You should know that Android DOSBox is not an official port and not supported here, but that's kind of beside the point.

This sounds like a driver that is trying to load. Are there any other reverences to Novell files in your system.ini? You might need to check protocol.ini as well.

You should of course make more backups of your installation in the future. 😜 If you have a copy of some sort on your PC's NTFS-formatted hard drive, you might be able to recover something using "Previous Versions".

Jorpho wrote:

You should know that Android DOSBox is not an official port and not supported here, but that's kind of beside the point.

This sounds like a driver that is trying to load. Are there any other reverences to Novell files in your system.ini? You might need to check protocol.ini as well.

You should of course make more backups of your installation in the future. 😜 If you have a copy of some sort on your PC's NTFS-formatted hard drive, you might be able to recover something using "Previous Versions".

I suspected DosBoxTurbo was not an "official port", but it is surprisingly close to the original.
Almost all *.conf options work there, and its running rock solid - it just doesn't include the coveted NE2000 patch.
And unfortunately Android doesn't run on NTFS, so no filesystem snapshots available here.

I removed *all* Novell Client32 references from all the *.ini files, and even tried my luck with removing as many of the *.368 / *.drv drivers as possible w/o wreaking the whole system.
But astonishingly that dreaded NDPS message still comes up as soon as the desktop is visible.

Now I am using Calmira, and I am asking myself if maybe that custom Desktop has its own autoload places, where it might load Novell drivers independently from Windows??

Perhaps the registry? (Windows 3.1 had a very primitive registry.)

I suppose you could try running some flavor of grep (FreeDOS has something appropriate) in your DOSBox installation to see if you can locate that string in any of the files, but that won't work if the executable (or whatever) is somehow decompressed or decrypted at runtime.

In Windows you could use a debug-enabled version of DOSBox to try to determine if the appearance of the message is associated with the access of any particular file.

Jorpho wrote:

Perhaps the registry? (Windows 3.1 had a very primitive registry.)

I suppose you could try running some flavor of grep (FreeDOS has something appropriate) in your DOSBox installation to see if you can locate that string in any of the files, but that won't work if the executable (or whatever) is somehow decompressed or decrypted at runtime.

In Windows you could use a debug-enabled version of DOSBox to try to determine if the appearance of the message is associated with the access of any particular file.

I already used fgrep on all the files to no avail.
But since I am not even sure what I am to be looking for, in case the offending file is loaded directly from the Windows directory rather than from the Novel dir, I am very much interested in that debug option you mentioned.
How do I enable this debug mode in DosBox, that shows me exactly what file is being accessed when ?

I have a couple of suggestions.

1. A NetWare guru is probably going to want to know the exact Client32 version you are using as well as the Novell NetWare system version you were going to contact with the NetWare client.

2. Have a look at the following URL:

https://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/5.html

If you look at the Windows 3.11 section, It indicates that Printer Agent components (including a custom port (NDPS0n)) are installed as part of NDPS, and that PSETUP.EXE or NWPMW16.EXE can be used to manage those components.

You might try using PSETUP.EXE or NWPMW16.EXE to remove any printers that you have installed (or attempted to install) (See the Using PSETUP to install NDPS printer agents section in the above URL). I have no idea how to uninstall the Printer Agent components themselves (after your remove any printers), but it might be possible to do that by unchecking the option(s) for NDPS in the Client32 setup (i.e. re-run the Client32 setup).

akula65 wrote:

I have a couple of suggestions. […]
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I have a couple of suggestions.

1. A NetWare guru is probably going to want to know the exact Client32 version you are using as well as the Novell NetWare system version you were going to contact with the NetWare client.

2. Have a look at the following URL:

https://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/5.html

If you look at the Windows 3.11 section, It indicates that Printer Agent components (including a custom port (NDPS0n)) are installed as part of NDPS, and that PSETUP.EXE or NWPMW16.EXE can be used to manage those components.

You might try using PSETUP.EXE or NWPMW16.EXE to remove any printers that you have installed (or attempted to install) (See the Using PSETUP to install NDPS printer agents section in the above URL). I have no idea how to uninstall the Printer Agent components themselves (after your remove any printers), but it might be possible to do that by unchecking the option(s) for NDPS in the Client32 setup (i.e. re-run the Client32 setup).

Sorry for the late reply, but my work laptop departed for greener pastures just this Monday.
I downloaded the latest and (not so) greatest Client32 version for Win3.11 from the Novel website for this endevour.
I will try your suggestion with PSETUP.EXE and NWPMW16.EXE, but it might already help to know where the install log for Client32 is written to (if there is any such log).
I think it must load that dreaded NDPS driver somewhere in one of the *.INI files, but it must be a driver copied directly into C:\Windows (for I removed "\Client32" completely by now).

Note that this forum is for Windows games, not DOSBox or emulation.

Moved to "PC Emulation", as the DOSBox forum mods will lock it for not being a supported port.

Stiletto wrote:

Moved to "PC Emulation", as the DOSBox forum mods will lock it for not being a supported port.

C'mon folks be serious. DosBox Turbo is based on the original DosBox sources.
I shouldn't even have mentioned that I was running DBT, as my problem had nothing to do with the underlying operating system.
That is almost tribalistic to be so hostile to a DOS/Windows question, which got nothing to do with the underlying port, simply because I am running DosBox on a new platform.
Quiet frankly, for strictly Windows based systems D-Fend and the like offer "out-of-the-box" experience with pretested setups that leave next to no questions left to ask.

You folks do realize that Tablets are the up- and coming new reality and that there will soon be more DosBox installations on Android than on Windows PCs (if that isn't the case already)?!

It's not tribalistic, it's a matter of knowing where to seek technical support. Dosbox Turbo's tech support guy can be found here: https://sites.google.com/site/dosboxturbo/
and here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id … ix.dosbox&hl=en

At best, the only subforum we have for emulators not supported by the main DOSBox forums is the "PC Emulation" subforum which is here.

Also, the main DOSBox devs would tell you that DOSBox is only for supporting games, and you are asking about Novell, and printing, which is outside of their supported use cases for DOSBox? DOSBox IS NOT SUITED TO RUN YOUR NON-GAMING DOS APPLICATION

The original development team for the main port shouldn't be held responsible for tech support issues of the Android port. Now, if you can prove that you can duplicate these issues on the main port, and it's regarding supporting games, now we're talking.