Chapter 7. Configuring SoftWindows

This chapter describes the SoftWindows system configuration and user configuration files, and the X-resource configuration options.

SoftWindows configuration file

Each user's configuration settings are stored in a file named '.swin2config' in the user's home directory. This file determines the settings that appear in the Options menu dialog boxes. If the user changes any of the settings, and the Save Configuration Changes option is checked in the Exit dialog box, the new values will be saved in the user's configuration file on exiting SoftWindows,

You can also edit the SoftWindows configuration file using a Unix text editor, such as vi.

The system defaults

When a user launches SoftWindows, the initial configuration settings are determined by the system configuration file, sys.swin2config, which is installed in the SoftWindows directory /usr/lib/SoftWindows2, specified by the environment variable $SWIN2HOME.

Editing the system configuration file

The system administrator can edit the system configuration file to provide users with different initial settings.

To do this, sys.swin2config must be owned by root, and the SUID bit must be set. If necessary, login as root and from the $SWIN2HOME directory enter the commands:

chown root sys.swin2config 
chmod 4444 sys.swin2config 

The system configuration file also contains entries to determine the default values for the LPT and COM port settings, the maximum size of the hard disk drive and memory, and the initial size of the Windows desktop.

System configuration file

A full listing of the SoftWindows system configuration file is given on the following pages.

The following entries determine the user's initial SoftWindows preferences:

DRIVE_C_FILE_NAME                 
DRIVE_D_FILE_NAME                 
DRIVE_CDROM_DEVICE_NAME
DRIVE_D_FSA_DIRECTORY
DRIVE_E_FSA_DIRECTORY             $HOME
DRIVE_F_FSA_DIRECTORY             /CDROM
DRIVE_G_FSA_DIRECTORY             $SWIN2HOME/windows
DRIVE_H_FSA_DIRECTORY             $HOME
DRIVE_I_FSA_DIRECTORY
DRIVE_J_FSA_DIRECTORY
DRIVE_K_FSA_DIRECTORY             /floppy
DRIVE_L_FSA_DIRECTORY             
DRIVE_M_FSA_DIRECTORY
DRIVE_N_FSA_DIRECTORY
DRIVE_O_FSA_DIRECTORY
DRIVE_P_FSA_DIRECTORY
DRIVE_Q_FSA_DIRECTORY
DRIVE_R_FSA_DIRECTORY
DRIVE_S_FSA_DIRECTORY
DRIVE_T_FSA_DIRECTORY
DRIVE_U_FSA_DIRECTORY
DRIVE_V_FSA_DIRECTORY
DRIVE_W_FSA_DIRECTORY
DRIVE_X_FSA_DIRECTORY
DRIVE_Y_FSA_DIRECTORY
DRIVE_Z_FSA_DIRECTORY
DRIVE_FLOPPY_A_DEVICE_NAME        
DRIVE_FLOPPY_B_DEVICE_NAME        
DISPLAY_GRAPHICS_ADAPTOR          VGA
DISPLAY_SIZE                      1.0
DISPLAY_MSWIN_WIDTH               640
DISPLAY_MSWIN_HEIGHT              480
DISPLAY_MSWIN_COLOURS             16
DISK_DEFAULT_SIZE                 80
MEMORY_EXTENDED_SIZE              8
LPT_PORT_1_PS_FLUSH               Yes
LPT_PORT_2_PS_FLUSH               No
LPT_PORT_3_PS_FLUSH               No
LPT_PORT_1_TYPE                   Pipe
LPT_PORT_2_TYPE                   
LPT_PORT_3_TYPE                   
LPT_PORT_1                        lp
LPT_PORT_2                        
LPT_PORT_3                     
COM_PORT_1_PS_FLUSH               No
COM_PORT_2_PS_FLUSH               No
COM_PORT_3_PS_FLUSH               No
COM_PORT_4_PS_FLUSH               No
COM_PORT_1_TYPE                   
COM_PORT_2_TYPE                   
COM_PORT_3_TYPE                   
COM_PORT_4_TYPE                   
COM_PORT_1                        
COM_PORT_2                        
COM_PORT_3                        
COM_PORT_4                        
COM_PORT_1_FLOW                   No
COM_PORT_2_FLOW                   No
COM_PORT_3_FLOW                   No
COM_PORT_4_FLOW                   No
SECURE                            No
SECURE_MASK                       0
SOUND                             No
AUTO_FREEZE                       No
AUTO_FLUSH                        Yes
AUTO_FLUSH_DELAY                  50
KEYBOARD_MAP_FILE_NAME            $SWIN2HOME/keyboard/SGINDYus.kbd
FILE_DEFAULT                      $HOME/SoftWin.tmp
DEVICE_DEFAULT
PIPE_DEFAULT                      lp
DRIVE_HARD_DISK_MAX_SIZE          300
MEMORY_EXTENDED_MAX_SIZE          32
FPU_EMULATION                     Yes
MSWIN_RESIZE                      Never
WINDOW_RESIZE_MODE                restart_win
CMOS                              00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 26 02 00 80 00 00 20 00 f0 00 01 80 02 00 00 14 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 19 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 

The following sections provide details of the alternative values for particular configuration entries:

MSWIN_RESIZE

Table 7-1. MSWIN_RESIZE Values

Value

Description

Never

The Resize dialog box is not displayed when Windows is started.

