Conference hydra::amiga_v1

IMeM.lzh is now on DFS::AMIGA:

This looks kinda neat. You'll need a 3.5" bootable MSDOS floppy and
MSH to run it. 

I formatted a floppy with MSH and then ran IBeM. I got the familiar 

	Not a System Disk Error
	Remove disk and hit any key to continue


(something like that) It actually will boot MSDOS off floppy or a hard
disk partition.


So it looks like I'll have to get a copy of MSDOS to see how well this runs.
If the performance is decent and the emulation is robust, this package
is well worth the $30.00 shareware fee the author requests!

More later when I get MSDOS...

john 

Well, I'm impressed so far.


I made a bootable floppy from a Compaq 386 machine. Popped it in, mounted 
MSH and dir a dir ms0: to make sure it was ok. Then I typed IBEM and up
it came. It booted the floppy and left me with a lovely A> prompt.

I ran Norton SI on it and it rated it at 1.1 times the speed of an
IBM PC/XT. Not bad for $30.00!  But the good thing is that the Norton 
utility was able to read all kinds of other info (calls it a 80386 based
machine!) and map the memory space.

It appears to multitask well. The author got around the "MSDOS doesn't know how
to wait for input without eating the CPU" feature by setting the emulators
priority to -22.

Scrolling of text is not real fast - about like 4800 baud or so. Maybe later 
versions will be better.

I ran the Compaq basic without any problems at all.

Just like the readme file says, it (the demo version) quits (gracefully) 
after 15 minutes.  I can't seem to get it to boot again so maybe I need to
reboot my amiga to get it to clear it's "demo was run" status.

more later. I have a friend on his way later today with some more MSDOS apps
to try.

john

    John,
    	for comparison purposes, what CPU are you running and at what
    speed ?  To get the 1.1 Norton rating, that is.

>    John,
>    	for comparison purposes, what CPU are you running and at what
>    speed ?  To get the 1.1 Norton rating, that is.

I'm running a 28mhz 68030/882 with 7MB of RAM (4meg 32 bit)

john

    	Thanks. I wonder if a stock A500 would be comparatively (14 times)
    slower or if the speed (1.1) is set internally ?  If it is just a
    function of the CPU power then the Norton rating would drop to about
    .1, which is a lot slower than a C=64 (.7, I'm told).

    
    
    RE: .2
    
     I just LHARC l IBeM from DFS::AMIGA: and the only file listed was the
    readme.1st.
    
       Could you upload it again or tell me what I did wrong? %-)
    
    Chuck

    Re .5:
    
    Unfortunately, we "stock A500" users needn't worry about IBeM, as the
    following quote from .0 makes clear:

>   This emulator is specifically written for the 68020/030 processors.  It
>   will only run on machines which are equipped with one of these
>   processors, eg a 2500/20, 2500/30 or 3000.
    
    Just for comparison, the ATonce board (which replaces the A500's M68000
    and provides excellent AT compatibility for under $400), gets a Norton
    rating of 6.  That's decent, but not outstanding, for an 80286 system. 
    (It's pretty much on the AT clone price/performance curve.)
    
    The "Amiga Transformer", which is unsupported (and which doesn't like
    KS1.3), gets a Norton rating on the order of 0.5 with a stock M68000
    Amiga.  This seems to confirm the claimed Norton rating in the 1-2
    range for IBeM on 68020/68030 systems.

    re: .6
    
    cvtarc u IBEM.LZH
    
    will fix your problem.  You've run into the old VMS file format
    incompatibility problem again.
    
    re: .7
    
    The Norton Index is widely known to be nonlinear, exaggerating the
    performance of high end machines.

    Re .8:
    
>   The Norton Index is widely known to be nonlinear, exaggerating the
>   performance of high end machines.
    
