******************************************************************* *README.TXT Release Notes for Plug and Play Kit * * for MS-DOS(R) and Windows(TM) * *Release 1.24 January 1995 * ******************************************************************* NOTE The information in this file is for the system and/or card vendor. Please do not distribute it directly to your customer. You may use the parts of this file that are appropriate for your customer in your release notes. Introduction ============ This kit contains Release 1.24 of the Plug and Play Kit for MS-DOS and Windows. The components of this kit are: Plug and Play Configuration Manager (CM) for MS-DOS and Windows. Provides configuration services to real-mode and protected- mode drivers and to applications in MS-DOS and Windows environments. Plug and Play ISA Configuration Utility (ICU) for MS-DOS and Windows. Provides a way to assign system resources to add-in cards before the card is installed. This assignment avoids resource conflicts and keeps track of system resources so that Plug and Play cards do not conflict with non-Plug and Play cards in a system. A full description of ICU features and use is available in the ISA Configuration Utility (ICU) User's Guide. Installation Notes ================== 1) On systems with MS-DOS version 6.0 or later that use a multipath config.sys file, the MS-DOS installation procedure might corrupt the config.sys file by duplicating sections of the file and corrupting the duplicate sections. If you have this type of config.sys file, verify the integrity of the config.sys file before rebooting your system. If you see this problem, perform the following steps: a) Replace the config.sys file with the backup file made by the installation, config.bak. b) Edit the config.sys file and add a line to load the CM driver to the beginning of the file. Here is an example line that assumes the default installation: DEVICE=C:\PLUPGPLAY\DRIVERS\DOS\DWCFGMG.SYS 2) The installation procedures in this kit assume that C: is the boot drive of the system. Therefore, the procedures create, make changes to, or overwrite boot drive files on C:. In particular, the procedures put the escd.rf file into C:\, and create or modify the config.sys file in C:\. On systems without the Plug and Play BIOS, if the boot drive is not C:, but some other drive, the user must move the escd.rf file to the root directory of the boot drive. Also, the user must add line that loads the CM driver (dwcfgmg.sys) to the config.sys file in the root directory of the boot drive. Some utilities, for example, the Stacker disk compression utility, can change the boot drive from C: to another drive. Such drive changes are not always obvious to the user. In order to avoid the user having to move and edit files, the installation procedure must make an INT 21 call to detect the boot device before installing the escd.rf file or changing the config.sys file. 3) If you have already installed one version (MS-DOS or Windows) of the kit, install the other version in the same directory as you installed the first version. By default, both versions of the installation use the same directory: c:\plugplay. If you use a different directory, the system configuration information displayed when you invoke the Windows ICU might look different than that displayed when you invoke the MS-DOS ICU. 4) If you have already installed the one version (MS-DOS or Windows) of the kit, when the second installation procedure asks if you want to replace an existing escd.rf file, answer No. If you answer Yes, you will lose any system configuration changes you made with the first installed version of the ICU. If you inadvertently answer Yes to this question, you can recover the previous version of the escd.rf file by copying the c:\escd.bak file to c:\escd.rf. This recovery is not necessary if you made no system configuration changes with the MS-DOS ICU. NOTE The escd.rf file is not used on systems with the Plug and Play BIOS. MS-DOS Installations -------------------- 1) To install and run the Plug and Play Kit for MS-DOS, your system must have a minimum of 488 KBytes of free conventional memory. 2) Run the MS-DOS installations for the kit components from MS-DOS, not from an MS-DOS window under Windows. 3) The MS-DOS install program on these diskettes is incompatible with the expanded memory manager (emm386). Before installing the Plug and Play kit for MS-DOS, disable your expanded memory manager. After you have finished the installation, you can enable the expanded memory manager again. 4) The MS-DOS installation fails during an overinstall of a previous version of the Kit if the user has changed the file permissions of the previously installed version to read-only. 5) During MS-DOS installations, you are offered the opportunity to select from one or more choices. The highlighted choice (that is, the choice selected when you press the Enter key) is lighter than the other choices. On many, but not all, displays, the highlighted choice flashes. Windows Installations --------------------- 1) If the Windows screen saver becomes active during the Windows ICU setup, the index generator that runs at the end of the setup program is iconized as an MS-DOS icon. To complete the setup procedure, return to Windows and maximize the MS-DOS icon. 2) The Windows ICU installation fails on a system that has MS-DOS 6.0 installed with the VSafe virus scanner active if the VSafe scanner checks executable files and protects executable files (VSafe options 4 and 8). 