From: dic5340@hertz.njit.edu (David Charlap)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: A good config.sys for 486/33 machines
Date: 21 Aug 92 20:00:39 GMT
Organization: New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, N.J.

My friend has a 486/33 with 16MB of memory and found OS/2 slow at
first.  He tweaked his config.sys file a bit, and now it is very fast.
He said that the most important thing he did involved the caches.
Following is the complete text of his config.sys:  (my comments
interspersed)

Someone may want to upload this somewhere.

-------------- BEGIN FILE ---------------


>IFS=C:\OS2\HPFS.IFS  /CACHE:512 /CRECL:4 /AUTOCHECK:C

This is necessary for HPFS support.  Note the cache size if you have
some problems.  Add any additional HPFS drives to the /AUTOCHECK
parameter.  This parameter allows CHKDSK to run automatically if you
boot and HPFS has a problem.

>PROTSHELL=C:\OS2\PMSHELL.EXE

This is Presentation Manager.  Don't change this or you'll lose your
GUI, and your session manager.

>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

This is WPS.  Set it to C:\OS2\CMD.EXE if you don't want WPS.  You can
always run WPS as an app (start PMSHELL) if you need it later.

>SET COMSPEC=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE

>LIBPATH=.;C:\OS2\DLL;C:\OS2\MDOS;C:\;C:\OS2\APPS\DLL;C:\USER\DLL;

OS/2 DLL files will only be searched for along this path.

>SET PATH=C:\OS2;C:\OS2\SYSTEM;C:\OS2\MDOS\WINOS2;C:\OS2\INSTALL;C:\OS2\MDOS;C:\OS2\APPS;

This is the path along which programs are searched for.

>SET DPATH=C:\OS2;C:\OS2\SYSTEM;C:\OS2\MDOS\WINOS2;C:\OS2\INSTALL;C:\;C:\OS2\BITMAP;C:\OS2\MDOS;C:\OS2\APPS;

This is the path along which data files may be searched for (a-la
DOS's APPEND command)

>SET PROMPT=$i[$p]

>SET HELP=C:\OS2\HELP;C:\OS2\HELP\TUTORIAL

The VIEW.EXE help viewer looks along this path.

>SET GLOSSARY=C:\OS2\HELP\GLOSS;

>PRIORITY_DISK_IO=NO

If this is YES, then disk access will take higer priority than
processing.  You may want this on in some situations.  Note that IBM's
default is YES.

>FILES=32

This is for DOS box sessions only.

>DEVICE=C:\OS2\TESTCFG.SYS
>DEVICE=C:\OS2\DOS.SYS
>DEVICE=C:\OS2\PMDD.SYS

>BUFFERS=64

This is also for DOS only.

>IOPL=YES

>DISKCACHE=256,LW,32

This controls disk caching for FAT volumes, including floppies.  The
LW is for lazy writing.  Note that it's larger than the default 64K

>MAXWAIT=3

This is the maximum amount of time a process can wait for the
processor.  I think it's in miliseconds.

>MEMMAN=SWAP,PROTECT

If you have plenty of memory and don't care about running out, you can
remove "SWAP", and the system won't swap memory any more.  I don't
know what "PROTECT" does, but I'd leave it alone.

>SWAPPATH=C:\OS2\SYSTEM 2048 2048

This controls where your swapper.dat file goes.  The parameters
represent the initial size of the file, and the minimum size of the
file.  These parameters are for at 16MB machine.  You can set the to
different values - the defaults are listed in one of the pamphlets
that comes with OS/2.

>BREAK=OFF

This is for DOS sessions.

>THREADS=2048

This is the maximum number of threads the system can have at once.
Leave it alone unless you have a problem with it.

>PRINTMONBUFSIZE=2048,134,134

This controls the printer's buffering.  I don't know if it's for DOS
sessions or for all sessions.

>COUNTRY=001,C:\OS2\SYSTEM\COUNTRY.SYS
>SET KEYS=ON

>SET DELDIR=C:\DELETE,512;

This allows the undelete function to work.  By default, this line is
REMarked off.

>BASEDEV=PRINT01.SYS
>BASEDEV=IBM1FLPY.ADD
>BASEDEV=IBM1S506.ADD
>BASEDEV=OS2DASD.DMD
>SET EPATH=C:\OS2\APPS

>DEVICE=C:\OS2\APPS\SASYNCDA.SYS 

This helps DOS sessions use the COM port.

>PROTECTONLY=NO

Set this to YES to eliminate DOS and WIN-OS2 sessions.

>SHELL=C:\OS2\MDOS\COMMAND.COM C:\OS2\MDOS /P /E:2048
>FCBS=16,8
>RMSIZE=640

These are default DOS box settings.

>DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VEMM.SYS 
>DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VMOUSE.SYS 
>DOS=HIGH,UMB
>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  
>DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VCDROM.SYS 

These are more default DOS box settings.  The DEVICE= lines are
virtual device drivers to emulate EMS memory, a mouse, DPMI, Extended
memory, Windows, and CD-ROM drivers.  I don't know wht DPX is.

>DEVINFO=SCR,VGA,C:\OS2\VIOTBL.DCP
>SET VIDEO_DEVICES=VIO_VGA
>SET VIO_VGA=DEVICE(BVHVGA,BVHSVGA)

These are for video support, including codepage support for the display.

>DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VSVGA.SYS

This allows DOS sessions to use SVGA modes, when in conjunction with
the SVGA ON command.

>DEVICE=C:\OS2\POINTDD.SYS 
>DEVICE=C:\OS2\MOUSE.SYS SERIAL=COM1

These two drivers together provide your mouse.  If you have a Logitech
driver installed, there may be different parameters and also a
PCLOGIC.SYS driver here.

>DEVICE=C:\OS2\COM.SYS  
>DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VCOM.SYS

These provide your serial I/O.  Add parameters to them to access
non-standard COM ports (like COM3 and COM4 on ISA machines).  Note
that these must be loaded AFTER the mouse support or you won't have a
mouse. 

>CODEPAGE=437,850

This sets up the useable code pages in the system.  437 is USA, and
850 is international.  You may have others as well.

>DEVINFO=KBD,US,C:\OS2\KEYBOARD.DCP

This defines the keyboard as USA-ASCII, using the KEYBOARD.DCP file to
describe what that means.

>SET TEMP=C:\TMP
>SET TMP=C:\TMP

These are environment variables that are always useful to have around.
Be sure that the C:\TMP directory exists.

-- 
   |)  David Charlap           "I don't even represent myself
  /|_  dic5340@hertz.njit.edu   sometimes so NJIT is right out!.
 ((|,)
  ~|~  Hi! I am a .signature virus, copy me into your .signature file.
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc