                   Joe's OS/2 Tips.

                      Number 5

         Written by Joseph Mckinnon (61:560/0@Worldnet)
        
         Downloaded from Proteus OS/2.
        
         Phone +61-7-800-3521
        
         Hours 24 hours a day
        
         Speeds 300-14400, MNP, V42Bis (NETCOMM)

=========================================================================

A] The Service Pack.
B] BootManager
C] SCSI CD-ROM Drivers
D] DAP Developers Kit

A] THE SERVICE PACK HAS ARRIVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Just in case you don't know, IBM has finally released the Service
    Pack (SP) for OS/2.  Call IBM Direct Marketing for the upgrade, or your
    local OS/2 BBS Support Site (be prepared though, it is 14 meg in
    size!).
    In Australia the cost from IBM is $30 which includes 14 diskettes
    and courier fees to your door.

    INSTALLING
        IMPORTANT!  If you plan to use the new windows 3.0a support
        (which is improved over GA) you must have it installed before
        applying the SP.  This is the same for all other optional
        components to OS/2.  As the SP only updates what it finds, and
        doesn't have a selective install.  WHICH I believe is silly way
        to provide it, but maybe, when the final SP comes out, (with
        Win31) they may have rewritten the code.

        Installing it, is dead easy.  Open an OS/2 session, goto drive A
        and type SERVICE, and from there on follow the instructions.
        DON'T simply boot from DRIVE A with the SP disk 1, since the
        service package does changes to your system, that are required.
        People, who have had problems with this SP, are normally the people
        who have just thrown in Disk 1 and booted up rather than typing
        SERVICE.

    WHAT'S IN THIS SP?
        Apart from the bug fixes, this SP includes the amazing 32bit
        graphics engine, tighter code (uses memory more efficiently) and
        DOS/WINDOWS sessions Have a Host of new DOS_SETTINGS to play
        with.
        COM_DIRECT_ACCESS
               This will allows deactivation of VCOM.SYS (OS/2's Virtual
               DOS COM PORT Support) and allows the DOS program to
               directly address the com ports.
               This feature has also allows many DOS coms programs to function
               at 'full speed'.
        COM_HOLD
               This will allow a DOS session exclusive access to a com
               port.
        COM_SELECT
               You can specify which com port you wish to allow, for THIS
               session only.
        INT_DURING_IO
               Mainly for Multi-Media stuff, but I have found that just
               about any DOS program works better when I have this one
               on.  BUT this can severely affect the performance of the
               whole machine, if you have 2 or more sessions at once
               open, with this option on.

B] What is a Boot Manager.

        I am often asked why and when to install the boot manager.
        Basically I use boot manager to run different operating systems,
        which is it's sole feature.  Boot Manager occupies 1 meg on your
        hard drive and will ask on boot up which partition you wish to
        boot from.
        It's ideal for a separate DOS and OS/2 Partitions for new users,
        so that they don't go changing the wrong Config.sys files.
        Also, with a bit of simple thinking, you DON'T loose space on your
        hard drive.  That is, if your using a DOS and an OS/2 Partition,
        with LIMITED hard drive space, make both of them FAT partitions
        and set them up as the following.

          Startable           : Primary         BOOT MANAGER    1
 DOS      Bootable           C: Primary         FAT            31
 OS/2 2.0 Bootable           D: Logical         FAT            50
          None               E: Logical         FAT           119

        By Making your DOS partition as primary and the rest logical,
        you can then access all partitions, if and only if the file system
        is FAT, while under DOS.  This is one solution to your backup
        needs, if you like say PC-Backup.

C] SCSI CD-ROM Drivers

    IBM has released a Generic SCSI driver for CD-ROM (SCSI) drives.
    This May solve the problem for you and your drive.  I have included
    this driver in with this issue.
    Also I have obtained the the SoundBlaster Pro CD-ROM Beta driver.
    This works mainly on machines which do not have have SCSI Hard drive,
    at least, this has been my experience so far.  It's also included.
    BOTH drivers replace the CDROM.SYS that comes with OS/2.

D] DAP Developers Kit CD-ROM

    I have just received IBMs developers kit for OS/2, it contains 300
    meg of data, programs, BETA CODE for various IBM products and sample
    source code.  It has tones of interesting stuff that developers and
    end users will love.  Call IBM Direct for Ordering Details ($60
    Australian).  It has a lot of documentation on the CD-ROM, which is
    great to read and draw information from, for any level of
    user/programmer.

===============================================================
Software inclusion.

    I have also include a very basic C program, for IBM's CSet/2, it just
    demonstrates the usage of a simple function to query the system
    about devices attached.

===============================================================
Software Version List
   There are several brilliant new releases for OS/2 so take a look at
   the software revision list.  At present I am only covering
   Shareware/Public Domain, but, if there's a willing body out there, I
   shall incorporate a Commerial listing.

===============================================================
NEWS FLASH
   IBM and Novell have joined forces to produce the BEST industry
   standard server for OS/2 and the PC based Networks, Lan Manager ver 3.0.
   So Microsoft's alienation of Novell and other network products spells the
   death of NT, since neither Lantastic nor Novell have ANY plans for
   NT.  So With Novell firmly entrenched with IBM, the future looks very
   bright and rosey for OS/2, whilst NT's network future is becoming
   greyish and restrained to Microsoft's own.

   WINOS231 is scheduled for release in December,  be prepared to have
   your socks toasted off your feet, and your mind to be blown away, with
   the speed/performance of this new addition to the OS/2 World.

================================================================

   Another Short and sweet production,  I'd better thank IBM and others
   for their respective trademarks.  Next Issue, most likely on
   Christmas Day I shall try and get a little comms program out for OS/2
   with full source code.  Till Next Time Happy OS/2ing it!
