Hi Bernd, Michael, > MS manages to pull it off (loading XMSMMGR.EXE), in order to load > Smartdrv on a clean booted system...
That is their problem - DR DOS NWCACHE can use int 15 memory, it does not need XMS at all :-P. > Only XMS access, HMA access is not necessary, as hardly any software > other than DOS kernels use the HMA... Having HMA for DOS kernel and XMS for FreeCOM is one of the most useful things about HIMEM, you should really load it in config sys already. The kernel cannot start using HMA later, and restarting FreeCOM to make it start using XMS is kludgy, too. > Eric wrote a 'exe-wrapper' for Memtest+, allowing it to be loaded from > commandline (and UPX the binary to save space). Unfortunately there's no > warning 'Can't start, XMS driver was loaded!', just a crash. http://www.coli.uni-sb.de/~eric/ memtest-1.27.zip (anti web crawler space --------^ ... testing release, no full sources!) contains the mtloader.asm which is supposed to detect and cooperate with HIMEM, I hope you tried that one. Unfortunately, Sam did not include the thing in official releases. Because you should simply not load HIMEM, and because my loader can only handle some HIMEM versions, I guess. However, if cooperation fails, there should be a warning, no crash. > cdrom is perfectly usable with any other OS if you boot that other OS > (from harddisk or bootdisk) and access the FreeDOS cdrom/directory. I meant boot any other *D*OS... My problem is that you have things like disk preparation and "collect user selections" in autoexec on the disk image instead of having them in a script in the install directory on the cdrom. So when you boot your existing DOS and do cdd x:\freedos\install\ (or similar) and then run install bat, you only get PART of the service. Plus your autoexec gets unnecessarily complex. Better modularize and move all tools except CD drivers to the install directory, which is accessible from any DOS / can be precopied to harddisk by any OS. > I have a syslinux entry called Memtest. > This runs FreeDOS (fdboot.img) image with parameter 'run' set to > 'b:\special\memtest.exe'. In autoexec.bat I can detect this parameter > (through GETARGS)... [but the user could have loaded HIMEM before] Use a config sys menu entry called memtest instead. Your current menu contains: Pre-386 (bypass SYSLINUX, happens automatically with my CPUBOOT chainloader if pre-386 detected) and: - plain DOS (if you have a 386 but very little RAM?? If THAT is the problem, then I can modify CPUBOOT to check how much RAM you have :-)) - MEMDISK with DOS (loads faster) - Memtest (would be possible to load it directly from SYSLINUX, but the DOS binary has the advantage that you can UPX it) - SmartBootManager (to boot the CD-ROM) Not sure which menu items you have inside DOS, but it should be acceptable to add a config sys menu item for Memtest. Boot -> IF system too old -> plain DOS (this item is only on diskette) ELSE -> syslinux -> 1. SmartBootManager (this item is only on diskette) -> 2. DOS in MEMDISK -> 1. install 2. run ODIN w/o install (-> 3. big memtest) 3. UPXed memtest exe If you boot from CD, then you only have ISOLINUX -> MEMDISK -> ..., so you have no menu items before the config sys menu. Bad luck for people who cannot boot from CD, but MANY of those will just select SBM and let the CD do the rest. A few will select DOS in MEMDISK and get the same install / ODIN / memtest exe selection which they would have gotten on CD as well. Even fewer will have too old PCs for the MEMDISK thing - those will AUTOMATICALLY end up in plain DOS, where they can only install or run ODIN, and several drivers will refuse to load because of having too little RAM or having no 386. The main selection is the install / ODIN / memtest one, and there are several ways to get there. If you have a pre-386 or if you boot from CD-ROM, then you will automatically get there (HINT: The non-MEMDISK DOS branch on diskette should be modified, sorry for the extra work, to use FDXMS and to avoid trying things which will refuse to work any- way, like memtest and caches and emm386). Only if you have a 386+ without CD boot function, then you have one more MANUAL selection step: Whether you want to use SBM for non-BIOS CD boot or prefer using DOS in MEMDISK booted from diskette instead (which will use diskettes or DOS CD drivers or precopied CD contents or CD image). > I'm considering disabling XMS altogether... Bad idea, having XMS and HMA helps you to get a LOT of extra DOS memory. Actually FreeDOS - unless you use the KSSF swapping FreeCOM variant - is a big MS DOS 4.01 style memory hog if you have no HIMEM. 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
