DOS.MASTER CF image file

[vbriel]

For those people who want DOS with their CFFA the answer is dos.master. It is a prodos program that puts DOS into volumes upto 400K each. Installing this on your II/IIplus is difficult because it requires IIe for installation. For those that just want an image ready to go here is a copy of my 16meg CF card with dos.master on prodos 1.0.1 with 100 dos volumes. To access each volume, just type "CATALOG,V#" where # is the volume number you want to access.

http://www.brielcomputers.com/dmimage.zip

There are already quite a few volumes with games on them. Keep them or dump them at your will. Hope you find this usefull. I'm hoping to do a write up on how to install dos.master soon.

Cheers,

Vince

[freekheite]

Hello Vince,

Thanks for putting this CF image on-line. But how should I transfer the image file onto a 64 MB CF card for my (yet to be built and shipped) CFFA card? Ciderpress will only let me write the image out to yet another file on my Windows machine.

Regards,
Freek Heite.

[vbriel]

It seems a little backwards but you open up the CF you want to copy do these steps (I use a CF card preformatted with prodos, it may work with MSDOS on the card still).

Insert your CF card into your PC's card reader. If you don't have one... GO GET ONE! they are cheap and the easiest way to transfer files to an Apple 2 with a CF card.

Click Tools then volume copier (open volume).
Select your CF card by the drive (mine is G:)
Make sure you UNCHECK read only box because you are going to write to the CF card.
Click OK
Highlight the Volume you want to copy ONTO (mine is a prodos volume named 'CF' (very original).

Next click on the option box 'Load from file'.
Select my image (or whatever hard drive image you are loading.
It will give you warnings, especially if you are using a larger CF card than 16meg since the image is 16M. Click OK and it will copy the image onto your CF card.

Pull the CF card from your PC's reader and put it in your CFFA card. Make sure your CFFA card is in slot 7 and fire up your Apple II+/IIe or IIgs. It will boot right into my menu program with DOS 3.3 dosmaster loaded.

To change to the different volumes just do the catalog command:

"CATALOG,V#" Where # is the volume # you want. You can copy from disk onto the volume with some work. I have a bunch of games already loaded and the first volume is dos 3.3 with ADT.

Hope this helps,

Vince
PS I just tried this with a FAT32 formatted card and it works the same. My test card was a 48meg card and it gave me warnings about loosing space but I don't care. 16M is a ton of file space for dos 3.3 images.

[freekheite]

Hello Vince,

OK! I followed your instructions, and Ciderpress tells me it copied your DOS image onto the CF card. Now just wait for my CFFA card to arrive, and check it out on my Apple.

Seems like I was taking the wrong path through the Ciderpress program: I let Ciderpress open your image file, and then I was looking for something like "copy this image to a CF card/volume". But apparently, one needs to start with opening the CF card, and then tell Ciderpress to write something to it.

BTW: the DOS volumes in your image, are they 384 KB each (which is the largest size I could obtain myself when using the maximum values for tracks and sectors that DOS 3.3 can handle without much patching), or are they really 400 KB? Just curious...

Thanks again!
Freek.

[vbriel]

When I set up this CF card I did 140K images. I did it this way because it made it easier to track where my disk images are.

Keep in mind, not all software will work with dosmaster. Some of my programs won't work at all because dosmaster is sitting ontop of prodos, so there is some programs that will not like that. A good deal do, and those (like the games I have loaded) fit nice and neat on the volumes.

You can't view the insides of the volumes or even see them from prodos. It's like one big zipped up file. There is documentation with dosmaster somewhere but I currently don't know where it is. All in all, a great piece of software.

Vince

[vbriel]

Just an update. I have been successful in hacking dosmaster so that you can install it with a Apple IIplus system. You need a IIplus with the 16K RAM card, the CFFA card in you choice of a slot and a disk drive. Here is the short version of how you create the dosmaster CF card for your system.

1. boot a prodos disk and format your CF card with prodos.
2. copy all files over from the dosmaster disk except dos.3.3
3. boot onto your CF card and it will go straight into BASIC prompt
4. run make.dos. Note, when asked the size to make the volumes, if it is 800 or less, enter a space first then the number or it won't take your value.
5. after you enter the values into make.dos, enter 0 to create dos.3.3 file (all of your dos volumes will be stored in this file)
6. Exit make.dos and type "-DOS.INSTALL" Enter the information such as drive and slot #. RETURN to format.
7 To load dosmaster just type "-DOS.3.3" and it will put you into the first volume on the CF card.

You may want to modify startup, the basic program that starts when you boot to your CF card and have it auto load dosmaster with a command "10 PRINT CHR$(4)"-DOS.3.3"

I"m cleaning up the hacked version of dosmaster since it was made for 80 column. After I finishes I'll post it for download. With the revised version you will be able to do everything the original can do, but now it will work on a IIplus.

Vince