HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: sip1@ellis.uchicago.edu (Timothy F. Sipples)
Subject: Re: More Info on Redbooks Needed
Reply-To: sip1@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: Dept. of Econ., Univ. of Chicago
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 16:34:36 GMT

In article <157m9hINNs45@matt.ksu.ksu.edu> bewhite@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (MacroMan) writes:
>  Ok, so I heard a lot of good things about these "redbooks" that
>people have been ordering.  I take it that they document some
>features that aren't documented elsewhere?  Maybe get in depth
>enough to interest a hacker type like me?  So I call.
>  IBM tells me to call my nearest IBM center.  So I call.  They
>transfer me to the librarian.  She doesn't seem to know much
>about them.  Looks up redbooks on the 'puter.  No dice.  So
>she looks up OS/2.  There are 738 references.  She tells
>me I need to be more specific.  Titles or preferably product
>numbers.
>  All I wanted was to know EXACTLY what the books contain, and
>how much they cost.  She said for me to ask you net weenies, so
>thats what I'm doing.

IBM document no. GBOF-2254 for a set of four OS/2 2.0 redbooks.  They
contain detailed "power user"/system administrator documentation on
OS/2 2.0.  The books cover, blow by blow, the various subsystems in
OS/2, provide background on capabilities and design, and, at various
points, include some sample tricks and techniques (e.g. sample REXX
code, CONFIG.SYS settings, etc).

Cost is approximately $20 for the set.

-- 
Get the OS/2 FREQ. ASKED QUESTIONS LIST | Timothy F. Sipples
from 128.123.35.151, anonymous ftp,     | Internet: sip1@ellis.uchicago.edu
directory pub/os2/all/faq, or from      | Dept. of Econ., U. Chicago, 60637
LISTSERV@BLEKUL11.BITNET (send "HELP"). | Tsongas > Perot > Clinton.  Yay.
From: dic5340@hertz.njit.edu (David Charlap)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Re: Improving OS2 performance question
Date: 24 Jul 92 18:41:00 GMT
Organization: New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, N.J.

In article <1992Jul23.115032.25568@actrix.gen.nz> Steve.Withers@bbs.actrix.gen.nz writes:
>
>I've been running HPFS only since April 27th and haven't had *any* problems
>with HPFS. It is faster, better and you can fit more data on too, because it
>uses 512byte blocks instead of the usual 2k or 4K (I forget which) that FAT
>uses.

FAT uses "clusters" as the allocation units.  A cluster is a
power-of-two multiple of the sector size (512 bytes).  A 360K floppy
uses 1K clusters (2 blocks), other floppies use 512 byte clusters.
Hard drives use the smallest sized cluster they can - there is a
maximum of 64K clusters on a disk, so 512 byte clusters max out with a
32MB drive.  A 64MB drive will use 1K clusters.  A drive bigger than
64M, but less than 128M will use 2K clusters, etc.

So, as your drive gets bigger, the overhead to using FAT increases
exponentially.

For comparison, HPFS uses about 5% of your total disk space (any size)
for internal usage, and always allocates in units of one block (512
bytes on a PC).  

A big drive with a lot of small files will be able to hold more on
HPFS than FAT.  A small drive with a small number of big files may be
able to do better under FAT.  

Note that this argument is ignoring speed.  This is just computing the
effective storage capacity of a given drive.


-- 
   |)  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
From: rfs0838@summa.tamu.edu (SCHAFFTER, RODNEY FRANK, JR)
Subject: Fragmented EAs (was Couldn't stick it out...)
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 00:45:00 GMT

In article <1992Jul28.234349.22521@cybernet.cse.fau.edu>, hamzy@cse.fau.edu (Mark Hamzy) writes...
_>In article <mg.712256058@elan> mg@elan (Michael Golan) writes:
+>>BTW, its a good idea to unfregment the OS2 partition (by booting dos).
+>>Pctools compress version 6.0 works, at least if you dont re-order directories
+>>(I didnt try it, I worry about it touching the ext.attr. bits)
+>>This does speed OS2 up (if you have FAT. if you have HPFS, good luck.
+>>it might be more freg. resistent, but it cant prevent it...) seems like
+>>the OS2SYS.INI file gets fregmented, and really slow things down. I had
+>>e.g. the 'OS2 system' folder take 8 seconds to open, compared to 2 when
+>>it was 'new'. Software that degrade with use, ha? :-)
+> 
+>UGHH ... that sends shivers down my spine.  I may be wrong but here is my
+>view:  On a FAT file system, the EAs are stored pretty much separately from
+>the file itself.  Those .EA files around your system have hard coded "pointers"
+>in them so moving them around is dangerous.
+> 
+>Correct??

