                           NeTraverse(TM) Merge(TM) 5.3                            
                                                                               
                        Installation and Release Notes                         
                                                                               
Thank you for choosing to use Merge from NeTraverse (http://www.netraverse.com
). The Merge product integrates the Microsoft(R) Windows(R) 95/98 and Millennium
Edition operating systems into the Open UNIX(TM)/UnixWare (TM) environment,
allowing users to access both UNIX and Windows(R) applications simultaneously.

This document provides installation instructions, and release specific
information that is supplemental to the User's Guide and other on-line help
documents contained in the distribution.

 

Table of Contents

    Introduction
   
        What is Merge?
        New features in Merge 5.3
        Release History for Merge 5.3
       
    Installation Notes
   
        System Requirements
        Supported Windows Versions
        Disk Space Requirements
        Licensing Requirements
        Installation Procedure
        Upgrading an Earlier Version
        Viewing the Documentation
        Loading the Windows installation files from CD
        Removal Procedure
       
    Release Notes
   
        Operational Tips
        Known Limitations
        Anomalies and Caveats
       
    Supplement to the On-line Help Documentation
   
        Customizable drive labels
        Windows 95 Y2K update
       

Introduction

What is Merge?

NeTraverse Merge is an add-on to the UNIX operating system that provides the
capability to run DOS, Windows, and UNIX applications simultaneously on your
PC. With NeTraverse Merge, you install the Microsoft Windows operating system
from the standard CD-ROM installation media and then install and use
off-the-shelf Windows applications in a multiuser, multitasking environment.

UNIX is the master operating system that controls the physical hardware and
file systems on your PC, while NeTraverse Merge provides a complete virtual PC
environment for the Windows operating systems. Windows applications execute in
this environment as they would on a standard PC, with UNIX providing the needed
protection and resource arbitration underneath. Each user has their own private
installation of Windows to work with, so on multiuser systems, the way one user
uses or mis-uses Windows will not adversely affect any other users or the
underlying UNIX system.

New Features in Merge 5.3

NeTraverse Merge 5.3 is a major update to the previous version, SCO Merge 5.1.
It provides the following new features:

  * Easy sizing of the Windows window
   
      + Use mouse to resize
        The Merge window can conveniently be resized using the mouse pointer to
        drag the window frame to the desired size. This feature is supplemental
        to earlier methods provided for sizing the window.
       
      + Winsetup "Window Resize".
        In winsetup, under "Personal Windows Session Configuration", the
        display tab now has a "Window Resize" control and a new option, "Window
        Resize". When this option is checked, it activates the "Window Resize"
        control that provides two settings: "Automatic" and "Custom". When
        "Automatic" is selected, the Merge window size is automatically set to
        the next smallest standard size resolution from that of the real
        display. And when "Custom" is selected, you control the window size
        using either the slider bars (positioned with the mouse or the keyboard
        arrow keys), or the "Manual Resize" control.
       
      + Winsetup "Full Screen Resize".
        In winsetup, under "Personal Windows Session Configuration", the
        display tab now has a "Full Screen Resize" option. When this option is
        checked, and you start a "full screen" session with the fwin command,
        Windows is resized as needed to completely fill the screen.
       
      + Command line option for the win command.
        A "-g" option can be used to specify the exact resolution to use when
        you want to start your Merge session. For example, to specify a 1000 by
        700 window size, you would use the command: win -g 1000x700.
   
  * Allocation of up to 128 Mbytes of Windows memory
    The amount of memory that can be allocated to Windows has been increased
    from 64Mbytes to 128Mbytes. Also, the amount of available virtual memory
    (swap) has been increased from 80Mbytes to a maximum value equivalent to
    the amount of available disk space on the partition holding the user's 
    $HOME/win directory (the default maximum value is one third of the
    available disk space).
   
  * Support for Windows Millennium Edition
    Support for the full install version of US English Windows Millennium
    Edition
   
  * Support for more Windows applications
    Since the release of Merge 5.1, the Merge product has been enhanced to
    provide support for a broader range of Windows applications. The list of
    tested and supported applications now includes many popular applications
    such as:
   
      + Microsoft(R) Office XP
      + Microsoft Visual FoxPro(R) 7
      + Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0
      + Netscape(R) 6.2
      + Lotus(R) SmartSuite(R)
      + Lotus Freelance(R)
      + Adobe(R) Illustrator(R) 9.0
      + Adobe Acrobat Reader(R) 5.0
      + Adobe PhotoShop(R) 6.0
      + Adobe FrameMaker(R) 6.0
      + Macromedia(R) Dreamweaver(R) 4.0
      + Macromedia Fireworks(R) 4.0
      + Norton(R) AntiVirus(R) 2002
      + ... and many more.
   
