[comp.sys.amiga] trouble with rad:

sjk@utastro.UUCP (Scot Kleinman) (02/27/89)

Fellow netters:

I finally spent the time and got 1.3 up and running on my 1000. I
like the idea of the rad: device, but I am having some problems
with it.  In my startup-sequence, I put a routine which will mount
rad: and stick my most-used c commands there. Since rad: will
survive re-boot, I put a line like 
	if not exists rad:   [blah blah blah].
This works fine once rad: has already been mounted and formatted,
but the very first time I boot, a requestor appears asking me to
input rad in any drive.  When  I hit cancel, the requestor goes
away and everything continues along fine.  But, this is a nuisance,
can it be avoided?
Second, when  I format the drive, Ami asks me to insert a disk into
rad: and hit return.  So, I hit return and all is well, but this is
another annoyance and makes me hang around while the thing is
booting.
Third, I can't seem to get rad: to boot under FFS.  I have tried
adding a mountlist entry saying
	DosType = FFS
and one saying
	Dos Type = 0x444f5301
as Amiga World and the Amiga Dos manual recommend (respectively),
but still have had no luck.  What is the proper way to do this? I
believe I got it to work once, but when I formatted it with 
	format drive rad: name "RAD" noicons FFS,
it came back saying not a DOS disk. What's the scoop here?
Last, I am putting these commands in rad: and not making them
resident, because when I do C progamming, I tend to visit the guru
alot and would, this way, save reboot time.  Do you agree with this
strategy?

Thanks alot!!!!
scot
sjk@astro.as.utexas.edu
	

No fancy sign-out message; battling 1.3 has made me weary....

jms@antares.UUCP (Joe Smith) (02/27/89)

In article <3656@utastro.UUCP> sjk@utastro.UUCP (Scot Kleinman) writes:
> In my startup-sequence, I put a routine which will mount
>rad: and stick my most-used c commands there. Since rad: will
>survive re-boot, I put a line like 
>	if not exists rad:   [blah blah blah].
>but the very first time I boot, a requestor appears asking me to
>input rad in any drive.

Why didn't you use the example on page 5-5 of the AmigaDOS 1.3 Manual?

	FailAt 30
	Assign RAD: exists
	If warn
	  Echo "Mounting RAD:"
	  Mount RAD:
	EndIf
	If not exists RAD:c
	  (copy file to RAD:)
	EndIf

The ASSIGN command was changed in 1.3 just so that this can be done.

-- 
Joe Smith (408)922-6220 | jms@antares.Tymnet.COM or jms@opus.Tymnet.COM
McDonnell Douglas FSCO  | UUCP: ...!{ames,pyramid}!oliveb!tymix!antares!jms
PO Box 49019, MS-D21    | PDP-10:JMS@F74.Tymnet.COM  CA license plate:"POPJ P,"
San Jose, CA 95161-9019 | narrator.device: "I didn't say that, my Amiga did!"

mikes@lakesys.UUCP (Mike Shawaluk) (02/27/89)

In article <3656@utastro.UUCP> sjk@utastro.UUCP (Scot Kleinman) writes:
>I finally spent the time and got 1.3 up and running on my 1000. I
>like the idea of the rad: device, but I am having some problems
>with it.  In my startup-sequence, I put a routine which will mount
>rad: and stick my most-used c commands there. Since rad: will
>survive re-boot, I put a line like 
>	if not exists rad:   [blah blah blah].
>This works fine once rad: has already been mounted and formatted,
>but the very first time I boot, a requestor appears asking me to
>input rad in any drive.  When  I hit cancel, the requestor goes
>away and everything continues along fine.  But, this is a nuisance,
>can it be avoided?

The answer to this question is a sort-of "RTFM", but not a harshly delivered
one!  Although the documentation which came with 1.3 didn't explain this one
explicitly, they *did* give an example script file which contains the
solution for your problem; namely,
	ASSIGN >nil: RAD: EXISTS
	IF NOT WARN [blah blah blah].
in place of your "if not exists..." line.  (I think I've got it right, but my
manual isn't within arm's reach at the moment).  This new enhancement to the
Assign command also comes in handy in a few other cases, such as for my
auto-rebooting Three Stooges boot disk, which checks to see if the key disk
(STG0) is still inserted in the drive, before I ASSIGN STG0: DH1:STG0 on
boot-up (which will fail if there is already a disk named STG0: inserted in a
drive.)

