Nextor 2.0 Getting Started Guide
Contents
1. What has happened This time Nextor has assigned two drives A and B to the Sunrise IDE driver since two devices have been detected the floppy disk controller has now drives C and D assigned At boot time Nextor assigns as many drives as devices are available to each controller for device based controllers only see the Nextor 2 0 User Manual for details about the controller types Drive A has been mapped to the first available partition on the first available device as usual However once this has been done Nextor has searched for more suitable partitions on additional devices to be mapped to drive B So drive A is mapped to the first partition in the master device 50M big and drive B is mapped to the first partition in the slave device 85M big e Create an empty NEXTOR DAT file in drive B Also copy the NEXTOR SYS and COMMAND2 COM files to drive B f Reset your computer and issue a DIR command then a DIR B command Notice that the mapping is reversed relative to the previous case A is mapped to the 85M partition on slave device B is mapped to the 50M partition on master device NERTOR SYS version 2 80 Copurlant Seige EE Ho Pch Volume 11 hee A has o name Tirectory of As HEKTOR DAT A Bb 2b 13 16 33 NESTOR SY 4420 85 18 33 17 48 COMMANDE COM 393 1 29 30 2 44 IK in 3 tiles B622 free Asser bs Volume in drive has ho name Directory of Bs NESTOR Sts 4420 B3 19 33 17 18 COHAN COM 03935 42. This improves performance as it saves both CPU processing and device access In this case we have locked the floppy disk drive whose change status would otherwise be checked on each disk access floppy disk drives usually report a change status of Not sure always When issuing the second DIR command Nextor assumes that the disk has not changed and since it still has the directory and FAT sectors cached in memory it can display the disk contents even if the disk has been removed from the drive Nextor will clear then cached sector for a drive at the moment of locking it therefore if you had reversed the order of steps a and b you would have effectively got a Not Ready error e Insert the Nextor tools floppy disk in its drive again 8 The reduced zero allocation information mode Now we will set the reduced allocation mode on the FAT16 partition available on each device and see what happens a Reset your computer Check that drive A is mapped to the 50M partition on the master device and drive B is mapped to the 85M partition on the slave device b Issue a VOL A 50Mcommand then a VOL B 85M command in order to help identifying the partitions without having to rely on its free size A 20 a zA A 2vol pida Adra Volume in drive A 15 SN Directory of A NEXTOR SYS 4595 B6 07 31 15 53 COMMANDS COM 373 10 29 30 2 44 alk in files 1032K tree Adir hi _ volume in drive E 15 63 Directory of Eos HEXTOR S
3. What has happened When an environment item named ZALLOC exists and has the value ON case insensitive the reduced allocation information mode becomes the Zero allocation information mode causing the ALLOC function to return zero free space available for the drives that are in this mode You can use this mode if you have a very large drive and or are using a very slow device to prevent the computer from hanging for a few seconds every time a DIR command is issued Note the zero allocation information mode is available since Nextor 2 0 3 9 Using the boot keys We have seen that if key 1 is kept pressed while the computer is booting Nextor starts in MSX DOS 1 mode Now we ll see other useful keys that can be used to alter the way Nextor boots see the Nextor 2 0 User Manual for a full list of the available keys a Reset your computer while keeping the 3 key pressed You will see that the computer boots in the BASIC prompt What has happened When the 3 key is kept pressed at boot time Nextor ignores any NEXTOR SYS MSXDOS SYS and AUTOEXEC BAS files present in the boot drive and boots in the MSX BASIC prompt b Issue a CALL SYSTEM command c Copy the DRIVERS tool to drive A with the following command COPY C DRIVERS COM A d Execute the DRIVERS tool You will see that the IDE controller had been assigned two drives at boot time and the same happens with the floppy disk controller al PUP VERS sunrise IDE 08