3) A problem might occur if a previously installed version of the Windows ICU was deleted. The Windows ICU installation does not put the proper device driver entries into the windows/system.ini file if there is an entry in the win.ini file under [ConfigMgr] of Installed=yes. Delete this entry to from the win.ini file and run the Windows installation again, or edit the windows/system.ini file and insert the driver entries in the [386Enh] section of the file: device=VCAD.386 device=VCMD.386 For PCMCIA support in the Windows ICU, also add (to the same section): device=pccardrm.386 4) The R1.24 installations replace the old readme.* files from previous releases with this readme.txt file. The installations do not remove the icons for these older readme files from the Plug and Play Windows program group. Please remove the icons for these files and leave only the icon named "Release Notes." ****************************************************************** *Plug and Play Kit for MS-DOS and Windows * ****************************************************************** The components of the Plug and Play Kit for MS-DOS and Windows are: - The Plug and Play Configuration Manager (CM) - The ISA Configuration Utility (ICU) - The Configuration Assistance Utility (cassist) Plug and Play Configuration Manager (CM) ======================================== The Plug and Play Configuration Manager provides all of the functionality defined in the "Plug and Play Device Driver Specification for Microsoft(R) Windows(TM) and MS-DOS". The Configuration Manager also complies with the specifications and definitions in: "Plug and Play ISA Specification", Version 1.0a from Intel Corporation and Microsoft Corporation "Plug and Play BIOS Specification", Version 1.0a from Intel Corporation, Compaq Computer Corporation, Phoenix Technologies, Ltd. "Plug and Play BIOS Extensions Guide", Version 1.21 from Intel Corporation "PCI BIOS Specification", Version 2.1, from Intel Corporation "Extended System Configuration Data Specification" Version 1.02A, from Intel Corporation, Compaq Computer Corporation, and Phoenix Technologies, Ltd. This release of the Configuration Manager supersedes all previous releases. ISA Configuration Utility (ICU) =============================== The ISA Configuration Utility provides a way to assign system resources to add-in cards before the card is installed. This assignment avoids resource conflicts and keeps track of system resources so that Plug and Play cards do not conflict with non-Plug and Play cards in a system. A full description of ICU features and use is available in the ISA Configuration Utility (ICU) User's Guide. NOTE The ISA Configuration Utility is for ISA systems only. Do not run it on EISA systems. To configure EISA systems, use an EISA Configuration Utility. Configuration Assistance Utility (cassist) ========================================== On systems without the Plug and Play BIOS, the Configuration Assistance Utility (cassist) determines the resources used by system (motherboard) devices. Chapter 2 of the Plug and Play Developer's Guide provides information about cassist, and Chapter 2 of the ICU User's Guide provides information on using cassist. NOTE The cassist utility is not needed on systems with the Plug and Play BIOS. The Device Driver Development Kit provides a document that discusses how a card vendors can enhance cassist to detect their cards. New Functionality ***************** This release adds the following functionality to the R1.21 Plug and Play Kit for MS-DOS and Windows: New Configuration Manager Functionality ======================================= The difference between CM R1.24 and CM R1.21 are -- Supports both PnP BIOS 1.0 and PnP BIOS 1.0A device node definitions. Version 1.21, 1.22 and 1.23 all expected a single byte return value for device node info in compliance with the PnP BIOS 1.0A specification. Some older BIOS have not updated to the PnP BIOS 1.0A spec and still expect a double byte return value. CM1.24 will work in either situation. -- Change in version minor number. Device drivers and utilities checking for version minor numbers should be updated -- A Bug fix to make CM work with most EMM's. This would impact some systems with an ACFG BIOS, and would cause CM to not load. -- A Bug fix in CM which would cause the Windows ICU to GP fault occasionally. This had to do with incorrect memory mapping of a buffer within the VCAD VXD. New ISA Configuration Utility Functionality ======================================= The release 1.24 corrects the following ICU problems from 1.21, 1.22 and 1.23. -- The ICU now correctly prevents allocation of the reserved I/O Ports 279h and a79h to unlisted cards that do not have configuration files. Previously, if a user added an unlisted card using the ICU and created a manual entry in the configuration database the ICU would assign the reserved I/O ports 279h and a79h if the user requested those resources. The ICU now issues an error message that these values are invalid. -- The ICU halted if "cfg error" was set and a PCI PC-Compatible card was active. -- The ICU used memory after freeing it at the end of a modify operation. This caused a General Protection fault on some systems. -- Setting the lock on a multi-function card with "cfg error" set resulted in a General Protection fault. ************************************************************************************* Release 1.24 of the Plug and Play Kit for MS-DOS and Windows has the following limitations: - The CM and ICU do not support more than one PCI bus. - When the CM or ICU move a PCI card, they allocate memory resources according to the run-time memory requirement of the card. If this value is smaller than the PCI card's boot-time memory requirement, the BIOS relocates the PCI card the next time the system is booted. Therefore, the system boots