About PC-DOS J7.0/V

PC-DOS J7.0/V is just a standard copy of PC-DOS 7.0 with some addtional drivers which support Kanji display and input on a VGA screen. A full installation comes with a batch file called SWITCH.BAT which toggles between English and Japanese mode, but you can accomplish the same thing manually.

The following recipe is what works for me. Be very careful, as it does not allow much room for correcting mistakes:

The hard way: no other PCMCIA-equipped DOS machine available

  1. Power up the PC110, and hit F5 as soon as you see the "Starting PC-DOS..." message. Be quick, you've only got a second or two. This should place you at a DOS prompt without starting up Personaware.
  2. At this point, you can type normal English DOS commands; if you like, you can use "DIR" and "CD" to look around at the stuff that comes loaded on the internal 4MB flash volume. You will note that there are files in the root directory called "CONFIG.110" and "AUTOEXEC.110". These are copies of "CONFIG.SYS" and "AUTOEXEC.BAT" as they come with the machine; if you make a mistake editing either file, you can reboot with F5 and recopy them from the ".110" versions, which should get you back to square one.
  3. To modify the files so that the PC110 boots into English mode, but with all of the PCMCIA support, type the following commands exactly . You can make this easier by typing "\DOS\KEYB JP" first, which will tell DOS you're using a Japanese keyboard layout. If you read Japanese, you can use Personaware's note editor to modify the files directly (this is what I did). 
    COPY CON CONFIG.SYS
BUFFERS=20
FILES=40
DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM I=B000-B7FF I=C900-DBFF X=DC00-DFFF FRAME=E000
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DOSDATA=UMB
SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM C:\ /P /E:512 /H
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\POWER.EXE ADV:MAX
DEVICEHIGH=C:\EZPLAY\SSDPCIC1.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=C:\EZPLAY\IBMDOSCS.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=C:\EZPLAY\RMUDOSAT.SYS /MA=DC00-DDFF /IX=5,10 /PX=15E0-15EF,35E0-35EF,102
DEVICEHIGH=C:\EZPLAY\$ICPMDOS.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=C:\EZPLAY\PAWATAS.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=C:\EZPLAY\AUTODRV.SYS
LASTDRIVE=F
^Z
    Note that the line containing RMUDOSAT.SYS is long, but should be typed without a carriage return in the middle. The last line is a control-Z followed by pressing Enter, which will return you to the DOS prompt. 
    COPY CON AUTOEXEC.BAT
@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $P$G
PATH C:\;C:\DOS
LH C:\DOS\KEYB.COM JP
LH C:\DOS\MOUSE.COM
^Z
    Again, the last line is a control-Z followed by Enter.
  4. Reboot. The machine should come up in English mode to a DOS prompt. If you insert a formatted ATA flash card or hard drive, the top PC Card slot is drive D:, the bottom is drive E:. The internal modem is COM1:.

The easy way: you have another PC Card equipped machine handy

You're lucky: you don't have to touch the internal flash volume if you don't want to.

On your other machine, do the following:

  1. Partition (if necessary) and format the drive with the /S option, which will install the system files and boot blocks. I'd advise also copying over a full DOS install, so that you'll have a full set of utilities.
  2. If you want to install Windows 3.1, copy the contents of the six install disks into a set of directories (say, DISK1 thru DISK6) on the drive. If you are installing Windows 95, copy the setup directory (\WIN95 on the CD-ROM) to the drive.
  3. Power up the PC110 and immediately press and hold the F1 key. This should bring up the "Easy Setup" menu. If it boots PC-DOS, you were either too quick or not quick enough :).
  4. Hit the right arrow until "Start up" is hilited, and hit Enter.
  5. Click on Reset (this takes some coordination).
  6. Click on PCMCIA. The PCMCIA icon should pop up to slot #1. If you want to access the internal flash while you're booted off the PC Card drive, do the same thing for "HDD-1". No, I don't know what the Network option does either.
  7. Click on "OK". This will take you back to the "Easy Setup" menu.
  8. Instert the PC Card drive.
  9. Use the arrow keys to select "Restart" and hit Enter, followed by another Enter to confirm.
  10. The PC110 should restart, and boot off of the PC card. At this point you can run the Windows SETUP.EXE program, or otherwise have fun. The Easy Setup menu can also configure PC card modems, the internal modem and IR ports, a startup password (which I haven't figured out how to remove once it's been set), and so on.

Hints for Windows / Windows 95 Users

Hints for UNIX (BSD variants, Linux, etc.)

The most painless way to install Intel UNIX variants is to map the PCMCIA drive to the primary IDE controller address. To do this, boot the PC110 off the internal flash drive with the shift key held down. This will bypass normal driver loading and drop you at a C:\> prompt. Type the command "PS2 _@ATA PRIMARY" and press Enter. This tells the PC110 BIOS to give an ATA card priority over the internal flash drive if one is present. Now you can boot off of a floppy with a PCMCIA drive inserted and UNIX will see it as a standard IDE drive.

Be careful if you install PCMCIA support, since PCMCIA drivers can remap the drive out from underneath the OS, which tends to make it cranky.

Miscellaneous tips