Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!rutgers!sunybcs!bingvaxu!leah!uwmcsd1!ig!jade!ucbvax!LANL.GOV!rgt From: rgt@LANL.GOV (Richard Thomsen) Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro Subject: Changes to Rainbow BIOS for double-sided disks Message-ID: <8712032002.AA10635@LANL.GOV> Date: Thu, 3-Dec-87 15:02:55 EST Article-I.D.: LANL.8712032002.AA10635 Posted: Thu Dec 3 15:02:55 1987 Date-Received: Tue, 8-Dec-87 02:33:55 EST Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 268 This is for all the people who have been interested in my changes for DEC Rainbow system code. I have changed IO.SYS and other parts of the Rainbow Version 2.11 system code to allow me to put in two Shugart double-sided, double-density disk drives. They are still 100% Rainbow compatible, including Rainbow single-sided disks, IBM 8- and 9-sector single-sided disks, but now also do both IBM 8- and 9-sector double-sided disks as well as double-sided Rainbow disk drives (which give me over 800KB of disk space on one floppy). To do this, I replaced my standard Rainbow disk drives with the two Shugart disk drives. This was the ONLY hardware change. The software changes were to the IO.SYS file, the MS-DOS Bootstrap file, the hard disk primary and secondary bootstrap files (done because I am running with a RD52 33 Meg disk), and the floppy disk primary bootstrap file (done so I can boot from double-sided disks). I also changed the FORMAT program so that I could format double-sided disks. Then I obtained a copy of the FORIBM.COM program that formats IBM single-sided disks on the Rainbow for use on MS-DOS (it runs on CP/M). I modified this program to format IBM double-sided disks for my system. While I was at it, I put in code to extend the Rainbow keyboard buffer, and to allow CONTROL-CANCEL to clear the typeahead buffer, and to allow CONTROL-SHIFT-CANCEL to kill any process currently running. These can be changed to any desired key, although I never wrote the system code to actually do it. Then I put in the hooks for disk caching, and wrote some of the code to do that, but never finished. All the work was done after I typed in the BIOS code from the Rainbow listings in the documentation set, and then fixing it by adding the files that DEC did not bother to print in the set (and apparently commented out of the listings themselves). The other files I obtained by disassembling the Z-80 code and 8088 code that I needed (when just reading the documentation was not good enough). I can assure you, debugging all this was a real pain!!! I need to emphasize that the changes are 100% compatible with the existing Rainbow disks and operating system - I have had no problems. I have a Rainbow at work that is unmodified, and I still exchange programs and disks between that one and the one I have at home that I did modify. I wrote to Digital Review magazine about this and got no response. I wrote to DEC Professional magazine offering to write an article on how I did this and to provide patches. They said that they no longer print articles on the Rainbow, and would forward my letter on to Ted Needleman who prints a Rainbow magazine. I had already written to him offering the same deal, but got no response. I was going to write to Digital Review again with the same article, but have not yet done so. I wrote to DECUS, and my letter was published in the newsletters back in April or so, but no other response. I sent a set of DIFFERENCE files between my code and standard DEC code and sent it to Bernie Eiben, who used to provide Rainbow files on the DEC MARKET machine. He was going to make them available somewhere, or do something with them, but I have heard nothing. Since it is DEC copyright code that I have modified, I cannot make the complete source available without their permission. I have never received any sort of reply from DEC for any letters or anything else I have written. I had some hardware ideas for upgrading the Rainbow also, and have written many letters to many groups about this. I have yet to receive ONE reply. These ideas included putting an Intel 80186 and 8087 into the Rainbow, as well as putting in a SCSI interface for the machine, multiple processors, and possibly even an 80386. I wrote to Microsoft about building my own computer and obtaining permission to port MS-DOS onto my new creation, and was told to "see my machine's hardware manufacturer". Very useful. I started my own company to develop some of these ideas, and was told that I should forget about the Rainbow and concentrate on the IBM PC, since that is where the market is. Now I am trying to close the company (state bureaucracies are just as bad as federal ones), and will probably forget the whole thing. Even if I sell my Rainbow, I am not allowed to sell my modified software or include it in the sale. I have received some requests for information and other things, but I have not done anything else yet about this, including writing the articles (since no-one seemed to care about them anyway, and I have been busy with other projects). What I may end up doing is writing the article and posting it to the net, along with another set of difference files. But I am open for suggestions. Note that difference files without associated source code is not very useful. Especially when the source code is not even printed correctly in the (expensive) documentation books. And then DEC wonders why people who used to own Rainbows will not buy VAXmates. Or any other DEC products. I bought a PIXY-3 plotter cheap from mail order, and wrote a version of the GKS graphics standard to run it. It runs the plotter as one device, and I was going to make it write to the Rainbow screen in both high- and low- resolution modes as two more devices. I obtained the DEC-written library that writes to the screen and mean to (someday) modify it to work with my package. I also need to make a few changes to the device-independent part of the package to