---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OS/2 2.0 CONFIG.SYS DESCRIPTION - Version 5.1 / April 13, 1993 - COMPILED BY RICK MEIGS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright (c) 1992-93, Rick Meigs, 7032 SW 26th Street, Portland, OR, 97219. If you find er- ror or have some helpful information, please do contact me. I also hang around the FIDOnet OS/2 conference, if you would like to drop a netmail. This ASCII file may be freely distributed (and you're encouraged to do so) on a not-for-profit basis, but the copyright notice may not be removed and the file may not be modified. If you have questions, comments, additions or suggestions, please contact Rick Meigs. VIEWING THIS FILE: For best viewing, use the OS/2 2.0 System Editor with word wrap OFF. PRINTING THIS FILE: Print in compress print mode. ============================================================================================== WARNING: IF YOU PLAN ON CHANGING ANY LINE IN YOUR CURRENT CONFIG.SYS FILE, PLEASE BE SURE TO CREATE A BACKUP --BEFORE-- YOU START EXPERIMENTING!!! THIS HAS SAVED ME MORE THAN ONCE. MAK- ING A BACKUP COPY WILL DO YOU KNOW GOOD IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO RESTORE A DAMAGED CONFIG.SYS FILE WITH THE BACKUP. I HAVE INCLUDED THE PROCEDURE AT THE END OF THIS FILE. I ALSO CAN'T BE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT YOU DO WITH YOUR SYSTEM AND CONFIG.SYS FILE BASED UPON WHAT YOU MAY LEARN FROM THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS FILE. EVERY EFFORT HAS BEEN MADE TO MAKE THIS FILE AS ACCURATE AS POSSIBLE, BUT NO WARRANTY OR FITNESS IS IMPLIED. THE INFORMA- TION IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS. ============================================================================================== Some Initial Comments. For myself and many others the OS/2 2.0 CONFIG.SYS file is somewhat of a mystery. At least one attempt to "demystify" the file has been made by a major computer rag lately, but I found myself more "mystified" and "demystified". In the hope of learning something of use, I began in 1992 researching what many of the commands were for. This file is the result of that re- search plus updates as I learn more. It briefly describes many of the common commands found in an OS/2 CONFIG.SYS file. Naturally, not all possible commands are listed (especially the many hardware device drivers), but most of the more common ones are. Unlike the DOS CONFIG.SYS file which is read sequentially, OS/2 reads the entire CONFIG.SYS file before it invokes the commands listed. Therefore, except for a few exceptions, it really doesn't matter where in the file you put things. OS/2 does prioritize device drivers, loading BASEDEV drivers first. I've had only a few looks at an OS/2 2.1 CONFIG.SYS file. The ones I've seen are pretty straight forward with only a few new items. After GA on 2.1, I'll be able to provide an up- date which reflex any changes or additions. BEGINNING OF LISTING ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CALL=C:\OS2\XCOPY.EXE C:\OS2\*.BK1 C:\OS2\*.BK2 CALL=C:\OS2\XCOPY.EXE C:\OS2\*.INI C:\OS2\*.BK1 Two files are essential to the operation of OS/2: OS2.INI and OS2SYS.INI. If these files should get trashed, OS/2 isn't going to function. Backing them up is very important. The problem is that OS/2, once booted, will not let you access or copy them. One way to circumvent this is to create your backups BEFORE OS/2 is booted. This CALL will do the trick. It creates first a backup of your backup and then creates a backup of the original files. This gives you two generations of backup. I mentioned that generally OS/2 does not care where you place something in the CONFIG.SYS file. This CALL is an exception. It must appear are the first line as shown here. OS2.INI and OS2SYS.INI can also be reconstructed at boot by holding down Alt-F1 during boot BEFORE the OS/2 logo appears. You may need to hold the keys down for at least 20 seconds. At installation of OS/2, OS/2 stored a copy of its original INI files in the folder called INSTALL. When you press Alt-F1 at boot, OS/2 moves these "backup" files into the OS/2 folder to replace the current versions. <<=WARNING=>> Use the Alt-F1 key combination as a last resort because you will lose all customization and changes you have made to the WpS. See next TIP. <<=TIP=>> Add the following additional line CALL=C:\OS2\XCOPY.EXE C:\OS2\*.BK2 C:\OS2\INSTALL\*.INI before the first CALL above, you will replace the INI files in the INSTALL folder with a more recent version. So, when you have to use Alt-F1 you'll reboot without losing all customization to your WpS. IFS=C:\OS2\HPFS.IFS /CACHE:512 /CRECL:4 /AUTOCHECK:C This OS/2 command installs the High Performance File System (HPFS), if you are using it, instead of FAT. The syntax is IFS=DRIVE:PATH\FILENAME,SWITCHES. There are three switches: /CACHE:nnn sets up a disk cache and sets it size. The default on my 8 meg system (shown in the table below) is to low in my opinion. If you have 8 meg of RAM, set the cache to 512, but keep in mind that you don't want an excessive cache because the memory used comes directly out of memory available for programs, e.g. if you set a 2 meg cache on a 6 meg system, you will notice a substantial performance hit. It is my understanding that the maximum cache size for HPFS is currently 2MB and IBM does not recommend using a larger cache than 1.5 meg; If you have formatted your system with only HPFS partitions, the default cache size in this statement will be that noted under ONE FILE SYSTEM in the table below. If you have both FAT and HPFS partitions, then OS/2 2.0 defaults to the cache size noted under TWO FILE SYSTEM. The file system which uses the greatest amount of your disk space gets the larger default value. +-----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | MEMORY SIZE IN MB | TWO FILE SYSTEM | ONE FILE SYSTEM | +-----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 4 | 128/64 | 128 | +-----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 5 | 128/64 | 128 | +-----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 6 | 256/64 | 256 | +-----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 7 | 256/128 | 256 | +-----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 8 | 256/256 | 384 | +-----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 9 | 256/256 | 384 | +-----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 10 - 16 | 512/512 | 1024 | +-----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 17 - 32 | 1024/1024 | 2048 | +-----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ /CRECL sets the maximum record size for caching, from 2k to 64k in multiples of 2k; and, /AUTOCHECK:nn tells the system to run CHKDSK and sets the drives to be checked at startup. IFS stands for "Installable File System". <<=TIP=>> If you are using only FAT partitions, then you should REM this state- ment and save yourself about 500k of RAM. <<=TIP=>> If you have drive partitions larger than 80 or so meg, then HPFS will give you better performance than FAT. On partitions of less than 80 meg, their is little or no performance difference between HPFS