From: peet@locus.com (J. David Peet)
Subject: Re: How to get Merge to see DOS partition?
Organization: Locus Computing Corp, Los Angeles
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 04:13:41 GMT

>In article <1992Dec9.165909.19109@sbcs.sunysb.edu> shane@cs.sunysb.edu
  (Shane Bouslough) writes:
>>I have Dell UNIX on a disk which also has a bootable DOS
>>partition. According to the Merge docs, the DOS partition
>>should appear as e:. Unfortunately it doesn't.
>>I created the DOS partition after I installed UNIX, so I
>>can see how this would be a problem. However, I can't seem
>>to find a way to get Merge to find it now. dosadmin seems
>>to be of no help. Any ideas? Sorry if this is in the Merge
>>docs, I couldn't find it.

When Merge is installed, it automatically tries to link /dev/dsk/dos
to the UNIX device that is the primary DOS partition, which is normally
/dev/dsk/0s5 on SVR4.0 systems.  Some versions of UNIX have trouble
connecting a device file (such as /dev/dsk/0s5) to the DOS partition,
expecially when the DOS partition was created/formatted after UNIX was
installed.  For this problem you need to call the UNIX support.

Merge automatically uses /dev/dsk/dos for drive E:.  If /dev/dsk/dos is
linked to a properly working UNIX device name for the DOS partition, with
the correct permissions, then it will work.
If you have other DOS partitions then you can also attach those to
any drive letter from E to I.

In article <Bz9ptE.I7H@chinet.chi.il.us> ignatz@chinet.chi.il.us
  (Dave Ihnat) writes:
>Finally, there does seem to be some strangeness in the way MERGE uses
>its /etc support files (dosapp.dev,dosenv.dev) Although entries are there
>for both the mouse (on COM1) and /dev/dsk/dos--which is just another special
>device with the same major,minor numbers as /dev/dsk/0s5--neither are
>automatically available when you crank up DOS; to get either (or both), the
>command line options must be explicitly given on startup:
>
>	dos +adcom1 +ae:=/dev/dsk/0s5

This is not quite correct.  The default is "+amouse +ae:=/dev/dsk/dos".
(Which is held in the /etc/dosenv.def file, and you use the "dosopt"
utility to view and change the settings in this file.)
The "+amouse" causes the mouse to be used via the UNIX console driver,
thus it automatically follows the current VT.  Using "+adcom1" is not
recommended for using the mouse.  As long as /dev/dsk/dos is linked
properly to the DOS partition device, then it will be automatically
available.  Unless these defaults have been changed by the user, the mouse
and DOS partition should be automatically available without needing to
use the command line parameters.

>More, although /dev/dsk/dos and /dev/dsk/0s5 have the same major,minor numbers,
>I can't access the partition from /dev/dsk/dos; it has to be the 0s5 special
>device.  This latter may well be a configuration problem, however, as none of
>the MERGE manuals are available from Dell, and the online manuals are one rev
>out of date.  (Any ideas how to get the latest version of the manuals?)

It sounds like the permissions are wrong on /dev/dsk/dos.  If they
have the same major and minor numbers, then they connect to the same
device.  The actual name does not matter, but the permissions do.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- 
David Peet     Internet: peet@locus.com   UUCP:...!uunet!lcc!peet  
Locus Computing Corporation, 9800 La Cienega Blvd. Inglewood, CA 90301
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Disclaimer: Normally my statements are my own, and not do not
necessarily reflect those of Locus, but maybe this time they do,
but then again, maybe not.
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Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386,comp.unix.i386