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Text File | 1988-01-19 | 18KB | 434 lines

----------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> Help/Hints for creating a disc that will autoboot and run a <-- program of your choice.. eg a Ghostwriter/Spacewriter demo. A walk-thru guide, much like a cookery book! Heres one I did earlier!! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is an area where we get many cries for help and hopefull this article should guide you through all the options and procedures... This tutorial covers formatting options, formatting, copying workbench, renaming files, deleting items, creating a 'shell' disc to work from, makeing new directories, using ram discs, speeding up DOS operations, initializing, what files/draws are needed and startup-sequences.. FIRST THINGS FIRST... ------------------ You will need a disc to work on, you can do two things you can.. Either FORMAT/Initialise a disc from scratch or Delete all items from a copy of Workbench that you will not use. AS A BEGINNER YOU MAY WANT TO FOLLOW EITHER PATH, BUT I WOULD SAY THAT USING A PARTIALLY DELETED WORKBENCH DISC IS THE EASIEST OPTION.. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- HINT! ** HOW TO ACCESS THE CLI ** This tutorial will guide you through CLI usage and show you what can be done hopefully it will encourage you to use it a bit more. I accept that the manual isnt exactly helpful but never mind. To actually get the CLI up and running from Workbench, open the SYSTEMS draw and it should be in there (1.3 owners will see SHELL - open that). A rectangle box about 1/4 the size of the screen appears and you can move/ stretch this as you feel necessary. You will see a '1>' prompt... The '1>' means it is the first CLI (you can have quite a few going at once you see, but we only need 1 for what we are doing here) and the '>' sign means that it is ready for some input. To close the CLI window at anytime and return to workbench type 'ENDCLI'. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- HINT! ** SPEEDING THINGS UP! ** Using Amigados can be a real pain so how can things be speeded up? Well one option is to put all the most popular CLI commands into a RAM: disc and run them from there. [A ram disc acts just like a normal disk drive but is stored in memory and all data is lost when you turn off]. To create a faster environment to work in... load up workbench and open the CLI icon (may also be called SHELL - its in the system drawer remember) once the CLI window appears.. type.. copy c/run to ram: copy c/type to ram: copy c/execute to ram: copy c/dir to ram: copy c/copy to ram: copy c/delete to ram: copy c/assign to ram: copy c/cd to ram: copy c/list to ram: copy c/loadwb to ram: copy c/endcli to ram: copy c/setmap to ram: copy c/makedir to ram: copy c/install to ram: copy c/ed to ram: THIS PUTS THE MOST COMMONLY USED CLI COMMANDS IN THE RAM: DISC.. if you are curious, type 'list ram:' and there they all are! They havent moved from the original disc, these are copies. Now just type 'assign c: ram:' - this makes the amiga look for the commands in the C directory in the ramdisc... so instead of loading it from disc it just runs from memory! saves a lot of time and disc-swapping later on.. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you intend to use a copy of workbench instead of a new disc goto 1.1 1.Formatting: ------------- If you do not have a dedicated formatting utility then the Workbench initializing command will be ok. Load up workbench in the standard way and when the workbench appears insert the disc you would like to format in the drive. If the disc is unformatted - or has an unreadable format then the name of the disc will be DF0:BAD or DF0:NDOS (if its a strange format). If the disc has data on it, the name of the disc will appear - MAKE SURE YOU REALLY WANT TO FORMAT AS ALL PREVIOUS CONTENTS WILL BE LOST! When you are happy that you arent going to lose anything major (something like Streetfighter will do ok! hehe) then click on the disc icon to highlight it, and access the menus at the top and select INITIALIZE. The Amiga will respond with 'DF0:BUSY' and a counter showing what track is currently being formatted. If the format fails try another disc as it is likely that the disc is damaged although this is a rare occurance. Once formatted the disc will be called blank (this means the name in amiga dos will be Blank:) the colon (:) signifies that it is a device, otherwise Blank could be just a drawer or a program or filename. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HINT! ** NAMING OF DISCS, WHY IT IS IMPORTANT AND WHAT IT ALLOWS ** In amigados (CLI) you can now use the disc just like you would use a ram: disc, external disc (df1:) or (df0:) by using 'blank:'. Eg You are using workbench and you are in CLI, you want to copy a file called DATA to your own disc, how do you do this with one drive? Easy.. Just type 'Copy data to blank:' - this will move the file called DATA to the disc called blank. Of course you can substitute the names of the files and discs to suit yourself.. More complex example.. Imagine you have a program called ACCOUNTS and it is on a disc called UTILS and in a drawer called PROGRAMS - you would like to move this program to a disc of your own called MYDISC and into a drawer you have made called MYPROGRAMS. You would use the following from CLI.. 