Date: Fri, 02 Feb 2001 09:42:10 -0800
From: "Alan S." <as173 AT cornell DOT edu>
Subject: Re: using DRDOS7.05 COMMAND.COM with WinMe
To: opendos AT delorie DOT com
Message-id: <3A7AF172.59B22507@cornell.edu>
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References: <01FD6EC775C6D4119CDF0090273F74A4021F15 AT emwatent02 DOT meters DOT com DOT au>
 <007b01c08c51$98c71f40$0508e289 AT mpaul>
Reply-To: opendos AT delorie DOT com

Ok, since 4DOS manages some level of integration with WinMe, I read the
relevant 4DOS tech support page.  It says to make NO changes to
CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT when using 4DOS.COM with WinMe ["WinMe will
ignore/delete changes to CONFIG.SYS"] -- just to add a desktop shortcut
to 4DOS.COM.  This did NOT work for me with C:\DRDOS7\COMMAND.COM, but
when I moved/renamed [thanks to Matthias Paul for this suggestion] to
C:\DRDOSCMD.COM, I was able to launch a DR-DOS 7.05 'DOS box'....BUT
ONLY ONCE!  [NOT repeatable...ARRRGHH!]

The failure mode in all cases is an empty DOS box [or full screen] with
just a blinking cursor.  Renaming a second time [to C:\ODOSCMD.COM] did
not permit another 'one time' working DOS box.  The WinMe registry is
clean.  I tried this only with the 7.05 COMMAND.COM [because it has
integrated long file name processing].   

Ok, I give up.  My box of DR-DOS install disks can go back to my bottom
desk drawer for another year until Lineo releases another half baked
revision of the kernel files [let's just all hope they remember to test
the 'RENAME filename' function before the next release!]

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.  I really would like to use
DR-DOS again -- especially as a replacement for the 'boot to real DOS'
function missing from WinMe! -- but the "user testing" requirements are
just too high!

Alan S.
2-2-2001



Matthias Paul wrote:
> So, what exactly goes wrong? Do you get an error message, or is the 
> system just hanging? Any startup message from COMMAND.COM? What 
> happens if you rename COMMAND.COM to say DRCMD.EXE or DRCMD.COM?
> What happens if you use the DR-DOS 7.03 COMMAND.COM instead of
> the 7.05 one? Does this happen on a "patched" ME, that is, with a 
> MS-DOS COMMAND.COM loaded (directly via CONFIG.SYS SHELL=) before the 
> GUI starts up, or is this an unmodified configuration? One thing to 
> play with might be .PIF file settings (if they still exist in ME)...