PCMCIA

There was some work to do until PCMCIA ran OK with FreeDOS on the aero. Most problems came from memory management - with PCMCIA you need UMBs or you loose much conventional memory. And even if you provide UMBs with emm386.exe or dremm386.exe, you have to find out the correct settings for the upper memory adresses that PCMCIA should use.

As PCMCIA-drivers I use a combination of the software provided with two compaq softpaqs: The newer package SP1645.EXE and SP1045.EXE.

I copied all the files included in each of these packages into a special directory c:\network\pcmcia.

Newer files had priority over older ones.



The drivers are activated through config.sys, I REMed out all the unnecessary ones. Feel free to change it to what you need yourself.

REM -------PCMCIA-----------------
REM PCMSMIX.EXE IS NOT NEEDED ACCORDING
REM TO THE AERO-FAQ
REM DEVICE=C:\CPQDOS\PCMCIA\PCMSMIX.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\PCMCIA\SSVLSI.EXE /SKT:1
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\PCMCIA\CS.EXE /POLL:1
DEVICE=C:\CPQDOS\PCMCIA\CSALLOC.EXE
REM --------------------------------
REM ATA Driver
REM DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\PCMCIA\ATADRV.EXE /D:1
REM --------------------------------
REM Memory Technology Drivers (MTDs)
REM For SRAM PC-Cards
REM DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\PCMCIA\MTSRAM.EXE
REM For Intel Series I flash PC Cards
REM DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\PCMCIA\MTI1.EXE
REM For Intel Series II and Series II plus PC Cards
REM DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\PCMCIA\MTI2P.EXE
REM For AMD flash PC Cards
REM DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\PCMCIA\MTAA.EXE
REM or
REM DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\PCMCIA\MTAB.EXE
REM For Atmel flash PC Cards
REM DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\PCMCIA\MTATM.EXE
REM --------------------------------
REM Memory Client Driver
REM DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\PCMCIA\MTDDRV.EXE
REM Microsoft Flash File System 2.0B
REM DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\PCMCIA\SSMSFLSH.SYS
REM File Compression Utility
REM DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\PCMCIA\DBLFLASH.EXE
REM Flash Translation Layer
REM DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\PCMCIA\FTL.EXE
REM --------------------------------
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\PCMCIA\CARDID.EXE C:\CPQDOS\PCMCIA\CARDID.INI
REM --------------------------------
REM Earlier drivers ----------------
REM DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\PCMCIA\MEMDRV.EXE
REM ;DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\PCMCIA\DBLFLASH.EXE
REM ;DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\PCMCIA\MS-FLASH.SYS
REM --------------------------------
REM See C:\CPQDOS\PCMCIA\READPCM.TXT and the
REM older version C:\CPQDOS\PCMCIA\READPCM2.TXT for
REM more about pc-card-drivers
REM -------END PCMCIA --------------

Also it is necessary to exclude some of the upper memory for the use of the PCMCIA-Drivers. This is to be done in Autoexec.bat.

First the appropriate settings in MS DOS:

AUTOEXEC.BAT:

DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS HIGHSCAN X=D000-DFFF

Also the ini-File in the pcmcia-directory has to be modified:

C:\NETWORK\PCMCIA\CSALLOC.INI:

# The available resources described by the "MEM=", 
# "IO=", and "IRQ=" lines may have been altered by the 
# "xINCLUDE" and/or "xEXCLUDE" lines below!
# The "MEM=", "IO=" and "IRQ=" lines are provided 
# for Read-Only purposes.
#
MEM=D000-D4FF
IO=108-1EF,1F8-377,380-3AF,3E8-3EF
IRQ=3,5-6,A-B,F
#
# *** Resource modifications should be made below this line. *** 
#
RIO=170-177,2E8-2EF,370-377,3E8-3F7
IOINCLUDE=3F0-3F7
IRQINCLUDE=9
MEMEXCLUDE=C000-CFFF,D500-DFFF,E000-EFFF

The configuration in FreeDOS depends on the memory-managers you use. With the freedos own drivers EMM386.EXE and HIMEM.EXE I had success with these settings:

AUTOEXEC.BAT:

DEVICE=C:\FDOS\BIN\EMM386.EXE NOEMS X=E800-EFFF

Then csalloc.ini has to be changed that way:

C:\NETWORK\PCMCIA\CSALLOC.INI:

MEM=E800-EFFF
IO=108-1EF,1F8-377,380-3BF,3E8-3EF
IRQ=3,A-B,D,F
#
# *** Resource modifications should be made below this line. ***

If you prefer to use use - like me - the Memory-Manager of DR DOS you can use these settings:

AUTOEXEC.BAT:

DEVICE=C:\FDOS\BIN\DREMM386.EXE NOEMS EXCLUDE=E800-EFFF

Then csalloc.ini has to be changed that way:

C:\NETWORK\PCMCIA\CSALLOC.INI:

MEM=C600-C6FF,C800-CFFF,D000-DFFF,E000-EFFF
IO=108-1EF,1F8-377,380-3BF,3E8-3EF
IRQ=3,5,A-B,D,F
#
# *** Resource modifications should be made below this line. *** 
#

My 3com network card is detected and configured with these settings without problems. Please remember that I didn't manage the pcmcia-floppy-drive to be hot-swappable with FreeDOS. Please inform me if you find a solution.

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