AWCTTYPA@UIAMVS.BITNET ("David A. Lyons") (12/03/88)
>Date: Sat, 26 Nov 88 09:55:15 HST >Reply-To: pnet01!pro-simasd!pro-nsfmat!pro-pac!tomj@nosc.mil >From: Tom Jenkins <tomj@PRO-PAC.CTS.COM> >Subject: Help on GSOS questions... >I need some help on (I guess) the installation of the new GSOS... >First some background info -- Hardware I have: > >Apple IIgs (Apple 1MB Ramcard) with new ROM version 1.0 (bought Mar 87) GS/OS requires ROM 01, also known as ROM 2.0. If you really have ROM 00, also known as ROM 1.0, you will need to get your ROM updated. I think this is still free from your dealer through the end of the year. You can tell if you have ROM 01 because it says so at the bottom of the screen when you turn on the machine (or reboot with Apple-Ctrl-Reset). >CMS 60MB hard-drive in slot 7 (two partitions - CMS1, CMS2) You didn't mention whether you have an Apple SCSI card with that or not. If so, you must have ROM revision C on the SCSI card. Look at the ROM chip at the top center of the card. Rev C has a part number ending with -0437-A, Ver 2.0. GS/OS will not acknowledge the presence of an Apple SCSI card with an older ROM. >Apple 3.5 disk drive daisy chained to Apple 5.25 disk drive I hope you mean that the other way around...the 5.25 needs to be chained to the 3.5 (the 3.5 must be closer in the chain to the computer, and the 5.25 must be farther away). >So much for the hard-ware. I have been using the ProDos version 3.2 >for several months and have had really no problems with it. There's no such beast as ProDOS 3.2; there's a System Disk 3.2, so I assume that's what you mean. >I recently received a copy of the new GSOS (I believe 4.0) and >attempted to install it. After many frustrating tries using the >built in installer, It would help a whole lot at this point to know what went wrong when you tried using the installer. What did you do, and what were the results? Did the installer complain, or did the resulting setup not work? If so, what did it do instead of working? > ...I decided to just simply "copy" over all the files on both disks >to the hard-drive (System.Disk disk to the /CMS1). That should work, as long as you don't leave anything nasty lying around from your older system disk (certain SYSTEM.SETUP files, for example). In general you're better off using Installer. >Do I need to re-initialize the hard-drive using the Adv.System.Utils? >Does the interleave (4:1, 2:1) make a difference on the Hard-drive? >Should I re-initialize it, then re-install all the files? If I do >this which interleave would be better? No, you don't need to re-initialize or re-format your hard drive. I strongly suspect that if you tried it you would _not_ get an interleave choice, either. The interleave choices you get come thru device drivers so that the choices will be appropriate for the particular device being formatted. The 2:1 and 4:1 interleave options you've seen come from the APPLEDISK3.5 driver. >What is the function of the disk cache? I notice it's 32K in size. >Should I bang it up to a higher amount? Is my RAM disk affected? If >I increased it, and accidentally shut down the system before I wrote >back to the disk, would it lose some of the data? > >Speaking of RAM disks, what would the best setting be? (I can't >decide on 0K, 256K, 512K or 1MB) Don't confuse a cache with a RAMdisk. The GS/OS cache speeds things up and its size can be adjusted, but otherwise it is invisible to the user. It speeds things up by keeping copies of frequently used disk blocks in memory to cut down on slow disk accesses. Typically blocks that are parts of directories and bitmaps will be found in the cache, although regular data blocks (parts of files) can be found there too, _if_ some program you're using requests it when reading or writing those files. Generally there is no value in having a large cache setting these days, since most software won't be asking GS/OS to use it anyway. The GS/OS cache is a "write-through" cache, meaning that any data written to disk always gets written to disk even if it goes into the cache. This means it'll still be faster to read that block later (since it can come from the cache instead of causing disk access), but it also means your disk is intact. Your disk is not left in a nasty messed-up state. (There _is_ a "session" feature that is used by the Finder to _temporarily_ disable the write-through nature of the cache. While a session is in progress, writes to disk go _only_ into the cache and not to disk; but all the disk writes take place in an efficient order as soon as the session is terminated. The only increased danger to your disks would be software that uses sessions incorrectly--doesn't terminated them when it should, for example. I don't know of any such software right now.) >Why can't I copy an old "Menu.Clock" (type $B6 file) from the 3.2 >system disk that I had (in the system startup folder), and have it >run? (the new GSOS hangs when I put this in the folder) I don't have a specific reason here, but if it's Styleware's menu clock you're talking about, I've seen _lots_ of people having it cause problems with lots of different software. Try to find a different menu clock. >I noticed that on the 3.5 inch system disk, there is the running >thermometer while it loads. When I boot up the hard-drive, the >thermometer does not run (blank) until just before the finder comes >up. (total boot time about 25 secs after the hard-drive comes up to >speed) The boot thermometer is a feature of GS/OS, regardless of the disk size. Some disk controller cards (including yours, apparently) leave interrupts turned off during much of the boot process. Since the boot thermometer is controlled by a routine in the heartbeat interrupt queue, it doesn't work too well in that situation. >I now boot up into the Basic.Launcher (instead of the Finder because >it's faster), but why can't I click on "Quit" and have the machine go >back to the reboot screen? It cycles back around to the Launcer >again. BASIC.LAUNCHER is a short SYS file that runs BASIC.SYSTEM (and passes along any filename from the MessageCenter into BASIC.SYSTEM's startup buffer). You can't boot into BASIC.LAUNCHER, although you can boot into BASIC.SYSTEM. But that must not be what you mean, since BASIC.SYSTEM has no "Quit" button. So you must be using the LAUNCHER from an earlier version of the system disk. I don't know of any problems with that. Under GS/OS there _isn't_ a "reboot" screen (previously there was one that gave 3 choices: reboot, run the START program, and enter pathname of next application). Instead, when you quit and there's no place to quit to, GS/OS does the same thing it does at boot time: first tries *:system:start, then looks for a .SYS16 or .SYSTEM file in your main directory. >Should I have copied ALL the files from the second GSOS disk >(System.Tools) onto the hard-drive? No, not unless you have a _lot_ of hardware! Most of the filenames are self-explanatory, as far as I can remember. (Except for the stuff in SYSTEM.SETUP; most of that is for AppleTalk networks.) > +-------------------------------------+ > | uucp: crash!pro-simasd!pro-pac!tomj | > | Tom Jenkins (808) 422-6224 | > | "What, me worry?" | > +-------------------------------------+ --David A. Lyons bitnet: awcttypa@uiamvs DAL Systems CompuServe: 72177,3233 P.O. Box 287 GEnie mail: D.LYONS2 North Liberty, IA 52317 AppleLinkPE: Dave Lyons