Re: Can v. 112 of Jumbo U2 Crash OS/2 ?

["J. R. Fox" jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

Robert Holmgren wrote:

> > I have *always* run Xy as a fullscreen seamless session.
>
> Fullscreen seamless? I never heard "seamless" used in any context other than
> Win-OS/2, i.e. running a Win3.x program on the OS/2 Desktop. Do you mean,
> Maximized (but still windowed) session on the Desktop? To me, "FullScreen"
> means DOS VGA 80x25 640x480 black-background console session, no Desktop in
> sight -- the way DOS apps were designed to run, in short.

Hi Robert,

Yes. That's what I meant. I'm either remembering the definition of "seamless"
imprecisely, or using it loosely. To me, it always meant fullscreen (not a max.
window), no Desktop in sight. I recall the folks on CIS OS/2 fora using that term
as if it meant anything that is launched directly from a Desktop program object, and
running all by itself, with no other mediation. As opposed to going to a DOS
session and running a DOS pgm., or going to a Win-OS2 session and running a f/s
Win-16 pgm. from FileManager, or whatever.

> > This happens so fast I don't think Startup has
> > even gotten off the starting block.
>
> Jordan, I honestly think there's a gremlin in your machine. Tried a fresh copy
> of EDITOR?

No, but I'm willing, if it comes to that.

> Print-to-file your DOS Settings under W4, and copy them to ECS.

Last fall, Carl sent me a listing of his DOS session settings for OS/2. I spent
half an hour this moring trying to track that down, and finally found it in a
humongous Mail file. I should have filed it separately at the time &/or printed it
out for reference. Maybe I did and misplaced it. Anyway, that little project now
jumps many rungs of priority on my To Do List. (I also found an old note to someone
else on an OS/2 List, detailing recommended DOS session settings for WP 5.1, which
might make for interesting comparison.) It may be that Carl's suggested settings
are worthy of being globalized for all my DOS sessions, period.

> Then start by putting  in STARTUP.INT at the very beginning of the file,
> i.e. load nothing. If Xy4 loads successfully and repeatedly, you'll at least
> know that something in STARTUP.INT is triggering the problem.

Well, it ain't. This was a good idea, diagnostically. I have an alternate Xy 4.018
installation, one that never had U2 but otherwise has much the same Startup.Int
items as in the file I sent you. I put the  at the top of _that_ Startup
file. Then, in ECS, I opened a f/s DOS session, and ran the alternate, non-U2'd
XyDOS. It came up, but with a frozen screen, no mouse or keyboard response -- i.e.,
unuseable. Went back to the Desktop, which at this point was still there, and
closed the DOS session from the TaskList. THEN, I opened a fresh f/s DOS session.
(Note: this is -- again -- the _2nd._ consecutive attempt at running a DOS session
!) Forget about trying to run Xy again. BANG: as soon as the DOS session is
invoked, immediate Trap. Same type, slightly different address.

I think we're looking at something much more fundamental than Xy at this point. And
U2 is exonerated. If another DOS app. will do this (have to install another to
see), or if it turns out the DOS session *alone* can do it, things aren't looking
very good for SDD Pro. I'm prepared to adjust my DOS settings, something I've
wanted to do anyway, but right now I doubt it will make the difference. If it's
something like the Video BIOS Shadowing -- another suggestion here -- I don't think
I'm going to change that, just to please SDD. If one buys a new model of video
card, one is stuck with their universal driver, because no one is still making
native OS/2 drivers for video cards . . .  but I run an older model Matrox card
(G400) that is still very good, and the last native OS/2 drivers for it are very
stable and trouble-free.

When I sent this query to Scitech Tech Support, they essentially replied, 'Can't
help you here. Take it to the newsgroups.' Wrong answer ! If their product is
going to cause me problems, I really don't need it. And better to drop it during
the evaluation period, before any purchase.

I think there is at least a 50 % chance that the standard edition of SDD that came
free with ECS did not do this. And I'd be willing to bet money that putting the
Matrox 2.36 drivers on instead will write "Finito" to this whole issue.

> Try the BX p 1Q2 idea;

I don't recall your mentioning that before. What idea was this ?

Jordan