and FAT. PAUSEONERROR=YES This OS/2 only command tells OS/2 to stop for a moment if it cannot process a line in the CONFIG.SYS file correctly. If you don't include this statement in your CONFIG.SYS file, the default will be YES. It is generally the best choice since an error message will appear and scroll off the screen so quickly with a NO set- ting that you may not notice it or be able to read it. PROTSHELL=C:\OS2\PMSHELL.EXE This OS/2 command loads OS/2s user interface program (PMSHELL.EXE) which allows you to make full-screen and window sessions work. The current interface program is the Workplace Shell (WpS), but in theory you could purchase or develop your own user interface and use it instead of the WpS, much like Norton's Desktop is avail- able for the Windows environment. If you delete this line from your CONFIG.SYS file, OS/2 will load CMD.EXE by default. SET USER_INI=C:\OS2\OS2.INI Tells OS/2 the name and locations of the file that contains your desktop setup information and the options saved from various OS/2 applications. OS2.INI is the default file name. This file remains open the entire time OS/2 is booted and operating. It only closes upon Shutdown. If it should become "trashed", MAKEINI.EXE, which ships with OS/2 and is in the OS2 directory, can be used to build a new set of INI files. You will have to boot from an OS/2 floppy to do so. <<=NOTE=>> OS2.INI is a critical file for the proper operation of OS/2 and should not be deleted or modified. It is not an ASCII file and therefore cannot be modi- fied with an ASCII editor if it should become damaged. You should consider back- ing up this file by using the CALL lines shown above or with a program such as WPSBKUP, a shareware program you can obtain on many OS/2 BBSs. SET SYSTEM_INI=C:\OS2\OS2SYS.INI Tells OS/2 the name and location of its INI file (OS2SYS.INI). OS2SYS.INI tells OS/2 what kind of equipment your system uses. NOTE: OS2SYS.INI is a critical files and should not be deleted or modified. It is not an ASCII file and can't be edited. You should consider backing up this file by using the CALL line shown as the first line above or with a program such as WPSBKUP, a shareware program you can obtain on many OS/2 BBSs. This file remains open the entire time OS/2 is booted and operating. It only closes upon Shutdown. If it should become "trashed", MAKEINI.EXE, which ships with OS/2 and is in the OS2 directory, can be used to build a new set of INI files. You will have to boot from an OS/2 floppy to do so. SET OS2_SHELL=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE OS2_SHELL directs OS/2 to load the command-line shell (CMD.EXE) when you ask for an OS/2 command line from the WpS. <<=WARNING=>> Be careful with this line. OS/2 will not start without it. <<=TIP=>> If you wish to run some other command-line shell, such as 4OS2, change this and the SET COMSPEC=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE line, substituting the appropriate EXE file for CMD.EXE. SET AUTOSTART=PROGRAMS,TASKLIST,FOLDERS This command is used to start parts of the OS/2 WpS. There is one other parame- ter: CONNECTIONS. This starts any network connection in use when the system was last shutdown. <<=WARNING=>> If you remove any of these statements, then you may not get OS/2 to respond or you will be restricted from accessing portions of the shell. For exam- ple, if you leave out FOLDERS, Folders, including the Desktop which is also a folder, can not be opened. If you delete TASKLIST, then you will not obtain the OS/2 Tasklist when you press Ctrl-Esc. SET RUNWORKPLACE=C:\OS2\PMSHELL.EXE This line tells the system what interface program is to be used. In this case it is the Workplace Shell. I'm not aware of any other options at this time. SET RESTARTOBJECTS=YES This command tells OS/2 what applications to start after you suspend operations with or without doing a Shutdown (as in doing a Ctrl-Alt-Del because some faulty program has locked up your system). If this statement is not in your CONFIG.SYS, then the default is YES, i.e., start all objects that were running at the time of Shutdown or reboot. Other options are: NO = do not start any applications that were running at time of shutdown or reboot. STARTUPFOLDERSONLY = start objects only in the Startup folder. This parameter is also handy for another purpose. If you have one or more programs in the Startup folder and do a shutdown without closing the programs (i.e. left the programs open at shutdown), then reboot, OS/2 will restart the programs left open AND the Startup folder will start another copy. Thus you will have two copies running. Setting this parameter eliminates this. REBOOTONLY = Start objects only if the OS/2 WpS is starting from a reboot (Ctrl-Alt- Del) or at power on. Objects will not restart if the WpS is restarted as a re- sult of its own error correction recycling. <<=TIP=>> You can also circumvent the auto-starting of programs by holding down Ctrl-Shift-F1 all at the same time during boot. It must be done AFTER your mouse pointer is seem (but not to quickly after it appears), but before any icons ap- pear. SET COMSPEC=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE This line identifies what OS/2 command-line shell is to be used and where its at. In DOS, COMMAND.COM is equivalent to CMD.EXE. <<=TIP=>> If you wish to run some other command-line shell, such as 4OS2, change this and the SET OS2_SHELL=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE line, substituting the appropriate EXE file for CMD.EXE. LIBPATH=.;C:\OS2\DLL;C:\OS2\MDOS;C:\;C:\OS2\APPS\DLL; This is an OS/2 command. It tells OS/2 where to locate Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs). LIBPATH is similar to DPATH and PATH, but the statement can only be used in the CONFIG.SYS file and OS/2 does not search the current directory for DLLs unless you include it in the LIBPATH statement. To have OS/2 search the current directory, include a period "." right after the equal "=" symbol as noted above. You don't need to use the SET command with LIBPATH, it is not an environment vari- able. SET PATH=C:\OS2;C:\OS2\SYSTEM;C:\OS2\MDOS\WINOS2;C:\OS2\INSTALL;C:\;C:\OS2\MDOS;C:\OS2\APPS; Just like in DOS, it tells both DOS and OS/2 where to find programs. SET DPATH=C:\OS2;C:\OS2\SYSTEM;C:\OS2\MDOS\WINOS2;C:\OS2\INSTALL;C:\;C:\OS2\MDOS;C:\OS2\APPS; This is an OS/2 command. It tells OS/2 programs where to look for data files. It is similar to the DOS APPEND command, but unlike APPEND, DPATH only works with programs designed to use it. SET PROMPT=[$P]$G Like the same DOS command, this line sets how your OS/2 command prompt will ap- pear. (This is for OS/2 only. Set the DOS PROMPT default in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.) In the setting shown here, the command prompt will appear showing the cur- rent directory of the default drive enclosed in [] followed by the greater than symbol, i.e. [C:\]>. Having brackets [] around the drive and directory informa- tion lets you quickly know when you are at an OS/2 command line verse a DOS com- mand line. If you type PROMPT without a parameter, OS/2 will return its default prompt [$p]. Options include: $B = The | character $C = The open parenthesis ( $D = Current date $E = ASCII code 27 (escape) so you can work with ANSI $F = The close parenthesis ) $G = The "greater than" > symbol $H = BACKSPACE over the previous character $I = Turns help line on $L = The "less than" < character $N = Default drive $P = Current directory of default drive $Q = The equal = character $S = The space character $T = Current time $V = OS/2 version number $_ = Carriage return or line feed SET HELP=C:\OS2\HELP;C:\OS2\HELP\TUTORIAL; Tells OS/2 where the help files are located. OS/2 will only look for a program's help files in the path shown. SET GLOSSARY=C:\OS2\HELP\GLOSS; Tells OS/2 where the Glossary file and Master Help file is located. SET DIRCMD=/ON /P This undocumented command is the OS/2 equivalent of the DIR command. In DOS 5.x you can tell DIR how to present file information. To do this in OS/2, use the DIRCMD command. For example: SET DIRCMD=/ON /P tells OS/2 to display the DIR information in alpha order and place a pause at the end of each page. This is for OS/2 only. Set the DOS default in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Options include: /A list files with specific attributes. E.g. /AH list only hidden files. Other op- tions are S A & R. If you place a negative (-) sign in front of your specified attribute, all files will list except those with the attribute specified. E.g. /A-H-S will display all files except hidden and system files. /B list directories and files without heading and summary information. /F list files with the full drive and path information. Date, time and size are omitted. /L displays information in lowercase. /N lists files on a FAT drive in the same format used for a HPFS drive, i.e. date, time, size, name. /O list files according to sort option specified. Sort options are: N = alphabetize by file name -N = reverse-alphabetizes by name E = alphabetize by extension -E = reverse-alphabetizes by extension D = by date, oldest first -D = by date, newest first S = by file size, smallest first -S = by file size, largest first /P pauses after each full screen of files listed. /R displays long file names if applicable. /S searches and displays all directories. /W displays file names across the screen. Date, time and size are omitted. PRIORITY_DISK_IO=YES This command determines whether applications running in the foreground have prior- ity access to disks. The default is YES. If you want applications running in the background to have equal access to your disks, then change this statement to NO. PRIORITY=DYNAMIC OS/2 automatically assigns processing priorities to each thread of a program as it begins processing. A thread running in the foreground will generally have priori- ty over a thread running in background. Thread priorities are adjusted, generally based upon how active they are, by OS/2 on an ongoing basis to make sure each thread has adequate processing time. On the rare occasion that you need to run a program which must never change in priority, you should set PRIORITY=ABSOLUTE, otherwise, don't mess with it. This is another OS/2 only command and does not have to be in your CONFIG.SYS. If it is not, then OS/2 defaults to PRIORITY=DYNAMIC. FILES=20 This is a standard DOS command which sets the maximum number of files that DOS can access at the same time. OS/2 sets the default at 20, but some DOS programs may require that you increase this number. DEVICE=C:\OS2\TESTCFG.SYS TESTCFG.SYS is used during the install process to test your systems configuration. It is also used by the Selective Install process and during device driver in- stallations. <<=NOTE=>> Because this driver is also used by the Selective Install process, you should not be deleted. DEVICE=C:\OS2\PMDD.SYS PMDD.SYS makes the Presentation Manager work. <<=WARNING=>> OS/2 will not start without this line in your CONFIG.SYS file. BUFFERS=50 Tells OS/2 how many disk buffers to set aside. Range is from 1 to 100. Each buffer takes up to 512 bytes of RAM. 30 is the default and usually works well. Disk buffers are blocks of memory set aside by OS/2 for use in reading and writing blocks of data. For example, if a program wants to change 80 bytes of a file, it needs to read the 512 byte sector that contains the original data, change the in- formation and then write the corrected 512 byte sector back out. A "buffer" is the 512 byte temporary staging area for this partial sector operation. According to Mel Hallerman of IBM, "OS/2 allows multiple simultaneous I/O operations to be queued up for both diskette and hard disk. Each 'concurrent' operation may need a buffer. If there are not enough buffers, overlap can be inhibited. Because OS/2 has more 'simultaneous' queued I/O than DOS, it needs more buffers." <<=TIP=>> Generally, you can speed up your system by increasing the number of BUFFERS. But, keep in mind that as you increase the number, you reduce available memory. 30 is the default, but you may wish to experiment with a higher number, like 50 or 60. Be careful about using a lower number unless you only have 4 meg of RAM. With 4 meg of RAM you may wish to set BUFFERS to 20. This gives you some more valuable memory. IOPL=YES An OS/2 command that, when set to YES, lets programs that need to bypass OS/2, and its device drivers, and work directly with hardware devices, do so. YES means that all programs can access the hardware directly. NO means that no program can access the hardware directly. You can also specify a list of programs that are allowed to work directly with the hardware. For example, IOPL=WS.EXE,Q.EXE would allow only these two programs to access hardware directly. YES is the default and is generally best, since its hard for most of us to know when a program is written is such a way as to need direct access to hardware, rather than working through a device driver. IOPL stands for Input/Output Privilege Level. RUN=C:\OS2\CACHE.EXE /MAXAGE:2500 This line runs CACHE.EXE which allows you to modify the parameters for the HPFS cache. CACHE.EXE is only used for HPFS partitions. (The next CONFIG.SYS line be- low sets up a cache for FAT.) There are four switches: /LAZY: Determines if lazy writes is ON of OFF, that is, whether the contents of the cache will be written to your hard disk immediately (/LAZY:OFF) or when your hard disk is idle (/LAZY:ON). The default is ON. I like lazy writes ON because it improves performance, but keep in mind that since the system delays writing data to your hard disk, you can lose data if your system should crash. In the CONFIG.SYS line above no switch is specified therefore the default remains in effect, which is ON. Lazywrite can also be turned ON or OFF at an OS/2 command prompt. /MAXAGE: Sets how long data waits in the cache before it is moved to another area of the cache where less used information is stored, or how long data waits in the cache before it is written to the hard disk. It is expressed in milliseconds. The default is 5,000 or about 5 seconds. In the CONFIG.SYS line above, the wait is set at 2,500 milliseconds or about two 1 seconds. I've done this to reduce the chance of data loss. /DISKIDLE: Sets how long your hard disk must be idle before it will accept