Simtec IDE Filing System © Simtec Electronics 1997 This Read Me file describes how you should load and use this version of the IDE Filing System from Simtec Electronics. THE SOFTWARE ON THIS DISC IS THE PROPERTY OF SIMTEC ELECTRONICS AND MAY NOT BE LENT, HIRED OR GIVEN, IN ANY FORM, TO A THIRD PARTY WITHOUT THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF SIMTEC ELECTRONICS.  VProtect is the property and © of Pineapple Software. At this time, the latest version can be freely downloaded from their web site. Simtec Electronics, Avondale Drive, Tarleton, Preston, PR4 6AX, England. Simtec Electronics IDE text manual Iss B ©1997 Tel: 01772 812863 Email: info@simtec.demon.co.uk ############################################################################# INDEX 1 IDE DISC MANAGER INSTRUCTIONS 1.1 Why partition? 2 Getting started 3 Making a drive bootable 4 Changing the disc boot options 5 How to partition your drive 5.1 Device selection: Select an IDE device 5.2 Device Shape: Automatic/manual drive shape setting 5.3 Partition list: List and select partitions BSD UNIX installation 5.4 Partition details: Create/Edit partition information 5.5 Set Device options: Troubleshooting 5.6 Low-level format: Format device / zero whole device or partition 5.7 Partition device: Commit changes and write to device 6 The Desktop Filer Name Disc: Mount: Dismount: Share: Unlock: Lock: Verify: Free: 7 Removable drive support 8 Command line commands and help 8.1 Commands *IDEFS 8.2 Filing system commands *DeviceMap *ListMounts *Attach : [[:]|-|*] *Attach : *Attach : : *Attach : - *Unlock : [optional password] *Lock : 9 Non-RiscOS partitions and disc wastage 10 Re-programming the Podule FLASH ROM If it all goes wrong? 11 Compatibility 1) IDE DISC MANAGER INSTRUCTIONS ˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜ The IDEFS filing system and the !IDETool manager software are capable of understanding and managing a range of disc format and partitioning schemes. These include any standard ADFS formatted disc including Large‘ disc formats, HCCS partitions and of course the Simtec partitioning scheme. 1.1 Why partition? ˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜ The Disc structure of Risc-OS prior to version 3.6 allowed only a maximum of 512Mb of a disc drive to be used. With the advent of larger drives, this restriction meant that large parts of a disc were unuseable. When Acorn introduced New-Filecore‘ disc format with the introduction of Risc-OS 3.6, the limit was increased to 4GB. Such New-Filecore discs have the disadvantage of having a large LFAU (file allocation unit) which is less efficient in storing small files and directories. Partitioning creates multiple disc images on a physical drive, which are seen by the computer as separate drives. Partitions can be any size from 1 to 512Mb. (For New-Filecore, this upper limit is 4GB). In this way, on an A5000, a 1.2Gb drive can be split into two drives‘ of 512Mb each with the remainder in the third partition. Currently there can be up to 32 partitions per physical drive but Risc-OS can support only a total of eight partitions active at a time. 2) Getting started ˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜ Once you have installed your interface and drive and your machine is successfully powered up, you will find that there are only two optional configuration commands that need to be performed before you can make full use of your drive. These are described in section (3) 'Making a drive bootable‘. If your drive has been pre-formatted then one or more IDE drive icons should appear on the left hand side of the iconbar. IF only one icon named IDEFS appears then your drive may not have been formatted for Risc-OS. Check that your drive is talking to your computer by typing the following command at the command line: *IDEFS:DeviceMap After pressing , a list of all known responding drives will be given eg: Simtec 16 bit IDE interface (slot 0, interface 1) 2 FUJITSU M1636TAU 1125Mb 63 16 ML * If no drive information is listed then check that the drive is connected correctly and powered. If no list is given at all (or the command fails completely) then check that none of the IDEFS rommodules have been inadvertently flagged as unplugged‘. This can be caused by flat batteries for the CMOS ram, poorly written games software or by other cards which previously occupied the expansion slot. If this is the case then any unplugged modules must be enabled for the interface to work correctly. At the command line, *UNPLUG will list any unplugged modules. They can be restored by typing *RMReInit where is the name listed by UNPLUG. All Simtec IDE card modules are prefixed IDEFS... 3) Making a drive bootable ˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜ For the more experienced user who wishes to get more from their hard disk, it may be useful to execute a desktop boot file‘ on switching on. This feature can be used to start applications automatically and arrange the desktop windows. The method of generating these files is described in detail in your Risc OS3 manual. Once created, it may be necessary to change your machines configuration slightly so that it knows where to find your !Boot file. If you would like your file to be loaded from your new IDE disc drive then type the following commands from the command line (press function key if you are in the desktop). You must type the following configuration commands, pressing the return key after each line: *con. Boot *con. FileSystem IDEFS *con. Drive 4 If your !Boot file resides on a different disc then use Drive where n is your chosen partition number. In most cases this will be Drive 4. When you press after each line, the * prompt at the beginning of each line should move down one line. If an error message is seen then re-type the command, checking the spelling. *con. (con immediately followed by a full-stop‘) is the short form of *configure. All spaces must be included or the computer will not be able to separate the command part of your instruction from the values. You can verify that your commands have been accepted by typing: *status followed by pressing the key. This will display a list of machine configurations. Press the key to scroll to the end of the list. Check that the values listed are correct. If not, retype the appropriate *con. command. When you are satisfied, reboot your machine by simultaneously pressing and so that your changes will take effect. 