Windows 3.0 and VPix (on Interactive UNIX 2.2)

Howard Weiss hsw at columbia.sparta.com
Sat Apr 27 09:05:42 AEST 1991


Several weeks ago I sent out a message regarding the problems I was
having running (or in my case NOT) Windows 3.0 under VPix on Interactive
UNIX release 2.2 (SysV R3.2).

To summarize for network - Interactive has a VPix patch release that
allows Windows 3.0 to run.  I have applied this patch (actually a new
version of VPix) and sucessfully installed Windows 3.0.  I have run 
into two problems, however - one of which I have solved.

The first problem was that after Windows was installed, I could not
restart it.  When it was restarted, I would get the logo screen, and
then it would die, leaving me in graphics mode with a DOS prompt.   I 
found that this was because I was using the program 'unixpath' to
allow me to use '/' as a path delimiter (a la UNIX) rather than the
default 'dospath' which uses '\'  When I wrote a batch file to startup
windows (first switching to dospath, calling windows, and then switching
back to unixpath), windows came up fine.

The second problem is that while there is disk activity going on (I
can hear the disk chattering away - I've got a 150 Mbyte Miniscribe -
need I say more!)  there is a more than fair chance that Windows will
lock up on me when moving the mouse - with a message that I cannot read.
The "message" appears as a black ribbon in the upper left hand corner
of the screen - apparently in text mode since I can't read it while
in graphics mode.  Mouse movements still respond, but clicking the
mouse, or hitting keys on the keyboard do nothing.  The only solution
I have found is to reboot VPix ('ALT SYSREQ M' to bring up the VPix
menu - that is not visible because of graphics mode - followed by 'R'
to reboot DOS clears the hung process).

I called Interactive to tell them about the dospath versus unixpath
problem.  They had not heard of this, but they could reproduce the
problem.  They had no idea what was going on with the phantom message
problem.  Has anyone seen this?  Anyone know what it is?  Anyone know
how to fix it?

Regards,

Howard Weiss
hsw at columbia.sparta.com
(301) 381-9400 x201



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