**************************************************************************** * * * DataFlyer SCSI+ 1200/4000 ReadMe File 10/5/94 * * ---------------------------------------------------- * * * **************************************************************************** ReadMe Table of Contents ---------------------------------------------------- 1. Manual Changes and Addendums 2. About the Software 3. Creating Boot Disks (Floppy Based Systems) 4. CD-ROM Drives 5. CD-ROM Troubleshooting 6. Bernoulli Drives 7. Frequently Asked Questions 1. Manual Changes and Addendums ---------------------------------------------------- Page 24 - "Removable Media Drives" The CheckDC command is placed in the actual Startup-Sequence file, and not the User-Startup. All references to "User-Startup" should be changed to "Startup-Sequence". Page 26 - "DataFlyer AutoInstall Files" The file "User-Add" has been removed from the S directory of the install disk and was replaced with the command "UpdateSU" in the C directory. 2. About the Software ---------------------------------------------------- The DataFlyer SCSI+ is primarily controlled by two files and a handful of utilities provided to access SCSI devices. SCSIPlus -------- This small program patches some vectors in the Amiga's IDE drivers to allow for the DataFlyer to transfer SCSI commands over the IDE bus. It ensures that the Amiga does not attempt to access the IDE bus when the SCSI+ is using it. If one or more IDE drives are connected to the Amiga, this program must be run prior to accessing SCSI devices to prevent the IDE and SCSI data from conflicting. It is not necessary for this program to be run if no IDE drives are present, since only SCSI data will be sent over the bus. ExpXDS.device ------------- This file is the actual device driver for the SCSI+ board. It provides the "bridge" between software packages that need to directly access the controller (CD-ROM file systems, formatting software, SCSI scanner software, etc.) and the SCSI+ controller itself. The SCSI+ Installation disk contains two different versions of the ExpXDS.device driver. One is for the SCSI+ for the Amiga 600/1200, and the other is for the Amiga 4000 version. Problems will arise if the wrong driver is used, so be certain that the correct version is installed. Please note that when working with device drivers, filenames are extremely case sensitive and must be entered exactly as listed. DFMount ------- Since the SCSI+ is a not capable of automatically mounting SCSI drives, the DFMount utility is used. It's purpose to to scan the SCSI bus and mount any devices which were formatted with Commodore's Rigid Disk Block standard. The DFMount command should be followed with the list of SCSI devices to be checked (ie. DFMount 2 3 4 5 6). In some instances, DFMount might fail if it cannot detect a valid Rigid Disk Block on a device. Some CD-ROM drives report back "garbage" when DFMount checks for a RDB, causing DFMount to fail. If this happens, simply remove the SCSI unit number of the drive from the list after DFMount. 3. Creating Boot Disks ---------------------------------------------------- If you are working with a system that does not contain any IDE hard drives, it is necessary to create a Boot Disk to boot the system and activate the SCSI+ board. The following example assumes you have two floppy drives (DF0: and DF1:), with the DataFlyer AutoInstall disk in DF0: and a copy of your Workbench disk in DF1:. 1. Make a copy of your Workbench floppy disk. This copy will be modified into the actual boot disk. 2. Copy the ExpXDS.device file to the DEVS: directory of the Workbench disk and DFMount program to the C: directory. Copy DF0:Drivers/A1200/ExpXDS.device to DF1:Devs Copy DF0:C/DFMount to DF1:C 3. Edit the User-Startup file on the Workbench disk (Ed DF1:S/User-Startup) and add the following line to the end of the file: DFMount 2 3 4 5 6 4. CD-ROM Drives ---------------------------------------------------- The following list of CD-ROM drives have been tested by Expansion Systems and are known to work with the DataFlyer SCSI+: NEC CDR-3X1 NEC CDR-210 NEC CDR-84 / 84JD-1 Toshiba XM-3401 Pioneer DRM-604X Sony CDU-561 (Apple 300) MediaVision "Reno" Texel DM-3021 The following CD-ROM drives are NOT compatible with the SCSI+: NEC CDR-25 (MediaVision MV-2) NEC CDR-38 Plextor DM-3028 Texel 5028 5. CD-ROM Troubleshooting ---------------------------------------------------- Asimware AsimCDFS 2.0 --------------------- If you are using the AsimCDFS 2.0 software to control your CD-ROM, make sure the following three files are located in their respective directories on your booting disk/device: DEVS: ExpXDS.device DEVS: asimcdfs.device L: AsimCDFS The following sample mountlist should match the mountlist created by the AsimCDFS installation software, with the exception of the "Unit =" line, which is based on the SCSI Unit number of the CD-ROM drive. Please note that the "Device =" line is extremely case sensitive and the "ExpXDS.device" must be entered exactly as shown. CD0: Device = ExpXDS.device Unit = 4 (Varies depending on SCSI ID# of CD-ROM) Buffers = 192 BufMemType = 5 Mask = 0xffffffe Flags = 0 FileSystem = l:AsimCDFS DosType = 0x662dabac GlobVec = -1 Mount = 1 Reserved = 0 LowCyl = 0 HighCyl = 999 Surfaces = 1 BlocksPerTrack = 32 Priority = 10 StackSize = 5000 # AmiCDROM -------- AmiCDROM is a public domain CD-ROM filesystem package for the Amiga. To set it up for the SCSI+ controller, do the following: First, Copy the cdrom-handler file to the L: directory on your booting disk/ device. Next, edit the Mountlist file in DEVS: and add the following lines to the end of the file. Note that the Startup line is extremely case sensitive and must be typed exactly as shown. Also, be sure to substitute the "4" in the Startup line with the SCSI ID number of your CD-ROM drive. CD0: Handler = L:cdrom-handler Stacksize = 10000 Priority = 5 Globvec = -1 Mount = 1 Startup = "ExpXDS.device-4-LOWERCASE-ROCKRIDGE" # 6. Bernoulli Drives ---------------------------------------------------- The DataFlyer SCSI+ controller uses a special function called Page Mode to locate and identify SCSI devices. Generally, most SCSI devices support Page Mode, except for Bernoulli drives. Bernoulli drives, however, can be accessed through a mountlist file. A sample DOSDrivers mountlist (BE0) is provided in the Devs:DOSDrivers directory of this disk. Copy the file to the DOSDrivers drawer of your booting drive and edit it as necessary. The default parameters supplied are for a 150Mb drive set for SCSI unit number 4. 7. Frequently Asked Questions ---------------------------------------------------- Q. How is it possible to convert an IDE controller into SCSI? A. The IDE connector inside of the Amiga really isn't a controller at all. It is basically a scaled down 16-bit version of the Amiga's bus. The actual IDE controller is on the IDE drive itself hence "Integrated Drive Electronics". Although it is not a full bus, there are enough Data lines present for us to transmit SCSI information also. Q. Why can't the SCSI+ autoboot SCSI drives? A. To make the controller autoboot, it would require that the card be placed in a standard Autoconfig card slot. Since the IDE connector does not contain the Autoconfig address lines, we cannot automatically load in the SCSI device drivers required to make the system boot from SCSI.