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                         System Commander Notes 
                        

    CONTENTS

        A. Installation Notes
        B. Disk Compression
        C. Features
        D. OS Restrictions
        E. Problems
        F. Technical Support
        G. Ordering Information
            
    A. Installation Notes

        Although System Commander itself only takes a few minutes to 
        install, a number of very important decisions must be made.
        
        Even if you're an expert and never look at manuals, we strongly
        suggest reading chapter 3, and following those instructions. 
        Almost all reported problems have resulted from not reading or 
        following the instructions in this critical Chapter. 

        Additional Notes not in the manual:
        
                Coherent Unix (Mark Williams Company)
                SCO Open Server Unix System V 
                Novell UnixWare
                Linux 
                Multiple NetWare OSs in one system
                Disk Error Message after OS Selection 
                New options on the Setup, Local Special Options menu
                Drives greater than 504 MB
                Multiple Primary DOS Partitions
       

        Coherent Unix (Mark Williams Company) 

        Coherent is one of the few OSs that can be installed and booted 
        from any primary partition on any drive.  System Commander fully 
        supports booting Coherent from any drive.  When installing 
        Coherent after System Commander is installed, Coherent will ask 
        if you want to install Coherent's master boot record.  Select 
        NO so System Commander will remain active. 
       
        The Coherent documentation and partition handler software during 
        installation refer, incorrectly, to primary partitions as 
        logical partitions.  Coherent only works on primary partitions. 

        A few users have reported a problem when attempting to go into 
        Coherent Unix after DOS was active.  It does not matter if a 
        warm reboot (CTRL-ALT-DEL) or a hardware reset was issued while 
        in DOS.  Coherent either hangs or reboots, with the second 
        attempt at selecting Coherent always working.  Powering the 
        system down also allows immediate access to Coherent if the 
        prior selection was DOS.  
        
        We have verified this problem with Coherent version 4.02.05, 
        and it appears to be a bug in Coherent initialization.  It can 
        be easily duplicated using the Coherent master boot record 
        without System Commander installed.  It has been reported to be 
        fixed in the version 4.02.10 release of Coherent. You may wish 
        to contact Mark Williams Company to get the most recent 
        release. 


        SCO Open Server Unix System V 
        Novell UnixWare
        
        Most operating systems expect to see a single partition bootable, 
        with all other primary partitions marked as non-bootable. SCO 
        Unix System V and Novell's UnixWare requires all of it's 
        partitions be marked as bootable, even if the partition is not 
        truly bootable.  Bootable status is often referred to as the 
        "active partition" by partitioning software like FDISK. 
        
        When System Commander is first installed, System Commander will 
        automatically set an option for Unix partitions to make all
        identical partitions active.  If you install SCO Unix System V 
        or Novell UnixWare AFTER System Commander was installed, you may 
        need to set this option manually.

        To change the handling of the bootable/active status across 
        partitions, first highlight the Unix choice on the OS selection 
        menu and press F2-Setup.  Select Local special options menu.  
        Set the option "Bootable/active status across partitions" to 
        OVERRIDE ON. All other operating systems, including other Unix 
        variants, should use the default setting of AUTO. 

        If you get a boot error message from Unix, see E. Problems 
        below for one other option that may need to be set. 

        
        Linux

        System Commander is fully compatible with Linux.  To boot 
        properly into Linux, you must have LILO's target location set 
        to ROOT - Use superblock of the root Linux partition.  This 
        option is selected by running SETUP, then CONFIGURE, and 
        installing LILO. For the fastest and easiest boot, we suggest 
        only making LILO boot Linux and no other OS.  On the timeout 
        selection menu, the best choice is no wait. 
        
        
        Multiple NetWare OSs in one system

        System Commander lets you manage multiple versions of NetWare on 
        the same system.  Because the NetWare installation makes many 
        automatic assumptions, the following is a "real world" example of
        how to have Multiple versions of NetWare on one system.  To our 
        knowledge it is otherwise impossible to do this without System 
        Commander!

