I made this reply while the list was down and thought the thread in it's
original form might be of interest to some. I hope the messages that have
been lost in space do not come back to jam the list with duplicates. :)
Richard Menedetter wrote:
>
> What is the status of this software ?? (freeware with source, freeware,
> shareware ??)
Seems to be shareware - at least for the "lite" version I tried.
> Does it run on a DOS Filesystem ??
Yes and no.
> (will it also work with fat32 ?)
Don't know/care.
> Can you run DOS Programms ?
Yes and no.
> Have you tried it yourself ?
I have tried it a little.
> Many, many questions ;)
Read the doc that Glenn has put up :)
Hi Richard, Glenn, All;
First, I tried to download the latest full version, but it was going
so slowly that I gave up after getting the first diskette of 5.
I found the TSXlite dir and downloaded an earlier version (4.26) in
"lite" format (2 user limit (I don't have more than two personalities
so that's ok)) - four files fill three diskettes.
Installed it extremely easily on my P90 at home. Unzip to DOS HD and
run install in DOS. I renamed my config.sys and autoexec.bat without
extensions and rebooted to an extremely minimal DOS because TSX says
it doesn't like QEMM, HIMEM or disk caches.
Manually CDd to the proper dir and typed RUNTSX.
Loaded nicely and gave me a prompt that looked loke a DOS prompt
but wouldn't run any DOS programs. It did respond to DOSlike
commands such as DIR and CD and REN etc., but wouldn't run CHKDSK.
I wanted a memory report.
Anyway, to this point it feels a lot like Linux.
Now I've got it, what do I do with it ?
It did suggest I try HELP so I quickly learned that if I want to run
DOS programs I have to load DOS.
I typed DOS, and MSDOS 6.20 loaded. But I was still in TSX and could
access all the help functions and the shell if I wanted.:)
I still wanted a memory report so I ran CHKDSK (habit - DOS3.3 has no MEM)
WOW. That was REALLY scary !
CHKDSK reported MSDOS.sys and IO.sys were crosslinked all over the place.
I was so scared I forgot to look at the memory numbers.
I pushed reset to get back to DOS and ran CHKDSK again.
All was normal. WHew. After convincing myself there was no damage anywhere,
I started TSX again and DOS again and ran CHKDSK again for the hell of it.
Still dozens of crosslinks reported in the boot sector !!
I ignored it and started Arachne. It went directly to setup because the
video wouldn't work. I finally found that TSX would only permit standard
VGA (640x480x16colors) and neither VESA or Hicolor would work.
But at least Arachne loaded, seemed normal, (I didn't go online) and
displayed normal values for memory and XMS use EVEN THO NONE OF THE STUFF
I USUALLY LOAD HIGH WAS LOADED. I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE TSX PLACED DOS OR ITS
BUFFERS !! And I don't like not knowing !
Ok, Arachne worked, so I exited and tried SPEEDCHK to see what TSX was
doing as far as diskcaching is concerned.
SPEEDCHK under TSX took 59 sec to run the main test which took 29 sec before.
DOS 6.2 was obviously being used because it still took 10 sec additional to
clean up after the test. This also takes 10-11 sec under straight DOS 6.2
but only 2-3 sec under DOS 5.0.
It is possible that those numbers under TSX may improve if I use special
config and autoexec boot files for TSX to try to set files and buffers.
Generally, my impression is, bigger and slower with no advantage but,
More later. ;)
- Clarence Verge
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- Help stamp out FATWARE. As a start visit: http://home.arachne.cz/
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