Re: [MiNT] CDRW questions (cont)

[Peter Slegg <peterslegg@scubadivers.co.uk>]

Hi Ronald,

Are ypu getting any messages from Extendos during boot ?
Double check the AUTO folder has Extendos booting before Mint
After booting, right click on the Thing desktop and Mount Devices


This is my extendos.cnf which creates drives O and P
;
; EXTENDOS.CNF: configuration file for ExtenDOS Gold
; created by INSTALL.APP Version 3.4 on Sun Oct 24 22:04:32 2004
;
*BOS, C:\EXTENDOS\CD.BOS, Z:17 Y:19
*XFS, C:\MINT\1-16-1\UNIMINT.XFS P B=4, O:Z P:Y
;*DOS, C:\EXTENDOS\UNIDRIVE.DOS P B=4, O:Z P:Y

The xfs path isn't needed as you will see below.
This was the info that Roger Burrows sent me to help fix my problems.

The *XFS line is just used to pass options to UNIMINT.XFS, so all the path stuff
is ignored.  The way it works is as follows (you may sleep through this if
you wish :-)):
  1. EXTENDOS.PRG runs before MiNT.  It reads the EXTENDOS.CNF file, and
     (among other things :-)):
     . if the line says *DOS, loads UNIDRIVE.DOS.  When it loads UNIDRIVE.DOS,
       it sets up things so that UNIDRIVE gets control when you try to access
       the logical drive(s) listed in the *DOS line.
     . if the line says *XFS, it ignores the line and *doesn't* load
       UNIDRIVE.DOS.
  2. MiNT runs.  It loads and runs all the XFS files it finds, including
     UNIMINT.XFS.
  3. UNIMINT.XFS starts up.  It too reads the EXTENDOS.CNF file.
     . if UNIDRIVE.DOS is present, the XFS tells EXTENDOS to stop intercepting
       accesses to the CD-ROM drive via the logical drive letter.  If this
       fails (because e.g. you're using an old EXTENDOS.PRG), you get the
       message you saw.  Unfortunately there is no way to free up the memory
       occupied by the UNIDRIVE.DOS module itself - therefore it makes sense
       not to load it if you're only using MiNT (see #1 above).  UNIDRIVE.DOS
       doesn't use a LOT of memory (less than 20K IIRC), so it's not a big
       saving.
     . the XFS then tells MiNT that it will look after accesses to the logical
       drives you specified (in the XFS/DOS line in EXTENDOS.CNF).

A bit complicated, but the easiest way to maintain compatibility with minimal
changes and to allow users to boot TOS or MiNT without problems.

Regards,

Peter