Amiga ISO Collection/AmigaUtilCD2.iso/Workbench/dosdrivers/BRK-IF14.LHA/IDE-fix/Docs/English/Manual.doc

Text File | 1997-04-18 | 47.4 KB | 1,164 lines

IDE-FIX INSTALLATION MANUAL
SOFTWARE MANUAL


 IDE-fix installation manual


License conditions (see also License.doc in the Register directory!!!)

No part of the hardware, the software or the manual may be multiplied,
disseminated or processed in any way without the written consent of
Elaborate Bytes, Oliver Kastl. Violations of these conditions will be
prosecuted in every case.

The use of hardware or software is done at your own risk. The manufacturer
and developer accepts no liability for any damages, either as direct or
indirect consequence of the use of this product or software.

Only observance of these conditions allows you to use the hardware and
software in your computer system.

All rights reserved.
Software Copyright 1993 - 1997 Elaborate Bytes, Oliver Kastl.

Any trademarks used in this documentation may be protected without special
indication.


Preface

IDEfix is a combined program package which increases the performance and
the possibilities of the embedded IDE port of your Amiga 600, Amiga 1200,
Amiga 4000 or Amiga 4000T.

The package consists of the following parts:

1. IDEfix increases the performance of your existing Harddisks, allows the
usage of removable media drives and supports the 4-Drive-Adapter (sold
separately).

2. ATAPI allows the usage of any ATAPI devices (CD-Roms, Streamer) with
the IDE port. It supports the 4- Drive-Adapter. For the use of ATAPI
streamers, a backup program is required. All CD-Roms conforming to ATAPI
1.2 or better are supported. It is possible to operate one IDE harddrive
together with one IDE-ATAPI CD-ROM on the same connector.

3. CacheCDFS is a CD-Rom filing system for use with SCSI and ATAPI CD-Roms

4. PlayCD is a CD Audio player for SCSI-II and ATAPI CD-Roms

5. The CD32-Emulator emulates a CD32 games console with SCSI-II and ATAPI
CD-Roms

All programs require Kickstart 2.04 or better to operate. The
4-Drive-Adapter and the CD32-Emulator require Kickstart 3.0 or better to
operate.

Enclosed you find a registration card which we ask you to complete and
send back to us. This is required to get technical support or Updates.





Contents

The package contains the following items:

*    IDEfix floppy disk
*    Manual and registration card

The following accessories are separately available or may be bundled
within the package:

*    A1200 adapter with bus drivers and cables
*    4-Drive-Adapter
*    IDE ribbon cable

If anything from this list is missing please immediately complain at your
dealer.


Installing the Hardware

ATAPI units have to be connected with the Amiga IDE port. Two units can be
operated on your IDE port. With the 4-Drive-Adapter you will double the
number of IDE ports in your machine.

For A600 and A1200 users we strongly recommend the A1200 connection kit
(sold separately). Please consult the manual of this kit for more
information!

If you connect IDE devices: Pay attention to the orientation of the ribbon
cable. Make sure that Pin 1 of the CD-ROM is connected with Pin 1 of the
IDE connector. One edge of the ribbon cable is marked with a color strip
which identifies Pin 1. The CD-ROM also needs to be connected to the power
supply of your Amiga. To do so connect one free plug from the power supply
to the appropriate connector on the ATAPI drive. This connector must have
four contacts and from all of them a wire must run to the power supply.
Sometimes these plugs only have three wires attached which will not work!

Connect one or two IDE drives to one IDE cable. When connecting two
drives, one of them must be configured as the Master drive, the other must
be configured as the Slave drive. If you wish to connect an IDE Harddisk
and an ATAPI CD-Rom together to this connector, the harddrive must be
configured as MASTER and the CD-Rom as SLAVE. Refer to the manual or data
sheet of the hard drive and/or the ATAPI CD-Rom.

Example:

AmigaIDE -------------------Master----------------------Slave
                                    (Harddisk)                    (CD-Rom)


You may look at the 4-Drive-Adapter as two independent IDE connectors.
Your boot IDE Harddisk must be the Master unit on the first IDE connector,
otherwise the Amiga will refuse to boot!


Example:

                                          ---------------------Master-------------Slave
                                         |                      (Harddisk)          (CD-Rom)
AmigaIDE ----------4-Drive-Adapter-------
                                         |
                                          ---------------------Master-------------Slave
                                                                (SyQuest)          (Streamer)


Installing the Software

Before you can use the CD-ROM or a connected IDE drive you have to install
the required driver software on your system. Very likely your Amiga is
already equipped with a harddrive from which the Workbench automatically
starts after power on. This is exactly where the appropriate files and
programs need to be copied to.

The included software falls in two parts: The programs required to operate
the CD-ROM and those required to operate an IDE harddrive. You need only
install those programs you actually need. You shouldn't install the IDE
software without having an IDE drive attached. The same is true for the
CD-ROM software.

Note: For IDE-ATAPI CD-Rom drives, only the CD-ROM software is required.


Installing the CD-ROM Software (ATAPI and/or CacheCDFS, CD32-Emulator, PlayCD)

Important: To be able to install the CD-ROM software you must have set up
your hardware appropriately first. It is not possible to install the
software without having a CD-ROM drive connected.

The CD-ROM software is conveniently installed into your system with the
supplied installation program. Start the Workbench of your Amiga as usual.
Then start the program Install from the included disk. This program
interactively installs your system appropriately.

Installing the IDE Software (IDEfix)

The installation of the IDE software must be accomplished manually. But,
don't be afraid, this is easier than you probably think. The installation
program mentioned above has already copied all necessary files to your
Harddisk.

