Q.  Dear Mr. Know-It-All,

I'm going to install the Merlin Convenience Pack and have been told Process Commander will not work with Warp 4.5. Is this true?

A.  This is only partially true. Recent FixPaks. have broken the Process Commander installer and the enhanced keyboard driver. However, there are workarounds that will allow you to install Process Command (PC) and use most of its original functionality.

There are two problems:

• The installer fails because it can no longer patch DOSCALL1.DLL.
• The enhanced keyboard handler traps because IBM made changes to the kernel.

• MCP full install
• MCP upgrade install over Warp4

    PCINSDLL /UNINSTALL_ALL

to uninstall PC before attempting to install the MCP.

After the MCP is installed, make a desktop backup and reinstall PC.

Before installing PC, save a copy of KBDBASE.SYS as KDBBASE.MCP. If you performed a MCP full install, the PC installation will be gone. Reinstall PC from the CD. Do not install the alternate keyboard driver.

The install will report an error attempting to patch DOSCALL1.DLL. Ignore this error and continue.

Do not reboot yet.

If you did an MCP upgrade install, reinstall PC with:

  PCINSDLL /INSTALL_HOOK /INSTALL_PMSHELL /INSTALL_FS

Do not reboot yet.

To patch DOSCALL1.DLL, use C. W. Rose's exepatch utility.

From the command line:

    cd \os2\dll
    copy doscall1.dll doscall1.mcp
    exepatch doscall1.mcp doscall1.pc
    unlock doscall1.dll
    copy doscall.pc doscall1.dll

Unlock is part of the LxLite Tool Kit.

Exepatch and unlock must be available via the PATH setting.

To install the alternate keyboard driver, add the driver to config.sys after KBDBASE.SYS as:

    DEVICE=x:\PC\TMP\PCKBD.SYS KEYB:CA-F12

where x: is the boot drive. This setting will use Ctrl-Alt-F12 as the hotkey to pop up the PC fullscreen. If you have other Process Command related DEVICE statements, add the new line after them.

Reboot to activate PC.

Good luck.

SCOUG, Warp Expo West, and Warpfest are trademarks of the Southern California OS/2 User Group. OS/2, Workplace Shell, and IBM are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. All other trademarks remain the property of their respective owners.