============ NOSview [304] !!README.1ST ============ ------------ INTRODUCTION ------------ NOSview is an on-line documentation and runtime package for the KA9Q Network Operating System (NOS). This is version [304]; that is, it was released in: ||| year 199[3]----+|| || week [04]-----++ This README file describes how to install the package. -------------------------- NOSview [304] Distribution -------------------------- This version of NOSview comprises the following ZIP files: NOSVIEW.ZIP Brief intro to NOSview Contains: !WELCOME.TXT NOSVW304.ZIP The main NOSview [304] distribution Contains: !!README.1ST NOSGAS.ZIP (remaining NOSview files) -------------------- NOSVIEW INSTALLATION -------------------- ------------- Preliminaries ------------- Hardware Requirements: 80x86 machine with at least 640 KB RAM 2 MB hard disk storage. Software Prerequisites: DOS version 3 or later, or DR-DOS version 6 or later. Before installation, you need to decide where to put the NOSview package. You can locate it in any subdirectory on your system. In this distribution, the default NOS root directory is C:\NOS. ***** When NOS is running, other users may log into your system and browse through your files, from the NOS root level downwards. For this reason it's strongly recommended that you do NOT choose C:\ as the NOS root, or any other existing directory containing sensitive files. ***** The installation process doesn't at any time read or alter your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files. However, after installing NOSview, you will need to make minor additions to these files and reboot the system before running NOS. ------------ Installation ------------ The installation process is very simple. In the description that follows, the NOS root is shown as "c:\nos". Replace this with your chosen NOS root directory if you're not using the default. Also, it is assumed that the NOSview distribution files are located on a diskette in drive a:. Replace "a:" with the appropriate drive letter if you're using a different drive. The installation process doesn't write anything to the diskette, so you can safely make it read-only. First you create a new directory for the NOS root (e.g. c:\nos), CD into this directory and unzip NOSVW304.ZIP into it. This will give you two files in the NOS root directory: !!README.1ST (this file) and NOSGAS.ZIP. You will then unzip NOSGAS.ZIP to extract the NOSview distribution. To do all of this, give the following DOS commands: -------------------------------------------------------------- MKDIR c:\nos Make the NOS root directory CD c:\nos Go to the NOS root directory PKUNZIP a:\NOSVW304.ZIP Get the NOSGAS zip file PKUNZIP -D NOSGAS.ZIP Unzip the NOS "Get-away Special" *** DON'T FORGET THE "-D" OPTION ** DEL *.ZIP -------------------------------------------------------------- !!!!!! The second unzip operation uses the -D option, which automatically creates all the necessary subdirectories as it goes along. DON'T FORGET THE -D OPTION, OTHERWISE ALL THE FILES WILL FINISH UP IN THE NOS ROOT DIRECTORY -- you will then have to delete all the files and start again. After completing the unzipping, you will find files in the following directories: c:\nos\ c:\nos\DUMP\ c:\nos\DUMP\RECORD\ c:\nos\DUMP\TRACE\ c:\nos\ETC\ c:\nos\ETC\LPD\ c:\nos\FINGER\ c:\nos\PUBLIC\ c:\nos\PUBLIC\MASTERS\ c:\nos\PUBLIC\NOSDOCS\ c:\nos\PUBLIC\NOSVIEW\ C;\nos\SCRIPTS\ c:\nos\SPOOL\ c:\nos\SPOOL\HELP\ c:\nos\SPOOL\LPD\ c:\nos\SPOOL\MAIL\ c:\nos\SPOOL\MQUEUE\ c:\nos\SPOOL\NEWS\ c:\nos\SPOOL\RQUEUE\ c:\nos\SPOOL\SIGNATUR\ c:\nos\TMP\ Some of these directories contain a dummy file called DEADBEEF.000. These files are included to make PKUNZIP create what would otherwise be empty directories. You may safely delete all DEADBEEF.000 files after installation. (Why "DEADBEEF" you may ask? Well, it turns out that a very well-known software development company uses the hexadecimal number "0xdeadbeef" when initialising registers to a "don't care" value, so it seemed that "DEADBEEF" would be a good name for dummy files. Ah well ....). For a complete directory tree listing, see the NOSview file !DIRTREE. ----------------------------------- Editing AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS ----------------------------------- Having unzipped NOSGAS.ZIP, you need to edit AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS