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 OpenServer(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

Support for Audio Playback
Customizable drive labels
Networking Support
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:

Release History for Merge 5.3

Changes in 5.3.7

New Functionality

Problems fixed

Changes in 5.3.6

New Functionality

Problems fixed

Changes in 5.3.5

New Functionality

Problems fixed

Changes in 5.3.4

New Functionality

Problems fixed

Changes in 5.3.3

New Functionality

Problems fixed

Changes in 5.3.2

New Functionality

Problems fixed

Initial release 5.3.1

Merge 5.3.1 is the initial release of Merge 5.3.


Installation Notes


System Requirements


Supported Windows Versions

Merge supports the following versions of Windows:

Merge does not support the following:

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 |- |- |- |
|----------+-------------+----------+--------------+--------+-----|
|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 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 OpenServer 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

NOTE: On OpenServer 5.0.6, the OpenServer License Manager displays "SCO Merge" on the drop down list that appears when selecting the menu options "License->License Additional Client Connections". It is appropriate to select "SCO Merge" when adding NeTraverse Merge 5.3 user bumps.

IMPORTANT: When upgrading to Merge 5.3, you will be required to provide new Merge 5.3 licenses.

Licenses supplied with Merge 5.1 or earlier will not work with Merge 5.3. During a Merge 5.3 upgrade, you will be prompted to enter new license data. Merge 5.3 upgrade licenses can be purchased from your SCO software supplier. New user bump licenses will need to be applied using the OpenServer License Manager, after the Merge product upgrade has completed.

Once you are satisfied with the new Merge product, the licenses for earlier versions of Merge can be removed. Those licenses will appear in the license manager display with the description "Unknown Product Name".

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

Installation Procedure

Installation of Merge is performed using the OpenServer Software Manager. See Chapter 4, "Installing and managing software components" in the SCO OpenServer Handbook for details.

Upgrading an Earlier Version

It is important that no one is running Merge while the product is being upgraded.

Upgrade of Merge is performed using the OpenServer Software Manager. See Chapter 4, "Installing and managing software components" in the SCO OpenServer Handbook for details.

When upgrading from an earlier version of SCO Merge, you will be asked if you want to remove or save the older version. It is recommended that you select the option to remove the older version. When you remove an existing copy of Merge from the system, your Windows installations, applications and configuration settings remain in place.

Viewing the Documentation

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

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

All the above help documentation is viewable using the SCOhelp browser, however starting with OpenServer 5.0.7, 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 Merge 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

It is important that there must not be anyone using Merge while Merge is being removed.

Removal of Merge is performed using the OpenServer Software Manager. See Chapter 4, "Installing and managing software components" in the SCO OpenServer Handbook for details.

Once you have removed the Merge product with the Software Manager, 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

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:

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

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

Anomalies and Caveats

Supplement to the On-line Help Documentation

Support for Audio Playback

Merge provides limited support for audio playback (sound recording, midi, volume control and Music CD playback are not supported). Most Windows based multi-media applications have been shown to work satisfactorily.

Merge sound support requires that you install audio software and hardware supported by your UNIX Operating System. There is no audio support provided with OpenServer but there are third party commercial products available. Audio support for Merge 5.3 has been found to perform well with release 3.9.7c or higher of the audio drivers available from 4Front Technologies (http://www.opensound.com). (Note: it is necessary to use an ansi terminal, e.g. a character console or scoterm window, to run the installation script and administration interface provided by 4Front Technologies for their product. The installation is not done with custom, nor is the administration done with scoadmin.)

Reproducing sound requires more hardware capacity than is needed for a system that does not have sound support. Please refer to the System Requirements section of this document for details.

The interface used to play audio is the Open Sound System (OSS) API through the /dev/dsp device. If you are using a different sound driver architecture such as ALSA, please make sure you have enabled OSS compatibility. The OSS driver installation from 4Front Technologies includes a utility called osstest that may be used to test operation of the audio drivers under UNIX. Before reporting a problem with audio support in a Merge/Windows installation, please be sure to first verify that audio support is functional under UNIX.

After a suitable UNIX based sound driver is installed and proven to be working for UNIX applications, you enable Merge sound support by adding the following entry to /etc/default/merge:

MERGE_AUDIO_PLUGIN=/usr/lib/merge/libossplugin.so

Once sound support is enabled, any new Windows installation will have sound support automatically configured into the Windows environment.

Known limitations are:

To disable sound, set the environment variable MERGE_AUDIO_PLUGIN=none, or make this a permanent setting in /etc/default/merge.

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:

Networking Support

Merge supports two methods of TCP/IP networking:

You choose which type of networking configuration to use when you install Windows.

You can switch the type of networking from Winsock to VNET, and from VNET to Winsock, using the win_network command. To switch to Winsock type:

win_network -w

and to switch to VNET type:

win_network -v

NOTE: due to a limitation in the registry editor supplied with Windows 95 "classic", the win_network -w option is not supported with this release of Windows.

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.