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Symantec NDOS Application Notes Version 7.0 -- March, 1993 Copyright 1991 - 1993, Symantec Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Portions copyright 1988 - 1993 JP Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved Product names mentioned in this document may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies and are hereby acknowledged. ======================================================================= This file provides information on using NDOS with a variety of other software products. It is intended for use whenever you have a question about using another product with NDOS, or suspect a compatibility problem. Inclusion of a product in this file does NOT mean there are compatibility problems with it! It only indicates that we have some information that may be useful to you when you use the product with NDOS. Items in this file which were changed in NDOS 7.0 are marked with "*7.0*" in the left margin. Other items have not been changed since version 6.0. This file is formatted at 58 lines per page, and contains form feeds and page footers. It is somewhat long, so you may prefer to view it with a file viewer such as the NDOS LIST command. You can print this file on most PC printers using the Norton Utilities LP program: LP /b0 /header0 appnotes.doc Printing it with other programs that format the pages may not work due to the formatting included in the file. NDOS APPNOTES.DOC page 1 Table of Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 General Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Running NDOS along with COMMAND.COM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Executing DOS Commands via Interrupt 2E . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Swapping to RAM Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 NDOS and Other Command Line Editing Programs . . . . . . . . . . 6 NDOS.COM and C Language exec() Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Information on Specific Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 MS-DOS APPEND Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 MS-DOS FASTOPEN Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 MS-DOS 4.0 and 5.0 FORMAT /S Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 MS-DOS 4.0+ SELECT Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 1DIR+ (Bourbaki) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3COM Networks (3Com) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Alpha 4 (Alpha Software) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 ANSI.SYS (various manufacturers) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Bookshelf CD-ROM (Microsoft) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 DESQview (Quarterdeck) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 DR-DOS (Digital Research) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 FoxPro (Fox Software) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 GeoWorks Ensemble (GEOS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Hijaak (Inset Systems) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Kermit (Columbia University) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Manifest (Quarterdeck) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Netware (Novell) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Novell MENU (Novell) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 QEMM and QRAM (Quarterdeck) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 RBase (MicroRim) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Software Carousel (SoftLogic Solutions) . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 TSRCOM Utilities (TurboPower Software) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 UltraVision (Personics) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Windows 3.0 and 3.1 (Microsoft) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 XyWrite (XyQuest) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Programs Requiring PATH to be Under 128 Characters . . . . . . . 21 Checkit (Touchstone); Computer Select CD-ROM (Ziff-Davis); RenderMan (AutoDesk); VINES Network (Banyan); Windows 3.0 (Microsoft) NDOS APPNOTES.DOC page 2 Introduction ------------ We have made every effort to ensure that this file is as accurate and up to date as possible. Unfortunately, varying conditions between systems or between software releases can easily invalidate the results of previous tests. Therefore we cannot guarantee that every item in this file is accurate for all systems or will remain accurate over time; you may have to do your own testing to determine what works well on your system with the software you own. If you have a question or problem related to another program, first read chapter 7 of the NDOS manual ("Using NDOS With Your Hardware And Software"). If the information in Chapter 7 doesn't help, check below for both additional general suggestions which pertain to your question, and information on the specific product you are working with. Use the Table of Contents to see where a particular product may be covered. Many of the items below refer to the NDOS.INI file. See chapter 6 of the manual for a complete explanation of NDOS.INI. Virtually all of your software will work with NDOS with no trouble. If you do find an interaction or compatibility problem, it can probably be diagnosed easily with one of three methods: checking this file for specific information; trying different NDOS swapping methods; and testing for interactions by removing all drivers and TSRs which are not absolutely necessary and then replacing them one at a time. These methods and other