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2006-10-19
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File: UPDATES, for version 2.21 and below:
------------------------------------------
MDOS VERSION 2.21 released November 11, 1994
Changes made for MDOS 2.20/2.21:
1) MDOS now contains an imbedded CRC. The value is stored in MDOS using
the CRaCkit installation program, run by 9640*News before distribution
Using CRaCkit version 2.0, MDOS can be verified internally. If any
changes have been made, either by sector editing or errors during
a transfer, CRaCkit will inform you of the problem. More information
is available in the doc file (included).
2) Memory pages >C0 through >EF will be treated as FAST RAM if available
for system usage.
3) The REMAP table has been changed. Please find the REMAP_TXT file
which contains a list of the devices.
Device 20 - PFM Flashdisk #1
Device 21 - reserved for flashdisk #2
4) If you have not obtained EXEC 2.11 from Tim Tesch, it would be wise
to obtain this program, which includes enhancements such as rompage
support, supercart support, video fixes, and more. Programs such
as MDM5 and Spell-It! can be used from MDOS without using the WDS
support (TI ON/OFF).
5) RS232 detect routine modified to be DSR independent thanks to Jeff
White.
6) Keyscan modification (same one made to GPL and EXEC 2.11)
- COPY command may still exhibit problems; cause still unknown.
- FORMAT command may fail when both a Myarc floppy controller and
Myarc HFDC are in the system. If you experience this problem,
the best remedy is to turn your system OFF for 20-30 seconds.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
v2.00 CRaCkit Value B74C (unsupported in Crackit 2.0)
The value above is the CRC value calculated with Tim Tesch's
CRaCkit Utility. If you run CRaCkit and do not observe this same
value, you have a modified or corrupted version of MDOS.
Note: There is one "bug" left in MDOS that has been present all the way
back to MDOS 1.14 and possibly earlier. MDOS opens/closes files
different than the 4A system and returns file parameters back if there
is insufficient space for a file. Due to this, few programs perform all
the necessary error detection. When copying files, use Clint Pulley's
Directory Manager for MDOS mode and you should never experience the
problem. Future updates to MDOS will be available on GEnie in the
TI and Orphans RT (page 575) and the 9640 News BBS (1-901-368-0112 at
300 to 14.4K baud). MDOS Support headquarters are on GEnie.
Added support for 3.2MB Horizon Ramdisks using HRD formatting program
by James Schroeder.
Added support for 1.44MB floppy drives. See attached document.
Added new switch to FORMAT command per wish of Jonathan Leslie
The new switch is /N
The command when /N is used disables the floppy verification of
all sectors on the disk. Floppy formatting is MUCH MUCH quicker.
Modified Powerup routine while in GPL mode. Elimates lockup when
using ROMPAGE/OLDDSR utilities and exit GPL improperly, thanks Tim Tesch
Added command to H version of MDOS per wish of Dan Eicher
HARD OFF Turns off HFDC access
HARD ON Restores HFDC access (default)
The MODES file has been changed. New items are: (tt)
1) MODE 60 --> Graphics Mode SIX activated
2) MODE 90 --> TEXT mode II, 26 line mode activated
Scroll-Back Buffer (tt)
1) Changes to the SCROLL BACK buffer. PAGEUP now works properly
2) When finished looking at the buffer, the screen is returned
to the previous state.
3) Changes were made to accomodate the MODE 90 command; buffer
now can be reviewed in 26-line mode
4) Bug fixed, 40 column scrollback now works properly
5) Graphics mode trap added. Scrollback only works in the TEXT
modes.
6) CTRL-C deactivated while in the scroll-back routine
7) All screen reads/writes are TTYOUT independent
8) Tested with VDP wait states on/off - no ill results
9) SCREEN DUMP ADDED - Pressing "P" dumps the current screen to
the printer.
MDOS CLI COMMAND TYPE (tt)
1) High ASCII is no longer masked - DV80 files with IBM graphics
will be displayed; a file to define the high-ascii will be made)
available.
2) DF128 files are displayed without any MDOS interpretation. PC
text files with CR/LF combinations will display properly
3) The MORE function "/M" has been changed.
a) works in 24 and 26 line modes
b) the prompt is now:
"Press any key, (A)bort, or (N)onstop..."
this works equally well with DV80 and DF128 files
4) file-closing problems were eliminated. Certain files would
exit the TYPE routine, leaving a file open. Enough of them
caused sytstem failure.
New Command to CLI (tt)
Code for a new command, DISK1 <OFF> or DISK1 <ON>
was added. This will effectively turn on or off the
HDS1.DSK1. emulation, so users may choose whether
files are accessed on that subdirectory while in GPL
mode.
V1.53
Noted that EXEC will no longer run My-Word on stock memory systems
unless TIMODE is active. If you have extended memory, TIMODE is not
necessary. Use the modified Myword loader available from Tim Tesch.
