by dlyons » Sun Jun 19, 2016 12:29 am
ProDOS 8 v2.0 and later automatically recognizes when there are extra SmartPort devices available, and it assigns them to otherwise-unused slot/drive combinations -- that is, slots/drives not already in use as disk devices. The Slot 1, Drive 1 assignment sound like exactly that, working as expected.
The puzzle is, why does that interfere with the real, non-disk use of slot 1? It shouldn't. (There is no effect on the Slot ROM at $C1xx.)
I suppose that software could, in an overzealous attempt to be helpful, notice that there is a disk drive available in Slot 1, and decide not to try using it as a printer. So the question is, what software is failing to let you print to slot 1?
If your printer can accept and print plain text, try this (first in the configuration where your printer *is* otherwise working, as a control for the experiment). Launch BASIC.SYSTEM, and at the ']' prompt type PR#1. Then type anything (like "HELLO" Return) -- at this point, you may or may not see any change on the screen, but what you type should go to the printer, as should the "?SYNTAX ERROR" message that Applesoft responds with. PR#0 returns output to the screen.
(It has been a long time since I actually tried, but I believe BASIC.SYSTEM has no trouble letting you print to a slot while there are virtual ProDOS assignments to the same slot.)
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If you still have doubts about any combinations of thumb drives + USB cables, I'd suggest this: Leave the lid off the IIgs for this experiment, and enter the CFFA menus. There is a USB status line near the top. It should react within a couple of seconds when you attach a thumb drive. Start by plugging each drive directly into the CFFA3000 board, and then via cables.