related techniques are described in Chapter 7 of the manual. Many popular software products are not covered in this file. If a program does not appear here, it simply means that as far as we know no additional information is necessary or useful when using that program with NDOS. General Information ------------------- Running NDOS along with COMMAND.COM: You may find a very rare program which will not work under NDOS, but runs properly under COMMAND.COM. If you have determined that the problem cannot be solved through configuration changes or by eliminating or reconfiguring a third program which is causing the problem, use this section to see how to run NDOS and COMMAND.COM together in order to diagnose such a problem. NDOS APPNOTES.DOC page 3 There are two methods of loading COMMAND.COM before another program. The first is to load it only when a specific program is running. This can be accomplished with the following command (assuming COMMAND.COM is in the root directory of drive C:): c:\command /c progname options where "progname" is the program name (with path if necessary) and "options" are any parameters for the program. This command will run COMMAND.COM, load and run the program, and upon exit from the program will exit from COMMAND.COM and return to NDOS. If this is necessary to run a specific program, it can be defined as an alias: alias progname `c:\command /c progname %&` The "%&" passes all command line arguments on to the program. With this method, if the program is large COMMAND.COM may need to reload itself when the program exits. It will not be able to do so unless the COMSPEC is set properly. If you experience problems such as "Invalid COMMAND.COM" errors when using this method, use a batch file like the following to run the program in question (the SETLOCAL and ENDLOCAL cause COMSPEC to be restored to its previous value after the program exits). You will need to modify this file if your copy of COMMAND.COM is not stored in the C:\ directory: setlocal set comspec=C:\COMMAND.COM c:\command /c progname %& endlocal The second method is more drastic: you can start your system under COMMAND.COM, then run NDOS. This approach is rarely necessary, and will use about 4 - 5K of additional RAM for the resident portion of COMMAND.COM. The following steps will set your system up to boot with COMMAND.COM, and run NDOS automatically as part of the boot process: (1) Set up the SHELL= statement in CONFIG.SYS to run COMMAND.COM, or leave it out entirely. In other words, set it up just as you would if NDOS were not on your system. (2) Separate your AUTOEXEC file into two parts: part 1, which remains in AUTOEXEC.BAT, should contain any commands you wish to have COMMAND.COM execute before NDOS is started. This might include loading any TSRs which you cannot get to load properly under NDOS. Part 2, which you must place in a separate batch file (we suggest the name NDAUTO.BAT, but you can use any name with a .BAT or .BTM extension), should contain the commands you wish to have NDOS execute when it is started. NDOS APPNOTES.DOC page 4 (3) Place the following line as the last line in the modified AUTOEXEC.BAT: NDOS parameters filename where "parameters" represents the appropriate NDOS parameters for swapping, environment and history size, etc. (see the Installation section of the manual), and "filename" is the name of the new batch file you created for part 2 of your old AUTOEXEC file. Do NOT include a /P in the "parameters" or NDOS will re-run AUTOEXEC and therefore load itself again, ad infinitum! (4) Be sure that KSTACK.COM is loaded in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file or your NDOS startup file if you wish to use the NDOS KEYSTACK command. This will load COMMAND.COM, execute the commands in AUTOEXEC, load NDOS, execute the commands in your new batch file, and then give you the normal NDOS prompt. There is one drawback to this second approach: because NDOS is not loaded with a /P, the EXIT command will return you to COMMAND.COM if you inadvertently enter it at the primary shell prompt. You can get around this by including the /P parameter despite the caution above, and then placing the following line at the start of AUTOEXEC.BAT: if "%@eval[2+2]"=="4" quit This line tests the NDOS variable function %@EVAL, which will return "4" under NDOS and remain unchanged under COMMAND.COM. If %@EVAL returns a "4" the statement QUITs the batch file, preventing the infinite loop described above. Executing DOS Commands via Interrupt 2E: COMMAND.COM contains an undocumented feature which allows programs to execute DOS commands by passing the command through software interrupt number 2E (hex). Very few programs use this feature, but full, documented support for it is available within NDOS for those circumstances where it's needed. If you have a program which is supposed to execute DOS commands and it does not work under NDOS, first read Chapter 7 of the manual, check your COMSPEC setting, and check that enough memory is available for NDOS to execute as a secondary shell. If these appear correct, and the program still doesn't work, it may be trying to use INT 2E to execute commands. NDOS APPNOTES.DOC page 5 If you believe this is the case, try setting the FullINT2E directive in NDOS.INI to Yes: FullINT2E = Yes (see chapter 6 of the manual for more information on NDOS.INI). Full INT 2E support is normally left disabled because it adds about 100 bytes to the resident size of NDOS, and it isn't needed in most circumstances. See Appendix C of the ASCII manual for technical details on the INT 2E interface. Swapping to RAM Disks: In order to swap the primary shell to a RAM disk the RAM