OSOTWPER - OS/2 WARP KERNAL/OTHER INFORMATION 01/18/95 =============================================================== OS/2 WARP KERNAL/OTHER INFORMATION =============================================================== This document contains frequently asked questions about the Kernal in OS/2 Warp and a few questions about the Bonus Pack. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Why is my SWAPPER.DAT file larger in WARP? Warp now swaps system DLLs (dynamic link libraries) to the SWAPPER.DAT file when needed instead of just overwriting them in memory. This makes it much quicker to bring them back in. There is a lot of overhead to load a shared DLL from the file system versus saving the DLL and its associated system data in the SWAPPER.DAT. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Where is the best place to put the SWAPPER.DAT file? The best place for the swapper file is on a drive with a good amount of freespace, little disk activity, low fragmentation percentage, and in the root directory. The SWAPPER.DAT file stores information in 4KB "pages", so if using the FAT file system, the normal 2KB cluster size is ignored and a 4KB cluster size is used to prevent fragmentation of memory page frames. The system searches for the largest contiguous free space on the drive that is noted in the SWAPPATH statement in the CONFIG.SYS and creates the SWAPPER.DAT to the initial size in that unfragmented free space to enhance performance. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 3. How do I use the Dynamic Libpath? The LIBPATH statement in the CONFIG.SYS has not changed. It is not an environmental variable and any changes made to it do not take effect until a shutdown and restart is completed. However, there are now two new envirnmental variables that the system uses when an application is looking for a DLL (dynamic link library). They are: SET BEGINLIBPATH=path and SET ENDLIBPATH=path where, "path" is the location of the DLLs. They are searched in the following order: 1st - BEGINLIBPATH (environmental variable) 2nd - LIBPATH (config.sys) 3rd - ENDLIBPATH (environmental variable) ---------------------------------------------------------------- 4. How can I improve my boot performance? You can do a couple of things to make sure your boot time is minimized: A. Make sure the Windows FASTLOAD option is turned off. This loads a DOS and Windows session in the background during bootup. If you have less than 6MB of memory, it is recommended this be turned off. You can do so by going into the OS/2 System folder, then System Setup, then WIN-OS/2 Setup. B. Do not Archive your desktop on every reboot. You really should only use archive whenever your desktop customization is just how you want it. The archive tab is located in the desktop settings notebook. C. Use multiple CONFIG.SYS files to only load certain device drivers, depending on what you plan to do during a particular boot session. For example, the Internet Access Kit has several device drivers, which in low memory systems can use a lot of the free memory available, causing some swapping to occur. By having one CONFIG.SYS with the device drivers remarked out and one CONFIG.SYS with the device drivers present, during bootup you can choose whether to load support for the Internet Access Kit or not. See page 216 of the Warp User's Guide to find out how to create multiple CONFIG.SYS files and activate them in the ALT+F1 recovery menu. D. Add SET RESTARTOBJECTS=STARTUPFOLDERSONLY to the CONFIG.SYS file. This causes the Workplace Shell to only restart the objects you have in the STARTUP Folder or the STARTUP.CMD file. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Why does Warp run better on 4MB systems? Some of the optimizations that contribute Warp running faster are: A. There is a new LINK parameter, /EXEPACK, that was used on many system files when Warp was compiled. It compresses resource and message files by 20-30%. These files load 2-3% faster on average. B. Some page frames are "zero compressed" (similar to PKZIP) and put in areas of memory already allocated but has extra space. This allows a page frame to be swapped from RAM to RAM (which operates in nanoseconds) versus swapping from RAM to the hard disk (which operates in milliseconds). Up to 250 of these pages can be moved to different areas of RAM instead of the SWAPPER.DAT. C. Many system DLLs (dynamic link libraries) are now being swapped out to the hard disk. This makes it much quicker to bring them back in. There is a lot of overhead to load a shared DLL from the file system versus saving the DLL and its associated system data in the SWAPPER.DAT. D. The SWAPPER.DAT, when initialized, is put in the largest contiguous space of the FAT file system. Before the system was not concerned with swapper framentation. E. The internal file system in the SWAPPER.DAT file has a 4KB cluster size instead of a 2KB cluster size now. This change makes it more efficient to swap out a 4KB page from to a 4KB swapper cluster size and vice versa. F. Some system DLLs have been merged together so less overhead is required to load them into memory and notify all tasks of their locations. For example, PMMERGE.DLL contains three old system DLLs: PMGRE.DLL, PMSHAPI.DLL and PMWIN.DLL. Although these DLLs are still in WARP, their function is simply to forward their calls to PMMERGE.DLL. Some other DLLs that are merged are DOSCALL1.DLL and MMPM.DLL. G. A method of addressing called BASING puts some system DLLs at an absolute address to reduce the overhead of finding them in memory. OTHER QUESTIONS ================================================================ 1. How do you create columns in the IBM Works Word Processor? To define columns in the BonusPak Word Processor, select the columns icon on the far right below the Help pulldown. From there you can determine the number of Columns and Rows and other options. A Help Button in the bottom right corner of the page can further help you in setting up the columns. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Installing IBM Works and I get an EPFIE609 error. How do I get around this problem? The EPFIE609 error message appears when install utility of IBM Works was unable to successfully unpack INSTALL.IN_ file. If installing from diskettes: 1. Exit the IBM Works Installation. 2. Make a temperory directory (ex. MD C:\WORKTEMP). 3. Insert IBM Works Diskette 1 into drive A: and type: UNPACK A:\INSTALL.IN_ C:\WORKTEMP 4. Change Directory to WORKTEMP (ex. CD C:\WORKTEMP). 5. Look for a file called xxxIDLDS.EXE (Where xxx are any 3 characters). 6. Execute the file as follow. xxxIDLDS /4=A:\ 7. Complete the installation. 8. Delete the files in C:\WORKTEMP and remove the C:\WORKTEMP directory. If installing from CD-ROM: 1. Exit the IBM Works Installation. 2. Make a temporary directory (ex. MD C:\WORKTEMP). 3. Insert the BonusPak CD into CD-ROM drive and type: UNPACK X:\US\IBMWORKS\INSTALL.IN_ C:\WORKTEMP (Where X is the cdrom drive). 4. Change Directory to WORKTEMP (ex. cd C:\WORKTEMP). 5. Look for a file called xxxIDLDS.exe (Where xxx are any 3 characters). 6. Execute the file as follow. xxxIDLDS /4=X\US\IBMWORKS 7. Complete the installation. 8. Delete the files in C:\WORKTEMP and remove the C:\WORKTEMP directory. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 3. When I select the Event Monitor in PIM (Personal Information Manager) nothing happens. What's wrong? If the icon has diagonal lines through it but nothing comes to the foreground, then it is working as designed. The Event Monitor has no user interface, it is a timer that is used by the PIM applettes. All alarms, etc., are set in the PIM applettes, not in the event monitor. ---------------------------------------------------------------- IBM disclaims all warranties, whether express or implied, including without limitation, warranties of fitness and merchantability with respect to the information in this document. By furnishing this document, IBM grants no licenses to any related patents or copyrights.