Nathan, Maybe you should read your own FAQ

[tws <adoyson@nccn.net>]

I read the MINI FAQ for system 6, and guess what????    THE INFORMATION
I AM LOOKING FOR IS NOT THERE.   WHY DO YOU POINT ME TO THE FAQ, WHEN IT
DOES NOT ANSWER MY QUESTION?


GS System 6.0 mini-FAQ

9.1 Where can I get System 6, and what fixes are there for the known
bugs in
it?

First off, if you don't have it on your GS, you may want to consider
upgrading to System 6.0.1. Like
all GS/OS releases, you will need to make sure you've got a ROM 01 or
ROM 3 before you even
think about running it. Although you may be able to get it to boot in
less RAM, 1.25MB of RAM is
pretty much a minimum; 1.5-2MB RAM is recommended if you want to run a
lot of the fun addons.
Secondly, an 800K floppy is rather cramped for space as a boot disk; a
Hard Drive helps
immensely. (If you're looking to strip a boot disk down to get as much
space as possible, please see
my reference of files in the GS/OS installation at
http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/sys6files.html.)

System 6.0.1 has a number of bugfixes and small addons from System 6.0;
they both have similar
RAM requirements, so you should consider moving to System 6.0.1 if at
all possible. Also, many
problems that existed in System 6.0 and 6.0.1 have only been fixed in
patches to System 6.0.1, such
as the HFS FST and programs that GUPP fixes. (See below)

Next, you'll want to download them. On the internet, they're available
in Apple II (.BSQ) form from
Apple's FTP site at
ftp://ftp.apple.com/dts/aii/sys.soft/gs.system.6.0.1/. There are 6 disks
to either
System 6.0 or System 6.0.1; you should download and unpack them (with
Binscii and Shrinkit.
Then, boot the Install disk.

When unpacking the .BSQ files from Apple's FTP site without a hard
drive, you'll notice that some
of the disks can be larger than 800K, even when partially unpacked.
Creating a Ramdisk from the
control panel greater than 800K will let you unpack these big disks
without any problems.
(Remember to kill off that ramdisk before trying to run GS/OS if you
have less than 1.5MB of
RAM)

If you have access to a Mac with "Disk Copy", you may want to instead
try downloading the disks
in that format from
ftp://ftp.apple.com/Apple.Support.Area/Apple.Software.Updates/US/Apple_II/Apple_IIGS_System_6.0.1/

If you choose to use Macs and Disk Copy to download System 6.x, make
sure to use Double
Sided/Double Density (DSDD - 720K or 800K) disks-- 1.44MB (HD) disks
will be written to as
1.44MB disks, which most GS drives cannot deal with. Also, if your GS is
refusing to boot off the
install disk (with an 'UNABLE TO LOAD PRODOS' message), and you have a
Quadra or
Powermac, you may be a victim of Apple's costcutting in 3.5" drives--
those drives may report disks
as successfully written, but GSs will be unable to read them. Switch to
an older Mac with a usable
drive, or use a null modem program to transfer the files.

While a little too big for this FAQ, Nathan Mates has written a
reference detailing the various files
installed by System 6.0.1 with comments on their use, as well as which
files are required for minimal
disk usage. Please see
http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/sys6files.html.

9.2 Common Problems

If you are still using System 6.0, it is recommended that you upgrade to
the latest and greatest
version, 6.0.1. It is available at Apple's FTP site (see section for the
address).

The HFS (Macintosh) FST (File system translator) included with System
6.0.1 does contain at least
one bug, which can corrupt a HFS volume of 64MB or larger. It is
strongly encouraged that you
download and install the patch. (You'll need to copy all the files off
to non-HFS volumes, install, and
copy back for safety). The patch is available from
ftp://apple2.caltech.edu/pub/apple2/addons/patches/patchhfs.shk

I (Nathan Mates) have had HFS volumes corrupted, so I'm pretty confident
that there are more
bugs in the FST. There are no native GS HFS volume checkers; you'll have
to take the drive to a
Mac anytime you need to run a checker such as Apple's Disk First Aid or
Norton Utilities. (Also,
Macs want a special driver, which may require you to [re]format the
drive on a mac, or use a special
program to insert it. This boils down to the general computer rule of
thumb: If you care about your
files, make sure you have backups!

Despite the hard work of the Apple Computer programmers, some bugs
slipped through in System
6.0.1. Both as a recommendation for system stability, and as a plug for
a program of his, Nathan
Mates (maintainer of this FAQ) has found and fixed a number of them.
These include memory
trashing bugs in the 6.0.1 Finder, the Pascal FST not recognizing legal
punctuation in disk names,
and many more. Get the free program 'GUPP' (Grand Unified Patch Program)
from a major Apple
II FTP site, or directly from Nathan's ftp site for his programs:
ftp://ftp.visi.com/users/nathan/a2software/gupp.shk

Copy ][+ may be a great program for making the one personal backup copy
of a piece of software
that you are legally entitled to, but its file copy, delete, and
directory sorting functions will corrupt a
disk when used on a directory with GS/OS 'forked' files. (Pretty much
all of the system software is
forked, as are most GS applications). Do NOT use it on disks or HD
partitions with such files.
ProSEL 8 or 16 can repair some of the damage done, and provide safe disk
and file utilities.