	No, at least not with  PC Tools Compress 7.1- In fact, I remove the
hidden/system attributes from _EVERYTHING_ before running it(I return them 
to their original attributes before rebooting, of course).  Rebooting is 
quicker afterwards, but the speed of opening folders is not.  

	I feel that it is because although the EA DATA.SF file is physically 
defragmented, it is still fragmented _LOGICALLY_; that is, when a folder 
is opened, OS/2 must search through this huge file for the EAs of
the files in that directory, which takes time.  I suppose that explains
the preformance increase under HPFS, where the EAs are actually associated
with each file.

	Would it be possible to use EAUTIL to seperate the EA's into a file
in each directory, and create a new, logically unfragmented EA DATA.SF
file from these smaller files using a disk editor under DOS? (or better yet,
using a REXX script)

Think about it.

Cheers!
Rod Schaffter                                 	
Laboratory for Molecular Structure and Bonding	|Who cares if windows is or 
Texas A&M University Dept. of Chemistry		|isn't an opperating system-
Bitnet:   SCHAFFTER@TAMLMSB			|it barely operates at all!
INTERNET: SCHAFFTER@LMSBVX.TAMU.EDU		|
	"Standard Disclaimer, etc."		|An OOPerating system, maybe?
From: root@mordor.com (Chris Mauritz - SysGod)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Is there a FAQ for this group?
Date: 31 Jul 92 10:44:53 GMT
Organization: Mordor - Public Access Unix - Jersey City, NJ.

Is there a FAQ for this group?  If so, where can I find it?

Thanks,

Chris

------
Christopher Mauritz                   | You ask me to enter
root@ritz.mordor.com                  | But then you make me crawl
root%ritz.mordor.com@spcvxa.spc.edu   | And I can't be holding on...
{backbone}!rutgers!spcvxb!ritz!root   | -U2-
From: prism.gatech.EDU!ccusekh@overmind.mind.org
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Dell offers OS/2 on its PCs
Date: 22 Jul 92 23:49:00 GMT
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
X-mailer: Stadel 3.4a-227
X-Spam-content: irrelevant

I just received a product catalog from DELL and was pleased to see that
they are now offering OS/2 2.0 as one of the operating systems that
a customer may choose to have installed on his/her PC.  See pages
33 and 53.
-- 
Kevin A. Hodge                |   "I'll show you a life of the mind!"
Engineering Psychology        |            Madman Mundt
Georgia Tech                  |
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
From: smsmith@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Stephen M Smith)
Subject: Re: My first trap - I'm so proud!  (Kernel rev number?)
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 06:17:51 GMT

duffy@theory.chem.ubc.ca (Pat Duffy) writes:

>revision 6.412, 92/06/02

How come's ya got such a recent kernel revision?  Mine is
revision 6.311, 92/05/14.  I did install the kernel patch
for the non-shrinking swapper.dat problem; is there a 
later one than that?

   Steve Smith       | __|__ |    " #*&<-[89s]*(k#$@-_=//a2$]'+=.(2_&*%>,,@
<smsmith@magnus.acs. |   |   |      {7%*@,..":27g)-=,#*:.#,/6&1*.4-,l@#9:-) "
  ohio-state.edu>    |   |   | 
  BTW, WYSInaWYG     |   |   |                           --witty.saying.ARC
From: joe2@vnet.ibm.com
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 92 19:57:16 FST
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Re: ATI fixes WINOS2 problems with Wonder cards!
Reply-To: <joe2@vnet.ibm.com>
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not those of IBM
News-Software: UReply 3.0

In <2869@isgtec.isgtec.com> Ted Richards writes:
>ATI has just released new Windows 3.0 drivers for the VGA Wonder- and
>Integra-series cards which fix almost all the problems with switching
>between the Workplace Shell and a full-screen WINOS2 session.  The
>cursor no longer disappears, the screen no longer loses sync, and the
>cursor no longer acts like a paintbrush (all problems I have had with
>various of the old drivers).
>
>I have tried all of the supplied drivers with Joel Armengaud's
>1024x768/256 PM driver, and all work perfectly, except for the ATI
>640x480/32K driver, which changes the WPS colours to some very strange
>ones, but otherwise works fine.  The colours revert to normal when you
>exit windows.  There is also another driver included which I suspect is
>800x600/32K, but it is not mentioned in the Windows setup file, and
>doesn't work on my machine.  You may need a more recent version of the
>card than I have to use this mode.
>


