SvarDOS community forum

Hello there, Has anyone managed to run the enhanced mode for WfW 3.11 under SvarDOS? If yes, can you share your config.sys and autoexec.bat please? Thanks! :)

If I recall correctly, the Windows VSHARE driver has to be disabled, as this is incompatible with the EDR kernel. You may resort to the SvarDOS DRSHARE package (SHARE.EXE), if you use a Windows program which requires SHARE to be installed.

I just tried it: The line containing "device=vshare.386" in windows\system.ini has to be removed or commented out. Then Windows 3.11 WfW runs on my SvarDOS without any further changes to the config files.

Thanks Bernd! :) I suppose WfW 3.11 won't run in enhanced mode from a FAT32 partition. Is that correct?

> I suppose WfW 3.11 won't run in enhanced mode from a FAT32 partition. Is that correct?

Honestly, I do not know for sure (I am not that familiar with Windows 3.1+). I just copied a Win installation over to a FAT32 drive and launched it from there. The five minutes I tested it, I noticed no obvious malfunction. However, for maximum compatibility you should better use FAT-16, as Win3.1 has no knowledge about FAT32 at all. Most likely there will be some compatibility problems.

I did exactly what you did, but unfortunately, it won't start in enhanced mode. Also, the Windows setup won't work correctly with himemx, so I had to either use MS-DOS 7.1's himem.sys or install the DRHIMEM package to use its himem.sys. Maybe I am missing something else?

Okay, I reinstalled SvarDOS but this time into a FAT16 2GB volume, then installed WfW3.11 using the steps mentioned above, and it now runs fine in enhanced mode after following your advice to remove the share drivers from system.ini Interestingly, I can still access large FAT32 volumes using its File Manager, I tried a 7GB partition and a 100 GB partition! More testing has to be done, of course! :)

> Interestingly, I can still access large FAT32 volumes using its File Manager, I tried a 7GB partition and a 100 GB partition!

File access is probably handled by DOS, at least as long as you do not enable 32-bit file access under Windows, I guess. What most likely will not work is FAT32 formatting these drives with the file manager. If you test this, please report the results :)

Unfortunately, I ran into a lot of trouble, I could not get the WfW NDIS driver working (I may try using the DOS packet driver + trumpet winsock) Also, I could not get the VBESVGA driver or any SVGA driver to work. And I could not get the sound drivers installed. I suspect that WfW is very picky, I'll try the "regular" Windows 3.11 tonight :)

Hmm, can you give some details about your hardware configuration? Is it real hardware or some virtualization?

I tested the AWE64 sound card driver under Win 3.11 WfW. This works. Graphics driver for ET4000 also works. This is on an emulated 486 DX2 80MHz system, emulated via 86box.

Not virtualisation nor emulation. I am using a motherboard called "ITX Llama" and at its heart a SOM called Vortex86-EX, it's clocked at 300MHz with 128MB of RAM. The sound card is Crystal Sound CS4237B , I am using a driver that was reported it installed fine on the same board, but using MS-DOS 6.22

Suggestion: Replace your SHARE.EXE file from one that comes straight out of MS-DOS 6.22, not from other DOSes. And retry.

You should absolutely not use MS-DOS share.exe, any version, with an EDR-DOS kernel.

ecm is right. But please, pay attention, we are both right: You said you were using MS-DOS 6.22 on your ITX Llama board, then use a fresh SHARE.EXE from MS-DOS 6.22 as I said. If you are using an EDR-DOS kernel, instead, only use the SHARE.EXE that matches their kernel, as ecm said.