Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!xylogics!bu.edu!rpi!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!mattd
From: mattd@Apple.COM (Matt Deatherage)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: Sider Hard Drive
Message-ID: <44955@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 19 Sep 90 18:37:44 GMT
References: <26f1e292.4121@petunia.CalPoly.EDU>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 43

In article <26f1e292.4121@petunia.CalPoly.EDU> araftis@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Alex Raftis) writes:
>
>
>I've got an old Sider II Hard drive from First Class Peripherals, and I've
>recently reconnected it to my Apple IIGS. My problem lies in getting GSOS to
>recognize the drive. I've installed a SCSI driver, and have revision C ROMS
>on the card (a set up that worked with GSOS 4.0), but at boot time, the
>computer is unaware of the drive. If I drop down to Prodos 8 and access the
>drive, a return to GSOS 5.0, the os will then enable the later dos to find 
>the drive. This is workable if not convenient. 
>
>Basically, I was wondering if someone had written some kind of init that
>could fix the problem at boot time, or if someone knows why the os has trouble 
>finding things.
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
This can't be fixed from an INIT.  Here's why:

All multi-OS ROMs shipped by First Class have a strange problem - they
initialize themselves on the first ProDOS READ call (ProDOS driver protocol)
they get.  GS/OS first sends a STATUS call to the drive, and the Sider responds
with "off-line" because it hasn't gotten a "READ" yet and therefore hasn't
initialized itself.

The problem goes away if you have a) the all-ProDOS ROMs from that company
in Georgia whose name I can't remember, or b) if you boot from the Sider
since the ROM-based boot process will READ from the drive before GS/OS
is even off the disk, or c) if you have the GS/OS drivers from First Class
which speed up the Sider by about 2X anyway.

The problem occurs when the drivers are loaded and generated, which is before
the INITs are loaded and executed, so no INIT can fix it since the damage is
already done.  GS/OS currently re-generates generated drivers when warm
restarting, so doing a READ to the drive in ProDOS 8 will mean GS/OS will
generate a drive for it when you return.

-- 
============================================================================
Matt Deatherage, Apple Computer, Inc. | "The opinions represented here are
Developer Technical Support, Apple II |  not necessarily those of Apple
Group.  Personal mail only, please.   |  Computer, Inc.  Remember that."
============================================================================