Changing Display Drivers in OS/2 1.3x (97170)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft LAN Manager 2.2
This article was previously published under Q97170

SUMMARY

Page 464 of the Microsoft OS/2 "User's Guide" describes a method for changing the display driver used with OS/2 and Presentation Manager. This information is incomplete.

In addition to changing the environment variables in the CONFIG.SYS file, a new DISPLAY.DLL driver must be copied to the hard drive and used. If this is not done, the result will generally be a garbled or blank video display upon startup.

MORE INFORMATION

The "User's Guide" describes the procedure for changing the CONFIG.SYS environment variables to use a different video mode. For example, if you are changing from standard VGA to 8514A for an adapter that supports these video modes, make the following changes to CONFIG.SYS:

Original lines: 
   DEVINFO=SCR,VGA,C:\OS2\VIOTBL.DCP
   SET VIDEO_DEVICES=VIO_IBMVGA
   SET VIO_IBMVGA=DEVICE(BVHVGA)
New lines: 
   DEVINFO=SCR,BGA,C:\OS2\VIOTBL.DCP
   SET VIDEO_DEVICES=VIO_IBM8514A
   SET VIO_IBM8514A=(BVHVGA,BVH8514A)
This information is correct, but additional steps are required before this will work. First, if the BVH8514A.DLL file does not exist in the C:\OS2\DLL directory (and it won't if the system was originally configured as standard VGA), it must be unpacked from the OS/2 installation disks and placed in this directory. This driver can be found on Install Disk 5. To unpack the .DLL, go to the C:\OS2\DLL directory and enter the command:

unpack a:\bvh8514a.dl@

Next, you must change the DISPLAY.DLL that the system will use. There are several different DLLs depending on the display type you will be using. This is the driver that video adapter card manufacturers will usually have you replace with their own in order to realize the special display modes of their adapters. The DISPLAY.DLL files supplied with OS/2 1.3x are also on Install Disk 5 and are called IBMCGA.DL@, IBMEGA.DL@, IBMVGA.DL@, and IBMBGA.DL@. These files must be unpacked and put on the C drive so they can be located on ntboot. To do this, create a directory on your C drive (for example, C:\NEWDLL) and unpack the proper file to this directory. For example: 
   unpack a:\ibmbga.dl@ c:\newdll
You will then need to copy this driver to DISPLAY.DLL and make it the first DISPLAY.DLL driver that the system finds. Because the DISPLAY.DLL driver in the C:\OS2\DLL directory is open when the system is running, you can use one of two methods to make your new DLL the first DISPLAY.DLL that the system finds:

  • You can reboot the system from the OS/2 Install Disk (FAT) or the HPFS Recovery Disk (HPFS386) and copy this new DLL over the original (you may want to rename the original DLL in case you want to switch back).
  • You can leave the new DLL in the new directory in which you unpacked it, and modify the CONFIG.SYS file LIBPATH statement to search here first. For example:

    Old LIBPATH 
          LIBPATH=C:\LANMAN\NETLIB;C:\OS2\DLL;C:\OS2\SUPPORT
    New LIBPATH 
          LIBPATH=C:\NEWLIB;C:\LANMAN\NETLIB;C:\OS2\DLL;C:\OS2\SUPPORT
You should now be able to shut down your system and reboot using the new video drivers.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:9/30/2003
Keywords:KB97170
©2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.