Survey of Operating Systems, 3eChapter 4Solutions

Chapter 4 Textbook Solutions

Answers to Key Terms Quiz

  1. live CD
  2. syntax
  3. warm boot
  4. root directory
  5. bootstrap loader
  6. conventional memory
  7. file attribute
  8. internal command
  9. primary partition
  10. application

Answers to Multiple-Choice Quiz

  1. Correct answer: B. PC DOS was the product name of OEM MS-DOS sold by IBM.
    A, C, D, and E are incorrect because System X, IBM MS-DOS, Linux, and Compaq MS-DOS were not the name of the IBM product.
  2. Correct answer: D. DOS does not need much memory or storage space and is still used today in situations in which these features are important, such as embedded into special devices.
    A is incorrect because DOS cannot use the NTFS file system.
    B is incorrect because DOS is not the OS of choice of gamers.
    C is incorrect because DOS cannot take advantage of Intel protected mode.
    E is incorrect because DOS does not have a great GUI.
  3. Correct answer: E. DR-DOS was once owned by Novell.
    A, B, C, and D are all incorrect because FreeDOS, PC DOS, Compaq MS-DOS, and Mac OS X were not owned by Novell.
  4. Correct answer: C. Real mode is the only processor mode used by MS-DOS.
    A is incorrect because there is no Intel processor mode officially named "advanced."
    B is incorrect because MS-DOS cannot use the Intel processors' protected mode.
    D is incorrect because MS-DOS cannot use the Intel processors' standard mode.
    E is incorrect because read-only is not an Intel processor mode.
  5. Correct answer: D. 6 MB, is the required free space for installing MS-DOS onto a hard disk.
    A is incorrect because 512 KB is below the minimum required free disk space.
    B is incorrect because 2 GB is above the minimum required free disk space.
    C is incorrect because 49 MB is above the minimum required free disk space.
    E is incorrect because 6 MB is the minimum required free disk space, not none.
  6. Correct answer: C. DELTREE is the MS-DOS command that will allow you to delete a directory and its contents in one pass.
    A is incorrect because the DEL command can only delete files, not directories.
    B is incorrect because XCOPY is a copy command; it cannot delete files or directories.
    D is incorrect because CHKDSK is a command for diagnosing logical and physical disk problems; it cannot delete files or directories.
    E is incorrect because you use the ATTRIB command to view or modify file attributes; it cannot delete files or directories.
  7. Correct answer: A. The FAT32 file system is the default file system created by the installation program for FreeDOS 1.0 Final when it formats a hard drive.
    B is incorrect because FreeDOS does not support NTFS.
    C is incorrect because, while FreeDOS supports FAT16, it is not the default file system.
    D is incorrect because FAT12 is only appropriate for floppy disks, not for large hard drives.
    E is incorrect because CDFS is the CD file system, not a file system used when formatting a hard drive.
  8. Correct answer: A. You can use the DOS install setup program.
    B is incorrect because you do not need administrator rights to the computer to install DOS, because DOS has no notion of security.
    C is incorrect because you cannot create a logical drive larger than 2 GB in MS-DOS.
    D is incorrect because you are not required to install from CD. MS-DOS was distributed on floppy disks, although you will find newer versions of DOS (from other sources) available on CD.
    E is incorrect because you are not required to activate MS-DOS with Microsoft. In Chapter 5 you will learn more about this anti-piracy scheme used by Microsoft and other software companies.
  9. Correct answer: B. The FAT file system and the DOS OS are limited to the 8.3 file naming convention.
    A is incorrect because DOS does not support the NTFS file system.
    C is incorrect because the POST (Power-on self-test) has nothing to do with the 8.3 file naming convention.
    D is incorrect because ROM BIOS has nothing to do with the 8.3 file naming convention.
    E is incorrect because the IBM PC was a computer, with nothing to do with the 8.3 file naming convention.
  10. Correct answer: C. the backslash (\) symbol is an illegal character for a DOS file name.
    A, B, D, and E are all incorrect because $, (, -, and _ are all legal characters for a DOS file name.
  11. Correct answer: B. The syntax of a command gives you the rules for entering that command at the command line.
    A is incorrect because the syntax of a command does not provide the command's attributes.
    C is incorrect because the syntax of a command does not provide a list of possible errors created by the command.
    D is incorrect because the syntax of a command does not provide the version information for the command.
    E is incorrect because the syntax of a command does not tell you how much memory a command uses.
  12. Correct answer: E. POST is the BIOS-based program (or group of programs) that performs diagnostics as a computer powers up.
    A, B, C, and D are all incorrect because IO.SYS, COMMAND.COM, MSDOS.SYS, and KERNEL.EXE are all DOS system files, and they are not in the BIOS.
  13. Correct answer: B. FDCONFIG.SYS is a FreeDOS configuration file.
    A is incorrect because FDAUTOEXEC.BAT is not the name of a FreeDOS configuration file.
    C is incorrect because CONFIG.SYS is not the name of a FreeDOS configuration file, but it is the name of a MS-DOS configuration file.
    D is incorrect because IO.SYS is the name of a MS-DOS system file, not the name of a FreeDOS configuration file.
    E is incorrect because KERNEL is not the name of a FreeDOS configuration file, but it is a FreeDOS system file.
  14. Correct answer: D. 2 GB is the maximum size of a primary partition you can create in MS-DOS 6.22.
    A is incorrect because 4 GB is more than the maximum size of primary partition you can create.
    B is incorrect because 2TB is far more than the maximum size of primary partition you can create.
    C is incorrect because 512 MB is far less than the maximum size of primary partition you can create.
    E is incorrect because 650 KB is far less than the maximum size of primary partition you can create.
  15. Correct answer: E. Typos on the command line,is the most likely cause of the following error message: “Bad Command or File name” because DOS requires very careful command entry.
    A is incorrect because an incorrect switch is not the most likely cause this error message.
    B is incorrect because an incorrect version of DOS is not the most likely cause of a “Bad Command or File name” error message.
    Cis incorrect because DOS does not have any notion of permissions.
    D is incorrect because DOS has no notion of rights.

