First post, by Nemo1985
Hello fellow vogonians, in years of collecting old pc I developed a good general boot configuration for my dos 7.1 retropc (without windows 98) aimed to have a good compatibility and enough free conventional memory, starting from the phil boot disk configuration.
Since everything is perfectible in this world I'm looking for some advices aimed to further improve the configuration.
The files I'm going to paste are good from 486 onward, some program is not compatible with 386 machines (where anyway I use with dos 6), but I can't remember which.
The version I'm using allows me to have 626kb of conventional memory free, 157kb of upper memory free, xms (or ems) and cd driver, mouse driver plus unisound for a good compatibility with sound cards, to reach this result I obviously had to use different memory managers but I left the option to fall back to the old "good" himem.sys so if something doesn't work I can check with a more "vanilla configuration".
That's the config.sys:
[MENU]
menuitem=CD-NOEMS, CD-ROM + Memoria Estesa
menuitem=CD-EMS, CD-ROM + Memoria Espansa
menuitem=CD-NO386, CD-ROM senza EMM386
menuitem=NOCD-NOEMS, Memoria Estesa
menuitem=NOCD-EMS, Memoria Espansa
menuitem=NOCD-NO386, Memoria Convenzionale
menuitem=MIN, Configurazione Safe
menudefault=CD-NOEMS, 10
menucolor = 7,0
[COMMON]
SWITCHES=/E:288 /F
DOS=HIGH,UMB,AUTO
BUFFERSHIGH=15,0
FILESHIGH=40
FCBSHIGH=4,0
STACKSHIGH=9,256
LASTDRIVEHIGH=E
COUNTRY=039,850,C:\DOS\COUNTRY.SYS
[CD-NOEMS]
DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS /B
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS NOVCPI HIGHSCAN I=B000-B7FF
rem DEVICE=C:\UTIL\JEMM386.EXE NOEMS X=TEST I=B000-B7FF I=F000-F7FF
DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
rem DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\VIDECDD.SYS /D:OPTICAL
DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /H /S10
DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XDVD2.SYS /H /D:OPTICAL
[CD-EMS]
DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS /B
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM HIGHSCAN I=B000-B7FF
rem DEVICE=C:\UTIL\JEMM386.EXE X=TEST I=B000-B7FF I=F000-F7FF
DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
rem DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\VIDECDD.SYS /D:OPTICAL
DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /H /S10
DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XDVD2.SYS /H /D:OPTICAL
[CD-NO386]
DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /S10
DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XDVD2.SYS /D:OPTICAL
[NOCD-NOEMS]
DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS /B
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS NOVCPI HIGHSCAN I=B000-B7FF
rem DEVICE=C:\UTIL\JEMM386.EXE NOEMS X=TEST I=B000-B7FF I=F000-F7FF
DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /H /S10
[NOCD-EMS]
DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS /B
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM HIGHSCAN I=B000-B7FF
rem DEVICE=C:\UTIL\JEMM386.EXE X=TEST I=B000-B7FF I=F000-F7FF
DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /H /S10
[NOCD-NO386]
DEVICE=C:\UTIL\XMGR.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\XHDD.SYS /H /S10
[MIN]
DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\VIDECDD.SYS /D:OPTICAL
Here is the autoexec.bat:
@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $p$g
PATH C:\DOS;C:\UTIL
SET TEMP=C:\TEMP
MODE CON CODEPAGE PREPARE=((850) C:\DOS\EGA.CPI)
MODE CON CODEPAGE SELECT=850
LH C:\UTIL\CTMOUSE.EXE /R2
C:\UTIL\KEYB.EXE IT
LH C:\UTIL\DOSKEY.COM
C:\UTIL\UNISOUND.COM /V75 /VW75 /VF75 /VL00 /VC75 /VM00
goto %config%
:CD-NOEMS
C:\UTIL\SHSUCDX.COM /D:OPTICAL
goto end
:CD-EMS
C:\UTIL\SHSUCDX.COM /D:OPTICAL
goto end
:CD-NO386
C:\UTIL\SHSUCDX.COM /D:OPTICAL
goto end
:NOCD-NOEMS
goto end
:NOCD-EMS
goto end
:NOCD-NO386
goto end
:MIN
LH C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:OPTICAL
goto end
:end
set config=
I heard there are better alternatives to doskey which use a lower memory footprint but gives the same features, I use it to get back on history commands and autocomplete.
Any advice is very much appreciated.