So it was not a bug in my driver! :-))

    -Joel Armengaud
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
From: cvadrtbc@vmsa.is.csupomona.edu (Srikanth Viswanathan)
Subject: Re: Icons and reason for blacking
Organization: California Polytechnic University, Pomona
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 18:52:00 GMT
X-Posted-From: vmsa.is.csupomona.edu
X-Posted-Through: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

In article <V27ZNB1w164w@sps.pgh.pa.us>, kslater@sps.pgh.pa.us (Kevin J. Slater) writes...
>I have a mild case of black icon disease. Only, in most cases, if I open 
>up the settings book for the program, the icon returns to normal. I saw a 
>message saying that you should run chkdsk on your drive and that will 
>clear it up. I did, it didn't. What is causing this to occur?

Don't know, but there's a fix for it, available at both software.watson.ibm.com 
and ftp-os2.nmsu.edu.  

Srikanth
From: hethmon@vose.cs.utk.edu (PAUL HETHMON)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Re: "Minimum system requirements?"
Date: 31 Jul 92 14:13:00 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Distribution: world
Reply-To: hethmon@vose.cs.utk.edu (PAUL HETHMON)
NNTP-Posting-Host: vose.cs.utk.edu

In article <1093212@mordor.com>, root@mordor.com (Chris Mauritz - SysGod) writes:
|> Hello!
|> 
|> I just bought OS/2 using the Windows upgrade deal.  Pretty slick...
|> all those disks, the manuals, and that videotape all for $49.

What videotape?  I sure didn't get one.

|> I wasn't aware before the purchase that OS/2 is such a resource
|> hog (memory and disk space).  Before I go to all the trouble of
|> installing it, I'd like to know if it would be usable on the
|> following:
|> 
|> 486-33mhz ISA box
|> 128k SRAM cache
|> 4 mb RAM
|> 20mb free space on 130 mb drive
|> (I can give it more if I shrink my Coherent partition)
|> Diamond Speedstar HiColor VGA
|> 14" 1024x768 non-int. monitor
|> current setup: DOS 5.0, Win 3.1
|> 
|> The reason I ask is that a friend at work tells me that 8mb is REALLY
|> the minimum for memory and that I should give it 60-80mb of disk space.

Your setup is pretty good, but your friend is right.  You should have at
least 8 meg for acceptable performance, more is better.  As always,
the more hard drive space you have the better.  You'll need 30 megs for
a full installation plus space for the swapper.dat, about 5 to 10 meg
depending on the amount of apps you run.

Other things to consider are hpfs ( minimum of 6 meg to run), dual boot,
and boot manager.  It all depends on what you want.

I would suggest sitting down and deciding what you want to run, and whether
you're keeping dos or win 3.1 on the system.  If you punt the dos and win 3.1,
like I did, you should have plenty of room on your drive, but if you
don't, things will be cramped.

One more thing is to get the vsvgafx3.zoo file from ftp-os2.nmsu.edu.  It
contains updated drivers for the Tseng 4000 chips.  You'll need it for
dos full screen sessions.  Get the FAQ while you're there.  The FAQ is found
in pub/os2/all/faq.  The driver in pub/os2/2.0/drivers? (I think).

|> 
|> Any information would be greatly appreciated.
|> 
|> Cheers,
|> 
|> Chris

Hope this answers some questions,

Paul Hethmon
hethmon@cs.utk.edu
From: dic5340@hertz.njit.edu (David Charlap)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Re: Couldn't stick it out...
Date: 28 Jul 92 17:01:47 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, N.J.

In article <1992Jul27.212525.26274@infonode.ingr.com> bbrown@infonode.ingr.com (Bailey Brown) writes:
>
>Though I agree the multitasking in windows is probably not as good as
>it is in OS/2 2.0, I have done some amazing things with it, such
>as run a 500 frame MPEG movie at 15 frames/sec in a 320x240 window while 
>downloading at 2400 bps.  When I tried this while downloading at
>10,200 bps, the frame rate dropped to about 10 frames/sec, but my
>download continued without a hiccup.  I think the slowdown a was
>due to my 386/33 being overwhelmed.  A 486/33 probably could have
>kept the frame rate a 15.

