106 lines
5.2 KiB
Plaintext
106 lines
5.2 KiB
Plaintext
Using Stacker and QEMM
|
|
Quarterdeck Technical Note #214
|
|
By: Robert Ngan
|
|
|
|
I. Hardware considerations:
|
|
|
|
The AT/16 coprocessor card and the MC/16 microchannel card tested were
|
|
found to work with QEMM 6 without the need to exclude any High RAM
|
|
addresses.
|
|
|
|
The XT coprocessor card needs an exclude and this address is normally at
|
|
CC00-CFFF but is changeable during the Stacker install process. This is
|
|
an 8 bit card designed for use on XTs, although one can also use it on
|
|
AT machines. QEMM will need an EXCLUDE for this RANGE.
|
|
|
|
For example: if the card uses CC00-CFFF, then add X=CC00-CFFF to the
|
|
QEMM device line in the config.sys
|
|
|
|
|
|
I. Using STACKER 2 with EMS memory and QEMM's Stealth:
|
|
|
|
a) When installing STACKER 2 on a machine with QEMM already
|
|
present. The STACKER Install program will ask whether or not you
|
|
wish to use EMS. Selecting yes would add the /EMS switch to the
|
|
Stacker device line. If you want to use EMS with STACKER 2 and
|
|
QEMM's Stealth option, make sure to add DBF=2 to the QEMM device
|
|
line before installing STACKER 2. Otherwise the machine will just
|
|
reboot and go into a loop saying that you need to add DBF=2. DBF is
|
|
needed because STACKER 2 is accessing the disk via the page frame,
|
|
and this is not allowed when using Stealth.
|
|
|
|
The only way out of this loop is to REBOOT, then hold down the ALT
|
|
key after you hear a beep. You will be prompted to press the
|
|
Escape key to unload qemm. Press escape, then edit the config.sys
|
|
(on the uncompressed drive) and add DBF=2 to the QEMM386.sys device
|
|
line,
|
|
|
|
Device=c:\qemm\qemm386.sys dbf=2
|
|
|
|
IMPORTANT: This change should be done on the uncompressed drive.
|
|
|
|
b) When installing QEMM 6 on a machine with STACKER 2 already
|
|
installed, if you plan to let STACKER 2 use EMS provided by QEMM
|
|
6, make sure to edit the config.sys and add the DBF=2 parameter to
|
|
the QEMM device line in the config.sys. At the same time, you
|
|
could add /EMS to the Stacker device line to allow it to use EMS.
|
|
|
|
II. Running OPTIMIZE with STACKER 2
|
|
|
|
a) How can I make OPTIMIZE work with STACKER?
|
|
|
|
Optimize fails because of the SSWAP.COM driver in the config.sys.
|
|
SSWAP's line in config.sys typically looks like:
|
|
|
|
DEVICE=C:\STACKER\SSWAP.COM C: D: /SYNC
|
|
|
|
SSWAP.COM is the non-resident program that switches the drive
|
|
letters. In the example above, drive C: becomes drive D: and drive
|
|
D: becomes drive C:. Optimize reboots your machine a few times and
|
|
writes data to the disk during this process. SSWAP.COM will make
|
|
Optimize think it is writing to C when in fact it was writing to D.
|
|
|
|
1. When running Optimize, this device line needs to be either
|
|
remarked or removed temporarily from the CONFIG.SYS. Also,
|
|
your AUTOEXEC.BAT (and some lines in the config.sys that came
|
|
after SSWAP.COM) probably contains references to drive C:. All
|
|
these references (except for references to files that you know
|
|
exist on both the compressed and uncompressed drive) need to be
|
|
changed to drive D:. Conversely, all references to drive D:
|
|
should be changed to drive C:. This is necessary since Optimize
|
|
requires that the CONFIG.SYS and the AUTOEXEC.BAT reside on
|
|
drive C:.
|
|
|
|
2. When installing STACKER 2 on a machine with QEMM already
|
|
installed, STACKER2 will automatically copy most of the files
|
|
Optimize needs to the \QEMM subdirectory of the boot
|
|
(uncompressed) drive. As of the date of this writing, the
|
|
STACKER2 install program did not copy TESTBIOS.COM (needed for
|
|
STEALTH testing) and WINSTLTH.VXD (needed for Windows enhanced
|
|
mode if using STEALTH). This means that you have to copy the
|
|
TESTBIOS.COM and WINSTLTH.VXD from the compressed drive to the
|
|
uncompressed \QEMM subdirectory. Go to step 4...
|
|
|
|
3. When installing QEMM on an existing STACKER drive, create a
|
|
QEMM sub-directory on the uncompressed drive. (That is C: since
|
|
we already REMOVED SSWAP.COM in step 1.) Some files need to be
|
|
in the QEMM sub-directory in order to run Optimize properly:
|
|
QEMM386.SYS, OPTIMIZE.COM, LOADHI.SYS, TESTBIOS.COM,
|
|
LOADHI.COM, BUFFERS.COM, RSTRCFG.SYS, MCA.ADL (if
|
|
you are running on a microchannel machine), WINHIRAM.VXD and
|
|
WINSTLTH.VXD (if using Windows 3 enhanced mode)
|
|
|
|
4. Once you have done this, you should reboot before running
|
|
Optimize so that the drives are set up correctly. Now you
|
|
should be able to run Optimize normally. After Optimize has
|
|
run, you should edit your CONFIG.SYS and restore the SSWAP.COM
|
|
line. Also, you should edit your AUTOEXEC.BAT to restore the
|
|
drive specifications to what they were before; e.g. change all
|
|
references to drive D: to drive C: and all references to drive
|
|
C: to drive D:. Reboot again. You are now getting the most
|
|
out of your conventional memory.
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 1991 by Quarterdeck Office Systems
|
|
* * * E N D O F F I L E * * *
|
|
|