Always

The Resize dialog box is displayed every time Windows is started.

Next

The Resize dialog box is displayed the next time Windows is started. After it has been displayed the option is automatically set to Never so that the dialog box is not subsequently displayed.


LPT_PORT_x_TYPE

Table 7-2. LPT_PORT... Values

Value

Description

File

Output to a Unix file.

Pipe

Pipe to a Unix process (for example, a print spooler).

Device

Output to a Unix printer port.

Blank

Port disabled.


COM_PORT_x_TYPE

Table 7-3. COM_PORT... Values

Value

Description

File

Output to a Unix file.

Pipe

Pipe to a Unix process (for example, a print spooler).

Device

Output to a Unix serial port.

Blank

Port disabled.


DISPLAY_GRAPHICS_ADAPTOR

Table 7-4. DISPLAY_GRAPHICS_ADAPTOR Values

Value

Description

VGA or SVGA

SVGA display.

Hercules

Hercules display.


RO_DISK_PANEL_DISABLE

This entry is optional. If a user does not have write permission to a SoftWindows hard disk file, a warning dialog box will normally be displayed when SoftWindows starts up. The option RO_DISK_PANEL_DISABLE allows you to override this default action as follows:

Table 7-5. RO_DISK_PANEL_DISABLE Values

Value

Description

No or omitted

The warning dialog box will be displayed if the user cannot write to the disk.

Yes

The warning dialog box is not displayed.


_DEFAULT entries

The _DEFAULT entries can be changed by the system administrator to determine the default values for the options in the Comms Ports and Lpt Ports dialog boxes.

_MAX_SIZE entries

The _MAX_SIZE entries can be changed by the system administrator to determine the maximum disk and memory sizes.

User's configuration file

The following entries do not appear in the user's individual configuration file ($HOME/.swin2config): FILE_DEFAULT, DEVICE_DEFAULT, PIPE_DEFAULT, SECURE, SECURE_MASK, DRIVE_HARD_DISK_MAX_SIZE, and MEMORY_EXTENDED_MAX_SIZE.

SECURE is optional, but if it is not preset, the default value assumed is Yes, so it should be preset to No if secure mode operation is not required.

SECURE_MASK is intended for future expansion and should be set to 0.

Resetting the configuration

You can reset a user's SoftWindows preferences to the default values supplied in the system configuration file by deleting the “.swin2config” file in the user's home directory.

When launched, SoftWindows will create a default file there if one does not already exist.

X resource configuration

Disabling menu options

Since SoftWindows is an X Windows-based application, you can restrict access to parts of the SoftWindows menu tree by editing the SoftWindows X resource file, sOftWindows, located in $SWIN2HOME.

Each menu item can be individually grayed out by setting its sensitive setting to false. For example, to restrict users from accessing the Display… option, locate the following line in the sOftWindows file:

sOftWindows*dispPBG.sensitive:		true

And change it to:

sOftWindows*dispPBG.sensitive:		false

Alternatively, you can gray out entire menu options, by setting the sensitive setting of the parent menu option to false. For example, to restrict users from accessing the entire Options menu, locate the following line in the sOftWindows file:

sOftWindows*optionCBW.sensitive:		true

And change it to:

sOftWindows*optionCBW.sensitive:		false

To restrict users from accessing any of the SoftWindows menus, except for the Help menu, change the following lines in the sOftWindows file:

sOftWindows*fileCBW.sensitive:		true
sOftWindows*optionCBW.sensitive:		true
sOftWindows*actionCBW.sensitive:		true

To the following:

sOftWindows*fileCBW.sensitive:		false
sOftWindows*optionCBW.sensitive:		false
sOftWindows*actionCBW.sensitive:		false

Menu font sizes

To change the fonts on the SoftWindows menus, either edit the following line in the sOftWindows file, if present, or add a similar line to the file:

sOftWindows*FontList:			screen14

Windows driver display sizes

When the user launches Microsoft Windows, the Resize dialog box appears, allowing the user to select the size of the user's Microsoft Windows desktop. The sizes provided in the Resize dialog box are set in the SoftWindows resource file, sOftWindows, and are defined using the following lines:

sOftWindows*windowSizeWidth1:		640
sOftWindows*windowSizeHeight1:		480
sOftWindows*windowSizeWidth2:		800
sOftWindows*windowSizeHeight2:		600
sOftWindows*windowSizeWidth3:		680
sOftWindows*windowSizeHeight3:		700
sOftWindows*windowSizeWidth4:		880
sOftWindows*windowSizeHeight4:		700

To change the default size settings, simply modify the relevant lines. For example, to make the fourth pair of default sizes equal to 1024 x 768, change the lines to:

sOftWindows*windowSizeWidth4:		1024
sOftWindows*windowSizeHeight4:		768