Specifications
Page C-2 Appendix C
C.1.2Warm Boot Ability
A warm boot tape allows you to access the computer in situations where you are not
able to boot from the hard disk drive. When doing a Roadrunner upgrade, you’ll be
modifying the system initialization command file and using the MONGEN program to
embed a new driver in your AMOS monitor. Either of these two operations, if done
incorrectly, could result in a computer that won’t boot. If you have a warm boot tape, you
will be able to access your hard disk drive and correct the situation which prevented you
from booting. Without a warm boot tape, it will be much more difficult to access the
computer and correct the problem on the hard disk drive. See the
Systems Commands
Reference Manual
for information on how to create a warm boot monitor and a bootable
tape.
C.1.3Booting from a Floppy Drive
If your computer includes a floppy drive, it can be configured as a boot device. A floppy
drive makes an excellent alternate boot device and may prove invaluable should your
hard disk drive fail to boot.
To boot from a diskette, you must reconfigure the AM-167 or AM-177 board’s boot
switch, selecting your floppy drive as the boot device. The floppy drive can be
configured as either the main or alternate boot device. Information on how to configure
the boot switch is located earlier in this document in Section 6.0. Even though the entire
AMOS release will not fit on a single diskette, you can create a bootable diskette by
copying only files essential for booting and minimal operation onto the diskette. Once
you copy the necessary files onto the diskette, you must use the MONGEN program to
create a bootable monitor. Use the program FIX210 to create a floppy driver; once the
driver has been created, you can use MONGEN to embed this driver into the monitor.
Don’t forget that the system initialization command file on the diskette must be updated
to designate the floppy drive as the boot device.
C.1.4Upgrading Your AMOS Operating Software
The instructions in this section are based on the assumption that you are loading a
Roadrunner compatible version of AMOS on your existing disk drive. Since this
operation should be done before you install the Roadrunner hardware, the assumption
is also made that your disk drive is connected to the SASI port on your AM-1000 or
AM-1200 computer. If you ordered a new SCSI disk drive along with your Roadrunner
upgrade, the new drive has already been loaded with a Roadrunner compatible AMOS
operating system. Also the new drive will be clearly labeled with information which
includes bitmap size, AMOS version (1.4C or 2.2C), and disk structure (extended or
standard). A one page notice included with your new drive explains what software is on
the drive, as well as how to copy your existing software onto the new drive without
overwriting the new operating system. New SCSI drives ordered with a Roadrunner
upgrade will be configured to boot from the Roadrunner board’s high performance
SCSI port; the new drive will not boot from the SASI port on your AM-167 or AM-177
board.
PDI-00172-10, Rev. A03