    No argument here.  I'm the guy who (in a nice way, I hope) told BYTE
    readers to test their ACTUAL workloads rather than depending upon the
    "standard" performance tests, which are all skewed one way or another. 
    (Of course, BYTE unveiled its own performance test suite in the same
    issue, which shows how closely people listen to such admonitions. 8^)

re .7, .8

yeah, for some strange reason I couldn't get CVTARC to run on STAR:: and
never looked into it much more since the file was fine once downloaded to 
my Amiga (via zmodem/VLTjr).

john

Article: 78
From: [email protected] (Mark Tomlinson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.announce
Subject: New IBeM Demo for 68000's and 68020/030's for ftp
Date: 22 May 91 07:54:29 GMT
Sender: [email protected]
 
I have just placed the latest demo version of my ShareWare IBM emulator,
IBeM, on the /incoming/amiga dir of ab20.larc.nasa gov.
The file names are:
    IBeMDemo.lzh
and IBeMDemo.readme
 
These will probably be moved to /amiga/commerical/demos (that is where
the last demo was moved to).
 
features of the new version include :
 
- works on any Amiga (68000/68010/68020/68030), includes optimised
  version for 68020/68030
- runs as a task (doesn't take machine over)
- emulates CGA text and graphics modes
- can emulate a PC hard-disk on any amiga hard-disk
- runs most PC software (1-2-3, WP5.1, Indy 500, Flight Sim 4.0 all run).
- on a 25MHz 68030, SI reports a computing index of 1.2
- requires MSH or CrossDOS for floppy access (not included in archive)
- a LOT less bugs than the original (020/030 only) demo
 
the demo is limited to only a 2Mb hard-disk partition and 15mins
use per session. The full version (without limits) is available for
$30US.
 
-------
Mark Tomlinson
[email protected]
--
Please see monthly postings for the disclaimer, the introduction, the charter,
and submission instructions.  Comments to [email protected].
MAIL ALL SUBMISSIONS TO [email protected] (don't auto-post).

  <<< Note 4558.11 by CFSCTC::CARR "Guru: a 4-letter word to Amiga owners" >>>
                      -< Now runs on 68000/68010 as well >-

Does anyone have this version?  Is it on the net somewhere?

Randy

I have the real version on it's way (in the mail).

john

    What was the address you sent the $$ to for the registered version,
    and how did you send the $$$'s (Post Office Money Order, Bank Check,...?)
    
    John
    

The address is in New Zealand somewhere. It's in the docs for the demo version 
(I'll try to get the latest demo off ab20 and post it - if my account at WPI
is still active!)

I sent an international money order (you can usually get them from 
Cumberland Farms, or 7-11 etc - or a bank)

john

Well, my WPI account is still active. 

Here's one for you connectivity freaks. I set host from STAR to DFS (Nashua,NH 
to Shrewsbury,MA). Log into my old cluster there, and set host/dte to a modem. 
I then make a local call to the WPI campus (Worcestor) and log into the machine 
there. From there I ftp to ab20.larc.nasa.gov and move files back to the 
WPI machine. I then uuencode and mail them to STAR and, like magic, they
appear on the net!

	TAPE::AMIGA:[UPLOAD}IBEMDEMO.LZH

enjoy!

john

IBEM is an IBM-PC emulator written to run on any Amiga (earlier versions
required a 68020/68030 - this new version will work on ANY processor,
though there is an optimised version for 020/030s included)

This is the demonstration version.  As a demonstration there is a
limit on the Hard Disk size of 2MB.  There is also a time limit,
which allows the program to run only for 15 minutes, at which time it
will exit.  Only one floppy disk can be used with the emulator.  None
of these restrictions apply for the complete version.

====================================================================

IBeM Package     Version 1.05
-----------------------------

Description:

This software package is an IBM PC-XT emulator for the Amiga.
Unlike transformer which will only run on a 68000, this emulator
has been designed to work only with any Amiga.  This emulator runs
under AmigaDOS as a task and runs on its own screen in its own
window.  Your Amiga is still free to perform other tasks while the
emulator is running.

Setting up IBeM to run takes a little time, please read this file
before trying to run IBeM.

Send all bug reports (and money) to:

Mark Tomlinson
30 Kirner St
Christchurch 9
New Zealand

or e-mail to:

[email protected]


**************************************************************



This package consists of the following files:

IBeM                - the emulator itself.
IBeM000             - the 68000/68010 version of the emulator.
mountlist           - a sample mountlist

To be able to read and write IBM formatted disks you will also
need messydisk.device or CrossDOS.