4. by executing the following B MAPDRV D 3 1 1 b Copy the MSX DOS 1 system files to drive D by executing the following COPY BsMSXDOS SYS D COPY B COMMAND COM D c Reset the computer while keeping pressed the 1 key You will boot in MSX DOS 1 mode and in the COMMAND COM prompt Issue a DIR command and you should see the following notice the 16M free space Mos D S version 1 5 Copurlaht 196 by Microsott COMMAND version 1 1 Hale MaADOS Sta 24de 9 22 20 0 d0 COMMAND COM Ti o 9 22 20 2 40 tiles 16693296 bytes tree A What has happened When booting in MSX DOS 1 mode Nextor assigns one drive to the IDE driver and performs an automatic drive to device and partition assignment as when booting in normal mode However this time the partitions that can t be handled in MSX DOS 1 mode are skipped during the assignment procedure MSX DOS 1 can handle only FAT12 partitions with three or less sector per FAT The first partition 50MB big is skipped because it is FAT16 The second partition 25MB big is skipped because it is FAT12 but has more than three sectors per FAT Thus the third partition 16MB big becomes the first one available and it is then mapped to drive A Remember that all partitions of 16MB or less created with the Nextor built in partitioning tool are MSX DOS 1 compatible d Reboot the computer in normal mode again e Map partition 4 to drive D by executing the following B MAPDRV D 4 1 1
5. f Copy the MSX DOS 1 system files to drive D as you did in step b then create an empty NEXTOR DAT file in drive D as you did in the previous section g Boot the computer while keeping pressed the 1 key You will boot in MSX DOS 1 mode and in the COMMAND COM prompt again Issue a DIR command and you should see the following notice the 9M free space Mos DUS version 1 8 Copyrlahit 1986 hy Microso t COMMAND version 1 12 APL MSAIOS Sra die SoZ 20 4 COMMAND COM TRE 9 22 28 20 4 NEATOR DAT ee 22 3 3 Tiles Hl What has happened The rule give priority to partitions holding a file named NEXTOR DAT at the root directory during the automatic drive to device and partition assignment at boot time is valid when booting in MSX DOS 1 mode too but this time only the MSX DOS 1 compatible partitions are checked partitions 3 and 4 in this case being partition 4 the winner partition The remaining steps will leave the environment ready for the next section h Boot the computer in normal mode i You should have booted with partition 2 the one 25M big mapped to drive A If so simply delete the NEXTOR DAT file in that drive DEL NEXTOR DAT If not map partition 2 to drive D B MAPDRV D 2 1 1 and then delete the file DEL D NEXTOR DAT j Map partition 4 to drive D and then delete the NEXTOR DAT file 6 Using a second storage device Now we will see what happens when we add a second storage device to
6. means device index 1 controlled by driver in slot 1 Issue a TYPE B MAPDRV COM command for more details b Perform a DIR D command Check that drive D has indeed 25MB of free space c Copy the Nextor system files to drive D with the following commands COPY NEXTOR SYS D3 COPY COMMAND2 COM D d Create an empty file named NEXTOR DAT in drive D You can achieve this by executing a COPY CON D NEXTOR DAT command then pressing CTRL Z then pressing Enter e Reset your MSX and when you are in the COMMAND2 prompt perform a DIR command and check that this time drive A is assigned to the second 25MB big partition NERTOR SYS version 2 80 Copurlant 2Ad4 EE A Pe Volume 1n drive has o name Directory of A NESTOR SYS 4420 05 18 33 17 18 COMMAND COM 23937 10 29 30 2 44 WE TOR DAT af db eb as 16 25 Jikin 3 Files 2s Ay What has happened When performing the automatic drive to device and partition mapping assignment at boot time Nextor normally selects the first valid FAT12 or FAT16 partition available But if there are partitions with a file named NEXTOR DAT in the root directory then these partition have preference in the assignment process The contents of the NEXTOR DAT file are irrelevant in this version of Nextor 5 Booting in MSX DOS 1 mode Now we will see what happens with the automatic partition assignment process when we try to boot in MSX DOS 1 mode a Map partition 3 to drive D
7. reset once more You should be in the COMMAND2 prompt and have the 50M partition mapped to drive A 7 Locking drives In this section we ll try the drive lock feature a Execute the following command C LOCK C ON b Issue a DIR C command You will see a directory listing of the Nextor tools floppy disk c Remove the floppy disk from the drive if you are using blueMSX select the File Disk Drive A Eject nextor dsk menu option d Issue a DIR C command again You will see the same directory listing again instead of getting a Not Ready error even though the disk has been removed from the drive What has happened Whenever Nextor is about to access the contents of a drive and the drive is not mapped to a fixed device on a device based driver it first asks the driver if the associated storage media has changed If the answer is Yes or Not sure then it takes the appropriate actions for devices on a device based driver it assigns the first available partition on the device to the drive for other drivers MSX DOS legacy drivers and drive based drivers it simply clears sector buffers and creates again the disk parameters block for the drive The Not sure response gets actually a special treatment see the Nextor user manual for more details When a drive is locked Nextor will never ask the driver for device change status when accessing that drive and will instead assume that the device will never change
8. the IDE controller Step a applies when using the blueMSX emulator If you are using a different emulator you should perform the appropriate steps to attach a second 100M emulated hard disk as the slave device to the IDE controller If you are using a real MSX you should attach an at least 100M big real device configured as slave to the IDE controller or insert an additional card in the second card slot a Select the File Hard Disk IDE Sunrise Secondary Insert New Disk Image menu In the Disk Size list select 100 MB Give the disk image any name you want and click the Open button b Reset the computer go to BASIC and invoke the device partitioning tool with CALL FDISK c Partition the device as you did in section 2 This time however you should select device 2 in the device selection screen and you should create just two partitions the first one having a size of 85M and the second one of 15M d Reset the computer Once in the COMMAND2 prompt issue a DIR command and check that drive A has 50M free Then issue a DIR B command and check that drive B has 85M free again please be patient especially with the second DIR command NERTOR SYS version 2 80 Copurlant seig EE A vile Volume 1M dou A has o name Direc Lory of oc NEXTOR Sys 4420 05 18 33 47 18 COMMAND COM dados A 2900 zidd elk es 105K tree q 2dlr p Volume 1n drive E has o name birer Lory ot Bes butes in B tiles Sb Ai Zk freg
9. 0 29 30 2 44 lin 2 tiles OBK tree Hall What has happened The rule give priority to partitions holding a file named NEXTOR DAT at the root directory during the automatic drive to device and partition assignment at boot time applies to all partitions on all devices not only to the first device Taking in account both the master and the slave devices the only partition having a NEXTOR DAT file is the first partition on the slave device and therefore this one is assigned to drive A After this is done other devices are scanned for a partition to be mapped to drive B in this case the only other device available is the master device and thus its first partition is mapped to drive B g Map partition 2 of slave device to drive B C MAPDRV B 2 2 1 Copy the MSXDOS SYS and COMMAND COM files to drive B h Reset the computer while keeping pressed the 1 key You will boot in MSX DOS 1 mode and in the COMMAND COM prompt Issue a DIR command then a DIR B command Notice that in the first case you get 16M of free space and in the second case you get 15M Mos DOS version 1 0 copyright 1306 by Microsoft COMMAND version 1 1 Ardit Hs DOS e vd 1 J de q de COMMAND COM g 9 29 20 20 48 2 tile 16E hutes freg Adir b MEXDOS Sys 2432 3 22 20 20 48 COMMAND CON Tieg 9 20 20 20 48 2 tiles 10079400 bytes free Hell What has happened Drive A has been mapped to the first available partition on the
10. Nextor 2 0 Getting Started Guide By Konamiman 5 2014 Index Us asigolo Ple AAA ro OO 2 A A e e EE io EE E aah adie alee aera 2 SS A a lena sdedconncehca meee cenatend 3 3 BOONG ana Creating DAN ONNS edo desa 4 4 Mapping partitions and changing the boot partitiON ccooocococnccocnconnnnonnnoncnonanononnconcnonanonnnncnncnnnanonnnnos 6 5 booting NMSA DO S TM loe eaten 7 6 USING asseconda Storage device uti a tence 9 TA LOCKING IONIVSS usaran Dental 12 8 The reduced zero allocation information MOE oocccoccccoccccncncconccncnconcnnnnnnoncnnnnnonnnnnnnrnnnnnnnnnnonaronennnonrnnnnns 13 OD MISING Ne DOOM CY otenqurecdska at tatetat eee ah teceat R 15 MO AS MANIC NSO a are eG A 17 AN AP A E E eseeeeeed sts 17 TO 2 V2 A Ace eee ST ae Re eT ah RE aa A WANE A En Or Re ne eee ee 17 TS MA Mata ts Ree ene eee ee eee en ae eee eee eee ee a ee ees ee eee 17 A 17 A A a a teri latsoats an te ds 17 PA o A II II II II T EPEE II IN 18 1 Introduction Nextor is an enhanced version of MSX DOS 2 the disk operating system for MSX computers It is based on MSX DOS 2 31 with which it is 100 compatible This document provides a walkthrough of the features that Nextor adds to MSX DOS in the form of a step by step guide In order to make it easier for everyone this guide assumes that the blueMSX emulator with will be used for the walkthrough together with an emulated Sunrise IDE controller Users of other emulators will n
