[comp.sys.novell] DOS 4.01, COMSPEC and Novell

legg@ucs.adelaide.edu.au (Christian Legg) (02/07/91)

  Hello Novellers,

  I'm having a problem with some DOS 4.01 workstations that are accessing
a NW386 server and I am wondering if anyone else has had this problem
before.

  The CONFIG.SYS of the boot floppy disks contains

  shell = command.com a: /e:1024 /p

  to ensure that sufficient environment space is allocated.

  When the workstation logs into the fileserver, the COMSPEC environment
variable is set to Y:\COMMAND.COM, where Y: is \PUBLIC\%MACHINE... etc.

  Despite this, the workstation will persist in asking that a disk with
COMMAND.COM be inserted into drive A: when COMMAND.COM is to be reloaded
at the end of an application.

  I have read in the DOS 4.01 manual that using the shell command in
CONFIG.SYS overrides the COMSPEC variable. Can I take that to mean that
if the shell command is used in CONFIG.SYS then COMSPEC will be ignored
full stop?

  If so, what can be done to get around this problem, if anything? I have
thought about modifying COMMAND.COM so that it starts off with > 160 bytes
of environment space so that I would not need to reload it in CONFIG.SYS.
Has anyone else done this, and if so, how did you do it?

  This problem does not occur with our DOS 3.3 floppy disk boot machines.

  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

  christian legg
  legg@ucs.adelaide.edu.au

karinc@isc.intel.com (Karin Coffee) (02/15/91)

In article <2359@sirius.ucs.adelaide.edu.au> legg@ucs.adelaide.edu.au (Christian Legg) writes:
>
>  I'm having a problem with some DOS 4.01 workstations that are accessing
>a NW386 server and I am wondering if anyone else has had this problem
>before.
>
>  The CONFIG.SYS of the boot floppy disks contains
>
>  shell = command.com a: /e:1024 /p
>
>  to ensure that sufficient environment space is allocated.
>
>  When the workstation logs into the fileserver, the COMSPEC environment
>variable is set to Y:\COMMAND.COM, where Y: is \PUBLIC\%MACHINE... etc.
>
>  If so, what can be done to get around this problem, if anything? I have
>thought about modifying COMMAND.COM so that it starts off with > 160 bytes
>of environment space so that I would not need to reload it in CONFIG.SYS.
>Has anyone else done this, and if so, how did you do it?
>

I didn't learn about setting COMSPEC in the login scripts until almost a
year after I started managing a Novell Network.  Every workstation on the
network sets COMSPEC to the command.com on their hard drive.  This includes
machines running DOS version 3.2, 3.3, and 4.01.  I don't set the COMSPEC
variable during login.  So far it works great!  I had thought about 
changing it, but I don't really see the point.  If it works, don't change
it.

Hope this helps.


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   Karin Coffee				Intel Supercomputer Systems Division 
   Network/System Administration	15201 NW Greenbrier Parkway  
   The LAN Lords 			Beaverton, OR  97201
   karinc@isc.intel.com 		(503) 629-7693
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leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com (Leonard Erickson) (02/24/91)

legg@ucs.adelaide.edu.au (Christian Legg) writes:

>  The CONFIG.SYS of the boot floppy disks contains

>  shell = command.com a: /e:1024 /p

>  to ensure that sufficient environment space is allocated.

>  When the workstation logs into the fileserver, the COMSPEC environment
>variable is set to Y:\COMMAND.COM, where Y: is \PUBLIC\%MACHINE... etc.
                      ^ Oh really?

Take the A: out of the shell command. We learnmed the hard way that for]
some reason, Netware barfs if the shell includes a path. 

shell=c:\commmand.com /e:1024 /p 

causes problems too!

As I recall, even explicit setting of COMSPEC had intermittent problems.
-- 
Leonard Erickson			leonard@qiclab.uucp
personal:	CIS: [70465,203]	70465.203@compuserve.com
business:	CIS: [76376,1107]	76376.1107@compuserve.com