AUTOBOOT.WS -- ADDENDUM
by Ruel T. Hernandez
March 13, 1988

    This is for anyone with a MicroSphere ramdisk, or anyone who needs a 
similar application, or anyone who likes to use a combination of submit 
programs....

    On my Kaypro, with the MicroSphere ramdisk, I use a combination of /.COM 
(which is the super small submit program) and EX15.COM.

    The problem I had with my Kaypro-MicroSphere was continuing the autoboot 
sequence after I turn the ramdisk into drive A.  Basically, when the 
physical drive A is no longer seen as drive A by my ramdisk (the ramdisk is 
now drive A and the physical drive A becomes drive E), well, the $$$.SUB 
generated by /.COM remains on the floppy disk and the ramdisk as drive A has 
nothing to read in continuing the autoboot sequence.

    That's when EX15 comes to the rescue.  With the /.COM-EX15 combination, 
/.COM does everything I want my Kaypro to do, such as load various programs 
including the important ramdisk program, before I have it do the physical- 
drive-A/ramdisk switch.  Then EX15 comes along (after being called by /.COM) 
and does the drive switch and continues with the autoboot sequence with 
whatever files and programs I have on the ramdisk (you can keep the 
MicroSphere ramdisk powered up when you turn off the Kaypro, so you don't 
have to reload the ramdisk with programs and files everytime you turn on the 
computer like with the Advent and that other co-processor ramdisks).  And 
that pesky $$$.SUB file is erased too.  Without EX15, the autoboot sequence 
would stop after the disk drive switch and the $$$.SUB file would remain on 
the physical drive A -- the $$$.SUB seems to cause problems with NewSweep 
and other programs making it seem like you have nothing in the floppy disk 
directory.

    What I did was make a SYNONYM .com file named STARTUP.COM which tells 
/.COM to do the following as if it was being done manually:

              A>/ warning;ez on;gd on;rd;xk e:ws;ex ram <RET>

which means have /.COM run my WARNING.COM program (which puts a warning line 
on the bottom 25th screen line to potential theives), then fire up 
EZCPR.COM (EZCPR has to be modified with ZCPR2's GENINS.COM to recognize 
drive E), then turn on GUARD.COM (which protects EZCPR from being wiped out 
by warm boots -- also stops warm boots from going to the physical A drive), 
run the RD.COM ramdisk program (I hacked the MicroSphere RD.COM program so 
it only sysgens the ramdisk without the program stopping to ask me to 
manually type in a yes or a no as to whether the ramdisk should be 
reformated), then run XtraKey which loads up my WordStar definitions located 
on the ramdisk (the ramdisk is drive E before the disk drive switch), and 
then hand off the autoboot sequence (and the disk drive switch) to EX15 
which then reads the RAM.SUB file.  The RAM.SUB file has the one line of:

              dir f:;line;kaypro;pause;clr;dir

which is a ZCPR command line.  What this does is: (1) do a DIR F: which is 
the disk drive switch command where the physical drive A becomes drive E and 
the ramdisk becomes drive A; (2) run my new LINE.COM program (sitting on the 
ramdisk) to rewrite the bottom 25th screen line with a new screen "bumper 
sticker"; (3) run KPGRDISP.COM which shows a graphic display of the Kaypro 
logo; (4) pause the autoboot sequence ("Please press any key to 
continue...."); and (5) run my DIR.COM program.  [[I hacked my copy of EX15 
so it doesn't give it's little exit message, "(Ex Completed)", or that extra 
">" after the A0> prompt, when it has finished its task.]]

    When using programs like EX15 with RSX programs like GUARD.COM, you have 
to be careful to not have EX15 run any program that does a warm boot or else 
you will lose some memory and make your TPA smaller.  Have /.COM run the 
programs that do the warm boots.  That's why I load up XtraKey in the /.COM 
part of the autoboot sequence (of course, it had to be after I had it run 
the RD.COM ramdisk program or else XtraKey could not access the WordStar 
definitions on the ramdisk).  EX15 does not seem to have this problem when 
there is no RSX program in place.  Note, the one good thing about GUARD.COM, 
other than protecting EZCPR from being wiped out by a warm boot, is that it 
stops warm boots from going to the mechnical A drive and, therefore, the 
disk drives remain silent.

    And that's all there is to it!  :-)


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Ruel T. Hernandez, P.O. Box 5813, Chula Vista, Ca 92012
CIS: 71450,3341 - GEnie: R.HERNANDEZ - Internet: ruel@cup.portal.com