    NOTE: While all the above applications have been tested and run
    successfully under Merge, some of these applications can be very demanding
    of system resources such as processor time, memory and graphics display.
    Since these resources are shared with other applications in the UNIX
    system, it may be necessary to upgrade your CPU, memory or graphics card to
    achieve an acceptable level of performance.
   
  * Support for more Windows locales
    The list of supported Windows national language versions now includes Greek
    and Brazilian Portuguese.
   
  * Automatic creation of D: drive for user data
    When you install Windows, the "D" drive is automatically created and
    provides access to the new UNIX directory $HOME/mydata. This drive is
    intended to be the place where the user keeps their documents and other
    data files. It provides a convenient place for sharing or moving files
    between UNIX and your Windows session, and makes it easy to create backups
    of your data. In addition, the directory $HOME/mydata/MyDocuments is
    created and the Windows 98 desktop "My Documents" icon takes you directly
    to this directory.
   
  * Faster startup time for Windows 98
    Merge has been optimized to significantly improve the startup time of a
    Windows 98 session.
   
  * Correct CPU identification
    In the past, Merge has hidden the true CPU type, reporting instead that the
    CPU is a Cyrix 486. Many modern applications demand a Pentium class
    processor and these applications have not been able to run under previous
    Merge releases. Now that Merge reveals the true identity of the CPU, these
    applications run successfully in the Merge environment.
   
  * Faster serial device connections
    COM ports can now be configured for speeds up to 115,000bps.
   
  * Wheel mouse support
    Merge provides the basic scrolling feature expected when rolling the
    middle-button wheel provided on many PS/2 mice.
   
   
Release History for Merge 5.3

Changes in 5.3.23

New Functionality

Problems fixed

  * Fixed syntax error in installwindows.sh

Changes in 5.3.22

New Functionality

Problems fixed

  * Fix for the Dutch 'leesswijzer' Flash application rendering moving pictures
    incorrectly.
    NOTE: in general terms, this fixes graphics that move from one location to
    another in Flash animations. It does not fix the more common Flash
    "flickering" bug, which we are still working on.

Changes in 5.3.21

New Functionality

Problems fixed

Changes in 5.3.20

New Functionality

  * Enabled DOS printer configuration in winsetup when configuring Windows
    session.

Problems fixed

Changes in 5.3.19

New Functionality

Problems fixed

  * Fixed problems with Merge X Cut/Paste and its interactions with OpenOffice
    and XEmacs.
  * Minor security fixes.

Changes in 5.3.18

New Functionality

Problems fixed

  * Fixed the problem introduced in previous release where doing a "Copy" on an
    Excel text cell with X Cut & Paste enabled caused xcrt to crash with a
    segmentation violation.

Changes in 5.3.17

New Functionality

Problems fixed

  * Fixed problem where "Internal error - procBlit: can't find bitmap handle
    XXXX" errors were generated when running Borland Delphi or Delphi
    Applications.
  * Fixed a problem where adding a graphic to the clipboard with X Cut and
    Paste enabled was causing Windows to exit.

Changes in 5.3.16

New Functionality

Problems fixed

Changes in 5.3.15

New Functionality

Problems fixed

  * Fixed erroneous message catalog entries and selection.
  * Fixed minor problem in x_msg dealing with displaying newlines.

Changes in 5.3.14

New Functionality

Problems fixed

Changes in 5.3.13

New Functionality

  * Added support for Iberian Portuguese Windows 98SE.
  * Added full support for TurboTax 2002.
    IMPORTANT NOTE: A directory called $HOME/.merge-DO_NOT_DELETE may be
    created in the home directory of the user running Windows. As its name
    implies, please do NOT delete this directory or any of its contents. Doing
    so may adversely affect some Windows applications and possibly render them
    unusable.
    IMPORTANT ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE NOTE: This update may cause your Antivirus
    software (such as Norton Antivirus) to warn that the Master Boot Record has
    changed the next time a scan is performed. This is normal and expected, do
    not be alarmed; when asked to proceed, choose an option that either accepts
    the change or ignores the Master Boot Record altogether. Note that it is
    recommended that you disable boot record scanning in general.

Problems fixed

  * Fixed problem where Merge sessions die with a Signal 11 after installing
    MSSQL.
  * Fix for "MSGWIN cause an invalid page fault in module KERNEL32.DLL at 0177:
    9ff7d76b."

Changes in 5.3.12

New Functionality

  * Added UNIX front-end to REGEDIT: /usr/lib/merge/publicbin/regedit
    Run without arguments (as non-root user) for usage information.

Problems fixed

  * Fixed problem with Excel and other apps causing Windows to crash when X cut
    and paste enabled.
  * Corrected problem with multibyte characters most often seen in the big5
    (Traditional Chinese) encoding.
  * Fixed problems with TurboTax 2002. NOTE: this is a PARTIAL fix only, please
    do not attempt to install TurboTax under Merge yet. It is possible that a
    near future build will have full support.