disk must be completely defined in CONFIG.SYS via a DEVICE= statement (most RAM disks are set up this way). RAM disks completely or partially defined in AUTOEXEC.BAT (such as the RAM disk / cache combination in Multisoft's PC Kwik Power Pak) cannot be used for swapping the primary shell, because AUTOEXEC.BAT has not been executed at the time that the root shell is loaded, and hence the RAM disk does not exist at that point. NDOS and Other Command Line Editing Programs: Programs such as Anarkey (Moderne Software), PCED (Cove Software), and ReDOS (Multisoft) will work properly with NDOS. However these programs require the use of SETDOS /L1 to operate, which will disable the NDOS command recall and command line editing. In most cases you will be able to switch back and forth between NDOS editing and the other editor by toggling the SETDOS /L state. When another editor is used, the NDOS command history will be maintained, and can be viewed with HISTORY, but will not be available for recall until a SETDOS /L0 is executed. NDOS aliases, executable extensions, and other features will be active regardless of the SETDOS /L state. Aliases will be processed after any processing done by the other editing program. You must use care with other programs that provide an aliasing capability to avoid confusion if a command is expanded by both the other program and NDOS! NDOS APPNOTES.DOC page 6 NDOS.COM and C Language exec() Functions: Most PC implementations of the C language contain an exec() function which overlays the C program with a new program. These exec() functions load .COM and .EXE files differently. Some exec() functions determine which type of file they are executing based on the "header" contained in the file (this is the method normally used by DOS), but others -- including those used in Borland C++ and Lattice C -- use the file extension to determine the loading method. Those exec() functions which use the file extension will not work properly if they attempt to run NDOS.COM, because NDOS.COM is actually an EXE file (these same functions will fail with any file whose extension does not match its type, even though such files can be executed properly by DOS itself). The workaround for this problem is to rename NDOS.COM to NDOS.EXE, or make a copy of NDOS.COM and call it NDOS.EXE. For users of Borland C, a fix is available for this problem (the fix updates certain functions in the Borland C run-time library). You can download this fix from the Borland support area on CompuServe. Information on Specific Products -------------------------------- The information below is listed alphabetically by product, with manufacturers' names included. MS-DOS commands are listed before other software products. Items marked with two asterisks [**] after the product name were supplied by users, and have not been tested by Symantec. MS-DOS APPEND Command: Unlike most other commands in MS-DOS, APPEND has both an external portion and an undocumented internal portion. The first time APPEND is run the external portion is executed, and loaded into memory as a TSR (memory-resident program). Subsequent uses of APPEND to adjust the APPEND path use an undocumented internal interface between COMMAND.COM and the TSR portion of APPEND. NDOS does not support the internal portion of APPEND command. This means that you cannot change the APPEND path directly from NDOS. However you can still use APPEND with NDOS. APPEND should initially be loaded in the usual way, from AUTOEXEC or any other batch file, or from the command line. However to change the APPEND path after APPEND has been loaded for the first time, you must run APPEND from COMMAND.COM, not from NDOS. To do this, enter the following command (modify the command appropriately if COMMAND.COM is not in the directory C:\): c:\command /c append [new append path list] NDOS APPNOTES.DOC page 7 You could also set up a NDOS alias to do the above command for you, for example: alias app `c:\command /c append` which would be invoked with the command app [new path list] The /X switch can be used, and it will affect NDOS directory searches for many NDOS commands (as it does for COMMAND.COM). Please note that this makes APPEND very dangerous: if you APPEND a directory with /X and then (say) delete *.BAK when no such files exist in the current directory, then the .BAK files in the APPENDed directory will be deleted instead. The APPEND /E switch will not work with NDOS. ! CAUTION: In our opinion APPEND is an extremely dangerous command. It is capable of "fooling" programs into thinking they are accessing one file when they are really accessing another one with the same name in a different directory. This can either do just what you want, or cause all sorts of trouble, depending on the circumstances. In particular, this behavior can cause NDOS to place descriptions which go with files in one directory in the description file for another directory, because with APPEND running NDOS can't tell whether APPEND has opened a file different from the one it asked for. If you must use APPEND to make certain applications work, we STRONGLY suggest that you set up the aliases described above, and load APPEND in AUTOEXEC.BAT with an empty path. Then, for each application, set up an alias to run it that is similar to the following: alias myprog `app c:\mydata^d:\util\myprog.exe^app ;` This alias sets the APPEND path, runs the application, and clears the APPEND path. When used in this way APPEND is less likely to cause trouble because it is disabled except when it is explicitly needed. In MS-DOS version 4.0 the new APPEND /PATH:OFF switch mitigates this problem somewhat; in particular it will