870646c@aucs.UUCP (barry comer) (12/02/87)
Hi all, well my Mega2 just landed on my desk, really nice. I've got a question for all other Mega owners using the hard disks, I have been using GEMBOOT with my 1040ST all along, when I boot up the Mega two bombs appear then disappear after GEMBOOT has done it's thing. I know that it is the GEMBOOT prg, because when I delete it from the auto folder on the hard disk there is no bombs. I am wondering if this has anything to do with my Mega not having all of it's ROMS installed until the Blitter gets here. Also if big brother(ATARI) is listening could you or someone else answer a question, Has the 40 folder limit been taken care of(botting with GEMBOOT is a pain). later Barry
dag@chinet.UUCP (12/04/87)
I suspect that the blitter-less Mega's have all their ROMs installed already. The problem you are encountering with GEMBOOT is that it uses undocumented GEMDOS variables which have moved from version to version of the ROM, and the Megas all have a version of the ROM that have different locations for those variables. It is my understanding that the 40 folder problem has not been fixed in these ROMs, and that you may need a modified version of GEMBOOT. Maybe someone at Atari can shed a bit more light on this? This is not one of those things which, as Leonard T. likes to say has a "better and legitimate" way to be done -- The 40 folder problem is a very serious problem because it is much more than just that, as has been discussed to death already. -- Daniel A. Glasser ...!ihnp4!chinet!dag ...!ihnp4!mwc!dag ...!ihnp4!mwc!gorgon!dag One of those things that goes "BUMP!!! (ouch!)" in the night.
apratt@atari.UUCP (Allan Pratt) (12/04/87)
in article <608@aucs.UUCP>, 870646c@aucs.UUCP (barry comer) says: > > Hi all, well my Mega2 just landed on my desk, really nice. I've got a question for all other Mega owners using the hard disks, I have been using GEMBOOT with > my 1040ST all along, when I boot up the Mega two bombs appear then disappear > after GEMBOOT has done its thing. DO NOT USE GEMBOOT. Use FOLDRXXX from Atari. HINSTALL should be available, too... It makes your hard disk bootable (no "boot floppy" needed). There are lots of little hacks which work on the 520/1040 but won't work on the Megas. This is because the unpublished locations in ROM have changed (as I've been promising all along). Anything which fools with the system at as low a level as GEMBOOT will probably not work. FOLDRXXX works because Landon Dyer wrote it with an eye toward ROM-independence. It checks to see what date your ROMs are, and patches the appropriate location in the OS. In the case of the Mega ROMs, he actually added a pointer in the OS header which points to the necessary spot, so FOLDRXXX will work for all future ROM releases. Even old TOS ROM users should probably not use GEMBOOT... I certainly wouldn't trust it, and with FOLDRXXX and HINSTALL available, you just don't need it. (HINSTALL may not be as available as I think, but I know it's been on CompUPay and GEnie... Maybe even here. Can anybody tell me (by mail!) if HINSTALL and FOLDRXXX have both appeared on Usenet?) ============================================ Opinions expressed above do not necessarily -- Allan Pratt, Atari Corp. reflect those of Atari Corp. or anyone else. ...ames!atari!apratt
dclemans@mntgfx.mentor.com (Dave Clemans) (12/07/87)
One of the other 40 folder fix programs that has floated around (foldrxxx) works fine with the Mega ST ROM's. dgc
poole@forty2.UUCP (Simon Poole) (12/08/87)
In article <900@atari.UUCP> apratt@atari.UUCP (Allan Pratt) writes: >in article <608@aucs.UUCP>, 870646c@aucs.UUCP (barry comer) says: >> >> Hi all, well my Mega2 just landed on my desk, really nice. I've got a question for all other Mega owners using the hard disks, I have been using GEMBOOT with >> my 1040ST all along, when I boot up the Mega two bombs appear then disappear >> after GEMBOOT has done its thing. > >DO NOT USE GEMBOOT. Use FOLDRXXX from Atari. HINSTALL should be available, >too... It makes your hard disk bootable (no "boot floppy" needed). > The lastest version of GEMBOOT which was distributed something like half a year ago, allows you to set the location of the sole undocumented variable that Konrad uses in GEMBOOT. Matter of fact I used GEMBOOT without problems on one of the first Mega's that arrived in Switzerland after changing the GEMBOOT startup file. >patches the appropriate location in the OS. In the case of the Mega >ROMs, he actually added a pointer in the OS header which points to >the necessary spot, so FOLDRXXX will work for all future ROM releases. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Didn't Atari claim it was working on a new '40 folder bug'less OS? >Even old TOS ROM users should probably not use GEMBOOT... I certainly >wouldn't trust it, and with FOLDRXXX and HINSTALL available, you just >don't need it. Hmmmm, as Landon Dyer once said (a long time ago) FOLDRXXX does NOT fix the other problem with GEMDOS management of the internal directory list (mutiple bad copies of the same block), GEMBOOT does provide a workaround for this problem (so I wouldn't trust FOLDRXXX) plus a lot of other nice things. Simon Poole UUCP: ....mcvax!cernvax!forty2!poole Bitnet: K538915@CZHRZU1A * ***************When will Atari annouce PC-6 to PC-10?**************** *