We're working over/tripping over some small details here, but many people won't know what to do with an error message like this and will just give up.  So a little background and a fresh detail or two:
 
Background:
 
OpenGEM 4 and 5 used this command in C:\GEM.BAT:
CD\GEMAPPS\GEMSYS\
 
This worked fine in MS-DOS 6 but the version of FreeCOM current at the time failed without a space after CD.
 
OpenGEM 6 attempted to adjust to FreeCOM by using this command:
 
CD GEMAPPS\GEMSYS
 
This executes fine if entered from the command line at C:\ and will make the current directory C:\GEMAPPS\GEMSYS.  But if you put that command in a batch file at C:\TEST.BAT and then ChDir to C:\FDOS and rely on PATH or native ability to find and run TEST.BAT in the root directory, you will generate the error "CHDIR failed for 'GEMAPPS\GEMSYS.'"
 
If you edit TEST.BAT to CD \GEMAPPS\GEMSYS (adding the initial backslash), it will run fine.  Contrary to what I said earlier, you do not need to enter the full drive:\path to get a successful fix.  In fact, with the current version of FreeCOM, you can once again omit the space after CD.
 
In short, there is still a small deviation from behavior under MS-DOS 6.  But previously when I entered a program-startup command from an improper location (like trying to start DESCENT from FDOS\BIN, to make up an example) FreeDOS would tend to run something like C:\SETUP (the GEM setup program).  So this may be progress.
 
--John Hupp
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Eric Auer
Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 6:42 PM
Subject: Re: [Freedos-user] OpenGEM - GEM.BAT fails with ChDir under FreeDOS 1.0


Hi John,

> ... the GEM.BAT installed by GEM 6 bundled with FreeDOS
> 1.0 fails at CD \GEMAPPS\GEMSYS if you try to start GEM from outside the
> root directory (where GEM.BAT is located) on a pure FreeDOS machine.
> To work around that, do a search-and-replace in GEM.BAT to change all
> instances to CD C:\GEMAPPS\GEMSYS.

There are two oddities in GEM here:
1. it assumes that you start gem.bat from the same drive where
you have GEM installed and
2. gem.bat should be in, for example, c:\fdos\bin instead of in c:\
(which is sth. which the FreeDOS installer, not GEM, should tweak...)

The first issue should be worked around by using
c:
CD \GEMapps\GEMsys
instead of only using the "CD" line. Because using
CD c:\GEMapps\GEMsys still does not force going to C:
Using CDD c:\GEMapps\GEMsys would, but would be FreeCOM specific,
so the better solution is to use the above two line one.

However, FreeCOM has behaved odd for me recently (since I updated
from 1.0 base to 1.0 full) - sometimes it just stops to run programs!
No error message or anything, just does not run the programs any more.
This might depend on whether doslfn is loaded, not sure. Any ideas?

Eric



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