before running NOSview. In the case of AUTOEXEC.BAT, all you need to do is add this line at the end of the file: -------------------------------------------------------------- CALL c:\nos\NOSENV.BAT -------------------------------------------------------------- In the case of CONFIG.SYS, you need to add a SHELL statement and a LASTDRIVE statement: -------------------------------------------------------------- SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM /E:1024 /P LASTDRIVE=Z -------------------------------------------------------------- If you have installed NOSview in the default NOS root directory C:\NOS, you can skip the next section. --------------------- Changing the NOS root --------------------- If you did NOT install NOSview in the default NOS root directory, you must now make a few small changes to three files, to ensure that the correct NOS environment is set up at runtime. For example, if you located NOSview in "e:\comms\nos", you need to make the following changes. In C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT, make the CALL to NOSENV.BAT look like this: -------------------------------------------------------------- CALL e:\comms\nos\NOSENV.BAT -------------------------------------------------------------- In e:\comms\nos\NOSENV.BAT, change these lines: -------------------------------------------------------------- SUBST N: e:\comms\nos SUBST M: e:\comms\nos\SPOOL\MAIL SUBST Q: e:\comms\nos\SPOOL\MQUEUE SUBST R: e:\comms\nos\DUMP\RECORD SUBST T: e:\comms\nos\DUMP\TRACE SUBST V: e:\comms\nos\PUBLIC\NOSVIEW SET HOME=e:\comms\nos -------------------------------------------------------------- In e:\comms\nos\PCELM.RC, change these lines: -------------------------------------------------------------- smtp e:/comms/nos/spool/mail queuedir e:/comms/nos/spool/mqueue -------------------------------------------------------------- (Note the FORWARD slashes here). --------------------- Optional Installation --------------------- Before starting NOSview, there is an additional step you might wish to take. The three main NOSview directories (MASTERS, NOSDOCS and NOSVIEW) are located in the public directory c:\nos\PUBLIC, so that users logging in to your system can browse through the files located there. To prevent people accidentally or deliberately changing these files, it's recommended that you set the read-only attribute: -------------------------------------------------------------- CD c:\nos\PUBLIC ATTRIB +R MASTERS\*.* ATTRIB +R NOSDOCS\*.* ATTRIB +R NOSVIEW\*.* -------------------------------------------------------------- ================ STARTING NOSVIEW ================ You are now ready to reboot the system. Remove the NOSview distribution diskette from the drive and hit CTRL-ALT-DEL. When the system starts running again, you should now see the following message: .................................................... : Loading VIEW - Clockwork's Resident File Viewer. : : To activate press:- RShift and SPC : :..................................................: This is the public domain file viewer program called "VIEW", distributed with NOSview. VIEW is loaded when AUTOEXEC.BAT makes the CALL to c:\nos\NOSENV.BAT. Test the operation of VIEW by pressing the right shift key and the space bar simultaneously. The Clockwork View introduction screen should appear. Use the PgDn and PgUp keys to examine the help menus. Then test the file viewer, by pressing F3. The prompt "Load file: *.*" should then appear. Press Return. This should pop up a list of files in the current directory. Move the arrow keys up or down to select a particular file, then press Return again. The selected file should now appear. Use the "G" and/or "H" key to change the display format if necessary. Finally press Escape to exit from VIEW. Finally, check that the DOS drive environment variables defined in NOSENV.BAT have been set up properly, by giving the SUBST command: -------------------------------------------------------------- C:\NOS> SUBST {DOS should reply:} M: => c:\nos\SPOOL\MAIL N: => c:\nos Q: => c:\nos\SPOOL\MQUEUE R: => c:\nos\DUMP\RECORD T: => c:\nos\DUMP\TRACE V: => c:\nos\PUBLIC\NOSVIEW -------------------------------------------------------------- NOSview is now ready for use. File "!!README.2ND" continues the story. Ian Wade, G3NRW NOSview Release [304] January 1993