Hello all.
We have tried to run a financial accounting program called
Abacus II (version4.8) in a console session and from a telnet
connection on another PC. Abacus II is a multi-user database
program written in Clipper. We can run other DOSEMU
applications on the console and over telnet with no problem,
but not Abacus II. We are running DOSEMU 0.98.6 under Red
Hat Linux 5.1 (kernel 2.0.34).
We are running DOSEMU in VGA and console mode. The video
card on the linux server does not appear to be a problem. We
are not using (and do not need) a mouse driver. No access to
any devices is needed (except the program and data
directories in the DOS partition).
We can run some of the other Abacus II executable modules
individually under DOSEMU, but the main program module
Abacus.exe always hangs DOSEMU.
The problem we experience under DOSEMU is that when
Abacus.exe is invoked, DOSEMU just hangs (under both
console and telnet). We have tried all types of memory settings
in dosemu.conf, but no luck.
The version of the Abacus II program we are trying to run is
compiled with Blinker version 4.1 to take care of DOS memory
management. We have checked the newsgroup postings and
DOSEMU mailing lists. We discovered that other people who
have run Clipper applications under DOSEMU report that
Blinker is a problem in earlier versions (3.0 and 3.1), but that
Clipper applications using Blinker version 4.1 will run under
DOSEMU.
The current developers of Abacus II are Exchequer Software of
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. They tell us that Abacus first tries
to get dpmi memory, if that is unavailable it tries for vcpi, and
if that is uavailable it tries for xms. Abacus II does not require
ems. We are also informedthat Abacus II does work
successfully with other DOS emulators on other UNIX
platforms.
For 'regular' DOS, the developers say that Abacus II needs 520
KB of free conventional memory, and 2048 Kb of xms. Under
DOSEMU we have tried enabling and disabling all combinations
of conventional memory, xms, ems and dpmi from 1024 Kb to
16384 Kb.
According to the developers, the first thing Abacus.exe does is
try to allocate sufficient DOS environment space for its needs.
Abacus II requires 2048 bytes of DOS environment space. To
ensure sufficient DOS environment space, we added the line
install=C:\command.com /E:4096 /P to the config.sys file in
the boot directory of DOSEMU.
Next, about 4 lines into the program code, Abacus.exe tries to
start Abst.exe, which is the login module. We can run Abst.exe
by itself successfully under DOSEMU when we bypass
Abacus.exe.
We have a native DOS partition (MS-DOS version 6.22) on the
Linux server, and OS/2 boot manager is installed. We can run
Abacus II without a problem on the native DOS partition when
we boot into 'regular' DOS. However, we cannot get past trying
to load Abacus.exe when we start the application in DOSEMU
running under Linux.
The boot directory of our DOSEMU is
/var/lib/dosemu/dosdisk, where 'dosdisk' is a symbolic link to
the mounted native MS-DOS partition (the C: drive). We have
put all needed dosemu files in this partition, and everything
works fine; we are able to run MS-DOS 6.22 under DOSEMU just
great.
When running Abacus II natively under 'regular' DOS, it
requires files=99 and buffers=39 (as a minimum) in config.sys.
Under 'regular' DOS Abacus II also requires Share.exe to be
loaded with parameters /F:4096 and /L:500.
We have had someone tell us that there *may* be a problem
with the compile options in Abacus.exe that is causing
DOSEMU to hang, but we don't know whether that is really a
factor or not. If it is a factor, we don't know which compile
options would cure the problem.
We really need to get Abacus II to run under DOSEMU. Any
help or insight you can provide us will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Greg LaBossiere
Xview Solutions Inc.
Information technology consultants
e-commerce and Internet business software
Network computing innovations
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://xview.com
