                                             VBBS 6.11 Documentation -- D-1


         ͻ
          APPENDIX D        VBBS - OS/2                                  
         ͼ

         GENERAL
         

               This appendix will attempt to provide information particular
         to VBBS-OS/2, and not a rewrite of the entire body of VBBS documents.
         Generally, VBBS 6.1 DOCS will apply, but where this document and
         VBBS 6.1 DOCS conflict, this document applies with regards to
         VBBS-OS/2.

         Why VBBS-OS/2?
         

                OS/2 is a powerful operating system, allowing multithreaded
         multitasking at the operating system level without kludgey OS
         shells.  OS/2 virtualizes ram; unlike DOS which swaps memory in
         and out of the "base" 640 ram that DOS addresses directly.  OS/2
         has superior (and faster) I/O control in multiuser applications.
         Now, with OS/2 2.x adding functional DOS and WINDOWS support,
         REXX and more, OS/2 is a viable OS for many people with high end
         PC's.  In every way, OS/2 has been designed to be a superior
         multitasking environment to DOS.

                The one drawback to OS/2's performance has been the inefficient
         way it handles DOS and WINDOWS communications programs.  Because
         these programs require a great deal of CPU attention, they degrade
         OS/2 system performance significantly, compared to equivalent OS/2
         programs.

                VBBS has been designed from the start to be a multiline
         communications program.  Written in assembly and Quick Basic, it
         is a very efficient program.  Since an OS/2 compiler is readily
         available for programs written in Quick Basic and most of the
         code could be a direct port, the marriage of VBBS and OS/2
         became the next logical step in the evolution of VBBS.  No other
         move could have produced such dramatic performance results for a
         single machine, multinode VBBS so easily at this point in time.

                From the users standpoint, VBBS-OS/2 is identical to VBBS-DOS.
         Every function is identical.



                                             VBBS 6.11 Documentation -- D-2

         OS/2 System Considerations
         

         HPFS vs. FAT

                  Although HPFS is generally regarded as faster (higher
            performance) than FAT file systems, it is only advantageous
            under certain circumstances.  For a reason unknown at this time,
            VBBS disk intensive operations are at least twice as fast with
            FAT as they are with HPFS.  It is strongly recommended that HPFS
            NOT be used to run VBBS at this time.  Booting with HPFS is fine,
            as long as VBBS is run from a FAT partition or a NETWORK drive.

                  Virtual Technologies is working with IBM to resolve the HPFS
            performance issue.  Up to date information on this progress will
            be posted in the VirtualNet sub "VBBS OS/2 Support",
            AUTOSUBSCRIBE sub type 472629.

                  We recommend the following hard drive partitioning scheme if
            HPFS is to be used:

          BOOT MANAGER
            (1) 60 MB PRIMARY HPFS partition (Enough for OS/2, SWAPFILE, ETC.)
            (1) 1 MB PRIMARY FAT partition (Just enough to boot DOS)
            (1) Extended FAT partition  (To run applications such as VBBS from)

            NOTE:  Using this arrangement will result in EITHER primary
            partition (whichever is selected as active) being mapped as the C
            drive and the extended DOS partition will always be the D drive.

         OS/2 1.3

                  Though not tested, VBBS-OS/2 should run fine in multinode
            situations on a single 80286 based machine, running OS/2 1.3
            with a minimum of four megabites of RAM and a 60 megabyte hard
            drive.  Many OS/2 old timers that do not use DOS applications
            still prefer OS/2 1.3 because of it's leaner system
            requirements.

          OS/2 2.x

                  OS/2 2.x requires at least a 386sx to run.  To run VBBS-OS/2
            effectively, at least 8 megabites of RAM and a 125 megabyte hard
            drive should be used.   Though OS/2 2.x will run on lesser
            systems, performance and storage space will quickly become
            issues on systems configured in such a manner.

                Although VBBS-OS/2 should run fine on OS/2 1.3, it has been
         tested extensively only on OS/2 2.x.  As a result, there are some
         system settings that we can pass on as a result of our experience
         that may help you.