Changes in 5.3.11

New Functionality

Problems fixed

  * Fixed VW95.DRV GP fault problem seen with MS Access 2.0 forms containing
    checkboxes.

Changes in 5.3.10

New Functionality

Problems fixed

  * Fixed problem with random VM_DIED errors when a dynamic VxD is loaded and
    unloaded too many times.
  * Fixed the XIO error seen when running Scientific Workplace 4.1 under Merge
    5.3.9

Changes in 5.3.9

New Functionality

Problems fixed

  * Corrected problem where Windows would not start after installing Norton
    AntiVirus 2003 or Symantec AV 8 Corporate.

Changes in 5.3.8

New Functionality

Problems fixed

  * Fixed VM_DIED errors that can occur when Unix drives are mapped to "high"
    drive letters.
  * Fixed problems with incorrect fonts being selected in winsetup and win
    menus.

Changes in 5.3.7

New Functionality

Problems fixed

  * Fixed broken start menu problems with some non-English language versions of
    Windows when using single byte encodings.

Changes in 5.3.6

New Functionality

  * Added UTF-8 support.

Problems fixed

Changes in 5.3.5

New Functionality

  * Added support for the ISO8859-15 (Euro) encoding.

Problems fixed

  * Fixed online guide index problem relating to "Recycle Bin Operation" and
    "Recycle Bin Operation for Shared Drives."
  * Corrected problem with Windows Blue Screens seen with partitions that are
    attached Read-Only by virtue of a Read-Only attach option or of Unix file
    permissions. Note that a single, non-fatal, Blue Screen can still be seen
    with Windows 95 if you attempt to move a file to the Recycle Bin by
    deleting it on a Read-Only partition. This is a Windows bug which is fixed
    in Windows 98 and Windows Me.
  * Corrected problem wih a GPF in VW95.DRV seen when attempting to install
    WordPerfect Office 2002 when the display is configured to 24-bit pixels.

Changes in 5.3.4

New Functionality

Problems fixed

  * Corrected default printer 'lp' options.
  * Corrected minor documentation issues.
  * Fixed problem with graphics display of some images that are resized with
    the StretchBlt Windows Display Driver routine.

Changes in 5.3.3

New Functionality

Problems fixed

  * Removed system-wide locale settings in winsetup and updated the NLS
    appendix in the online user's guide.
  * Fixed an installwindows script bug that failed to find xdpyinfo if the PATH
    environment variable was not set to point to the X11 binaries directory.
  * Updated support.sh to include win/.boot/info.txt.
  * Fixed blue screen errors caused by RealPlayer which is bundled with newer
    versions of Netscape.

Changes in 5.3.2

New Functionality

  * Support for very large disk partitions (with blocksizes of 32KB and
    greater)

Problems fixed

  * Fixed free disk space calculation on very large partitions

Initial release 5.3.1

Merge 5.3.1 is the initial release of Merge 5.3.


Installation Notes

System Requirements

  * Pentium(TM)-class processor
   
  * System memory requirements are determined by the number of simultaneous DOS
    or Windows sessions in use. A single Merge DOS session can run on a system
    with minimal UNIX memory requirements, with a further 3MB required for each
    additional DOS session. A single Merge Windows session, configured to
    provide Windows with 24MB of memory, can also run on a system with minimal
    UNIX memory requirements. But individual Merge Windows sessions can be
    configured to use up to 128MB of system memory so it is important to ensure
    that the system has sufficient free memory to accommodate the expected
    demand of the Windows sessions.
   
  * Open UNIX 8.0.1, UnixWare 7.1.3, or later, with the X Desktop
   
  * Ability to run as root and install a new kernel
   
  * A US English or European language version of Windows 95, 98, or 98 Second
    Edition installation media
   
    OR: A US English language version of Windows Millennium Edition
    installation media


Supported Windows Versions

Merge supports the following versions of Windows:

  * Windows 95 "classic" (a.k.a. "retail")
  * Windows 95 OSR2
  * Windows 98
  * Windows 98 Second Edition
  * Windows Me (requires boot floppy)
  * Windows 95 to Windows 98 Upgrade CD
   
    NOTE: The Windows 95 to Windows 98 Upgrade CD can be used for fresh
    installations of Windows. In order to install Windows from this CD, you
    must have a qualifying Windows 95 installation CD. Also, since the CD is
    not bootable, you will need a Windows 95 or Windows 98 boot floppy.
   