To utilize an already formatted IDE drive you just need to add the driver
software called IDEfix in your startup-sequence behind the SetPatch
command. You can do this with any text editor like Ed from your Workbench.
That's it. After restarting your Amiga the harddrive should be
automatically show up.

It is possible to install IDEfix reset resident, too. To do so, insert
LoadIDE reset quiet in your startup-sequence. If you have trouble making
IDEfix reset resident, try LoadIDE 4k reset quiet. If this still doesn’t
work, try LoadIDE chip reset quiet.

Last but not least you may start IDEfix immediately but make it reset
resident, too. In this case, you must type LoadIDE start quiet.

To use a new harddrive or removable media you need to format it first
using the program HDToolBox. This program is located in the Tools
directory of your Workbench partition. For instructions, consult your
Amiga operation manual.


Manuals

Detailed user manuals to all programs can be found as text files on the
disk. Look into the Docs Drawer. For each program there is a file which
can be read by simply double clicking on it.

In your Amiga user manual you find information on how to print a copy of
these files using the program PrintFiles from the Workbench.

Further, you should refer to the Software manual.


Software Manual
Introduction

Welcome to CacheCDFS, a CD-ROM control solution for the Amiga family of
computers. The CacheCDFS package consists of a high-performance
FileSystem, a CD Audio player program, an emulation package that allows
you to play most of the popular CD-ROM games designed for the AmigaCD32
game console and other support programs to further control your CD-ROM
drive.

In this package you will find: this manual and a 3.5 inch master disk. You
are strongly advised to fill in the registration card at the end of this
manual and send it to us to achieve technical support and updates.


What is a FileSystem?

Data is written to a storage media in a precise manner. With Amiga hard
drives, this data layout is called FastFileSystem. Data on CD-Roms is
stored differently. This is why you need a different filesystem. In simple
terms, the FileSystem is a "translator" between the physical layout of a
disc and AmigaDOS.

It must be noted, that a FileSystem only provides access to data. No
processing or converting of the actual data takes place. This job is left
to other applications. A good example for such an application would be a
PhotoCD reader (like PhotoWorx from Corporate Media). The FileSystem gives
AmigaDOS access to the physical disc layout, PhotoWorx uses AmigaDOS to
read the images and shows them. There are different common ways the data
on a CD-ROM may be organized:

1. HighSierra
High Sierra was the first attempt to define a standard data layout for
CD-Roms. It has been quickly replaced by its successor, the ISO9660
standard. Today this format can be considered obsolete. The CacheCDFS does
NOT support the High Sierra protocol. High Sierra formatted disks can't be
read by the CacheCDFS. However, if there is enough public demand High
Sierra might find its way into the FileSystem in a future release.

2. ISO9660, Level 1
This is the most popular data layout for CD-Roms and can be found mostly
in the MS-DOS world. The CacheCDFS is able to read such discs.

3. ISO9660, Level 2
This is an extension to ISO9660, Level 1. It allows longer filenames. It
is the most popular format for dedicated Amiga CD-Roms. The CacheCDFS is
able to read such discs.

4. Rock Ridge
Rock Ridge is a further extension to ISO9660. The "trick" with Rock Ridge
is, that an ISO9660, Level 1 formatted disc, readable with MS-DOS
machines, "magically" gets extended file names on more "sophisticated"
machines, like your Amiga. The CacheCDFS is able to process Rock Ridge
extensions correctly.

5. Macintosh HFS
As the name implies, this format can only be found on Apple Macintosh
machines. It is the same layout as used on Macintosh harddisks. The
CacheCDFS will try its best to read such disks.



System Requirements

This package requires the following to operate:
-    an Amiga computer
-    AmigaDOS 2.04 or greater
-    a CD-ROM drive with controller
-    at least 1 megabyte of memory
-    any ISO9660, RockRidge or HFS formatted CD-ROM discs

The CD32 Emulator requires the following to operate:
-    a Commodore Amiga computer with AA/AGA chipset and an MC68EC020 or
   better processor (A1200/A4000)
-    AmigaDOS 3.0 or greater (for better
   compatibility with CD32 games, AmigaDOS 3.1 is recommended)
-    a SCSI-2 compatible double-speed CD-ROM drive (Some games will work on single speed
   drives, too) or a TandemCD/CD1200 from AlfaData.
-    at least 2 megabyte of chip memory and 1 megabyte of 32-bit fast memory.
-    an AmigaCD32 game on compact disc.


 Backing-Up the CacheCDFS Master Disk

It is always advisable to make a backup copy of your master disk. Since
CacheCDFS is not copy-protected, the Commodore diskcopy utility will
suffice for this purpose. If you are unfamiliar with this program, consult
the AmigaDOS manual for further instructions.


 Installation

For a painless installation procedure, CacheCDFS utilizes the Commodore
Installer utility. Important Note: Before starting to install CacheCDFS,
your CD-ROM drive MUST be connected to your Amiga and must be operational
(switched on), otherwise the installation will not work!

A step by step guide through the installation Important Note: Read this
carefully while doing the first time installation! Double-click on the
Install-CDFS icon to invoke the installation progress. The Install-CDFS
window will appear.