                                             VBBS 6.11 Documentation -- D-3


         CONFIG.SYS Settings:

            TIMESLICE=32      (Minimum timeslice OS/2 will use)
            MAXWAIT=1         (Number of wait units system will wait before
                             checking other tasks)

            SWAPPATH=C:\OS2\SYSTEM 4096 8192   (This controls the size of
                                                the swapfile.  If you have
                                                room on you HD, increasing
                                                the start size to 4 MB and
                                                the max size to 8 MB seems to
                                                help when running with 8
                                                MB DRAM)

            DEVICE=C:\OS2\VDISK.SYS 16 128 16   (This will create a Virtual
                                                 disk to use for the
                                                 CONTROL.DAT directory.  Place
                                                 this at the end of your
                                                 CONFIG.SYS file.)

                VBBS-OS/2 has been tested with OS/2 version 2.0 through each
         beta version of 2.1 and now the 2.1 GA release.  OS/2 2.1 is
         recommended because most users report superior stability.

         Digiboard

                OS/2 drivers are available for Digiboards from the manufacturer
         for both 1.3 and 2.0.

         Communications Ports

                OS/2 will not allow programs to share interrupts (except on
         properly configured Microchannel machines).  The easiest
         way to run two nodes would be to use a bus mouse, making
         comport 1 and comport 2 available for modem use.

         VBBS-OS/2 VCONFIG
         

                Installing and running VBBS-OS/2 is nearly identical to the
         procedure used for VBBS-DOS.

                The main difference is that the VBBS-OS/2 Control Panel has
         been stripped down.  Most WFC functions are not needed, since WFC
         functions can be handled as separate tasks.

                Channel configuration is handled identically to the DOS ver-
         sion, HOWEVER the OS/2 2.x GA release does NOT support locked com port
         speeds of over 19,200 baud with supplied COM.SYS drivers. Since
         VBBS-OS/2 is untested under OS/2 1.3 as of this writing, locking the
         com port at speeds over 19,200 baud is not recommended without ex-
         perimentation. OS/2 1.3 and 2.0 have 16550 UART support.


                                             VBBS 6.11 Documentation -- D-4


         HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:

                Communications performance can be greatly enhanced by locking
         the com port at 38400 instead of 19200.  Since the stock com drivers
         supplied with OS/2 do not allow this, replacement drivers must be
         used.  We recommend Ray Gwinn's SIO drivers. These are shareware, and
         curently registration is only $15.00 for four ports.  Additional ports
         are supported at an additional cost.  They really are outstanding
         drivers, and well worth the money for all OS/2 communications, not
         just VBBS. SIO is available at:

            The Rubber Room,       203-877-5856 and 203-876-0695
            Virtual Technologies,  616-399-8791 and 616-399-4818

            1.  Obtain a copy of Ray Gwinn's SIO102.ZIP.
            2.  Unzip it into a directory something like this:
                C:\SIO
            3.  Modify your config.sys file, removing the COM.SYS and
                VCOM.SYS drivers, and replacing them with SIO.SYS and
                VSIO.SYS.  EX:

                REM DEVICE=C:\OS2\COM.SYS
                REM DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VCOM.SYS
                DEVICE=C:\SIO\SIO.SYS
                DEVICE=C:\SIO\VSIO.SYS

            4.  No special paramters are necessary for normal operation of com
                ports 1 and 2.  Com ports can be configured however needed by
                specifying the port, base address and IRQ.

                EX:

                DEVICE=C:\SIO\SIO.SYS (1,3F8,4) (2,2F8,3)
                DEVICE=C:\SIO\VSIO.SYS


         RUNNING VBBS-OS/2
         

                VBBS-OS/2 is started similarly to VBBS-DOS.  Different
         channels are started by passing the channel number to VBBS.EXE as a
         parameter just as in the DOS version.  A CMD file is included to get
         started.  The shareware version supports two active nodes and one
         local node.  EX:

            BBS 0         Starts Local Channel;
            BBS 1         Starts Channel 1;
            BBS 2         Starts Channel 2;
            :
            :
            BBS 8         Starts Channel 8.