Merge does not support the following:

  * Installation from a Windows "Companion" CD
  * Installation from any Windows "rescue" CD
  * Upgrading existing installations of Windows 95 to Windows 98
  * Installation from a Windows 9x upgrade CD other than the one from Windows
    95 to Windows 98
  * Installation from a Windows ME upgrade CD

Merge supports the following Windows language versions:

+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
|          |Win95-Classic|Win95-OSR2|Win98-Original|Win98-SE|WinME|
|----------+-------------+----------+--------------+--------+-----|
|Basque    |Yes          |-         |-             |-       |-    |
|----------+-------------+----------+--------------+--------+-----|
|Brazilian |Yes          |Yes       |Yes           |Yes     |-    |
|Portugese |             |          |              |        |     |
|----------+-------------+----------+--------------+--------+-----|
|Czech     |-            |Yes       |Yes           |Yes     |-    |
|----------+-------------+----------+--------------+--------+-----|
|Danish    |Yes          |Yes       |Yes           |Yes     |-    |
|----------+-------------+----------+--------------+--------+-----|
|Dutch     |Yes          |Yes       |Yes           |Yes     |-    |
|----------+-------------+----------+--------------+--------+-----|
|English   |Yes          |Yes       |Yes           |Yes     |Yes  |
|----------+-------------+----------+--------------+--------+-----|
|Finnish   |Yes          |Yes       |Yes           |Yes     |-    |
|----------+-------------+----------+--------------+--------+-----|
|French    |Yes          |Yes       |Yes           |Yes     |-    |
|----------+-------------+----------+--------------+--------+-----|
|German    |Yes          |Yes       |Yes           |Yes     |-    |
|----------+-------------+----------+--------------+--------+-----|
|Greek     |-            |Yes       |Yes           |Yes     |-    |
|----------+-------------+----------+--------------+--------+-----|
|Hungarian |-            |Yes       |-             |Yes     |-    |
|----------+-------------+----------+--------------+--------+-----|
|Italian   |-            |Yes       |Yes           |Yes     |-    |
|----------+-------------+----------+--------------+--------+-----|
|Norwegian |Yes          |Yes       |Yes           |Yes     |-    |
|----------+-------------+----------+--------------+--------+-----|
|Panamanian|-            |Yes       |-             |-       |-    |
|Spanish   |             |          |              |        |     |
|----------+-------------+----------+--------------+--------+-----|
|Polish    |-            |Yes       |-             |Yes     |-    |
|----------+-------------+----------+--------------+--------+-----|
|Portuguese|Yes          |Yes       |-             |Yes     |-    |
|----------+-------------+----------+--------------+--------+-----|
|Russian   |-            |Yes       |-             |Yes     |-    |
|----------+-------------+----------+--------------+--------+-----|
|Slovak    |-            |Yes       |Yes           |Yes     |-    |
|----------+-------------+----------+--------------+--------+-----|
|Sloveni   |-            |-         |Yes           |Yes     |-    |
|----------+-------------+----------+--------------+--------+-----|
|Spanish   |Yes          |Yes       |Yes           |Yes     |-    |
|----------+-------------+----------+--------------+--------+-----|
|Swedish   |Yes          |Yes       |Yes           |Yes     |-    |
|----------+-------------+----------+--------------+--------+-----|
|Turkish   |Yes          |Yes       |-             |-       |-    |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+


Disk Space Requirements

  * The Merge installation requires approximately 15 MB, mostly in /opt/K/SCO/
    Merge.

  * Windows disk space requirements:
   
    +-------------------------------------------------------+
    |   Windows Version        |To load CD in|Per-user space|
    |                          | /usr/merge  |   in $HOME   |
    |--------------------------+-------------+--------------|
    |Windows 95 Classic        |40 MB        |41 MB         |
    |--------------------------+-------------+--------------|
    |Windows 95 OSR2           |69 MB        |93 MB         |
    |--------------------------+-------------+--------------|
    |Windows 98 First Edition  |115 MB       |148 MB        |
    |--------------------------+-------------+--------------|
    |Windows 98 Second Edition |132 MB       |195 MB        |
    |--------------------------+-------------+--------------|
    |Windows Millennium Edition|198 MB       |302 MB        |
    +-------------------------------------------------------+
   
    If you do not have enough space in your /usr filesystem, use symbolic links
    to map /usr/merge to another filesystem.

  * Windows Temporary Space:
   
      + each session of Windows requires 50-100MB of temporary space on $HOME.
       
  * Typical Windows application filesystem requirements for $HOME using default
    install options:
   
   
    Office '97       116 MB              
    Office 2000      60 MB (over 400 MB  
                     complete)           
    Office XP        286 MB (577 MB      
    Professional     complete)           
   
The above requirements for $HOME are based on default mapping of the C: drive
location to $HOME/win. The winsetup configuration utility can be used to change
this mapping. Alternatively, you can use symbolic links to map $HOME/win to
another location.

Licensing requirements

Merge 5.3 requires a license to be installed before it can be used. You use the
Open UNIX/UnixWare License Manager to install or remove the Merge licenses.

If you do not have a Merge 5.3 license, the following license lets you use
Merge for a free 60-day evaluation period:

    License Number: MERGEVALD
    License Code:   tdrtutfl
    License Data:   d60;k0;q0;msx7xcz

IMPORTANT: After upgrading to Merge 5.3, you will need to provide new desktop,
server and user bump licenses.

