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AUTOBOOT.ARK
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AUTOBOOT.ADD
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1988-03-13
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AUTOBOOT.WS -- ADDENDUM
by Ruel T. Hernandez
March 13, 1988
This is for anyone with a MicroSphere ramdisk, or anyone who needs a
similar application, or anyone who likes to use a combination of submit
programs....
On my Kaypro, with the MicroSphere ramdisk, I use a combination of /.COM
(which is the super small submit program) and EX15.COM.
The problem I had with my Kaypro-MicroSphere was continuing the autoboot
sequence after I turn the ramdisk into drive A. Basically, when the
physical drive A is no longer seen as drive A by my ramdisk (the ramdisk is
now drive A and the physical drive A becomes drive E), well, the $$$.SUB
generated by /.COM remains on the floppy disk and the ramdisk as drive A has
nothing to read in continuing the autoboot sequence.
That's when EX15 comes to the rescue. With the /.COM-EX15 combination,
/.COM does everything I want my Kaypro to do, such as load various programs
including the important ramdisk program, before I have it do the physical-
drive-A/ramdisk switch. Then EX15 comes along (after being called by /.COM)
and does the drive switch and continues with the autoboot sequence with
whatever files and programs I have on the ramdisk (you can keep the
MicroSphere ramdisk powered up when you turn off the Kaypro, so you don't
have to reload the ramdisk with programs and files everytime you turn on the
computer like with the Advent and that other co-processor ramdisks). And
that pesky $$$.SUB file is erased too. Without EX15, the autoboot sequence
would stop after the disk drive switch and the $$$.SUB file would remain on
the physical drive A -- the $$$.SUB seems to cause problems with NewSweep
and other programs making it seem like you have nothing in the floppy disk
directory.
What I did was make a SYNONYM .com file named STARTUP.COM which tells
/.COM to do the following as if it was being done manually:
A>/ warning;ez on;gd on;rd;xk e:ws;ex ram <RET>
which means have /.COM run my WARNING.COM program (which puts a warning line
on the bottom 25th screen line to potential theives), then fire up
EZCPR.COM (EZCPR has to be modified with ZCPR2's GENINS.COM to recognize
drive E), then turn on GUARD.COM (which protects EZCPR from being wiped out
by warm boots -- also stops warm boots from going to the physical A drive),
run the RD.COM ramdisk program (I hacked the MicroSphere RD.COM program so
it only sysgens the ramdisk without the program stopping to ask me to
manually type in a yes or a no as to whether the ramdisk should be
reformated), then run XtraKey which loads up my WordStar definitions located
on the ramdisk (the ramdisk is drive E before the disk drive switch), and
then hand off the autoboot sequence (and the disk drive switch) to EX15
which then reads the RAM.SUB file. The RAM.SUB file has the one line of:
dir f:;line;kaypro;pause;clr;dir
which is a ZCPR command line. What this does is: (1) do a DIR F: which is
the disk drive switch command where the physical drive A becomes drive E and
the ramdisk becomes drive A; (2) run my new LINE.COM program (sitting on the
ramdisk) to rewrite the bottom 25th screen line with a new screen "bumper
sticker"; (3) run KPGRDISP.COM which shows a graphic display of the Kaypro
logo; (4) pause the autoboot sequence ("Please press any key to
continue...."); and (5) run my DIR.COM program. [[I hacked my copy of EX15
so it doesn't give it's little exit message, "(Ex Completed)", or that extra
">" after the A0> prompt, when it has finished its task.]]
When using programs like EX15 with RSX programs like GUARD.COM, you have
to be careful to not have EX15 run any program that does a warm boot or else
you will lose some memory and make your TPA smaller. Have /.COM run the
programs that do the warm boots. That's why I load up XtraKey in the /.COM
part of the autoboot sequence (of course, it had to be after I had it run
the RD.COM ramdisk program or else XtraKey could not access the WordStar
definitions on the ramdisk). EX15 does not seem to have this problem when
there is no RSX program in place. Note, the one good thing about GUARD.COM,
other than protecting EZCPR from being wiped out by a warm boot, is that it
stops warm boots from going to the mechnical A drive and, therefore, the
disk drives remain silent.
And that's all there is to it! :-)
------------
Ruel T. Hernandez, P.O. Box 5813, Chula Vista, Ca 92012
CIS: 71450,3341 - GEnie: R.HERNANDEZ - Internet: ruel@cup.portal.com