SCSIMounter 1.0
===============
(Document Revision 0.41)
Removable media partition mounter for Kickstart 2.0 or higher.
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Disclaimer
----------
SCSIMounter may be freely distributed for non-commercial purposes only.
The entire risk as to the quality and performance of this program is
with you.
The author assumes no responsibility or liability whatsoever with
respect to your use or inability to use of this software.
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Purpose
-------
Most owners of removable media SCSI drives are stuck with the problem
that their software doesn't handle disk changes correctly.
For example, the current Commodore implementation doesn't mount the
partitions on a removable media SCSI drive (e.g. SyQuest or Ricoh)
when there was no cartridge in the drive at boot time.
Even worse, after another cartridge with a different Rigid Disk Block
(i.e. a different partition table) has been inserted, the system
gets totally confused and reports read/write errors when trying
to access the device which can lead to loss of important data on
the cartridge.
Until now, the only possibility to work around this problem was to
reboot the system every time a new cartridge has been inserted.
SCSIMounter allows you to mount and unmount partitions without rebooting
the machine. It sports a nice 2.0-style point-and-click user interface
that makes handling removable media a piece of cake.
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Secondary use
-------------
SCSIMounter can also be used to mount partitions that have intentionally
not been mounted (e.g. the wb_1.3: partition on an A3000 when running
under 2.0). You don't have to create a mountlist for it!
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Requirements
------------
· Any Amiga with a SCSI host adaptor that supports the Commodore
RDB (Rigid Disk Block) and 'SCSI Direct' standards.
· Kickstart 2.0 or higher
The program has been tested on an A3000 with Commodore's scsi.device
and on an A2500 with a Microbotics HardFrame (HardFrame.device) but
I see no reason why it shouldn't work on any other host adaptor.
! Since there are so many different host adaptors with devices that behave
! totally different, I need to know your experiences. Please don't hesitate
! to contact me in case of a problem with your controller card. I'll be
! glad to fix the problem and send you a revised version of SCSIMounter.
The program may be of no use for owners of certain GVP controllers
which support removable media correctly (Though not all GVP software
might do so).
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Before you begin
----------------
First, determine the name of the device driver of your hard disk
controller card.
Examples of popular controllers and their devices:
manufacturer/controller device
--------------------------------------------------
Commodore A590/A2091/A3000 scsi.device
Old GVP scsidev.device
Supra SupraDrive harddisk.device
Advanced Storage Systems Nexus nexus.device
Microbotics HardFrame HardFrame.device
ICD AdSCSI icddisk.device
IVS Trumpcard Professional ivs_scsi.device
--------------------------------------------------
Click once one the SCSIMounter icon and select 'Information' from the
'Icons' menu.
Add or change the following tool type:
DEVICE=Name_of_your_scsi_device_here
for example if you use a HardFrame controller write:
DEVICE=HardFrame.device
Don't add path names here, only the name of the device is required.
Take care to capitalize the device name correctly (exec device names
are case sensitive!)
NOTE
SCSIMounter will not work with the Commodore A2090(A) controller card
because this product does not support Commodore's own 'SCSI direct' and
'RDB' standards properly.
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Start SCSIMounter
-----------------
SCSIMounter can be used either from Workbench or from the CLI.
* Workbench use
Double click on the SCSIMounter icon. After a short time, a window
with a listview and three buttons will appear. If the window doesn't
appear several things could have gone wrong:
· Do you use Kickstart 2.0 or higher?
· Did you specify and spell the name of your device driver correctly?
· Does your host adaptor support RDB?
· Is there any memory left on your system?
Requesters will try to tell you the cause if SCSIMounter fails to run.
* CLI use
Type 'SCSIMounter Name_of_your_scsi_device'
example:
1> SCSIMounter HardFrame.device
If no argument is given, SCSIMounter uses the default A3000/A2091/A590
device driver (scsi.device)
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Panels
------
1) Main panel
The main panels shows all devices connected to the SCSI port with
information about their capacity and current status. The currently
selected unit is higlighted.