data from the cache. Express in milliseconds and the default is 1,000 or about one sec- ond. In the CONFIG.SYS line above no switch is specified therefore it defaults remains in effect. /BUFFERIDLE: Sets how long the cache buffer must be idle before its contents MUST be written to your hard disk. Express in milliseconds and the default is 500 or about 1 second. In the CONFIG.SYS line above no switch is specified therefore it defaults remains in effect. <<=NOTE=>> Remember, this CONFIG.SYS line is only needed to modify the cache. The IFS CONFIG.SYS line sets up the cache with the system defaults. You can check to see what parameters you are running with by going to an OS/2 command prompt and keying in the word cache and pressing the enter key. DISKCACHE=256,LW,32,AC:C If you are using FAT file system, this command sets up a RAM disk cache. CACHE: The DISKCACHE line noted here sets up a 256k cache. The default cache size is based upon your RAM. See the table below. If you have the RAM, increase the size to improve system performance, but don't get carried away in using to much of your RAM. This will hurt performance and cause to much memory swapping to disk. If you have formatted your system with only FAT partitions, the default cache size in this statement will be that noted under ONE FILE SYSTEM in the table below. If you have both FAT and HPFS partitions, then OS/2 2.0 defaults to the cache size noted under TWO FILE SYSTEM. The file system which uses the greatest amount of your disk space gets the larger default value. +-----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | MEMORY SIZE IN MB | TWO FILE SYSTEM | ONE FILE SYSTEM | +-----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 4 | 128/64 | 128 | +-----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 5 | 128/64 | 128 | +-----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 6 | 256/64 | 256 | +-----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 7 | 256/128 | 256 | +-----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 8 | 256/256 | 384 | +-----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 9 | 256/256 | 384 | +-----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 10 - 16 | 512/512 | 1024 | +-----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 17 - 32 | 1024/1024 | 2048 | +-----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ LW: Enables lazy writes. If you don't want lazy write enabled, then remove ",LW". 32: The third number set the threshold size. It is express in number of sectors which are 512 bytes each. Data requests from your disk that are larger than this number will not be cached. The default is 4. Thirty two (32) is said to be an optimum number. One hundred twenty eight (128) is the maximum allowable. This setting has no impact on RAM. AC:C: If you want CHKDSK to automatically check your startup partition (usually C), then add this switch to end of the DISKCACHE command: AC:n where n is your startup partition, e.g. AC:C. <<=TIP=>> If you are only using HPFS, then you should REM this statement (don't delete, you may need or want it later) and save some RAM. MAXWAIT=3 This OS/2 command sets the longest period a program will have to wait to execute before OS/2 ups its priority. This makes sure that no program is put on hold for- ever while some other program hogs the system. You can set MAXWAIT from 1 to 255 seconds. The default is 3 seconds. MEMMAN=SWAP,PROTECT OS/2 can run more programs and use more data than can actually be stored in memory at any given time. This is done by swapping large amounts of memory to your hard disk and then reading the data back into memory when needed. This is called vir- tual memory. For example, if you only have 4 meg of memory or less (Get MORE mem- ory fast! You need 8 meg minimum with OS/2 2.0.) and you will see lots of disk activity while you are working with your system. A lot of this is OS/2 swapping memory to your hard disk. Lots of memory swapping will slow down your system and cause your hard disk to fragment quicker than normal. The MEMMAN command controls the swap process. The syntax is MEMMAN=s,m,PROTECT where s=SWAP or NOSWAP; m=MOVE or NOMOVE; and PROTECT, which allows memory compac- tion with protected dynamic link libraries. The default is to have virtual memory on. To turn off virtual memory, which is NOT recommended, the CONFIG.SYS line should read: MEMMAN=NOSWAP. <<=WARNING=>> When messing with this line, I mean experimenting, I had to boot from my OS/2 Installation disk and recover my backup CONFIG.SYS file to get the syst to boot after I changed MEMMAN to equal NOSWAP. I don't know why, but use caution. <<=NOTE=>> The MOVE/NOMOVE parameter has no effect under OS/2 2.0 and is only provided for OS/2 version 1.x compatibility. SWAPPATH=C:\OS2\SYSTEM 512 4096 As noted above, OS/2 can allocate more memory than it actually has available. It does this by swapping data to a disk file called SWAPPER.DAT. The syntax is SWAPPATH=DRIVE,PATH,mmm,nnn where DRIVE AND PATH is the location where you want the SWAPPER.DAT file to be placed; mmm is a number from 512 to 32767 and specifies how large the SWAPPER.DAT file can growth before it stops con- suming hard disk space. The size is stated in the negative. In other words, if you have the mmm set to 512 and you have a 105 meg hard drive, the SWAPPER.DAT file will not grow larger than 105meg minus 512k. The variable nnn is the start- ing size of the SWAPPER.DAT file. In the CONFIG.SYS line above, the starting size is 4096 or a little more than 4 meg. The default SWAPPER.DAT size is set based upon the amount of RAM your system has available as shown in the table below. +-----------------+------------------+-----------------------+ | MEMORY IN MB | MINFREE (KB) | INITIAL SIZE (KB) | +-----------------+------------------+-----------------------+ | 4 | 4096 | 6144 | +-----------------+------------------+-----------------------+ | 5 | 4096 | 5120 | +-----------------+------------------+-----------------------+ | 6 | 4096 | 5120 | +-----------------+------------------+-----------------------+ | 7 | 2048 | 4096 | +-----------------+------------------+-----------------------+ | 8 | 2048 | 4096 | +-----------------+------------------+-----------------------+ | 9 | 2048 | 3072 | +-----------------+------------------+-----------------------+ | 10 | 2048 | 3072 | +-----------------+------------------+-----------------------+ | 11 - 32 | 2048 | 2048 | +-----------------+------------------+-----------------------+ <<=TIP=>> Normal operation of OS/2 2.0 involves considerable disk activity as operating system functions are loaded and pages are moved in and out of the swap file. To improve performance, consider dedicating a separate partition for the swap file next to the operating system partition. This helps avoid fragmentation of the swap file, because other files will not be added and deleted from the dedi- cated partition. Disk access time will be minimized. BREAK=OFF For DOS programs only. Many DOS programs can be stopped by holding down the Ctrl key and then pressing the Break key. BREAK controls how quickly DOS programs stop when you interrupt them with the Ctrl-Break sequence. If