11. YS 4395 06 07 31 15 53 COMMAND COM 20035 18 25 38 2 44 gtk ine tiles Sheek tree A ail c Execute the following commands C RALLOC A ON C RALLOC B ON d Issue a DIR command then a DIR B command Notice that now the free space reported is 32M for both partitions H eo Palloc a on The following drives are in reduced allocation intormation mode E ast ciralloc h on tipa drives are in reduced allocation Information mode H h A a Or volume In drive 15 5 Directory of Ai NEATOR ote 409 Ub Wf gh Locos COMMAND COM 23935 10 29 38 2 44 gtk In 2 tiles d2fbok tree Asad bs Volume in drive E 15 02 Directory of Bs NEXTOR Sye 4595 06 00 21 45 53 COMMAND COM 29935 10 29 38 2 44 elk ine tiles 326k tree 4 21 What has happened When a drive is in reduced allocation information mode the Nextor function ALLOC which returns information about the total and free space on a drive and is used by COMMAND2 COM to display the free space returns 32MB when the real amount is larger than this value This may be useful when using old software that ask the operating system how much free space is available in the drive and expect the result in sectors to fit in 16 bits e Execute the following command SET ZALLOC ON f Issue again the DIR and DIR B commands Notice that this time the free space reported is zero for both partitions and the DIR commands finish immediately after displaying the last file name
12. d in step a or simply paste the whole file path Then press the Ok button to close the window g Press the Save as button and save the machine configuration with the name MSX2 with Sunrise IDE and Nextor Then press the Close button to close the window h Select the File Disk Drive A Insert menu Select the Nextor tools disk image file you have downloaded in step a i Select the File Hard Disk IDE Sunrise Primary Insert New Disk Image menu In the Disk Size list select 100 MB Give the disk image any name you want and click the Open button Now you have an emulated MSX2 with a Sunrise IDE controller that has the Nextor kernel in its flash ROM and a 100MB hard disk as the master device Also you have the Nextor utils disk in the floppy disk drive 2 1 Setting up a real MSX If you want to follow the steps of this guide by using a real MSX computer with a Sunrise IDE controller and a floppy disk drive instead of an emulator you will need to do the following e Download the Nextor kernel with Sunrise IDE driver e Copy the NEXTOR SYS and COMMAND2 COM files and the Nextor tools to a floppy disk You have two options o Download the Nextor tools disk image file and transfer its contents to a floppy disk o Download the Nextor tools LZH file and uncompress it to a floppy disk together with the NEXTOR SYS and COMMAND2 COM files Note The Nextor kernel NEXTOR SYS and the Nextor tools are available at Konamima
13. eed to adapt the steps of section 2 appropriately on the other hand users of real MSX hardware should take a look at section 2 1 The reader of this document is assumed to have experience with MSX DOS 2 at least at the user level Also It is a good idea to get acquainted with Nextor by reading Nextor 2 0 User Manual prior to or in parallel with this document Note in this guide the following Nextor tools will be used MAPDRV COM LOCK COM and RALLOC COM The other tools are simple enough for not needing a step by step usage explanation remember however that all the Nextor tools are explained in the Nextor 2 0 User Manual and that you can get help for any of the tools by invoking them without parameters or by issuing a TYPE command directly on the command file for example TYPE FASTOUT COM 2 Setting up blueMSX This section explains the steps needed to setup blueMSX in order to follow this guide The blueMSX emulator can be downloaded at http www bluemsx com a Download the following files from Konamiman s MSX page http www konamiman com nextor o Nextor kernel with Sunrise IDE driver o Nextor tools disk image b Run blueMSX and select the Tools Machine Editor menu c Select the machine configuration named MSX2 d Select the Memory tab and press the Ada button e In the Slot list select Slot 1 In the Type list select Sunrise IDE f In the File box browse the Nextor kernel file you have downloade