Here you should click Proceed with Install.
Now you are asked for Installation Options. Simply click Proceed.
Now the FindCD program is launched to help you selecting the correct
device and unit for the CD-ROM drive you wish to install. You may manually
select the device driver by clicking its name, or you may click the Scan
gadget. If you click Scan, FindCD will search for any CD-ROM drive
connected to your machine. If FindCD finds a CD-ROM drive, it will be
displayed. Note for users with more than one CD-ROM drive: If more than
one CD-ROM drive is found, you have to select the one you wish to install.
To install multiple CD-ROM drives or CD-ROM changers, you simply have to
start the Installation utility again and again, until all of your drives
are installed. After you selected the drive to install, click Use. Note
for TandemCD users: If you are using the Tandem/CD1200 package from
AlfaData, the device driver will now automatically be updated, if
necessary. If everything went well, you are now presented with the
Filesystem -> Controller Configuration window. If not, FindCD was not able
to locate your CD-ROM drive. In this the case, you'll have to check your
hardware installation. Now you have to configure CacheCDFS to your CD-ROM
or SCSI host adapter that you are going to use. The installation utility
will present you reasonable defaults that should always work. You may
click on Help to get a detailed explanation about the different options.
Here are some example configurations:

TandemCD/CD1200:
Use Diskchange Interrupt

ATAPI (Elaborate Bytes' device to use an ATAPI CD-ROM with the Amiga 4000
embedded IDE port): Use Diskchange Interrupt

A2091/Hardframe:
Use SCSI Direct
Use 24 Bit-DMA

A3000/A4091/FastLane/ALF2/Supra/Emplant/Progressive
Peripherals/Golem/Oktagon500/others:

Use SCSI Direct

ALF3/Oktagon508/Oktagon2008:
Use Diskchange Interrupt

GVP Series2 (with FaaaastRom driver):
Use Diskchange Interrupt
Use Motor off

If you are done, click Proceed.

Now the Installation utility asks you, if you would like the CD-ROM drive
automatically mounted upon bootup. Usually you should select Yes.

Important Note: If you are not sure if your CD-ROM or host adapter works
with CacheCDFS, it was wise to select No. Otherwise you might not be able
to boot your Amiga, as the machine might freeze or crash while trying to
activate your CD-ROM! If you are in doubt, select No! After testing the
proper operation of CacheCDFS with your host adapter and CD-ROM, you can
simply start the installation utility again and select Yes at this point
of the installation procedure.

Now you are asked which AmigaDOS device name your CD-ROM should get. The
default is CD0. You may insert any valid AmigaDOS device name if you like.
Be sure that you choose a unique name. Do not enter trailing colons, e.g.
enter CD0 and NOT CD0:!

Note for users with more than one CD-ROM drive: Your CD-Roms must be named
differently, of course! After you chose the name, click Proceed.

Now you should specify where the installation utility shall place the
CacheCDFS support programs, like the JukeBox audio player or the
CD32-Emulator. It is advised that you create a new drawer for the
CacheCDFS stuff on your harddrive by clicking Make New Drawer. If you are
not running the installation utility for the first time, you should simply
select the drawer created from the last installation procedure. Than click
Proceed.

Should the CDFSprefs utility be installed?
With CDFSprefs you can easily change the operational parameters of
CacheCDFS "on the fly". You really should click Yes.

The CDFSprefs utility is installed in your SYS:Prefs directory, as it is a
classic "Preferences" program!

Should the KillDev utility be installed?
With KillDev you can completely "unmount" a CD-ROM drive after it has been
mounted. This is very handy if you plan to use more than one CD-ROM
filesystem (e.g. the Xetec CDx FileSystem for CDTV emulation).

Should the FindCD utility be installed?
You already used FindCD during the installation. It is of no real use for
normal operation. However, it might be handy for diagnostic purposes.

Should the PlayCD utility be installed?
PlayCD is small but powerful Audio Player for SCSI-2, Mitsumi and ATAPI
drives.  The documentation is accompanied with the program and will be
copied, too. Please refer to the documentation that comes with it.

Should the CD32-Emulator be installed?
This question will only appear, if you are running Kickstart / Workbench
version 3.0 or better on your machine, as the CD32-Emulator will not work
without it!

Now the installation of CacheCDFS (and the CD32-Emulator) has been
completed.


 Using CacheCDFS

Activation

CacheCDFS can be activated in a number of ways depending on your version
of AmigaDOS and whether you specified that CacheCDFS be automounted in the
Installation utility.

If you have AmigaDOS 2.04 installed on your Amiga, you will need to use
the mount command as follows: mount <DEVICE> from devs:MountList.<DEVICE>
where <DEVICE> represents the appropriate device name as specified in the
install procedure, usually CD0.

For example, to manually activate CacheCDFS installed as CD0:, you would
have to enter the following command:

mount CD0: from devs:MountList.CD0

If you chose AutoMount during installation, this command will be inserted
into your s:user-startup file and automatically executed upon bootup.

With AmigaDOS 2.1 and above, Commodore has introduced the concept of
Storage and DOSDrivers directories. In this case, a file needs to be
created in either the SYS:Storage/DOSDrivers directory or the
DEVS:DosDrivers directory. This file will contain a conventional
mountlist, with the mounted device assuming the filename. All files in the
DEVS:DosDrivers directory are automatically mounted upon startup, while
files in the SYS:Storage/DOSDrivers directory are not. Both directories
are searched when a mount command is issued.

For example, if you want to mount CacheCDFS installed as CD0:, you would
enter the following command:

mount CD0:

Further you can activate CacheCDFS without entering the mount command from
the shell by double clicking the device icon in either the DEVS:DosDrivers
or SYS:Storage/DOSDrivers directory.

