Changes between Version 6 and Version 7 of WikiStart


Ignore:
Timestamp:
May 16, 2021, 3:09:09 PM (4 years ago)
Author:
Krister Nordvall
Comment:

Removal of RESERVE_DIAGNOSTIC_CYLINDER, update of description of "Remove other hard drives"

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  • WikiStart

    v6 v7  
    1313XTIDE Universal BIOS makes it possible to use modern large ATA hard disks or Compact Flash cards on old PC's. You can then enjoy quiet or noiseless drives with more capacity than you'll ever need for old computers.
    1414
    15 XTIDE Universal BIOS can be used on any IBM PC, XT, AT or 100% compatible system. On AT systems you can use any 16-bit ISA or VLB IDE or Multi I/O controller. For XT systems you can use XTIDE rev1 (not available anymore), [http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?29202-XTIDE-Rev2 XTIDE rev2] or [https://www.retrotronics.org/home-page/jride/ JR-IDE/ISA].
     15XTIDE Universal BIOS (also known as simply "XUB") can be used on any IBM PC, XT, AT or 100% compatible system. On AT systems you can use any 16-bit ISA or VLB IDE or Multi I/O controller. For XT systems you can use XTIDE rev1 (not available anymore), [http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?29202-XTIDE-Rev2 XTIDE rev2] or [https://www.retrotronics.org/home-page/jride/ JR-IDE/ISA].
    1616
    1717== License ==
    … …  
    6666
    6767All official builds, except the Tiny build, include the following modules and features:
    68 MODULE_STRINGS_COMPRESSED, MODULE_HOTKEYS, MODULE_8BIT_IDE, MODULE_EBIOS, MODULE_SERIAL, MODULE_SERIAL_FLOPPY and MODULE_POWER_MANAGEMENT. For compatibility reasons they also include RESERVE_DIAGNOSTIC_CYLINDER, NO_ATAID_VALIDATION and CLD_NEEDED.
     68MODULE_STRINGS_COMPRESSED, MODULE_HOTKEYS, MODULE_8BIT_IDE, MODULE_EBIOS, MODULE_SERIAL, MODULE_SERIAL_FLOPPY and MODULE_POWER_MANAGEMENT. For compatibility reasons they also include NO_ATAID_VALIDATION and CLD_NEEDED.
    6969
    7070----
    … …  
    195195  Appears only if MODULE_BOOT_MENU is included in the build. Specifies the duration in timer ticks before the default boot drive is automatically selected. 1 tick = 54.9 ms so the default of 546 is about 30 seconds.
    196196
    197   * Remove other hard drives [default=No on the AT-builds, Yes on the 386-builds][[BR]]
    198   This option is not available on XT-builds as it exists only to improve compatibility with Windows 95 and Windows 98.
     197  * Remove other hard drives [default=Yes on the 386-builds, No on all other builds][[BR]]
     198  This option exists for two reasons:
     199     * When the built-in protected-mode IDE hard disk driver is loaded in Windows 95/98/ME, it checks the system BIOS hard disk configuration stored in CMOS to make sure that a drive is installed. If not, it will refuse to load and the drive will be running in "MS-DOS compatibility mode". For this reason, a "dummy" drive must be configured in the system BIOS, either by the user running BIOS Setup and changing the configuration that way, or the configuration can be modified automatically by XUB, if MODULE_WIN9X_CMOS_HACK has been included in the BIOS build, and it deems it safe to do so. The system BIOS, thinking it has a drive installed, will add its drive count to the BIOS Data Area Hard Drive count. Then XUB will add its drive count, which means that the same drive will be counted twice. This confuses Windows into detecting this extra drive. To avoid this mess, this option must be set to YES, which means that the BDA HD count is cleared and only drives under XUB control will be detected by Windows.
     200     * The system BIOS in some machines does not clear the BDA HD count during initialization. The number of Foreign Hard Disks shown in the Boot Menu incrementing with every warm boot is a sure sign of this problem. Zenith computer models Z-171 and Z-161 are known to behave like this. They should be detected if running Auto Configure and if so you will be notified of that and  this option will be set to YES automatically. If you experience this problem with a computer that is not detected by Auto Configure then please contact us so we can add detection for your particular system BIOS to XTIDECFG.
    199201
    200202=== Menu items on "xxx IDE Controller" submenus ===
    … …  
    236238  * Base (cmd block) address [default=300h for XT-builds, 1F0h/170h/1E8h/168h for AT-builds][[BR]]
    237239  Command block (base port) I/O-address where the IDE controller is located. The JR-IDE/ISA and SVC ADP50L controllers use memory mapped I/O, not port I/O, so for these controllers the ROM segment address as configured with switches or jumpers on the card should be set here instead. Note that this is not necessarily the same segment address as the XTIDE Universal BIOS has been installed into.
     240
    238241  * Control block address [default=308h for XT-builds, 3F0h/370h/3E8h/368h for AT-builds][[BR]]
