IDEFix: Atapi.device V9.3 Cache CDFS. CD32 DEMO

Information in this page updated: 24 Dec 95


My Personal Experiences of this software/system
Aminet software tested by me and how they work with/using the IDEFix (this does not include the obvious dos filesystem level usage like cataloging CD ROMs, only software using cd.device directly):
DCPlayer Works Partially
Interplay Works partially (Actual playing works fine, problems were encoutered with player interfering other system operation)
Compact Player Started playing fine, couldn't be stopped nor change tracks.
Author:
Oliver Kastl 100447.3361@compuserve.com
Version:
V9.3
Software type:
Commercial (Demo available in Aminet)
Purpose:
Demo or OEM versions of the a4000_atapi.device, a1200_atapi.device and ad_atapi.device are included. These devices allow the use of IDE CD-Roms with bsc/AlfaData AT-Bus controllers (AlfaPower, AT-2008 and AT-508) and the embedded IDE-port of the A4000, A4000T, A600 and A1200.
Drives know to work with it:
All CD-Rom drives which comply with ATAPI specs 1.2 are expected to work.

Recommended drives (work 100%):

Mitsumi FX-001DE (2x speed)
(Don't mix this up with the FX-001D! The FX-001, FX-001D and LU005
are NO atapi devices and will NOT work! Connecting a non IDE/ATAPI
device to the Amiga IDE port may damage both your Amiga and your CD-Rom!)

Mitsumi FX-300   (3x speed)
Mitsumi FX 400 (4x speed)
Chinon CDS-545 (4x speed) <-- very good drive!!!!!
Toshiba XM-5302B (4x speed) <-- very good drive!!!!!
The Toshiba drive is very short and fits best in A4000 drive bay!

Wearnes CDD-220A (4x speed)
Acer 6825-P      (2x speed)
Wearnes CDD-120A (2x speed)
Chinon CDS-525I (2x speed)
Sony CDU-55E (2x speed) <-- Audio play requires CacheCDFS 2.5 or better
Does not work with:
Elitegroup Vertos 300SSD (2x speed)
Other software required:
???
Other hardware required:
CD Drive
Sources included:
No
Contact information:
Please send comments, bug reports, etc to:

Elaborate Bytes
Oliver Kastl
Am Westpark 5
81373 Munich
Germany

Compuserve: 100447,3361
Internet: 100447.3361@compuserve.com

To order the CacheCDFS, the CD32 Emulator, the atapi.device
or all of the above, please contact:

Hirsch & Wolf OHG
Mittelstr. 33
56564 Neuwied
Germany

Tel.: ++49-2631-83990
Fax.: ++49-2631-839931

or

NBG-USA, Inc.
482 Holly Ave.
St. Paul MN55102
USA

Tel.: ++1-612-2909447
Fax.: ++1-612-2909449
File in ftp.luth.se: (demo)
atapi.lha

.readme file from aminet/disk/cdrom

(Had to edit it a bit. It contained quite a lot of text..too much)
Short:    Atapi.device V9.3 Cache CDFS. CD32 DEMO
Author:   Oliver 100447.3361@compuserve.com
Uploader: Ritchie@icu.idiscover.co.uk
Type:     disk/cdrom

Welcome to this release (v2.11, 06.05.95) of the CacheCDFS!

Structure of this document

- All new features not mentioned in the manual are listed
- Some tips running the software are given
- All bugs that have been removed are listed



NEW FEATURES


A4000_ATAPI, A1200_ATAPI & AD_ATAPI

Demo or OEM versions of the a4000_atapi.device, a1200_atapi.device
and ad_atapi.device are included. These devices allow the use of IDE 
CD-Roms with bsc/AlfaData AT-Bus controllers (AlfaPower, AT-2008 and AT-508)
and the embedded IDE-port of the A4000, A4000T, A600 and A1200.


PlayCD

Finally I've written a SCSI-II CDDA Audio player.
It is very small and powerful.
See the PlayCD.doc file for further details.

Toshiba_XA

The program is no longer needed and has been removed (see below).
If Toshiba_XA (or a similar program) is installed on your machine,
it should be deleted!