Messydisk.device is part of a shareware package known as MSH. 
I have been using version 1.30, but other versions eg MSH1.5 may
also work. (NB: MSH1.30 is the update to MSH1.5).


I am also distributing MSH1.30 on the same disk as the emulator,
but please remember that I did not write it, and the money you
send to me for the emulator does not pay for MSH.  If you wish to
send the developer of MSH payment, please look in the MSH
directory for his address.




**************************************************************


Hardware required:
------------------

For the 020/030 version:
------------------------

An Amiga with a 68020/68030 (or 68040?) and a minimum of 2MB of
fast ram.  This version will not work with the 68000.  The reason
for requiring so much memory is that the emulator allocates a
whole 1Meg for the IBM's address space.  A math co-processor is
not required, but later versions of the Emulator may use one to
emulate an 8087.  IBeM makes no use of the MMU so it will work on
68020 boards which don't include MMU's.

The 020 version is known not to work on early GVP accelerator
boards, but a PAL (that's a logic array, not a display mode)
upgrade is available from the manufacturer.  The reason for not
working is that the emulator writes words at odd boundaries
(since 8088's can do this), and while this is valid for 68020 and
68030 processors, the logic on the accelerator board must also
support it.  As no extra hardware is required for this function
(except for different contents in the PAL), its omission is
simply an oversight of the developer.

For the 68000/68010 version:
----------------------------

Any Amiga computer.  This emulator will also run on 68020/030
processors, but the version made specifically for these processors
is more optimal and will run faster.  If you have a GVP
accelerator board which does not run the 020/030 version, then
you can still run the 68000 version.

This version does not require as much ram to run as the 020/030
version - it will run on a 1M machine.  A3000 owners who have
only 1M fast mem and 1M chip will also be able to use this
version.

**************************************************************


Emulation:
----------

Currently the emulator supports the full 8088 instruction set,
(don't be confused by system information programs that say that
it is a V20 - the extra V20 instructions are not yet, but may
shortly be, emulated).

A CGA style screen with text and colour graphics is supported. 
Full four page 80 column text or 8 page 40 column text are
supported, as well as 4 colour lo-res and 2 colour hi-res display
modes.  Flashing mode is not supported, use of this mode results
in a high intensity background colour.

There is no sound, serial port or maths coprocessor emulated as
yet (See update.txt for parallel port emulation).  The
development of these functions will depend on the amount of
support this product gets.

Most of the BIOS functions are implemented as illegal
instructions which are then emulated by the Amiga.  There are no
IBM ROM's buried inside the code.


**************************************************************


Disks for use under the emulator.
---------------------------------

You will need to create a mountlist entry for all the disk drives
that you wish to use under the emulator.  The minimum is a single
floppy (don't expect to be able to run ROM BASIC).

These entries are searched for in the devs:mountlist file.  The
drives must be named (in upper case) IBMA:, IBMB:, and IBMC:. 
Only two floppies and one harddisk (drive C) are supported.  The
fields which the emulator uses are:
    BlocksPerTrack
    Surfaces
    HighCyl
    LowCyl
    StartCyl
    DosType
    Device
    Unit
    Flags

All of these except for Flags are required, any extras are
ignored by the emulator.  The DosType field is used for
identifying the drive type.  It should be set to one of the
following:
  DosType = 1   5.25" 360K drive
            2   5.25" 1.2M  drive
            3   3.5"  720K  drive
            4   3.5"  1.44M drive

The Flags is passed directly to the device driver.  Normally
this is not used, but may have to be set to 1 for 5.25" disks
(= TDF_ALLOW_NON_3_5).

Since extra fields are ignored by the Emultor, it is possible,
simply by adding in a FileSystem, to be able to mount IBMA: and
use it under AmigaDOS (as MSH was intended to be used), and also
have it available under the emulator.

The device *must* support reading into fast ram.  Trackdisk
Device does not no this, but messydisk.device does.  (Also,
CrossDOS's mfm.device, which is the equivalent to messdisk.device
uses  fast ram for buffers).  I have yet to see a hard disk which
will not run into fast ram.

Don't expect to be able to read 1.44 Meg disks in the Amiga's
internal floppy drive.  I don't even know that a 5.25" drive will
give you a true 360K disk under messydisk.device.  The drive
types 1.2M and 1.44M will only be possible if you somehow connect
an IBM style controller to your machine and write a device driver
for it.  It is probably possible to make a mount list entry which
will allow you to format 880K amiga-readable MS-DOS file-system
disks.  For this and other weird size drives, you will need to
use DRIVER.SYS in order to format them on them emulator.

For hard disks the DosType field is ignored.  To create an IBM
hard disk partition on the same drive as your Amiga partition,
just set the HighCyl and LowCyl values such that the two do not
overlap. If this means adjusting the size of your Amiga
partition, you will have to back up your Amiga disk, change the
disk's size (with prep or whatever software has been supplied for
this) allowing room for the IBM's partition.  Partitions of over
32 Megabytes are valid, but these will have to be partitioned
under FDISK when you run the emulator unless you try running DOS
4.0.

In any case, after the mountlist entry is set correctly, you will
need to boot MS-DOS from the floppy, run FDISK (which will
re-boot the emulator), and then run FORMAT.

Low-level formatting of harddisks is best done from the Amiga.


Special Note for CrossDOS users.
--------------------------------

CrossDOS can be used to allow you to read your hard disk
partition under AmigaDOS.  MSH is also supposed to be capable of
this, but I had no success with it.  To use it, you will need to
create another mountlist entry.  Since, when you format your
harddisk, a partition table is created, you have to point
CrossDOS past this and at the beginning of the actual C
partition.  The C partition starts on the next Track (*not*
Cylinder) of the volume.  To specify the next cylinder, you need
to fake the mountlist entry.  Specify only one Surface, and set
the LowCyl = (lowcyl for IBMC: * actual number of heads) + 1.
Also set HighCyl to (highcyl for IBMC: * heads + (heads - 1)).
You should then be able to mount this and read your harddisk
files directly, without even running IBeM.


**************************************************************

Running the Emulator:
---------------------

To start the emulator, simply mount all the drives you wish to
use, and then run IBeM.  It should print the messages "Using
device IBMx:" as it finds them in the dos device list.  If you
get the error message "No bootable disk's found", then you either
haven't mounted the disks first, or else don't have an MS-DOS
disk in the drive.

Since mounting the drives is always necessary, a script file
called "run-ibm" mounts the drives and starts the emulator
(returning to the CLI).

To quit the emulator at any time, simply press ctrl-alt-del.  The
emulator will also quit if it encounters an illegal instruction
while executing 8088 code (similar to the Amiga's GURU).  If this
happens, the emulator will report the address where the error
occured.

A command line option exists only for the 68000 version for amount
of memory to use.  The amount specified should be a multiple of
64K and a maximum of 704K.  (eg typing "IBeM000 640" will emulate
a standard 640K ibm).


**************************************************************


Technical Notes:
----------------

As stated above, illegal instructions are used to emulate the
BIOS routines.  If you are using a debugger and come upon an
instruction with hex code DB, just step over it, most debuggers
will cope with this.

The timer interrupt (18.20...  times per second), is derived from
the VBLANK frequency.  This means that the interrupts do not
occur at regular intervals, but rather 2 or 3 VBlanks on a PAL
system, or 3 or 4 VBlanks on an NTSC system.  The average time
between ticks comes out right, but individual interrupts do not
occur at regular intervals.  Also - if you change modes between
NTSC and PAL, you can expect to get your clock running faster or
slower.

The cursor is a sprite.  If you use a mouse blanker which
actually kills all sprites, then the cursor will disappear as
well.

Since IBM's don't know how to wait for an event, the processor
is kept busy at all times (even in the BIOS function "wait for
keypress").  To allow other tasks to be run at the same time, the
emulator automatically switches its task priority to -20.  This
means that any processor hungry applications which are running
will lock out the emulator unless they too are set to a priority
of -20 (to get sharing of the processor).  Editors, CLI's,
calculators, etc, impact very little on the emulators
performance.

