Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!evax!cs4344af From: cs4344af@evax.arl.utexas.edu (Fuzzy Fox) Newsgroups: comp.sys.cbm Subject: Re: GEOS Companion Disk Keywords: Problems... Message-ID: <1991Feb17.202800.29061@evax.arl.utexas.edu> Date: 17 Feb 91 20:28:00 GMT References: <1991Feb17.024528.17465@nntp-server.caltech.edu> Organization: Computer Science Engineering Univ. of Texas at Arlington Lines: 49 In article <1991Feb17.024528.17465@nntp-server.caltech.edu> rknop@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Robert Andrew Knop) writes: >Second: the problem I did have was, after creating the boot disk, I started >moving files around on the disk so they were all organized prettily by page. >When I was done, I discovered that the first three files on the disk, the >system files, had vanished! Further investigation showed that their directory >entries had been replaced with all 0's; this I was able to rectify easily >enough (nowadays I keep on my two 1581 boot disks copies of track $28, sector >0, in case I need to restore it). Check your boot disk to make sure that the >system files are still there. The problem you describe is an intentional Trojan Horse created by Berkeley themselves. When the DeskTop discovers that you have a Boot Disk in the drive, it checks the copy protection on the disk, and if it fails, the first three directory entries are zapped. (On a boot disk they correspond to GEOS, GEOS BOOT, and GEOS KERNAL.) This is to keep you from copying your Boot Disk. There are a couple ways around this problem. 1. You can write-protect your boot disk. Even GEOS can't write to a write-protected disk, but that means you can't ever change your config- uration again without risking your files getting zapped. 2. You can use an alternate DeskTop. WormDesk or QwikTop come to mind, but there are still some nifty things you can only do from DeskTop. Maybe the best thing to do is wait for GateWay? 3. You can change the disk header to show that the disk is not a Boot Disk. As you know, there are three kinds of disks in GEOS: Boot, Master, and Work Disk. A Boot disk and a Master disk are the same to the DeskTop (ie, you can't delete files without moving them to the border first, and other things). However, Boot disks are also scanned by the Trojan Horse check. If you change the disk type from Boot to Master, GEOS will stop zapping your files. However, those bright minds at Berkeley have thought of this one, too. During the Boot process, if GEOS detects you are booting from a non-Boot disk, it will change the disk back to Boot! Another reason to write-protect your disk, eh? However, if you were inclined, you might be able to write an auto-exec to change the disk type back to Master, before DeskTop gets control. Perhaps the best course of action is to contact GeoRep Jim and find out why his boot disk is succeptible to this Berkeley Trojan? You'd think that he would have discovered this problem while building the program. -- David DeSimone, aka "Fuzzy Fox" on some networks. /!/! INET: an207@cleveland.freenet.edu / .. Q-Link: Fuzzy Fox / --* Quote: "Foxes are people too! And vice versa." / ---