USING THE QUICK BROWN BOX TOGETHER WITH THE SERVANT
The QBB's main objective is to store programs of your own choice. The programs can then be reloaded just as if they was loaded from disk. The advantage is that they can be reloaded in a flash, with just a couple of keystrokes. Furthermore, the programs are immediately accessible whenever you turn on your computer. Using a lithium battery, the QBB will retain its contents even when the computer is turned off.
The Quick Brown Box original file manager causes some compatibility problems with some applications however. A different kind of file manager was included in THE SERVANT in order to solve those problems. You can still use the QBB's proprietary file manager if you wish, or even both at the same time. THE SERVANTs file manager also has the ability to live peacefully together with ordinary cartridge software inside the QBB.
Setting up the THE SERVANT file manager:
Before you can use your QBB to store programs, you must make it ready to do so. First, the QBB's 64/128 switch must be set to 128. Then, select "Format QBB" from THE SERVANT main menu using the up-arrow.
You will then be asked how many banks you would like to reserve for THE SERVANTs file manager. You should NOT reserve more banks than your QBB contains though. The 16K QBB has one bank, the 32K has two, and the 64K model has four banks. If you have the 128K or 256K models, THE SERVANT can still use only 64K (four banks) of your QBB's space. In that case, you may wish to use the QBB and THE SERVANT file managers both at the same time. Now, select the number of banks that suits you.
You can change the number of banks reserved for THE SERVANTs file manager at a later time if you wish, without disturbing the contents of your QBB. If you have formatted the QBB (using THE SERVANT) already, and the QBB contains programs, you will be asked if you would like to remove the programs from the QBB at the same time. If you answer NO, THE SERVANT checks to see if the programs currently in the QBB will fit into the number of banks you specify. Specifying a lower number of banks than needed to hold the current programs won't be allowed. If you answer YES to removal of the programs, all programs will be wiped out, and you are free to specify the number of banks you wish (within the limits of your QBB). This is the fastest way to remove all QBB files in one go if yo wish to use the QBB for other programs.
You may also set the number of banks to zero. This will effectively turn off the file manager and your QBB is free to be used for other purposes.
Using THE SERVANT's QBB file manager:
When you have formatted your QBB using THE SERVANT, you will see the number of bytes free for storage along with a menu at the bottom of the screen. You can now store up to 26 programs into the QBB. Their names will appear below THE SERVANT main menu, and can be reloaded by the letter keys A - Z. The menu entries are:
F1, Store BASIC:
Will store the BASIC program currently in the 128's memory into the QBB. You will be asked to give it a name of up to 16 characters. Press RETURN, and your program will appear in the directory below THE SERVANTs main menu. It will then run automatically when you press the letter key next to the program name. If the program is too large to fit into the remaining QBB space, the message "QBB is full" will appear. The process will be aborted.
F3, Copy from disk:
This command resemble the main menu directory command. The directory will be read from the disk drive indicated by the shift keys. When the directory is halted, a flashing pointer will appear. The command keys will now determine how the selected program are to be reloaded from the QBB. You have the following options:
RETURN:
Will make the program load into memory and run as a BASIC program, similar to RUN "filename" If the file has been created using "Save QBB" (see below), the current QBB contents will be wiped out and replaced with the contents of the file.
F1:
Will do the equivalent of DLOAD "filename".
F3:
Will do the equivalent of BLOAD "filename",b0 (will use bank 0). Unlike the others, this command will return to THE SERVANT's main menu after the file has been loaded.
F5:
Will do the equivalent of BOOT "filename", using bank 0 while loading. Please note however, if the start address of the program is lower than 16384 ($4000) the computer will be configured to bank 15 when the program is executed.
F7:
Will load the program, switch to 64 mode, and run it.
Please note that, except for BASIC programs, it is not possible to store a program into the QBB directly from memory. You must save it to a disk file first, and then download it from disk to the QBB. Also please note that upon reload from the QBB, the state of the shift keys are significant if the the program in question is sensitive to which disk drive it was loaded from.
If the file you try to download is too large to fit into the remaining QBB space, the message "QBB is full" will appear. The process will be aborted.
F5, Save QBB:
You may save the whole QBB contents (the parts currently allocated by THE SERVANT file manager) to disk as a single file. The QBB contents can then be reloaded using the "copy from disk" command (F3, see above).
F7, Scratch:
To remove a program for the QBB, press F7 and then the letter next to the program you wish to delete. Please note that if you delete a file near the beginning of the directory, the deletion may take some time. Please be patient.
