Technical Bulletin 11.13.91 DOS50 JAG OPERATING SYSTEMS: Microsoft DOS 5.0 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 eXpanded 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 2.5x through 4.0, 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. 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.