4) Changing the disc boot options ˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜ Once the machine has had autobooting turned on, you must ensure that your chosen partition has been enabled for booting. If you now type *CAT a directory listing of current default drive will be displayed. The top line should read: Dir. IDEFS::< your partition name >.$ Option 02 (Run) If the Option setting is not (Run) then you can change this setting from within the Partition details window of IDETool or by typing the following OPT command. At the command line type: *IDEFS *DRIVE - where n is the same as your configured Drive setting *OPT4 2 Shut your machine down and next time it is restarted your !boot file will be automatically executed. 5) How to partition your drive ˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜ If your drive has not been previously partitioned for Risc-OS by your supplier, you will have to run the !IDETool application to initialise your drive for use. Run the !IDETool application and it will open the main !IDETool window, listing all IDE devices known to the IDEFS system. The application can be safely quit at any time by clicking on the button. When an IDE device is being accessed by !IDETool, any displayed drive icons specific to that device are unmounted and removed from the iconbar. This prevents file access to partitions which may be about to change. When !IDETool finishes the drive icons re-appear. It is recommended that any work be saved before !IDEtool is run. 5.1) Device selection: Select an IDE device To specify a particular IDE device to work with, move the pointer over the chosen drive entry in the device list and press over a partition name will mount the partition, create an icon and map it to a free drive number. Drive numbers are allocated on a first come basis starting at :4. Subsequent mounts are mapped to drive :5 :6 :7 wraping back after :7 to :0. The icons are displayed in order from right to left starting with drive :4. Whether a partition is auto-mounted is governed by the Automount flag set from within !IDETool. Only RiscOS partitions will be listed by the filer. If desktop access to any corrupted or non-RiscOS partitions is required then they can be mounted from the command line interface using the *Attach command. Dismount: If partitions are dismounted (unmapped), the icon disappears and its assigned drive number is freed. Subsequent mounts will take the first free number. This maintains a fixed relationship between partitions and assigned drive numbers. Share: Used to enable sharing of hard discs across Access networks. Unlock: If a password has been set, indicated by a R/O or key symbol above the drive icon, a writable submenu allows a concealed password to be entered. If a valid password is entered then the partition access state will change to the unlock settings (set by !IDETool). The partition will remain unlocked for the rest of the desktop session. If you forget your password then it can be changed or removed using the !IDETool application. Always keep your copy of !IDETool in a safe place, not on your hard disc! This will stop other users from changing or adding passwords, or formatting your disc! Lock: This will immediately put the partition into the locked state, requiring the password to be entered again to unlock it. Verify: Verifies a partition for disc errors. If the Automatically map defects button is checked then any defects found will be automatically dealt with. The address of the last defect found is printed above the progress bar. If a defect occurs within a file then the file will have to be deleted and the defect dealt with manually. If the normal manual mode is selected, verify will pause when a defect is found and the button will be un-greyed. Clicking on this button will try to map out the defect and verify will continue. The defect can be skipped by clicking on . The defects must be manually mapped out later. On completion, a summary of defects found and mapped is given. Free: This opens a standard free window for the partition. **NOTE** The mounted drives mappings and access permissions are maintained when the desktop is quit. If access is required to any unmounted drives then these can be set up before quitting or by using command line commands. 7) Removable drive support ˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜ IDEFS has built in support for removable media (Syquest) which enables a cartridge to be inserted into the drive and mounted at any timeœ. When the drive has spun up to speed, any partitions on the disc are scanned and drive icons dynamically allocated and displayed on the iconbar. If the eject button is pressed then all partitions associated with that disc are dismounted and removed from the mounts list‘. If there are any drive icons present on the iconbar then these too are removed. œ Due to a limitation with IDE, there may be occasions when an error is generated when a new disc is inserted. This can be eliminated by either: a) Configuring the drive as a Master and attaching the Syquest drive to its own IDE channel. b) Ensuring that all drive activity from a paired (master or slave) device is stopped while the disc is inserted and spun up to speed. 