Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!MTSG.UBC.CA!Les_Ferch. From: Les_Ferch.@MTSG.UBC.CA Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: P8/GSOS Switching Message-ID: <1964701@mtsg.ubc.ca> Date: 18 Dec 89 21:13:52 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 136 >>Les Ferch.@MTSG.UBC.CA writes: >> >>The reason I was looking for reboot code is to write a program or >>programs that will automatically (and hopefully properly) switch my >>operating environment on my hard drive between plain ProDOS 8 and >>GS/OS. >> >>The idea is to have the GSOS "ProDOS" file and the "P8" file on the >>root directory along with my reboot program(s). To go from GSOS to >>ProDOS 8 only, the reboot program would rename "ProDOS" to "GSOS" >>and "P8" to "ProDOS" and then reboot or do an OS Shutdown call. To >>go from ProDOS 8 to GSOS, just basically reverse the process. >rmichel@pro-grouch.cts.com replies: > >Here's a quite simple method of accomplishing about the same thing: > >1. Set up a GSOS system disk; rename the PRODOS file to GSOS.GO >2. Place P8 in your root directory of your boot disk; rename it to > PRODOS >3. Add BASIC.SYSTEM to the root directory. (It must be the first > .SYSTEM file) >4. Write a simple BASIC program called STARTUP to choose either > GSOS, BASIC, or your favorite ProDOS8 program selector (I > simply use Bird's Better Bye). >Mark Munz also replies: > >I boot into Prodos 8 (real quick!!) and run a little basic program >that asks me what OS I want. If I choose Prodos 8, it runs Prosel >for me, if I choose GS/OS, it runs "GSOS" for me which starts up the >famed slow boot :-) Yup, that's what I used to do, but there are TWO good reasons not to do that... Reason #1: If you use Appletalk from ProDOS 8 (by enabling Appletalk and placing the file ATINIT on the route directory) so you can print to a LaserWriter from classic AppleWorks without using GSOS, the Finder will hang when you try to load GSOS from ProDOS 8. Reason #2: Apple's "official" response is that warm booting GSOS from ProDOS 8 is, "unsupported and walking on very very thin ice". "A cold boot (Open-Apple-Control-Reset -or- power on) must be used to move from a ProDOS 8 boot to a GS/OS boot". My correspondence with Apple on this matter via TechLink in Vancouver, Canada follows: ------------------------------------------------------------------- By | LES FERCH To | Tech Support Subj | Launching GSOS from ProDOS 8 Date | 22-OCT-89 19:53 I want to have my hard drive equipped GS boot into ProDOS 8 and run a simple program selector (I'm using Bird's Better Bye), but I want to be able to launch GSOS easily on demand. I installed GSOS 5.0 and it works fine if I boot straight into it, but if I rename ProDOS to GSOS and then put ProDOS 8 on the drive and boot that way, it doesn't work when I select GSOS from the selector. GSOS starts loading and gets to the desktop where it beeps and then hangs. By | LES FERCH TO | Tech Support Subj | Launching GSOS from ProDOS 8 Date | 24-OCT-89 23:09 Finally, I figured out why I was not able to launch GSOS successfully from ProDOS 8. The reason the Finder hung when I launched GSOS from ProDOS 8 was because I had Appletalk enabled and the file "ATINIT" on my root directory (this is so I can print over Appletalk from classic AppleWorks). So the Appletalk driver was already in memory when I launched GSOS and then (I guess) the Finder died when it tried to load the appletalk driver itself. (or something like that) Anyhow, this bugs me. GSOS should not care what's in memory when it loads, and perhaps should clear memory. The way it is, if I want to run GSOS, I have to delete or rename the "ATINIT" file I have on the root directory and then reboot before launching GSOS. Sure, I could just run GSOS only, but I have lots of good reasons for wanting to only run ProDOS 8 for ProDOS 8 programs, such as quick reboot time when things go wrong. Now if I only knew what needed to be reset or cleared in memory to give GSOS a clean slate before it loads, I could easily make a little launcher program to get GSOS going properly. Help pleeease. By | APPLE TECH To | LES FERCH Subj | Re- Launching P8 from GS/OS Date | 21-NOV-89 13:08 We sent your question to our Technical Communications people in California for a suitably official response: There are several background tasks that are implemented in GS/OS during a cold boot that do not get implemented in the warm boot described in the question. The ATINIT procedure described does not resolve the issue of the background tasks. It is highly recommended this procedure NOT be used. A cold boot (Open-Apple, Control, Reset -or- power on) must be used to move from a ProDOS 8 boot to a GS/OS boot. Any other method will not implement all the required background tasks. The supported method of using both ProDOS 8 and GS/OS on an Apple IIGS is to boot into GS/OS and then launch the desired ProDOS 8 application. Any other method is unsupported. (And they are walking on very, very thin ice if they use another method.) ------------------------------------------------------------------- The above response is not completely clear to me. For instance, what does "The ATINIT procedure described does not resolve the issue of the background tasks" mean? The "ATINIT procedure" I described was for ProDOS 8 only, so what does that have to do with "background tasks"? Also, what is the officially supported method of printing over Appletalk from ProDOS 8 (ie. GSOS NOT loaded)? I think it's pretty clear that my "rename files and then do a P8 restart or GSOS shutdown as per tech note #49" or the Smartboot program are the only methods to completely switch the OS and be guaranteed to work under all conditions. However, some clarification on this matter (perhaps from either Matt or Dave) would be greatly appreciated.