ugptucha@sunybcs (Ray Ptucha) (03/26/88)
Does anyone out there know of a program that allows you to boot
up your system with a ram disk installed complete with files in it?
I am currently using Rdy-disk Ram from MWC. I would like to be able
to turn on the power to my system and when my prompt appears I already
have my ram disk installed with the compiler, editor, etc.
Is there such a program. It would be a real handy thing to have!
Thanks for your help.
Ray Ptucha, SUNY/Buffalo Computing Center, UCS Student Consultant:
csnet: ugptucha@buffalo.csnet
uucp: ..!{nike|watmath,alegra,decvax}!sunybcs!ugptucha
bitnet: ugptucha@sunybcs.bitnet <-OR-> acscray@ubvmsc.bitnetdbc5390@acf5.NYU.EDU (David B. Chorlian) (03/26/88)
I have a ramdisk utility from OSS (Personal Pascal) which has a provision for creating a script which will automatically copy files to the ramdisk at bootup. I never use it. Also there are around 20 PD ramdisks. It's hard to imagine that none of them have this feature. A number of ST magazines maintain libraries of PD software, and you can get a disk which will contain say 5 ramdisk programs with various other utilities. David B. Chorlian (dbc5390@acf5.nyu.edu)
achowe@watmsg.waterloo.edu (CrackerJack) (03/26/88)
>Does anyone out there know of a program that allows you to boot >up your system with a ram disk installed complete with files in it? > >I am currently using Rdy-disk Ram from MWC. I would like to be able >to turn on the power to my system and when my prompt appears I already >have my ram disk installed with the compiler, editor, etc. > >Is there such a program. It would be a real handy thing to have! There was a RAM Disk program that had this feature in COMPUTE!'s Atari ST June '87, Issue 5 Vol2 #3. BUT it DON'T work with Megas. However Megamatic does and has some nice features. In order to do the copying into the RAM disk, use BDT csh.tos or startgem the gemcsh using a login.sh that creates directories, copies, executes a few programs and logs out. I do this on my WordPerfect disk. Set up a 1M RAM disk and use csh to copy to WP files to the D:. I then execute WP with startgem. -- Anthony C. Howe achowe@watmsg.waterloo.edu "The definition of flying: throwing yourself at the ground and missing." - Douglas Adam's "Life, the Universe and Everything"
braner@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (braner) (03/27/88)
[] If you are using a floppy to boot, you can use my old program AUTODISK (I posted an upgrade to the semi-dead binaries group many months ago). It copies THE WHOLE DISK to the RAMdisk. If you are using a hard disk you want AUTOCOPY, posted a long time ago. I have an enhanced version somewhere on my disks... AUTOCOPY copies a list of files as specified in a data file. Both programs work from the AUTO folder. - Moshe Braner
jpexg@mit-hermes.ai.mit.edu.AI.MIT.EDU (John Purbrick) (03/27/88)
In article <9584@sunybcs.UUCP>, ugptucha@sunybcs (Ray Ptucha) writes: > > Does anyone out there know of a program that allows you to boot > up your system with a ram disk installed complete with files in it? My system is set up to do this. It starts with a reset-proof RAMdisk in the AUTO folder on the disk I always boot with, then Moshe Braner's AUTODISK (thanks Moshe!), which does a very fast transfer of the entire contents of the boot disk into the RAMdisk. Obviously "everything" includes the AUTO folder itself and DESKTOP.INF, so I wrote my own program, ZZZAP, which kills the useless stuff and itself--I posted ZZZAP here a while ago. What you put on the boot disk for auto transfer is up to you, but I put my compiler and whatever I'm working on most intensively there. Not quite as convenient as a hard disk, but it's kept me going for over a year.
slb@slbtoy.UUCP (Sanford L. Barr) (03/29/88)
The Mark Williams 'C' compiler already has a bootable RAM
disk, it's RDY!
