Message-Id: <s44b6d31.037@calderauk.com>
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 14:39:03 +0100
From: Matthias Paul <MPaul AT calderauk DOT com>
To: opendos AT delorie DOT com, opendos-support AT delorie DOT com,
        PAUL-MA AT reze-1 DOT rz DOT rwth-aachen DOT de
Subject: Re: Problems with OpenDos installation
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On 1997-10-02 Juerg Koch asked:

> I tried 2-4 times to install OpenDos 7.02 (first) then 7.01 following
> the install-instructions given by you.
>It seems to be that OpenDos can't work with disks larger than 500MB
>(mine is 1200MB) that use a boot-manager.
I have not encountered this yet, but that might be because I usually don't use such
large FAT partitions (because of the enormous wastage of disk space by cluster
hangover). Which boot manager are you using?

> During the inst.-process,
>OpenDos always hanged the system after "SEARCHING DRIVE C:....". In one
>occasion, I even lost the CMOS-Setup.
Appears to be very unusual...
I>s this a known problem & what can I do to bring OpenDos to run?

You could try to get my tips and tricks collection MPDOSTIP.ZIP from my web-pages at

 http://www.rhrz.uni-bonn.de/~uzs180/mpdokger.html (German)
                                                                         /mpdokeng.html (English)

It describes in details how to install Novell DOS (OpenDOS is similar) without using
the the automated SETUP procedure. I have not verified this with OpenDOS' SETUP,
but it should work, too. You have to boot from an OpenDOS floppy, which normally
enters SETUP. You can either try to stop starting SETUP by pressing F5 when 
"Booting DOS..." is displayed, or directly leave SETUP to the prompt, after it had 
started. When being at the prompt, you have to SYS your harddisk e.g.

a:\> SYS c:

which should apply the necessary changes to your hard disk's boot sector and
transfers the kernel files (this may deinstall or corrupt a multi boot loader). Afterwards 
you should be able to boot OpenDOS from hard disk.
The remaining OpenDOS files can be copied from floppies to their target positions
and unpacked by using PNUNPACK, e.g.

 FOR %%x IN (*.??_) DO CALL PNUNPACK %%x

Some manual tidy-ups are required...

Usually, a multi boot loader will be deinstalled by using SYS, and needs to be
reinstalled. Using LOADER, you should be able to avoid all this by just adding
a new entry to the BOOT.LST file for the IBMBIO.COM file (use boot style "S").

If there are still problems, please let us know...

Matthias