14. master device and drive B has been mapped to the first available partition on the slave device as in the previous case However this time only the MSX DOS 1 compatible partitions have been taken in account These are partitions 3 and 4 in the master device partition 3 16M big is selected and partition 2 in the slave device 15M big i Create an empty NEXTOR DAT file in drive B j Reset the computer while keeping pressed the 1 key You will boot in MSX DOS 1 mode and in the COMMAND COM prompt Issue a DIR command then a DIR B command Notice that the mapping is reversed relative to the previous case A is mapped to the 15M partition on slave device B is mapped to the 16M partition on master device Mos D0S version 1 2 Copyrioht 1956 by MicrosoPt COMMAND version 1 12 Healy ASADOS S dol 9 22 28 28 48 COMMAND CONO TLRS 9 22 20 2a de NESTOR DAT 1 2 19 13 10 64 3 files 15063144 bytes free Hear h ue ny in ae ee 1 Jda pipi J i di 5 COMMAND COM TL 9 22 28 248 d tiles 16695296 hutes freg H What has happened You should have guessed it already both devices have been scanned for partitions only the MSX DOS 1 partitions have been taken in account and the partition having a NEXTOR DAT file has been given priority in the mapping process and thus it has been mapped to drive A k Delete the NEXTOR DAT from drive A Reset your computer in normal mode delete the NEXTOR DAT from drive A again and
15. n s MSX page http www konamiman com nextor e Copy the MSXDOS SYS and COMMAND COM files to the floppy disk these are necessary for the steps that involve booting in MSX DOS 1 mode These files are included in the Nextor tools disk image file but can be found on other places on Internet too search for MSXDOS SYS on any search engine e Insert the floppy disk in the drive and attach an IDE device hard disk or compact flash card of at least 100MB to the Sunrise IDE controller as the master device or to the first card slot if you are using a CF reader The device should be completely blank that is it should not contain any partition or filesystem otherwise you may get different results from these described in the next section until you repartition the device Please note that if you use an existing IDE device following the steps of this guide will delete all the data on the device 3 Booting and creating partitions Once all the hardware real or emulated is in place now we ll see what happens when we try to boot without having defined any partition for the IDE device then we ll create and prepare some partitions a Boot your MSX You will see that you boot in the COMMAND2 prompt in drive B as in the following image HEKTOR STS version 2 HH copyright 2814 Konanimar What has happened Nextor has assigned one drive to the Sunrise IDE driver A and two drives to the floppy disk drive B and C Then it ha
16. on slot 1 Type device A f Dr yes xecigned at boot tine 2 from A to F Legacy driver on slot 3 1 Drives assigned at boot time 2 from G to D e Reset your computer while keeping the CTRL key pressed Once in the COMMAND2 COM prompt execute the DRIVERS tool again You will see that both the IDE controller and the floppy disk drive have been assigned only one drive each qu Par Wears Sunrise IDE 48 1 on slot 1 Type device based Drives assigned at boot time 1 A Legacy driver on slot 3 1 Drives assigned at hoot time 1 E What has happened When the CTRL key is kept pressed at boot time Nextor will assign one single drive to Nextor drivers regardless of the number of attached devices for device based controllers only see the Nextor 2 0 User Manual for details about the controller types The same behavior is exhibited by the floppy disk controller as usual f Reset your computer while keeping the SHIFT key pressed Once in the COMMAND2 COM prompt execute the DRIVERS tool again You will see that no drives have been assigned to the floppy disk drive AAGP Ivers sunrise IDE vil on slot 1 Type device haser rives assigned at boot time 2 from A to AnA What has happened When the SHIFT key is kept pressed at boot time all the storage controllers with a MSX DOS kernel including the floppy disk drive controller will disable themselves but Nextor will not This is usef
17. onality in this version but some errata in this document has been corrected e References to drive C in steps a and m of section 3 have been corrected to mention drive B instead e Reference to drive B in step a of section 4 has been corrected to a reference to drive D 10 3 v2 0 final There are no changes in functionality in this version therefore this guide has not changed 10 4 v2 0 Beta 2 e Starting at version 2 0 beta 2 Nextor no longer assigns a fixed number of two drives to device based controllers at boot time instead it assigns one drive per available device This guide has been modified accordingly e Section 9 Using the boot keys has been added 10 5 v2 0 Beta 1 e References to Alpha changed to references to Beta e The drive lock test has been shortened to the floppy example only since now a Not sure change status no longer implies an automatic drive mapping change depends on the boot sector checksum e Changed the examples of MAPDRV COM usage to reflect the new parameters syntax used by the tool 11 Contact You can get the latest version of Nextor and the associated tools at Konamiman s MSX page http www konamiman com For bug reports or suggestions please write at konamiman konamiman com
