Very interesting! I learn something new every day! But, was the
source available to the public? If not, it's not much different from NT
now, which makes source available under an NDA.
>MS-DOS 2.11 was a very special version. It was the one where Microsoft
>explicitly supported OEM modifications. Even the source code to IO.SYS
>was obtainable! Each manufacturer that had something weird could make
>their mods to it. For example: PC-DOS 3.20 was the first one to
support
>720K floppies. But LOTS of MS-DOS 2.11 variants support 720Ks. (NOT
ALL
>WITH THE SAME DISK FORMAT!!) Or the manufacturer could modify IO.SYS
so
>that pressing Ctrl+Alt+Meta+CokeBottle switches to power-saving
"suspend
>mode", etc.
>
>Accordingly, 2.11 was usually tied to a given manufacturer. DG 2.11
was
>not quite the same as Gavilan 2.11, etc. Typically, MODE.COM would be
>heavily customized, and frequently IO.SYS would have a few differences.
>For example, Gavilan 2.00, 2.10 or 2.11 all supported 3.5" disks, but
>only 2.11 worked right. And 2.11K, 2.11L, etc. also supported double
>sided disks.
>
>If you CAN, try to find a copy of that 2.11 for your machine; the one
>modified by the hardware manufacturer to work with the weirdities of
your
>hardware. If you choose to use one of the newer versions of DOS (6.2x
is
>the most reliable for a couple of reasons), at least keep a copy
available
>of the MODE.COM that was customized for your machine. You might need
to
>use SETVER, or disassemble and look for the code that goes:
>MOV AH, 30h
>INT 21h
>CMP AX,
>
>Using the newer version of DOS MIGHT cut you off from some of the
>customizations, but hopefully MODE.COM may have most of the ones that
you
>need, such as MODE LCD , etc.
>
>--
>Fred Cisin cisin_at_xenosoft.com
>XenoSoft http://www.xenosoft.com
>2210 Sixth St. (510) 644-9366
>Berkeley, CA 94710-2219
>
>
>On Tue, 27 Oct 1998, Ward Donald Griffiths III wrote:
>
>> Cameron Kaiser wrote:
>> >
>> > Weeeeeeeell, I landed a Data General One laptop. Normally I eschew
MS-DOS
>> > based machines, simply because I'm a racist pig etc., but this one
has an
>> > interesting notebook mode and a built-in terminal program at
1200bps. Except
>> > that the screen is harder to read than James Joyce, it seems like a
winner
>> > and it works great.
>> >
>> > Question. Anyone know what version of DOS this uses? Does someone
have any
>> > boot disks out there, or at least have the system files available
for
>> > download? The drives are 3.5" DD, right?
>>
>> Came as I recall with MS-DOS 2.11, should use anything up to 6.22,
>> though of course it's tricky building a 720k 6.22.system disk. 3.3
>> is probably your best bet, although I think there were some hardware
>> specific utilities on the original material that might come in rather
>> handy. Nice machine -- the only DOS laptop to tempt me prior to the
>> Zenith SuperSports.
>> --
>> Ward Griffiths <mailto:gram_at_cnct.com>
<
http://www.cnct.com/home/gram/>
>>
>> WARNING: The Attorney General has determined that Alcohol, Tobacco,
>> and Firearms can be hazardous to your health -- and get away with it.
>
>
>
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Received on Tue Oct 27 1998 - 18:28:10 GMT