keep NDOS file description files from getting mixed up between directories. For this reason NDOS will automatically set this switch if it detects that you are running APPEND and DOS 4.0 or above. NDOS APPNOTES.DOC page 8 MS-DOS FASTOPEN Command: The MS-DOS FASTOPEN command generally works with NDOS, but does not properly detect renamed directories, and may have similar problems when directories are removed. This is a problem in FASTOPEN, not in NDOS. Our opinion is that, if you have the memory to support it, a disk caching program will provide a much greater and more effective performance improvement than FASTOPEN. MS-DOS 4.0 and 5.0 FORMAT /S Command: The FORMAT /S command in DOS 4 and later will copy NDOS.COM to a newly formatted floppy disk and rename it COMMAND.COM, which may not be what you want. See the discussion of "NDOS and DOS" in Chapter 7 of the manual for more information on this issue. MS-DOS 4.0+ SELECT Command: In MS-DOS 4.0 and above a SELECT command was introduced. This external command is totally unrelated to the NDOS internal SELECT command. If you need to use both, you can set up aliases to adjust how the command names are handled. For example, the following two aliases set up SELECT to access the DOS 4.0 external SELECT command (assumed to be stored in C:\DOS\SELECT.EXE), and SEL to access the internal NDOS SELECT command: alias select c:\dos\select.exe alias sel *select 1DIR+ (Bourbaki): The information below was obtained from tests with 1DIR+ version 3.02, and verified with version 3.5 as well. 1DIR+ will work properly under NDOS in its partially resident or EMS modes when set up as described below. It will work in its fully resident mode but cannot reliably exit back to NDOS once started. If your copy of 1DIR+ is set up for fully resident mode, you can load it into memory under NDOS to switch it to partially resident or EMS mode. To do so, from the directory where you normally run 1DIR+, type the commands: setdos /l1 1dirplus NDOS APPNOTES.DOC page 9 When 1DIR+ starts go to the "Wonder" / "Setup" menu and switch the mode to partially resident or EMS. Hit Esc to exit, and take the "Exit/Save" option (not "Save/Reset"). Back at the main menu, exit with "Wonder" / "Exit". At this point the system will probably hang. Reboot your computer. You should then be able to run 1DIR+ as described below. Once 1DIR+ is set to EMS or partially-resident mode, you can start it from NDOS using the following alias: alias 1dir `setdos /L1 ^ 1dirplus` You must do a SETDOS /L0 when you are done with 1DIR+ in order to get normal NDOS command-line editing back. If you go in and out of 1DIR+ regularly you can use aliases like the following: alias 1d `setdos /L1 ^ 1dirplus` alias 1e setdos /L0 *7.0* If you run batch files from the 1DIRPLUS "compose" feature, you may find that INPUT commands in the batch file don't work properly unless they are preceded by SETDOS /L0. You must also do a SETDOS /L1 before the end of the batch file, or 1DIRPLUS won't pop up properly when the batch file is finished. 3COM Networks (3Com): [**] Some users report that 3Com network software will not load properly if UMBLoad = Yes is used in NDOS.INI. If you have trouble with a 3Com network and NDOS, try removing the UMBLoad and UMBEnvironment directives from your NDOS.INI file. Alpha 4 (Alpha Software): [**] Alpha 4 does not work properly if you have too much environment space in use when it is started. You can use the NDOS SETLOCAL, ENDLOCAL, and UNSET commands to decrease the amount of environment space in use before starting Alpha 4. For details on this technique see the section on "Solving Software Compatibility Problems" in chapter 7 of the NDOS manual. ANSI.SYS (various manufacturers): *7.0* Some display-related device drivers may "fool" NDOS into thinking an ANSI driver is present when this is not the case. If this happens you will see ANSI strings like "[2J" displayed on-screen when you use the CLS and COLOR commands. To correct the problem, place an ANSI = No directive in NDOS.INI, or a SETDOS /A2 command in AUTOEXEC.BAT. NDOS APPNOTES.DOC page 10 Bookshelf CD-ROM (Microsoft): [**] Microsoft Bookshelf uses the environment variable CDPATH, which is also used (for a totally different purpose) by NDOS. If you are using MS Bookshelf and want to set a CDPATH variable for NDOS, set _CDPATH instead. NDOS will search for _CDPATH first; when it is found, NDOS will use it, and ignore CDPATH. DESQview (Quarterdeck): Most information about DESQview is in chapter 7 of the manual. *7.0* NDOS 7.0 automatically "cleans up" its resources (releases the shell number and deletes any disk swap file) when you Close a DESQview window from the DESQview menu without EXITing from NDOS. However this feature has a side effect: it disables the Quit option on the DESQview menu (this is due to the design of DESQview, not to anything within NDOS). Version 7.0 gives you control over this behavior with the DVCleanup directive in NDOS.INI. If DVCleanup is set to Yes (the default), NDOS will work as it did in version 7.0. Setting DVCleanup to No will disable the NDOS DESQview close window cleanup code and thereby reenable the Quit choice on the menu. However this will prevent NDOS from cleaning up its resources when you Close a NDOS window from the menu, rather than with the EXIT command. Under NDOS, the DESQview DOS Services option will not work in its default configuration. To make DOS Services work under NDOS, you must first create a batch file, DOSSERV.BAT, in your DESQview directory to run DOS Services under COMMAND.COM. (We are assuming that DESQview is in directory C:\DV and COMMAND.COM is in directory C:\; you will need