Licenses supplied with Merge 5.1 or earlier will not work with Merge 5.3.
Following a Merge 5.3 upgrade, you will need to run the Open UNIX/UnixWare
License Manager and enter new license data. Also, new user bump licenses will
need to be applied using the Open UNIX/UnixWare License Manager. Merge 5.3
upgrade licenses can be purchased from your SCO Group software supplier. 

After installing or changing licenses, the computer must be rebooted.

Installation Procedure

To install Merge from the Optional Services CD:

 1. Log in as root on the UNIX server.
   
 2. Start the Application Installer.
   
 3. Select the correct device from which to install (for example, CD-ROM_1).
   
 4. Click on Update View to see the products that are available to install.
   
 5. Select the Merge icon and click on Install.

Alternatively, you can install with pkgadd(1M):

 1. Log in as root on the UNIX server.
   
 2. Mount the CD-ROM drive:
   
    mount -F cdfs -r /dev/cdrom/* /mnt
   
 3. Run pkgadd:
   
    pkgadd -d /mnt merge


Upgrading an Earlier Version

If you are upgrading from an earlier version of SCO Merge, the installation of
the new NeTraverse Merge product will cause the old version of SCO Merge to be
removed automatically. Removal of a previous version of Merge does not effect
your Windows installations, applications and configuration settings. However,
to avoid a potential problem with upgrading dynamically loaded kernel drivers,
it is recommended that you perform a manual removal of the old version of Merge
and relink the kernel before installing the new Merge product.

Use the following procedure to upgrade your Merge installation:

 1. Log in as root on the UNIX server.
   
 2. Run pkgrm to remove the existing Merge product:
   
    pkgrm merge
   
 3. Request a kernel relink on the next reboot of the system:
   
    /etc/conf/bin/idbuild
   
 4. Warn all users that you are about to shutdown the system and reboot:
   
    reboot
   
 5. Install the new Merge product using the Installation Procedure detailed in
    the previous section

WARNING: There is an error in SCO Merge 4.1.0 that prevents it from being
removed. If you try to remove SCO Merge 4.1.0 it will complain that /usr/merge/
log is missing and then fail. To prevent this problem so that you can remove
SCO Merge 4.1.0, log in as root and type command:

        mkdir -p /usr/merge/log/save.x
After you do this then it is safe to remove SCO Merge 4.1.0.

If you have already encountered this removal problem, you can still type the
above command and do the removal again. Some warnings will be printed (because
SCO Merge is partially removed), but the removal will eventually succeed.

Viewing the Documentation

Once you have installed Merge, refer to the documentation which will guide you
through the following steps:

  * Loading the Windows CD.
  * Installing Windows for personal use.

A variety of documentation is provided as part of the Merge product:

  * User's Guide
  * Troubleshooting Guide
  * Manual Pages

All the above help documentation is viewable using the SCOhelp browser, however
starting with UnixWare 7.1.3, the SCOhelp documentation server has been
replaced with a new documentation server named DocView. DocView supports
documentation that would have appeared in SCOhelp by providing a link to the
SCOhelp home page. The erge online documentation is available in DocView by
following the link named "Documentation in SCOhelp". If the DocView search
index is regenerated after Merge is installed, then the Merge documentation
will be available through DocView's search mechanism too.

The UNIX man command can be used to display the manual pages.

The Help button in the winsetup window provides access to all the help
documentation.

To display the help documentation from within a Merge session, use <Shift-F12>
to display the menu bar, then choose the desired topic from the Help menu

Loading the Windows installation files from CD

Once Merge is installed you need to load the Windows installation files from a
Windows installation CD. For Windows 95 you must also supply a matching Windows
95 boot floppy (also known as a Windows Startup Disk).  If you have a bootable
Windows 98 or Me, CD-ROM you do not need a boot floppy.  If you do not have a
bootable Windows 98 or Me CD, you must supply a Windows 98 or Me boot floppy.

The on-line help for this step explains how to create one of these floppy disks
if you do not already have one, or how to use an "image copy" file of such a
floppy if you do not have a floppy drive on your machine.  You must login as
root and be running in graphical mode to perform this operation.

Removal Procedure

IMPORTANT: Make sure that no-one is running Merge while Merge is being removed.

To remove SCO Merge:

 1. Log in as root on the UNIX server.
   
 2. Start the Application Installer.
   
 3. From the lower pane select the Merge application icon, and then click on 
    Remove.

Alternatively, you can remove with pkgrm(1M):

 1. Log in as root on the UNIX server.
   
 2. Run pkgrm:
   
    pkgrm merge

Once you have removed the Merge product, if you then wish to remove all the
global Windows files and global configuration files, run the script:

    sh /usr/merge/final_remove.sh
   
Also, each user can remove their private Windows files and private
configuration files located in the following subdirectories under their home
directory:

    .merge   - Configuration file directory.
    win      - C: drive directory where Windows is installed.