Since it is easy to lock out the emulator from the CPU (with any
other task), the emulator can get behind with its timer
interrupts.  If this happens for less than 5 seconds it will
recover however, a timer interrupt will occur every VBLank until
the time has caught up.  This can be seen as a fast cursor flash. 
Time will be lost however if the emulator is held off the CPU for
more than about 5 seconds (256 VBlanks).

MS-DOS only sees the part of the disk which is stated in the
mountlist.  It only knows about the part in the range LowCyl to
HighCyl.  When the emulator writes to track 0 this gets
translated to write physically at cylinder LowCyl.  So even if
you have a partition on your hard drive between cylinders 415 to
612, FDISK will think you have a drive with 148 cylinders,
starting from 0.



**************************************************************


Known Bugs:
-----------

Conditional branches which are at the end of the code segment and
have a positive displacement will not branch to the beginning of
the code segment as they are supposed to.  This was done for
speed.  Short jumps do behave correctly however.  I have yet to
see some software which this causes a problem.  Also, code which
runs past the end of the code segment will not jump back to the
beginning of the segment.

    
    Has anyone got the 68000 version of IBem to work.  I created a bootable
    DOS system disk on a PC clone 386 machine which was running MSDOS 4.1
    using PCTOOLS.  When I try to run IBeM000 on my A2000, it reads the
    disk mounted in IBMA: and then bombs out with an error message like,
    "illegal instruction encountered at 6520:???".  
    
    -Joe

    Did you format the disk as a 720K 3.5" floppy?  It could be that it
    is formatted high density.  I ran it and it worked fine.  A few more
    tests and my check will be in the mail.
    
    George
    

    
    In the FWIW department, I think the 68000 version is slower than
    Transformer. I only tried a non graphics tax program.  Oh, I
    tried to run the Prodigy demo that comes with the Sony DD disks - no
    go. Some error like "general disk format read error".
    
    Dave
    

    
    Re: .19
    
    Yes, I'm sure that it was formatted as a 720K 3.5 disk.  I'm using MSH:
    and when I do a directory of the disk it contains 2 hidden files,
    IBMBIO.COM and IBMDOS.COM.  Any another suggestions ???
    
    -Joe
    

I've booted several versions of DOS using the 020 version, 
including 3.3, 4.01, 5.0. All seem to work fine.

I find that some systems don't format the 720K floppy quite right. Try 
formatting using msh and then just use the SYS DOS command to make it bootable

john

    I have used a DOS 3.3 boot disk with the 68000 version of the demo,
    with reasonable success.  I've been able to run the Vedit editor and
    the Norton Commander without a problem.  Just for yuks I tried running
    MS-DOS zoo with the emulator.  I couldn't get it to work.
    
    I just sat there in awe as I ran program after program.  I never saw
    the old Transformer in action so I can't compare. But despite the slow
    speed, I have to marvel at the programming that went into the emulator.
    Should be getting a new 3000 in a few weeks so I'm looking forward to
    seeing how it performs on the 030.
    
    My disks were formatted using MSH, and made bootable on a PC.  I didn't 
    try DOS Format.
    
    -Gary

    
    Has anybody had any problems with IBeM working with a GVP 68030
    accelerator board?  
    
    I'm using a DOS 3.3 boot disk formatted for 720k.  IBeM recognizes 
    the drive, but when it tries to boot off the floppy I get an - 
    
    "Invalid instruction encountered at 0070:2e22"
    
    Has anyone else had this problem?
    
    Also, how do you make a bootable floppy with MSH?  I've formatted one
    with MSH using MESSYFMT but I don't know how to make a SYSTEMS disk 
    out of it.
    
    Thanx
    
    -Todd

You can't. You need a running MSDOS system to make a bootable disk.

Actually, I wonder if using MSH to copy the "hidden" files from another
bootable MSDOS disk would work?

john

->     "Invalid instruction encountered at 0070:2e22"

	As per the readme with that demo, some GVP boards have old roms
	that don't allow odd byte addresing. Try the IBeM000 version this
	should still run if the roms are your problem.

	(This is the case with my GVP, not sure if I'm bothered enough
         by it to pay for rom upgrades, since the 000 version works fine
	 with the 030, but just not optimized with 030 instructions for speed)

	Steve D.