18. s attempted to search a suitable FAT12 or FAT16 partition in the attached hard disk in order to assign it to drive A but since the hard disk has no partitions yet drive A has been left unassigned Drive B assigned to the floppy disk is the first valid drive and so it is used as the boot drive b Type BASIC and then CALL FDISK to invoke the device partitioning tool c Press 1 to select the Sunrise IDE driver then 1 again to select the hard disk then 1 again to select the first and only logical unit d If you were using an already partitioned device press D to delete the existing partitions e Press P to add a partition Type 50 to create a 50MB partition f Repeat step e but this time create a 25MB partition g Repeat step e but this time create a 16MB partition i Press A to use all the remaining disk space 9214K for yet another partition j Press S to see the defined partitions You should see four partitions as in the following image 4 new partitione defined 1 FATIG SAN d FATI ol 3 FATI2 del 4 FAT 9214 TI E k Press ESC to return to the main menu then press W to create the partitions on the disk Press y on the data destroy warning prompt Reset your MSX You will see that the computer boots in the BASIC prompt What has happened Nextor has assigned drive A to the IDE controller again However since now the attached device has
19. ul to maximize the amount of available memory especially in MSX DOS 1 mode as shown in the next step There are boot keys to selectively disable the Nextor kernels as well see the Nextor 2 0 User Manual for details g Reset your computer while keeping the 1 and 3 keys pressed simultaneously Once in the BASIC prompt issue a PRINT FRE 0 command You will see that there are about 20K free for BASIC code h Reset your computer while keeping the 1 3 SHIFT and CTRL keys pressed simultaneously Once in the BASIC prompt issue a PRINT FRE 0 command again You will see that now the free memory is about 25K Also if you execute a CALL DRVINFO command you will see that indeed there is only one drive assigned Maa PASIG version ado Copurlant 1966 pu Microsoft ee BASIC version 1 8 print teeta 24909 k call drulnto Drive A 1s assigned to sunrise IDE Wa on slot 1 Jewice 4 LUN 1 k Note of course you do not need to keep the CTRL key pressed while booting if you have only one device attached to your Nextor controller unless you want to keep the floppy disk drive active but with only one drive assigned 10 Change history This section lists the changes in this document from previous releases 10 1 v2 0 3 Added steps to test the new zero allocation information mode in section 8 The reduced zero allocation information mode 10 2 v2 0 2 There are no changes in functi
20. valid partitions Nextor has assigned the first suitable partition found the one that is 50MB big to drive A so this is now the boot drive But since the partition has not the Nextor boot files yet the system boots in the BASIC prompt m Copy the Nextor system files from the floppy disk to drive A by executing the following commands COPY B NEXTOR SYS TO A COPY B COMMAND2 COM TO A n Reset your computer and you will see that now it boots in the COMMAND2 COM prompt from drive A Issue a DIR command and you should see the following notice the 50M free space HEKTOR SS version Bb AA EE Adir Volume 1h drive has no name Directory of As ci COMMANDS COM 2ados 19 29 30 2 44 elf in e files 30d tree Hes NOTE Please be patient with the DIR command especially if you are not using a MSX Turbo R computer Calculating the free space of a 50MB partition will take quite a few time to your MSX If you are using an emulator you can probably increase the speed of the emulated machine 4 Mapping partitions and changing the boot partition So far we have seen that Nextor has performed an automatic drive to partition mapping Now we ll see how to instruct Nextor to select a different partition at boot time and how perform manual mapping after the system has booted a Assign partition 2 to drive D by executing the following command B MAPDRV D 2 1 1 2 is the second partition and 1 1
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