Hi Bernd, > For the FreeDOS bootdisk, the only thing I use config.sys for is > deciding if the user wants to load XMS (and disk caches) or not.
I wish you were using the config sys menu for many things, and I wish you would do something like "read hints.txt, load or devload cdrom drivers yourself, or pre-copy cdrom contents, go to cdrom or copy, go to directory INSTALL, run INSTALL" instead of spending a lot of time and effort for nice "user interfaces" for extra driver loading. 99.9% of all people will just be fine with ElTorito or a boot diskette which boots the CDROM through SmartBootManager or with precopying, using their OTHER operating systems and/or existing DOS CDROM drivers for the latter... > However, when loading HIMEM, Memtest+ (www.memtest.org) crashes, as it > does not like any XMS manager. Sure, this is because HIMEM (and MKEYB and some other drivers) grab int 15 and override the memory size detection calls. Even worse, memtest over- writes all DOS memory, so any int 15 handler outside ROM will be zapped. I did some experimental patch to analyze the current handler to find the int 15 ROM entry point, but it is a lot better to run memtest WITHOUT loading himem first. > I wish we had a commandline XMS enabler (HIMEM /ENABLEXMS for example) > to mimic the behaviour of XMSMMGR.EXE on a Windows installation cdrom. > DEVLOAD HIMEM.EXE causes immediate reboot of system in VMware. See above - use config sys more. In particular, HIMEM should by now be able to run on pre-386 (refuse to load but at least not crash), so you do not even need a menu item for non-HIMEM load on stone age PCs. > Only way for me to check if XMS is enabled is: > IF EXIST XMSXXXX0 echo XMS manager loaded.. That is a sufficient test for device driver presence, but of course it does not tell you how much XMS is free. Let me know why it matters (e.g. my caches will simply safely refuse to load if not enough XMS is free). Eric ------------------------------------------------------- SF email is sponsored by - The IT Product Guide Read honest & candid reviews on hundreds of IT Products from real users. Discover which products truly live up to the hype. Start reading now. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=6595&alloc_id=14396&op=click _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
