>Now.... Keeping in mind that I am a homely moron, please don't tell me that
>the answers lie somewhere on AOL. I have searched AOL ad infinitum and I
>can't find it. If the answer is there, please take a moment and tell me
>EXACTLY where. Otherwise, please give me detailed instructions.
ZM Running Stacker on the Zoomer 132
94-07-15 11:13:12 EDT
From: Garland
Posted on: America Online
Running Stacker on the Zoomer.
I'm running Stacker 4.0 on my Zoomer. The only performance hit that I've
noticed is a slowdown in the DOS screen scrolling speed (GEOS screens update
at their usual slow rate). The response time for a few GEOS functions might
be just a touch slower -- it's hard to tell. (How can you tell the
difference between "it takes forever," and "it takes forever and a day" ?) I
have found no incompatabilities with the configuration that I use. I'm
Stacking only the PCMCIA card -- *NOT* the internal RAM disk.
As I thought about how to configure Stacker on the Zoomer, I found several
ways that it could work. I settled on the following method because: (1) it
requires no space on the Zoomer's internal RAM drive, and (2) it doesn't
require any changes to the Zoomer's configuration files (which makes the card
portable). Given a different configuration, one could also Stack the
internal RAM drive -- but that wasn't what I wanted to do. (So, I didn't
fully develop & test that configuration ...)
As always, this procedure works for me. Your results may vary. (Be sure
that you have a backup of your data before attempting this procedure!)
Theory of operation:
During the Zoomer boot sequence, it looks for the file PENRIGHT.BAT on the
PCMCIA card. If found, the Zoomer runs that file. Because Stacker needs to
be loaded before GEOS, we use PENRIGHT.BAT to run Stacker, then restart the
Zoomer boot sequence. (You can use PENRIGHT.BAT to do all sorts of
housekeeping before GEOS starts. For example, I use it to invoke the File
Transfer program before Stacker or GEOS runs -- if GEOS crashes, I can still
get access the Internal RAM drive.)
Operation:
To access the compressed volume: Put in the PCMCIA card and latch the slot.
Reboot the Zoomer. That's it. To get access to the uncompressed volume:
Unlatch the PCMCIA card (observe GEOS warmings and wait for the files to
close). Reboot the Zoomer. Once GEOS is reloaded, latch the PCMCIA slot.
I havn't tested swapping cards in & out and mixing compressed &
uncompressed volumes. (Having only one SRAM card limits that kind of
testing.) My understanding is that Stacker should deal with uncompressed
cards just fine and automatically mount a compressed volume when it's
container file is found on an inserted card.
Installation:
(Read your Stacker documentation for all the nasty details of how to create
container files.) Create PENRIGHT.BAT as listed below and get STACKER.EXE
(Stacker Anywhere) handy. Transfer PENRIGHT.BAT and STACKER.EXE to the PCMCIA
card. Create a container volume on your desktop machine named STACVOL.DSK
that is the size of the remaining free space on the PCMCIA card. Clear the
attributes of STACVOL.DSK (not hidden, not readonly, ...). Transfer it to
the PCMCIA card. Reboot the Zoomer.
One could use the Stacker RAM drive device driver to create the container
file on the PCMCIA card (which is how I actually originally installed
Stacker) -- I found that shuffling all those utilities around and having to
edit the Zoomer's CONFIG.SYS (and having to change file attributes on the
Zoomer) made that method, while possible, pretty bothersome.
On the uncompressed volume (C:)
STACKER.EXE - Stacker Anywhere
STACVOL.DSK - Virtual Volume Container
PENRIGHT.BAT - Batch file usually used to invoke PenRight!
Pressed into service for a different cause.
Contents of PENRIGHT.BAT -------
c: : Switch to volume C:
stacker c: /c a:\autoexec : Load Stacker Anywhere and rerun
AUTOEXEC.BAT
If you wanted to run the File Transfer program before GEOS each time you
rebooted your Zoomer, you would add the following line to the *TOP* of
PENRIGHT.BAT:
a:\pccom /p:1 /b:19200
This command directs the File Transfer program to attempt to connect via the
serial port at 19200 baud. Modify the parameters if you need to do File
Linking at a different speed or via a different port.
Happy Zooming ...
Transmitted: 94-07-16 13:25:03 EDT
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