On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 7:11 AM, Win Heagy <wheagy at gmail.com> wrote:
Mike,
I wasn't sure how the driver worked and couldn't find any docs. I assumed
it worked in a way similar to the firmware updates...i.e. put the driver in
the root of the CF card. Apparently there is more to it. Do you have a
pointer to config docs for the driver?
I have no floppy disk software at all for the Apple III+. Only .dsk images
I downloaded online, so I was hoping to use the CFFA3000 to run the III and
perhaps make a few disks if the drive is working. So you're saying that
the CFFA3000 in the Apple III is different than in the Apple II. In the
II, I don't need any floppy disk software at all and can boot and run from
the CFFA....which is good because most of my floppy drives for the II are
intermittent at best. I'm not sure of the condition of the floppy drive in
the Apple III+. For the Apple III, are you saying that I cannot completely
dispose of the use of the floppy drive?
Thanks,
Win
--------
-<snip>-
Win,
Unlike the II, which is relatively easy to configure to boot to any
(bootable) storage device in nearly any slot, the Apple III tries to
boot only from the internal floppy drive, and as Eric pointed out,
you'd have to roll your own ROM to change that behavior. The CFFA3000
works nicely in the III, but you lose the Drive ][ emulation
capability and you can't boot directly to it.
In the Apple III, everything is seen as a device and requires a driver
that SOS loads as it boots in order to be accessible to the system
during operation. You can't (easily) boot directly to the CFFA because
SOS requires a driver to be able to recognize it. Fortunately, SOS is
close enough to ProDOS that you can use the CFFA in an Apple II to
create floppies from the images you downloaded.
I'd suggest reading this PDF for more on how the III works:
http;//apple2scans.net/scans/manuals/3rd.party/OMHGYA3.pdf
It's the Osborne McGraw Hill Guide To Your Apply III. Pay special
attention to Chapters 3 and 4.
LMK if you have any questions about all this.
- Mike