make it a bit faster. Since it uses floating point, and I do not have a floating point chip, I never worried too much about the speed of things. I only use it for caligraphy anyway, since I put in the Hershey fonts that I got off the net. This is another project that I have never finished, especially since my Rainbow screen lost its blue gun, and so does not do graphics very well. My frustration level with computers (actually computer companies) has risen very high, and I have not been motivated to do anything with computers on my own time for quite some time. Richard Thomsen Mountain Route Box 234 Jemez Springs, NM 87544 This is in response to some of the questions I received. I tried to respond via mail to many of these, and never succeeded. From D-ROGERS@EDWARDS-2060.ARPA Fri Sep 18 09:51:57 1987 Richard, Have you put together a patch package for io.sys yet? Did DEC say anything negative? I am interested in the patches, if you still care to them. ADVthanxANCE [dale] From obrien%obrien.decnet@venus.ycc.yale.edu Fri Oct 23 07:09:33 1987 I'd be curious to see how you did bios mods for the Rainbow. Did you rig it so that you could just connect 2sdd drives directly? (i.e. is it a cheap alternative to Idrive?) I have Idrive - I'm just curious about the insides of my machine. As far as I know, DEC released the 2.11 BIOS to anyone who wrote and said they wanted it - I have a listing at home! Or were you speaking specifically about the 3.1 version of the BIOS? If you're a hardware expert, do you know of anyone who has connected a Multisync monitor to a Rainbow? Regards Jim O'Brien Department of Chemical Engineering Yale University P.O.Box 2159 Yale Station New Haven, CT 06520, U.S.A. +1 203 432 4382 Return Addresses (all equivalent): OBRIEN@YALEVMS BITnet OBRIEN-JAMES@YALECS BITnet OBRIEN%OBRIEN.DECNET%VENUS@YALECS BITnet OBRIEN@VENUS.YCC.YALE.EDU internet OBRIEN-JAMES@YALE.EDU internet OBRIEN%OBRIEN.DECNET@VENUS.YCC.YALE.EDU internet ------ From art@mitre.arpa Thu Oct 29 07:53:42 1987 As you indicated in your previous note. You can distribute changes to the BIOS without violating any copywright laws. You can not however distribute a full copy of your modified bios without DEC's permission. I did write to Ron Gemma (Rainbow product manager) on several questions. I included your question as part of the letter. After a wait of 6 months I finally received a form letter that made it very clear that DEC had never even read my letter. The form letter was an answer to the form letter that appeared in a year old WARUG newsletter asking for MS-DOS 3.10, networking kit etc. Thru other verbal communications I have been told that MANY MANY of the form letters were received by DEC and anything that looked like it came as the result of the C. Mack/ T. Needleman generated letter writing campaign was answered by this form letter. At this point you could write an article telling how to do it. DEC Professional or Ted Needleman would probably be willing to pay for such an article. I would like to obtain the information on how to do it, and probably would make the changes. * *---Art * *Arthur T. McClinton Jr. ARPA: ART@MITRE.ARPA *Mitre Corporation MS-Z305 Phone: 703-883-6356 *1820 Dolley Madison Blvd Internal Mitre: ART@MWVMS or M10319@MWVM *McLean, Va. 22102 DECUS DCS: MCCLINTON * From D-ROGERS@EDWARDS-2060.ARPA Thu Oct 29 15:13:27 1987 After reading the last msg on this subject on the net, sounds like you are free to distribute the list of changes. If you are not inclined to sell an article to Needleman's newsletter, i'd be most grateful to get whatever patching info you can supply. The DIF files might be all that's needed. advTHANXance [dale] ------- From art@mitre.arpa Mon Nov 16 10:35:05 1987 Jim Wolfe (301) 765-8743 is very interested in getting your mods to the drivers and BIOS. He indicates he would have time to convert the changes to the format acceptable by DEC for widespread distribution. DEC will allow people to distribute difference files. I gave him you name but did not have your phone number. * *---Art * *Arthur T. McClinton Jr. ARPA: ART@MITRE.ARPA *Mitre Corporation MS-Z305 Phone: 703-883-6356 *7525 Colshire Drive Internal Mitre: ART@MWVMS or M10319@MWVM *McLean, Va. 22102 DECUS DCS: MCCLINTON * From D-ROGERS@EDWARDS-2060.ARPA Fri Nov 20 09:38:48 1987 Richard, have you yet resolved the problem with the color monitor? I'm still interested in your changes in the Rainbow BIOS to support the DSQD floppy drive (it sounds like same-same RX33, is so?) [dale] ------- From @po3.andrew.cmu.edu:rl1b+infodec.errors.arpa@andrew.cmu.edu Wed Dec 2 05:21:45 1987 - Anyone notice that the disk drivers in Rainbow MS-DOS can handle a double-sided floppy disk? Anyone experimenting with adding a TEAC drive (can't remember the model) to replace the RX-50s? Workable patches to the driver to support it? Alan Alan I. Vymetalik @ {allegra,seismo}!rochester!ritcv!iav1917 ----------------------------------+---------------------------------- J.A.M, Inc. | Prism Software Designs 300 Main Street | 44 Arborwood Crescent East Rochester, New York, 14445 | Rochester, New York, 14615-3807 | 1-716-458-4932 ----------------------------------+---------------------------------- DISCLAIMER: The above statements and opinions belong to the author. Any resemblence to statements found in actual reality is purely coin- cidental. And, as always, the above opinions have absolutely nothing to do with the little, fat man putting $100 bills in my pocket. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: IBM and IBM PC are trademarks of Internation Business Machines, Inc. DEC, RD52, Rainbow, and VAXmate are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation. MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft, Inc. CP/M is a trademark of Digital Research, Inc. Z-80 is a trademark of Zilog, Inc. 8088, 80186, and 80386 are trademarks of Intel, Inc. Richard Thomsen Mountain Route Box 234 Jemez Springs, NM 87544