I have been messing with the IBeM Demo on a 2MB hard disk partition.

I can mount the partition with cross dos and its OK.  I Start IBeM and boot
MSDOS 3.2 or 3.3 off of a floppy.  It cannot see the C: drive so I run FDisk
and then do a Format C: /s  Then do a Xcopy A: C: /s.  The C: drive will not 
boot but I can get to it after booting off of IBMA:.  But from the Amiga a 
list IBMC: shows an empty disk.  If I copy a file to IBMC: with Amiga DOS it
writes ok but then the IBeM demo has a corrupt C: disk. 

I am using a RDB compatable SCSI host. The MountList has a locyl of 630 and a 
HiCyl of 690, 16 sec and 4 heads.  I have tried 0, thru 5 of reserved blocks.  
The actual drive is a ST225 formated to 17 sec 4 heads 615 cyl.

I suspect an incompatable FAT table between IBeM and MSDOS and Cross Dos.  

I do not understand the blurb in the docs about using a low Cyl = (lowcyl * 
# of Heads) +1 and a HiCyl = (HighCyl * # of Heads) -1.  I tried and got a
could not access device on the amiga mount.

Any hints.  Its not critical but I wanted to see if I could do something with 
Cross Dos on a Hard disk while waiting  for Consoltrons Ambassador software to 
be released.

Alan
 

    Re .27:

>   I have been messing with the IBeM Demo on a 2MB hard disk partition.
    
    I've been doing likewise with ATonce and two larger partitions (with
    similar results, but I'm not yet done fooling with it 8^).
                                                                       
>   I can mount the partition with cross dos and its OK.  I Start IBeM and
>   boot MSDOS 3.2 or 3.3 off of a floppy.  It cannot see the C: drive so I
>   run FDisk and then do a Format C: /s Then do a Xcopy A: C: /s.  The C:
>   drive will not boot but I can get to it after booting off of IBMA:. 
>   But from the Amiga a list IBMC: shows an empty disk.  If I copy a file
>   to IBMC: with Amiga DOS it writes ok but then the IBeM demo has a
>   corrupt C: disk.
    
    I have a similar pair of symptoms.  That is, I can mount and format the
    partition through CrossDOS *OR* I can FDISK and format the partition
    from MS-DOS.  Since this is the first partition on the RZ23 I borrowed,
    block number calculations are CONSIDERABLY simpler than they would be
    otherwise.

>   I am using a RDB compatable SCSI host. The MountList has a locyl of 630
>   and a HiCyl of 690, 16 sec and 4 heads.  I have tried 0, thru 5 of
>   reserved blocks.  The actual drive is a ST225 formated to 17 sec 4
>   heads 615 cyl.
>
>   I suspect an incompatable FAT table between IBeM and MSDOS and Cross
>   Dos. 
    
    Reserved blocks aren't the problem, but you're on the right track. 
    Mount the partition and use MS-DOS' debugger to examine block zero,
    which is where you should find the volume label.  Then mount it (as an
    unformattted AmigaDOS volume) and view selected blocks through a sector
    editor, such as DiskX (Fish disk 158), looking for the same block.
    
    I found that ATonce treats all hard disk partitions as if the drive has
    8 heads and 33 blocks per track ( 8 * 33 = 264 blocks/cylinder ).  The
    REAL geometry doesn't matter much (except for performance purposes) on
    a SCSI drive.  ATonce placed "block 0" at the first "cylinder" boundary
    within the partition.  Since I'd partitioned the drive to reserve two
    cylinders according to AmigaDOS custom, that meant that "block 0" was
    in no obvious location relative to the start of the partition.

>   I do not understand the blurb in the docs about using a low Cyl =
>   (lowcyl * # of Heads) +1 and a HiCyl = (HighCyl * # of Heads) -1.  I
>   tried and got a could not access device on the amiga mount.
    
    There are four parameters in the mountlist that describe partition
    geometry.  Let's consider them from the "bottom" up.  The number of
    blocks (sectors) per track expresses the number of formatted 512-byte
    (plus control information) blocks that will pass under each head during
    one rotation of the disk.  Disks are organized into cylinders (with a
    head per surface) in order to minimize head movement (the slowest disk
    operation).  The number of heads expresses the number of tracks per
    cylinder.  A partition contains an integral number of cylinders.
    
