To:	opendos AT delorie DOT com
Message-Id:	<AA7AOsqOQ2@insect.ief.spb.su>
Organization:	Inst. of Evolutionary Physiology & Biochemistry,
	St.Petersburg
From:	pavel AT insect DOT ief DOT spb DOT su (Pavel Ozerski)
Date:	Thu, 5 Feb 98 12:12:39 +0300
Reply-To:	pavel AT insect DOT ief DOT spb DOT su
Subject:	7.02 bugs and problems

1. Something about bugs in the 7.02 final release...
HMA management.
My assumption about the bug seems to be true: Caldera used Novell's source
code without taking into account the bloating of the COMMAND.COM.

After the simple hack (I have changed in the IBMBIO.COM 4 characters at offset
65F6H to the sequence: 60H,21H,60H,21H - there should be COMMANDSIZE and
initial SYSTEMSIZE values) - COMMAND.COM can be loaded into HMA now, but arises
a problem with BIOS CODE: it cannot be loaded into HMA because I gave the
offset 1800H to the space reserved for COMMAND.COM and the BIOS CODE will
be loaded into UMB instead of HMA. But in result I have gained ca 5K of free
UMBs. This value could be greater after increasing the BIOS code initial
offset which is used by the relocating (see 7.01 source code) but that is too
complicated for me now. I think, Caldera must make all fixes by herself,
moreover the COMMAND.COM needs fixes too (e.g HILOAD/.BAT conflict),
which can change its size again.

I respect Caldera very much (at least, its attempts to save DR DOS) but I think,
Caldera must release OpenDOS 7.02 update urgently!

2. My opinion about Long names / passwords conflict, etc.
DR FAT has some features which are not compatible with Win95 VFAT conventions.
I suggest to append a new command to CONFIG.SYS syntax:
VFAT=OFF(default)|ON[,drive[,drive...]]. This command can let, for instance,
share floppies with Win95 but on these drives (where VFAT=ON) passwords, etc,
will not be supported. And for VFAT=OFF situation, another long name support
can be developed.

Who knows, does everybody from Caldera's read our letters?
I suggest to send to Caldera a bug list. But what E-Mail address should be
used?
-- 
Pavel V. Ozerski            | Inst. of Evolutionary Physiology & Biochemistry,
office +7 (812)552-6870(291)|           Russian Academy of Sciences,
FAX    +7 (812)552-3012     |  Thorez pr. 44, St.Petersburg, 194223, Russia
home   +7 (812)528-5576     |          E-mail:  pavel AT insect DOT ief DOT spb DOT su

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