Q's & A's - April 1996

Note: The following Q's & A's are compiled from the questions commonly asked of the Developer Connection Support team.


 * Question:Does the Developer Connection installation update my CONFIG.SYS?


 * Answer:Yes, starting in Volume 10 the installation can update the CONFIG.SYS for you to add DEVCON\DLL to your LIBPATH and DPATH statements. DEVCON\DLL must be added to these statements to enable the new IPF-based catalog to find the .DLLs it needs.


 * Question:Is Redbook # xxxx included with DevCon 10? (Where xxxx refers to the number of the Redbook you are looking for.)


 * Answer:Use the "Documentation Roadmap for OS/2 CDs" icon in the Developer Connection Roadmap folder to display information about the online documents provided in the current volume. Or, you can use the view command to read BOOKLIST.INF (located in the \DOCS directory). Since most redbooks are provided in bookManager format, you can also launch Library Reader (with disc 2 in your CD-ROM drive) to view all of the titles available.


 * Question:While trying to compile one of the sample programs, the linker was unable to find DDE4MBS.LIB. Where is this library?


 * Answer:DDE4MBS.LIB has been replaced with CPPOM30.LIB. Linking to CPPOM30.LIB will resolve this problem.


 * Question:When I run SERVICE.EXE from the FIXPAK directory on CD-ROM (DevCon 9 Special Edition) the program consistently hangs. CTRL-ESC gives me the option to ENTER to halt SERVICE.EXE (program is not responding). How can I avoid this problem?


 * Answer:If you have problems installing the FixPak directly from the CD-ROM, verify that you do not have any beta level OpenDoc code installed on your system. If so, follow the instructions in the OpenDoc for OS/2 readme to remove the OpenDoc components or reformat your OS/2 partition.
 * Otherwise, we recommend making the diskette images from the \fixpak\images directory. While a lengthy process, it guarantees a clean environment to boot with that allows you to bypass any incompatibilities you may encounter. Instructions for creating the diskettes are in the readme.1st file. You will want to boot off the Corrective Service Boot Disk.


 * Question:Does installation order matter for FixPak 17 and Security Enabling Services (SES)?


 * Answer:No. However, future fixpaks may contain updates to SES, so you should have installed SES prior to FixPak 18 or later to ensure that SES is recognized as being on the system and therefore is a component that gets updated.


 * Question:What are the differences between the PrinterPak directory on the FixPak 17 CD-ROM and the DevCon Volume 9 Special Edition CD-ROM?


 * Answer:They are the same. The main DevCon readme explains the three ways to update printer drivers (make diskettes or install using the Fixtool installation program from the DevCon catalog, or use selective install from the desktop and type in the printer directory on the CD-ROM). The latter works with the directory provided on the FixPak 17 CD-ROM.
 * The things to remember are:
 * The file content is identical, i.e. PrinterPak 16 is at the current level, there were no changes to make a PrinterPak 17.
 * The Fixpak installation does not automatically update the printer drivers.
 * The printer files on the FixPak 17 CD-ROM are installed using the selective install process from the icons on the desktop and by typing in the path to the directory on the CD-ROM.


 * Question:Why do I get error code EPFIE187, a product-specific installation error that occurrs while executing the 'EXEC' exit routine, when I install the DevCon for OS/2 CD-ROM?


 * Answer:The DevCon installation program looks for ATTRIB.EXE in the OS2 path. By default, ATTRIB.EXE is placed in the \OS2 directory during the installation of OS/2. If the file is not there, you can use the OS/2 Selective Install utility to add it.