specify this parameter, QEMM checks the
  appropriate values in the EISA configuration to see if they
  report the same amount of memory as did the BIOS.  If the EISA
  configuration reports more memory than did the BIOS, QEMM scans
  the appropriate addresses to verify the accuracy of the EISA
  report, then includes the memory in its memory pool.
  USEEISAMEMORY:Y can be used if you think that QEMM is not
  finding all the memory on your system; however, the USERAM
  parameter (see below) may be the most reliable way of making
  QEMM find unreported memory. QEMM will ignore USEEIASMEMORY:Y if
  a program has allocated extended memory before QEMM loads.

  USERAM=xxxxxxx-yyyyyyy (UR=xxxxxxx-yyyyyyy) has been modified to
  scan the memory addresses that you specify, so that QEMM can
  verify the presence of memory in that address range and add it
  to its memory pool.  This means that you can find unreported
  memory on your system by specifying a large USERAM range.  For
  instance, if you believe that you have 32 megabytes of memory on
  your system, some of which QEMM is not detecting, you can give
  QEMM the parameter USERAM=1M:32M to have QEMM scan the 32
  megabytes of memory above the one megabyte mark. (USERAM lends
  itself to the alternative methods of specifying an address range
  that are discussed in the section "Parameters and Memory
  Addresses" in Chapter 7 of the Reference manual.) It may be
  undesirable to give USERAM a needlessly large address range, as
  QEMM's scanning might in some cases disturb memory caches that
  can be located at very high addresses.


                        NEW OPTIMIZE PARAMETERS

  /NOHARDWARE (/NH) tells Optimize to skip the Hardware Detection
  Phase and begin with the Software Detection Phase.  This
  parameter shortens the Optimize process but impairs Optimize's
  ability to detect Adapter RAM or PCMCIA devices.

  /NOHOOKROM (/NOHOOK) tells Optimize not to put the driver
  HOOKROM.SYS in the CONFIG.SYS file.  By default, whenever
  Optimize suspects that a CONFIG.SYS driver loaded before
  QEMM386.SYS is preventing QEMM from using the Stealth ROM
  feature, it puts HOOKROM.SYS at the beginning of the CONFIG.SYS
  file to give QEMM access to system information before other
  drivers are loaded. /NOHOOKROM can cause the Stealth ROM feature
  to be disabled, and should be used only for troubleshooting
  purposes.

  /NOPCMCIA (/NOP) tells Optimize not to try to detect the use of
  upper memory by drivers for PCMCIA cards.  By default, Optimize
  monitors the PCMCIA Card Services interface to make sure that
  QEMM and PCMCIA cards will not try to use the same ranges of
  upper memory.  This parameter can be used for troubleshooting
  purposes, or to prevent Optimize from adding EXCLUDE parameters
  to QEMM when it detects a PCMCIA card.

  /NOSTESTING (/NS) tells Optimize not to test for the usefulness
  of the QEMM STEALTHTHUNK=xxxx-yyyy parameter during its Stealth
  testing phase.  If you use this parameter, Optimize will still
  test for the usefulness of QEMM's EXCLUDE=xxxx-yyyy parameter,
  which is in some cases less memory-efficient than STEALTHTHUNK.
  This parameter can be used if Optimize's test for STEALTHTHUNK
  is somehow failing, or if you want to prevent Optimize from
  placing STEALTHTHUNK on QEMM386.SYS.

  /REMOVEALL (/RA) tells Optimize to remove all LOADHI and DOS-Up
  statement from CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT (or, in the case of
  multiple configurations, from the configuration path that is
  being Optimized).  /REMOVEALL will leave the QEMM386.SYS line in
  the CONFIG.SYS, as well as any other QEMM drivers (like
  QDPMI.SYS and ST-DSPC.SYS) that are not managed by the Optimize
  process.  This parameter is mainly useful for troubleshooting
  purposes.


               CORRECTIONS TO THE QEMM REFERENCE MANUAL

  Chapter 2 of the Installation Guide incorrectly refers to
  SuperStor versions 2.00-2.4.  The correct reference is to
  SuperStor versions 2.00-2.04.

  The following section replaces the section on QWINFIX in Chapter
  12 of the Reference manual:

     QWINFIX.COM adds the line SystemROMBreakPoint=false to the
     [386Enh] section of the Microsoft Windows SYSTEM.INI file.
     Earlier versions of QEMM required this setting, but QWINFIX
     need not be run with QEMM 7.5 unless a QEMM error message
     advises its use.  To run QWINFIX, switch to the Windows
     directory (usually \WINDOWS), type QWINFIX, and press the Enter
     key.

  In Chapter 12 and in the Troubleshooting section (Appendix A) of
  the Reference manual, the driver FIXINT13.SYS is mistakenly
  called INTFIX13.SYS.

                         << End of READ.ME >>