Answers to Essay Quiz

  1. The operating system functions DOS supports are: user interface, memory management, file management, and device management. The job management, task management, and security functions are completely unsupported in DOS. User interface, file management, memory management, and device management are only minimally supported in DOS.
  2. Since FreeDOS is reputed to be compatible with MS-DOS, one solution is to download and install FreeDOS on the computer and test the application under FreeDOS. If this works, you do not have to deal with MS-DOS. If somehow this does not work, see the following:
    There are at least two possible solutions for using MS-DOS if Free DOS does not work with the application. You have two legally licensed versions of MS-DOS 6.22, which covers the two computers on which you need DOS. How you manage to install it on the second computer is a separate issue. If there is a 5.25-inch bay available in the new computer, you can remove the 5.25-inch drive from the failed computer, and install it in the new computer. This is a hardware issue, not covered in this book, but if you install it, configure it as drive A:, and ensure that the computer will boot from A:. You can then run setup from the 5.25-inch floppy disks. The second option does not involve moving the 5.25-inch floppy disk drive. Create a 3.5-inch startup floppy disk on the remaining DOS computer. Then, you can copy FDISK.EXE, SYS.EXE, FORMAT.EXE, and other useful programs to the floppy disk. Take the new startup disk to the new computer, boot up, and use FDISK to create a new partition on the hard disk. Then use FORMAT /S to format the new partition, and make it bootable. Then create a DOS directory and copy the DOS files into the DOS directory on the new computer. Finally, install the application software onto the new computer.
  3. Answers will vary, depending on the experience of the student. The answers we provide here include DOS programs not directly discussed in this chapter. However, if students spend time exploring DOS Help, they will discover many useful programs. Here is a list of DOS commands we have found very useful in our three decades of working with DOS. Brief descriptions are included, but you can learn more about them by using the DOS Help program.
  • ATTRIB.EXE For viewing and manipulating file attributes.
  • CHKDSK.EXE For finding and repairing certain disk problems.
  • EDIT.COM Nice MS-DOS editor.
  • FDISK.EXE Disk partitioning program.
  • FORMAT Disk formatting program.
  • MEM.EXE Shows memory usage.
  • SYS.COM Transfers the DOS system files to a formatted disk to make it bootable.
  • XCOPY.EXE Enhanced DOS copy program that you can use to copy entire directories and their contents. It also is faster than the COPY command, because it uses memory better.
  • EMM386.EXE A memory management driver used in CONFIG.SYS by PC support professionals with advanced knowledge of DOS. Depends on HIMEM.SYS being loaded.
  • MSCDEX.EXE Microsoft CD Extensions, used to add the ability to interact with CDs. You must call this up from an AUTOEXEC.BAT file after calling up a CD driver file from CONFIG.SYS. This is an advanced topic.
  • DELTREE.EXE Enhanced delete program that will delete an entire directory and its contents, while the internal RD command can only delete an empty directory.
  • MORE When you run a command and the screen output is too big to fit on it, using the MORE filter command will display one screen at a time.
  • UNDELETE.EXE Allows deleted files to be “undeleted.” It depends partly on luck, because other files can easily overwrite the space a “deleted” program occupies.
  1. The DOS bootup process starts with the PC bootup process, beginning from either a cold or warm boot, which causes the processor to load a special program (the POST), residing on ROM BIOS, into memory. After this program completes, another program searches for an operating system on drive A: (if the computer is configured to boot from A:). If it does not find an OS on A:, it looks for an OS on drive C:. If it finds DOS on drive C:, it loads the DOS system filesinto memory. MS-DOS has two system files, IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS,and FreeDOS has one, KERNEL.SYS. FreeDOS’ KERNEL.SYS looks for the FDCONFIG.SYS configuration file and MS-DOS’s MSDOS.SYS looks for the CONFIG.SYS configuration file. If the configuration file is found, DOS interprets the commands in the file (modifying OS values and loading device drivers). Then, in both versions of DOS, COMMAND.COM is loaded and it looks for AUTOEXEC.BAT. If it finds AUTOEXEC.BAT, it runs the commands from this file. After this it displays a DOS prompt.
  2. A primary partition can contain a single logical drive and is the only type of hard disk partition that can be used for starting up the operating system. An extended partition can contain one or more logical drives, but cannot be used for starting up the operating system.

