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Configuring
the system:
After installing
LK DOS software on the DOS LU 10, now is
the time to configure the whole system.
Configuration includes setting the size
of the hard drive Logical Units and selecting
a number of options that will determine
the operating characteristics of your Lt.
Kernal system. The first of these 'configurations'
is to either use the default settings or
change the SYSGEN-generated Logical Units (LU)
settings. Using or changing these Logical
Units determines, in part, how much of
your drives' total capacity is used or
subdivided for separate storage areas.
Unlike a PC that uses drive Partitions,
you will see that unless you use low-capacity drives or use multiple
LUs on the Lt. Kernal, you won't be able
to use as much of the hard drives'
capacity.
Before continuing,
let's look at where the CBM term "Logical
Unit" comes from. Commodore Dual-floppy
drives (e.g., 4040, 8250, etc.) were addressed
as Device number 8 or 9 and so on. How
then did you separately address each of the
two physical disk drives? This was accomplished
by referring to one drive as drive "0" and
the other as drive "1", or Two Logical Units.
To load a file, you could use either
LOAD"0:filename",8 or
LOAD"1:filename",8. (Actually,
when you use a 1541 drive, it's implied as
LOAD"0:filename",8) So, the
Lt. Kernals' design just took this further by
providing up to 10 User Logical Units defined in
software instead of hard drive 'partitions'.
The Lt. Kernal
allows you to have up to ten user Logical
Units. This allows you to separate data,
keep backup copies of files in different addressable
areas, ultimately have More storage area
and better organize your data. So, some thought
needs to be given to how you are going to
use your hard drive. If you outgrow the
space on one of your LTK LUs and want to increase/decrease
the LUs' size, you risk losing files in
both that LU and the adjacent
LUs.
Another very
important consideration when setting
your LUs is to make a 'Spare' LU.
The reason for this is because you may need to
transfer all of your files from one LU to this
'spare' LU in order to make repairs on
a corrupted LU. That is, if the Recovery
or Validate LtK DOS commands can't solve a
file or directory problem, you'll want a
Spare LU to transfer as many files as possible
before you Activate (erase) the bad LU. When
the corrupted LU has been Activated, you can
then transfer all of your files from the Spare
LU, back to the repaired LU.
So, to help you
determine if the default setting will
work, it would help to see the current configuration!
To do this from the prompt of an LTK operating
system, enter "config" on the far-left column
cursor position and hit Enter. (Note: All
DOS commands are entered in lowercase and
always at the far-left) This DOS command
loads the existing or new 'ltkernal.r' or
'ltkrn128.r' file and then shows these options:
- F1 - SET LOGICAL
UNIT PARAMETERS
- F3 - SET
ALL OTHER PARAMETERS
- F5 - SET
THE SPREADSHEET COLORS
- F7 - EXIT
CONFIGURE MODE
Start by pressing
F1, which will first asked you to
select the PHYSICAL CONTROLLER
number (0-7). This number actually refers to
the SCSI Address Number of the drive (on-board
drive's controller). All single-drive Lt. Kernal
systems use SCSI address zero (0) or Physical
Controller Zero. If you are adding a Second drive, the Physical Controller
is ONE, etc.. Physical Drive Zero is also the drive
where DOS is installed and where you
should start. If you installed Seven more drives (SCSI ID# 1 - 7), LtK DOS
is still only installed on SCSI ID#0. Therefore, enter 0
(zero) for the Physical Controller
number.
Next, you are
asked to enter the Physical Drive number
(0-3). This is always
set to drive zero (0) because
OMTI Controller cards are not used with
SCSI embedded controller drives. (Note: With
early designs of the Lt. Kernal, OMTI controller cards were
used by Fiscal and Xetec. You could
connect up to Four drives to an OMTI controller
card (four
Physical Drives) - Yes, a Total of '32'
hard drives! However, with 'embedded-controller,
SCSI drive LTK systems', there is only One Physical Drive/SCSI ID#, so you
enter 0 (zero) and hit Enter.