If the mouse cursor wipes out everything it moves over, you may have a
software conflict with
Closeview. To deactivate it, from within the Finder, open the 'System'
folder on your boot disk, then
the 'System.Setup' folder. Find the icon named 'Closeview', and click
once on it. Then, from the
'Special' menu, choose 'Icon Info...'. A window will open up, with a
check box for 'Inactive' in the
top right. After setting it to inactive, reboot. You can do the same
thing for any other Desk
Accessory, Control Panel (CDev), or Init (in the System.Setup folder,
should you decide not to
want to run it.

Easy Access also can and does cause lockups with programs, especially on
the ROM 01.
Deactivate it just like you did with the Closeview program-- it's in the
same folder.

If you are getting an annoying message about Appletalk not being
available at boot, but you're not
using Appletalk in general, disable the 'SCC.Manager' file in the
drivers folder inside the system
folder on your boot disk.

Missing features of system 6? Perhaps you just used easy install, which
doesn't install all the bells and
whistles. Try clicking on the 'Custom' install (versus the easy install)
in the Sys 6.0 installer and add
the nifty things like Calculator, Find File, HFS FST, etc. You can also
read the Shortcuts file on the
'SystemTools2' disk for some great keyboard shortcuts.

Finder 6.0 icons that match by name and have a leading wildcard require
uppercase letters. For
example, a name like "*.txt" never matches, but "*.TXT" works fine (it
matches regardless of a file's
actual capitalization). (This was accidental; the 5.0.4 Finder did not
care about capitalization in icon
files.)

Two misconceptions about System 6: The A2.RAMCARD is not for the GS's
/RAM5. It only
works with "slinky" (i.e. standard slot) cards. Also, the DOS 3.3 FST
has nothing to do with
MS-DOS.

9.3 Tips & Hints

The AppleShare logon programs have always looked for a folder named
"Mail" inside your user
folder whenever you log onto a user volume. If there's any items in
there, they present a dialog that
says "You have mail." With the Sounds control panel, you can make it
play a sound of your choice
then.

If you don't want to see your icons on boot, set bit 1 (i.e. the 2nd
LSB) of BRAM Location $5F. Be
sure not to mess with the other bits. Use the toolbox calls!

The FinderExtras folder goes in the same folder as the Finder (generally
the System folder).

If you don't like yellow folders in the Finder you can change the byte
at offset +65 in the Finder
resource with type $C001 and ID 1. Change the $E0 to whatever you want
(the first digit is the
default folder foreground color, and the low nibble is for the outline
color). Only folders that do not
already have a color recorded in a Finder.Data file get the default
color.

9.4 If you have a RamFAST

The RamFast and ProDOS 2.0.1 both try to do re-mapping of drives to
unused slots. This can
cause problems, mostly when launching and returning from ProDOS 8
applications (crashes or
wants you to insert disk). Solution: Configure the RamFast not to
re-map. If you have a RamFAST
with a ROM revision less than 2.01a, you need to get a newer ROM from
Sequential Systems.
Otherwise, V2.01c allows setting Slot Priority Allocations to 0 which
will let ProDOS deal with
them. V3.0 allows you to choose between RamFast mapping (works now) and
ProDOS 8 mapping.
If you can't wait, you can Patch ProDOS 2.0 not to re-map slots. Look
for "10 BF C9 A5 D0 07"
and change the $A5 to $00 (should be byte $1A3 in the 5th block of the
file). Hack at your own
risk.

9.5 If you have a Vulcan or AE High Density disk

Due to problems with the Vulcan, when booting, it asks for your System
Disk. Just put the Vulcan
driver on your boot disk, boot it, and then launch the installer.
Alternately, put the driver on the
installer disk and boot it. (but you have to delete some of the
installer scripts first) For the AE High
Density Drive, be sure to remove Apple's 3.5" driver when putting on
AE's.

9.6 If you have ProSel as your program launcher

Rename start to something else before running the installer, or else the
Finder won't be installed.
Also, ProSEL as a launcher will cause a bogus $0040 error on some
programs such as the first
DOTW release.

9.7 If you have an AMR 3.5" drive

If the computer hangs (mostly at the Standard File Save/Open dialog box)
with no disk in the drive,
try putting one in. What's happening is that GS is reading the status
from the drive, and the drive
won't return anything unless there is a disk in the drive. Just stick a
disk in and all will be fine. If it
really annoys you, either deactivate the 3.5" driver (get IR so you can
double-click to re-activate it)
or simply keep a disk in the drive at all times. This is not a problem
under ProDOS 8.