to modify the settings below if your system is configured differently.) The batch file is: set comspec=c:\command.com c:\dv\dosserv c:\command exit Then, make the following changes on the DESQview change a program screen for DOS Services (items marked ** are on the second page of the screen): * Memory Allocation = 128K or greater * Program Name = C:\DV\DOSSERV.BAT (modify from previous value of C:\DV\DOSSERV). ** Close on Exit to DOS = N ** System Memory = 10K or greater ** Allow Close Window = N NDOS APPNOTES.DOC page 11 Once these steps are taken, you should be able to open the DOS Services window normally. However you will not be able to close it with a close window command. Instead, go to the window where DOS Services allows you to compose a DOS command, and type EXIT to close the window. DR-DOS (Digital Research): NDOS will work properly as a command processor (including as the primary shell) under DR-DOS 3.4, 5.0, or 6.0. The information below was developed by testing NDOS under DR-DOS 5.0 and 6.0. Internal vs. External Commands: DR-DOS 5.0's design makes the ASSIGN, JOIN, MORE, and SUBST commands internal (in MS-DOS / PC-DOS they are external). NDOS supports all MS-DOS internal commands, but does not have internal support for ASSIGN, JOIN, MORE, and SUBST. To access these DR-DOS internal commands when using NDOS as the command processor, you must set up aliases which run DR-DOS's COMMAND.COM. The following NDOS aliases accomplish this (adjust these if COMMAND.COM is not in C:\): alias assign `c:\command /c assign %&` alias join `c:\command /c join %&` alias more `c:\command /c more %&` alias subst `c:\command /c subst %&` In DR-DOS 6.0 ASSIGN, JOIN, and SUBST were changed back to external commands, so the corresponding aliases are not necessary. For the MORE command, a much better alternative can be set up by aliasing it to the NDOS LIST command: alias more list /s This provides a scrollable, full-screen display rather than the simple paged display offered by DR-DOS (or MS-DOS) MORE. HILOAD: NDOS supports DR-DOS's HILOAD feature using the MS-DOS / PC- DOS command names of LOADHIGH or LH. To load a TSR high under DR-DOS, simply use the command: LH [programname] [options] If you want the command to be called HILOAD for complete DR- DOS compatibility, just set up an alias before using it: alias hiload lh NDOS APPNOTES.DOC page 12 Just as under MS-DOS, LOADHIGH and LH will not work properly unless you have memory management software loaded to provide upper memory block support. Because DR-DOS does not return any error to NDOS if a LOADHIGH operation fails, NDOS cannot report this condition to you. This means you must use the DR-DOS MEM program or another similar memory mapping utility to determine if your TSR was actually loaded high. File Passwords: NDOS includes support for DR-DOS file passwords. However the command syntax used to access files with passwords is slightly different than under DR-DOS. First, the character used to separate passwords from filenames under DR-DOS is a semicolon [;], which NDOS uses to separate parts of an "include list" (see the manual for details). Therefore, a slightly different syntax must be used when including a DR-DOS password in a NDOS internal command which accepts wildcards: TWO semicolons should be used to separate the password and filename. NDOS directory- related commands like MD and CD do not use wildcards and therefore a single semicolon should be used before a password in these commands. All other NDOS commands which accept wildcards must use the double semicolon. DR-DOS external commands which accept the "password;filename" syntax will still use only a single semicolon. Second, DR-DOS hides files which are password-protected. This means that you must use NDOS command switches which allow processing of hidden files (COPY /H, DEL /Z, DIR /A, MOVE /H, and SELECT /A) to access a password-protected file under DR-DOS. Passwords are not automatically preserved when copying or moving a file with NDOS. However the hidden attribute will be preserved. This means that if you move or copy a passworded file and want it to be visible in its new location or under its new name, you will have to manually remove the hidden attribute with ATTRIB. For example, to password-protect the file JUNK, copy it to drive A:, and then delete it: password junk /r:fred copy /h junk;;fred a: del /z junk;;fred To unprotect the password-protected file JUNK: password junk;fred /n NDOS APPNOTES.DOC page 13 *7.0* CONFIG.SYS SETs: DR-DOS allows you to put SET commands in CONFIG.SYS to set environment variables. NDOS will retrieve this information and store it in the NDOS environment, as DR-DOS COMMAND.COM does. If you wish you can disable this feature by setting DRSets = No in NDOS.INI. SuperStor: The version of SuperStor shipped with DR-DOS works well with NDOS. However NDOS.COM cannot be stored on a compressed drive; if it is, DR-DOS will not be able to find NDOS during the boot process. Store NDOS on your uncompressed boot drive instead. TASKMAX: NDOS will work with TASKMAX as long as you start new tasks according to the instructions below. *7.0* You cannot load the NDOS resident portion high with UMBLoad = Yes in your NDOS.INI file when running TASKMAX. TASKMAX will hang the system if it is started while NDOS is loaded high. In our tests we have found that the same restriction does not apply to the UMBEnvironment directive, which does appear to be compatible with TASKMAX. Some users also report that UMBLoad = Yes will work for secondary shells but not for the primary shell; the exact behavior appears to depend on your system and DR-DOS configuration. When TASKMAX is