SCO Merge 4 for OpenServer

Congratulations on your purchase of SCO Merge^TM software. This optional service provides users the capability of running Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 3, and DOS sessions on SCO OpenServer^TM. This version of Merge 4 is also available for UnixWare® 7. These release notes provide important information about SCO Merge and pointers on where to find further information.

SCO Merge Features

SCO Merge 4 includes the following features:

Windows 95 support, up to the OSR2.5 version.
Support for Western European versions of Windows.
Windows 3 support.
Graphical configuration interface.

New SCO Merge Features

SCO Merge 4.1.2 is an updated version of SCO Merge 4.1.1. The changes since the 4.1.1 version are:

Security related fixes.
Support for the updated OpenServer CD-ROM driver that fixes several problems:
- Annoying kernel warnings for normal situations.
- Long waits if there is no CD in the drive.
- Drive door being locked inappropriately.
If you still see these problems, then you need to update your OpenServer CD-ROM driver.
Added a workaround for a bug in the OpenServer desktop startup that could cause long delays in certain circumstances.

If you are upgrading from Merge 4.0, because SCO Merge 4.1.2 is based on SCO Merge 4.1.1, you also get the new features, improvements as well as some bug fixes that came with Merge 4.1.1:

Support for Windows 95 OSR2.5 added.
Now can install Windows 95 on very fast CPUs.
The Windows fonts directory now works properly.
Fixed the "EXPIRED LICENSE" problem.
Floppy access is now via the UNIX floppy driver.
Fixed some minor on-line documentation problems.

Installation Requirements

SCO OpenServer Release 5.0.4 or later.
Note:
Windows 95 CD or DOS 6.2x installation floppies. (Windows 95 includes MS-DOS; MS-DOS is not included as a separate component of Merge 4.
If you are a new SCO Merge customer and are not planning to run Windows 95, then you must supply your own DOS floppies. If you are upgrading from Merge 3.2.2, you will retain the MS-DOS 6.22 that was integrated into that earlier versions of Merge.)
A Pentium or better CPU.
RAM requirements are determined by how many simultaneous DOS or Windows sessions are used. (If you are using the "Desktop" at the same time, these minimums will need to be increased in order to get reasonable performance.) A single Windows 95 session can be run on a standard minimum 16MB SCO OpenServer system. For best performance for a small number of Windows 95 sessions while using the "Desktop", 32MB is recommended. Windows 3.1 and DOS require a lot less RAM than Windows 95.
The disk space requirements are determined almost entirely by how many users install Windows 95 and how many application each user installs. A minimal configuration for a single user running only Windows 95 requires 75MB. (15MB for SCO Merge plus 60MB for Windows 95).
Windows applications require additional space. For example, a typical installation of Microsoft Office 97 requires about 121 MB.
SCO Merge itself is shared by all users, but each user must install a separate copy of Windows and Windows applications.

Installing SCO Merge

To install SCO Merge, use the Software Manager. See Chapter 4, "Installing and managing software components" in the SCO OpenServer Handbook for details.

If you are upgrading from an earlier version of SCO Merge, we recommend that you remove the old version of SCO Merge first and then install the new SCO Merge. (When you remove the previous version of SCO Merge, your Windows installations, applications and configuration settings are not removed.) It is important that there must not be anyone using Merge while Merge is being removed or upgraded.

If you do not follow the recommendation above, and instead install the new Merge on top of the old one, you can defer the request to enter the license and reboot (as requested after the install completes), and your original Merge license will continue to work.

Licenses

SCO Merge requires a license to be installed before it can be used. You use the SCO License Manager to install or remove the SCO Merge licenses. SCO Merge 4 can be licensed as either a 2-user "Desktop" version or an unlimited user "Server" version.

Upgrading your SCO Merge license

If you upgrade from SCO Merge 3.2, your SCO Merge 3.2 license will continue to work, but you will not be able to install or use Windows 95. To use Windows 95, you must first remove the SCO Merge 3.2 license and then install your new SCO Merge 4 license.

Evaluation License

SCO Merge 4 is available for a free 60-day evaluation. The 60 days start when you install the evaluation license below. To continue to use SCO Merge after the evaluation period expires, you will have to remove the evaluation license and install a standard SCO Merge license. The evaluation license cannot be reused.

The evaluation license information is:

          License Number: EVLMERGE4
          License Code:   nnhdzhcf
          License Data:   b0008;d60;k0;q0;m5ydkk7

After Installing

Once you have installed SCO Merge, refer to the on-line SCO Merge User's Guide, which will guide you through the following steps:

Installing MS-DOS if needed.
Installing Windows 3.1 or Windows 95.
Configuring your Windows sessions to display on the desktop. (optional)

SCO Merge Documentation

A variety of on-line documentation is provided as part of the SCO Merge product:

SCO Merge User's Guide
On-line Help
Manual Pages

This release note is available via the SCO Merge User's Guide when SCO Merge is installed, and it is also available on the installation CD in directory info/merge regardless of whether SCO Merge is installed.

Known Product Limitations

This product release is only available in English, although it does support non-English DOS and Windows. SCO Merge 3.2.2 is available for the European languages, although it does not support Windows 95.
Merge 4 does not support complete Windows 95 networking. Instead, SCO Merge 4 provides Winsock 1.1 support for both 16-bit and 32-bit applications over TCP/IP. Microsoft's non-TCP/IP networking is not available.
Windows 98 is not supported.
Root user is not allowed to install Windows 95.

Known Problems and Troubleshooting

Using the Hide Menu or Show Menu option under X might cause the Merge window to creep toward the upper left corner of the screen with some windows managers, including the UnixWare 7 CDE Desktop window manager (dtwm).
When running Windows 95 in X, the Caps Lock LED might not reflect the true state of the Caps Lock setting in some locales. Certain Windows 95 locales require the user to use the "Shift" key to toggle Caps Lock off. Caps Lock will be turned off for the Windows 95 session; however, the Caps Lock LED will not change. (When running Windows 95 in a "full-screen" configuration, the LED matches the state of the Caps Lock setting.)
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 is not supported. The recommended web-browser is the Netscape Navigator Internet browser included with SCO OpenServer. You can also use Internet Explorer 3.0 and Netscape Navigator 3.0 under Windows within SCO Merge.
SCO Termlite and SCO TermVision are not supported from within SCO Merge.
Lotus SmartSuite 96 "SmartCenter" does not work properly.
Older versions of Adobe Acrobat Reader do not work properly. Use at least version 3.01 instead.

Also, please review Appendix E of the SCO Merge User's Guide to review any known limitations or tuning suggestions for your Windows applications, before installing them. It is organized by topic and by specific application. You can also get to the troubleshooting tips by using the Help button in a DOS or Windows session.

Known Documentation Problems

If you are installing Windows95 OSR2 there are a few extra options to select during the installation. In Chapter 2 of the SCO Merge User's Guide, in the section called "Installing Windows/X driver for Windows 95", between steps 3 and 4, please note that the "Advanced Settings" tab should be selected. A bit further down in step 8, there are actually a large number of monitors to choose from. One of those selections will be the "Merge Compatible Monitor".

Updating From SCO Merge 3.2.2

The default drive setup is different with SCO Merge 4. While in SCO Merge 3.2.2 the C drive was your home directory, now new users will have their C drive in a subdirectory. This prevents your home directory from becoming full of Windows related files and makes it easier to manage your DOS and Windows files.

This new drive setup does not affect existing users on systems which have been upgraded from SCO Merge 3.2.2.

Oct 1999