9.8 GSCII+ & HFS Note

There is a problem with the HFS FST, but only GSCII seems to be
affected. When de-binscii-ing
files, put the output onto a ProDOS volume, not an HFS one.

[ Mega-thanks to Dave Lyons & friends for these. ]

9.9 Finder 6.0.1 is displaying garbage in the windows!

System 6.0.1's Finder occasionally gets some of its files corrupted, and
then fills a window (or the
screen) with multicolor garbage when a window is opened. This is
extremely annoying, but there are
ways to fix it. First, try installing Grand Unified Patcher Program (see
the section above (9.1) on
system 6.x patches).

If that doesn't work, go to the 'Preferences...' menu item under the
Finder's 'Special' menu, and turn
off the hiding of invisible files. Inside the 'Icons' folder on each
disk/partition, there's a file called
'Desktop'. Trash it, and reboot. [This file contains window sizes and
custom icon placements, as well
as duplicate copies of icons from System 6-savvy applications with
'rBundles' attached. No real
harm other than losing the window placements is done by trashing it.]

Lastly, you can look for bad icon files-- make a new folder (such as
'Icons2') on each hard drive,
and move all files except 'Ftype.Apple' out of the Icons folder on each
disk/partition to the new
folder. Reboot and see if the problem still occurs. If not, move a few
files back at a time, reboot, and
see if you have the problem. When you've isolated the problem file,
don't use it anymore.

9.10 Icons no longer point to apps. How do I rebuild the desktop
database?

Easiest way: from Finder, go to prefs, turn off hide invisible files. In
each disk partition's 'Icons'
folder, there should be a file named 'desktop'. Delete it. That'll just
force a new desktop database file
to be created next time you start the Finder; you'll still have to click
on each file that put its rBundles
into there to rebuild it.

Better way: Softdisk G-S #47 or 48, program I (Nathan Mates) wrote
called 'Rebuilder'. Deletes
the desktop file, then scans the drive for all rBundles and adds them.

9.11 How do I make a 3.5" disk that boots and runs an Application?

Assuming that this (or any other program) is a ProDOS 16 or GS/OS app,
the way to put it on a
self-booting disk is:

1) Format disk, install GS/OS on it, with any desired extensions, etc

2a) Copy the app you want to run to the system folder of that disk, and
rename it 'Start'
-OR-
2b) Copy the app you want to run to the root directory (lowest level) of
the disk, and make sure its
filename ends in ".SYS16", renaming it if necessary. If you do this,
delete any 'Start' program in the
system folder.

This assumes that the program is small enough to fit on that disk; if
space it tight, you may want to
consult either http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/mini.601.html and/or
http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/sys6files.html for lists of what
files you might be able to remove.

9.12 What's the difference between 2:1 and 4:1 3.5" formatting?

These two ratios are possible interleave factors for 3.5" disks.
Unidisks 3.5"s maximum speed is at
the 4:1 interleave factor; if 2:1 disks are inserted in them, a lot of
time will be wasted while the disk
blows revolutions reading sequential sectors. Apple 3.5" drives best
speed is at 2:1; 4:1 disks in
them can be accessed slightly slower than 2:1, but not anywhere near as
bad as 2:1 disks in Unidisk
drives. Thus, if you don't have Unidisk drives, 2:1 should be selected,
but if you're using a mix of
drives or Unidisks, 4:1 is the optimal speed.

9.13 What do I do with icon files for the Finder, and how can I
customize how
they appear?

Under System 6.0, each volume you have online can (and the Finder will
occasionally auto-add this)
have a folder named 'Icons' in the root directory. Applications with
separate icons files (as identified
by a Finder 'Get Info') can have that icons file copied to the Icons
folder of that partition. For
example, the application /Games1/OneArmBattle/OneArmBattle should have
its icon file copied to
/Games1/Icons/ . Most icons files are simply cute fluff, and are not
needed to run things correctly. A
lot of files may also slow down loading of the Finder, as it must reload
all icons files each time.

The 'FType.Apple' file installed to the Icons folder of the boot disk
along with the rest of the System
Software is a required file for the Finder, GS Shrinkit, and possibly
other applications. Do not mess
with it; it does not contain any icons, but the text descriptions of
file types you can see from the
Finder.

If you want to make your own icons, or point them at various
applications, the best way to do this is
to make up a custom icon for the filetype, and set the icon application
path to the application you
want to run. IconED 2.0 is a good icon editor, and is available from
ftp://apple2.caltech.edu/pub/apple2/utils/. Once your icon file is
created, it should be saved in an
Icons folder on one of your disks, preferably the boot volume. As the
first match of an icon is used,
you may want to do a directory sort to move your custom file to the top
of the Icons folder or
elsewhere if things are matching oddly.