Release Notes

Operational Tips

  * There are a number of Windows applications that regularly scan your local
    Windows drives for files. These applications may be looking for certain
    types of files (e.g. Office documents), indexing the drive contents to
    speed up search operations, or checking files for viruses. These operations
    are perfectly normal but they can occasionally have a noticeable impact on
    the performance of the Windows sessions running under Merge, especially if
    there are NFS mounted files systems in the search path..
   
    To minimize the impact of these file search operations, it is strongly
    recommended that you limit the area of the UNIX file system exposed by the
    drive mappings. For example, avoid the temptation to create a single drive
    mapping that maps to the root (/) directory and choose instead to create
    multiple drive mappings that expose only those directories that you need to
    access from the Merge session.. Alternatively, create a drive mapping to a
    directory containing symbolic links that expose only selected areas of the
    UNIX file system. Be wary of symbolic links that expose large areas of the
    UNIX file system or that create loops in the search path.
   
  * The commands winsetup, win and dos all require that the DISPLAY environment
    variable be set properly as is required by all X client applications.
   
  * Windows may be used within an X window on your desktop, using the win
    command, or on a separate virtual console, using the fwin command.  The 
    fwin command starts up a second X server on a another virtual console
    screen and has the advantage that accelerator keys (such as <ALT-TAB>) pass
    directly to Windows rather than getting caught by the UNIX window manager. 
    This also makes it possible to configure the window manager to use
    different accelerator keys, thereby allowing the normal ones to pass
    through to Windows.
   
  * The default memory allocated to Windows 95 is 16MB.  This is adequate for
    running most Windows applications, including MS Office, and results in good
    overall system performance.  For Windows 98 first edition the default
    memory allocation is 20MB, for Second Edition it is 24MB, and for Windows
    ME it is 32MB. If your UNIX system has sufficient memory, you can increase
    this memory allocation (to a maximum of 128MB) using the winsetup utility.
   
  * Once your windows installation is complete, it is a good idea to make a
    backup copy of your ~/win directory (your C: drive). For example, issue the
    following command under UNIX:
   
        cd
        tar cvf win-backup.tar ./win
    Also, it is strongly recommended that you use a separate drive mapping to
    hold all your personal files, rather than storing them on the C: drive. For
    example, use the D: drive that was automatically created when you installed
    Windows. If you do both of these things, it will make it very easy to
    reinstall Windows by simply restoring the archive of your  ~/win directory.
   
  * It's important to remember that all the UNIX filesystem permissions are
    enforced. You can take advantage of "readonly" and "deny access to others"
    permissions on files and directories to control access to parts of the C:
    drive.  Use of this facility makes it less likely that important windows
    files will be accidentally overwritten or corrupted. Use the UNIX chmod
    command to change the permissions for "group" and "other".
   

Known Limitations

The focus of Merge is to provide UNIX users access to the thousands of Windows
desktop productivity applications that are not currently available on UNIX. The
vast majority of Windows applications simply install and function normally in
the Merge environment. Certain classes of applications, however, may not be
supported due to current limitations:

  * Applications that require low level access to filesystem information may
    not operate correctly. In some situations, this limitation can be overcome
    by installing the application on a native Windows partition mapped as a
    drive. Examples of programs that may not work correctly are: virus
    scanners, disk defragmenters, disk scanners, and file repair programs.
   
  * Applications that require direct access to hardware are not supported.
   
  * Applications that install VxDs (virtual device drivers) may not operate
    properly.

In addition, the following features are not available in this version of Merge:
 

  * Sound support for audio playback
   
  * Multimedia intensive applications (e.g. video capture, video editing)
   
  * Playing audio CDs
   
  * Winsock 2 - the current Winsock implementation provides Winsock 1.1
    support.
   
  * USB device access
   
  * Direct device access - currently limited to serial and parallel port
   
  * Direct X - as used by most games
   
  * DirectDraw - as used by RealPlayer
   
  * Sound recording
   
  * CD-ROM recording - writing to CD-R and CD-RW devices is not supported
   
  * Novell Netware server access - not support over either TCP/IP or IPX
   
  * Network Neighborhood - the Merge Winsock networking solution does not
    provide support for Windows file and printer sharing
   
  * Windows NT/2000/XP

These features are being considered for future releases of the Merge product.


Anomalies and Caveats

  * Norton Protection/Norton Protected Recycle Bin: These features, primarily
    found in the Professional editions of recent Symantec/Norton Antivirus/
    Norton Utilities software, are not supported. The most common symptom when
    they are enabled is a pop-up window with an "Illegal Operation" error. If
    you see this dialog during or shortly after booting Windows, please disable
    these features. Please consult your Symantec/Norton software documentation
    for information on how to do this.
   