>Second, when  I format the drive, Ami asks me to insert a disk into
>rad: and hit return.  So, I hit return and all is well, but this is
>another annoyance and makes me hang around while the thing is
>booting.

The FORMAT and DISKCOPY commands can be made non-prompting by adding a
"<nil:" to their command line (*before* any of the other command line
arguments, of course...).  Again, this isn't well-explained in the 1.3 docs,
but it *is* there in one or two of the example script files.

>scot
>sjk@astro.as.utexas.edu
-- 
   - Mike Shawaluk 
       (mikes@lakesys.lakesys.com  OR  ...!uunet!marque!lakesys!mikes)
    "Where were you on the night of August 12?"

andrews@cos.com (Andrew R. Scholnick) (02/27/89)

In article <3656@utastro.UUCP>, sjk@utastro.UUCP (Scot Kleinman) writes:
> I finally spent the time and got 1.3 up and running on my 1000. I
> like the idea of the rad: device, but I am having some problems
 ...
> Third, I can't seem to get rad: to boot under FFS.  I have tried
> adding a mountlist entry saying
> 	DosType = FFS
> and one saying
> 	Dos Type = 0x444f5301
> as Amiga World and the Amiga Dos manual recommend (respectively),
> but still have had no luck.  What is the proper way to do this? I

As I understand it there is a (sparsely documented) problem with
using rad: and FFS together.  I do not understand the nature of the
problem but I know that I gave up trying and now just use FFS on my
hard disks.  If you find a solution please let me know...


- Andrew R. Scholnick @ Corporation for Open Systems, McLean, VA -
- andrews@cos.com or {uunet, sundc, decuac, hqda-ai, hadron}!cos!andrews 
- Everything I write blame on me, NOT my employer (unless I say so).
"Adventure is when you toss your life on the scales of chance and wait
	 for the pointer to stop." - Murray Leinster (First Contact)

scotth@harlie.SGI.COM (Scott Henry) (02/28/89)

From article <3656@utastro.UUCP>, by sjk@utastro.UUCP (Scot Kleinman):
> like the idea of the rad: device, but I am having some problems
> ...
> Third, I can't seem to get rad: to boot under FFS.  I have tried

If you read the enhancer docs you would find that you can't auto-boot off
of an FFS-formatted RAD:. The reason is very simple: the FastFileSystem
driver is not in Kickstart/ROM, and so must be retrieved off of the boot
disk, so you end up with the catch-22 of: you can't boot until you can read
RAD:, and you can't read RAD: until you can read the FastFileSystem off of
disk, which you can't do until you boot, etc... So, if you want to auto-boot
off of RAD:, is must be using OFS. The FFS/autoboot HD controllers do this
in one of two ways: either they put FastFileSystem in the controller ROM,
or they put it on a reserved track on the disk (that the controller ROM
knows about). I don't know why RAD didn't do that.

> Thanks alot!!!!
> scot
> sjk@astro.as.utexas.edu
--
---------------------
              Scott Henry <scotth@sgi.com>
#include <std_disclaimer.h>

peter@sugar.uu.net (Peter da Silva) (02/28/89)

In article <3656@utastro.UUCP>, sjk@utastro.UUCP (Scot Kleinman) writes:
> 	if not exists rad:   [blah blah blah].
> This works fine once rad: has already been mounted and formatted,
> but the very first time I boot, a requestor appears asking me to
> input rad in any drive.

assign >nil: rad: exists
if warn
  echo "Mounting RAD:"
  mount RAD:
  mount vd0:
  if not exists RAD:C
    echo "Backing up df0: to RAD:"
    sys:system/diskcopy <nil: df0: to rad: name "RAD_1.3"
  else
    echo "Rad survived"
  endif
else
  echo "Rad Recovered"
  mount vd0:
endif

> Second, when  I format the drive, Ami asks me to insert a disk into
> rad: and hit return.