V1.52(F/H)
Note: Users wishing to use the WDS ON capability as described later
in this article must either use just a Myarc HFDC as their floppy
controller, or use a CorComp Disk Controller. Attempts to use
WDS at CRU >1200 on the Myarc HFDC with a TI or Myarc Disk controller
present will cause lockups. The TI and Myarc Disk controller card
DSR's would require modification to allow this support.
- Added new command that must be used in an AUTOEXEC file that can be
used with hard drives. The command provides support to recover hard
drive data in the event a cylinder 0 or bitmap crash occurs.
The use of the command is as follows:
MIRROR 1 Stores bitmap of hard drive #1
MIRROR 2 Stores bitmap of hard drive #2
Note: MIRROR 3 is not available as the HFDC hard drive #3 permits
reading from that drive only.
Note 1: This command copies sectors >00->1F to sectors >20->3F of
the hard drive. In the event of a cylinder 0 failure on your hard
drive, then one may use a sector editor (SECTORONE for MDOS) to copy
sectors >20 to >3F back to >00 to >1F returning the system to the last
successful use of MIRROR.
Note 2: MDM5 permits formatting the hard drive using 32 sectors per
cylinder. CFORM has extended the capabilities of the HFDC to make use
of 33/34 sectors per cylinder. In the event you choose to format 33/34
sectors per cylinder with CFORM (instead of 32), then reformatting
cylinder 0 of your drive in the event of a failure will invalidate the
use of MIRROR.
Note 3: If you reliably use MIRROR and format your hard drive to 32
sectors/cylinder, your chances of recovering data from cylinder 0
failures is much greater. Following a cylinder 0 failure, you MUST
only format ONE cylinder. Do not format the entire hard drive or you
will overwrite the information that MIRROR stored. Following the
restoration of the backup sectors (copying >20->35 to >00->1F), it
is possible that a DIR command will abort if files were deleted or if
illegal filenames now exist. In they event that they do, you should
still be able to use the CHDIR command to access other subdirectories.
Access to the root directory and other subdirectories depends upon the
deletions or modifications of files that took place following the last
use of MIRROR. After having restored the hard drive and recovering
any files that you need to recover, it is HIGHLY recommended that you
then do a complete reformat of your hard drive. Do not ever save any
files to the hard drive following a restoration. You further risk
corrupting additional bitmaps.
- Modified the Geneve Internal Ramdisk "RAMDISK" command to be
universal in all memory configurations. In a warm boot or cold boot
of the operating system, the RAMDISK will reinitialize if TIMODE is
enabled. One may disable the TIMODE in a redirected autoexec file
("&filename") if the ramdisk is kept the same size without losing the
disk contents. This was required to solve TIMODE/RAMDISK memory
conflicts in systems with no expanded memory on their Geneve.
- Modified Drive decrements in file L8\SECT2-P so that whatever
drive assignments you set from AUTOEXEC, they carry forward to
GPL mode. Now, GPL mode will not offset drive sequencing as
previous versions from 0.97H to 1.50H which were caused when
EMULATE drives were active.
- Fixed usage problems a user found with LABEL command. Problem
was actually a bug with BREAD/BWRITE on sector 0 i/o buffering as the
Geneve (and TI-99/4A) can not determine when a drive door has been
opened.
- Modified file redirection to use DV80 files instead of DF1 files.
(thanks Clint)
- Removed VIDEO command. Too many users were using VIDEO ON in
occassions where MDOS programs were incompatible and they thought
MDOS was the problem. Programmers must implement these commands if
they want the extra speed.
I would also at this time like to thank the following individuals
for their assistance in the MDOS programming effort:
James Schroeder, Clint Pulley, Alan Beard, Barry Boone, John Johnson,
Tim Tesch, Jeff White, and finally all the contributors that made the
MDOS purchase possible. THANK ALL OF YOU VERY MUCH!!!
Beery Miller / 9640 News
================================================================================
V1.50
**** NOTE: TI ON/OFF command for WDS support discussed in WDS_TXT
- Fixed problem with formatting floppies attached to the HFDC from the
CLI.
- Clint has modified hchar/vchar printing routines resulting in
screen writes taking 3.5 seconds versus 6.7 seconds in previous
graphic screen writes.
- Fixed conflicts the mouse driver and CLI hooks were having as a
result of table overwrites when defining character definitions higher
than 128.
- JJ found, Clint fixed a bug with character definitions in
certain bitmap modes when reading patterns from the screen.
- Modified TIME/DATE function to not query for input if in
batch mode by Al Beard
- Re-modified character set to MDOS original by Beery Miller.
- Added CASE ON/OFF, will convert lowercase filename to
uppercase filename automatically if name is passed through the
parser routine. Default is to accept lowercase filename and
convert to uppercase automatically by John Johnson.
