My FreeDOS trial and error "editor free" config tuning method

Hi, please download
http://www.coli.uni-sb.de/~eric/stuff/soft/specials/ freedos-config.txt

Next, make sure that you have all files which I am talking about in that
config, and make sure to adjust their paths if needed. You should always
use DEVICE=...path...\driver syntax even if the driver is in c:\ root
directory.

Then, save the config.sys and autoexec.bat parts of my text to the
corresponding files (make backups of the old versions if needed). That
is, replace your config with mine.


IF you should get really bored:
http://www.coli.uni-sb.de/~eric/stuff/soft/by-others/kernel-fd2027rc.zip
is a little bit newer than yours, but should not make any difference.

Okay, now you can go for it:

Reboot and you will have to answer several y/n questions.
First choice is XMS managers: fdxxms, himem, dr dos himem, fdxms or none
Next is UMB and EMS managers: umbpci, emm386, dr dos emm386 or none
Be warned that umbpci will probably refuse to work for you, that you need
to use my special version of dr dos emm386, and that freedos emm386 does
neither work with fdxxms nor fdxms nor dr dos himem and that freedos emm386
is generally problematic for protected mode stuff.
Next you can select if you want CD ROM support or not.
Next you can select one, both or none of two different ramdisks.
Next you can select if you want LBAcache to cache drive C:
Next you can select if you want NANSI. It will then be tested.
Next you can activate DR DOS emm386 DPMI: Only do this if other DPMI should
fail and only do this if you did not load any of: umbpci, dr dos emm386,
freedos emm386, freedos hiram before. Better do not load lbacache in this
case either.

Next you should get a countdown and then autoexec.bat will start to run:
You can select whether or not you want to load peruse, cutemouse and
share to be loaded (you get asked for each of them).
Finally, DOS will wait until you press enter, show some information and give
you a prompt.

As said, syseecho is part of my lbacache package. Ask me if I forgot to tell
where you can get this or that driver. Try in
http://www.coli.uni-sb.de/~eric/stuff/soft/ (including the by-others/ and
specials/ directories) before asking me. Other stuff should be part of
FreeDOS (or DR DOS of course). Try to use very recent versions of all drivers,
especially FreeDOS emm386/himem and fdxms/fdxxms.

If your system crashes, reboot and try to answer all those y/n questions in
another way. That way you will be able to find out which drivers make your
system unstable. Just reboot as often as you want until you found a good
and stable configuration, hopefully with lots of RAM free (use the various
options of MEM to find out, and/or use my SYSMEM.sys to display some lowlevel
info as early as in config.sys).

Have fun and good luck. You should not need to edit your config files during
the experiments, as there are dozens of ways to answer the y/n questions
while you are trying to tune your config. When done, put a "rem " in front
of the options that you usually answer "N" to and remove the "?" for options
where you usually answer "Y". I think you get my point :-)).

Eric

PS to the list: I hope some of you get inspired by this approach as well :-).