How to Read Chinese, Korean, Japanese under OS/2

By BETAMAN

If you do not understand these instructions get a "technical" OS/2 friend to help you! These instructions are intended for OS/2 Warp V3 and V4 users in a corporate office in USA, UK and other English speaking countries where an English OS/2 Warp operating system is used. If your OS/2 Warp system is reasonably up level, from about January 1996, the process to read Chinese is quite simple. It is also assumed that you are connected to a local area network using ethernet or token ring. Dial-up using modem also works but I doubt if you want to access the Internet this way in a corporate office. IF YOU ARE A HOME USER OR A DIAL-UP MODEM USERS MY ADVICE IS THAT YOU REMAIN ON YOUR WINDOWS PLATFORM and run a Chinese add-on system to your existing US/UK Windows 3.x or 95. These instructions are for using Netscape only. The latest OS/2 Warp V4 ( so called Merlin) may mean that you do not have to get the software listed in steps 1) to 4). I have not tested these instructions with OS/2 Warp V4 nor Microsoft's Internet Explorer as yet. ( There is a good probability that these steps also work with other European languages OS/2 Warp operating systems. )

Software that you may need
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For those who have TCP/IP with OS/2 Warp and want to start installing right away then do steps 2) and 5) below and start installing. You should not do any harm to your winos2 system. I have done just this many times but you should have back-ups for your complete OS/2 Warp system as good practice. In particular back-up the usual Windows system files in winos2, autoexec.bat and config.sys. If it does not work you can follow the other steps.

Software listed in steps 1), 2) 3) and 4) are not needed if you already have Netscape accessing the InterNet in WINOS2. Just add a Chinese environment support in WINOS2 e.g. RichWin V4.3 for InterNet from Stone Richsight, WinMass from Starglobe and Asiasurf from Dynalab. Personally I prefer RichWin because of its ease of use and functionality. (There is also a native OS/2 Warp version of RichWin but I have not tested it. This version is potentially easier to use than using the Windows version under WINOS2 because it saves you from setting up all the TCP/IP requirements in WINOS2. )

1) Make sure that your operating system is at least :-

"OS/2 Warp V3 Connect" with WIN-OS/2, Service Level XR03003, Fix Pack 22 as a minimum. You can check this by running SYSLEVEL command. The answers should be :-

                       OS/2 WARP Connect with WIN-OS2

Version 3.00     Component ID xxxxxxxxx
Current CSD level: IP08000
Prior   CSD level: IP08000

C:\OS2\INSTALL\SYSLEVEL.OS2

                           IBM OS/2 Base Operating System

Version 3.00     Component ID xxxxxxxxx
Type 0C
Current CSD level: XR03003
Prior   CSD level: XR03003


                          IBM TCP/IP Version 3.0 for OS/2

Version 3.00     Component ID xxxxxxxxx
Current CSD level: IC00000
Prior   CSD level: IC00000

Any numbers higher than above means that you are OK already and you can miss out an install step later.

Note that "OS/2 Warp Connect" with WinOS2 is the so called "blue" pack version of OS/2 and has the Windows 3.1 bundled with it. The "red" pack is cheaper and a user uses his own Windows 3.1 licence. The main thing in whether you use the "red" pack or "blue" pack is that you get a winos2 session running in OS/2. The "Connect" word means that OS/2 Warp is bundled with all sorts of networking and communications protocols. The key one is TCP/IP, of course, for Internet access. If you do not have just the OS/2 Warp V3 ( not the "Connect" version ) the key thing is to get TCP/IP Version 3.0 and add it to OS/2 Warp. FixPak 22 is the minimum service level that you need to get OS/2 Warp to. ( If you are between FixPak 17 and 22 you may try Netscape V2 ( N16E20.EXE ) instead. But you can easily get FixPaks from IBM's Web software Web sites. )

2) Get Netscape product Gold V3.01 ( N16E301.EXE ) from Netscape's Web site. This is the 16-bit version since WINOS2 will not support the 32-bit version. ( OS/2 is a 32-bit operating system but Windows 3.1 is a 16-bit system.) UK or US version is fine.

