Date   : Fri, 12 Oct 2007 13:25:07 +0100
From   : jgh@... (Jonathan Graham Harston)
Subject: PANOS / ACW user guide...

J.G.Harston wrote:
> The guide says that the distribution disks are purely distribution
> disks, and the software on them need to be installed with the
> install program to set up a correct structure to operate within.
 
Due to a dodgy disk I ended up installing them with a combination
of automatically and manually doing it by reading the command
files. Installing the software is more than just copying to the
destination drive. Most of it is copying, eg from DFS directory
"R" to ADFS/NFS directory "$.PanosLib._rif", but you need to know
which go in PanosLib and which go in PanosTests.
 
> Once I've got a successfull install, I'll zip it up and put it on
> my website.
 
I've just spent last night doing a full install from the Release
Version 1 disks. The installation will be at
http://mdfs.net/Mirror/Archive/Acorn/PanOS/Version110/System11.zip
within the next couple of hours.
 
My PanOS Disk 1 has a bad track right in the middle of the
"Catalog" command, so it is unusable. If you can find an
alternative set of PanOS Release 1 disks, that one file needs
replacing. You can't use the "Catalog" program from another
release - I tried, it aborts, giving a very nice backtrace
display.
 
Jules Richardson wrote:
> > I want to install PANOS - which is on DFS disks - onto an ADFS Winchester.
The
> > Guide to Operations suggests that the necessary voodoo is probably in the
User
> > Guide. I suspect it just does a big copy of all the files from the
floppies,
> > so I could do things manually, but it'd be nice to check.
 
I couldn't get Panos to boot from my ADFS hard drive. Initially I
thought it was because it's an IDE drive, but I couldn't even run
Bas32 either. In fact, I couldn't load anything from the hard
drive into the 32016 memory. Then, a fragment of memory surfaced.
I remember reading somewhere that Panos won't work with ADFS, and
you had to request a special version. Looking through my paperwork
I found a photocopy of a delivery note from Acorn for "ADFS 32-M,
which is required fto be installed into the Master 128K when using
a 32016 with a Winchester""
 
Checking the New Advanced User Guide, page 351 says:
 
"Due to nonavailability of 8MHz chip sets, Acorn launched the
32016 with a 6MHz chip set. Unfortunately, an unforeseen problem
arose with the use of the normal ADFS software and the slower
32016s which meant that a special version had to be written for
use with these slower machine. The changes that had to be made
meant that there was no room to include the floppy disk drivers in
this version of ADFS (ie, it can only be used with a hard disc.
 
The best way to circumvent this problem is to replace yhe 6MHz
chip set with 8Mhz or 10MHz chips and to replace the 12MHz crystal
with a 16MHz or 20MHz one. Once this is done normal ADFS software
works perfectly with floppy or hard disks."
 
So, all you need to do is track down an 8MHz or 10MHz 32016 CPU
and FPU. (!)
 
On a positive note, from all this rummaging around I found I
actually had a copy of the Panos/Pandora Technical Reference
Manual, that I posted a request for recently. I shall scan it in
and upload it as soon as I get the chance.
 
-- 
J.G.Harston - jgh@...                - mdfs.net/User/JGH
The most perfect world is an imperfect world as the imperfections
give people a reason to strive to change it.