        This example case uses a 90MB drive.  Upon completion, DOS 
        will have a 20MB partition, NetWare 3 will get a 30MB partition, 
        and NetWare 4 will get a 40MB partition (you may need more space 
        for your specific needs).  The steps to accomplish this are: 

        1) Using DOS FDISK, partition the disk for one DOS 20MB 
        partition, and one Extended "logical" partition of 40MB.  Leave 
        the last 30MB undefined, as Netware 3 will use this.  Install 
        DOS, then install System Commander and select the Multi-DOS 
        option when prompted (See the manual for full details, Chapter 3, 
        Options C & D). 

        2) Install Netware 3.  It will grab the 30MB undefined area of 
        the disk and make it a NetWare partition for it's use.

        3) Using FDISK again, delete the logical and extended DOS 
        partition (40MB).  Run SCIN from the System Commander directory, 
        select "Special Options" and then "Alter the current boot record 
        number"  This will make a second menu choice of the current DOS 
        which we will use for NetWare 4.  Reboot and save the "new OS".
        
        4) Once back at the DOS prompt, run SCCOPY with the directory 
        for the unique AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS for the NetWare 4 
        selection.  Reboot the system again.  From the System Commander 
        OS selection menu, highlight the original DOS selection, which 
        we are going to use for NetWare 3.  Then press "F2-Setup", and 
        update the description to something like DOS/NetWare 3.  Return 
        to setup and select "Local special options menu".  On the line 
        "Primary partition accessible on drive 0:" select the partition 
        named (NET WARE).  Also jot the partition number down for later.  
        We'll assume it was Partition 2.                         

        5) Return to the selection menu, and highlight the 2nd DOS 
        choice, which we are going to use for NetWare 4.  In the "F2-
        Setup" menu, change the description to DOS/NetWare 4. Return to 
        setup and select "Local special options menu".  On the line 
        "Primary partition accessible on drive 0:" select the DOS 
        partition which appears something like (MSDOS5.0).  This will 
        temporally lock out the NetWare 3 partition so NetWare 4 can be 
        installed. Exit to the OS selection menu and select DOS/NetWare 
        4. 

        6) At the DOS prompt, now install NetWare 4.  It will grab the 
        40MB partition we freed up in step 3.  Upon completion, reboot 
        one more time, and highlight the DOS/NetWare 4 choice.  Use "F2-
        Setup" and select "Local special options menu".  On the line 
        "Primary partition accessible on drive 0:" select the new 
        NetWare partition (NET WARE), but NOT the one chosen in step 4.  
        Let's assume it's partition 1. 
        
        7) At this point you are done!  You may wish to update the 
        AUTOEXEC/CONFIG set of files for NetWare 3 and the other set for 
        NetWare 4.  In these cases, you could immediately go into 
        the selected NetWare from AUTOEXEC.
        

        Disk Error Message after OS Selection 

        If you have non-standard hard drives which cannot be properly
        accessed without a special device driver, System Commander may
        not be able to update partition information on that drive.
        IDE, ESDI, MFM, and SCSI drives do not usually fall into this 
        category. 
        
        For example, some hardcards remain in a read-only mode until 
        their device driver runs.  These types of drives are usually 
        limited to DOS, since device drivers are rarely available for 
        other operating systems.  
        
        It is safe to select "Continue" instead of the recommended 
        "Reboot" from the disk error warning message.  To eliminate the 
        problem (without replacing the drive), from the OS selection 
        menu, select F2-Setup, then "Global special options menu".  
        Select the choice "Disk drives, above drive 0, ignored".  If 
        the problem drive is the third drive, select 2.  If the drive 
        is the second drive, select 1 & 2.  This option forces 
        System Commander to ignore the specified drives.  Drive 0
        must always be accessible.


