Run nonstandard DOS disks on Digicard server?

[mister_boffo@hotmail.com (Mr. Boffo)]

So anyway I'm fooling around with my new Digicard server, and I am in
the process of setting up my various games on the thing. One thing
which I have discovered so far is that it is using some weird custom
DOS to access the network.. looks like a hacked-up Pronto-DOS and
ProDOS.

I am currently trying to figure out if the network card is "emulating"
a disk drive, or if there are modifications within the DOS software
itself that handle network reads. I think the former may be the case,
but I'm not sure yet.

If the network card is doing drive emulation, then SUPPOSEDLY it seems
possible to put a non-DOS program like Karateka on the Digicard
volume, using a "raw sector" copy program. But actually running the
disk-based game may be another matter.

I can't do a Pr#7 to start loading Karateka, since that'll reset the
whole network card. I guess I'd like to "fake" the DOS-load process
somehow that occurs in sector zero, track zero, but I don't see a way
to pull this off "manually". This DOES appear to be possible since the
Digicard has a "cross-load" mechanism for going from ProDOS to DOS,
and back again. The program for loading Karateka could sit in a ProDOS
volume and be used to boot up Karateka sitting in a separate DOS
volume...

I do know that the point of the first sector is to read in a number of
additional sectors, and then execute the code in those sectors, but I
guess I don't see how to run sector zero "directly". (I don't have
Beneath apple DOS, so it's a bit hard to proceed.)

Any DOS gurus around here?

What specifically happens when a disk boots? I do know that the
contents of sector zero track zero are put somewhere in memory and
then executed, but what is the location it gets put in?

Also I guess the "drive" needs to be "spinning" when that code is
called, though I have no idea yet if the Digicard tries to emulate
head seeking, half-tracks, and all that too.

Anyone know what are the raw POKEs to get drive 2, Slot 7 spinning? I
do know how to do it for slot 6, but not for slot 7:

Turn current drive ON : POKE -16151,0 (C0E9)
Turn current drive OFF: POKE -16152,0 (C0E8)
Choose Slot 6, Drive 1: POKE -16150,0 (C0EA)
Choose Slot 6, Drive 2: POKE -16149,0 (C0EB)

I'd appreciate any advice, even if you know nothing about how Digicard
servers work. :-)

-Mr. Boffo

Email: mister_boffo@hotmail.com