Author Topic: Bad or missing command interpreter  (Read 5070 times)

Paolo_Ricardo

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Bad or missing command interpreter
« on: June 03, 2017, 04:09:03 am »
Having set up and run a number of MS-DOS programs via DOS sessions I find that this morning when I open a DOS session or try to run any of my MS-DOS programs I get the message "SYS3145 Bad or missing command interpreter. Press Enter to close the DOS session".

Apart from installing another MS-DOS program this morning - which I have had running - after a reboot this message now appears.

Can any one help?

Paul

Pete

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Re: Bad or missing command interpreter
« Reply #1 on: June 03, 2017, 04:27:35 am »
Hi Paul

Not having had DOS/Win16 support installed for many years I would guess that either \os2\mdos\command.com has gone missing or this line in the config.sys file is missing/incorrect - change M: for the boot drive involved
SHELL=M:\OS2\MDOS\COMMAND.COM M:\OS2\MDOS /P


Regards

Pete

Paolo_Ricardo

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Re: Bad or missing command interpreter
« Reply #2 on: June 03, 2017, 05:09:16 am »
Pete

I have the lines
SET OS2_SHELL=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE
SET COMSPEC=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE
in CONFIG.SYS.

As I said earlier, this has worked fine until this morning. I also cannot open a Win-OS2 session. I just get an hourglass if I double-click.

If I double-click on CMD.EXE it opens a window. I can change directories to, say, one of my MS-DOS programs but when I try to start the program I get the SYS3145 message in a window with COMMAND.COM as its title. So CMD.EXE is not missing - it seems the problem is with COMMAND.COM. Clicking on this directly gives the SYS3145 message.

Paul

Dave Yeo

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Re: Bad or missing command interpreter
« Reply #3 on: June 03, 2017, 08:42:16 am »
Do you have, (change the boot letter to what you use)
Code: [Select]
SHELL=D:\OS2\MDOS\COMMAND.COM D:\OS2\MDOSin your config.sys? If not, add it and reboot.
It's possible that the DOS program you installed changed your config.sys

Paolo_Ricardo

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Re: Bad or missing command interpreter
« Reply #4 on: June 03, 2017, 09:41:16 am »
Dave

You were right, my CONFIG.SYS had been changed so I modified it as you suggested and everything is working well.

Thanks
Paul