- Modified Horizon ramdisk support to "force" users to use
the proper REMAP configuration if they are using a 16 bit
Ramdisk with >256K by James Schroeder.
- Clint fixed Paul Charlton's high speed disk i/o transfer routines
Use hard driver interlace of 7 for optimum speed. Floppy i/o will
also be speeded up under certain conditions.
FIX LIST
V1.23
- Unless new bug reports come about, this will be the last 358
sector version of MDOS (F). All subsequent releases will be
hard drive compatible and will not fit on a SS/SD disk.
- A major bug using files in update mode has been fixed (thanks
Clint Pulley) that were on the HFDC. Now, TI-BASE, FirstBase,
Telco's TOS/PHONE files, and others work properly. If your system
presently has files that may be "bad", copying to Geneve Internal
Ramdisk or other floppy device with Clint's Directory Manager will
prompt you to repair any files that are bad.
Symptoms included opening a database file, accessing a
record partial way but not at the end. When the file was
closed, it would close wherever the last record was accessed
losing everything beyond that point. This bug existed in
only the H version of MDOS when working with files stored on
the hard drive.
- Fixed the default table for floppy only systems (F&H MDOS) that
that allows DSK9 be be a >1600 CRU 16 bit HRD card.
- Removed code that interfered with Mode 40/80 usage when
used with composite monitors versus monochrome monitors.
- Updated MODE/Printer problem that was caused with a fix to
1.21 that was not compatible with quite a bit of software (sorry
folks for the "bug"). TPA should now print properly.
- Forgot to add some notes to version 1.21. MDOS now has a
variable reserved FDR capability. Now, 720K disks can store
all filenames on the initial 128 sectors, while 90K disks will
maintain the TI original number of reserved sectors.
Intermediate size disks have varying reserved sector count.
- Use of Hoddie Eprom with Horizon Ramdisk is not recommended as
supporting various 8/16 bit Horizons causes support problems.
Replace Hoddie Eprom with original Horizon 8K Ram chip and use
Jim Schroeder's Format utility.
- New command for MDOS 1.21 was not discussed in UPDATE docs.
The Command is VERIFY ON or VERIFY OFF that can be issued from
batch file or MDOS Command line. Default is VERIFY ON which is
how MDOS was written. Using VERIFY OFF, MDOS will not verify
disk writes (TI-99/4A style) and will allow speedier floppy
access.
Recognized problems still with V1.23
____________________________________
- Have recognized problem with 5 MB removable syquest hard
drives with MDOS >1.14. Fixes have not been found yet but are
believed to be tied to multiple hard drive sector reads or
errors reading sectors >40 to >7F reported as protected.
A temporary solution has been found and requires sector
editing on the hard drive. Basically, you must remove
access of sectors >40 to >81. This will include mapping
out the bit map sectors and sector 0 being modified to mark
the new location of the FDR.
FIX LIST
V1.21
- Fixes to text screen mode 26.5 * 80. Not all tables were
"full" of data to handle all conditions.
- Jim Schroeder fixed Horizon Ramdisk support for 8/16 bit to
use at CRU >1400 and CRU >1600. Drives DSK6, DSK7, DSK8, DSK9
set for these options as DEFAULT.
** NOTE: REMAPS now discussed in REMAP_TXT 10.31.94 tat
** NOTE: SETDISK now discussed in SETDSK_TXT 10.31.94 tat
** NOTE: VIDEO ON/OFF removed version 1.50
- Added a new high speed video command to the CLI. Turns the
Geneve video wait states on/off. Default is left to wait
states enabled.
Usage:
VIDEO ON turns video wait to high speed (0 wait states)
VIDEO OFF turns video wait to normal speed (1 wait state)
VIDEO displays current CLI setting.
Note: Usage of GPL will reset this value and will require
resetting to VIDEO ON, despite the speed it displays
as GPL is "external" to MDOS.
Also, if using GENMOD and 0 wait MEMEX, some
applications will run too fast and will require
setting VIDEO OFF to not lose video display data as
the 9938 Video Processor can not keep up with our
fast CPU.
- Revised XOP >11 by:
correcting coding errors.
clearing the VDP EQ bit in R#46.
optimizing low level operations.
- Rerevised Memory management to be once again compatible with
the Myarc 512K card and allow normal memory acqusition.
- initial mod in V1.20 was incorrect for the Myarc 512K
card. Due to no way of positively identifying memory
speed since switches can be manipulated, all memory cards
with >1.0 MB will have pages >40 to >7F, and >C0 to >FF
be 0 wait state (original Charlton concept).
- solves HyperCopy timing problems and other "random"
errors seen by people using the Myarc 512K card.
FIXES V1.20
- Applied KSCAN mode 8 fix to KEY1S
- Revised VID XOP'S >12 to >15.
- Modified XOP >35 to do range check on VDP register #.
- Modified Memory management to properly identify memory >1.0MB
to be 0 wait state