BREAK=OFF, DOS will stop the program only when the programs next reads a character from the keyboard or writes to the screen or printer. With BREAK=ON, DOS will check for the Ctrl-Break on a more frequent basis. Remember that this extra checking can make your DOS programs run slower. THREADS=256 OS/2 programs can have several different processes running at the same time. These are called threads. This OS/2 command sets the maximum number of threads, from 32 to 4095, that OS/2 can run at the same time. <<=TIP=>> On systems with only 4 meg of RAM, set THREADS to 128 to free up memo- ry. PRINTMONBUFSIZE=402,0,0 This OS/2 command sets the size of the print buffers for your parallel ports. The syntax is PRINTMONBUFSIZE=lpt1,lpt2,lpt3 where lpt1 is the buffer size for the parallel port LPT1, lpt2 is the buffer size for LPT2 and lpt3 is the buffer size for LPT3. The default and minimum is 134 bytes and the maximum is 2048 bytes. <<=TIP=>> If you are not using LPT2 or LPT3, then do not set up a buffer for them and use these bytes to increase the buffer for LPT1 (PRINTMONBUFSIZE=402,0,0) which should increase the speed of printing. Note that you still need to define a buffer for LPT2 and LPT3, but you indicate a "0" (zero) byte size. You will get an error message at startup if you don't. <<=TIP=>> On systems with only 4 meg of RAM that are not using LPT2 or LPT3 should leave LPT1 at 134 and reduce ports 2 and 3 to "0". This will free up a little memory. COUNTRY=001,C:\OS2\SYSTEM\COUNTRY.SYS Customizes your system for the country you wish to use. It establishes which de- faults to use when it comes to decimal separators, date and time formats, currency symbols, etc. The syntax is COUNTRY=xxx,PATH,FILE NAME. xxx is a three-digit code number that tells what country to use. The number is usually (but not al- ways) the same as the telephone international dialing prefix for the country de- sired. The table below contains various country codes. +------------------------+---------------+ | COUNTRY | COUNTRY CODE | +------------------------+---------------+ | Arabic-speaking | 785 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Asia (English) | 099 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Australia (English) | 061 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Belgium | 032 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Canada (French) | 002 | +------------------------+---------------+ | China | 088 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Czechoslovakia | 042 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Denmark | 045 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Finland | 358 | +------------------------+---------------+ | France | 033 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Germany | 049 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Hebrew-speaking | 972 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Hungary | 036 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Iceland | 354 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Italy | 039 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Japan | 081 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Korea | 082 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Latin America | 003 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Netherlands | 031 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Norway | 047 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Poland | 048 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Portugal | 351 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Spain | 034 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Sweden | 046 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Switzerland | 041 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Taiwan | 088 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Turkey | 090 | +------------------------+---------------+ | United Kingdom | 044 | +------------------------+---------------+ | United States | 001 | +------------------------+---------------+ | Yugoslavia | 038 | +------------------------+---------------+ SET KEYS=OFF When using the Command-line, KEYS tells CMD.EXE whether to remember previous key- strokes so they can be recalled with the up arrow key. OS/2 maintains a 64k buff- er for storing keystroke history. KEYS can be ON or OFF. <<=TIP=>> On systems with only 4 meg of RAM, SET KEYS to OFF, you need the memory more than this feature. Even with 8 meg of RAM, since I don't use the feature I have turned it off to get a small memory boost. REM SET DELDIR=C:\DELETE,512; To use OS/2s UNDELETE command, you must first establish a directory in which to store the deleted files. To do this, create a directory called DELETE in your root and then remove the "REM" from this CONFIG.SYS line. This command points OS/2 to the directory you created to place deleted files in. It also indicates the maximum number of files that will be stored in the DELETE directory. If the number of deleted files exceeds the maximum number that you specified, then files are automatically removed from the directory on a first-in- first-out basis. BASEDEV=PRINT01.SYS BASEDEV=IBM1FLPY.ADD BASEDEV=IBM1S506.ADD BASEDEV=OS2DASD.DMD BASEDEV installs a base device driver used by OS/2 when it is first started. The statement cannot contain either a drive or path because OS/2 cannot process such information at the stage at which these statements are process. Other base device drivers include: PRINT01.SYS supports attached printers on non-Micro Channel PC's. PRINT02.SYS supports attached printers on Micro Channel PC's. IBM1FLPY.ADD supports diskette drives on non-Micro Channel PC's. IBM2FLPY.ADD supports diskette drives on Micro Channel PC's. IBM2SCSI.ADD supports SCSI disk drives on Micro Channel PC's. OS2SCSI.DMD supports non-disk SCSI devices. IBM1S506.ADD supports non-SCSI disk drives on non-Micro Channel PC's. OS2DASD.DMD is a general purpose driver for disk drives. IBM2ADSK.ADD supports non-SCSI disk drives on Micro Channel PC's. IBMINT13.I13 supports non-Micro Channel SCSI adapters. SET BOOKSHELF=C:\GAMMA32;C:\OS2\BOOK This command points to the on-line documentation (INF files) provided with OS/2 and to any on-line documentation provided by other OS/2 programs. I have the GAM- MATECH utilities installed on my system which contains on-line documentation. SET EPATH=C:\OS2\APPS According to Mel Hallerman of IBM, EPATH is used by the Enhanced Editor (EPM.EXE), but IBMs Red book #1 indicates that EPATH is used by VIEW.EXE. Take your choice and if you ever find ANY documentation on it, I sure would like to know about it. REM DEVICE=C:\OS2\APPS\SASYNCDB.SYS This device driver loads asynchronous communications support for the PM Terminal applet. <<=TIP=>> If you don't use PM Terminal, REM this line to save a little memory. PROTECTONLY=NO An OS/2 command. Allows you to choose between a shared DOS and OS/2 operating environment or just an OS/2 environment. If you plan to run only OS/2 programs, then set PROTECTONLY=YES. If you plan to run DOS programs (this includes Windows programs also), then set PROTECTONLY=NO. SHELL=C:\OS2\MDOS\COMMAND.COM C:\OS2\MDOS /P This line identifies