3) Get a fix for TCP/IP for OS/2 called "APAR IC11173" ( you may need it ). Before you replace any files make sure that you back up the files to be replaced as a precaution! You can check whether you have this fix by looking in :-

drive_letter:\TCPIP\BIN and check if the following files are dated as follows or are more recent:-

Length   Size    Date        Time    CRC-32    Name
------  ------   -----       -----   ----      --------
   370   264       26-01-96  11:06  20f7de65   READ.ME
 39269   21283     16-10-95  08:18  da1bd442   VDEBUG.EXE
 35058   18435     16-10-95  08:18  7d28b343   VDOSCTL.EXE
 51264   21790     16-10-95  08:18  3cf50b7a   VDOSTCP.VDD

    Get IC11173 fix as PKZIP file ic11173.zip from IBM Web site:-

http://www.us.pc.ibm.com/searchfiles.html

                  enter "ic11173 as search word"

4) I am not sure if you need this for Netscape V3.01 Gold but it is a useful thing to have around since many Windows developers re-compiled their programs with WIN32S irrespective of whether it is needed or not. Get OS/2 Warp WIN32S Beta V1.25. This allows the running of many Windows program which need WIN32S. Get this VW32S.ZIP ( dated 1995 ) from Web site http://www.shareware.com using search word WIN32S and choose operating system platform as "OS/2". ( WIN32S updates for Windows 3.1 do not work in general although some of the components may work in winos2 e.g. OLE files and STORAGE.DLL ) OS/2 Warp V4 users are in a better position as it supports WIN32S 1.25a applications. Again do not confuse this winos2 style WIN32S support from IBM with the WIN32S update from Microsoft which are commonly found on CDROMs on computer magazine covers. ( Incidentally some Windows programs may not install under winos2 by complaining that it needs Windows, e.g. Word Viewer, whereas it is quite happy to install under Windows 3.1. You may get round this problem by entering the below in uppercase ( either in autoexec.bat or dos command line ) :-

   SET WINDIR=C:\OS2\MDOS\WINOS                     )

   Again you can check if you have this by looking in \OS2\MDOS:-
   name            size   Date
   _____           ____   ____

   VW32S   .SYS    15073 14-10-95

5) Go to Web Site www.srsnet.com and try RichWin for Internet V4.3 which is the program that you run in WINOS2 to give you the translation of double byte "rubbish" display to legible Chinese words ( HZ,BIG5, GB in both simplied and traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese...etc ). If this Web site is down they have other web sites as well. Search the Web using search words like "richwin" "stone richsight". This product prints in "Netscape" and "Write" BUT note "NOTEPAD".

Installation
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Steps 1) and 2) are not needed if you already have a Netscape system accessing the Internet from WINOS2. All you have to do is to use RichWin V4.3 or similar programs!!!!

1) Install " APAR IC11173 " which is a fix to prevent Netscape and Lotus Notes from hanging. Your OS/2 system may already have this fix so you can miss out this step for now and come back to it later when your Netscape does not work.

You can copy these three files into \tcpip\bin directly except,sometimes, program "vdosctl.exe". Normally this is running under OS/2 so you cannot update it. You can either stop this program running using a system utility program or boot OS/2 from diskettes which frees up the loaded vdosctl.exe. If you do not have OS/2 boot diskettes you may want to delete/"rem" out the line which loads vdosctl.exe from the config.sys file temporarily and then re-boot. ( Do not forget to add this back in after you have updated the program! ) The fastest way may be to stop it using a "kill" system utility program which can stop a program by calling its name. For example I used a program called killit2:-

killit2 pname=vdosctl

You can find similar "stop" thread programs from the Walnet Creek's web site or other OS/2 public software web sites ,

for example: ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/os2/sysutil/kill.zip or kill21.zip

Make the following modifications and/or additions to CONFIG.SYS, if these lines are not already included. They may be found "remmed" in some systems. If so, remove the "rem."

     DEVICE=x:\TCPIP\BIN\VDOSTCP.VDD
     DEVICE=x:\TCPIP\BIN\VDOSTCP.SYS
     RUN=x:\TCPIP\BIN\VDOSCTL.EXE

Open the settings notebook for the WIN-OS/2 object. Then click on the Session tab, and then on WIN-OS/2 Settings. Then display the list of settings, and go to DOS Devices. If x:\TCPIP\BIN\VDOSTCP.SYS is not seen, then add this line, save and close.

2) Install the WIN32S fix, use PKUNZIP to unpack it.

Add to OS/2 config.sys a line somewhere DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VW32S.SYS 1,25,110

( Of course put the unzipped VW32S.SYS in \OS2\MDOS )

The "110" parameter means the the OS/2 Warp Win32s driver is at level V1.25b rather than V1.25a. ( If this does not work use "100" as you may have V1.25a which is the case when you have OS/2 Warp V4. )

Do not forget to re-boot your OS/2 system after steps 1) and 2) for the changes to take effect.