You now see a
Table showing which LUs were created (or
your old settings) and how many hard drive Cylinders
of storage are assigned to LU 10,
LU 0, LU 1 and LU 2 (Yes,
you set LUs by Cylinder usage, but you won't
yet know
how many Blocks of storage are available for
each LU!) As mentioned before, these
allocation numbers were either the way you
set them before or SYSGEN defaults. If you
reinstalled DOS, these settings were the result
of reading the existing 'ltkernal.r' file on
the hard drive. If these displayed setting are
wrong, simply enter the numbers you recorded
during the last installation. Once this done,
all of your existing files are now available
again and you are finished configuring the
LUs. If you just reinstalled SYSGEN, you
can Exit to the F3 menu (see
below).
However, if this
is a new install (on a new drive), you can
change these default LU settings to anything
you want (within reason). In order to change the
size of any LU, you must DELETE the LU first and then
ADD another LU. That is,
before you ADD an LU, you must Delete one
or more LUs to make space! Since the default
creates 3 User LUs, you could DELETE
them all and start over. However, you should
not create one big LU. Just remember that
the chart shows the Total number of
Cylinders you have to store data. The objective
is to set Cylinder usage so there are
no Unused Cylinders.
Please notice that
assigning Cylinders numbers is
sequential. That is, LU 10
starts at ZERO and uses a few number of
Cylinders (this number changes depending
upon which Drive you use and is set by
SYSGEN). Installing SYSGEN sets the Starting
Cylinder for DOS - LU 10 at Zero and sets
Size to 30 Cylinders. However, if you installed
a larger capacity drive,
LU 10 may have been automatically set to only
8 cylinders usage. That
means you have already gained 22 cylinders
(30-8=22). (Note: SYSGEN default of
starting LU 10 to 30 is due to the small
capacity drives that were used when the LTK
was designed; 20 meg drives got 30 cylinders
to store DOS). If DOS only
used 8 cylinders, you could use the remaining
Default settings OR you could DELETE all of the
User LUs (0,1, & 2) and make your own User LU settings.
If you wanted to
use 200 Cylinders for your first User LU (LU
0), simply enter that number at the
prompt. For example, if the DOS LU 10 starts at 0 and uses 8 Cylinders,
you would enter "8" for the Starting of User LU 0. Next, if you
wanted LU 0 to have 200 Cylinders of storage, enter "200" for Size.
So far, you've used 208 Cylinders of the
drive's total capacity. Next, the Starting
Cylinder number for LU 1 would be "208" (can't be less or you would
destroy files in LU 0 - could be more, but you'll create a gap and waste
storage). Again, if you use a 200 Cylinder-size for
LU 1, you have now used a total of 408
Cylinders which would be the starting
Cylinder number of LU 2. This process could
continue until you have used All available Cylinders
and or LU numbers.
- CAUTION: You can't
use a number of Cylinders which will equal
more than 65,536 Blocks (65K disk Sectors)
of data storage because the Commodore is an
8-bit computer! Due to the fact that addressing
the discbitmap
for each LU is accomplished with 16-bit binary
arithmetic, the maximum possible
size for any one LU is 65,536 disk
sectors or 32 megabytes of
storage (i.e., 65K x 512 Bytes/Sector - also equals 131K Commodore Blocks/LU.)
- (You should read ACTIVATION
Before making substantial changes to
the default LU configuration!)
- If you use the
Default SYSGEN settings, no editing is
required. However, if you want to make
modifications, you still need to DELETE
the LU first. Actually, for our
example, you need to DELETE All User LUs and
start over.
- If you want
all of your LUs to be as large as
possible, first consider:
- Different drives render
different storage BLOCK sizes for the same
number of Cylinders! (Commodore Blocks
= Cylinders X #Heads X Sectors/Track X 2)
- If you set
the LU Cylinders Size too high, you
will roll-over the discbitmap and
start back at the bottom! (i.e.,
actually have less Blocks storage
because you mathematically went past 65K
and started over!)
- The WALL!
(see top menu)
- A safe
maximum limit for cylinder usage is
240 cylinders (see
below)
- On a sheet
of paper, first calculate the
largest number of cylinders for
storage. To do this, multiple the
number of Heads times the number of
Sectors/Track (e.g., 7x35=245). Now, divide 64K by the
H/ST product (e.g.,
65,536/245=267). This number (267)
represents the largest theoretical
number of cylinders needed to
produce the largest LU possible. But, to
prevent an Index or BAM rollover, you should
start with a smaller number like 240 to
255.