 Use of AmigaDOS Commands

The comfort of a FileSystem is that its operation is totally transparent
to the user. All AmigaDOS commands, such as dir, copy, list work exactly
as if they were executed on a floppy or hard drive. You may use your
favorite directory utilities such as SID, DirWorks or Directory Opus with
CacheCDFS. This can simplify the traversal of the disc, especially where
Macintosh HFS discs are concerned, as many nonstandard characters are
present in HFS filenames.

Due to the read-only nature of CD-ROM discs, it is impossible to write on
the disc. Therefore, AmigaDOS will regard the CD-ROM disc as a large,
write-protected volume. All attempts to write to the disc will result in a
standard "write-protected" requester, which has to be canceled.

 Using PhotoCDs/Multisession CDs

PhotoCDs are recorded in a special format (CDXA) which differs from
standard data CDs. To read PhotoCDs, your CD-ROM must be capable to read
CDXA (CD extended Architecture) discs. All modern CD-ROM drives should be
able to do so.

Further, some CD-ROM drives (e.g. the drives made by Toshiba) must be
"switched" in a special CDXA- Mode manually before PhotoCDs can be read.

The CacheCDFS will do so automatically, if it detects a Toshiba CD-ROM
drive. Do NOT use any external program for this purpose as this may cause
some confusion.

Multisession PhotoCDs are "write-once" CDs, where you can add additional
files on additional "sessions" later. To access the added sessions, your
CD-ROM must be capable to do so. Further, the FileSystem must be aware of
these extended sessions and look for the directory of the CD on the last
session, otherwise you would only see the files present on the first
session.

CacheCDFS will do so automatically, if your CD-ROM drive is a SCSI-II or
IDE-ATAPI drive. Multisession will NOT work with SCSI-I drives.

As CacheCDFS handles all this automatically, you must not use any
additional tools which enable PhotoCD or multisession capabilities (e.g.
MSpatch). Using CacheCDFS with Macintosh HFS

The Macintosh HFS file system is a bit tricky to use. Any HFS file
consists of two "forks" - a data and a resource fork. Unlike other
filesystems CacheCDFS will always show you the data and resource fork as
two different files. To distinguish these two files you may add an
extension to either the resource filename, the data filename or both with
the CDFSprefs program.

Some HFS filenames contain a lot of spaces. This makes typing their names
from the shell a tedious task. The "convert spaces" option of CDFSprefs
will convert spaces in HFS filenames to underscores. (See also the chapter
"Setting CacheCDFS Preferences")


 Theory of Cache Operation

Before continuing, there are a few things about cache organization that
you must know. In order to make cache access as fast and efficient as
possible, the main cache "buffer" must be organized in a special way. We
talk about "lines", "prefetch", "data buffer" and "minimal direct read".

These values all relate very closely to sector numbers. All devices that
are used to store files on have sectors. One sector is a tiny bit of
information - in case of a CDROM - 2048  bytes in size.

All devices have a controlling task (a running program) called a device
driver, whose primary task it is to read and write these sectors. This
might be the scsi.device for an A3000 with a SCSI-CD ROM drive, or the
tandemcd.device for the wonderful TandemCD package from AlfaData. If a
file system (like CacheCDFS) wishes to read sectors off a drive, it must
ask the device driver to fetch those sectors. This device driver is
sometimes called an "Exec" device driver.

The file system is a kind of protocol that describes how data is organized
on the physical device. The CacheCDFS can read ISO9660, RockRidge and MAC
HFS formatted disks. As the filesystem is a kind of interface between the
exec device driver controlling the hardware and AmigaDOS, it is sometimes
called a "DOS" device driver. The term "prefetch" is an indication of how
many sectors the cache will read or write for each physical device access.
If prefetch is set to 4, then this means, that even if the DOS only asks
for two sectors, four will be read. Since each drive access is a lengthy
and time consuming procedure, much time can be saved by "guessing" what
sectors will be needed next. Since the best guess is often that "the next
sector will be needed next", prefetching sectors in clusters is indeed a
good thing. Keep in mind that it only takes a bit longer to read four
sectors than to read one. It would take much longer to read four sectors
individually than to read them all in one go. Furthermore, as the
FileSystem really knows how large a file actually is and how the disc is
organized, those guesses have a very good chance to be correct. Prefetch,
or "read-ahead" if you want, can boost performance a great deal, providing
you set the prefetch value not too big. If you use too much prefetch, it
will not help you one bit. In fact, it will probably work against you,
slowing everything down. This is because the next sector in sequence
probably is NOT the next sector that will be needed, and so the cache will
be reading much more than it should, on each access.

The morale is to use prefetch with reason. Generally a prefetch of 2 or 4
gave very good results with ISO9660 formatted disks.

Moving on to the term "lines". Lines is a means of grouping together
sectors  in "blocks" of a certain length. If a cache buffer uses 32 sets
of lines, this means that the cache can remember up to 32 different
entries, with each entry consisting of 'prefetch' number of sectors. To
illustrate this, consider the following sketch of a 32 line cache, with a
prefetch of 4:

Set number       Line contents

0                [sector][sector][sector][sector] (4*2048=8k)
1                [sector][sector][sector][sector] (4*2048=8k)
2                [sector][sector][sector][sector] (4*2048=8k)
3                [sector][sector][sector][sector] (4*2048=8k)
4                [sector][sector][sector][sector] (4*2048=8k)
etc....
31               [sector][sector][sector][sector] (4*2048=8k)
                                                   32*8k=256k

Each line can hold any four consecutive disk sectors with this prefetch
configuration. If the file system asks for sector number 8, the cache will
read sectors 8, 9, 10 and 11 into one of the lines. By now it must be
obvious that more lines also mean more space available for sector data,
and therefore a higher chance that a read operation will be able to
complete with no or only little physical disk access. Unfortunately, it
also means you have to set aside more memory for the buffers. A compromise
you often encounter with computers.

