Registry editor

[Neil Waldhauer]

I'm using \OS2\SYSTEM\REGEDIT2.EXE. If I open the HINI_USER_PROFILE, then all is well. But if I open the OS2.INI file on another drive, then the REGEDIT2 closes with a new entry created in POPUPLOG.OS2.

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07-10-2023  09:17:53  SYS3171  PID 0046  TID 0001  Slot 001b
H:\OS2\SYSTEM\REGEDIT2.EXE
c0000005
1ffc1b8c
P1=00000002  P2=001bfffc  P3=XXXXXXXX  P4=XXXXXXXX 
EAX=1a390000  EBX=1a533434  ECX=001c0018  EDX=00000014
ESI=1a661a44  EDI=1a390650 
DS=0053  DSACC=d0f3  DSLIM=bfffffff 
ES=0053  ESACC=d0f3  ESLIM=bfffffff 
FS=150b  FSACC=00f3  FSLIM=00000030
GS=0000  GSACC=****  GSLIM=********
CS:EIP=005b:1ffc1b8c  CSACC=d0df  CSLIM=bfffffff
SS:ESP=0053:001c0000  SSACC=d0f3  SSLIM=bfffffff
EBP=001c0044  FLG=00010202

DOSCALL1.DLL 0002:00001b8c

I can recreate this by accessing the same INI file using REXX function SysIni, although the exception location is different.

[Dave Yeo]

Broken INI file? Does it work when booted to that drive? Can you boot to that drive and try cleaning the ini files?

[ivan]

I think you are using the wrong tool to read the ini file.

Saying it is HINI user profile it sounds as if that has been written by Peter Moyland's program to make ini files human readable.  if that is the case all you need is a text editor to read it.readable.   

[Doug Bissett]

I think you are using the wrong tool to read the ini file.

.

No. REGEDIT2.EXE is a proper registry file editor (doesn't mean that it doesn't have a bug), and it has nothing to do with Peter Moylan's work.

I'm using \OS2\SYSTEM\REGEDIT2.EXE. If I open the HINI_USER_PROFILE, then all is well. But if I open the OS2.INI file on another drive, then the REGEDIT2 closes with a new entry created in POPUPLOG.OS2.

I am not getting a POPUPLOG.OS2, but the INI file has been modified by other things.

The first thing, that I would try, is a different INI editor. I have used some of them (from HOBBRS), in the past, but don't have one installed now.

[Lars]

I used regedit2 to access my OS2.INI on drive E: from my system on drive D: and had no problems.
1) check if your OS2.INI you are trying to access is corrupt
2) check for file attributes. For some reason my OS2.INI and OS2SYS.INI on drive E: only have the "A" attribute set while the ones on the D: drive have the "RSA" attributes set. But maybe the file attributes are changed when these files are opened during system start

[Neil Waldhauer]

I get the crash consistently on my computers here. The crash is the same with regedit or SysIni called from REXX. The workplace shell is unable to function after the crash.

I tried some tools from Hobbes, but mostly they behave the same. I tried quite a few boots, but all are well developed OS/2 installations with plenty of entries in OS2.INI. These systems all are working well, so I doubt there is significant corruption of any OS2.INI file.

I aslo tried rwINI from Hobbes. This is an alternative to SysIni. That works fine. SysIni works fine when booted from CD.

Perhaps SysIni (and the Prf... functions) cannot have two full-sized INI files in memory, but a tiny OS2.INI on a bootCD is OK.

Another interesting quirk is that if I boot from C:, then I cannot open C:\OS2\OS2.INI, but I can access the same file as 'USER'. The rwINI package documents this limitation. The system uses the OS2.INI file, so that will always be open while I work.

[Lars]

I had opened both, OS2.INI and OS2SYS.INI (of the non-boot partition) via the profile loading function of regedit2 at the same time and that was not a problem. I even opened more profile files (in the end, it was about 5 different files) and that also was not a problem.

I think your assumption is correct that rwINI will not use the ordinary Prf... API functions but will read and parse the profile file contents directly. That will likely avoid some problems with shared mem etc.

Maybe, this problem is related to shared memory (if the Prf... API functions are used), in particular if your OS2.INI and OS2SYS.INI files are very big.

