Re: Vulcan HD/PS????

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

Supertimer <supertimer@aol.com> wrote:

> Matt Willman <willman.matt@cnf.REMOVE.com> wrote:
> 
> >> Matt Willman <willman.matt@cnf.REMOVE.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>>Second Question:  I have a ROM 1 GS with a Sirius Ram card (fully
> >>>populated, 8 meg) and I am having some problems with GS/OS.  I can boot
> >>>any version of Prodos fine.  Whenever I try to boot any GS/OS version
> >>>before 6.01 I get a "beep" during the temperature bar, then it hangs after
> >>>the bar is full.  If I press control-reset I see that it has dumped me into
> >>>the monitor with a bunch of ?hex? characters and a prompt....
> >>
> >There is no SCSI controller in this GS.  Only other card present is a PC
> >Transporter....tonight I'm going to take the card down to 4 meg and see what
> >happens.
> 
> The PC Transporter software patches the "ProDOS" file of the boot disk,
> whether that ProDOS file is real ProDOS 8 or the tiny one that really
> transfers control to boot GS/OS.  This patch is a driver that allows the
> PC Transporter to work with the GS as a RAM disk.  In the usual
> pattern, the "patched into ProDOS" driver is loaded when you boot
> GS/OS and generates a "beep" sound to inform you that it has loaded.
> I think your system is crashing at this point.

Not from the timing in the original description.  The PC Transporter
"beep" happens once only (first boot of a patched PRODOS file after the
power is turned on), and occurs before any OS splash screen.  It sounds
quite different to the standard IIgs bell.

A beep during the GS/OS boot progress bar implies a crash into the
monitor (e.g. a BRK instruction).

You _might_ be able to narrow down where this is happening by pressing
the space bar immediately after rebooting (before the grahpical boot
screen is displayed).  This makes GS/OS display the OS components and
some extensions as they are loaded (on the text screen).  The crash
should be visible, though the precise positioning may be ambiguous,
because not all components are displayed.

My guess is that the PC Transporter software may be too old or faulty.
The timing of the crash sounds like it might be around the time of GS/OS
loading or generating device drivers.  Faulty firmware in a card could
easily cause a crash here.

> I recently got a used PC Transporter to play with.  I installed the patch
> software that came with it and it exhibited a similar boot problem where
> it will crash at the thermometer.  I have a Sequential Systems RAM GS
> (the one that takes 4MB tops), so it does NOT seem to be specific to
> your memory card.  Finally, I got a newer version of the PC Transporter
> software and installed a newer patch.  This seems to have solved the
> problems...
> 
> To play it safe, I took out the PC Transporter...I did not like the idea
> of the funky patch

All the patched-in code does is downloads the support firmware into the
PC Transporter (which has no ROM).  It then reinstates the original
layout of the PRODOS file in memory and jumps to $2000, so the patch is
transparent to the operating system.

> and besides, I have a real IBM XT to play with. ;-)

Aw, that's cheating.  :-)

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand