Novell Causes "Cannot Load COMMAND.COM" After Upgrading MS-DOS (76803)
The information in this article applies to:
• Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 5.0
• Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 5.0a
• Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.0
• Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.2
• Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.21
• Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.22
This article was previously published under Q76803
SYMPTOMS
After you upgrade a Novell workstation to a later version of MS-DOS, the
following error message may be displayed after you start or exit an
application:
Cannot Load COMMAND.COM
WORKAROUND
To work around this problem, do one of the following:
• Verify that the SHELL statement is present in the CONFIG.SYS file and
remove the Novell COMSPEC definition (the COMMAND.COM location) from the
personal login script.
NOTE: You need supervisor privileges to modify the COMSPEC setting in
the system login script.
-or-
• If COMSPEC is set in the system login script, you can change your
personal login script to set COMSPEC to the new COMMAND.COM. For
example:
-or-
• Copy the COMMAND.COM file from the root directory to the Windows
directory. (This is a temporary workaround only and should not be used
as a final solution.)
MORE INFORMATION
The Novell COMSPEC variable is contained in the network login script and
can be defined by a two-line entry similar the following:
MAP S2:=SYS:PUBLIC\%MACHINE_TYPE\%OS\%OS_VERSION
COMSPEC=S2:COMMAND.COM
In this example, the %MACHINE_TYPE variable is set by the SHELL.CFG file
and the %OS_VERSION and %OS variables are set by the Novell Shell (based on
the version of MS-DOS used to boot the workstation). A search drive (which
is the same as having it in the path) then maps to this directory. If a
workstation is booted from an MS-DOS 5.0 workstation, the mapping may look
like this:
SEARCH DRIVE S2=Y:\PUBLIC\IBM_PC\MSDOS\V5.00
In this case, using the SET command at the MS-DOS command prompt would
result in the following:
The "Cannot Load COMMAND.COM" error message occurs when you exit an
application as control is returned to MS-DOS and the COMMAND.COM file
cannot be located.
To correct the problem, make sure that the CONFIG.SYS file contains
the following line
shell=<drive>\<dir>\command.com <drive>\<dir>\ /p
where <drive> is the drive that contains the MS-DOS directory and files or
the drive that contains COMMAND.COM and <dir> is the appropriate MS-DOS
directory that contains COMMAND.COM.
Remove the three COMSPEC-related entries from the login script, reboot the
computer, and log back on to the network. For the procedure to modify the
Novell login script, consult your Novell documentation, the network
administrator, or Novell Technical Support.
The products included here are manufactured by Novell, Inc., a vendor
independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise,
regarding these products' performance or reliability.
| Modification Type: |
Major |
Last Reviewed: |
5/12/2003 |
| Keywords: |
KB76803 |
|