Specifications

Page C-2 Appendix C
C.2.1Warm 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 creating a warm boot monitor and bootable tape.
C.2.2Booting 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 main CPU 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 in your computer
Owner’s Manual . 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. After copying the
necessary files onto diskette, you must use MONGEN to create a bootable monitor.
AMOS contains two special drivers designed for making bootable diskettes using the
MONGEN program with an AM-214 floppy disk controller:
BMIN.DVR is used for creating a bootable diskette for computers using 5-1/4"
half-height floppy drives.
BFLP.DVR is used for creating a bootable diskette on 3-1/2" floppy drives.
To create a bootable floppy diskette on a computer with an AM-219 floppy disk
controller, you must use the FIX219 program to create the floppy disk driver.
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.3UPGRADING 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 CPU board.
PDI-00172-60, Rev. A02