[comp.sys.amiga] FFS problems

brianr@tekig4.TEK.COM (Brian Rhodefer) (10/25/88)

Unlike the jubilant Chris Barrett, my experience with 1.3 and its
many wonders has not been effortless.  I won't dwell on the many
different ways I managed, even though incessantly and intensely
reading the documentation, to screw things up while arriving at
a working set of startup scripts.  I will say that along the way
I got to see a whole bunch of new Amiga behaviors, and each one seemed
almost as miraculous and unlikely as `Useful operation'.

I won't dwell on them, because in yielding to solution in only 20 hours
of trial-and-error, they proved themselves to be trivial and uninteresting.

The Fast File System, though, seems to be an impressive enough problem
to seek help with.   Can any of you experts out there divine anything
from the following symptoms:  (not necessarily a complete list - just all
I've noticed) ?

1) I'm not sure when this started happening, but I've noticed that some
   features of Manx'  `z' text editor no longer work.  For example, I can
   use the editor to create a file in RAM:, using Insert mode, write it out
   to storage, and exit the editor with no ill effect.  The `jump to next
   word' command, though, (`w'), which I use a lot, doesn't work.  It'll
   either toggle the cursor onto a different line, or cause the machine
   to hang up badly enough to freeze the mouse pointer, depending on its mood.

   This happens if z is run from a FFS-formatted partition, or an AmigaDOS
   formatted one, and whether or not the FastFonts (FF) program is `ON'.

1a) Thinking that my attempt to save my files' contents by FFSing only
    one partition at a time and doing `copy xx0: xx1: clone all' to preserve
    my command files had somehow corrupted the `z' program, I pulled it back
    off the backup I'd made just prior to installing 1.3, and stuck the
    recovered file in an AmigaDOS partition for good measure.
    Still misbehaved in the same way.

2) Still needing to edit a file, I gave Commodore's `MEmacs' a try.
   It had similar difficulties navigating the cursor around, and also
   locked the machine up (though this time I think it was on exit from
   the editor).

3) `Ed' seems to work OK.

4) The non-FFS partition isn't yet mounted by my startup sequence, so
   I'm mounting it manually.  After so doing, I find I can't do a `dir'
   on it.   Well, I can try, but what comes out is the contents of my FFS
   partition, NOT the AmigaDOS partition.



If anyone out there can suggest an cure for these problems, I'll be
very grateful.  It would sure be nice to have the amiga working again,
though, since the Bridgeboard didn't get upgraded too, IT still works, and
I can still get the useful stuff done.


Bewildered again,

Brian Rhodefer   ...!tektronix!tekig4!brianr

lindwall@sdsu.UUCP (John Lindwall) (10/28/88)

In article <3354@tekig4.TEK.COM>, brianr@tekig4.TEK.COM (Brian Rhodefer) writes:
> 
> 1) I'm not sure when this started happening, but I've noticed that some
>    features of Manx'  `z' text editor no longer work.  
>    The `jump to next word' command, though, (`w'), which I use a lot,
>    doesn't work.
> Brian Rhodefer   ...!tektronix!tekig4!brianr

	I'm using Manx Z just fine with 1.3.  Just used it to edit a file 
and all features seem intact -- including 'w'.  Are you by any chance using
the 1.3 resident command on Z?  This is bad.  I crashed my machine trying to
use Z as a resident command.  *SIGH*  Back to Jim's REZ program -- it likes
Z, and just about anything else.

QUESTION:  Is SetPatch intended to correct problems in the 1.3 ROMS for
A500/A2000 owners only?  I have an A1000; do I need to run this program?

John Lindwall
Man-of-No-Return-Path

papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) (10/29/88)

In article <3240@sdsu.UUCP> lindwall@sdsu.UUCP (John Lindwall) writes:
>QUESTION:  Is SetPatch intended to correct problems in the 1.3 ROMS for
>A500/A2000 owners only?  

No. Run setpatch without redirecting the output to NIL:. It will tell
what it is fixing.

>I have an A1000; do I need to run this program?

Yes, you do.  And tio make everybody happy, add it as the FIRST line
of your startup sequence.

-- Marco Papa 'Doc'
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