in a different configuration than that last assigned by the CM and ICU. - The CM and ICU do not take into account the Shadow attribute of the memory blocks. So, there may be incompatible ROMs in the same shadow region. A workaround for this is to have all off-board ROMS use the same mode - shadowed or not shadowed. The preferred mode is not shadowed, since not all cards support ROM shadowing. - The CM and ICU do not differentiate between 8-bit and 16-bit devices. Thus, both device types can be allocated memory in the same 128K block. Due to ISA bus addressing, this memory allocation method can cause cards to not work. To work around this problem, design your devices to require memory in 128K blocks. Configuration Manager Notes and Limitations =========================================== - Whenever the Configuration Manager executes a 32-bit I/O read to the Plug and Play BIOS the system may hang and/or reset. The problem occurs only on systems with a Plug and Play BIOS, Plug and Play software Release 1.24, and EMM386 versions prior to 4.49. To fix this problem, use version 4.49 or higher releases of the EMM386 memory manager. End-users with earlier versions of the EMM386 memory manager should contact their OEM or Microsoft for information on obtaining an updated EMM386 device driver. - Using the DOS 6.21 or 6.22 Memmaker program with a Plug and Play system may cause system reboots. Selecting the Memmaker program's "Aggressive" memory scanning option causes Memmaker to specify HIGHSCAN as an option parameter to EMM386 in the config.sys file. The HIGHSCAN option may cause EMM386 to map memory into the F000:0 BIOS space used by the system BIOS. In this instance, EMM386 does not recognize that the BIOS may be using the entire 64 KB range from F000:0 to F000:FFFF. Typically, the system reboots when the Configuration Manager begins initialization, however the behavior may vary from system to system depending upon the BIOS. To work around this problem, do not select the "Aggressive" memory scan option on Memmaker. - Some Plug and Play platform BIOS memory map ESCD into the E000:0 block. Unfortunately, EMM386 does not recognize the presence of ESCD information in the E000:0 range and maps memory on top of the ESCD area. This corrupts the ESCD storage area. To work around this problem, end-users should contact their system OEMs. OEMs should determine where their BIOS stores ESCD. If the BIOS maps ESCD into the E000:0 range then end-users and OEMS should exclude the E000:0 range on the EMM386 command line. A permanent workaround involves BIOS vendors including a BIOS signature in front of the ESCD header when using the E000:0 range. - In the absence of the Intel Plug and Play BIOS extensions, Plug and Play boot devices are not reconfigured by the Configuration Manager. - Software exists that is incompatible with proper Configuration Manager operation. The interaction between this software and the CM might cause unusual system behavior or system delays when both the CM and the software are running on the system. If you suspect such interaction is causing problems on your system, try adding the /STATIC and/or the /NOVCPI options to the dwcfgmg.sys driver line in the config.sys file. Either or both options might remedy the problem. - The VCAD Windows driver provides protected-mode EISA interfaces. when the /PMEISA CM option is specified. Since not all EISA systems provide this level of BIOS functionality, these functions might not work correctly on all EISA systems. - If you use the /FILE option of the Configuration Manager on a system with the ACFG BIOS, and you don't provide motherboard information for the system in an escd.rf file, the ICU cannot run. This option is normally needed only for testing on EISA systems. ISA Configuration Utility Notes and Limitations =============================================== - When you save an image file (Save Image File or Save Image File As.. on the Advanced menu), the icu.ndx index file is not updated. So, if the configuration you saved contained one or more unlisted cards, when you load the image file you saved, the card resources for these unlisted cards are in the loaded configuration image. However, cards of this type might be listed as "Unknown Card," instead of by the name you assigned when you added it. You can avoid this behavior by choosing the Save item on the File menu before you save the image file. In addition, if you copy the image file to another system, you must also copy the icu.ndx index file to avoid this behavior. - Pressing the F1 key invokes the ICU help facility from the ISA Configuration Utility window (the main window) only. - When you are modifying a function of a Plug and Play card in preparation for locking it, you might see a conflict message that indicates the card is conflicting with itself. Try reconfiguring the card functions in a different order. - If a function has two or more resource types that must be configured together, the ICU might not be able to configure that function, even though there might be a valid configuration available. If you encounter this problem, see the discussion on resolving conflicts in the Troubleshooting section of the ICU User's Guide for ways to successfully configure functions in this category. - When you pick a resource for a new card that is currently used by an existing card, the ICU reconfigures the Plug and Play ISA cards first, then the PCI cards. However, PCI cards are restricted to specific interrupts. Sometimes, the configuration fails because the ICU assigns Plug and Play cards to all the valid PCI card interrupts. Then, The ICU cannot configure the PCI cards. Use the ICU to reconfigure the Plug and Play