A typical cache configuration is a 50-set, cache, with a prefetch (line
size) of 4. The memory required by such a cache buffer will be:

    50 sets x (4 x 2048 bytes) = 400k bytes

The CacheCDFS has also a special buffer, called "data buffer". This buffer
has always the multiple size of one line.

If the line size is 4, and the data buffer has a size of 4, it is
organized like this:

    [line][line][line][line] (4*4*2048=32k)

If the FileSystem does caching (it does not always, see the term "direct
read" later), it checks the actual file length. In case the file is longer
as the amount actually requested, the rest is read immediately into the
data buffer, and then copied to the appropriate cache line.

The main difference between the Data Buffer "read ahead" and the normal
"read ahead" is as follows:

The cache lines are always filled (a "classic" read ahead cache), so even
different directory sectors or sectors from different files are cached.
The data buffer is a more "intelligent" special read-ahead cache line,
existing only once and caching only files, if the filesystem "believes"
they are worth it.

So you can do nice caching even on machines with not much free memory.
Look at this (which is the default setting after first time installation):

50 sets with a line size of 1 (no "directory" prefetch!), but a data
buffer of 8 (8 sectors "file" prefetch).

50 sets x (1 x 2048 bytes)
= 100k bytes

+ 8 x ( 1 x 2048 bytes) (data cache)
= 116k bytes

This gives pretty good results, even on a machine with not much memory
available.

Now moving to the term "direct read". If you read large files (e.g. "off
the disk animations") it is pretty useless to cache all these blocks. The
file will purge all other sectors out of the cache, even such blocks like
directory entries. To avoid this, you can specify a "minimum direct read"
value. If DOS requests more sectors than specified here, the filesystem
will bypass the cache and the device driver will copy its data directly
into the callers buffer (if any of these sectors are already present in
cache memory, these will be used).

Specifying a value of zero (0) will give you a sophisticated default. A
very high value (e.g. 2000) will only do requests greater than 4MB
directly, what is very unlikely to happen and the cache will always be
used. Specifying a value smaller or equal to the data buffer size is not
very useful, as you would in fact waste memory.

For best performance, use the default (0).

Before doing direct read, the Memory Type and Memory Mask of the callers
buffer will be checked, if it fits to the device requirements (specified
in the mountlist as BufMemType and Mask). If it doesn't, the data buffer
will be used as a cache.

It's simply not possible to give you a recipe on how to create a perfect
cache. The range of possible combinations of all the above values and the
memory you wish to spend for caching is simply too vast. You will have to
experiment to find the combination that best suit your needs.

You can adjust all these values in the filesystem's mountlist entry using
a text editor, but this method is strongly discouraged - using the
CDFSprefs program for this purpose is much easier and secure.


 Setting CacheCDFS Preferences

All options for CacheCDFS can be set via an Intuition-based preferences
editor. This will eliminate the need to change cryptic mountlist entries.
The CDFSprefs program is located in your SYS:Prefs drawer and can be
activated by double-clicking its icon.

Important Note: To edit the preferences for a particular CD-ROM drive, the
drive must be activated (mounted)!

The window of the CDFSprefs program is splitted into 3 sections:
-    The upper half of the window defines overall preferences
-    The lower left part are ISO9660 preferences
-    The lower right part are Macintosh HFS preferences

Simply adjust the values as you like, and click the SAVE gadget. The
changes will be stored in your mountlist entry and the filesystem will be
informed of these changes immediately. There is no need to reboot for
making the changes active! The USE gadget will perform the changes, but
will not store them in the mountlist entry. This is handy if you want to
experiment with different cache settings.


GADGETS

DEVICE:
Select the CDROM you want to edit. If only one CDROM is mounted, it will
be selected automatically.

BUFFERS:
Same is "Buffers" entry in mountfile. Sets the number of cache lines. The
default is 50.

DATA CACHE:
Same as DC in control entry in mountfile. Sets the size of the Data Cache.
The default is 8. Note that the size of the Data Cache is defined in
"multiples of the Line Cache size".

LINE CACHE:
Same as LC in control entry in mountfile. Sets the size of the Line Cache
(prefetch). Default is 1 - this means that prefetch is off.

MIN DIRECT:
Same as MD in control entry in mountfile. Specifies the amount of sectors
a read request must have to bypass the caching system. Default is 0
(automatic).

RAM (Read only gadget):
Shows you the total amount of RAM use of your buffer settings in Kbytes.

PRO BITS:
This will specify the protection bits all files on a CD-ROM should have,
as the SetProtection command of AmigaDOS will not work because of the
read-only nature of CD-ROM media.

SCAN FIRST FOR:
Select, if the FileSystem should look first for an ISO9660 or a MAC-HFS
identification on a CD inserted. This is useful, if you have "Dual-system"
discs with both an ISO9660 and a Macintosh HFS "partition".

SCSI DIRECT:
Same as S in control entry in mountfile. Uses SCSI direct calls instead of
trackdisk like commands. Default has been set by the Installation utility.

NO CHANGEINT:
Same as NC in control entry in mountfile. If set, CacheCDFS will not use
TD_ADDCHANGEINT and TD_REMCHANGEINT. Default has been set by the
Installation utility.

MOTOR OFF:
Same as M in control entry in mountfile. Will send a TD_MOTOR off after
CMD_READ. Default has been set by the Installation utility.

FILES TO LOWERCASE:
Same as L in control entry in mountfile. All file names will be converted
to lowercase. This option only applies to ISO9660 discs.

