Date   : Thu, 06 Mar 1986 05:02:00-PST
From   : STANLEY@USC-ISIF.ARPA
Subject: Re: ZCPR3 STARTUP

       
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    Date: 25 Feb 86 14:03:56 GMT
    From: pete%stc.co.uk@BRL.ARPA
    To:       info-cpm@AMSAA.ARPA
    Subject: Re: ZCPR3 STARTUP
    Return-Path: <@USC-ECLB.ARPA:info-cpm-request@AMSAA>
    Message-ID: <847@bute.tcom.stc.co.uk>
    Newsgroups: net.micro.cpm
    
    
           My attempts to mail this have bounced twice now so, with
    apologies, here it is for everyone:
    
    > Rick:
    >
    > After much experimenting, I have gotten ZCPR3 up and running on
    > my H89, using a BIOS mod written by Jerry Furst.  One problem,
    > however:
    >
    > 1. ZCPR3 (correctly) expects to find STARTUP.COM and tries to run
    > it on cold boot.
    >
    > 2. I created STARTUP.COM using ALIAS, consisting only of the LDR
    > commands needed to load the system segments.
    >
    > 3. When ZCPR3 tries to run this ALIAS, it returns either an
    > "Ovfl" error, or it fills the Shell Stack.  (Didn't think ALIAS
    > used the Shell Stack!)
    >
    > 4. If I run the same ALIAS (STARTUP) from the ZCPR3 prompt, it
    > works fine.
    >
    > I spoke with Jerry Furst, the BIOS mod author, and he reported
    > that he had the same problem.  He was able to work around only by
    > using the ZCPR2 STARTUP.COM program.
    >
    > The STARTUP feature is important to making these systems turn-key
    > for users.  I can only figure that something is going wrong in
    > trying to load the system segments.
    >
    > Help, please.  What's happening here?  Has this affected anyone
    > else?  How do I fix it?
    >
    > Once I get this licked, I'll upload Jerry's auto-install ZCPR3
    > files for the H89 with this fix included.  He has done a nice
    > job, and you can install ZCPR3 from scratch on an H89 in about 75
    > minutes without a hitch.
    >
    > Thanks in advance.
    >
    >                                 ...Dick Stanley
    >
    > stanley@isif
    
    
           I had similar problems with ZCPR3 on my Gemini (British)
    system.
    
           In my case neither LDR or ALIAS would work until the whole
    Z-system was running. I wrote a small 'C' program to substitute for
    LDR. Then I found the answer.
    
           Which was to reassemble ALIAS and LDR from scratch. Not only
    the SYSENV.LIB file but also all those others like Z3HDR.LIB and
    CBIOSHDR.LIB get included. Having done this everything was fine.
    
           It seems that for everything that runs BEFORE the environment
    is installed, using Z3INS is not enough.
    
           BTW, I had a small but annoying problem when linking ALIAS and
    LDR. The libraries that come with the distribution disks (I got mine
    from the New Jersey group via the British CPMUG) were assembled with a
    version of M80 that only puts the first 6 characters of names in the
    .REL file, while my copy of M80 exports 8 characters. This caused some
    names not to match at link time. I worked round this by fixing the
    sources of ALIAS and LDR. If I wanted to reassemble a lot of utilities
    I'd rebuild the libraries.
    
           Now for a question. Does your PATH work correctly? At boot time
    one of the programs in my STARTUP script downloads various utilities to
    my RAMDISK. However I haven't been able to get the path searching to go
    for this disk before the currently logged-in disk.  This is nullifying
    the use of the RAMDISK, which I went for as an alternative to a number
    of RCPs.
    
           Any help anyone could offer would be much appreciated.
    
           Peter Kendell <pete@stc.UUCP>
    
           ...!mcvax!ukc!stc!pete
    
           "The ultimate expression of law isn't order; it's prison"
    -- 
           Peter Kendell <pete@stc.UUCP>
    
           ...!mcvax!ukc!stc!pete
    
           "The ultimate expression of law isn't order; it's prison"
    
             --------------------
               
Peter,

Yes, my PATH does work properly.  However, I set the path using
PATH.COM, and noit as part of the BIOS initialization.  PATH.COM
is called by the STARTUP alias and is used with my RAM disk.  It
works fine.  In fact, one of the reasons I wanted to get ZCPR3 up
was to avoid losing the >SUB file tail on the default when the
RAM disk was activated.

BTW, did you notice my later note on the fix for getting STARTUP
to run correctly?  You must put the address of Z3CL into
Z3ENV+18H at initialization time.  When you do that, it all works
fine.

                                ...Dick Stanley

stanley@isif