Re: newbie IIgs boot questions

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

John King <joki@eskimo.com> wrote:

> I have a IIgs ROM 3 with FOCUS drive.
> 
> Some games appear seem to only run correctly if I set the boot sequence to
> the FLOPPY first. Why is that? What is different between that and when GS OS
> boots and I click the floppy prodos system file through the finder? When I
> do this it appears to boot up the version of prodos on the floppy, then the
> game system file or whatever, but often games will crash. I just wondered
> what is different. Is it sort of shelling out to DOS or something?

This is probably because booting via GS/OS leaves a lot of "baggage"
loaded into the computer's memory, which will only be cleared out by
rebooting the computer properly (shut down or restart from within GS/OS,
or Ctrl-Apple-Reset from within ProDOS-8).

The problem is likely to be interference from desk accessories, INIT
files and system software components, some of which will have installed
interrupt handlers that may cause older software to misbehave.

In addition, if the software on the floppy is IIgs-specific, it might be
assuming it has free reign over all the memory in the computer (not just
the IIe-compatible parts of the memory).  After booting GS/OS, there
will be various software components loaded into the non-IIe memory areas
which may get partially overwritten by such a program, which could
easily cause crashes.

> Second, is the preferred method of directing the boot sequence to access the
> control panel via cntrl-alt-esc (hope that's right), then navigate the
> menus?

Control-Apple-Escape takes you to the desk accessory menu, from which
you can access the Control Panel.  There is no "alt" key on the Apple
II, though some extended keyboard have "alt" written in small letters on
the "option" key.

There is another way of getting into the Control Panel: reboot the
machine using Control-Option-Reset.  This gives you a menu containing
four items, the first of which is to enter the Control Panel.  After you
change settings and quit, the computer will reboot.

A very important point to keep in mind: if you have booted GS/OS, you
should always do an orderly shutdown, by going into Finder and using the
Shutdown command in the Special menu.  You can then choose to restart
from the dialog box, or use the shutdown option and click the restart
button in the "safe to turn the computer off" dialog box.

With either of these restart methods, holding down the Option key will
bring up the menu which gives you access to the Control Panel.  You
could then change the startup slot to reboot from floppy after you quit.


One alternative comes to mind.  This avoids any need to fiddle with the
Control Panel:

If you are running System 6.0.1, restart using your hard drive but boot
directly into ProDOS-8, by pressing the '8' key after you hear the beep
and see the startup text screen ("Apple IIgs" at the top, copyright
message at the bottom).  You have to press the '8' key before the
"Welcome to the IIgs" graphical screen would normally be displayed.  You
may need to try this a couple of times to get the timing right.

When you press the '8' key at the right time, the system will bypass
GS/OS and load ProDOS-8 directly.  You will probably end up in
BASIC.SYSTEM, looking at the Applesoft BASIC prompt (square bracket),
unless you have rearranged the system files in your root directory.