VOLUMES TO LOWERCASE:
Same as LV in control entry in mountfile. All Volume names will be
converted to lowercase. This option only applies to ISO9660 discs.

CONVERT FIRST CHAR:
Same as LFC in control entry in mountfile. This option only applies to
ISO9660 discs and specifies the behavior of FILES TO LOWERCASE and VOLUMES
TO LOWERCASE. If selected, all characters in names will be converted to
lowercase. If not, the first character will be untouched.

AUTO LOWER
Same as AL in control entry in mountfile. This flag will advise the
FileSystem, that only file and volume names of non-Amiga CDs should be
converted. CacheCDFS will try its best to determine, if mixed case file
names exist on a CD. However, this may not always work.

NO ROCKRIDGE NAMES
Same as NRR in control entry in mountfile. This flag will disable
RockRidge filenames. If it is selected, only ISO file names will be shown.

ROCK RIDGE CASE SENSITIVE
Same as RRCASE in control entry in mountfile. RockRidge file names are
defined to be case sensitive, e.g. the file "Olli" is different from the
file "oLLI". With Amiga DOS these two filenames describe the same file. If
this flag is set, the CacheCDFS will handle RockRidge file names case
sensitive. This may be useful, if you want to read a RockRidge CD where
different files can only be distinguished by the case of their file names.
Weird.

CONVERT SPACES:
Same as HCS in control entry in mountfile. This option only applies to
MAC-HFS discs. Will convert spaces in MAC-HFS filenames to underscores, if
selected.

RESOURCE:
Same as HR in control entry in mountfile. This option only applies to
MAC-HFS discs. Defines the name extension of the resource fork of MAC-HFS
files.

DATA:
Same as HD in control entry in mountfile. This option only applies to
MAC-HFS discs. Defines the name extension of the data fork of MAC-HFS
files.

SAVE:
Make changes active and save them to mountfile.

USE:
Make changes active.

CANCEL:
Exit without making changes.


MENUS

PROJECT - ABOUT:
Gives you information about the CDFSprefs program and the CacheCDFS in use.

PROJECT - QUIT:
Leaves the program.

EDIT - RESET TO DEFAULTS:
Get the default presets.

EDIT - LAST SAVED:
Get the values saved in the mountfile.

EDIT - RESTORE:
Get the current active values.

AUDIO - ON
Check this Menu Item, if you want the CacheCDFS to display an Icon for
Audio CDs on the Workbench screen.

AUDIO - EXTERNAL AUDIO PLAYER
Check this Menu Item, if you want the CacheCDFS to start an external audio
play program, if you double click the Audio Icon.

AUDIO - PATH
Here you can choose the external Audio player to be started by CacheCDFS.
We recommend to use the PlayCD program (included in this package) for this
purpose.



 Playing Audio CDs

To play audio tracks on a CD you can either use the capabilities embedded
in the CacheCDFS filesystem, or you may use an external audio player
program. Usually CD-ROM Audio play will only work with SCSI-II or
IDE-ATAPI CD-ROM drives.


 Embedded Audio Capabilities

If you have enabled Audio support for the CacheCDFS file system with the
CDFSprefs program and if you have a SCSI-2 compatible CD-ROM drive the
filesystem will show an audio icon on your Workbench, if a CD with audio
tracks is inserted. The first track will be played, if you double click
this icon. If you double click again, audio play will pause. If you double
click again, audio play will resume. If you double - double click the icon
(yes, this is four times!) the next track will be played. If you have
defined the use of an external audio player program with CDFSprefs, double
clicking the audio icon will start this external player. With this package
three different CD audio player programs are included; for use with this
feature we recommend Elaborate Bytes' "PlayCD".


 Defining a custom Audio Player Icon

You may use an own icon that will be displayed if a CD containing audio
tracks is inserted. CacheCDFS will look for the file ENV:CDDA.info if it
is started. If this file exists, it will be used instead of the built in
design. Let us try this: Copy the file Trashcan.info to ENVARC:CDDA.info
and reboot your machine. If you insert an Audio CD, the Trashcan icon will
show up.


 Introduction to the CD32-Emulator

The CD32-Emulator is a separate part of the CacheCDFS package. If you have
at least Kickstart 3.0 and if you have installed the CD32-Emulator with
the Installation utility, you will find a drawer named "CD32" on your
harddrive.

The CD32-Emulator tries to emulate all of the special system resources
that can be found in an Amiga- CD32 game console. This includes the
emulation of the battery backed up RAM for storing Highscores and the
setting of the preferred user language. Embedded in the CD32-Emulator is a
system degrader which will disable features of your Amiga - like processor
caches or fast memory - to make your machine more "CD32" like, as some
badly programmed games need this. You can control this "degration" easily
from the CD32-Emulator's preference window and save your preferred
settings.

Great effort has been taken to make the CD32-Emulator as compatible as
possible, but the usual restrictions that can be found with any kind of
emulation apply:

We cannot guarantee that all games that work on an Amiga CD32 game console
will work with the CD32-Emulator!

The Amiga CD32 has an in-built CDTV emulation. The CD32-Emulator has NOT!

CDTV titles WILL NOT WORK with the CD32-Emulator, even if they work with
the Amiga CD32 console!


 Emulating a PAL/NTSC console

On a PAL Amiga, the CD32-Emulator will emulate a PAL CD32, on an NTSC
Amiga the CD32-Emulator will emulate an NTSC CD32. You may change the
PAL/NTSC state of your Amiga from the Kickstart Boot Menu. This will
change the type of the CD32 emulated (PAL/NTSC), too.