    Let's bring things down to the "absolute block" level.  Using the
    geometry you expressed above (4 heads * 16 blocks/track = 64
    blocks/cylinder), your partition would span from absolute block 40320
    (630 * 64 [the +1 in your formula is mis-placed]) through block 44223
    ((690 + 1) * 64 - 1).  The drive only contains 17 * 4 * 615 = 41820
    blocks, which is why AmigaDOS told you to take a hike.  The highest
    cylinder number you could have specified is 653 (int (41820 / 64)).

I have made more headway.  The first thing we need is Cross Dos V4.02.  I 
have the upgrade files and intended to place them on EOT::Amiga:[Upload] 
this morning but apparently RZ does not like recieving mail broadcast 
messages during the upload some of the files are corrupt.  I think its best 
to wait and post them as a group to avoid confusion.

Basically you need to update to Cross Dos 4.02 and set the Dos Type to 
0x4D534800 for a FDISK created disk.  This takes care of the locyl 
calculation for you.  You can no longer use MFORMAT to CrossDos format your 
partition.  On my drive it started to format at Locyl=(#heads * #sector * 
LoCyl) basically  banging away at the forward stop as it faithfully tried to
drive the heads to cyl 40320.  After your Cross Dos disk is upgraded there
will be a MSDOS_HARD_USER doc file which explains this.  But I was able to ID 
the label placed on the partition by MSDOS under the IBeM.  Now the catch 22.  
You need to use a Dos Type of 0x4D534400 if the drive was formatted with the 
MSDOS format command.  Maybe MSDOS 3.3 has an old Fdisk program but Fdisk does 
not format the drive just sets up the partition.  You need to format to write 
files to the drive.

So I mount IBMC: with a dostype 0x4D534800.
Start IBeM.
Fdisk the drive.
Restart IBeM
Format c: /s   Four heads 61 cyl as expected.

From this point you can see the files under IBeM and Amigados.

Restart IBeM and the C: drive is unreadable.

Reboot the Amiga mount the IBMC: with a DOSTYPE of 0x4D534400 and now IBeM can
read the C: drive.  But I am back to the original condition of not being able 
to read the partition's files from Amiga Dos.

So the Dostype of 0x4D534800 is needed for a drive created with Fdisk, but 
MSDOS also needs the drive to be Formatted so we need to use a dostype of 
0x4D534400.  Which places me back where I started and around and around we go.

The main intention of this update is for Atonce and Power Pc boards and using 
SysQuest cartridges formatted on a MSDOS system.  Maybe your ATOnce package is 
a little more reasonable.

This is an example of my Mount List.  The LoCyl and the HiCyl is set as the
Host Controller expects.  The formula mentioned in the IBeM read.Me file
does me no good at all, I suppose different hosts can have differant needs. 
The Dos type does the block calculation for you.  Running DiskCheck (New 
Version with the upgrade) starts at block 40320 and goes to 44160.

IBMC:	Device = icddisk.device
	FileSystem = l:MsDosFileSystem
	Unit = 011
	Flags = 0
	Surfaces = 4
	BlocksPerTrack = 16
	Reserved = 1
	Interleave = 0
	LowCyl = 630
	HighCyl = 690
	Buffers = 5
	BufMemType = 1
	GlobVec = -1
	DosType = 0x4D534800
	StackSize = 4000
	Mount=1
	Priority = 5
#

I will add a reply to the Upload note when the Cross DOs upgade is available.

    Re .29:
    
    Your note contains a WEALTH of information.  Thank you for sharing it!
    