and loads the DOS command processor COMMAND.COM which you must have to make DOS sessions work. The /p switch keeps the command processor in memory until shutdown. This is the line where you can also specify the size of the DOS environment vari- able. The range is 160 through 32768. For example, to set a 1024 byte environ- ment you would add the following to the end of the SHELL command line: /E:1024 <<=TIP=>> You can also load and run other command processor's such as 4DOS. To do so, just put 4DOS in the MDOS directory and change the SHELL line to read 4DOS.COM instead of COMMAND.COM. FCBS=16,8 File control blocks (FCBS) give information about a file to DOS. This CONFIG.SYS line tells DOS how many FCBS can be open at once, or, when DOS needs to open more FCBS than are available, how many currently open but not active FCBS may be closed to make room for new ones. The syntax is FCBS=a,b where a=the number of FCBS that DOS can have open at one time and b=the number of FCBS DOS cannot close to make room for new FCBS. "a" can be as high as 255. "b" can have a value of 0 to 254, but must be less than "a". RMSIZE=640 This is a DOS command and sets the amount of memory available for use by each DOS session. The maximum is 640k. Since many DOS programs require 640k, its best to have RMSIZE set to 640, but if you have only DOS programs which take less than 640k, say 512k, and you could use extra RAM for OS/2, then set the value at 512 or something less. <<=TIP=>> If you only have 4 meg of RAM, you should reduce this parameter to 512. Most DOS applications will run in a 512k DOS partition (or less). Doing this will free up some additional RAM which should help performance. DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VEMM.SYS VEMM.SYS lets DOS programs use expanded memory unless you override it by changing a DOS programs SETTINGS. Three of its switches are: /S=n Sets the limit of EMS memory in multiples of 1024k. Default is 2, i.e. 2,084k. /L=n Size of conventional memory that is remappable. Default is none. /F=nnnn Memory frame address to be used to map EMS. Default is AUTO. Settings you specify in a DOS session will override these switches. DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VMOUSE.SYS Identifies and loads the mouse driver to let you use a mouse with DOS. Mouse sup- port for OS/2 is loaded below. DOS=LOW,NOUMB This is a standard DOS command that lets you control how DOS uses memory. The OS/2 default is DOS=LOW,NOUMB and is considered by many to be the best setting for it conserves memory for OS/2. DOS=HIGH (or including ,UMB) reduces available mem- ory for OS/2, but increases the available memory in EVERY DOS session. Few DOS sessions need maximum memory. Also remember that you can move DOS HIGH for a spe- cific program by changing the DOS settings for that program. This is done in the programs Settings Notebook and is likely the better way to go. Finally, keep in mind that in OS/2, device drivers are not taking up room in your 640k DOS area, so you generally have more memory in the typical OS/2 DOS session than in a standard DOS session. DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VXMS.SYS /UMB VXMS.SYS is a device driver that provides Extended Memory management to DOS ses- sions. XMS allows DOS programs to access more than one meg of memory. You need the /UMB switch at the end if you want upper memory block support in DOS sessions. DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VDPX.SYS Driver required when using VDPMI in the CONFIG.SYS line below. One authority said that this driver "provides V86 to Protected Mode translation for DPMI memory". Well that's enough to lose me. DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VDPMI.SYS Provides "virtual" DPMI (DOS Protect Mode Interface) memory for DOS and Window sessions. I don't know much about this, but I've been told not to remove it. DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VWIN.SYS Assists in the process of providing seamless Windows support. REM DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VCDROM.SYS This is a CDROM device driver. <<=TIP=>> If you don't have a CDROM installed, then you should REM this drive to save a little RAM. Remember, the more RAM OS/2 has, the better it runs. DEVINFO=SCR,VGA,C:\OS2\VIOTBL.DCP This command prepares your monitor to display information based upon the CODEPAGE specification. VIOTBL.DCP is the file that contains the video fonts for display- ing characters for each of the CODEPAGES supported by OS/2. See the CODEPAGE com- mand line below. DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VVGA.SYS Your CONFIG.SYS may contain various device drivers for various DOS related devices based upon your systems hardware configuration. This is a VGA video driver. DEVICE=C:\OS2\POINTDD.SYS POINTDD.SYS is the file that contains information on what the mouse pointer looks like and draws it on you screen. It is required to make your mouse work correct- ly. I think it would be nice if someone could write a few different POINTDD.SYS files with different looking mouse points. DEVICE=C:\OS2\MOUSE.SYS SERIAL=COM1 QSIZE=10 Lets you use a mouse or track ball with OS/2. This line also identifies the type of mouse you have and which COM port it is on. QSIZE is a number from 1 to 100 which indicates how many mouse actions are to be saved when you execute mouse ac- tions faster than your system can handle them. DEVICE=C:\OS2\COM.SYS Lets you use the communications ports one and two (COM1 and COM2). If you want to use COM3 or COM4 or change the IRQ of a COM point, then add the next line below. This line MUST appear after any driver that uses the communications ports. Use COM02.SYS if you have an IBM PS/2 model 90 or 95. <<=TIP=>> There is a very good replacement driver for COM.SYS\VCOM.SYS called SIO.SYS\VSIO.SYS. It can be obtained on most OS/2 BBSs. If you utilize a commu- nications packet on a regular basis at high speeds (e.g. 14,400), I recommend you consider SIO.SYS. Replace VCOM.SYS (below) with VSIO.SYS which comes with SIO.SYS. DEVICE=C:\OS2\COM.SYS (3,3E8,4) (4,2E8,3) This line adds support for COM3 and COM4 in OS/2 at location 3E8 with IRQ 4 and 2E8 with IRQ 3 respectively. I've been told that you can add (3,3E8,4) (4,2E8,3) parameters to the first DEVICE=C:\OS2\COM.SYS that is just before this CONFIG.SYS line, but every time I have attempted it, I lost use of much of my RAM and could- n't get most applications to load. Never could determine what the problem was, but you may need to experiment. DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VCOM.SYS Lets you use the communications ports for DOS and Windows sessions. Must appear after the COM.SYS driver. << TIP >> See TIP under DEVICE=C:\OS2\COM.SYS. DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\ANSI.SYS This is the traditional DOS command most are familiar with. It only affects DOS sessions. This line is not added to your CONFIG.SYS file by default. If you want it, you need to add it. OS/2 sessions have ANSI support by default. If you are unsure if ANSI is on or off in an OS/2 session, go to an OS/2 command prompt and type ANSI. You will get a message like: ANSI