8) Command line commands and help ------------------------------ The star‘ commands provided by IDEFS are accessed from the command line. They can be listed at any time by typing: *Help IDEFS The supported commands are IDEFS, DeviceMap, ListMounts, Attach, Unlock and Lock. Further information on each command can be found by typing *help where is the listed command of interest. 8.1) Commands ˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜ *IDEFS This command has no parameters and changes the current filing system to IDEFS. Use *Drive to change the current drive to . 8.2) Filing system commands ˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜ The IDEFS filing system commands are only directly available when the current filing system is set to IDEFS. If IDEFS is not the current filing system then the IDEFS commands can be accessed by adding an IDEFS:‘ prefix. If ADFS was current, then *Listmounts would return an error:File ListMounts not found'. By adding the IDEFS: prefix, *IDEFS:Listmounts will be executed. *DeviceMap *DeviceMap with no parameters, lists all responding IDE devices for each expansion card found by IDEFS. A typical list would be: Simtec 16 bit IDE interface (slot 0, interface 0) 0 QUANTUM BIGFOOT_CY6480A 6204MB 63 15 ML Simtec 16 bit IDE interface (slot 0, interface 1) 2 FUJITSU M1636TAU 1125Mb 63 16 ML Simtec 8 bit IDE interface (slot 1, interface 0) 4 IBM-DBOA-2720 689MB 63 16 ML * For each device, details of the expansion card type, card slot number,interface socket number, device id, name/model number and device specific information is given. The specific information quotes the capacity, number of sectors, number of heads and two mode flags M and L. M‘ indicates that multi-sector commands can be used and L‘ indicates LBA addressing mode. The absence of these flags indicates that either single sector commands or the drive will be operated in CHS addressing mode. *ListMounts This command has no parameters and lists the details of all partitions known to IDEFS. The table generated lists the name, size, IDE device number, partition number, assigned logical drive number, if it allows execution of a !boot file and the current access rights controlled by any passwords.. Name Size Dev Part Drv Boot Access ========================================== Voyager 4095MB 2 0 :4 Run R/W Enterprise 1990MB 2 1 None Grissom 100MB 2 2 :5 R/W Odds‘nends 15MB 2 3 :6 R/W * Any drive with no assigned drive number will require one to be Attached before it can be accessed by the filing system. *Attach : [[:]|-|*] This command has several functions which are dependant upon the parameters given. If an unrecognised partition name is entered then the error Unknown mount‘ is returned. *Attach : On its own will test that a particular partition name has been assigned a drive number. Any partition with its Automount‘ flag set will be automatically assigned a drive number. If there are insufficient unallocated drive numbers, or a drive has been unmounted from the desktop, then the partition will need to be re-attached before it can be accessed. In the above ListMounts example, *Attach Enterprise on its own would return the message Not attached to any drive‘, confirming that the partition called Enterprise‘ had no assigned filing system drive number. *Attach : : When a drive number between 0 and 7 is specified (optionally prefixed by : ), the named partition will be given the filing system drive number specified. If the drive number is already allocated then the error This drive number is in use is reported. If the mapping of a partition is not important, if an asterisk * is used instead of an explicit drive number, the next available drive number will be allocated. *Attach Enterprise * Name Size Dev Part Drv Boot Access ========================================== Voyager 4095MB 2 0 :4 Run R/W Enterprise 1990MB 2 1 :7 None <˜ next free number assigned Grissom 100MB 2 2 :5 R/W Odds‘nends 15MB 2 3 :6 R/W The mapping of a mounted partition can be changed using the same command. *Attach : : will change the partitions current drive number for the new one. Eg. *Attach :Enterprise :0 Will change the mapping of Enterprise partition, currently drive :7 to drive :0. As the partition is already mapped, partition name may be substituted with its drive number ( :7 ). As a shorter alternative, *Attach :7 :0 has the same effect. *Attach : - This is used to unmount a partition and release its drive number for use by other mounts. Again, for speed, the mountname can be replaced with the drive number to be freed. *Unlock : [optional password] Unlock is used to change the access state of a password protected partition to its unlock state. A partition can be specified by either its partition name or its assigned drive number (if it has one). The password can be entered at the same time but for extra security, if not supplied, it will be prompted for after is pressed. The CLI prompt changes to a colon (:) and any characters typed appears as asterisks. If the password was correct, partition will remain in the unlock state until the machine is re-booted or explicitly locked. Any attempt to unlock a non-password protected drive will generate the error This drive is not password protected‘. *Lock : Lock will immediately place a partition back to its lock state. As with *Unlock, the mountname can either be the partition name or its assigned drive number. An attempt to lock an already locked partition will do nothing while locking a non-password protected partition will return an error. 