 Installing the CD32-Emulator

The CD32-Emulator may be used immediately from your harddrive. But it is
very unlikely that many games will run correctly if you try this.

The preferred method is to create a dedicated "CD32-Emulator Boot Disk"
and start the emulation from this disk. The "Make CD32 Floppy" utility
will create such a disk for you. Another utility is the "Make HD Startup"
utility. It will create a new Startup-Sequence on your harddisk, that
allows you to boot directly into CD32-Emulation, if you press a function
key during startup. Your original startup-sequence will be renamed to
"Startup-Sequence.std" and will be executed if you boot without pressing
the dedicated function key. This method is faster than booting from
floppy, but it is advised that only experienced users try this option.
Your original startup-sequence will be changed and there is a slight
possibility that this may cause problems!

Important Note: The CacheCDFS must already be installed and the CD-ROM
drive you wish to use MUST be mounted! The cache settings should be set to
its default values and SAVEd before starting the "Make CD32 Floppy"
utility!

Double-click the "Make CD32 Floppy" icon and insert an empty disk into
your internal drive (DF0:). The disk doesn't need to be already formatted
as the program allows you to format the disk if you wish. All data on this
disk will be erased!

After the installation is completed you should wait a few seconds for all
disk activity to finish. Now you may reboot your Amiga and your machine
will boot from the created CD32-Emulation disk and the CD32- Emulator
preferences window will appear.


 Using the CD32-Emulator

The CD32-Emulator window offers you some detailed control possibilities of
the emulation's behavior. Two gadgets exist to activate CD32 emulation:
Boot and Initialize.

Boot will set up the emulation and will immediately start any Games CD
that is inserted in your CD-ROM drive CD0:

Important Note: Clicking Boot is a one-way-ticket! Once the boot process
from a Games CD has been started, there is no way to resume normal Amiga
operations. The only way to back out is to reset your machine! This is
important to know if you have started the CD32-Emulator from your
harddrive! Initialize will NOT start the Games CD, but will initialize all
of the emulation modules embedded in the CD32-Emulator. Its purpose is for
games that can be started from Workbench.

Important Note:
To get the most fun out of CD32 games, a CD32 game controller is
recommended. Please note that the original Commodore controller may not
work correctly with an A1200! The Competition PRO SuperCD32 controller
works with the A1200. Both controllers work with the A4000.


 Setting the CD32-Emulator preferences

Gadgets

NoFastmem
Enabling NoFastmem will disable all Fast Memory in your Amiga. You should
only enable this switch, if the game you want to play requires this. If
the graphic and/or sound of a game is corrupted, try this option.

NoInstCache
This will disable the instruction cache of the processor. This option
should rarely be necessary. If you encounter that a game is running too
fast, you should try this option.

NoDataCache
This will disable the data cache of the processor. If you encounter that a
game is running too fast, you should try this option.

VectorBase0
This option is only necessary if you started the game from Workbench. Some
games don't work at all if this option isn't enabled.

NoVolumeControl
This will disable the attenuation control of the CD32-Emulator. If the
digital audio produced by a game CD cannot be heard or the game "hangs",
try enabling this flag.

Emulate Controller
If this is enabled, the CD32 Game Controller will be emulated with the
keyboard. You shouldn't select this, if you have a CD32 Game Controller
connected to your Amiga. You may connect a one or two button joystick and
use the keyboard to access the additional keys. Emulation keys are:

Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 on numeric Keypad and cursor keys:
Joypad direction.
[ and / on numeric keypad: Reverse.
] and * on numeric keypad: Forward.
F1 and F6: Green button.
F2 and F7: Yellow button.
F3, F8 ,SPACE , ENTER and 0 on numeric keypad: Red button.
F4, F9 and DEL on numeric keypad: Blue button.
F5 and F10: Play/Pause button.

Note: It is possible that some games do not work if controller emulation
is enabled!

Use 68040.library
Most games will not work if Commodores 68040.library is used. But if it is
possible to use this library, system performance will be greatly
increased. This only applies to machines with 68040 processors, of course.

Load Workbench
Some games will probably not run correctly if there is no Workbench
process running. We know only of the game "Morph" which requires this flag
to be selected. Usually you should leave this off.

DOS Device
Here you define the CD-ROM drive, where the CD32 emulation should happen.

Blocks Buffer
The CD32-Emulator has a built in prefetch cache. Here you can set the size
of this cache (1 Block equals 2048 Bytes). The optimum value differs
depending on your configuration (Amiga model, host adapter, CD- ROM
drive). You have to experiment to find a good value. The rule is: Keep the
value as small as possible, but big enough, that off-the-disk-animations
run smoothly. For TandemCD/CD1200 the optimum value is 4, most SCSI drives
work best with a value of 2.

Delay p. Block
If you specify a value other than zero, a delay will be added between
reading different sectors This is important, if you have a CD-ROM drive,
which is faster than the original CD32. If you have a single or double
speed drive, leave this value to zero. If you have a faster (triple, -
quad speed) drive, you should enter a value between 50 and 100 here. You
must experiment for best results, as the correct timing will be affected
by your system performance.

Max Volume
Here you can specify the maximum level the CD sound should have during
gameplay.

Language
Here you can select your preferred language for multi-language games.


Menus

Project - Save Settings
This allows you to save your CD32-Emulator preferences. The settings are
stored as ToolTypes in the program's icon file.

Project - About
Tells you about the version and copyright of the CD32-Emulator.

Project - Quit
Will leave the program.