I strongly suspect 'format <nil:...' would work. Since I diskcopy right
into it I don't have a problem.
-- 
Peter "Have you hugged your wolf today" da Silva  `-_-'  Hackercorp.
...texbell!sugar!peter, or peter@sugar.uu.net      'U`

sjk@utastro.UUCP (Scot Kleinman) (02/28/89)

In article <27554@sgi.SGI.COM>, scotth@harlie.SGI.COM (Scott Henry) writes:
> From article <3656@utastro.UUCP>, by sjk@utastro.UUCP (Scot Kleinman):
>> I can't seem to get rad: to boot under FFS.  I have tried
> 
> If you read the enhancer docs you would find that you can't auto-boot off
> of an FFS-formatted RAD:. The reason is very simple: .... 

Well, I didn't mean boot under FFS as in the three-fingered salute.
What I'm having trouble with, is getting rad: UP under FFS, period!
There must be some mountlist spec I am not getting right!
Thanks

scot
sjk@astro.as.utexas.edu 

mp1u+@andrew.cmu.edu (Michael Portuesi) (03/01/89)

sjk@utastro.UUCP (Scot Kleinman) writes:
> I put a line like 
>         if not exists rad:   [blah blah blah].
> This works fine once rad: has already been mounted and formatted,
> but the very first time I boot, a requestor appears asking me to
> input rad in any drive.

I believe the following should work (taken from Commodore's own
Startup-Sequence files from the 1.3 distribution):

assign >NIL: RAD: exists
IF NOT WARN
; rad: is present
.....
ELSE
; rad: is not present
....
ENDIF

> Second, when  I format the drive, Ami asks me to insert a disk into
> rad: and hit return.  So, I hit return and all is well, but this is
> another annoyance and makes me hang around while the thing is
> booting.

Can't be helped.  The Format command cannot tell whether or not the
device you are formatting is removable or not, so it always asks you
to "insert disk into XXXX and hit return" whether it needs to or not.
It's especially wierd when formatting hard disks.

> Third, I can't seem to get rad: to boot under FFS.

Not possible under version 1.3, since FFS is not in ROM.  When you
boot the machine, it doesn't have access to the FFS handler until it
loads it in from somewhere.  If RAD: is FFS, it cannot be read at boot
time.

--
Michael Portuesi / Information Technology Center / Carnegie Mellon University
INET:   mp1u+@andrew.cmu.edu / BITNET: mp1u+@andrew
UUCP:   ...harvard!andrew.cmu.edu!mp1u+

	"You just don't get off a spaceship and run." --Avon

mp1u+%andrew.cmu.edu%cunyvm.cuny.edu@cunyvm.cuny.edu (03/02/89)

sjk@utastro.UUCP (Scot Kleinman) writes:
> I put a line like
>         if not exists rad:   [blah blah blah].
> This works fine once rad: has already been mounted and formatted,
> but the very first time I boot, a requestor appears asking me to
> input rad in any drive.

I believe the following should work (taken from Commodore's own
Startup-Sequence files from the 1.3 distribution):

assign >NIL: RAD: exists
IF NOT WARN
; rad: is present
.....
ELSE
; rad: is not present
....
ENDIF

> Second, when  I format the drive, Ami asks me to insert a disk into
> rad: and hit return.  So, I hit return and all is well, but this is
> another annoyance and makes me hang around while the thing is
> booting.

Can't be helped.  The Format command cannot tell whether or not the
device you are formatting is removable or not, so it always asks you
to "insert disk into XXXX and hit return" whether it needs to or not.
It's especially wierd when formatting hard disks.

> Third, I can't seem to get rad: to boot under FFS.

Not possible under version 1.3, since FFS is not in ROM.  When you
boot the machine, it doesn't have access to the FFS handler until it
loads it in from somewhere.  If RAD: is FFS, it cannot be read at boot
time.

--
Michael Portuesi / Information Technology Center / Carnegie Mellon University
INET:   mp1u+@andrew.cmu.edu / BITNET: mp1u+@andrew
UUCP:   ...harvard!andrew.cmu.edu!mp1u+

        "You just don't get off a spaceship and run." --Avon

davidb@utpsych.toronto.edu (David Brodbeck) (03/07/89)

One cannot boot from Rad: when its running ffs.  Also, DosType shouldn't be
FFS, Filesystem should be FFS.
 
 Good luck
Daveman