extended screen and keyboard control is on. For an OS/2 session, turn ANSI off or on by typing ANSI OFF or ANSI ON at an OS/2 command prompt. DEVICE=C:\OS2\LOG.SYS This optional device driver installs OS/2s error-log file. If you want a log of errors that occur on your system, then add this and the next line to your CONFIG.SYS file. If you are interested in such things, you may wish to play with it, but be forewarned, the error log information is cryptic. For example, only error codes are reported. To learn what these codes mean, you need to have IBMs Systems Network Architecture Formats (GA27-3136-12) or, for a reasonable overview, get OS/2 2.1 Unleashed, 1993, SAMS Publishing. The switch /E: sets the size of the error-log buffer. The range is from 4kb to 64kb with 8kb as the default. I've not used this switch in the CONFIG.SYS line above, therefore the default will be used. You will get a short and quick message during boot up indicating that Logging has been installed and what the buffer size is. <<=NOTE=>> LOG.SYS has its limitations. It will not log an application error unless the application has be written to make use of LOG.SYS. Some routine system errors will not log either because OS/2 opens an error message box on screen to report these. RUN=C:\OS2\SYSTEM\LOGDAEM.EXE /E:C:\OS2\LOGFILE.DAT /W:16 This RUN command states the logging process and must appear AFTER you have in- stalled the LOG.SYS driver noted in the CONFIG.SYS line above. The two switches are: /E: This is the path and file name of the test file where the errors will be logged. You can place it anywhere you want and call it anything you wish. NOTE: Like the OS/2 INI files, this file is "locked" and you will not be able to access it with your standard text editor or the OS/2 System Editor. You will get a "violation error". The Enhanced Editor will open the file. /W: This is the size of the file named with the /E switch. The default size is 64k, but with this switch you can set the value from 4k to 64k. I've set the file size at 16k in the example line above. <<=NOTE=>> Use SYSLOG.EXE from an OS/2 command line prompt to view your log file. CODEPAGE=437,850 Lets you use the alphabet of various countries and languages. The syntax is CODE- PAGE=ppp,sss, where ppp is the number of the primary national alphabet to be used and sss is a secondary alphabet number. 437=US English alphabet and 850=multina- tional alphabet. The multinational alphabet contains most of the accented letters used in various European languages. Several other alphabets that can be supported by your version of OS/2. See table below. Japan, Korean and Chinese require a special version of OS/2 and special hardware. If there is not a CODEPAGE statement in your CONFIG.SYS, your keyboard will use an alphabet based on the COUNTRY statement, but your screen and printer will use their built-in defaults. +------------------------+------------+------------+ | COUNTRY | PRIMARY | SECONDARY | | | CODE PAGE | CODE PAGE | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Arabic-speaking | 864 | 850 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Asia (English) | 437 | 850 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Australia (English) | 437 | 850 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Belgium | 850 | 437 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Canada (French) | 863 | 850 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Czechoslovakia | 852 | 850 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Denmark | 850 | n/a | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Finland | 850 | 437 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | France | 437 | 850 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Germany | 850 | 437 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Hebrew-speaking | 862 | 850 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Hungary | 852 | 850 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Iceland | 850 | 861 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Italy | 437 | 850 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Japan | 932 | 437, 850 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Korea | 934 | 437, 850 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Latin America | 437 | 850 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Netherlands | 850 | 437 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Norway | 850 | n/a | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Peoples Republic of | 938 | 437, 850 | | China | | | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Poland | 852 | 850 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Portugal | 850 | 860 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Spain | 850 | 437 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Sweden | 850 | 437 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Switzerland (French) | 850 | 437 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Switzerland (German) | 850 | 437 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Taiwan | 437 | 850 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Turkey | 857 | 850 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | United Kingdom | 437 | 850 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | United States | 437 | 850 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ | Yugoslavia | 852 | 850 | +------------------------+------------+------------+ DEVINFO=KBD,US,C:\OS2\KEYBOARD.DCP Tells the keyboard which international character set to use and where to find the file KEYBOARD.DCP which translates keystrokes. The syntax is DEVINFO=KBD,cc,DRIVE,PATH,FILENAME. cc equals the character set to be used, e.g. US = United States. See table below for character set codes. +--------------------------+----------------+ | LANGUAGE | COUNTRY CODE | +--------------------------+----------------+ | Arabic | AR | +--------------------------+----------------+ | Belgian | BE | +--------------------------+----------------+ | Canadian French | CF | +--------------------------+----------------+ | Czech/Czech | CS243 | +--------------------------+----------------+ | Czech/Slovak | CS245 | +--------------------------+----------------+ | Danish | DK | +--------------------------+----------------+ | Dutch | NL | +--------------------------+----------------+ | Finnish | SU | +--------------------------+----------------+ | French | FR | +--------------------------+----------------+ | German | GR | +--------------------------+----------------+ | Hebrew | HE | +--------------------------+----------------+ | Hungarian | HU | +--------------------------+----------------+ | Icelandic | IS | +--------------------------+----------------+ | Italian | IT | +--------------------------+----------------+ | Latin American | LA | +--------------------------+----------------+ | Norwegian | NO | +--------------------------+----------------+ | Polish | PL | +--------------------------+----------------+ | Portuguese | PO | +--------------------------+----------------+ | Spanish | SP | +--------------------------+----------------+ | Swedish | SV | +--------------------------+----------------+ | Swiss (French) | SF | +--------------------------+----------------+ | Swiss (German) | SG | +--------------------------+----------------+ | Turkish | TR | +--------------------------+----------------+ | United Kingdom | UK | +--------------------------+----------------+ | United States | US | +--------------------------+----------------+ | Yugoslavian | YU | +--------------------------+----------------+ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- END OF LISTING ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SAMPLE CONFIG.SYS FILE FOR AN 8 MEG RAM, VGA CLONE RUNNING ONLY HPFS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CALL=C:\OS2\XCOPY.EXE C:\OS2\*.BK1 C:\OS2\*.BK2 CALL=C:\OS2\XCOPY.EXE C:\OS2\*.INI C:\OS2\*.BK1 IFS=C:\OS2\HPFS.IFS /CACHE:512 /CRECL:4 /AUTOCHECK:C PROTSHELL=C:\OS2\PMSHELL.EXE SET USER_INI=C:\OS2\OS2.INI SET SYSTEM_INI=C:\OS2\OS2SYS.INI SET OS2_SHELL=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE SET AUTOSTART=PROGRAMS,TASKLIST,FOLDERS SET RUNWORKPLACE=C:\OS2\PMSHELL.EXE SET RESTARTOBJECTS=YES SET COMSPEC=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE LIBPATH=.;C:\OS2\DLL;C:\OS2\MDOS;C:\;C:\OS2\APPS\DLL; SET PATH=C:\OS2;C:\OS2\SYSTEM;C:\OS2\MDOS\WINOS2;C:\OS2\INSTALL;C:\;C:\OS2\MDOS; C:\OS2\APPS;C:\VDLOAD; SET DPATH=C:\OS2;C:\OS2\SYSTEM;C:\OS2\MDOS\WINOS2;C:\OS2\INSTALL;C:\;C:\OS2\BITMAP; C:\OS2\MDOS;C:\OS2\APPS; SET PROMPT=[$p]$g SET HELP=C:\OS2\HELP;C:\OS2\HELP\TUTORIAL; SET GLOSSARY=C:\OS2\HELP\GLOSS; SET DIRCMD=/O /P PRIORITY_DISK_IO=YES FILES=40 DEVICE=C:\OS2\TESTCFG.SYS DEVICE=C:\OS2\DOS.SYS DEVICE=C:\OS2\PMDD.SYS BUFFERS=50 IOPL=YES REM DISKCACHE=256,LW,32,AC:C MAXWAIT=3 MEMMAN=SWAP,PROTECT SWAPPATH=C:\OS2\SYSTEM 512 4096 BREAK=OFF THREADS=256 PRINTMONBUFSIZE=402,0,0 COUNTRY=001,C:\OS2\SYSTEM\COUNTRY.SYS SET KEYS=ON REM SET DELDIR=C:\DELETE,512; BASEDEV=PRINT01.SYS BASEDEV=IBM1FLPY.ADD BASEDEV=IBM1S506.ADD BASEDEV=OS2DASD.DMD SET BOOKSHELF=C:\GAMMA32;C:\GAMATECH;C:\OS2\BOOK SET EPATH=C:\OS2\APPS REM DEVICE=C:\OS2\APPS\SASYNCDA.SYS PROTECTONLY=NO SHELL=C:\OS2\MDOS\COMMAND.COM C:\OS2\MDOS /P FCBS=16,8 RMSIZE=640 DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VEMM.SYS DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VMOUSE.SYS DOS=LOW,NOUMB DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VDPX.SYS DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VXMS.SYS /UMB DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VDPMI.SYS DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VWIN.SYS REM DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VCDROM.SYS DEVINFO=SCR,VGA,C:\OS2\VIOTBL.DCP SET VIDEO_DEVICES=VIO_VGA SET VIO_VGA=DEVICE(BVHVGA) DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VVGA.SYS DEVICE=C:\OS2\POINTDD.SYS DEVICE=C:\OS2\MOUSE.SYS SERIAL=COM1 DEVICE=C:\OS2\COM.SYS DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VCOM.SYS CODEPAGE=437,850 DEVINFO=KBD,US,C:\OS2\KEYBOARD.DCP ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SAMPLE CONFIG.SYS FILE FOR AN 8 MEG RAM, VGA CLONE RUNNING ONLY FAT ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Make the following two changes in the CONFIG.SYS listing above. o REM this line: IFS=C:\OS2\HPFS.IFS /CACHE:512 /CRECL:4 /AUTOCHECK:C o Remove the REM from this line: REM DISKCACHE=256,LW ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SAMPLE CONFIG.SYS FILE FOR AN 8 MEG RAM, VGA CLONE RUNNING BOTH FAT AND HPFS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Make the following change in the CONFIG.SYS listing above. o Remove the REM from this line: REM DISKCACHE=256,LW ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SAMPLE CONFIG.SYS FILE FOR A 4 OR 6 MEG RAM, VGA CLONE RUNNING FAT ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CALL=C:\OS2\XCOPY.EXE C:\OS2\*.BK1 C:\OS2\*.BK2 CALL=C:\OS2\XCOPY.EXE C:\OS2\*.INI C:\OS2\*.BK1 REM IFS=C:\OS2\HPFS.IFS /CACHE:512 /CRECL:4 /AUTOCHECK:C PROTSHELL=C:\OS2\PMSHELL.EXE SET USER_INI=C:\OS2\OS2.INI SET SYSTEM_INI=C:\OS2\OS2SYS.INI SET OS2_SHELL=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE SET AUTOSTART=PROGRAMS,TASKLIST,FOLDERS SET RUNWORKPLACE=C:\OS2\PMSHELL.EXE SET RESTARTOBJECTS=YES SET COMSPEC=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE LIBPATH=.;C:\OS2\DLL;C:\OS2\MDOS;C:\;C:\OS2\APPS\DLL; SET PATH=C:\OS2;C:\OS2\SYSTEM;C:\OS2\MDOS\WINOS2;C:\OS2\INSTALL;C:\;C:\OS2\MDOS; C:\OS2\APPS;C:\VDLOAD; SET DPATH=C:\OS2;C:\OS2\SYSTEM;C:\OS2\MDOS\WINOS2;C:\OS2\INSTALL;C:\;C:\OS2\BITMAP; C:\OS2\MDOS;C:\OS2\APPS; SET PROMPT=[$p]$g SET HELP=C:\OS2\HELP;C:\OS2\HELP\TUTORIAL; SET GLOSSARY=C:\OS2\HELP\GLOSS; SET DIRCMD=/O /P PRIORITY_DISK_IO=YES FILES=20 DEVICE=C:\OS2\TESTCFG.SYS DEVICE=C:\OS2\DOS.SYS DEVICE=C:\OS2\PMDD.SYS BUFFERS=20 IOPL=YES DISKCACHE=64,LW,12,AC:C MAXWAIT=3 MEMMAN=SWAP,PROTECT SWAPPATH=C:\OS2\SYSTEM 512 6144 BREAK=OFF THREADS=128 PRINTMONBUFSIZE=134,0,0 COUNTRY=001,C:\OS2\SYSTEM\COUNTRY.SYS SET KEYS=OFF REM SET DELDIR=C:\DELETE,512; BASEDEV=PRINT01.SYS BASEDEV=IBM1FLPY.ADD BASEDEV=IBM1S506.ADD BASEDEV=OS2DASD.DMD SET BOOKSHELF=C:\GAMMA32;C:\GAMATECH;C:\OS2\BOOK SET EPATH=C:\OS2\APPS REM DEVICE=C:\OS2\APPS\SASYNCDA.SYS PROTECTONLY=NO SHELL=C:\OS2\MDOS\COMMAND.COM C:\OS2\MDOS /P FCBS=16,8 RMSIZE=512 DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VEMM.SYS DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VMOUSE.SYS DOS=LOW,NOUMB DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VDPX.SYS DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VXMS.SYS /UMB DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VDPMI.SYS DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VWIN.SYS REM DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VCDROM.SYS DEVINFO=SCR,VGA,C:\OS2\VIOTBL.DCP SET VIDEO_DEVICES=VIO_VGA SET VIO_VGA=DEVICE(BVHVGA) DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VVGA.SYS DEVICE=C:\OS2\POINTDD.SYS DEVICE=C:\OS2\MOUSE.SYS SERIAL=COM1 DEVICE=C:\OS2\COM.SYS DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VCOM.SYS CODEPAGE=437,850 DEVINFO=KBD,US,C:\OS2\KEYBOARD.DCP ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOW TO RESTORE A DAMAGED CONFIG.SYS FILE FROM A BACKUP COPY ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Boot OS/2 from the OS/2 Installation Disk. 2. Insert OS/2 Disk #1 when asked. 3. Press the ESC key when you get the first text screen. By doing this you will be put into OS/2s command-line mode. 4. Assuming that your backup copy of CONFIG.SYS is named CONFIG.SAV, enter the following com- mand: COPY C:\CONFIG.SAV C:\CONFIG.SYS Press the ENTER key. 5. Remove OS/2 Disk #1 and reboot system. What if you didn't make a backup copy? IBM thought about you. When OS/2 was first installed on your system, the installation program made a backup copy of your original CONFIG.SYS file. It stored this file in C:\OS2\INSTALL. To restore from this file follow the same steps above, EXCEPT, in step #4 enter the following command instead of the one shown: COPY C:\OS2\INSTALL\CONFIG.SYS C:\CONFIG.SYS <<=TIP=>> Replace the CONFIG.SYS file saved by the OS/2 installation program in the INSTALL directory with your most current version, thus allowing you to restore from it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- END OF FILE