  * X Cut & Paste: For this feature to work correctly, it may be necessary to
    have no more than one Merge session displayed per console screen. Use of X
    Cut & Paste may also require repeated attempts in order to successfully
    place text on the clipboard. Try resetting the clipboard by cutting and
    pasting from [DEL::DEL]UNIX to [DEL::DEL]UNIX, or Windows to Windows.
    Instructions for configuring X Cut & Paste are in the Merge User's Guide in
    Chapter 3 under "Cutting and Pasting."
   
    After exiting your Windows session in which you enabled X Cut & Paste, the
    X clipboard can be returned to normal operation by killing the "clipman"
    process. This can be achieved as follows:
   
   
     a. Find the process id number of the clipman process using the following
        command:
              ps -e | grep " clipman$"
                
        NOTE: The above command has a space between the double quote and the
        "c", and has the "$" symbol between the "n" and the double quote.
       
        If there is a clipman process running then this command prints out
        something like this:
              2134 ttyp2 00:00:00 clipman
                
     b. The first number is the process id that you use with the kill command.
        For example, if the process id is 2134, use the following command to
        kill the process:
              kill 2134
                
  * Caps Lock and Num Lock keys: may not work properly when you use an X
    display server that handles the Caps Lock and Num Lock keys in a way that
    is different to the standard console X server on your system. For example,
    the X server on OpenServer and the X server on Open UNIX and UnixWare
    manage these functions differently.
   
    The setting MERGE_X_LOCK_KEYS_TOGGLE configures Merge to expect one style
    or the other by setting it to "on" or "off". The default setting is in the
    file /etc/default/merge, and each user can configure it by putting this
    setting in their UNIX environment.
    For the OpenServer X server, the setting should be:
   
         MERGE_X_LOCK_KEYS_TOGGLE=on
        
    and for the Open UNIX 8 and UnixWare 7 X servers it should be:
         MERGE_X_LOCK_KEYS_TOGGLE=off
        
   
  * Caps Lock LED: might not reflect the true state of the Caps Lock setting in
    some locales. Certain Windows locales require the user to use the "Shift"
    key to toggle Caps Lock off. Caps Lock will be turned off for the Windows
    session; however, the Caps Lock LED will not change.
   
  * Hide Menu or Show Menu: Using these menu options under X might cause the
    Merge window to creep toward the upper left corner of the screen with some
    window managers, including the Open UNIX/UnixWare CDE Desktop window
    manager (dtwm).
   
  * Printing:  When you install a printer and select the option to print a test
    page, the Merge session will hang for a short period of time, and then the
    print request will fail.  Just ignore the failure and click OK when asked
    if the test page printed correctly.  Try printing again from an application
    and you should find that printing proceeds normally. This type of problem
    is not unique to Merge. It has also been observed on native Windows systems
    when printing to some types of network printers. It is, therefore, strongly
    recommended that you do not select the option to print the test page.
    (Note: in some instances attempting to print the test page will completely
    hang the Merge session, requiring that the session be killed and
    restarted.) If you have a PostScript printer, you will need to add the "-T
    PS" argument to the lp command line. Please refer to Chapter 4 of the Merge
    User's Guide under "Using WinSetup to configure your environment."
   
  * $HOME/win directory on NFS(TM) mounted filesystem: Having a $HOME/win
    directory mounted via an NFS filesystem is not recommended. Problems
    associated with file locking may cause Windows to fail to start or to
    execute incorrectly.
   
  * NFS access to SGI(TM) system:  There are problems using NFS mounted
    filesystems from SGI systems. One such problem is that some subdirectories
    are not visible. NFS mounted filesystem from other types of NFS server do
    not exhibit this problem.
   
  * Floppy Disk Drive Access: There are several problems related to floppy disk
    drive access:
   
      + Inaccessible floppy disk drives
        Some systems may not allow access to the floppy disk drives by default.
        If you cannot access the floppy disk then check the permissions of the
        devices /dev/fd0 (for the A: drive) and /dev/fd1 (for the B: drive). If
        these are not the floppy disk drive device names for your system, you
        can specify other device names with a setting in the file /etc/default/
        merge. For example if the A: drive is /dev/floppyA and the B: drive is 
        /dev/floppyB, then put these two lines into /etc/default/merge:
       
            MERGE_ADRIVE_AUTOSENSING=/dev/floppyA
            MERGE_BDRIVE_AUTOSENSING=/dev/floppyB
       
      + No floppy disk drives.
        Some Windows operations require that there be an A: drive, and can hang
        or cause long delays if they try to access a nonexistent drive (this
        problem is most likely to occur with laptop machines). If this becomes
        a problem, you can redirect A: drive access to an empty, read-only
        virtual floppy disk device by putting the following line in the /etc/
        default/merge file:
       
            MERGE_ADRIVE_AUTOSENSING=/usr/lib/merge/diskimages/f.dsk
       
      + No second floppy disk drive
        If you have the device file /dev/fd1 but no real matching physical
        drive, it can cause delays when Windows tries to access the B: drive. 
        If you experience this problem, simply remove this device file.
       