Side note: I can open OS2.INI from my boot partition by using the profile loading function of regedit2.

[Neil Waldhauer]

I wonder if my ini files are a "normal" size.

Directory of  H:\os2\os2*.ini

7-13-23   6:18       2,123,544      0  OS2.INI
7-12-23   9:03         305,745      0  OS2SYS.INI

[Lars]

I wonder if my ini files are a "normal" size.

Directory of  H:\os2\os2*.ini

7-13-23   6:18       2,123,544      0  OS2.INI
7-12-23   9:03         305,745      0  OS2SYS.INI

That's about the size that they have on my system. But I should mention that I still use eCS (with driver updates) and I have no clue what AN changed in addition. I doubt that it helps but you could also try to change the VIRTUALADDRESSLIMIT value (I still think your issue is shared memory related so that might have a bearing on the problem).

What is size/date/bldlevel string of your DOSCALL1.DLL ?

What is really odd is this combination:

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P1=00000002  P2=001bfffc  P3=XXXXXXXX  P4=XXXXXXXX
SS:ESP=0053:001c0000  SSACC=d0f3  SSLIM=bfffffff
EBP=001c0044  FLG=00010202

That means the program failed when it tried to write (P1=2) 4 Bytes to address 1bfffc (P2) which is just 4 bytes below ESP (EBP pointing well above ESP which is what can be expected). That would mean, you have hit the bottom of the stack / hit guard page of the stack without the OS commiting a new memory page for the stack. Either regedit2 stack is too small (I doubt that) or some recursion happened that ate all of the stack. I think that would point to a problem with the INI file. Even if it does not give you a problem during operation, might want to try an ini file cleaner.

[Dave Yeo]

I wonder if my ini files are a "normal" size.

Directory of  H:\os2\os2*.ini

7-13-23   6:18       2,123,544      0  OS2.INI
7-12-23   9:03         305,745      0  OS2SYS.INI

On the big side, here on a fairly old install,

OS2.INI     ░│ 1364651│13/07/23│ 7:30a
OS2SYS.INI  ░│  136259│13/07/23│ 7:28a

[Dariusz Piatkowski]

I wonder if my ini files are a "normal" size.

Directory of  H:\os2\os2*.ini

7-13-23   6:18       2,123,544      0  OS2.INI
7-12-23   9:03         305,745      0  OS2SYS.INI

Code: [Select]

6-30-23  3:03p     3,534,209      0 ----  OS2.INI
6-30-23  3:03p       600,592      0 ----  OS2SYS.INI

The OS2SYS.INI in particular continues to be a problem for me...sizewise its BIG and pretty much near the edge of managable. I say this b/c I am routinely seeing shutdown errors writing to that INI (after reboot it is corrupted and normally truncated to literally half that size).

Needless to say, multiple cleanup efforts have failed to shrink it down below that 550-600K size.

[ivan]

Looks as if you need to have a look inside it and remove the extraneous junk.

I have attached iniedit120 which will allow that (you have to select os2sys.ini from the menu).

[roberto]

I have :
15/07/23 11:53      3.149.374      0 a--r  OS2.INI
15/07/23 11:53      1.145.424      0 a--r  OS2SYS.INI
No problems,  I edit with C:\SYS\APPS\FM2\FM2TOOLS\INI.EXE INI Viewer
I only have in desktop one folther and trash can, in all my os2 arcaos systems for many years:
Directory of C:\desktop

 8/07/23 15:37          <DIR>    817 a---  .
 8/07/23 15:37          <DIR> 18.990 a---  Escritorio
21/04/20 13:07          <DIR>    619 a---  Trash Can
saludos

[Andi B.]

My inis are currently quite big -

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15.07.23  13.13       3.500.039      0   R_SA_  OS2.INI
15.07.23  13.13         457.587      0   R_SA_  OS2SYS.INI
Just started checkini / cleanini but that didn't help much.

[ivan]

I think the main problem is that most of the ini cleaners only look at OS2.INI not OS2SYS.INI.  Almost all of them do a good job of cleaning up OS2.INI but iniedit120 is the only one I have found that allows looking at OS2SYS.INI.

XFIX from XWORKPLACE is also very good at cleaning OS2.INI but doesn't do OS2SYS.INI which is a pity.