9) Non-RiscOS partitions and disc wastage ˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜ Any partitions that IDEFS cannot recognise as being RiscOS formatted will be classed as non-RiscOS and given a partition name XXXX- where is the IDE device number containing the unknown partition. Situations when this might occur include devices with PC formats, native UNIX drives, corrupted Risc-OS partitions and any unused space at the end of the disc. To access these unknown partitions using Filecore, they must first be manually mounted from the CLI. The partition name is found using *ListMounts and then made known to Filecore by assigning a drive number using the *Attach command. The partition may be allocated an automatic drive number using * or given a specific number with the : option. (See *Attach for more details) 10) Re-programming the Podule FLASH ROM ˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜ The Simtec IDE interface uses an electrically erasable ROM to store its control software. This enables the contents to be updated easily from floppy disc with the ability to add your own modules. As well as the IDE software, each card has a copy of Pineapple software‘s VProtect module (current at the time of duplication) to give basic help in the control of the spread of viruses. The !ROMBinder application enables the Flash ROM of any Simtec IDE card to be updated by selecting the card to be programmed and drag-and-dropping the modules to be programmed onto it. This process can be aborted at any time by clicking on the button. a) When run, the main window of !ROMBinder is opened listing any Simtec IDE expansion cards. Select the chosen card with the mouse and the ROM capacity for that card is displayed. If the ROM has been disabled for some reason then a candidate card will not be listed. In this case, select the button for a list of all expansion cards. The card will be identified as being the only one with a completely blank entry. The slot number can be verified by typing *Podules at the command line. The disabled card will appear as: Simple type &x where x is a letter which depends on the version of risc-OS (F for Risc-OS3 and V for 3.5 and later). b) If the button is clicked, the default modules required for the card are listed in the window below. Space allowing, extra modules can be dropped over the window to be included. Unwanted modules can be deleted from the list by selecting them with the mouse and clicking on the button. Do not delete any of the IDEFS modules as this will prevent the card from functioning correctly. As the modules are loaded by the OS in sequence, make sure that the order of any critical modules is correct or this may prevent the computer from re-booting. c) Once the desired modules have been loaded, they can be programmed into ROM by clicking on the button. This will take several seconds with the percentage completed indicated by the hourglass. Once started, do not interrupt the programming sequence as this may corrupt your ROM and make it more difficult to restart your machine. d) When the hourglass disappears, !ROMBinder can be exited by clicking on the button. A will be required for the loading of the new modules to take effect. If it all goes wrong! ˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜ If the contents of the ROM has become corrupted (by accidentally adding an incompatible module or interrupting the ROM update) and the machine fails to boot, then it is possible to disable the ROM by temporarily removing the jumper cap from link LK2. Make sure that you follow normal safety precautions by switching off and disconnecting all power to your computer before opening the case. LK2 is adjacent to the Static warning triangle and is marked with the text OPEN=ROM DISABLE. **OBSERVE STATIC PRECAUTIONS** when removing the link as both the computer and expansion card can be damaged by static discharge. With the ROM disabled, it should now be possible to boot the machine and run the !ROMBinder application to restore the ROM contents. When re-programmed, shut the machine down, switch off and replace the jumper cap on LK2. The machine should now power up correctly with the newly reprogrammed ROM image. 10) Compatibility ˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜ While the software has been extensively tested during development with a wide range of drives, it is not possible for us to guarantee that this card will work with every drive first time. In cases where popular drives have a compatibility issue then every effort will be made to correct this. If you experience problems then please contact us detailing the problem so we can develop a fix‘. Currently we have tested the card with drives from: Conner, Fujitsu, IBM, JVC, Maxtor, Quantum, Samsung, Seagate, SyQuest and Toshiba. If you discover any bugs or Features‘ or have problems using the card or support software please follow this procedure:- 1. Make a note of the problem, giving as many details as you can. 2. Provide examples, if possible of the problem. 3. Make a note of the version number of the IDEFS software and support modules. This can be found by pressing F12 to enter the command line, and typing: *ROMModules Towards the end of the list of modules, the version numbers if the IDEFS modules will be given. If you have loaded your own modules in the EEPROM then note these too in the order in which they appear. 4. Note the date and serial number stamped on the expansion card. 5. Contact Simtec with the above information for assistance. #############################################################################