        New options on the Setup, Local Special Options menu

        Two new options have been added to the local special options
        menu for rare cases not covered by the default AUTO selection.

        Bootable/active status across partitions

            This option makes all similar partitions appear bootable when 
            a selection is made.  The only operating systems we've found 
            that requires this unusual state is SCO Unix System V and 
            Novell UnixWare). See the prior notes about SCO Unix System V 
            and this option. 

        OS/2 boot drive letter

            The boot drive letter is normally selected by System 
            Commander automatically based on the placement of the 
            bootable OS/2 partition relative to other partitions.  In 
            very rare situations, it may be necessary to override System 
            Commander's default, and force a different drive letter, C: 
            to H:.  This would be used if OS/2 fails to get it's files,
            such as COUNTRY.SYS, or AUTOEXEC.BAT, from the proper drive.

        
        Drives greater than 504 MB

        System Commander supports drives up to 8.1 GB in size, but your
        BIOS and or OS may have problems if using more than 1024 
        cylinders or a total size above 504 MB.  For SCSI and ESDI 
        drives, this is not usually a problem.  For IDE drives, the 
        older BIOS standard only allowed for a maximum of 504 MB.  This 
        limitation was caused by combination limit of 16 heads, 64 
        sectors, and 1024 cylinders with a 512 byte sector size.  

        The IDE drive does not care what combination of heads, sectors, 
        and cylinders are used, as long as it does not exceed the drive 
        size.

        Many system BIOSs in the last several years offer an improved 
        BIOS handler, which allows for a maximum of 255 heads with 
        1024 cylinders, or in some cases up to 4096 cylinders with a 
        head maximum of 16 or 64.  Unfortunately, it is difficult to 
        find out if your BIOS supports these enhancements or which way 
        the limitations are constructed.
        
        The only recommendation we can provide is to try the limits 
        when you are first installing the disk (before any information 
        is written to it!).  If the BIOS setup does not prohibit a 
        higher limit, it's a good chance it will work.  After making
        the change, reboot and re-run the BIOS setup.  Check the disk 
        settings once more to ensure it really saved the values you 
        set.  Some BIOSs seeming allow large head or cylinder numbers, 
        but truncate them when passed to CMOS for storage (or may even 
        rearrange them to an acceptable set of values). 
        
        For BIOSs which allow cylinder numbers above 1024, the two high 
        order bits are stored at the top of the heads byte to allow up 
        to 4096 cylinders, with a reduction in the number of heads to a 
        maximum of 64.  System Commander's detail information display 
        will show partition information in the form of up to 255 heads, 
        up to 64 sectors, and up to 1024 cylinders.  This is not a 
        problem in actual use, but a minor display issue of two 
        different ways to see the same identical information. 

        
        Multiple Primary DOS Partitions
        
        Although extremely rare, it is possible to have a system with 
        more than one DOS primary partition on the first drive.  DOS by 
        itself (and DOS's FDISK) will NEVER create such a configuration. 
        If additional drives are necessary, FDISK will only allow one 
        primary DOS partition, but makes no restrictions on the number 
        of DOS logical partitions.  

        System Commander is designed to work on systems with multiple 
        DOS partitions, even if the bootable DOS partition is not the 
        first primary DOS partition.  For example, a system has OS/2 
        version 1.x installed (which always uses a DOS partition).  
        Later DOS is installed into another primary partition by using 
        OS/2's FDISK. 

        
    B. Disk Compression

        We do not recommend using System Commander with disk compression.
        Although it is possible to do so, the disk compression program
        can cause problems when different DOS versions are run.  In
        addition, System Commander itself must operate before the disk 
        compression software runs.  Drive swapping can cause compression 
        or misplacement of the System Commander files.  In all, there 
        may be a number of problems and you are ON YOUR OWN should you 
        attempt this!  

