rjung@sal13.usc.edu (Robert allen Jung) (11/05/88)
Since SpartaDOS X is one of the newer (and more exciting) products to come
out for the Atari 8-bit in a while, I feel this warning is appropriate:
Some background: My friend and I have gotten a new 20 megabyte hard drive.
We plan to use it in a new (rewritten) bulletin-board system. Since DOS 2.0
and most compatables were not made to handle heavy storage, we decided to
switch to SpartaDOS 3.2. Fine and danday, lots of late-night weekend
programming sessions.
SpartaDOS X: We went to the Glendale Atari Faire v.3, saw the new ICD
SpartaDOS X cartridge, and bought it. We went bananas over the extra RAM, the
increased directory capabilities, the built-in ARC, and other fun stuff.
We switched from SpartaDOS 3.2 to SpartaDOS X with no efforts.
The bug: After a week of using the hard drive with SpartaDOS X, read/write
errors would be generated. Any attempts to read or write would generate a
"Device done" error, and the only way to get anything done was to rebuild the
directory of the partition and drag out the backups. Needless to say,
weekly (or even daily -- It appears to be based on the number of disk
operations) backups is not a lot of fun.
The solution: After a few cross-country phone calls, the hard drive
distributor suggested switching back to SpartaDOS 3.2. "If the hardware was at
fault, you wouldn't have been able to format/partition in the first place".
So, we went back to SpartaDOS 3.2, moved the backups over, and -- surprise!
Everything works (at least, so far -- I'll check the system tonight).
Sorry for the long details, but the message seems to be clear:
*** SPARTADOS X can and WILL cause problems with hard drives ***
Now the questions are:
1. Does ICD know about this? The product is excellent in every other way, but
this is a _really_ nasty bug...
2. Is this bug only in the "prelimiary" versions? If so, then why did me and
my pal, and every other SpartaDOS X owner on the .net, pay money for the
product?
3. Does ICD care?
--R.J.
B-)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: These are my views, and mine alone.
# ## #
Mailing address: Beats me, just reply to this message # ## #
(rjung@nunki.usc.edu?) ## ## ##
#### ## ####Ordania-DM@cup.portal.com (Charles K Hughes) (11/06/88)
For the SDX users: HOW IN THE WORLD DO I USE WINDOWED RAM?????
I have the SDX and I have the config file set to:
USE WINDOWED
DEVICE SPARTA
DEVICE SIO
DEVICE ATARIDOS
DEVICE CLOCK
Everything works fine except the stupid thing keeps defaulting to OSRAM.
Does anyone know how to force it to use the WINDOWED ram?
My setup: 130xe, SDX, RT8, MIO 256K, XF551, Supra2400 modem
Ok, now for some more bugs....
1) Under my current setup SDX interferes with 2400 baud Captures. I use
DeTerm, and it normally works fine (under Sparta 3.2).
2) The X command only searches the current directory.
For example: X TEXTPRO
That command will disable the SDX and any Cart plugged into it, and then
attempt to load the file "TEXTPRO.COM" FROM the current directory. It should
search every directory listed in the PATH command and THEN search the current
directory.
Those are the only 2 bugs I know of so far...but I am collecting info on
others, so send me mail if you find any. Also, anyone who knows how to fix
that stupid WINDOWED problem, please send me the fix....
Thanx
Charles K Hugheshyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu) (11/12/88)
In article <1834@nunki.usc.edu> rjung@sal13.usc.edu (Robert allen Jung) writes:
% Now the questions are:
%
%1. Does ICD know about this? The product is excellent in every other way, but
% this is a _really_ nasty bug...
%
%2. Is this bug only in the "prelimiary" versions? If so, then why did me and
% my pal, and every other SpartaDOS X owner on the .net, pay money for the
% product?
%
%3. Does ICD care?
A question or two for you - you called the hard drive distributor, fine. Did
you ever bother to call ICD? I've had good experiences with them in the past,
I'm sure they'd listen to you if you actually told them what kind of problems
you were encountering. You can get responses to questions particularly quickly
by calling their BBS. (Don't have the number handy, but both their voice line
and BBS numbers should be in the docs of every package you buy from them...)
It's awful hard for someone to fix a bug in a package when no one tells them
it exists. Maybe it's odd that they didn't discover it themselves before the
release, maybe it's only a bug in the version you have. You owe it to yourself
and to them to call up and find out, particularly since you seem to like so
much about it anyway...
[standard disclaimers, etc... ]
--
/
/_ , ,_. Howard Chu
/ /(_/(__ University of Michigan
/ Computing Center College of LS&A
' Unix Project Information Systemsrjung@nunki.usc.edu (Robert allen Jung) (11/14/88)
In article <468@stag.math.lsa.umich.edu> hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu) writes: >A question or two for you - you called the hard drive distributor, fine. Did >you ever bother to call ICD? Of course. Several long-distance calls, and even a few messages sent via GEnie. No definite answers. (Now it looks like the problem is related with illegal POINTing in SpartaDOS in general...Have to conduct some tests to make sure. Still, no help from ICD. Maybe they're more concerned with selling to the ST market?) --R.J. B-) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer: These are my views, and mine alone. # ## # Mailing address: Beats me, just reply to this message # ## # (rjung@nunki.usc.edu?) ## ## ## #### ## ####