Re: Help for new IIGS owner

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

In article <1995Jul28.225931.40167@ac.dal.ca>,
Bruce MacKay  <root@crypt.org> wrote:
> 
> I have scavenged and managed to acquire the necessary 256X1 DRAMs to populate
> the memory expansion card up to 1 Meg.  This brings me to my first question.
> Is 1 meg a reasonable amount of memory for this computer?

It is a reasonable minimum.  You must have at least 1 MB to run the
current system software.  Many of the larger applications will require
more RAM.

4 MB RAM cards are reasonably common and reasonably cheap.  You should
consider upgrading the RAM once you've got the machine up and running
to your satisfaction.

> Second question: Is it safe to mix banks of 150 and 120 nanosecond
> DRAM chips in this machine? 

It should be OK.  The IIgs requires 150 ns or faster RAM.  I'd
recommend using 120 ns to be on the safe side, but I doubt you'll have
any problems.

> Third question:  Is there some diagnostic I can run to test to make sure all
> of the RAM is OK?

Not easily.  The built-in self test (Ctrl-Apple-Option-Reset) only
tests the motherboard RAM.  Most third-party cards include their own
RAM test software, but Apple didn't include any with their card.

> The system came with little/no software.  I managed to find a disk labelled
> "MouseDesk".

Whee.  Apple IIgs System Software 1.0.  Rather ancient!

A very important question comes to mind: when the computer is turned
on (or rebooted with Control-Apple-Reset), the first text screen it
displays says "Apple IIgs" at the top.  Is there any text at the
bottom of the screen?

If the computer has the original ROM, it just says "Apple IIgs".  If it
has the upgraded ROM, it also has a copyright and version messages at
the bottom of the screen (including the line "ROM Version 01" at the
bottom).

You must have ROM version 1 to be able to use current IIgs system
software (System 6.0.1 is the current version, and this ROM is
required to use System 4.0 or later).  It used to be a free upgrade
from Apple, but they might not be offering it any more.

> I have also scavenged a 2400 baud external modem and a Mac cable
> to connect the modem.  I assume there is no problem there.

Should be fine, as long as you can get some software.  A faster modem
would be preferable: the IIgs system disk is 800k, and works out to
about 830k after compression and ASCII encoding.  (You won't be able to
download this on a IIgs unless you set up a large RAM disk.)

The complete set of system disks is six disks, and this will take a
considerable amount of time to download at 2400.

If you have access to a Mac, the IIgs system software is available at
ftp.support.apple.com in a Macintosh format (you might need some
special Mac utilities to extract it).  You will need five or six
double density (800k) 3.5" disks to create the system disk and
installation disk set.

> Is their an easy way to transfer .dsk or .shk files from the ftp site, to my
> PC or Mac onto disks readable by the IIGS.  

Not from a PC.  A Mac can read and write Apple II 800k 3.5" disks
using various methods, including "Apple File Exchange", the Mac LC's
"ProDOS File System Extension", and "PC Exchange" with System 7.5 or later.

> There seem to be too many disk operating systems for the Apple:  DOS
> 3, ProDOS, etc...???

You should try the PC: CP/M-86, MS-DOS, PC-DOS, DR-DOS, Novell DOS,
OS/2, Windoze NT, lots of versions of UNIX, Windoze-95, etc.

The Apple IIgs supports the following operating systems.  In general,
programs will only run on the operating system for which they were
written.  There are some exceptions to this.

DOS 3.3: The final version of the original Apple II disk operating
system.  It only supports 5.25" disks (unless patched) and cannot
support disks larger than 400K (special "partitioning" techniques can
be used with larger disks to set up mulitple 400K volumes, given
special software).  DOS 3.3 is rather obsolete now, and tends to be
used only for programs that have not been upgraded to use ProDOS.

Pascal: The Apple II Pascal language system has its own operating
system, the last version of which is 1.3.  This is a rather obscure
system that isn't used much.

CP/M: Requires a Z-80 card in the computer.  CP/M was popular on many
computer platforms in the late '70s and early '80s, but isn't used
much now.

ProDOS (ProDOS-8): the current operating system for 8-bit Apple IIs
(II+, IIe, IIc).  It is also used on the IIgs to run 8-bit software,
including all ProDOS-based II+/IIe/IIc software.  The latest version
is 2.0.3, which requires a IIgs, IIc or enhanced IIe.

ProDOS-16: the first native operating system for the IIgs.  This was
used on IIgs system disks up to System 3.2.

GS/OS: the current native operating system for the IIgs.  This was
used on IIgs system disks starting with System 4.0.  Most ProDOS-16
programs will run quite happily under GS/OS.  A small number don't
work properly, and an older system disk is required to use these
programs.  GS/OS automatically loads ProDOS-8 to run 8-bit software.


ProDOS-8 and ProDOS-16 use the same ProDOS file system (also used by
the Apple III's SOS operating system).  GS/OS supports multiple file
systems, and its native file system is ProDOS, with extensions to
support resource forks and mixed case filenames.  Current versions of
GS/OS also support the Macintosh HFS file system, and read-only access
to DOS 3.3, Pascal and MS-DOS disks (MS-DOS requires a special disk
drive), plus ISO-9660/High Sierra CD-ROMs.

GS/OS also supports AppleTalk networks and can access an AppleShare
file server (or Mac running Personal File Sharing).  ProDOS-8 can also
access a server, as long as you boot via GS/OS.
-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand