To:	opendos AT delorie DOT com
Date:	Mon, 1 Jan 2001 01:09:37 -0800
Subject:	Re: DR-DOS 7.03 Not Recognizing All Memory
Message-ID:	<20010101.011240.-492887.1.domanspc@juno.com>
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From:	Robert W Moss <domanspc AT juno DOT com>
Reply-To:	opendos AT delorie DOT com

For Paul Bartlett:

DR DOS does not work (well) when you have both EMM386.EXE and HIMEM.SYS
installed at the same time.  (In MS-DOS and PCDOS both are required for
386 or higher CPU's). DR DOS uses \DRDOS\EMM386.EXE (HIDOS.SYS in DR DOS
6) for 80286 CPU's, while \DRDOS\HIMEM.SYS is used for 80386-and-higher. 
You should be able to configure your memory using the setup program.  

You problably will find it easier to write a config.sys and autoexec.bat
for a multiple configuration bootup to handle the ideosyncrasies of the
DOS system if you must continue using *# Windows on the same computer. 
You can possibly use both the memory managers from *# Windows and not use
the ones in DR DOS if you wanted to test it out.  

There may be another hidden M$ "kill DR DOS code" in *# WIN98 HIMEM.SYS,
that will not allow you to work with DR DOS's EMM386.EXE, but the two *#
Windows managers may work well together with DR DOS.  

In addition HIINSTALL, HIDEVICE, and  HILOAD commands may/will not work
with *# Windows or other third party  memory managers. 

With DR DOS, you are supposed to be able to address 1,000M of extended
memory using XMS.

The DRDOS.INI file is created by DR DOS when you run the setup file on
initial installation.  This file tells DOS how you want your computer to
behave and it is changed every time you make changes to your DOS system.
It is similar to the Windows .INI  files. 

In config.sys you can use ANSI.SYS escape codes to run your startup menu
in color, and leave the screen in the color you want (such as yellow or
white on blue)   until another .bat file containing ansi escape sequences
is displayed.  You will lose 4K or more of conventional memory to do
this.  (I have loaded ANSI.SYS in upper memory but don't know how that
would work in your version.)  

BOB 'DOMAN' MOSS

On Sat, 30 Dec 2000 16:49:51 -0500 (EST) "Paul O. Bartlett"
<bartlett AT smart DOT net> writes:
>     Sorry I am so late in responding to this.
> 
> On Sun, 24 Dec 2000, Florian Xaver wrote:
> 
> > [I originally wrote, concerning DR-DOS 7.03:]
> 
> > > [...]  My machine has 128MB RAM installed, and 'doozy recognizes 
> all of
> > >it.  However, when I boot DR-DOS, the MEM command only reports on 
> 64MB. 
> > >Is this a limitation of DR-DOS?
> > 
> > Yes, but you can fix it.
> > 
> > Write this before DEVICE=c:\drdos\emm386.exe [...] :
> > 
> > DEVICE=c:\windows\himem.sys
> > 
> > (don't use himem from Dr-DOS, use this one from Win98).
> > 
> > Then you can use all memory!
> 
>     I am still learning DR-DOS in my spare time and admit that I 
> have
> not yet been able to get all the way through the DOSBOOK.  However, 
> I
> did try what Florian suggested.  When I boot, DR-DOS complains about
> having both HIMEM.SYS and EMM386, but unfortunately, the message 
> goes
> off the top of the screen.  The MEM command does report 128MB.  But
> apparently not everything is happy with it.  I installed my old copy 
> of
> Mansfield's KEDIT, and it would only recognize 640KB.  When I took 
> out
> HIMEM.SYS (from Windows 98), KEDIT would use 16MB.
> 
>     On another matter, in my C:\DRDOS there is a file DRDOS.INI. I
> cannot find it listed in the DOSBOOK index as to what it is for and
> what it does.  I did change the current color setting and that 
> changed
> the color scheme in the DOSBOOK.  But unless there is someting I am
> missing, I do not know what the other settings in DRDOS.INI are good
> for.
> 
>     Color thing that is significant for me.  Back under MS-DOS 5, I
> used NDOS.COM from the Norton Utilities as my shell.  NDOS allowed 
> me
> to set the forground and background colors as well as the overscan
> border on a VGA monitor (i.e., for command level itself, not 
> DOSBOOK). 
> I liked this feature very much, as stark white on black is a little
> difficult for me.  But again, I haven't found any way to set colors 
> in
> DR-DOS.
> 
>     Thanks.
> 
> -- 
> Paul                             mailto:bartlett AT smart DOT net
> ..........................................................
> Paul O. Bartlett, P.O. Box 857, Vienna, VA 22183-0857, USA
> Keyserver (0xF383C8F9) or WWW for PGP public key
> Home Page:  http://www.smart.net/~bartlett
> 

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