        If you attempt to install System Commander on a system using disk 
        compression, you MUST know which drive is the non-compressed boot 
        drive.  This is often hidden by the disk compression software.  
        For example, on two systems using Microsoft's DriveSpace disk 
        compression, one uses drive D, and another uses drive H as the 
        non-compressed boot disk.  It is rarely drive C:.  Perform a DIR 
        command from each root directory to help locate which drive is 
        the non-compressed boot drive.  The boot drive usually has a few 
        files.  One file, usually marked as hidden, is used for disk 
        compression and will be huge. 

        After the System Commander installation, when you reboot, should 
        you get an "Boot Err n, Hit key." message, it indicates either 
        you selected the wrong drive to install System Commander and/or 
        the disk compression method prevents access to System 
        Commander's files.  Refer to Chapter 6, Troubleshooting for 
        notes on restoring the system to normal.  DO NOT go in and delete 
        System Commander files, one file holds the original master boot 
        record, needed to restore the system to normal.
        

    C. Features
        
        With System Commander you'll be able to have multiple operating 
        systems function on a single PC.  Once installed, when you boot 
        up, you will be provided with a menu of OS choices, based on the 
        operating systems you install. 

        Key Benefits

        * Management of up to 42 different operating systems including:
                up to 16 OSs in the DOS partition
                up to 16 non-DOS OSs in logical partitions
                up to 11 non-DOS OSs in primary partitions
        
        * Menu selections offered before any operating system runs

        * Remembers the last selection made

        * Choose from a number of unique sound effects when System 
            Commander's menu appears

        * Select time-out period to automatically make a selection

        * Automatically saves newly installed DOS versions

        * View partition information and change bootable status

        * Boot sector virus detect and correction

        
        Technical Highlights

        * MS/PC-DOS compatible, all released and beta versions, 3.0
            and later

        * DR-DOS/Novell DOS compatible, all released and beta versions 
            5.0 and later 

        * Fully compatible with NT, OS/2, Unix variants, NetWare, Pick,
            and most other OSs

        * No bytes remain resident in memory

        * Comprehensive boot validity checks and recovery 


    D. Operating System Restrictions

        Each OS has specific installation restrictions defined by the OS 
        vendor.  For your convenience, we've summarized the key aspects 
        of OSs relating to installation limitations on the hard disk.  
        This is not a comprehensive list and vendors may change the 
        limitations in future versions. In general, if an OS can be 
        installed somewhere, System Commander can boot it. 

        The chart shows where the bootable portion of the OS can be 
        installed.  Every OS can be installed in a primary partition on 
        the allowed hard drives.  Some OSs can install into a logical 
        partition, which is a portion of an extended partition.  
        
        When known, we've also shown the manufacture's minimum 
        partition size for its installation.  To install applications, 
        and/or have any free disk space to work with, you should always 
        allocate more disk space than the minimum size shown.  Newer 
        versions, than those specified, will usually require a larger 
        minimum disk partition. 
        
        
                                         Boot    Logical   minimum 
        OS Name           Vendor         Drives  partition size    notes
             
        AIX               IBM            0 only  no
        Chicago           Microsoft      0 only  no                1
        Coherent Unix     Mark Williams  any     no         15 MB
        CTOS              Executive      0 only  no
        DOS               all            0 only  no          1 MB
        DOS/V             IBM/Microsoft  0 only  no          3 MB
        Interactive Unix  SunSoft        0 only  no         20 MB
        Linux             all            0 only  no         15 MB
        Netware v2        Novell         0 only  no                
        NetWare v3 & v4   Novell         0 only  no                2
        NextStep          Next           0 only  no        120 MB
        NT v3.1           Microsoft      any     yes        90 MB  1, 3
        NT v3.5           Microsoft      any     yes               1, 3
        OS/2 v1.x         IBM            0 only  no         20 MB  1
        OS/2 v2.x         IBM            any     yes        40 MB  1, 4
        Pick              Pick Systems   0 only  no                1
        Solaris           SunSoft        0 only  no        200 MB
        Open Server       SCO            0 only  no        100 MB
        UnixWare          Novell         0 only  no         80 MB  5
        Venix             Venturcom      0 only  no        100 MB