Your MPEG viewer is probably a very well written program, then.
There's nothing inherent in Windows that will cause a slowdown
(although DOS boxes cause it serious problems).  If all you have are
Windows apps, and all disk I/O is to the hard drive, you can get ver
good speed.  Assuming the Windows apps are well written (MS
applications are NOT this way!).
-- 
   |)  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
From: chan@holo.iitsg.nrc.ca (Les Chan)
Subject: where is fc (file compare) ?
Reply-To: chan@holo.iitsg.nrc.ca (Les Chan)
Organization: NRC
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 92 13:31:09 GMT



In the redbook volume 2 they list some new commands for os2 2.0,
which were introduced to IBM DOS 5.0.  One program is fc "Intelligent
file compare utility", but I can't find this anywhere.  I find that
comp is nearly useless and most MSDOSs had fc since version 3.3.
Is this utility really missing or is it just me?


Les
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
From: mig@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Meir I Green)
Subject: Re: Can both DOS and OS2 be booted from same HD ?
Keywords: boot, partition
Reply-To: mig@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Meir I Green)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 20:37:43 GMT

In article <nnhut.712263877@bcarh676> nnhut@bnr.ca (Nhut Nguyen) writes:
>Hi world,
>
>Please excuse my ignorance if this has been discussed, but I need
>advice from net.knowledge :-)
>
>I have installed OS2 as HPFS in partition 3 of my hard disk. I also
>have DOS installed in partition 1. Is there any trick that I can
>use so that I can boot from both DOS and OS2 partitions? 
>
>I know how to change partition ID so that DOS partition can be bootable
>after OS2 installation, but the problem seems to be that if I marked
>partition 1 as a DOS partition, OS2 think that partition 1 is drive C: 
>and tries to get files from there, and fails. Is it possible that I can
>change config.sys to instruct OS2 to get files from partition 3 instead ?
>I would like to know whether this is possibe before jump into changing
>my config.sys.
>
>BTW, BOOT manager is not an option because I need all 4 partitions.
>Also dual boot is not good because I want to use HPFS.
>
>Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Please post here if you have any
>suggestion.

In the course of trying to get my setup to recognize an IDE disk after booting
from a SCSI disk, I ahve discovered that lines in config.sys with a specific
drive letter may have the letter removed.  This causes a recoverable pause
only in the case of SWAPPER.DAT.  Of course, you might need to change all
of the variables, such as LIBPATH and PATH to refer to the proper drive, or
the system will have trouble finding things when you log to a different disk.
However, you could probably do this from a cmd file.

 * * * * *  =================  Internet address is   mig@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu
* * * * * * = Meir I. Green =  for short, mail to    mig@columbia.edu
 * * * * *  =================  UUCP Bang!            columbia.edu!mig
* * * * * * =================  Amateur Packet Radio  N2JPG@W2XO.PA.USA.NOAM
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
From: krader@sequent.com (Kurtis D. Rader)
Subject: Re: Fastback and OS/2
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems, Inc.
Distribution: sqnt
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 92 06:19:39 GMT

In article <1992Jul27.045124.6653@sequent.com> krader@sequent.com writes:
>>>I spent roughly four hours trying to get FastBack to work without
>>>success.  The symptoms lead me to believe that FastBack is attempting
>>>low level manipulation of the hardware which OS/2 won't allow a
>>>normal DOS application to perform.  I called Fifth Generation Systems
>>>but they said they had no plans for an OS/2 version.

jmp1@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (JEFFREY MICHAEL PARSONS) writes:
>Also, it has been established on this group that FastBack v2.xx works fine.

My apologies to all.  I should have stated that I have version 3.0
(FastBack Plus) which had been running without a problem (not to
mention blindingly fast) on my current hardware configuration under
DR-DOS 6.0 with Qaulitas QEMM.

Under OS/2 it fails the hardware test to determine the optimum DMA
speed for its operation.  I note that the manual mentions the need to
add "DMABufferSize=20" to the system.ini file when running Windows
386Enhanced mode, but I've been unable to determine what the
equivalent might be under OS/2.
-- 
Kurtis D. Rader, Technical Support Engineer    voice:    800/854-9969
NAOTS, Sequent Computer Systems                fax:      503/578-5453
15450 SW Koll Parkway, M/S WIL1-501            UUCP:     ...uunet!sequent!krader
Beaverton, OR  97006-6063                      internet: krader@sequent.com
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
From: sip1@ellis.uchicago.edu (Timothy F. Sipples)
Subject: Re: Two monitors under OS2
Keywords: monitor
Reply-To: sip1@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: Dept. of Econ., Univ. of Chicago
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 15:02:17 GMT

In article <1992Jul29.095221.9337@arbi.Informatik.Uni-Oldenburg.DE> Ralf.Wirth@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de (Ralf Wirth) writes:
>I run 2 Monitors under OS2, one VGA and one Hercules. I bought the second 
>display, hoping that PM would run on two diplays. It doesn't.
>Well, does anybody know a program, which uses 2 monitors? Maybe a debugger.
>To my mind, Turbo Debugger under DOS does. 

