G V P I N S T A L L A T I O N D I S K N O T E S ============================================================================= C O N T E N T S --------------- A. Introduction B. Files contained in the GVP drawer 1. SCSI a. GvpScsiCtrl b. FastPrep c. ExpertPrep d. SCSIMaskFix 2. Memory a. MemTest 3. SystemInfo a. GvpInfo C. A530-Turbo Notes 1. 68EC030 Explanation 2. Quantum 120/240 firmware problems D. FastROM 4.5 Notes 1. Workbench 1.3 Operating System Removable Media Support 2. Quantum 120/240 firmware problems E. Getting Help ============================================================================= A. I N T R O D U C T I O N This GVP.Install disk contains a minimal Workbench 1.3.3 environment (enough to boot from and prepare a hard disk). It should not be copied onto the hard disk and used as Workbench. The FastPrep (and ExpertPrep) program will prompt you to copy Workbench onto that hard drive after it finishes prepping and formatting a partition; this request is explicitly aimed at the Workbench disks that were included with the Amiga when purchased (or any subsequent Enhancer Kit). The GVP.Install:GVP drawer (and the DH0:GVP) drawer contain standard utilities provided to help diagnose any problems that might be encountered when additional RAM is added, or other system components are modified. An explanation of the drawers and files found in the GVP drawer can be found in the next section of this document. ============================================================================= B. T H E G V P D R A W E R This section of the document will describe the various utilities included on the GVP.Install disk (and the DH0:GVP drawer for GVP products that have ore-formatted hard drives). Please note that ALL of the standard GVP utilities are provided on this disk; only a few of them will actually pertain to a single product. The others will either report errors (because the product they were designed for could not be located) or they will perform no noticeable function. 1. The SCSI drawer a. GvpScsiCtrl - This program was written to modify the operating parameters of the gvpscsi.device driver while it is running; without requiring a reboot. It has the following template: GvpScsiCtrl (option) where option is one of the following: -m This option will force gvpscsi.device to re-examine the SCSI bus and mount any cartridges inserted into removable media drives that were recognized when the system was booted. -r This option will force gvpscsi.device to re-examine the SCSI bus for drives (of any type) that it did not recognize when the system booted (i.e. a drive that is slow to spin-up from a cold start). -s This option is similar to the one above, except that if it locates a removable media device without a cartridge inserted, it will not return control back to the parent CLI until a cartridge is mounted and spun-up. (This can be RUN >NIL: in the startup-sequence, and then whenever a cartridge is first inserted into the drive, it will immediately be recognized). (DCOFF|DCON) This option forces gvpscsi.device to recognize Disconnect/ReConnect requests from a device or tells it to ignore those requests, regardless of what the information in a Rigid Disk Block indicates. This is useful for drives that do not support the Disconnect/ReConnect functions, but do not have a Rigid Disk Block either (i.e. a streaming tape drive). b. FastPrep - This program is the Automatic Hard Drive Prep-and-Format program. It has an easy-to-use Intuition (point-and- click) interface, and performs most of the work for you. Please refer to the FastPrep User's Guide for more information. c. ExpertPrep - This program is a more advanced version of FastPrep and allows more control over the prepping and formatting operations for a hard drive. Care should be taken when using this program, because it allows you to change almost all of the parameters of the drive. While it does attempt to warn you when a potentially problematic operation is requested, it will let you proceed! d. SCSIMaskFix - This Command-LIne utility will toggle the DMA Mask Value back-and-forth between 0xFFFFFE and 0xFFFFFFFE. Please read the section on Series-II 68030 accelerators and Extended Memory for more on this utility. 2. The Memory drawer a. MemTest - This program is actually a small script that calls two memory test programs to allocate all of the RAM currently in your system (and not in use) and performs tests on it. These tests include writing random values to a RAM address and then reading it back to compare with the original value. If any errors occur, it will report them to the screen. Since it is almost impossible to detect which chip on a SIMM module (or even which SIMM module) is at fault when an error is reported, attempts should be made to slowly reduce the amount of RAM in the system (and the tests re-run) to determine where the bad RAM chip may be. 3. The SystemInfo drawer 1. GvpInfo - This utility provides in-depth information about the various expansion products installed into the Amiga, CPU and RAM operations, and other useful information that can be helpful to have handy when calling GVP's Technical Support department for help. ============================================================================= C. A 5 3 0 T U R B O A C C E L E R A T O R The A530-Turbo accelerator represents a new level of expansion for the Commodore Amiga 500. This external peripheral combines a fast 68EC030 accelerator, 32-bit RAM expansion and high-performance SCSI interface all in one unit. There's no need to open your A500 unit and void the warranty, the A530-Turbo plugs into the A500 through it's external expansion port! There's even a mini-slot inside for additional peripherals (like our PC286 for IBM compatibility). 1. The 68EC030 processor is a cost-reduced 68030 processor, and lacks a Memory Management Unit. This MMU is useful for things like re-mapping Kickstart into 32-bit RAM, and running a developer debugging utility; however, the use of developer debugging utilities is rather limited, and for Kickstart re-mapping we have provided special on-board circuitry. This gives all of the power of a true 68030 without the extra cost! There are no performance losses or other draw-backs when using a 68EC030 chip. In fact, there is no way to tell what chip is in use during normal Amiga use (like word processing, desktop publishing, desktop video, etc.) 2. A word about Quantum 120 and 240LPS drives Early Quantum 120LPS and 240LPS drives contained a firmware bug that made them unreliable when more than one SCSI device was connected to a single SCSI host adapter. Quantum has released a firmware update that corrects this problem (v6.4). GVP has developed a special version of gvpscsi.device (4.5) to help alleviate the problem with the early Quantum drives, and under most circumstances, the problems do not appear. It is impossible to anticipate and correct all of the problems associated with the firmware bug, and some configurations will still experience problems. Tested and working configurations include (but are not limited to): Quantum 120LPS and Quantum 105LPS Quantum 240LPS and Maxtor LXT213SY Quantum 120LPS and Quantum 240LPS Quantum 120LPS and Quantum 52Q ============================================================================= D. F A S T R O M 4 . 5 1. Removable media support is now dependent on the operating system. With the release of Workbench 2.04 this functionality is built directly into the operating system. Users of Workbench 1.3 should update the RDB on ALL SCSI devices AND removable media cartridges with a copy of the FastFileSystem included on this disk in the L: drawer. This specific FastFileSystem is the one distributed with the Workbench 2.04 operating system for uses just such as this. Please refer to the FastPrep User's Guide for more information about how to re-prep a hard drive. Once the new RDB is written to ALL attached SCSI devices and removable media cartridges, and the machine is rebooted, the operating system will begin to handle all removable media processing (inserting and removing cartridges). 2. Early Quantum 120 and 240 LPS drives have a firmware revision that has shown some compatibility problems when used with various Amiga SCSI controllers. We have developed a work-around for this problem that works in *most* cases. There are certain cases, however, that we cannot overcome. Only the new firmware from Quantum will solve those problems. If you are experiencing problems with either a Quantum 120 or 240LPS, please contact GVP Technical Support at (215) 354-9495. ============================================================================= E. C A L L I N G G V P F O R T E C H N I C A L S U P P O R T GVP maintains a staff of Technical Support Representatives to answer calls and assist with installation and operation problems with GVP peripherals. The phone number is (215) 354-9495 and the fax number is (215) 337-9922. Please try to have your machine in front of you when you call, and be ready to provide answers to questions about motherboard revision, Kickstart and Workbench versions, GVP product versions, etc. A little extra research ahead of time will make it easier for the GVP Technicians to diagnose and solve your particular problem. =============================================================================