- In CONFIG,
first DELETE all LUs (not LU
10). Then ADD LU 0, starting
at cylinder 08 (i.e., use the same
number used by LU 10), allocate 255
cylinders to the size of LU 0. Enter
UPDATE then EXIT.
Next, ACTIVATE LU 0 and
restart the computer (see SYSGEN
Activation)
- Type LU
0 at the prompt and hit Enter
(in case your default starting LU is
not 00). Enter DIR to
determine the total Blocks available
in the LU (could be 55K-64K Blocks?).
- GO BACK TO
CONFIG and DELETE LU 0 and
then ADD LU 0 again. Now,
slightly increase or decrease
(tweak) the cylinder allocation
until you achieve your desired LU-size
results.
- ACTIVATE
LU 0 one last time, cycle power
and retest the BLOCK
size.
- Continue
this process until the Sum of
used and available
Blocks does Not exceed 65,536 Blocks.
- Depending
on the drive(s) you use, there may
be another limit to the total number
of Cylinders you assign to an LU.
The VALIDATE command may not
work properly for Cylinder counts
above 240 (240 and below
seems to work fine on any drive).
This is apparently due to the Validate
command itself (code). In order to
test this condition, Configure one LU,
Activate this LU and then transfer some
files to the LU (Use FASTCOPY to move some
files from floppy to the LU). Next, enter
that LU number at the prompt (e.g.,
LU 0) and then enter 'validate'
and press Return. (When you use
Validate, you must first select the LU# and be in that
LU)
- If everything is working
properly, the screen will show each
file name being Validated.
- If
there's a problem, the process of
Validating will destroy the
discbitmap, thus
destroying access to the files in
that LU. You could re-Activate
the LU, but changing the size
of the LU first is the only solution!
(less # Cylinders)
- The total number
of Sectors per LU is the Product
of #Heads, #Sectors/Track and #Cylinders.
Since Fiscal and Xetec did not
have to contend with very
large capacity drives, this
was probably never a design consideration?
- When you
run this Validate 'test', you
only need to transfer a few files
to the LU. This potential problem
has nothing to due with how Many
files you transfer, simply the
process of running the 'Validate'
command.
- This
potential '240' Block limit is
probably due to the fact that
Xetec used 20 and 40 megabyte
drives and did not expect anyone
would be using 200 to 500 megabyte
Hard Drives!
- Once you have
determine the optimal Cylinder number
size, this number works for subsequent
LU settings.
- Setting all ten User
LUs to their maximum cylinder size normally
equals over 1 million Commodore Blocks
of file storage capacity.
- A special
feature about LU 10 (DOS) is that you
can put your own utilities in this DOS
LU 10 (SYSGEN sets the size of LU 10,
but you'll still have space to store
your programs). The advantage of putting
your utility files in LU 10 is that the other
LUs can access your utility, simply because
it's in LU 10. The disadvantage is that any
time you do a SYSGEN again, all files are
erased in the LU 10, including your utilities.
Therefore, before doing another SYSGEN,
copy your files from LU 10 to any other
LU. Once SYSGEN is done, copy your
utilities back to LU 10.
- If you add a
Second Hard Drive, you will use the
Next unused LU Number in Configuring
that drive (e.g., Physical Controller
1, Physical Drive 0, stating at
Cylinder 0 in (e.g.) LU 4. So, the
objective is to Not set all available
LUs on your first drive (SCSI ID# 0)!
When you've
finished setting the LUs, Exit this
screen. As you saw by doing the above procedure,
you had an option to either display the
table settings to the Screen or Printer.
By either means, RECORD
these numbers when you're finished;
you will need them again! Knowing your LU
settings is important if you don't want to
lose any files when you SYSGEN again. When you
EXIT setting LU parameters, you will be returned
to the main CONFIG screen.