Take a look at echomon (?) -- I believe that is the correct filename
-- available via anonymous ftp from ftp-os2.nmsu.edu.  This utility
helps control dual monitor setups under OS/2 in a much more useful way
than the base system does.

-- 
Get the OS/2 FREQ. ASKED QUESTIONS LIST | Timothy F. Sipples
from 128.123.35.151, anonymous ftp,     | Internet: sip1@ellis.uchicago.edu
directory pub/os2/all/faq, or from      | Dept. of Econ., U. Chicago, 60637
LISTSERV@BLEKUL11.BITNET (send "HELP"). | Tsongas > Perot > Clinton.  Yay.
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
From: mg@elan (Michael Golan)
Subject: Re: BUGS! in os/2! (How to backup OS/2 efficiently?)
Organization: Princeton University, Dept. of Computer Science
Date: 21 Jul 92 06:10:29 GMT

mig@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Meir I Green) writes:


>The other day I ran into a bug which compunded this problem.  No matter what
>I did, OS/2 wouldn't print!  I finally decided to copy the file to a floppy,
>boot DOS, and print from there.  However, OS/2 decided to *lock* the file,
>and I couldn't *copy* it!!!  Naturally, I was not amused, and the tech at
>IBM support, had *no* idea what to do.  So I rebooted OS/2 and tried again,
>and it was no longer locked!  I booted DOS, and printed the file.  From then
>on, OS/2 has been printing, again!


I had a similar problem. A dos application would CRASH, but OS/2 return
to the command line in the dos window. The file that should have been
closed by 'DOS' was 'forgotten' and running the application again got it
just STUCK! (locked for the file).

>I wish IBM could get out a set of comprehensive bug fixes *now*!  There are a
>lot of quirks which we haven't even begun to discover, and it would be
>impossible to figure them out until they are no longer compounded by other,
>known, bugs!

>:-(

H E R E ! H E R E !   IBM are you listening?! STOP CALLING OS/2 a 
		      'QUALITY SUCCESS' and get the bugs fixed! NOW!


>It is experiences like these that make you want to scream, and trash OS/2.
>But, of course, I can't do that, since my system is HPFS, and I don't have a
>good way to back everything up!


It's mail from IBM about WIN 3.1 support & 32-bit engines, together with
'os/2 is a quality success' that makes me want to puke!
At least I wasnt fooled into installing  HPFS (HyPer HyPe File Sys?), 
so I can always boot dos, thanks god.


 Michael Golan
 mg@princeton.edu
From: kjb@calmasd.prime.com (Ken Brucker)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: changing working directory for Windows apps running under OS/2
Date: 21 Jul 92 22:37:00 GMT
Organization: Computervision - A Division of Prime Computer


A couple weeks ago I posted this same question but had to leave town
unexpectedly for a week so I missed any followup that may have occured. 
But to the point ...

I'm trying to get some Windows applications to startup using different default
directories from the ones they happen to reside in.  For example, try as I
might I have been unable to have Word for Windows start with a default
directory of anything other than c:/winword.  So everytime I start the
application and want to work on specific files I need to change the directory
spec in the "Open" dialog.

Under windows I could simply specify the working directory as a part of the
application properties and everything worked fine.  But I've not been able to
get this to work under OS/2.  I've tried changing the working directory in the
settings but it doesn't have any effect once the application actually starts
running.

Overall I really do like OS/2, but it's little things like this that detract
from the overall product.

Ken

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**  Ken Brucker -- VMS/Ultrix Systems Programmer/Mangler -- Computer Vision
 **  kjb@calmasd.Prime.COM  
  **  Practice Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty
From: v085khdn@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Geo @UB)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: does a paradise 1024x16 dirver exist (NOT seamless, just a 1.x)
Date: 28 Jul 92 18:41:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

No, this is not another `where are the seamless drivers for xxxxxx?'

just want regular pm drivers for 1024x768x16 for a western digital/pardise
chipset.

hobbes has 800x600, but no 1024
i coould have sworn i had seen it months ago before os/2 finally arrived.
i don't remember /pub/os2/all/drivers being quite as sparse as it is now
(yes i did check /1.x/drivers)

if anyoune knows where they are/if they exist i would be most grateful

I cant bear to use a real os in a resolution made for toys.

please e-mail--------donn't check the net as often as i should

		thanks in advance....

				g.s.