kodiak@amiga.UUCP (Robert R. Burns) (10/25/88)
In article <9705@swan.ulowell.edu> page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) writes: )At autoboot time the FastFileSystem handler is not in memory, only )the old file system (that's in WCS/ROM). So *no* device can autoboot )if *that device* uses FFS. Having written both the RamDrive.device underlying RAD: (ne RAMB0:, CARD:) that cannot boot from FFS, and the HardFrame.device for MicroBotics which *can* boot from FFS, let me inject a slightly more technical explaination... "Autoboot time" occurs before AmigaDOS is initialized. During autoboot time, code can add a mount entry to a RAM list (the eb_MountList) that AmigaDOS will use when it is initialized. You cannot, on this RAM list entry, refer to a file to use for FFS (e.g. L:FastFileSystem), because that would create a circular (paradoxical) definition: "Read this FileSystem off the disk using the FileSystem read off the disk". You *can*, however, describe the file system on the eb_MountList by pointing to it's code segment, so if you load FastFileSystem via some non-DOS method, you can get AmigaDOS to boot from it. There is a new Amiga standard for keeping filesystem load images on disks. This standard was completed *after* the RamDrive.device was written. The HardFrame is the first disk to use it. That's how it can boot from FFS. Some details of the standard are found in the 1.3 include file devices/hardblocks.[hi] -- | / _ _|' _ |/ Bob Burns . . . . .---. . |/ (_)(_)|(_\|\ {pyramid|oliveb|cbmvax]! / \ |\ /| | | __ / \ |\ Kodiak \ amiga!kodiak _______/ A \| \/ |_|_|___|/ A \ | \ Software "dedicated to the science of fun"\_________