Note:
If you added a Second Drive and go to set LU sizes, this is where
most people get confused. That is, when you set the First Drive
(Physical Controller ZERO) to a certain number of User LUs (say, DOS
plus LU 0 - LU 3), you need to Record these settings. The reason
is that when you go to Config the second drive's Physical Controller ONE),
the Config Screen is Blank (no, the First Drive's settings were Not erased!).
However, on this Blank Config screen, you start where you left
off, meaning you set LU 4 starting at Zero and then set LU 4 Cylinder
Size. Also, you set the starting LU (e.g., LU 4) at Zero because
there is no DOS LU on any drive other than Drive Zero. Finally, it's only
when you Exit Config will you now see the settings for Both Drives.
Here's one other
comment about Recording your Logical Unit
(LU) settings. On a PC, if you drag a
folder to the trash and empty it, you Deleted the
files, Not the discbitmap on the hard drive. However, when you
install/reinstall LK DOS, the Lt. Kernal
discbitmap and BAM files May be lost. However, if you simply
set the LU Cylinder numbers back the way
they were, you have restored access to your
existing LUs and all your user
files.
At this point in Configuration,
you should have set all of your Drive(s) LUs and Recorded these settings
for future reference. Now it's time to set the other features of
the Lt. Kernal.
Now press F3 to
select the other system features. The
first thing you'll see is a chart or spreadsheet
which is organize along to top by PORT
number. Since most Lt. Kernal applications
use only one Host Adapter, you can disregard
all of the columns except the first PORT
00 column! Looking down this column, you
can edit the screen, boarder and character colors
(15) and printer number. To edit or look at
the options for each, use the cursor up/down
keys to position over the item and press
the up-arrow (next to Restore key). The
other options are explained in more detail
below:
- DRIVE
# sets the drive number of the Lt.
Kernal. The default is drive # 8, but
you can change this to any legal device
# (8-31). When the computer is turned
on, this will be the device # of the
LTK. In Most situations, you will
probably leave the LTK device as #08
because the software you run on the LTK may
have been written only for device #8!
- LOGICAL
UNIT # sets the LU number at
startup. While the default is LU 10 (DOS),
this is usually set to LU 00 because that's
where most users put their most-used files
and:
- At power-up, DOS looks
for the 'autostart' file on the
Startup LU
- Any ML or Basic program
will automatically load/run if its
name is changed to "autostart"
- One of
the best features of the Lt.
Kernal
- USER #
sets the startup User # (one of 16 User
areas - default is 00)
- One thing most people don't
know about setting the Default USER Number is that it's like having 16 different
Hard Drives! That is, when you start-up the Lt. Kernal and it's in a
USER number (any number), software is unaware of 'User#s' and performs hard
drive jumps and branches like before, but in the Default User#! - think about
it...
- AUTOLOAD
- If you try to load a file, the DOS
looks for it on the hard drive.
However, by enabling AUTOLOAD,
if the file is Not found, DOS will look
for the same file on the floppy drive
(Great feature!)
- Device number of the
Floppy drive and Drive# of the LTK should
be the same
- Connect two floppy
drives; #8 and #9
- When you
want to Autoload to another floppy, change
the LTK by using the "D"
command (e.g., D 8, D 9,
etc.)
- Using
the above allows you to Autoload
from one of two floppy
drives
When you are
finished setting these options, press the
exit arrow to return to the CONFIG
menu. F5 is then used to set the spreadsheet colors
(the chart you just saw in F3) and F7 exits Configuration
menu and returns you to the main system prompt
level.
You're Done,
right? MAYBE? If you simply reinstalled LK
DOS to an already-operating system (Your
personal files are already on the hard drive),
and you reentered the Same LU numbers
from your previously recorded list,
you Are Done.
However, if you
just install LK DOS on a newly formatted
drive, all that you have done is set the
LU sizes. Just like a PC or Mac, the LU index/bitmap
must be written for each LU; regardless
if you use the default settings or set your
own configuration! If you want to see how
confused the hard drive is right now, enter
DIR for any LU number (other than LU 10) and
see what happens.
After you have
configured the LUs on a new drive, you
Must now ACTIVATE each LU!
This process is what actually makes your
New drive ready for use! However, before
you Activate the LU, you may want to read
the 'Wall' section (if you didn't
already).
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