  * Mysterious Windows Hangs: Occasionally, you may experience hang-ups due to
    problems in Windows or your Windows applications. When a hang-up occurs,
    Merge offers an advantage over native Windows by enabling you to restart
    your Windows session in just a few seconds. If the problem persists, please
    try to verify that the failure does not occur on a native Windows
    installation before reporting the problem.
   
  * Recycle Bin: With Windows 98, emptying the Recycle Bin can result in error
    messages in certain situations. The error message:
       Cannot delete file:  File system error (1026).
    happens when Windows is trying to create a RECYCLED directory on a drive
    where it does not have permission to do so. To fix this, log in as root and
    then create a directory called RECYCLED in the directory where the drive
    letter is rooted.
   
    Another error message occurs as a result of moving a read-only file that is
    not owned by you into the Recycle Bin. This error happens later when you
    "empty" the Recycle Bin:
   
       Cannot Delete DCxx: Access is denied
    (where 'xx' is a number). Windows fails to delete this file the from the
    Recycle Bin, but Windows shows an empty Recycle Bin. To actually remove the
    DCxx files, you must use the UNIX rm command to remove the files.
   
    Also, it is important to make all the RECYCLED directories readable and
    writeable only by the users with permissions to write to the directory
    containing the RECYCLED directory. You should set the RECYCLED directory
    owner and group to be the same as its parent directory, and remove the read
    and execute permissions where the users have no write permissions.
   
    For example, if the directory /foo has owner "bin" and group "sys", and the
    permissions reported by ls -l are "drwxrwxr-x", execute the following
    commands as root:
        mkdir /foo/RECYCLED
        chown bin /foo/RECYCLED
        chgrp sys /foo/RECYCLED
        chmod ug+rwx /foo/RECYCLED
        chmod o-rwx /foo/RECYCLED
        
  * SOCKS and Proxy Servers: SOCKS, and similar proxy servers, will not work
    with the current implementation of Winsock.
   
  * Norton SystemWorks: When Windows starts with Norton SystemWorks installed,
    the following error message is displayed:
   
        Drive Read Error, drive X:
   
    This does not affect the operation of Windows, but an annoying error
    message will pop up every three seconds reporting:
   
        An error occurred updating the image data for drive C:
        This disk is either missing, full or damaged.
   
    as Norton SystemWorks tries to create an image of the C: drive. The error
    message is eliminated by canceling the task that is attempting to create
    the image.
   
    Norton SystemWorks contains several components that are meant to be used
    with a real Windows disk drive. These components attempt to read
    information from the disk Master Boot Record and the partition table. Since
    Merge does not permit Windows to have access to the physical Master Boot
    Record and the partition table, these components will report errors until
    disabled by the user.
   
  * Session Hangs when using fwin: The fwin command invokes a second X server
    and this has been found to cause problems on some systems, particularly
    laptop machines. Since this is usually found to be caused by bugs in the X
    server software, it is recommended that you avoid using fwin if this
    problem occurs.
   
  * Virus Scanners: In general, most virus scanners work without problems but
    some do not function correctly, or can cause the Windows session to crash
    when certain features are enabled. Specifically, the features that are
    likely to cause problems are those that scan memory or attempt to access
    the master boot record of the hard drive. It is recommended that you
    disable these features in your virus scanning software.
   
  * Netscape 6 download: Problems may be encountered during the download
    operation initiated by the Netscape 6 Setup program. The download will
    stall at 0% and eventually timeout and report an error. This problem can be
    avoided by opting to perform the download operation using the "HTTP"
    protocol instead of the "FTP" protocol. When the Netscape 6 Setup program
    displays the Download Options window, click on the "Proxy Settings" button
    and then select the "Use HTTP for downloading files" option.
   

Supplement to the On-line Help Documentation

Customizable drive labels

The default drive labels reflect the location of the drive mapping in the UNIX
filesystem.

NOTE: The "~" character refers to $HOME.

To customize the drive label do the following: create a directory named 
.labeldosdrive in the directory at the root of the drive and in that directory
create an empty file with your chosen name for the drive label.

Known limitations:

  * The drive label cannot be changed using native DOS and Windows tools.
   
  * Windows 95 and some versions of Windows 98 restrict the label to 11
    characters.

Windows 95 Y2K update

Microsoft's Y2K fix for Windows 95 (w95y2k.exe) is supported although some
extra steps are required to complete the update. For instructions on these
steps refer to the "Win95 Y2K Update" section in the Windows installation
problems topic of the Merge Troubleshooting Guide.

 



