Merge 5.3 and older DOS
Bob Bailin
Merge 5.3 in the process, I found that I could no longer run MS-DOS 6.22
under Merge 5.3 as I could under Merge 4.1.1.
(Dual P III system w/512MB memory.)
Understand, I could *install* DOS 6.22 just fine using dosinstall, and the
images created in the process with mkimg were built without a problem, but
trying to run 'dos' afterwards from the console results in a screen blanking
and a brief display of the mouse driver message, followed by another
blanking and a return to the unix prompt. The merge error log shows that the
VM86 process has died, as expected. Interestingly, if I run dos in an
X-Windows, or if I have an X-Window running on another multiscreen, I get an
additional error window with the message: "Unknown command opcode 89", (I'll
have to check on that exact number), and the separate dos window which
doesn't blank out shows that the process died just after initializing the
mouse driver but before the CD-ROM driver. If I disable the mouse driver and
clear out the config.sys files, the process still dies but obviously without
any reference points to gauge where it died during the DOS boot process.
DOS 7.00 can be installed from Windows 95 and works fine, but I was
wondering what about the older DOS prevents it from running. Since
dosinstall still exists and seems to imply that older DOSes can still be
installed, shouldn't this still work? I see that Windows 3.1 is no longer
supported, but this seems to be just a the side effect of 3.1 not being able
to run on DOS 7.00 or later. One of the apps I need to run very occasionally
only works on Win 3.1 and it's easier to use Merge than to setup and dual
boot a real machine.
Bob
Bob Bailin
"Bob Bailin" <72027...@compuserve.com> wrote in message
news:bdn191$pka$1...@ngspool-d02.news.aol.com...
> After (finally) upgrading our system from 5.0.5 to 5.0.7 and installing
Just to be clear ^^^^^^^^^ it was a fresh install of 5.0.7, not an in-place
upgrade.
Bob Bailin
"Bob Bailin" <72027...@compuserve.com> wrote in message
news:bdn191$pka$1...@ngspool-d02.news.aol.com...
> Merge 5.3 in the process, I found that I could no longer run MS-DOS 6.22
> under Merge 5.3 as I could under Merge 4.1.1.
>
> (Dual P III system w/512MB memory.)
>
> Understand, I could *install* DOS 6.22 just fine using dosinstall, and the
> images created in the process with mkimg were built without a problem, but
> trying to run 'dos' afterwards from the console results in a screen
blanking
> and a brief display of the mouse driver message, followed by another
> blanking and a return to the unix prompt. The merge error log shows that
the
> VM86 process has died, as expected. Interestingly, if I run dos in an
> X-Windows, or if I have an X-Window running on another multiscreen, I get
an
> additional error window with the message: "Unknown command opcode 89",
(I'll
> have to check on that exact number), and the separate dos window which
Jun 26 16:57:58 pilgrim WARNING: Merge: _M_vmonitor: unknown opcode 00000039
Jun 26 17:02:08 pilgrim WARNING: Merge: _M_vmonitor: unknown opcode 00000083
Bela Lubkin
I asked about this and was given the following workaround, which I have
not tested myself and probably cannot answer questions about. The
problem was apparently an unintentional side-effect of changes to
support WinME; a fix is being put into ongoing source so that future
releases of Merge will support DOS 6.22 by default.
The workaround I was given:
" As super user:
"
" cd /usr/merge/image
"
" Add the line
"
" install = mrgtsr.exe
"
" to the END of the file config.mki
"
" Then run the following commands:
"
" dos2unix config.mki > /tmp/config.mki
" unix2dos /tmp/config.mki > config.mki
" mkimg
"
" Whenever you start DOS, on the DOS screen, you may see a message
" "Merge TSR / Windows DRV is already installed." following the
" "Virtual Bus Mouse Driver installed" message. This extra message
" is purely informational and can be safely ignored.
Please post a followup after you've tried this...
>Bela<
Bob Bailin
"Bela Lubkin" <be...@sco.com> wrote in message
news:20030702031...@sco.com...
It works perfectly!! Yes, there is the "...is already installed" message
upon each boot, but I think I can live with it. Windows 3.1 started up
without a hitch, surprisingly, because the default DOS configuration
allocates 2MB of memory to the session instead just 640K. (Note:
Win 3.1 does not work with later versions of dos, and you can't use
'win' to start up Win 3.1 directly from unix, although you can create
an alias that will start it up like any other dos program in /usr/ldbin .)
You can save a little typing by entering the ^M directly using: ^V^M
instead of the dos2unix, unix2dos gyrations.
You can make the change permanent for future (re-)installations of
DOS 6 by editing /usr/lib/merge/for_image/config6.mki (a read-only
file) instead.
Thank you, Bela!!!
Bob