        notes:  1 - OS can be installed in the DOS partition.
                2 - This OS is launched after DOS is booted. Information 
                    is stored in a separate non-bootable partition. 
                3 - A portion of the NT boot software is installed
                    in the DOS partition.  
                4 - If installed outside the DOS partition, OS/2 
                    requires IBM's boot manager to be installed in a 
                    separate partition during installation.  Boot 
                    manager is not required once OS/2 is installed when 
                    using System Commander. 
                5 - The installation may move partitions around, causing 
                    problems for other OSs.  In addition, when 
                    partitions are moved like this, System Commander's 
                    menu names will get scrambled.  Menu names are 
                    associated with the physical partition number and 
                    not the data in the partition.  No data is lost, 
                    but you will need to go through and replace each OS 
                    name under the F2-Setup option with the correct one,
                    and verify Local Special Options are set correctly 
                    for each menu choice.


    E. Problems

        Most problems are easily resolved as described in the manual 
        under Chapter 6, Troubleshooting. 

        System Commander's installation always provides an Uninstall
        option, available from the hard disk or the diskette.  Refer
        to the uninstallation instructions, should you need to do 
        this.


         Boot Err n - Hit Key 

        If immediately after installation the "Boot Err n" message 
        appears, see Chapter 6, Troubleshooting for reasons why this 
        might occur and how to easily correct for it.   The error
        number meaning has changed since the manual was printed:
                0 - Error reading the master boot record
                1 - No DOS partition found on drive 0
                2 to 5 - After looking at all 4 partitions, either 
                    the DOS partitions that were found are: 
                        not formatted for 512 byte sectors, or
                        had disk errors reading sectors, or
                        most likely, the SYSCMNDR.SYS file 
                        in the root directory was not found
                6 - SYSCMNDR.SYS directory entry found, but a disk
                      error occurred while reading the file
                8 - Disk error reading FAT
                9 - Disk error reading SYSCMNDR.SYS


         Boot error message from Unix 

        If using SCO Unix System V or Novell UnixWare, see notes earlier 
        in this file, specific to these operating systems.  In addition, 
        depending on other partitions and how Unix was installed, it may 
        be necessary to make the selected Unix partition the only 
        accessible partition on drive 0.  System Commander defaults to 
        making both the DOS and Unix partitions accessible. 

        To make only the Unix partition accessible, on the System 
        Commander OS selection menu, highlight Unix and press F2-Setup.  
        Select "Local special options menu", and move down to the 
        selection "Primary partition accessible on drive 0:".  Toggle 
        this option until the Unix partition appears as the option 
        (UNIX   ).  Press Escape twice to return to the OS selection 
        menu and try the Unix selection again. 
        
                 
    F. Technical Support

        If you followed the steps in Chapters 3 and 4, you are unlikely 
        to have any problems.  Chapter 6, Troubleshooting covers some of
        the rare problems which might be encountered.  Seemingly bad 
        problems like "Invalid COMMAND.COM" are usually solved easily, 
        and are described in Chapter 6.  
        
        Technical support is available to registered users for 90 days 
        after purchase.  If you call after this period, please have a 
        credit card ready for a nominal charge per call.  All technical 
        support calls require your serial number and version number, 
        which is found on your diskette label. 

                (408) 296-4385  (Tech support)


    G. Ordering Information

        To purchase additional copies contact us at:
        
                V Communications, Inc.
                4320 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 275
                San Jose, CA  95129
                USA

                (408) 296-4224  (Voice)
                (408) 296-4441  (FAX)

        We also offer very attractive volume discounts and multi-site 
        licenses.  Contact our Sales department for additional 
        information. 
                

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                          End of Notes     
                     
        
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