>   Basically you need to update to Cross Dos 4.02 and set the Dos Type to 
>   0x4D534800 for a FDISK created disk.  This takes care of the locyl 
>   calculation for you.  You can no longer use MFORMAT to CrossDos format
>   your partition.  On my drive it started to format at Locyl=(#heads *
>   #sector * LoCyl) basically  banging away at the forward stop as it
>   faithfully tried to drive the heads to cyl 40320.  After your Cross Dos
>   disk is upgraded there will be a MSDOS_HARD_USER doc file which
>   explains this.  But I was able to ID  the label placed on the partition
>   by MSDOS under the IBeM.  Now the catch 22.   You need to use a Dos
>   Type of 0x4D534400 if the drive was formatted with the  MSDOS format
>   command.  Maybe MSDOS 3.3 has an old Fdisk program but Fdisk does  not
>   format the drive just sets up the partition.  You need to format to
>   write files to the drive.
    
    This makes some sense to me.  For one thing, MS-DOS V5.0 made some
    changes in the FORMAT command, so it's entirely reasonable that
    CrossDOS would have to be updated to work correctly.
    
    I think it's perfectly reasonable for IBeM (or ATonce, in my own case)
    to view the partition DIFFERENTLY than CrossDOS does.  You could place
    TWO entries in your mountlist (with different names) to describe the
    same partition to its two different users.  You might set each to mount
    at first reference, rather than automounting at boot time.
    
    Keep in mind that there's NO co�rdination of file updates between
    MS-DOS/IBeM and CrossDOS/AmigaDOS.  That means that only one side
    should be allowed to write at a time.  (After all this work, you
    REALLY wouldn't want a corrupted partition. 8^)

RE .30
    
    Two entries is what I have done.  I did not have time to test it
    Thursday night.  Below is the two mountList entries.  IBMC: for the
    IBeM and DHC: for the Amiga side.  I named IBMC: "Do Not Write" as a
    reminder.  If you write to the C: drive a DiskChange DHC: will update
    the Amiga bit Map.  But a write under Amiga Dos to DHC: forces you to
    restart IBeM.  Anybody know of an equivalent diskchange program for the 
    PC world? 
    
    But you are right if you make a mistake and write to both without
    updating the directory structures in memory, its file corruption time.
    
    
      
IBMC:	Device = icddisk.device
	FileSystem = l:MsDosFileSystem
	Unit = 011
	Flags = 0
	Surfaces = 4
	BlocksPerTrack = 16
	Reserved = 1
	Interleave = 0
	LowCyl = 630
	HighCyl = 690
	Buffers = 5
	BufMemType = 1
	GlobVec = -1
	DosType = 0x4D534400  */ to read Formatted Partition */
	StackSize = 4000
	Mount=1
	Priority = 5
#
    
DHC:   Device = icddisk.device
	FileSystem = l:MsDosFileSystem
	Unit = 011
	Flags = 0
	Surfaces = 4
	BlocksPerTrack = 16
	Reserved = 1
	Interleave = 0
	LowCyl = 630
	HighCyl = 690
	Buffers = 5
	BufMemType = 1
	GlobVec = -1
	DosType = 0x4D534800    */ to read Fdisk created Partitions */
	StackSize = 4000
	Mount=1
	Priority = 5
#
 
    I have sent the Upgrade file to EOT::amiga:[upload] do a dir/dat/siz
    eot:Amiga:[upload]CD*.lzh or CD*.TXT
    
    
    
    Alan
     

    
    

    An update to IBeM has been posted by the author on various archive
    sites. There are 2 updates; depending on which version your are
    currently running. Could some kind soul upload these to EOT? I don't
    have ftp access and the decwrl server isn't much help. I emailed the
    author, but no response.
    
    Specifically; the update I'm interested in is to bring V1.05 up to
    par.
    
    

    It is on Portal.  I will d/l it tonight unless someone can get it
    sooner.
    
    mark
    

I see someone uploaded the IBeM upgrade archive.  I have the IBeM demo (which
runs for 15 mins only).  Be advised that this upgrade will not work with the
demo (at least I couldn't get it to!).  My assumption is that the upgrade(s) in
this archive are meant for the "real" IBeM program, not the demo version, unless
I'm doing something wrong.

Does anyone out there have the "real" registered version of IBeM?  Perhaps
he/she could follow up and tell us if the upgrade works...

<kip

I patched my commercial version (1.05) to 1.20. The patch was quick and works
great.

john

    
    
    See Note 5001.141
    
    	I've uploaded the IBeMDemo 1.20 version 
    
    	Steve G