loaded it leaves the primary command processor running as task 1. One way to start another task is to pop up TASKMAX and press Ins. This starts another "instance" of the primary command processor, and may cause significant problems with NDOS. The reason is that each task started in this way is a copy of the primary command processor, so all such tasks will use the same swap area. This will make changes to things like aliases, history, and SETDOS settings in one task "bleed through" to other tasks. The exact nature of the bleed-through will depend on the sequence of operations and the type of NDOS swapping you use. This bleed-through will not necessarily hang your system but it may lead to very strange and undesired results, especially when running batch files simultaneously in more than one task. There is no way for NDOS to detect or prevent this condition. We strongly recommend that you do NOT use Ins to start new NDOS tasks, even if it temporarily appears to work properly on your system. NDOS APPNOTES.DOC page 14 Fortunately TASKMAX offers another way to start new tasks: the TASKMAX /C command. When executed from task 1, a command like: taskmax /c c:\ndos.com will start a new secondary copy of NDOS as a new task. This new copy is a true secondary shell (not a copy of the primary shell) and will not cause the undesirable interactions described above. The same approach should be used when starting any task which needs a command processor. To start a task which runs a .BTM or .BAT file, use a command like this: taskmax /c c:\ndos.com /c startwp.bat This tells NDOS to run the specified batch file, and exit automatically (removing the task from the task list) when the batch file is done. If you have tasks you start regularly using the approach described above, use a batch file or a set of NDOS aliases to help automate the process. *7.0* Some users also report success at improving compatibility between TASKMAX and NDOS if the FullINT2E directive is set to Yes in NDOS.INI. Symantec has not tested this approach but you may wish to experiment with it on your system. FoxPro (Fox Software): [**] FoxPro works well with NDOS, but may have trouble if NDOS or the master environment is loaded high (in a UMB). If you experience compatibility problems between FoxPro and NDOS, try removing any UMBEnvironment = Yes line in NDOS.INI; if that doesn't help, try removing any UMBLoad = Yes line as well. GeoWorks Ensemble (GEOS): NDOS is compatible with GeoWorks Ensemble. To run aliases or BTM files from the DOS Programs screen, you must setup a new program button with NDOS.COM as the "primary file name" and your alias or BTM as the "optional command line parameters". Commands can be entered the same as on the DOS command line. NDOS APPNOTES.DOC page 15 Hijaak (Inset Systems): The Resident Program Manager (RPM) cannot be loaded from Hijaak's menu when NDOS is the command processor. If you try to load RPM from the menu you will receive "Out of memory" errors once it is loaded. This is due to the internal design of Hijaak and is not a NDOS bug. To work around this problem, use the LOADRPM command from the NDOS prompt, as described in the Hijaak manual. LOADRPM will load RPM with no trouble under NDOS, the problem occurs when loading from the Hijaak menu only. Kermit (Columbia University): [**] The Kermit communications program distributed by Columbia University requires FullINT2E = Yes in NDOS.INI in order for its "DOS Functions" capability to work properly. Manifest (Quarterdeck): Manifest generally works well with NDOS. However if there is too little environment space free in the NDOS master environment, the Hints Detail screen in Manifest may give unexpected results or hang your system. If this occurs, increase your environment size and / or remove some environment variables when starting Manifest if you plan to use the Hints Detail screen. Netware (Novell): [**] The information below was obtained from tests with Netware versions 2.12, 2.15, and 3.11 - 3.2, and Netware 386, and from discussions with Novell support personnel. Compatibility problems between Netware and NDOS should be quite rare. When they do occur, the usual problem is a conflict between NDOS and the Netware shell (NET3, NET4, NET5, NETX, EMSNETX, etc.). As a general rule, you should find that Novell's newer "NETX" shell versions have considerably fewer problems than the older NET3 / NET4 / NET5 versions, and we recommend their use with NDOS whenever possible. *7.0* NDOS includes a new NDOS.INI directive, NetwareNames. You should always set NetwareNames = Yes on Netware systems. This will include strings in the resident portion of NDOS which Netware searches for when it loads, and thereby avoid problems with destroyed environment variables during LOGIN. Setting NetwareNames = Yes will increase the resident size of NDOS by 112 bytes. CAUTION: If NetwareNames is set to Yes and you BOOT FROM a Netware drive (a rare situation), the TEMPNDOS or TEMP variables must be SET explicitly to the appropriate drive and directory for each user to avoid conflicts in the directory used NDOS APPNOTES.DOC page 16 for pipe files (if NetwareNames is not used or you boot from a local drive, NDOS and Netware will automatically set the proper drive and directory for pipe files). Some versions of Netware may occasionally produce a "pipe not found" message when loading under NDOS. This message refers to Netware features related to COMMAND.COM, and does not apply to NDOS; the message can be ignored. The NDOS TRUENAME command and the @TRUENAME variable function will return true Netware server names when given a file name that refers to a Netware drive. However the returned name will not be correct if only the root directory name is given as a parameter (for example TRUENAME K:\). If necessary, you can work around this problem by adding a simple "." to the request (TRUENAME K:\.). If you use NDOS input redirection in a .BAT file which resides on a Netware drive, you may experience incorrect file assignments on some systems. When this occurs, an application run from within the batch file, or a secondary shell run from such an application, may loop forever attempting to read lines from the batch file rather than accepting input from the keyboard. For example: copy /r *.