            VBBS runs only in full screen mode for optimum efficiency.


                                             VBBS 6.11 Documentation -- D-5


                Multiple VBBS nodes can be started under OS/2 in the startup
         sequence by including the following in the STARTUP.CMD file:

         --- Begin STARTUP.CMD ---

             start bbs 0
             start bbs 1
             start vsysmon

         --- End STARTUP.CMD ---

         VBBS-OS/2 NETWORKING 
         

                VBBS-OS/2 fully supports FIDO type and the new Vnet type
         networks using the VXY protocol.

                Care must be taken to make sure that if VBBS-DOS and VBBS-OS/2
         will share databases, that network configurations do NOT allow
         HSLINK, as this protocol is not currently available for
         VBBS/OS2.  A setting in VCONFIG allowing DSZ for Virtualnet
         type networks will enable VXY's ZMODEM.

         OS/2 AND LANS
         

                VBBS-OS/2 can be connected to other VBBS workstations (OS/2
         or DOS based) via Novell Netware, or IBM's LAN Server
         products.  VBBS-OS/2 has been tested using OS/2 2.x and
         Novell 3.11 very successfully.  The requestor for OS/2 2.x is
         available from Novell for about $40.00, and the requestor
         for 1.3 comes with Novell Netware.

         VBBS-OS/2 WORKING WITH VBBS-DOS
         

                VBBS-OS/2 has been fully tested and is VBBS-DOS compliant.
         VBBS-OS/2 can be installed directly over VBBS-DOS, taking the place
         of the DOS base program or it can be installed parallel to the DOS
         program, working with it using the same databases and control.v file.
         VBBS has been tested with the following path configuration:

            VBBS-DOS Executables:

              \VBBS\DOS

            VBBS-OS/2 Executables:

              \VBBS\OS2

            All other paths shared by VBBS-DOS and VBBS-OS/2.

            Special considerations for VBBS-OS/2:


                                             VBBS 6.11 Documentation -- D-6


            *  If upgrading from VBBS-DOS, remember to remove DSZ and
               HSLINK protocol options in VCONFIG, as well as any other
               DOS protocols.

            *  Remove DOS Doors from the door configuration in VCONFIG.
 
               (NOTE:  Although it is possible to run DOS BBS doors from
                VBBS-OS/2 with OS/2 2.x, it is not recommended.  DOS DOORS
                slow overall system performance terribly, since almost none
                were written with OS/2 awareness in mind.

            *  Remove references to DOS programs called in scripts (SCAN,
               etc.) unless you have OS/2 equivelents.

            *  Remove ARJ, LHA and other miscellaneous archive utility
               configurations from VCONFIG.  A bound version (meaning it
               will run natively both in OS/2 and DOS) of PKZIP 1.10 is
               available at the Rubber Room BBS, 1@1203000 and at Virtual
               Technologies, 1@1 as PKZ102-2.EXE.

         SCRIPTS
         

                VBBS-OS/2 should now be able to share scripts with VBBS-DOS.
         No special provisions must be made for VBBS-OS/2 for properly
         written scripts.  VBBS-OS/2 does come with it's own OS/2 script
         compiler.

         DOORS
         

                It is known that the SIO.SYS and VSIO.SYS drivers replacing
         COM.SYS and VCOM.SYS, (written by Ray Gyinn) with OS/2 2.1 will
         make DOS doors run under OS/2 2.x.  To make this possible, modify
         the SIO command line, adding port speed and a - to the command
         line as follows:

            DEVICE=C:\SIO\SIO.SYS (1:38400,3F8,4, -) (2:38400,2F8,3, -)

                Even so, this is not recommended, as opening a DOS comm-
         unications session will significantly impair system performance,
         virtually defeating the purpose of running OS/2 in the first place.
         Additionally, a certain degree of reliability is traded off.

         Using ONLY OS/2 Door programs is recommended.


