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Mail Archives: opendos/1997/04/25/14:08:29

Date: Fri, 25 Apr 1997 11:22:19 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Mike A. Harris" <mharris AT blackwidow DOT saultc DOT on DOT ca>
Reply-To: "Mike A. Harris" <mharris AT blackwidow DOT saultc DOT on DOT ca>
To: Bruce Morgen <editor AT juno DOT com>
cc: ttoyooka AT verisim DOT com, ksinner AT solaria DOT sol DOT net, opendos AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: Installation Problems
In-Reply-To: <19970421.145846.6447.0.editor@juno.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.95.970425111057.21544A-100000@capslock.com>
Organization: Total disorganization.
MIME-Version: 1.0

On Mon, 21 Apr 1997, Bruce Morgen wrote:

> >What has happened is that OD *SAVED* your previous DOS setup by
> >renaming system files and hiding them.  I had this problem when I
> >installed OD too.  The problem was that OD renamed
> >C:\LOADLIN\LOADLIN.EXE to @COMPROC.OD or something like that and
> >hid the file.  As a result, I was befuddled as to how LOADLIN
> >wouldn't work anymore.  The problem is that the installer opens
> >CONFIG.SYS and scans it for the *FIRST* "SHELL=" line.  This is
> >*NORMALLY* your command interpreter, and so it backs up that file
> >and then goes on to install itself...  Unfortunately, with
> >multiconfigs in DOS and with tricks like LOADLIN, the installer
> >breaks on custom setups.
> >
> In my case it failed on two 
> perfectly ordinary setups, 
> neither had multiple configs 
> or more than one "SHELL=" 
> statement.  In one case (an 
> XT-architecture system with 
> no memory management) it 
> deleted/hid 4DOS.COM, in 
> another (a 486 running QEMM 
> as well as 4DOS) it did the 
> same to QEMM's LOADHI.COM.  

A computer with 4DOS, is not an ordinary setup.  To use 4DOS as
your primary shell, you have to put it in a SHELL= line.  In
order for OD to function, it must change that line to point to
COMMAND.COM (for hopefully obvious reasons of a failsafe
install).  Since 4DOS (or any other shell, including even a
previous COMMAND.COM) is present on the SHELL line, it is renamed
to prevent problems with OD's COMMAND.COM.  This isn't the best,
or most innovative solution, but it does work.  If you understand
the hows and whys of the way the installer works it isn't hard to
see that it isn't random behaviour.  It works exactly the way
that they intended it to - albeit this is not very intuitively.

> >I'm almost positive that a future version of OD will prevent this
> >sort of "brain damage" from happening.
> >
> Yes, if Caldera is aware of 
> the installer's rude behavior 
> I'm sure correcting it is 
> something short of rocket 
> science -- the way CONFIG.SYS 
> is analyzed needs to be a tad 
> more sophisticated, should be 
> no big deal to fix.

Or even simpler, put OD's COMMAND.COM into the directory that OD
is installed into, and then put SHELL=C:\OD\COMMAND.COM in there.
This way it doesn't at ALL interfere with ANY alternate shells
and no coding effort is needed in the installer.  I have allways
wondered why MSDOS, and other DOS's installed the command
interpreter in the root directory as well as in their respective
"\DOS" directories.  It doesn't make any sense.  I always remove
the root copy and point shell to the installed directory.  You'd
think that most installations would be doing this as common
sense.
 
> >Or, just rename it as I described above.
> > 
> Sure, if you've figured out 
> what and where the renamed 
> and hidden file is.  I've 
> found no evidence of such 
> on the XT, have yet to scan 
> the 486.  :-)

Well, that is what it does if you care to look.  Yes, it was an
annoyance, but the files are intact still nonetheless.

> >Or acquiring the COMMAND.COM source code and coding 4DOS features
> >into it yourself.  I would suspect that by the time that OpenDOS
> >7.1 or 8.0 or whatever comes out that COMMAND.COM will not only
> >be compiled on a FREE compiler, but also may compile on ANY
> >compiler, and also will probably double or triple in size.
> >(executable size, not resident size).
> > 
> Building up COMMAND.COM into 
> something resembling a free 
> 4DOS would be quite a project, 
> but a reasonable 4DOS subset 
> could be implemented without 
> too much trouble imho -- sort 
> of like the ZCPR series of 
> command processor replacements 
> for CP/M 2.2, which were no 
> bigger than the original DRI 
> CCP but much less annoying to 
> use.

Well, the source code for COMMAND.COM is now available, as are
the sources for various UNIX shells (bash, tcsh, pdksh, etc) so
the functionality is there, cloning 4DOS shouldn't be too
difficult to those with free time to spare.
 
> >No, I think the problem is no big deal, a lack of foresight on
> >the installer's part.  No corruption.  I even suspected
> >corruption at first, but when I figured it out, I ice cream coned
> >myself in the forehead.  :o)
> > 
> Right back atcha, Mike, 
> thanks for detailing the 
> renegade installer's 
> alleged quirk(s).

Yep, now we can put another couple requests on the wishlist.

- Non braindamaged installer for OD.
- People willing to clone 4DOS into COMMAND.COM

TTYL 

Mike A. Harris        |             http://blackwidow.saultc.on.ca/~mharris
Computer Consultant   |                  Coming soon: dynamic-IP-freedom...
My dynamic address: http://blackwidow.saultc.on.ca/~mharris/ip-address.html
Email: mharris at blackwidow.saultc.on.ca  <-- Spam proof address

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