* g: < YES wp rem Now if the user shells from WP, the system will rem loop forever reading lines from the batch file or rem blank lines at the prompt. This problem occurs because Netware does not handle file assignments properly when NDOS input redirection is used in a .BAT file. You can work around it in several ways: * Change the batch file to a .BTM file. * Use the LOADBTM command prior to the use of input redirection. * Move the file to a non-Netware drive. * User reports indicate that adding a line which does a "dummy" output redirection just before the input redirection will prevent the problem from occurring. For example: echo This is junk > junk.dat copy /r *.* g: < YES wp del junk.dat When loading a secondary NDOS shell under Netware you can swap the shell to a network drive if you configure NDOS properly. To do so you must take into account the fact that Netware closes all files -- including the NDOS swap file -- each time an application exits. Under the default NDOS configuration, the next time NDOS uses the swap file, a swap file seek error will occur. However, NDOS APPNOTES.DOC page 17 if you set SwapReopen = Yes in NDOS.INI, NDOS will reopen its swap file each time such an error occurs, and the swapping will work. See the manual for details on SwapReopen. You can also avoid this problem by swapping to EMS, XMS, or a local hard disk or RAM disk. Use caution with the NDOS UNSET command under Netware. When Netware is loaded it remembers the exact location of the COMSPEC variable in the master environment, and it may therefore have problems if variables such as COMSPEC and PATH are removed and reloaded in a different sequence. The UMBLoad directive in NDOS.INI is compatible with Netware. The UMBEnvironment directive is compatible with Netware 3.11 and above, but not with earlier versions. Novell MENU (Novell): The Novell MENU system distributed with Netware uses Interrupt 2E to execute menu options, and therefore requires the use of the FullINT2E = Yes directive in NDOS.INI. Once INT 2E support is enabled with this directive, Novell MENU should work normally under NDOS. QEMM and QRAM (Quarterdeck): The information below was obtained from tests with QEMM versions 5 and 6, and user reports on QRAM. Both QEMM and QRAM are compatible with NDOS, and will allow you to load the NDOS resident code and the master environment into high DOS memory (UMBs) via the UMBLoad and UMBEnvironment directives in NDOS.INI. For these directives to work with QRAM you must have QEXT loaded also (this is the normal method of loading QRAM). *7.0* QEMM's Stealth mode is compatible with NDOS, but can decrease general system stability on some systems. If you have unusual problems or system hangs with Stealth turned on, try turning it off and see if the problems clear up (this is the procedure recommended by Quarterdeck in their Stealth documentation). QEMM allocates both XMS and EMS memory from the same memory area. Therefore it always reports the exact same amount of free XMS and EMS memory. You will see this in the free EMS and free XMS values displayed by the NDOS MEMORY command -- they will be exactly the same under QEMM. Just remember that if both values are (say) 512K, that means you have 512K of free memory which can be allocated either way -- not 1024K! NDOS APPNOTES.DOC page 18 If you use FILES.COM to load part of the DOS file handle table into high memory, you must follow Quarterdeck's recommendations and keep a minimum of FILES=8 in CONFIG.SYS. Lower values may cause NDOS to hang during boot, especially if disk swapping is used. If you use QEMM's OPTIMIZE and your AUTOEXEC has NDOS-specific commands like GLOBAL, IFF, aliases, etc., OPTIMIZE will recognize them based on the NDOS.CMD file distributed with QEMM 6. Note that in QEMM version 6.00 this file is incomplete in that it does not include the ELSE, ELSEIFF, and ENDIFF commands; you should add these commands to NDOS.CMD if you use them in your AUTOEXEC file. This error in NDOS.CMD was corrected in version 6.01 of QEMM. To use NDOS.CMD it must be renamed to OPTIMIZE.EXC before running OPTIMIZE; see your QEMM documentation for details. OPTIMIZE cannot take account of the fact that NDOS may be loaded high with UMBLoad = Yes in NDOS.INI, and therefore may not give the best optimization results when UMBLoad = Yes is used (OPTIMIZE has this problem with all programs which load themselves into UMBs, not just with NDOS). Some users also report that OPTIMIZE is unstable on their systems when UMBLoad = Yes is used. RBase (MicroRim): [**] When used with NDOS disk swapping, RBase closes the NDOS swap file when it exits. This generates "NDOS Unrecoverable error DS" and other similar fatal error messages. You can avoid this problem by changing NDOS swapping to go to EMS or XMS, or by setting SwapReopen = Yes in NDOS.INI. Software Carousel (SoftLogic Solutions): Please see the general section on multitaskers in chapter 7 of the manual before reading this section. The information below was obtained from tests with Software Carousel version 3, and