You can create a "bootable" ram disk in the same manner you
would create a normal ram disk. When RDY asks if you want the disk
to be bootable hit the "yes" patch. Now, the problem you'll run into
is that you'll probably have to save the ramdisk (using rdy) to a
file on your disk before you can modify it. If I remember correctly
the machine automatically resets when you ask for a bootable ramdisk and
causes you some trouble.
Simply re-load the ramdisk (using rdy or change the file suffix
to .PRG and execute it - yes, it's an executable file), make sure you create
an entry for it in your desktop. Load it up with your favorite utilities
(create sub-dirs,etc) and use RDY to save it. Put in the disk you're
going to boot your system with and save the ramdisk under
"\AUTO\COLDSTART.PRG". From now on when you boot from that disk - the
system will load the ramdisk automatically - reset - and then boot from
the ramdisk.
Best of luck,
San
--
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grumble..grumble..grumble..pthhh..spppppthhdd...bggggrrrrbbbbgreg@bilbo (Greg Wageman) (03/31/88)
In article <9584@sunybcs.UUCP> ugptucha@sunybcs.UUCP (Ray Ptucha) writes: > >Does anyone out there know of a program that allows you to boot >up your system with a ram disk installed complete with files in it? > >I am currently using Rdy-disk Ram from MWC. I would like to be able >to turn on the power to my system and when my prompt appears I already >have my ram disk installed with the compiler, editor, etc. > You've already got it. I use the Rdy Ram disk, too... MWC's doc was a little hazy, as I recall, but what you need to do, only once, is move all of the files into the ram disk that you want there after boot, then use the ram disk install utility to save the current ram disk (the option may be "backup ram disk"; I'm at work and don't have the doc. here and haven't used that facility in a while). Replace the version you had been booting with the newly saved version. When next you reboot, all the files that were in the ram disk when you saved it will be there. BTW, I have had zero problems with Rdy, once I got it installed. It's a great tool. Just beware of power failures (Ouch!), spend Big Buck$ on an Uninterruptable Power Supply, buy a hard disk, or make frequent backups of your source to floppy. I do the latter. It's a good idea anyway unless you write perfect programs the first time :-) since a wayward program can damage a ram disk. This has been the Voice of Experience (VoE) broadcasting on the 10Mhz Ethernet band... Greg Wageman Schlumberger Technologies UUCP: ...!decwrl!spar!snjsn1!blfca1!greg 1601 Technology Drive ARPA: greg@blfca1.com@spar.slb.com San Jose, CA 95110 BIX: gwage (408) 437-5198 CIS: 74016,352 "Nest deeply, and carry a big stack." ------------------ The opinions expressed herein are solely the responsibility of the author.
fred@pnet01.cts.com (Fred Brooks) (04/03/88)
> Question about auto sizing ramdisks
Sounds like a good idea. Only problem I can see would be the memory allocate
bug might get you unless you pick fairly big block to expand. Another problem
would be that memory would quickly be choped up into a lot of little blocks
due to the ST's lack of memory compaction.
Fred...
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INET: fred@pnet01.cts.comralph@lasso.UUCP (Ralph P. Sobek) (04/05/88)
Since I haven't seen all copies of Info-Atari16 that have come out since #130,
I offer the following solution which might not be as fast as others - but it's
flexible.
I use the ETRNL2 ram disk together with GEMBOOT (version 1.11). ETRNL2 is
reconfigurable and quasi-eternal. GEMBOOT provides the possibilty to execute
a batch file as the last step of the \AUTO\ folder sequence. By default it
looks for *.BAT files in \BOOTBAT\. Batch files are executed by default by
COMMAND.PRG. One can select amongst the batch files.
I use this facility to initialize my ramdisk (if necessary, can be aborted) and
execute certain programs by default (such as to put my monitor in 50-line mode).
I find it very useful -- but it might be less useful for those that don't have
a hard disk.
Ralph P. Sobek | UUCP: uunet!mcvax!inria!lasso!ralph, or
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