Config menu

For people with technical questions about their CFFA Interface card. You can use this forum to communicate with me and with other CFFA users. If you are posting a problem, please be as detailed as possible, including any necessary sequence needed to cause the problem, your system information and any error messages.

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Config menu

Postby Ken C » Thu Jul 24, 2008 5:42 pm

Bought a used Apple IIgs with a Ver2, Rev B, CFFA board. It resides in slot 1 and has a Sandisk 256 mb CF card. Prodos sees it as two 32 mb drives. I would like to add another two, 32 meg volumes, which, I assume, can be done via the config program. The manual says to hold the 'M' key down during the boot process but no luck. I have moved the card to slot 7, still no menu, and all I get is a message about no Prodos. The card is back in slot 1. Any ideas ?
Ken C
 
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Re: Config menu

Postby rich » Sun Jul 27, 2008 9:48 pm

Ken,

Let me start with a dumb question...
Is this a CFFA card from run 6?
Only CFFA cards from run 6 came with version 2.0 firmware. If you have a card from run 4 or 5 you will need to upgrade the firwmare.
The upgrade process is described in the manual available in this zip here:
https://dreher.net/projects/CFforAppleII ... _CDROM.zip

Assuming you do have a run 6 card, I have noticed that sometimes it is hard to get into the menu on accelerated GS machines.
If you have one, you may want to try to slow things down. There is a parameter than can be adjusted to set how long it will wait for a key
stoke.

-Rich
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Re: Config menu

Postby Ken C » Tue Jul 29, 2008 4:35 pm

Rich,

In the lower right corner of the card, it reads 'CFFA Version 2 Revision B'. Can't see anything noting 'Run 6". The gs is set to 'Fast', no accelerator card.

However, loaded GS/OS ver 6.0.1 onto the the card and, when booted, the desktop shows 4 - 32 meg partitions. I then loaded Dave Lyon's driver and, in addition to the terrific speed increase, there is a 5th 'CFFA HFS" partition of 115 megs. Not quite sure what HFS is, but looks like the entire 256 CF card is accounted for.

Also, if I hold the 'm" key down while booting from the CF card, all I get is a screen titled "Welcome to the world of GS/OS v4.02 The Apple IIGS Operating System" followed by a list of file names and "Press space bar to continue". Hit the space bar and it continues to the desktop.

Anything on the card that would tell what run it is ?
Ken C
 
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Joined: Thu Jul 24, 2008 5:32 pm

Re: Config menu

Postby rich » Wed Jul 30, 2008 9:36 pm

Ken,

Sounds like this is a run 4 or 5 card. The run number is the first none zero digit on the serial number on the back of the card. Keep in mind that the CFFA board for runs 4, 5 and 6 use exactly the same PCB and hardware. The changes to run 6 CFFA cards comes down to two things:

1) They are shipped with new version 2.0 firmware. (adding multi device support, and booting from any partition)
2) They have a couple changes to the CPLD logic to support changing the config menu settings without removing the Write Protect jumper.

You can update your card with ver 2.0 firmware and it will get you the new features.
Now, keep in mind that as of today, there is NO new GS/OS driver for the version 2.0 firmware and the old
driver that you just tried, will NOT load if it sees version 2.0 firmware. I have hopeful a new drive will be forth coming from Dave Lyons,
but I don't think we will see it until fall. So for those who want to stick with Dave's GS/OS driver, I recommend using the older v1.2 firmware.
It is this firmware that I believe you are running on your card, and it has no configuration menu.

Is that making more sense?

-Rich
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Re: Config menu

Postby Ken C » Thu Jul 31, 2008 8:11 am

Rich,

Thanks for the info, especially about Dave Lyon's driver not being compatible with version 2 firmware. I've really enjoy the speed increase.

You mention a 25% speed increase with ver 2. How does that compare with the Lyon's driver ?
Ken C
 
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Joined: Thu Jul 24, 2008 5:32 pm

Re: Config menu

Postby rich » Sat Aug 02, 2008 12:32 am

Well, in theory, when Dave finishes his new driver it should also be faster than his old driver. Because the 25% came from
a mistake I made in the original firmware that was discovered by Dave Schmenk. Dave Lyons followed my lead and implemented
that same core routine so I believe his driver should see some good speed improvements.

I will check with Dave Lyons to be sure that is correct, and get back to you here if not.

-Rich
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Re: Config menu

Postby alelee » Thu Feb 19, 2009 7:02 pm

Any word on how Dave is progressing with the update to the GS/OS driver

- Alex
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