China DOS Union

1. How do I use VIDE-CDD.SYS to drive multiple CD-ROMs?
2. Can MSCDEX.EXE be run multiple times to drive multiple CD-ROMs? If so, will multiple MSCDEX.EXE instances stay resident in memory?
3. Please introduce the usage of ADDEV/DELDEV in detail.

1: VIDE-CDD can drive multiple IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM drives at one time.
2: MSCDEX also supports multiple CD-ROM drives at one time; the method is to add multiple /D options, for example MSCDEX /D:A /D:B ...
3: ADDEV/DELDEV are very simple to use, for example ADDEV VIDE-CDD.SYS, then DELDEV VIDE-CDD.SYS

A few more questions
1: How should the parameters be set when using VIDE-CDD to drive multiple IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM drives at one time? Please explain in detail. If no device name is specified, will it automatically assign one? Is the usage and device-name assignment for those SCSI and USB CD-ROM drivers the same as well? If these drivers are loaded multiple times, will multiple copies stay resident? What software can be used to find out these device names (the output would preferably be like the output of an external command, rather than something viewed inside an interface like MSD, because I want to process its output and use it as the /D parameter for MSCDEX)?
2: Same as original question 2. Because I want to make separate batch files for CD-ROMs on different interfaces so I can load them as needed.
3: I use PC-CACHE, and I can only add the /LOW parameter, otherwise it crashes. I wonder whether this is related to the boot settings; I use UMBPCI+(CLOAKING -USEVCPI +MSCDEX+MOUSE).
4: Whether I use LH or DEVICEHIGH, I still can't put CLOAKING into UMB. I wonder whether the moderator has any good solution.
5: I use the LH SMARTDRV command, and there are still more than 10K left in conventional memory. How can I get all of it into UMB?

1: VIDE-CDD automatically loads all IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM drives at one time, so you only need to use it once. If no device name is specified, it assigns one automatically: VIDE-CD$.
2: As for SCSI and USB CD-ROM drives, VIDE-CDD does not support them. In that case you need to use special SCSI or USB CD-ROM drivers, such as ASPICD.SYS, DUSE.EXE, USBCD.SYS, etc.
3: I've never had PC-CACHE crash on me. Try "LH PC-CACHE /LOW" and see whether it crashes.
4: For Cloaking 2.01, if the free UMB is smaller than a certain value, then CLOAKING simply cannot be loaded into UMB no matter what. Therefore, you must make sure the free UMB has a certain size.
5: There are two possibilities for SMARTDRV occupying part of conventional memory: too little free UMB memory; or SMARTDRV loaded with the /DOUBLE_BUFFER parameter using the DEVICE command in CONFIG.SYS to enable double buffering.

First, thanks to the moderator. There are still a few things I don't understand, please don't hesitate to enlighten me:
1: What software did you use to find out the device name automatically assigned by VIDE-CDD? Where can I download it? Does the $ at the end of that device name mean a number, or $+number?
2: Will these special SCSI and USB CD-ROM drivers also automatically assign device names?
3: Suppose I have 2 CD-ROM drives and have loaded the corresponding drivers in CONFIG.SYS, and then in AUTOEXEC.BAT I write
mscdex /d:device_name_1
......
mscdex /d:device_name_2
would there be any problem? Would there be two mscdex instances in memory?
4: I load SMARTDRV in AUTOEXEC.BAT, and there is no /DOUBLE_BUFFER parameter. More than 10K stays resident in both UMB and conventional memory, and after that there is still a largest available UMB block of more than 20K. Why can't it all go into UMB?

You can see VIDE-CD$ with the MEM command; it is the $ character. ASPICD does not automatically assign a device name, but DUSE does. If MSCDEX is used twice there will be no problem, but there really will be two MSCDEX instances in memory. There is still too little free UMB memory, so SMARTDRV cannot all be loaded into UMB.

A few more questions
1: What parameter does MEM use? Please give an example of MEM output when VIDE-CDD automatically assigns 2 or more device names.
2: I found two versions of MSD, one is version 3.x and the other is version 2.x, but the Copyright year of the former is earlier than that of the latter. Which version is actually the newest?
3: On my machine, when using cloaking+mouse, after checking IRQ with msd, moving the mouse left and right makes the cursor move diagonally. How can this be fixed?

1: For example, MEM/D/P can show VIDE-CD$. For example, if there are two IDE CD-ROM drives, then VIDE-CDD.SYS will be loaded as VIDE-CD$ at the same time.
2: The newest version of MSD is 4.13, included with MS-DOS 7.10.
3: That IRQ viewing function in MSD really does affect normal mouse use. The solution is not to use that function in MSD, or to reinitialize the mouse after using it (for example FM /R).

2. It's 2.14, right?

Of course it's 2.14, I mistyped the number.

3: Will cloaking -usevcpi make the system enter protected mode?
4: Will nwcache make the system enter protected mode?
5: If the system enters protected mode, can the frm command from freedos make it return to real mode?
6: It seems pc-cache cannot cache CD-ROM drives, right? I use cloaking -usevcpi + the mscdex used together with it.

ps: I found the newest pc-cache and all the files it needs in pctools 9.0, and it can finally stay resident in UMB without crashing. If anyone needs it, I'll upload it.

I missed part of the post, hehe! Adding it now:
1: When using VIDE-CDD.SYS without parameters to drive CD-ROMs, and checking with MEM/D/P, what is the device name of the second CD-ROM drive? Is it on the same line after the first drive's device name, or on a new line? When you said "then VIDE-CDD.SYS will be loaded as VIDE-CD$ at the same time", did you mean VIDE-CDD.SYS stays resident twice and the program name becomes VIDE-CD$ the second time, or something else? Please explain.
2: In question 3, what exactly is FM? Where can I download it?

PC-CACHE indeed does not support CD-ROM drives, but when I use only three files it doesn't crash on my computer.

FM is a mouse acceleration tool; it can be found in the InkUtils 1.53 tool collection (there is a download on the site).

Then what about questions 1, 3, 4, and 5? Especially question 1, because I want to make a boot disk that supports multiple IDE CD-ROM drives based on it. Please, moderator, answer. Also, what tools are there under pure DOS, with DOSLFN support, that support long filenames and have DOSKEY-like auto-completion? Of course, the less memory they take, the better!

Disk cache programs themselves will not make the CPU enter protected mode, but CLOAKING will, because version 2.01 automatically provides a DPMS interface. I haven't used the FRM command in FreeDOS. As for tools under DOSLFN that support long filenames and have auto-completion, try CmdEdit 1.20 or 4DOS 7.50; both will do.