Solution to Lab Project 2.1

  1. [While the project lists file names for MS-DOS, the solution can also be applied to FreeDOS, using the FDCONFIG.SYS file.] A solution to the problem is to turn on the Read-Only attribute of COMMAND.COM, CONFIG.SYS (or FDCONFIG.SYS), and AUTOEXEC.BAT.
  2. The COMMAND.COM, CONFIG.SYS (or FDCONFIG.SYS), and AUTOEXEC.BAT files are located on the root of drive C:.
  3. To implement the solution on a lab computer with DOS installed on the hard drive, run the following commands at the DOS Prompt:

ATTRIB +R COMMAND.COM

ATTRIB +R CONFIG.SYS [or ATTRIB +R FDCONFIG.SYS]

ATTRIB +R AUTOEXEC.BAT

  1. To test the solution, attempt to delete each of these files, using the following commands at the DOS prompt:

DEL COMMAND.COM

DEL CONFIG.SYS [or DEL FDCONFIG.SYS]

DEL AUTOEXEC.BAT

The result of each of these commands should be an error message: “Access denied.”

Solution to Lab Project 4.2

Answers will vary. We do not believe there is any future for DOS on the desktop, and even in the embedded market, there are better options, such as Linux.

Solution to Lab Project 4.3

  1. To automate the process of creating several directories on ten computers, create a batch file similar to the following listing, name the batch file with a name, such as NEWDIRS.BAT, copy it onto a floppy disk, and take the floppy disk to each computer. At each computer, insert the floppy disk, make the drive current by typing A:, and then run the batch file by entering the name of the batch file at the command prompt.

Begin code listing

@ECHO OFF

ECHO Subdirectories will be created on drive C:.

PAUSE

C:

CD \

MD DATA

MD \DATA\CUSTOMER

MD \DATA\CUSTOMER\WHLSALE

MD \DATA\CUSTOMER\RETAIL

MD \DATA\SALES

MD \DATA\SALES\ADS

MD \DATA\SALES\PROMOS

MD \DATA\SALES\PLANS

ECHO The directories have been created.

End code listing

  1. If you have problems when you test the batch file, recheck the file. The most likely cause of problems with the batch file will be typos. Check your typing!
  2. To estimate the total time it will take to run the batch file on ten computers, time how long it takes to run on a single computer, and multiply it by 10. You can estimate the amount of time it would take to create the directories manually at the ten computers by deleting the directories you created with the batch files on your computer, and manually creating them while you keep track of the time spent.

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