UNIT - This is the unit number of a SCSI device.
Up to seven devices can be connected to the SCSI bus
DRIVE TYPE - Manufacturer and product specification
REV. - Revision of Hardware, Firmware and ROM of device
CAP. - Device capacity in Megabytes or Kilobytes
STATUS - Current Status of device. If the device is busy or
not accessable due to the lack of media (if it's a
removable media drive) the status will be set to
'not ready'
There are three 'action buttons' present:
QUIT - Quit SCSIMounter
UPDATE - Re-scan SCSI bus and update display
MOUNT - Mount partitions on selected drive
For every action buttons there's also a menu item with identical
function.
2) 'Partition Selector' panel
This panel shows all available partitions and allows you to
individually mount them.
CHECKGADGETS - Determine if the particular partition should
be mounted or not.
checked: mount corresponding partition
not checked: don't mount specified partition
Other partition Information on the partition selector -
Device name of partitions
Size of partitions
Dostype (FileSystem) of partition
Examples of dostypes:
DOS0 - Old filesystem partition
DOS1 - FastFileSystem partition
UNI1 - Unix boot partition
RESV - Reserved partition
CANCEL - Go back to main panel, don't mount anything
MOUNT - Unmount all currently mounted partitions on the selected
device and mount the new partitions (if any).
UNMOUNT ALL - If this gadget is checked, SCSIMounter will try
to unmount all partitions currently mounted on the
selected unit. If there are locks on this device
there will be a 'BUSY' icon on your Workbench screen.
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Operation
---------
SCSIMounter is pretty self-explanatory. Nevertheless, here are some
basic operation procedures.
* Mount a new cartridge
· Click on the listview entry of the desired device. (Make sure its
status is 'ready')
· Click on the 'Mount' button
The 'select partitions' panel will ask you which partitions to mount
· Chosse the partitions you would like to mount
· Make sure that the 'Unmount all' gadget is checked
· Click on 'Mount' button on the partition selector panel
SCSIMounter will automatically unmount all existing partitions
on the device and mount the new partitions.
* Add a drive
· Click on the 'Update' button
The new drive's name and other information should appear in the
listview
· Click on the corresponding entry
· Click on the 'Mount' button
and so on...
WARNING !!!
Don't unmount your boot partition (where you system files live) or
you'll soon be forced to reboot you machine...
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Keyboard Equivalents
--------------------
* Requesters
OK Rt. Amiga-O
Cancel Rt. Amiga-C
* Main window & Project menu
About Rt. Amiga-A
Mount Rt. Amiga-M
Update Rt. Amiga-U
Quit Rt. Amiga-Q
* Partition Selector
Mount Rt. Amiga-M
Cancel Rt. Amiga-C
Select All Rt. Amiga-A
Unselect All Rt. Amiga-U
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Known Problems
--------------
· The program only removes the dos entries for the volumes and devices.
It doesn't remove the filesystem process and associated memory
allocations. Apparently the current FS doesn't support the ACTION_DIE
packet. I'm still looking for a legal way to solve this problem.
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Credits
-------
Author: Martin A. Blatter
Pfaffächerstr. 59
CH-8913 Ottenbach
Switzerland
E-Mail: blatter@amiga.physik.unizh.ch
blatter%zethos@cbmswi.commodore.com
Phone: ++41 1 761 20 02
Bug reports or suggestions are welcome. If you find this program useful,
feel free to send a donation to the above address.
This program uses ITools, the object-oriented user interface system
(c) 1991 by Christian A. Weber.
Special thanks to · Christian A. Weber
· Peter Simeon for the SCSI inquiry code
· Michael Sinz for the 2.0 Workbench busy image :-)
· Eric Giguere
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Trademarks
----------
All trademarked product and company names used herein are used for
identification purposes only. No infringement of trademarks is intended.
Trademarks remain property of the trademark holder.