discussions with SoftLogic technical support. It applies to all versions of Software Carousel. Software Carousel will not work properly with NDOS loaded as the primary shell. It is designed with the assumption that COMMAND.COM is the system command processor, and contains logic which specifically depends on COMMAND.COM and the way it is written, and which actually modifies the copy of COMMAND.COM in memory. However, NDOS can be run without difficulty inside a Software Carousel partition, if the instructions below are followed. NDOS APPNOTES.DOC page 19 When loading NDOS into a Carousel partition, the best method is to leave the COMSPEC set to COMMAND.COM when Carousel is loaded. NDOS should then be set up in the Carousel options file just like any other program. For example, to load NDOS into partition 1: d:\path\NDOS.COM [parameters] [filename] where: d:\path is the drive and path where NDOS.COM is located [parameters] is any NDOS command line parameters (/E, @ininame, etc.; do NOT use /P here) [filename] is the name of a batch file to be executed when the partition is started To use different NDOS.INI files for different Software Carousel partitions, use the "@ininame" parameter in the "parameters" section of your Carousel setup to invoke a specific file. For example, the parameters could be set to @D:\WP\NDOSWP.INI to use that initialization file for the WP partition. Because NDOS can only be loaded in a partition when running Software Carousel, and not as the primary command processor, using NDOS disk swapping in multiple partitions is subject to the cautionary note on this subject in the general information section on multitaskers in the manual; please read it carefully. As stated in that note, if you use disk swapping you will probably want to use the UniqueSwapName directive in NDOS.INI to avoid swap file name conflicts. TSRCOM Utilities (TurboPower Software): The TSRCOM utilities will work properly with NDOS as long as you use TSRCOM version 2.6 or later. The current release is version 3.4, and is available on the NDOS Utility Disk and on many bulletin boards and on-line systems. If you use TSRCOM's MARK and RELEASE to manage your TSRs, NDOS swapping (as set with the SWAPPING command) must be in the same state when RELEASE is run as it was when MARK (or FMARK) was run. This is a characteristic of the design of MARK and RELEASE (or any other such products), and not a bug. If you do not observe this rule (for example, if you run MARK with SWAPPING OFF in AUTOEXEC and later run RELEASE from the prompt with SWAPPING ON), you may receive unusual error messages or hang your system. The same restriction applies to MARKNET and RELNET. NDOS APPNOTES.DOC page 20 UltraVision (Personics): The DE program distributed with UltraVision is written specifically for COMMAND.COM, and cannot be used to set directory colors with NDOS. Use the NDOS built-in directory colorization instead. Windows 3.0 and 3.1 (Microsoft): *7.0* Most information about Windows 3.0 is in chapter 7 of the manual. NDOS has been tested thoroughly and works well with Windows 3.1; the instructions in the manual on Windows 3.0 also apply to Windows 3.1. (See the section on PATH problems below for one caution related to the Setup Applications program in Windows 3.0.) If you set up a PIF file for a NDOS window, please note that the NDOS MEMORY command will report the maximum amount of EMS memory which Windows can theoretically make available in that window. Because Windows provides a virtual memory capability, this number may be much larger than the size of physical RAM. For example, if you set the EMS Limit in your PIF file to -1, Windows will report total EMS memory of 64 MB to NDOS as this is the theoretical limit on Windows' virtual memory manager. Virtual memory figures which give the appearance of excess memory are a feature of Windows, and not a bug in NDOS. XyWrite (XyQuest): [**] XyWrite's "shell to DOS" capability shells to COMMAND.COM, even if you have your COMSPEC variable set to NDOS. The only way we know of to work around the problem is to make a copy of NDOS.COM and call it COMMAND.COM. If you do this, be sure to save the real COMMAND.COM in another directory in case you need it for another purpose. Some users have reported that the same problem occurs with Signature, a newer word processor from XyQuest. Programs Requiring PATH to be Under 128 Characters: The following programs contain bugs which prevent them from working properly if you have a PATH which is over 128 characters long. Since NDOS allows you to create a PATH up to 255 characters long this can appear to be a conflict between the program involved and NDOS. If your path is longer than 128 characters, see the section headed "Solving Software Compatibility Problems" in chapter 7 of the manual for information on creating a batch file to reduce the PATH length while one of these programs is running. NDOS APPNOTES.DOC page 21 *7.0* Checkit (Touchstone): [**] Checkit version 3 requires a path length under 128 characters. Computer Select CD-ROM (Ziff-Davis): [**] Computer Select cannot find its help program if your PATH is over 128 characters long. RenderMan (AutoDesk): RenderMan will hang your system if it is started with a PATH longer than 128 characters. VINES Network (Banyan): [**] VINES' installation may not work properly if your PATH is longer than 128 characters. *7.0* Windows 3.0 (Microsoft): The Windows 3 Setup Applications option, which scans your disk drives for applications to be added to Windows program groups, will not work properly if your PATH is more than 128 characters long. This problem is fixed in Windows 3.1. NDOS APPNOTES.DOC page 22