China DOS Union

Recently I used moderator Wengier's ROM-DOS boot disk to try whether The Legend of Sword and Fairy could run, and ran into some problems.
First I booted with moderator Wengier's original autoexec.bat and config.sys. After booting, there were 567KB of conventional memory left. To run The Legend of Sword and Fairy, conventional memory basically needs 570KB. Obviously, I had to modify the two files autoexec.bat and config.sys, deleting some programs that didn't need to be loaded into memory at startup, because I was mainly just testing whether The Legend of Sword and Fairy could run~~ I modified autoexec.bat and config.sys about four times in total.
I'll first post the original autoexec.bat and config.sys written by moderator Wengier for reference.

The original autoexec.bat and config.sys written by moderator Wengier
autoexec.bat：
@echo off
break on
lfnfor on
verify on
set dircmd=/OGN /4
set comspec=a:\command.com
path=a:\;..
mode con rate=32 delay=1
killer.exe
doskey.com
mscdex.exe /D:CDROM1 /K
ctmouse.exe /r3
mousclip.exe /m
set ramdrive=
xmsdsk 1024 /y
findramd>nul
if %ramdrive%#==# goto noram
copy command.com %ramdrive%\>nul
path=%ramdrive%\;%path%
set comspec=%ramdrive%\command.com
:noram
escape.exe
echo.
echo Now you're in ROM-DOS 7.10 prompt.
echo.

config.sys：
device=fdxxms.sys
device=emm386.exe quiet
device=vide-cdd.sys /d:CDROM1
device=cloaking.exe
shell=command.com /p /e:640
dos=high,umb
numlock=off
files=30
buffers=20,0
stacks=9,256
lastdrive=n

The first time, I added the LoadHigh command in autoexec.bat and added the DeviceHigh command in config.sys. After rebooting, conventional memory was still 567KB. Looks like those commands seem useless for ROM-DOS, so I tried a second round of modifications.

The second time I deleted some unnecessary programs from autoexec.bat and some driver programs from config.sys. I'll post them here for everyone to take a look.
autoexec.bat：
@echo off
break on
lfnfor on
verify on
set dircmd=/OGN /4
set comspec=a:\command.com
path=a:\;..
mode con rate=32 delay=1
mscdex.exe /D:CDROM1 /K
ctmouse.exe /r3
set ramdrive=
xmsdsk 1024 /y
findramd>nul
if %ramdrive%#==# goto noram
copy command.com %ramdrive%\>nul
path=%ramdrive%\;%path%
set comspec=%ramdrive%\command.com
:noram
echo.
echo Now you're in ROM-DOS 7.10 prompt.
echo.

config.sys：
device=fdxxms.sys
device=emm386.exe quiet
device=vide-cdd.sys /d:CDROM1
shell=command.com /p /e:640
dos=high,umb
numlock=off
files=30
buffers=20,0
stacks=9,256
lastdrive=n
After rebooting, dizzy.... it was actually even less than before, only about 548KB. I guessed it should be a problem in config.sys, so I added the line device=cloaking.exe back in. After rebooting, my guess was indeed right. Adding this line back made conventional memory 4KB more than the basic requirement for The Legend of Sword and Fairy. I immediately tried running it. After running it, it hung. The opening animation didn't come out. I guessed again that maybe memory still wasn't quite enough, so I deleted the two lines buffers=20,0 and stacks=9,256 in config..sys, and changed files=30 to 40. After rebooting, it was even worse. ROM-DOS said something about a stacks error, and then hung, so I added stacks=9,256 back. This time it booted normally, and conventional memory also increased to 584KB. I immediately tried running The Legend of Sword and Fairy, but it was the same as the previous run: it hung, and the opening animation wouldn't come out. Below are a few questions I'd like to ask. Please, experts familiar with ROM-DOS, help me see what's going on here~~

1. Moderator Wengier said ROM-DOS is very compatible with MS-DOS. In theory it should be able to run The Legend of Sword and Fairy on it, but I tried and it really can't run (though I don't know whether it's related to xmsdsk)
2. What exactly is ROM-DOS's cloaking.exe used for??
3. Does ROM-DOS have very strict requirements for stack(s)??

Bump..

Under normal circumstances, setting the STACKS value is necessary. Otherwise the stack value will be 0,0, which will cause big problems.

As for CLOAKING, it's included on the MS-DOS 7.10, ROM-DOS 7.10, PC-DOS 7.10 and other boot disks I made. Shen Jie and others all know what it is used for.

I also just tried running The Legend of Sword and Fairy under ROM-DOS. The result was that when both conventional memory (greater than 570KB) and XMS memory (I used XMSDSK to reduce it to below 32MB) met the requirements, it started and ran completely normally. Just to explain, I used ROM-DOS 7.10 booted from the hard disk, not booted from a ROM-DOS 7.10 boot disk.

The memory in my computer is 32MB, so I probably don't need xmsdsk to reduce it~~
I don't have space on my hard disk to put ROM-DOS on it...
Moderator, could you explain in detail the whole process from rebooting to successfully running The Legend of Sword and Fairy?? Thanks!!

Then change:
device=fdxxms.sys
device=emm386.exe quiet

to
device=himem.sys
and try it。。

EMM386.EXE in DR-DOS may have a bit of a compatibility problem.

After I changed it, it got even worse....
It rebooted halfway through booting......
Turns out it was a cloaking.exe problem. If I delete it, it won't keep rebooting....
But then conventional memory isn't enough....

CLOAKING itself has no problem with The Legend of Sword and Fairy. I use it this way every time, and I've never had any errors.

If you want to remove CLOAKING, you can't remove it by itself. You have to remove MSCDEX along with it, otherwise the memory usage is scary。。

Hmm, I'll try again

I tried it. If I disable MSCDEX, memory is only about 530KB left...
It seems that without the VCPI interface from cloaking.exe, conventional memory drops a lot...
But to use cloaking.exe, you need EMM386.exe, so here's what I did:
1. Use MS-DOS 7.1's EMM386.exe to replace DR-DOS's EMM386.exe
2. Delete the line device=fdxxms.sys, because for XMS management, EMM386.exe alone is enough
Result after modification: conventional memory was 578KB, so I immediately tried running The Legend of Sword and Fairy....
Wahaha...... so happy~~
I succeeded..... The Legend of Sword and Fairy ran normally..... Seeing the stars in the opening animation, I was unbelievably happy.....
So I think it should be a fdxxms.sys problem. I don't know whether my judgment is correct??

I just tried again and confirmed that DR-DOS's EMM386 is indeed incompatible with The Legend of Sword and Fairy.. Using MS-DOS's EMM386 or not loading EMM386 works.

If EMM386 is not loaded, conventional memory can't meet the basic requirement for The Legend of Sword and Fairy~