SPECIAL NOTE about saving/deleting in the QBB: Due to the C128 electronics design, writing to the QBB will corrupt system RAM memory in the same address range. THE SERVANT minimizes this problem by selecting RAM bank 1 during reads/writes to the QBB. Expect to have bank 1 memory from 32768 ($8000) to 49151 ($bfff) corrupted when storing or deleting programs in the QBB.
THE SERVANTs banking scheme using the Quick Brown Box:
Unlike the QBB native file manager THE SERVANT will always start using the highest numbered bank in the QBB and work downwards. This goes for the whole range of QBB models, 16K to 256K. Reserving two banks of a 64K QBB for THE SERVANT, will reserve banks 2 & 3 leaving banks 0 & 1 free for other uses.
Reserving all but one bank in your QBB will let you use bank 0 for cartridge software while using the rest of the box for program storage.
Using QBB and THE SERVANT file managers at the same time:
The reversed banking scheme of THE SERVANT makes it possible to use both managers at the same time. The native QBB file managers can reserve one or more banks at the end of the QBB for other uses. Then, let THE SERVANT use those banks for program storage. Or indeed, you may elect not to use THE SERVANT file manager at all. You could even use the 64 mode QBB manager either alone or together with THE SERVANT file manager in 128 mode.
There is one problem with this approach however if you want to use the 128 mode QBB manager. Using the native QBB file manager will disable the servant. To use both, there must be a way to set the SHIFT-RUN/STOP combination to 'BANK12:SYS32777'. That's all that's needed to use THE SERVANT. There are several ways this can be accomplished. Below you will find a description of the method preferred by the author. The method won't corrupt any memory, and you can load your favorite function keys automatically upon power-up. Here's how:
1) Save the QBB contents to disk as described in the beginning of your QBB manual.
2) Run the "128 manager" program that came with your QBB.
3) If you wish to start with a blank box, choose to "Initialize the QBB for loading". Refer to your QBB manual for a description of this process.
4) Exit the file manager and define your favorite function key definitions using the KEY command.
5) Type 'BANK12:SYS32777' to enter THE SERVANT, then press RETURN to get back to BASIC. The SHIFT-RUN/STOP combination will now have been set to 'BANK12:SYS32777' by THE SERVANT.
6) Type 'BSAVE "f-keys",p4096top4351', then press RETURN. This will save your function key definitions to disk.
7) Run the 128 manager again. Select "load new program". Enter the name of the file you used for your function key definitions; "f-keys". Follow the prompts, enter ID keys.
8) Enter a 6 letter name, using a < symbol as the first letter. The < character will cause the QBB not to execute the file, the f-keys are not an executable file. Leave the RAM bank and SYS banks as they are.
9) Now select "auto-start program" from the manager menu. Enter the two letter identifier you just specified
10) Finished. When you reset your computer, your F-keys along with THE SERVANT start key combo will be activated. Press SHIFT-RUN/STOP to enter the servant.
Getting rid of the QBB autostart:
You may wish to remove the QBB control over your computer entirely, leaving all control to THE SERVANT. Type the following line in BASIC:
slow:bank13:poke56832,16:poke32774,0
Hit RETURN, then press the reset button.
THE SERVANT will now be present at power-up, but if you wish, the QBB can be invoked by pressing the point (.) key, "Call exrom".
To re-enable the QBB autostart:
slow:bank13:poke56832,16:poke32774,255
Hit RETURN, then press the reset button.
Booting GEOS 128 from the QBB:
The Maverick V5 includes a feature which converts the GEOS core system into a single bootable file. Make your GEOS boot file following the instructions supplied with Maverick.
PLEASE NOTE: The Maverick GEOS tool will at one point instruct you to press the reset button. With THE SERVANT installed you'll have to do another step: Press the "0" (null) key.
Load the newly created GEOS boot file into the QBB using THE SERVANT's F3 command. Press F5 to make the file boot, and specify bank 0. Please note that due to size of the GEOS boot file, the QBB must be set up with at least 3 banks, meaning that your QBB must be of at least 64K in size.
Upon reload from the QBB, You can make GEOS access drive 9 (for loading of the Desktop and Configure) by holding down SHIFT. It should be noted that GEOS won't work properly when booted from other drives than 8 or 9. Furthermore, the GEOS boot file can't use a 1581 if it was created for another drive type or vice versa. 1541 versus 1571 won't matter though.
