Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 14:07:22 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Mark Habersack <grendel AT hoth DOT amu DOT edu DOT pl>
Reply-To: grendel AT hoth DOT amu DOT edu DOT pl
To: Mr M S Aitchison <physmsa AT cantua DOT canterbury DOT ac DOT nz>
cc: opendos AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: nwcdex
In-Reply-To: <199706242243.KAA29602@cantua.canterbury.ac.nz>
Message-ID: <Pine.BSI.3.96.970625140129.29826A-100000@hoth.amu.edu.pl>
Organization: PPP (Pesticide Powered Pumpkins)
MIME-Version: 1.0
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On Wed, 25 Jun 1997, Mr M S Aitchison wrote:

> Is there some reason I cannot use INSTALL=C:\DOS\NWCDEX.EXE in
> config.sys? It complains about drive letters. Does LASTDRIVE= not take
> effect until the end of config.sys processing in OpenDOS?
I have noticed that too: it is impossible to use subst from config.sys as
well. I tried to make use of it with OpenDOS running from under DOSemu to no
avail. It seems like the CDS allocation is being left till config.sys is
processed in it's entirety and that INSTALL and DEVICE statements are
processed before the other, configuring, ones - just as you noticed. I haven't
checked it in the kernel sources so far, but it seems to be the only logical
explanation. 
It is apparent that OpenDOS use temporary CDS entries during the boot process
leaving the "final" allocation to the pre-autoexec phase. AFAIR, config.sys is
processed in the IBMBIOS code and allocation of internal DOS structures is
performed in IBMDOS which code copies values from temporary structures created
during the BIOS boot phase.