Interleaf 5 and XP
Randyl
Greetings:
For a whole series of reasons we wish to revive the Interleaf 5-DOS
version, if possible. However, to our knowledge no platform beyond
Windows 98 runs it. The very first edition of Windows 98 is OK, but in
Windows 98 Second Edition the user cannot hotkey out of Interleaf, do
some work in Windows and then return to the Interleaf session; the
software must be shut down.
I have tried it under Windows XP without success.
The PIF file bombs out. With both an Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files
I get a message saying:
C:\DOCUME~1\RandylP\Desktop\INTERL~1.PIF
C:\WINDOWS\CONFIG.SYS. The system file is not suitable for
running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications.
Choose 'Close' to terminate the application.
If I delete the Config.sys file the message just says:
C:\DOCUME~1\RandylP\Desktop\INTERL~1.PIF
The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft
Windows applications. Choose 'Close' to terminate the application.
If I call the software directly via "Run" with the command
c:\ileaf5\bin\ileaf.exe -desktop c:\desktop
it bombs out and says that the software was trying to open the COM4
port and failed. I actually added a COM3 and COM4 port via the "Add
Hardware" applet in the Control Panel, but when I looked at the
resulting list of hardware devices created by the "Add Hardware
Wizard", I see a tiny exclamation mark to the left of the icon. I do
not know what this means but suspect the COM port was defined but does
not physically exist as far as Windows XP is concerned.
I'm running out of ideas. If anyone knows, suspects, or has a crazy
guess, as to how to make Interleaf 5-DOS run on Windows XP, please let
me know.
Also, if you have any war stories about starting Interleaf 5 on any
platform after Windows 98 First Edition, please let me know about that
experience.
Best regards,
Randyl Kent Plampin
Dick Margulis
>
> I'm running out of ideas. If anyone knows, suspects, or has a crazy
> guess, as to how to make Interleaf 5-DOS run on Windows XP, please let
> me know.
>
What happens if you just boot the machine to a command prompt? Will it
run ileaf 5 under those conditions, or does it still bomb?
Michael Meier
>I'm running out of ideas. If anyone knows, suspects, or has a crazy
>guess, as to how to make Interleaf 5-DOS run on Windows XP, please let
>me know.
I think every Windows after Windows 95 is too different. The only
crazy idea I have would be a try on an external device, like an dos
formated usb stick to try installation "fare away" from a running
Windows. Also too much disk space could be a problem.
Good luck
Michael
Randyl
>What happens if you just boot the machine to a command prompt? Will it
>run ileaf 5 under those conditions, or does it still bomb?
I could not find a boot-to-DOS method on any menu like they used to
have. Now its boot from CD or hard drive and one other. Also there is
no Shutdown-to-DOS anymore; Stand-By, Shutdown, Sleep. There is a
Command Prompt that allows you to go Fullscreen and I can invoke
Interleaf 5 with the same command I used on the Run dialog. Same
result, however. It bombs out saying the opening of the COM4 port
failed.
I took a look at the definition of the COM4 port with the Device
Manager, and I am wondering if the combination of device address range
and the IRQ selected may have anything to do with this. It does not
look likely, though.
To Michael's question:
>I think every Windows after Windows 95 is too different. The only
>crazy idea I have would be a try on an external device, like an dos
>formated usb stick to try installation "fare away" from a running
>Windows. Also too much disk space could be a problem.
I do not know how this would take place. If what you are saying is
making an installation of Interleaf 5 on a USB stick, I can tell you
it would probably fail miserably because the legacy software uses an
old copy of PKUnzip that does not recognize disk drives above 2 GIG.
If the installation is just copied to a USB stick I do not see how
that helps get around the COM4 issue. Nevertheless, thanks for the
idea.
Another friend of ours recommends using VMWare to setup a virtual
machine and then run Interleaf 5 from there. This idea sounds
promissing, I'll have to try it soon.
Dick Margulis
> To Dick's question:
>
>> What happens if you just boot the machine to a command prompt? Will it
>> run ileaf 5 under those conditions, or does it still bomb?
>
> I could not find a boot-to-DOS method on any menu like they used to
> have.
See this: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial61.html#winxo
You can get to a command prompt, but it's not a DOS prompt, apparently.
So see the comment from "bill" on this page:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum107/411.htm
Good luck.
Randyl
> > I could not find a boot-to-DOS method on any menu like they used to
> > have.
>
> See this: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial61.html#winxo
Ah, OK. Its one of those tricky things. You have to hit the F8 key at
the right time.
> You can get to a command prompt, but it's not a DOS prompt, apparently.
> So see the comment from "bill" on this page:
> http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum107/411.htm
I found the menu. Wow, its pretty long. I tried the Safe Mode with
Command Prompt and I got the same result. The COM4 port will not open.
Oh well, nice try guys.
Tarim
<ran...@simultrans.com> wrote:
>I found the menu. Wow, its pretty long. I tried the Safe Mode with
>Command Prompt and I got the same result. The COM4 port will not open.
>Oh well, nice try guys.
You did say you wanted crazy guesses didn't you?
In MS-DOS and Windows the file names COM1 to COM4 are reserved and
cannot be created as files. Presumably this was a failed kludge to
try to get the UNIX effect of being able to refer to devices as though
they were files.
If you can create an empty file with the name COM4 in the directory
Interleaf is running from; it could be enough to fool Interleaf into
coming up since it would be able to open it!
The problem is how to create such a file? You could mount the disk
temporarily on a non-windows OS such as Linux and create it from
there. (Samba won't help as it's still being written through
Windows.)
Might be clutching at straws here...
---__ __ o ___
/ (_// / / ) )
acea...@gmail.com
Peter Flynn
> El sábado, 15 de marzo de 2008, 22:19:09 (UTC-6), Randyl escribió:
>> Re: Interleaf 5-DOS and Windows XP
>>
>> Greetings:
>>
>> For a whole series of reasons we wish to revive the Interleaf 5-DOS
>> version, if possible. However, to our knowledge no platform beyond
>> Windows 98 runs it. The very first edition of Windows 98 is OK, but in
>> Windows 98 Second Edition the user cannot hotkey out of Interleaf, do
>> some work in Windows and then return to the Interleaf session; the
>> software must be shut down.
(https://www.codeweavers.com/products)? This is a binary environment for
Macs and Linux which lets you install and run Windows software (I use it
to run MS Office under Linux). You do need a Mac or Linux system to run
it, but if you have a PC you can always dual-boot Ubuntu or something.
I don't know how well-behaved Interleaf is, but the Codeweavers folks
seem to be very helpful, and I have managed to get a number of old
(95/98) programs running that way.
///Peter
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