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1992-05-06
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Technical Note #3
LoadWB, possible change for new versions of Kickstart
SUMMARY
$ 3/0 LoadWB, possible change for new versions of Kickstart
$ PRELIMINARY
$ 19-Dec-87 Nobody / Nothing
$ LoadWB, Workbench, ROM, copy-protection
There is not enough space in the ROMs for all the expansion that is
needed in new versions of Kickstart. 384 or 512K ROMS can be adapted to
all members of the Amiga family, but probably won't be at this time. There
is one module that can be easily moved from ROM to disk; Workbench.
Commodore-Amiga is seriously considering this step.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
If Workbench is moved out of the ROMs, this will mean that the old
"LoadWB" command will be unable start Workbench. This is particularly
troublesome for bootable copy-protected products don't allow writing to
the master disk.
WHAT THE NEW LOADWB WOULD DO
The new LoadWB command would be distributed on the new Workbench disks.
It would be about 60K in length, and would contain the entire Workbench
tool. This LoadWB would probably also work in a V1.2 Kickstart
environment.
WHAT THE OLD LOADWB WOULD DO
The old LoadWB command is just a tiny stub that fires up the Workbench
tool in ROM. When this command is run under the new Kickstart there
will be no Workbench tool to fire up. What will probably happen is
Kickstart will post a requester that looks like this:
"Please insert a V1.X Workbench disk in any drive"
The new LoadWB would then be read in.
SOLUTIONS
* Make your disks writeable, so the new LoadWB can be copied over.
* Allow your users to boot up with some other Workbench, then open your
disk and double-click on the icon to start.
* Start your program directly from the Startup-Sequence and *then* have
a LoadWB. If the LoadWB fails, nothing much is lost.
SOLUTIONS FOR COPY-PROTECTED PROGRAMS
Obviously the ideal solution is for all bootable disks to be writeable.
Even if you insist on annoying users with copy-protection, you can
ensure that writing to the disk does no damage:
* Create a file on the disk called "copy protected sectors"
* Using a sector editor, link any sectors or tracks affected by the
protection into that file. Include in this list any sectors that
would be dangerous to write to.
* If your copy protection is on Track 81, ignore the above.
Don't worry that this will help pirates... they already have very easy
and effective ways of sniffing out the location of your protection
schemes. This information will be useless (or misleading, depending on
how many "Red-Herring" sectors you toss in :-).
The only beneficiaries of your caution will be your customers and your
reputation.