davew@whuxm.UUCP (05/05/87)
I've got an ATR8000 CP/M system, and I'm having trouble adding new drives. I'm not sure how much of the following is true on other CP/M 2.2 systems, and how much is specific to my machine. The ATR8000 can use several types of drives, single or double sided, 5 1/4 or 8 inch, all at once. The manual instructs you to patch CP/M with the "ddsysgen" program to configure it for the drives you install. ddsysgen is a variant of "sysgen" for double density, which has an option called "generate custom CP/M". I got a new disk drive a while back, set the drive number on it, and plugged it in... so far, so good. So I tried to patch CP/M with "ddsysgen". I read in the system tracks, and then selected the option to customize CP/M. It requested the file "SYSTEM.SWP", (SWP, INC. makes the machine). According to the manual, this file contains the symbolic names of all the parameters you might need to change. I was then prompted for names of locations within CP/M, and I was shown the contents to each location, and allowed to change it. The problem came when I looked at some of the parameters, like "ONEDSK" (which makes the system use only one drive), or "RATEB" (which controls the step rate of drive B), or the parameter which controls the number of tracks on a drive (I've forgotten the name). Some of the values there didn't seem to agree with what the manual said should be there. And when I changed them, strange things happened. They happened even when I took the new drive off the system, but not when I went back to my backup copy of CP/M. It sounds a bit like I've got a bad copy of "SYSTEM.SWP", and I was just trashing random parts of the OS when I changed things. What I want to know is: 1) Has anyone out there had any similar problems, and what did you do? 2) What might be the problem, other than a bad system file? 3) What can I do about it? I've done some hacking of disassembled code on micros before, and I'd rather not do it again. HELP! -- David Wonnacott "They said Van Gogh was crazy, didn't they?" whuxm!davew or rz3bb!davew AT&T Corporate Education The above opinions are not necessarily those of AT&T, or of anyone else anywhere
kenw@noah.arc.CDN (Ken Wallewein) (05/08/87)
What you probably have is a previously customized version of your SYSTEM.SWP file. If an entry doesn't need to be changed to add your disk drive, don't change it. Some of them MAY be worth tinkering with, but it helps if you know what they're for. And, of course, only make minimum changes between tests. Whether your drive is physically connected or not will probably make no difference whatsoever to your use of the rest of the machine. Question: If you use ddsysgen (I have one of those, too, but it's nothing like yours) without making any changes, is the result useable? I presume you don't have the source for your BIOS: my sympathies. If you decide to disassemble it, I recommend RESOURCE, ZESOURCE, or DASM, and you'll need to read the instructions :-). Good lucSWE1lpts