CDFSprefs 43.x and FileSystem 43.x


Gadget QUIET
(Similar to "Q" in Control field of mountlist entry)

Will disable warning requesters during mount.
This is useful, if you have an external CD-Rom drive which is
not always switched on and you wish to leave automount enabled.

Gadget AUTOLOWER
(Similar to "AL" in Control field of mountlist entry)

If a CD with "real" lowercase characters is inserted, 
the conversions to lowercase are temporary switched off.


Gadget NO ROCKRIDGE
(Similar to "NRR" in Control field of mountlist entry)

Disables RockRidge file names, use ISO file names instead.

Gadget ROCKRIDGE CASE SENSITIVE
(Similar to "NRR" in Control field of mountlist entry)

Enables case sensitive file name checking for RockRidge names.
This is required as some Posix RR CDs may have file names which
are only different in their case (e.g. Foo, foo).


Menu AUDIO - ON
(Similar to "NOAUDIO" in Control field of mountlist entry)

Specifies, if the FileSystem should take care of Audio CDs.


Menu AUDIO - EXTERNAL / AUDIO - PATH
(Similar to "AUDIO" in Control field of mountlist entry)

Here you can specify an optional external Audio player.


Tooltype / Commandline STAY

The program will not terminate, if STAY is specified in the
icon ToolTypes or via the CLI.


DEL Key

The DEL Key will zip the window small / big.

The FileSystem now supports MultiSession CDs without the need of
additional tools.

The FileSystem is now able to recognize Audio CDs and can play
them by double clicking the CDDA icon (This only works with SCSI-II
compatible CD-Rom drives!).

Each double click will play/pause the current track.

A double-double click (4 times!) will skip to the next track.

If you like to use an own icon instead of the default one, copy it
to ENV:CDDA.info BEFORE starting the CacheCDFS.

With the CDFSprefs program you can define an external Audio player
(e.g the new PlayCD) which will be started if you click the CDDA icon.

The FileSystem now supports XA-Disks with Toshiba CD-Roms.
The Toshiba_XA program is obsolete and has been deleted from the
distribution disk.

Typing "Version CD0:" now works.

ACTION_INHIBIT issued by the Workbench task is now ignored, making life
much easier for a poor filesystem programmer.
Thanks go to Ralph Babel for this hint.

RockRidge disks are now much better supported.
You can switch between ISO and RockRidge filenames with the preferences
program. Further you can decide if you wish to have RockRidge filenames
case sensitive or not. Thanks go to Angela Schmidt for this suggestion.


CD32-Emulator 43.x

Gadgets that are not useful for your configuartion are now ghosted 
(e.g. NoFastMem on ChipMem only machines, NoDataCache on 68020 machines).

USE 68040.LIBRARY
Only selectable on machines with an MC68040 or better processor.


LOAD WORKBENCH
Will load the Workbench immediately BEFORE booting from a CD.
This is required for the game Morph (and possibly others) to run and
sometimes handy for debugging purposes.

TOOLTYPE CDWIN ENTRY
This defines the stream, where any output from the startup-sequence of
a CD appears while it is booted.


TOOLTYPE NOAGA ENTRY
For debugging only. Keep your hands off!


CDTV DISCS
If you try to boot from a CDTV disc, a warning requester will appear.
You may now select, if you like to Boot with AA/AGA or ECS emulation.


Support for CDROMS faster than double speed

TIPS

Sony CDU-55E (ATAPI drive)
PlayCD & Filesystem changed, that Audio play works with this drive.
One problem exists; if the volume is changed, the drive stops playing.
This is a bug in the drive's firmware.

SetPatch:
SetPatch 40.14 or better is required by the CD32-Emulator.
SetPatch should NOT be run before you start the CD32-Emulator to get
full control of all features (AA/ECS switch, 68040.library control).


Oktagon/ALF-III/ALF-II users:
For best performance of the emulator, you should use the SoftSCSI#?.device
instead of the oktagon.device or ALF.device.
While installing the software, select the SoftSCSI#?.device from
FindCD and click USE.


TandemCD / bsc CD1200 users:
New tandemcd#?.devices (version 41.6) are on this disk.
The installer utility will automatically update the appropriate device.

Changes made:

Workaround for bug in Mitsumi FX-001D (Rev. D-02) firmware added.
   