'Copy utils:programs/accounts to mydisc:myprograms' Note the use of the '/' character which means a sub-directory... Sub-Directories are draws within draws.. EG on your workbench you have a drawer called DEVS and inside devs you have several more draws, for printers, keymaps etc - these are sub-draws.. to list them from CLI you could type 'Dir devs/printers' - this lists the contents of the draw printers which is in the draw called devs. To get clever you could also add a device name! Then you could choose which DISC to look at as well, so you could examine DF0: (internal drive) DF1: (external drive) RAM: (Ram-disc) DATA: (a disc with the name data) etc ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HINT! ** CHOOSE A NAME FOR THE DISC AND REMEMBER IT ** If you have just one drive you may find it wise to rename the disc to something which is easily remembered - like DEMO or whatever you like, the workbench disc is (funnily enough) called Workbench. DO TRY and avoid using spaces in the name as this will only add to confusion! If you need spaces then use the '-' sign as a seperator as in 'Demo-Disc'. WHY SHOULDNT I USE SPACES?? Well, because of the way Amigados works a space is taken as a 'seperator' eg if from CLI you try and run a program you have got that is called 'MY DEMO' it will try and run a program called 'MY' and will report an error. If however you used "MY DEMO" it would work, as the quotes mean it is one word... yes it is confusing so AVOID the spaces ok? FOR THE TUTORIAL I ASSUME YOU NAME A DISC 'DEMO' SO PLEASE USE THIS NAME IF POSSIBLE OR SUBSTITUTE 'DEMO' FOR YOUR OWN DISC-NAME... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- HINT! ** HOW TO RE-NAME A DISC ** This is a relatively simple thing to do, when the workbench is active, enter the disc you are to be renaming and the icon for the disc should appear. Click on the disc so that it is highlighted and select RENAME from the options at the top-menus. A space will appear where you can delete the old name and type the new one. Make sure the disc is write-enabled so the data can be saved though! Easy huh!? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have successfully formatted and named a disc to your satisfaction then go to step 2.. If you would like to try the other method of deleting what you dont need from a copy of workbench then follow the steps below... 1.1 CREATING A WORKABLE DISC FROM A COPY OF WORKBENCH ----------------------------------------------------- First you have to get a copy, you can do this by using a commercial copy program/utility or via workbench. Follow the programs instructions if you are using a commercial program or the ones below to copy using Workbench. Copying on workbench -------------------- Whilst on workbench, highlight the workbench icon by clicking on it and select duplicate from the menus at the top. Follow the prompts as shown and a couple of minutes later you will have a copy. Note: You do NOT need a formatted disc, the amiga will do this for you.. if you have just one drive you will have to do a fair bit of swapping. When complete you will have a disc called 'Copy Of Workbench'.. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HINT! ** BE CAREFUL ! ** After copying a disc through workbench the disc-name has 'Copy Of' added to it, you may find certain discs will not work due to the name being different... you can easily remedy this by using the RENAME option as used earlier.. simply delete the 'Copy of' and also the leading space. You will find it easier to rename it to something which you can easily remember. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Deleting the Files you will not need... --------------------------------------- Ok, so you have a copy of workbench, what do you do now? Well provided you have renamed the disc to something suitable.. I will assume you have named it 'DEMO' Firstly while you have workbench loaded up, put the disc you are going to be working on in the internal drive (df0:) which should be called DEMO or whatever name you have given it. Double click on its icon to open the main directory. Now delete each of the items on there by first highlighting them (click on the item once) and then select DISCARD from the menu at the top. Repeat until all of the files have disappeared and there is only the trashcan left. Insert your workbench disc back into the drive and open the CLI icon again (inside the System drawer). type the following.. delete demo:fonts all <- this deletes firstly all the files in side a drawer called FONTS on a disc called DEMO then deletes the drawer itself. delete demo:devs/keymaps all <- this gets rid of the keymaps delete demo:devs/clipboards all <- likewise the clipboards delete demo:s <- Empties the S Directory FOLLOW ALL PROMPTS/DISC SWAPS AS REQUIRED {QUITE A FEW IF YOU ONLY HAVE 1 DRIVE!} If you are not using a ram: disc to store all your Cli commands then you need to type all of the following... copy c/run to ram: copy c/type to ram: copy c/execute to ram: copy c/dir to ram: copy c/copy to ram: copy c/delete to ram: copy c/assign to ram: copy c/cd to ram: copy c/list to ram: copy c/loadwb to ram: copy c/endcli to ram: copy c/setmap to ram: copy c/makedir to ram: copy c/install to ram: copy c/ed to ram: THIS PUTS THE MOST COMMONLY USED CLI COMMANDS IN THE RAM: DISC.. if you are curious, type 'list ram:' and there they all are! They havent moved from the original disc, these are copies. Now type... delete demo:c all <- this deletes all the CLI commands and directory dont panic as we have the ones we are interested tucked away in ram: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ makedir demo:c <- this creates a drawer (or directory) on your disc called C, it is the place where the Amiga looks for the [C]ommands. Now we want to put the commands into the empty directory from the ram disc using the copy command.. so type.. copy ram: to demo:c all <- and this does the trick! Now you have your commands on your disc (just the ones you will need later). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Moving on... By now you will have either... 1) A freshly formatted disc with a directory called 'C' containing the most popular Cli commands 2) A renamed copy of workbench with about 80% space on it.. If you have (1) then do the following... 'Copy devs: to demo:' 'Copy l: to demo:' 'Copy libs: to demo:' After this has finished - type... 'delete demo:devs/keymaps all' <- this gets rid of the keymaps 'delete demo:devs/clipboards all' <- likewise the clipboards ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- You will now have a disc named DEMO with about 80% space on it.. If you put all the CLI commands into a ramdisc earlier on you can place the disc called DEMO in the drive and type INSTALL df0: This makes the disc bootable. HINT!! If you are not using a ramdisc, you can make a disc bootable by following these commands... 'Copy c:install to ram:' NOW INSERT THE DISC TO INSTALL (DEMO or other name) 'ram:install df0' ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now type MAKEDIR demo:s <- creates a drawer for your Scripts/Sequences You are now ready to put the programs that you want onto the disc and prepare the startup-sequence ready to create a working disc for use! HINT! MAKE A COPY !!! SO YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO THIS ALL THE TIME!!! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. An example. -------------- You have created an intro with Spacewriter/Ghostwriter and you would like to put it on a disc for a friend. 1) You need to copy the intro program you have created, lets say for example its called INTRO - you could copy it to ram: through the CLI as you should have now learnt and then onto the destination disc, as we have been doing through this tutorial. 2) Once it is on the disc a STARTUP-SEQUENCE needs to be created! 3.1 WHAT IS THE STARTUP-SEQUENCE AND HOW IT IS EDITED.... --------------------------------------------------------- The startup-sequence is a file that reads rather like a basic program, it contains a list of commands that are executed (or run) by the Amiga one after another. For example a startup-sequence might look like this.. echo "Hello There" loadwb endcli What this does is first to print 'Hello There' on the screen (the command is called Echo - echo to the screen), then load the Workbench system and then close the CLI by using the command ENDCLI. Result is that the Amiga ends up on workbench ready to use. This would be a good example to use if you are wanting to put programs on a workbench disc that runs straight away without the use of another workbench disc. As you can see the Amiga reads the first command, follows it and then gets the next etc... the startup-sequence can be any length. The amiga goes through this sequence when booting... Checks its systems and depending upon the condition of the Amiga it makes the screen go a different colour, normal is white/grey, if your screen goes red/green EVERY time when you switch on there may be a problem and it could pay to have it checked out.. Occaisional colours are nothing much to worry about though. Checks to see if there is a disc in the drive i) If no then it puts the famililar workbench hand up and the Kickstart rom number up (1.2/1.3 on a500's at the present). ii) If yes then it checks to see if the disc is bootable, by bootable I mean it has either been installed or it has a custom boot-block like many demos, commercial programs etc iii) If the disc is not bootable then the workbench hand is put up requesting a bootable disc.. iv) If a disc IS bootable and it is standard Amiga format then the Amiga firstly reads in a file called 'system-configuration' which is found in the DEVS directory (and is the file saved out by preferences) - this contains details of the colours that are to be used, the pointer colour and shape, printer to be used serial parameters etc etc v) After loading the system-configuration the Amiga looks to find a file called 'Startup-sequence' in the S directory, if it can't find it then it exits into CLI. If it does find it then it begins running the commands and programs in the list. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- HINT! Creating YOUR OWN startup-sequences... -------------------------------------- From CLI (using your workbench disc as we have been doing throughout the tutorial) type 'ed df0:s/startup-sequence' A screen will appear, this is ED a text-editor! Now you can put your own list of commands/programs... In our example we had created a demo with Spacewriter and had saved it under the name INTRO.. we can put this in the startup-sequence by typing INTRO and pressing return.. This means that the amiga would run the intro and exit (as there were no more commands to follow) so you could add more commands or even loadwb and endcli so that the intro is run and the Amiga then loads workbench up, try it out! To save the sequence press ESCAPE (ESC - top left key) and then 'X' and return. Make sure the disc you are wanting to write to is in the drive BEFORE you do this! If the program asks for the Workbech to be put back in as it sometimes does.. just click on cancel - the sequence will now be saved into your S directory... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Disc is now ready to boot! You have successfully created a bootable disc from scratch using the dreaded CLI.. it may have been hard work but hopefully it will encourage you to do more.. and hopefully you have learnt a few tricks and methods along the way!