cards to different interrupts, then try again to configure your new card. - If a boot function on a Plug and Play card causes a conflict error on a system without the Plug and Play BIOS, one of two messages appears after you Modify the card and change the function: This card will be configured when the system is rebooted. This may not be true. If this message appears, there is a configuration that works. However, systems without the Plug and Play BIOS lack the ability to configure boot functions of Plug and Play cards, and cannot find the working configuration for you. Find the working configuration and configure the Plug and Play card using jumpers, switches, or a software configuration utility provided by the card manufacturer. Inspect the resources currently used in the system to determine a working configuration. A conflict has been detected with . The conflicting resource is . This message might be inaccurate. It might not inform you of the conflict keeping the card from being configured. Inspect the resources currently used in the system and use the conflict resolution techniques described in the Chapter 5 of the ICU User's Guide to discover and correct the conflict. If in the course of resolving a conflict reported by this message you see the message discussed previously, use the techniques described to continue. - Because of ISA architecture limitations, ISA cards cannot use Interrupt 2, but must use Interrupt 9 instead. The ICU takes this limitation into account and only allows users to choose Interrupt 9 when Interrupt 2 is listed as a valid resource value in a configuration file. When this substitution occurs, the interrupt value is offered as "Interrupt 9(2)." - When you are configuring an unlisted card, if the card manufacturer's documentation lists Interrupt 2 as a valid resource value, you must instead choose Interrupt 9. - You can increase the size of the Smartdrv buffer to make the ICU faster. MS-DOS ICU Limitations ---------------------- - The MS-DOS ICU installation might fail if some Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) programs or drivers are resident in memory. If this happens, remove all TSRs from memory and restart the install process. Some example TSRs and drivers are: Borland Side Kick and network drivers that are not loaded from config.sys. - You might see this message: N100: Not enough memory to run the ICU. In a few cases, 488 KBytes of free memory is insufficient. In these cases, ICU operation ceases suddenly and you see an MS-DOS "Out of Memory" error. In this situation, use the Windows version of the ICU if it is available. If the Windows ICU is not available, use the Save item on the File menu after each card operation to avoid losing too much work. - You might see this message: N110: Please run the ICU from its directory. You must invoke the ICU from the directory that contains the DB directory (default placement C:\PLUGPLAY\ICU). - You must execute the MS-DOS ICU from MS-DOS only, not from an MS-DOS window. - If you rearrange the ICU dialog boxes on the screen, you might see spurious lines, characters, or buttons. Do not click the mouse on these spurious entities. Clicking the mouse here causes the system to hang. - Double-clicking to select an item in a list is not supported. - The scroll box (the square slider inside the scrollbar) occasionally does not work. Use the arrow keys. - If you initiate an action such as Add Card when the System Resource Usage dialog box is visible, the dialog box might close. Windows ICU Limitations ----------------------- - If you have no mouse, you might not be allowed to make a choice from the Choices for Configuration list on the Settings screen if the choices above and below the choice you want cause conflicts. The Windows keyboard interface selects each entry instead of just highlighting it. If this happens try using the arrow keys and/or the Page Up/Page Down keys to move in the list. Configuration Assistance Utility Notes and Limitations ====================================================== - cassist operation is incompatible with network operation. Disable network drivers on your system before running cassist. Enable the network drivers after you have run cassist. - cassist creates the escd.rf file in the root directory of the current drive (that is, the drive on which the cassist utility is run). On systems without the Plug and Play BIOS, if the current drive is not the boot drive, the user must move this escd.rf file manually to the root directory of the boot drive. - cassist does not detect interrupt resources used by ISA video cards. ******************************************************************* * Trademark and Copyright Citations * ******************************************************************* MS-DOS is a registered trademark, and Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. The program used for MS-DOS installation of components of the Plug and Play Kit for MS-DOS and Windows, INSTALL, is licensed software provided by Knowledge Dynamics Corp., P.O. Box 780068, San Antonio, Texas 78278 (U.S.A.). INSTALL is Copyright (c) 1987-1993 by Knowledge Dynamics Corp., which reserves all copyright protection worldwide. INSTALL is provided to you for the exclusive purpose of installing the MS-DOS components of the Plug and Play Kit for MS-DOS and Windows. Intel Corporation is exclusively responsible for the support of the Plug and Play Kit for MS-DOS and Windows, including support during the installation phase. In no event will Knowledge Dynamics Corp. provide any technical support for the Plug and Play Kit for MS-DOS and Windows. Other names and trademarks are the property of their respective companies.