    239242  Set to base port + 8h for XTIDE rev1, rev2 and Lo-tech XT-CF. Set to base port + 200h for standard IDE controllers.
     243
    240244  * Enable interrupt [default=Yes on Primary and Secondary IDE interfaces on AT-builds, No on everything else][[BR]]
    241245  Enables use of interrupts instead of polling when transferring data. Does not offer any benefit for single-tasking operating systems like DOS and will actually lower the performance on machines with a fast drive and a slow CPU (i.e. where the CPU is the bottleneck like on most vintage machines using flash-based storage). Do not enable this unless you know you need it. This option appears only when MODULE_IRQ is available.
     246
    242247  * IRQ [default=14 for Primary IDE, 15 for Secondary IDE][[BR]]
    243248  IRQ channel to use for this IDE controller. Appears when Enable interrupt is set to Yes.
     249
    244250  * COM Port [default=COM1][[BR]]
    245251  Appears only when Serial port virtual device is selected.
     252
    246253  * Baud Rate [default=9600][[BR]]
    247254  Appears only when Serial port virtual device is selected.
    … …  
    249256=== Menu items for "Master/Slave Drive" submenus ===
    250257  * Back to IDE Controller Menu[[BR]]
     258
    251259  * Block Mode Transfers [default=Yes][[BR]]
    252260  Block Mode Transfers will increase performance by speeding up transfer rates. Normally this should be enabled but there are some hard drives out there with a buggy block mode implementation. For example, the Quantum ProDrive LPS 340A will not work correctly with Block Mode Transfers enabled in polling mode (i.e. with Enable interrupt set to No).
     261
    253262  * CHS Translation Method [default=Auto][[BR]]
    254263  The NORMAL/LARGE/LBA selection seen on many BIOSes. Leave this to Auto unless you want this to be the same you are using on some other BIOS.
     264
    255265  * Internal Write Cache [default=Disabled][[BR]]
    256266  This should be left disabled unless you know what you are doing! Improper use of write cache can cause data corruption.
     267
    257268  * User specified CHS [default=No][[BR]]
    258269  Specify CHS parameters manually. This will force the drive to CHS addressing and EBIOS functions will be disabled. Specifying CHS manually makes the drive incompatible with other BIOSes unless they are specified to use the same CHS parameters.
     270
    259271  * User specified LBA [default=No][[BR]]
    260272  Specify drive capacity manually (starting from 8.4 GB). All versions of MS-DOS 7.x (Windows 9x) seem to have compatibility problems with very large drives so you might need to reduce drive capacity. Use FreeDOS if you want to use full capacity of the drive.
     273
    261274  * Cylinders, Heads and Sectors per track[[BR]]
    262275  These will appear when "User specified CHS" is enabled. Maximum values of 16383 Cylinders, 16 Heads and 63 Sectors per track will provide a capacity of 7.8 GiB/8.4 GB, the maximum that MS-DOS 3.31 to 6.22 supports. Note that this will force CHS addressing so once formatted, there will be data corruption if you try to access the drive with systems using LBA addressing.
     276
    263277  * Millions of sectors[[BR]]
    264278  This will appear when "User specified LBA" is enabled. You can specify the drive capacity in millions of sectors. Note that MS-DOS 7.x (Windows 9x) or FreeDOS is required to access more than 7.8 GiB/8.4 GB.
    … …  
    294308  * Capacity[[BR]]
    295309  This shows the drive capacity. This is the same as reported by the drive unless you have specified CHS or LBA manually. Capacity is read from INT 13h AH=08h for drives not handled by XTIDE Universal BIOS.
     310
    296311  * Addr.[[BR]]
    297312  This shows the current addressing mode:
    … …  
    299314    * LARGE is used for drives with 1025...8192 cylinders. LARGE addressing mode L-CHS parameters are generated with Revised Enhanced CHS calculation algorithm. LARGE addressing mode can use LBA if drive supports it.
    300315    * LBA is used for drives with 8193 or more cylinders and LBA support. L-CHS parameters are generated with Assisted LBA algorithm.
     316
    301317  * Block[[BR]]
    302318  Shows the maximum number of sectors supported in a single multi-sector transfer. The larger the better. 1 means that block mode is disabled or not supported. CF cards usually supports block mode commands but do not allow blocks larger than 1 sector.
     319
    303320  * Bus[[BR]]
    304321  Shows the bus/device type configured in "Device Type" menu item on "xxx IDE Controller" submenu.
     322
    305323  * IRQ[[BR]]
    306324  Shows the IRQ channel if enabled.
     325
    307326  * Reset[[BR]]
    308327  Shows the status from drive initialization. This should always be zero. If it is something else, then something has gone wrong.