Game Store - Select Path
Some CD32 games allow you to save highscores or other data in the battery
backed up RAM of the Amiga CD32 game console for later retrieval.

The CD32-Emulator allows you to save this data to a dedicated place either
on floppy disk or your harddisk. If you select this menu item, a standard
ASL requester will appear. Choose the directory where you want the
CD32-Emulator to save the data. Every Game saving data will get its own
drawer. You may easily manipulate (copy, delete, etc.) files in these
drawers from the Workbench.

Remember: After adjusting your preferred settings, you should select Save
Settings. You should ONLY degrade your system, if the game you want to
play refuses to run otherwise. Most of the games run fine without
degration.

Some Example settings:
The best method to find the correct settings for a game is to start with
"conservative" settings. These would be "NoFastMem=ON", "Vector Base
0=ON", "Use 68040.library=OFF", "No InstrCache=ON", "NoDataCache=ON",
"Emulate Controller=OFF", "No Volume Control=ON", "Load Workbench=OFF". If
you like the game you should first try to enable the Instruction Cache. If
this works, try to enable Fast RAM and the 68040.library.

If you are using an IDE-ATAPI SONY CDU-55E CD-ROM drive (e.g. with the
atapi.device by Elaborate Bytes) you MUST leave "No Volume Control=ON".

Microcosm,  Pirates Gold, D-Generation, Sleepwalker, Clou and
Frontier - Elite II:
All off.

Pinball Fantasies, James Pond II - Robocod:
All off, but NoVolumeControl might be required on some host adapters or
CD-ROM drives.

Diggers:
All off, but the intro sequence will probably run too fast.
For the correct speed of the intro sequence you should select NoFastmem.

Oscar, Dangerous Streets:
NoFastMem
NoDataCache
VBR0 (only if started from Workbench on 68040 machines)

Morph
NoFastMem
Load Workbench


 Running the CD32-Emulator in the Background

You may specify the ToolTypes NoWinInst or NoWinBoot in the
CD32-Emulator's icon file. NoWinInst will immediately install the
CD32-Emulator's modules without opening its preferences window. If you
wish to have the CD32 Emulation present all the time, you may specify
NoWinInst and place the CD32-Emulator in your SYS:WBStartUp drawer.
NoWinBoot is very similar, but it will immediately try to boot from any
disc present in CD0:.


 Questions & Answers - Troubleshooting

Q: The AmigaCD32 only has 2 megabyte chip memory. Why do some games only
work on my Amiga 1200 if I add 32-bit-wide fast memory?

A: CacheCDFS and the CD32-Emulator are loaded from disk.. This will use
the memory a game probably needs. If an Amiga1200 doesn't have fast
memory, the CD32-Emulator will be loaded in chip memory. As chip memory is
slower than fast memory the speed of the emulation will probably be to
slow for some games.

Q: A game doesn't run on a plain A1200, but it works if I add fast memory.
But I have to select NoFastMem in the emulator's preference window! Isn't
that weird?

A: No, it isn't. The trick behind NoFastMem of the CD32-Emulator is, that
CacheCDFS and the CD32- Emulator are loaded and initialized BEFORE the
fast memory will be disabled. This leaves all the chip memory for the game
to run.

Q: I have a NEC-SCSI-CD-ROM drive. It works fine with CacheCDFS. But the
CD32-Emulator doesn't work correctly. Why?

A.: CacheCDFS works with any kind of CD-ROM drive, because it only needs
to access plain data. The CD32-Emulator needs to access Audio playback
functions and other more sophisticated stuff. The SCSI-2 standard defines
the methods how this should be done and the CD32-Emulator uses SCSI-2
commands to talk to the drive. Only drives conforming to SCSI-2 will work
correctly with the CD32-Emulator. Unfortunately most of the NEC drives do
not comply to SCSI-2 and therefore won't work, sorry.

Q: What drives do work with the CD32-Emulator?

A: All SCSI-2 drives will work, e.g. Toshiba, Sony and Apple drives. To
get full functionality, they should be "Double Speed". Further, the
IDE-ATAPI drives (Mitsumi FX001-DE, FX300, FX400, Sony CDU-55E, Wearnes
CDA-120, Acer-Sertek 6825P, Chinon CDS-555I, etc.) work if you use a well
programmed device driver (e.g. the a4000_atapi.device from Elaborate Bytes
or the AB-Union/ALFADATA CD1200plus). For the Sony CDU- 55E to work
correctly "No Volume Control" must be on! There is only one IDE-ATAPI
drive known, that does not follow this rule: The Elitegroup Vertos 300
does NOT work correctly, sorry.

Q: I have one of the drives listed above, but it does not work at all.
What's wrong?

A: Ask the manufacturer of your host adapter for assistance. Usually you
have a hardware problem, or you need an update of the controller firmware.

Q: Microcosm shows "Internal hardware error".

A: Contact the manufacturer of your host adapter and ask for a firmware
update.

Q: Microcosm runs very slow.

A: Your host adapter uses too much CPU time for CD-ROM access! If you have
an Oktagon controller, you need at least ROM version 6.5. Ask the
manufacturer for an update.

Q: May I use another filesystem with the CD32-Emulator?
A: Please don't. The results are unpredictable.

Q: Why didn't you add CDTV Emulation?

A: Some CDTV Titles don't run with other processors than the 68000. Most
CDTV Titles don't work with Kickstart 2.0 or better. A lot of CDTV titles
don't work properly if the AA/AGA chipset is enabled. The Amiga CD32 has
built-in "compatibility hacks", that make even those titles run on the
console. Without these hacks only a few titles would work, and this is
simply not worth the effort