This fixes the "Read-Error" problem with some Amiga CDs
(e.g. Megahits 2, GigaPD Update 2).

I know this really is a kludge, but reading these CDs in a clumsy,
slow and non elegant way is far better than not reading them at all!

This strategy works fine with my test equipment (A4000/40, TandemCD,
Mitsumi FX-001-D Rev D-02) and the speed is at least acceptable.

PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF THIS METHOD FIXES YOUR PROBLEMS!
   

TandemAT / bsc CD1200plus users:
New tandemat#?.devices (version 5.13) are on this disk.
The installer utility will automatically update the appropriate device.

Changes made:
A lot! Got most IDE-Atapi drives to work.
Further you may now use an IDE Harddisk together with a CD-Rom drive
with the Tandem IDE port.
The harddisk should be the master, the CD-Rom the slave drive.
The harddisk needs the file "AT" in your Sys:Expansion drawer to work.
Sorry, this does not yet work with the CD1200plus.



68040 users:

(Amiga CDROM Home Page Note: I removed some text here..)


BUG FIXES & OTHER ENHANCEMENTS


Since the first release (Disk 1.3), the following bugs were fixed:


CDFS Install script:

Added quotes around device name, as this is required by older mount
commands.



CD32-Emulator (control module):

NOWININIT was broken! If NOWININIT was specified in the ToolTypes,
the other tooltype settings were not interpreted correctly.
This bug was reported by Keith Smith of Almathera Systems, otherwise
it would have be still unnoticed.
Thank you, Keith!

GAME STORE requester opened not relative to the current directory.

Now interprets the CDs startup-sequence before executing it, leaving
out any commands dangerous for your system. This greatly enhances
compatibility (e.g. Video Creator does not crash anymore if you
click "BOOT". In fact, it was the NoReset program that crashed the
machine!).

Having a seperate output stream enhances compatibility with PD-Disks
(e.g. The Demo Collection) designed for the CDTV.

Booting now happens as a seperate process, allowing the emulation
to free all no longer used resources after the boot sequence has been
started.

Device checking is now performed in the control module (was in cd.device).
Errors generated, if device is no CD-Rom or CD-Rom doesn't support SCSI-2.



CD32-Emulator install scripts:

Line 120 of the "Make CD32 Floppy" script was bogus.
cd.device

The data direction specified in SCSI direct commands was sometimes
wrong (caused by a very stupid typing mistake...). 

LUN now inserted in CDB.

Device checking moved to control module.


PlayCD

Workaround for Bug in Sony CDU-55E added. (Release 2.5, Version 42.2)


CacheCDFS

Does not fail any longer, if workbench.library does not open
(A tribute to A4000T owners)
ACTION_EXAMINE_NEXT did not always return an error on read failure.
(Release 2.6, Version 43.5)

Workaround for Bug in Sony CDU-55E added. (Release 2.5, Version 43.4)

As a well behaving filesystem, CacheCDFS sometimes uses SCSIF_AUTOSENSE.
This confused older Fastlane controllers (this time not my fault!).
Workaround for these controllers added. Fixed since Disk release 1.3a.

Starting with version 41.x, CacheCDFS can read CDs with a logical sector
size different from 2048 bytes (e.g. required by the Fish & More III CD
from Xetec).

Added dynamic changes depending on the CD inserted to the fssm environment
for the 42.x release.
This was requested by Angela Schmidt for future development.

NOTE FOR DEVELOPERS:
If the a CD is changed while the FileSystem is inhibited, the fssm
enviromnemt will NOT change!
If you detect a disk change, you MUST do an ACTION_INHIBIT FALSE for
the environment to become valid again.
The DosList must be unlocked for the change to happen immediately.


ACTION_INHIBIT didn't behave correctly. Fixed in 42.x.
(Found by Angela Schmidt, thank you for the report!)


CDFSprefs

Window now opens pointer relative.

FindCD

Window now opens pointer relative.

LUN now inserted in CDB.

ALF/Oktagon SoftSCSI#?.device is now included in automatic scan.
ALF.device & oktagon.device are removed from automatic scan.

The Paradox controller was not found (fixed in 42.1)


YACDP (Freeware program)

Exchanged version 1.0 with version 1.1
Replaced reqtools.library with a newer version.


END OF DOCUMENT

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