Message-ID: <004601c266d3$288da7e0$c03dfea9@atlantis> From: "Matthias Paul" To: References: <20020926 DOT 235353 DOT 4c3 DOT rnr DOT w165w AT krypton DOT rain DOT com> Subject: Re: Combining DR-DOS 7.03 with OEM DR-DOS 7.05 to gain LBA capabilities Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 11:33:58 +0200 Organization: Aachen University of Technology (RWTH), Germany MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by delorie.com id g8S9fRi18359 Reply-To: opendos AT delorie DOT com On 2002-09-27, Leonard Erickson wrote: > The versions get a bit weird. I think it went something like this: > > Digital Research sold DR-DOS to Novell, resulting in Novell DOS 6. > I think Novell released Novell DOS 7. > Caldera bought it from Novell. > [...] > And if I've missed details, it's because they were even more > convoluted. OK, I'll try a brief overview over the whole single-user family and its origin here. The first version which came with a (very limited) PC DOS 1.0 emulation was Concurrent CP/M-86 3.2 (with a BDOS kernel level 3.2). The "PCMODE" component, that is the emulator, could be retrofitted to Concurrent CP/M-86 3.1 (BDOS 3.1), so this was the first Digital Research version to support some flavour of PC DOS. The latter DOS Plus 1.2 - 2.1 series on the Philips :Yes, the Amstrad/Schneider PC1512 and the Acorn BBC Master 512 was nothing but a stripped down release of Concurrent DOS 4.1 - 5.0. It already emulated PC DOS 2.11. Of course, it could also run CP/M-86 and Concurrent CP/M-86 programs and had (light real-mode) multitasking capabilities. The single-user DR DOS 3.31 - 6.0 series originally derived from Concurrent DOS 6.0 (hence the reported BDOS level 6.0), and was co-developed alongside the Concurrent [PC] DOS [86/XM/286/386] and the Multiuser DOS family until 1991 - 1992, when the multi-user DOS family was abandoned by Novell and licensed to three Master VARs, Intelligent Micro Software, which developed IMS Multiuser DOS into REAL/32 (7.93) and now REAL NG, Concurrent Controls, Inc., which still sell their CCI Multiuser DOS 7.22 Gold, and Datapac Australasia, which developed their Datapac Multiuser DOS into System Manager 7, now owned by Citrix but no longer available. DR DOS reported itself as IBM PC DOS 3.31 and emulated a mixture between Compaq MS-DOS 3.31 and PC DOS. In contrast to DOS Plus, the changes were much more significant and it could *not* run any CP/M programs. Finally, the "new DR DOS series" starts with the advent of the BDOS 7.0, a completely revised kernel, which was no longer a heavily modified CP/M kernel coated with DOS compatible APIs and some emulation layer, but a genuine DOS kernel with DOS compatible data structures. BDOS 7.0 was introduced with "Merlin" alias NetWare PalmDOS 1.0, which still reported as PC DOS 3.31. Merlin also introduced PCMCIA card support, ROM based file systems, and a special ROMable issue of the task switcher TASKMAX, called "MiniMax", to run XIP and PIM applications. Two products "Panther" and "StarTrek" were never released, unfortunately. "Panther" was the first DR DOS version which had the *optional* 386 Protected Mode kernel and pre-emptive multitasker with virtual machines ("Vladivar"), at this time still in KRNL386.EXE, not EMM386.EXE. It also introduced DPMS (DOS Protected Mode Services), had a DPMS enabled version of AddStor's SuperStor (not Stacker, as in later versions), it had a multi-user security module, and came with ViewMAX/3. "StarTrek" built