TOS 2.06 Bug Fixes?

bjjones37 · Post by **bjjones37** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 4:12 pm

Can any tell where I can find information on patches for TOS 2.06? Would it benefit from Cachennn.prg or Foldrnnn.prg? The TOS Guide on LGD does a great job of documenting the older TOSes But does not say much about TOS 2.06. (I know, I know - a thousand questions

)

Post by **Greenious** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 5:33 pm

folderxxx.prg

If memory serves me right... this is what the bug is about:

In TOS, memory is reserved to cache the filestructure of the disk. This cache was in TOS 1.0-1.02 big enough for 40 folders, and is reset every time you change disk.

Now, this was never a problem with floppydisks, very few floppys contained that many folders, and people swapped them back and forth every once in a while, resetting this cache.

But with the harddrive, it was never reset.

So what happened?

The 40 folder buffer/cache filled up, and when it was full, it kept on writing. Causing a buffer overflow or whatever you decide to call it, and the next time you saved a file, and TOS saved the 'new' filestructure to disk, the overflowing part, by now likely to be filled with data from something else, got saved with it, causing havoc on the filesystem.

Result: Crashed drive.

Quick solution, the FolderXXX.prg patch, letting people expand this limit to a few hundred folders instead, to prevent the overflow from happening.

With TOS 1.04, Atari removed the acute need for folderXXX.prg. They expanded the default size for the buffer, aswell as putting in a safe guard against it trashing the drives filesystem, and HALTs the system if the limit is reached.

With TOS 2 Atari finally removed all need of folderXXX.prg with a dynamically allocated buffer.

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cachennn.prg

This is just to improve speed on harddrives. Newer harddisk drivers include a cache. So this program only make sense for those still using AHDI.

simbo · Post by **simbo** » Wed Sep 22, 2004 10:45 pm

there is more to tos2.06 upgrade patchers

i found a french site had over five patches did dramatic things to tos2.06

i pointed out to the steem authers there is a need for on the fly tos changing

so... i recomend super tos

flash this to a chip set and use it it has 99% extras added

you can find it in the tos roms sticky post at the top of the forum

jens · Post by **jens** » Sun Sep 26, 2004 8:55 pm

Well - I do have a copy of the tos 2.06 in-depth user guide. Sometimes I have it available on my temporary website, but if I find the .zip or .lzh I'll be ready to upload it to somewhere better accessible.

Please remind me of this if I don't do so...

keili · Post by **keili** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 6:12 am

Please remind me of this if I don't do so...

I will, jens

.

jens · Post by **jens** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 9:04 am

The Tos 2.06 in-depth user-guide.

jens · Post by **jens** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 9:35 am

BTW: I also have it online available on one of my Ataris

but not 24/24.

If there is no green button at the beginning of this line the server is off.