Subj : Accessing SHARES on DOS PCs To : Mike Powell From : Peter Knapper Date : Sun Mar 27 2005 09:29 am Hi Mike, MP> I am attempting to migrate my BBS over from my machine that is running MP> MS-DOS 6.22 to my OS/2 machine. That should be a reasonably straight forward task.........;-) MP> I originally had the idea that I would then convert the DOS machine into MP> a debian box, set up samba, and let it be a file server to the BBS, via MP> the network. It depends on how "busy" your BBS is. This usually works fine for the Files section, but messages can be another story due to the level of HD activity required for management of the message base (message import and export as well as BBS access and management of the Message base). The most successful Networked Message bases I have heard of have been where all message processing was LOCAL to the Message Base box, and only user read/write acesss was performed across the Network. However in theory it should all be do-able. MP> However, OS/2 and samba no longer get along, It sounds like you have run into the issue relating to the latest version of Samba (V3 ???), you need to back-level Samba 1 version to get it working again. I hear there is a fix for this in the pipeline but I have no details as I do not run Samba myself... MP> so I had the MP> brilliant idea that the MS-DOS networking tools might allow the OS/2 MP> box to access the file drives on the DOS box (which would require MP> no conversion to debian/samba). Question, why not just migrate the BBS to OS/2 in total, is there a definite need for a seperate Linux (or DOS) environment? If you mean to let an OS2/DOS VDM access the SAMBA drive, then you need to be aware that there are TWO distinct types of DOS box that can be run under OS/2 - 1. An OS2/DOS VDM. This is the conventional "Dos Session" that most people use. ALL resources for this session are provided by OS/2, to the VDM. If a Resource needed by the DOS session doesn't exist or work under OS/2, then its not available under DOS. At the time the DOS VDM is started, it automatically inherits the resources visible to OS/2. EG If you have a Networked OS/2 box that has connections to remote Network resources, and you run an OS/2 Windows session, note that Windows File Manager shows all OS/2 Networked drives as LOCAL drives, and not as Network resources! Thats why the Windows support under OS/2 does not need to be the equivalent of Windows for Workgroups, because Network support is not needed integrated into Windows itself. I suspect this is why your DOS Network support is not working... 2. A DOS Bootable Session. This is a session that really does BOOT a DOS bootable disk/image file, however it has one BIG limitation (advantage???). ANY Hardware resource needed by this DOS session, MUST be directly accessed from within the DOS Bootable Session and that resource CANNOT be accessed from an OS/2 session, it is 100% dedicated to JUST that DOS session. So OS/2 sessions will NOT be able to access connections made from within that session. Many years ago I used this form of boot to access a really old CDROM drive that only had a working DOS driver, and it actually worked very well, but I had a nightmare sorting out where to put the copied data that I could later get at again under OS/2, because the "normal" OS/2 HD's were NOT visible to that DOS session! This was OS/2 V2.1, before CD's became cheap and popular.......;-) HOWEVER... you CAN boot a DOS Boot Disk (a PURE DOS VDM, not Native OS2/DOS VDM) that has Networking configured, and that usually works fine, BUT... it MUST have 100% dedicated Networking Hardware available, it cannot SHARE Network Hardware resources in this mode, nor can it share HD resources! No OS/2 Networking can exist for that Network card at all! To Guarantee this you MUST remove all OS/2 Networking configurations. MP> I am surprised that OS/2 will not allow me to access MP> the machine. I am not surprised, your symptoms are EXACTLY the reported issue with the latest version of SAMBA. MP> Is there some trick to getting OS/2 to read (and write) to a SHARE on MP> an MS-DOS box? I have not heard of anyone who has been able to (successfully) get this working. I really think your best bet is to back-level Samba and everything will then work as you originally wanted, however putting the entire BBS on an OS/2 box is (IMHO) the best option. Good luck.............pk. --- Maximus/2 3.01 * Origin: Another Good Point About OS/2 (3:772/1.10) .