3) Now install Netscape in Winos2 as you would normally if you do not have it installed already. Before you use RichWin V4.3 try to see if you can already access the Net.

GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL BETAMAN, London, 1st May 1997

Extra tips for trouble shooting ( dated 1st May 1997 )
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Again these tips assume that you are not a home user or a dial-up modem user. ( Dial-up modem users typically use a Windows browser so it is quite easy to read Chinese using a Windows add-on environment for a Western Language Windows operating system. ) I am assuming that you are an office user connected to a local LAN using TCP/IP. If you cannot get Netscape to work it is a problem for your LAN administrator to sort out for you under with TCP/IP under OS/2. Here are the Do-It-Yourself tips if you are technical.

1) OS/2 Warp uses the IAK TCP/IP to run Netscape in winos2.

2) Before you try to get Netscape to work in winos2 try to get a Web browser working in native OS/2 first. This is to make sure that your network connection and your access to the InterNet are OK. In order to re-use skills try installing Netscape V2.02 for OS/2 which are now available in many languages ( Korean and Japanese but not yet Chinese! ). Netscape V2.02 for OS/2 is infact a hybrid of V2 and V3 and it has many of the V3 functions. Some Web sites test for Netscape versions.

You can make Netscape V2.02 for OS/2 recognised as V3 for entering -3 as a parameter when starting up Netscape. This point is not relevant for this subject but useful for OS/2 Netscape users in general. )

3) Make sure that there are identical copies of RESOLV in both of the following two directories:

      x:\TCPIP\ETC\RESOLV
      x:\TCPIP\DOS\ETC\RESOLV

If RESOLV is found in only one such location, copy it to the other. If found in both places, but not identical, replace the older file with the most recent one.

RESOLV might also be in either of the following two directories:

      x:\MPTN\ETC\RESOLV
      x:\MPTN\DOS\ETC\RESOLV

4) Add the following line and path item to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, if they are not already included:

      SET ETC=x:\TCPIP\DOS\ETC

      PATH line should include x:\TCPIP\DOS\BIN

This is how things seem to be working with Warp Connect:

You have one SET ETC statement in config.sys setting the OS/2 directory to default mptn\etc and one SET ETC statement in autoexec.bat setting the DOS directory to default tcpip\dos\etc.

The master RESOLV file is kept in the OS/2 directory under the name RESOLV2. When you open TCPCFG to change the configuration this is where it gets updated. As you close TCPCFG it will copy the new RESOLV2 file to the tcpip\dos\etc directory with the name RESOLV. This description is valid for LAN connections, whether direct or via LAN Distance.

5) Close down winos2 for changes to take effect in winos2. Re-boot OS/2 Warp for changes in config.sys to take effect.

6) When you run Netscape if you get an error message with "DNS Server..." then it could be that your TCP/IP address is incorrect, your DNS server is not running or not defined properly in your TCP/IP configuration. Additionally all corporations now have firewalls built to protect the people inside from the world outside. Then a SOCKS nameserver is the first point of entry to get to the outside of a firewall. This nameserver should be the first line in your x:\MPTN\ETC\RESOLV2 and x:\TCPIP\DOS\ETC\RESOLV files. See step 3) and 4) again.

7) If you are still not connecting it is worth your while to check your TCP/IP Configuration. Also make sure that your Netscape "Network Preferences" have the right settings. Are you accessing via a proxy server or a socks server?

8) Check your winsock.dll in x:\TCPIP\DOS\BIN There must be no other winsock.dll file located in the x:\WINDOWS or x:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. If such exist, move or rename them. Even when x:\TCPIP\DOS\BIN is before x:\windows in the PATH=....

statement the wrong WINSOCK.DLL is picked up instead!

If you cannot find a WINSOCK.DLL in x:\TCPIP\DOS\BIN then get this from :-

      ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com
      directory:  /ps/products/tcpip/fixes/v2.0os2/pn82849
      file:       pn82849.zip   94912   May 23 06:53

This winsock.dll file is provided by IBM for use with OS/2 TCP/IP. It should not be confused with other files of the same name for use with Windows 3.1, such as the winsock.dll file included in the popular Trumpet Winsock program.

9) Find a LAN Adminstrator to help you if you are still having problems.

--------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer
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INFORMATION ABOVE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED.

Notice _______

OS/2 and OS/2 Warp are the trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation
Windows and Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 are the trademarks of Microsoft Corporation
Netscape is a trademark of Netscape Commmunications Corporation
RichWin V4.3 is a product from Stone Richsight Information Technology Co. Ltd.

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