How do I install Saber 07.01.00 onto my newly set up DOS-only laptop?

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wes11b10
Posts: 28
Joined: Wed Apr 03, 2013 1:45 pm
What radios do you own?: Sabers, Spectras, MaxTracs,etc

How do I install Saber 07.01.00 onto my newly set up DOS-only laptop?

Post by wes11b10 »

Here I am, all proud of myself for wiping an old Windows 3.11 laptop and making it what I hope will be my old, slow DOS-only RSS programming machine, and BOOM! Right into the wall. I am trying to install my various RSS examples and am having no luck. RSS floppy in the A drive,

A:\>INSTALL
Bad command or file name

I can get it to run from the A: drive, I just can't get it to install onto the C: It's entirely possible I am doing something/not doing something incredibly obvious.
I am looking at the RVN4002K manual, doing what it says, and still - nuthin'. Any suggestions (besides "buy some newer radios!") are appreciated.
Wes/W9YYH
Pittsburgh, PA
Jim202
Posts: 3609
Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2001 4:00 pm

Re: How do I install Saber 07.01.00 onto my newly set up DOS-only laptop?

Post by Jim202 »

wes11b10 wrote:Here I am, all proud of myself for wiping an old Windows 3.11 laptop and making it what I hope will be my old, slow DOS-only RSS programming machine, and BOOM! Right into the wall. I am trying to install my various RSS examples and am having no luck. RSS floppy in the A drive,

A:\>INSTALL
Bad command or file name

I can get it to run from the A: drive, I just can't get it to install onto the C: It's entirely possible I am doing something/not doing something incredibly obvious.
I am looking at the RVN4002K manual, doing what it says, and still - nuthin'. Any suggestions (besides "buy some newer radios!") are appreciated.
Let me make this simple statement, many of the older Motorola radio software programs don't have an install program. They have .exe files to start the program.

What I always do is to make sure the hard drive is formatted as a FAT32 drive. Then make an MRSS directory on the hard drive. Under that main directory, I make a new directory for each of the Motorola radio software directories. Then move the files for the radio into their specific directory. Many require an archive and backup directory under their radio directory.

Another thing is what clock speed is your computer? If it's over about 100 MHz., you might have to run a small program called "cacheoff.com" before starting any of the Motorola radio software programs. This shuts off the cache in the computer, which tends to mess up many of the older radio programs. Using it I have managed to get the computer clock speeds up to and above 800 to 1GHz. to run many of the older radio software.

I still use and program Syntor X9000 and Spectra radios all the time. Have a number of computers set up for running the older software with no problems. Even have some of them with dual partitions on the hard drive so I can run DOS 6.2 or Windows XP. The big thing to remember is that in most cases, DOS will not operate with a hard drive over 80 GHz. in size or a partition larger than that. Like I will use a 20 GHz. partition for DOS and a 60 GHz. partition for Windows XP. The XP lets me use the network NIC connection to transfer files between different computers. Then boot the computer up in DOS. Most of my computers have a floppy drive, so put my boot DOD disk in the floppy drive and set up the bios to go to that device first when booting. No floppy causes the computer to start up in Windows.

Jim
wes11b10
Posts: 28
Joined: Wed Apr 03, 2013 1:45 pm
What radios do you own?: Sabers, Spectras, MaxTracs,etc

Re: How do I install Saber 07.01.00 onto my newly set up DOS-only laptop?

Post by wes11b10 »

Jim,
It's an old Zenith Z-Noteflex 486/50 laptop. I have successfully used it to program Sabers, MaxTracs, GP300s, and Spectras. What I wanted to do was make it exclusively DOS with only RSS on it. What it all comes down to is reeducating myself about working with DOS. I used the <MD MRSS> command, now I need to make a subdirectory for each type? And I just copy all the files from the A: to that specific directory on the C: drive. It sounds easy, it likely *is* easy, but it's not intuitive. Once all my accumulated RSS is on the C: drive, to start the specific RSS, at the C: prompt I would enter say <C:\MRSS>SABER>?
I apologize for these very basic and obvious questions. All this dabbling makes me appreciate how far we've come since the mid 90s!
Wes/W9YYH
Pittsburgh, PA
Jim202
Posts: 3609
Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2001 4:00 pm

Re: How do I install Saber 07.01.00 onto my newly set up DOS-only laptop?

Post by Jim202 »

wes11b10 wrote:Jim,
It's an old Zenith Z-Noteflex 486/50 laptop. I have successfully used it to program Sabers, MaxTracs, GP300s, and Spectras. What I wanted to do was make it exclusively DOS with only RSS on it. What it all comes down to is reeducating myself about working with DOS. I used the <MD MRSS> command, now I need to make a subdirectory for each type? And I just copy all the files from the A: to that specific directory on the C: drive. It sounds easy, it likely *is* easy, but it's not intuitive. Once all my accumulated RSS is on the C: drive, to start the specific RSS, at the C: prompt I would enter say <C:\MRSS>SABER>?
I apologize for these very basic and obvious questions. All this dabbling makes me appreciate how far we've come since the mid 90s!


Yup, you have the right idea.

You would from the c: prompt enter cd\mrss\saber and hit the enter button. Then when the computer shows your at the correct directory you can enter the command dir /p to get a list of the files in that directory (note there is a space after the dir). If there is more than one screen size of the number of files in the directory, it will allow you to hit any key to go to the next page. Once you find the file name your looking for you should enter that file name with the .exe or .com to start it (saber.exe) (spectra.exe) (syntorx.exe) (maxtrac.exe). Hope you get the idea, but leave out the ( ) I have used to make the command stand out.

Only in the newer versions of the Motorola software made to work with Windows will there be an install file or a setup file. Plus the windows operating system allows for more than just the limit of 8 characters that DOS has.

The other thing to keep in mind while working with DOS, is that it will only accept file names with 8 characters or less.

Jim
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