on "Panther" and ran an Intel port of Apple's MacOS 7.1 on the DR DOS multitasker. There also was a 1993 DR DOS 6.0 version to utilize this new kernel (actually BDOS 7.1 already). Novell DOS 7 (BDOS 7.2) no longer had any of these two GUIs, had a single-user security module, had Stacker instead of SuperStor, and added Personal NetWare 1.0 (the successor of NetWare Lite). Novell DOS 7 and higher up to DR-DOS 7.03 all report themselves as "PC DOS 6.0", but since the actual IBM PC DOS version which reported 6.0 was marketted under the name IBM PC DOS 6.1, some sysinfo tools report these DR DOS versions as PC DOS 6.1 as well. Both, the reported DOS version (and since DR-DOS 7.02+ also the BDOS version) can be changed using SETVER [/X]. Caldera OpenDOS 7.01 is basically Novell DOS 7 update 10, AFAIR the OpenDOS 7.02 Beta 1 added Y2K support and some of the latter Novell DOS 7 updates, Beta 2 (BDOS 7.3) had most of the updates up to 15.2 incorporated and introduced my heavily modified DOS BIOS, which added about hundred useability enhancements to the CONFIG.SYS parser and other internal components, new load-high options and many fixes. Beta 2 also had improved Y2K support and an improved INT 13h handler which should work with virtually all BIOSes up to 8 Gb. The DR-DOS 7.02 and 7.03 products added many other enhancements and fixes, too many to list them all here. The LBA/FAT32 enabled OEM DR-DOS 7.04/7.05 still have a BDOS 7.3 kernel but report a DOS version 7.0. --- the DOS Plus series --- - DOS Plus 1.0??? (1985) (maybe on the Philips :Yes) - DOS Plus 1.2, 1.2e (BDOS 4.1, 1986) - DOS Plus 2.1 (BDOS 5.0, 1987) NB. I am still searching for the DOS Plus version in the ROMs of the Philips :Yes, a 80186 machine. I assume this was DOS Plus 1.0, but it could also have been the earlierst version of 1.2, I was not able to find out so far. Also, I am still searching for any issue of DOS Plus 2.x (which was used by the Acorn BBC Master 512) for my DRI history research project. --- the "original" DR DOS series --- - DR DOS 3.31, 3.32, 3.33, 3.34, 3.35 (1988) - DR DOS 3.40 Beta 1, 3.40, 3.41, 3.41T, EZ-DOS 3.41 (1989) NB. Some sources list a DR DOS 3.42, but I have never seen this one myself and have not met anyone who actually had it - anyone else? It could well be that this rumoured 3.42 was the same as "Leopard" Beta 1. - DR DOS "Leopard" Beta 1???, 2, 2B, 3 (1990) - DR DOS 5.0 (1990) - DR DOS "Buxton" Alpha, Beta 1, 2, 3 (1991) - DR DOS 6.0 (1991) - DR DOS 6.0 various updates (1992) --- the "new DR-DOS" series --- - DR DOS "Merlin" Beta 1, 2, 3, Evaluation Release, Release Candidates 1, 2 (1992) - NetWare PalmDOS 1.0 (1992) - DR DOS "Panther" Beta 1, 1A (1992) - DR DOS "StarTrek" (1992 - 1993) - DR DOS 6.0 "Business update 1993" - Novell DOS 7 "Smirnoff/Panther" Beta 1, 2, 3, 4 (1993) - Novell DOS 7 (1994) - Novell DOS 7 Updates 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 15.2 (1994 - 1996) - Caldera OpenDOS 7.01 (1997) - Caldera OpenDOS 7.02 Beta 1 (1997) - Caldera OpenDOS 7.02 Beta 2 (1997 - Caldera OpenDOS 7.02 Beta 2A (1997) - (Caldera DR-OpenDOS 7.02) - Caldera DR-DOS 7.02 (1998) - Caldera DR-DOS 7.02 updates 1, 2, 3 (1998) - Caldera DR-DOS 7.03 (1998 - 1999) - OEM DR-DOS 7.04/7.05 (1999) - ... ;-) (I definitely missed some of the 7.02 and 7.03 issues in this overview.) Hope it helps, Matthias -- ; http://www.uni-bonn.de/~uzs180/mpdokeng.html; http://mpaul.drdos.org "Programs are poems for computers."