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RAMLIGHT 1.0 DOCUMENTATION ========================== James W. Birdsall 04/11/93 0. CONTENTS ----------- 0. CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Requirements 1.2 Quick Reference 1.3 Copyright, License, and Warranty Disclaimer 2. USAGE 2.1 Monitoring drives 2.1.1 Unmonitorable drives 2.2 Options 2.2.1 -u Uninstall 2.2.2 -t Text mode 2.2.3 -? Help 3. SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS 3.1 Installing 3.2 Uninstalling 3.3 Hercules graphics, text pages 3.4 RAMLIGHT and UMBs 3.5 AMIS 3.6 Text mode list 4. THE END 1. INTRODUCTION --------------- RAMLIGHT is a TSR which provides an activity indicator for ramdisks in the form of a blinking rectangle in the upper right corner of the screen. Whenever any access is made to a drive that is being monitored, whatever is currently in that position is replaced with a bright white rectangle; approximately one-tenth of a second later, the previous contents are restored. Each access resets the timer, so if additional accesses are made while the white rectangle is on the screen, it will not be removed until approximately one-tenth of a second after the last access. Be sure to read section 3, SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS, so that you know how to use RAMLIGHT safely. 1.1 Requirements ---------------- RAMLIGHT requires DOS version 2.0 or better. RAMLIGHT requires 848 bytes of conventional memory when monitoring one drive, and an additional 48 bytes for each additional drive monitored. RAMLIGHT does not use EMS or any sort of extended memory. It requires about 11K of conventional memory while installing itself. 1.2 Quick Reference ------------------- This is a quick summary of the usage and options of RAMLIGHT. Invoking RAMLIGHT with the option "-?" will produce a similar summary. Complete explanations may be found in section 2. usage: ramlight [options] drive: [drive: ...] drive Drive letter of a disk to be monitored, followed by a colon. At least one drive letter must be specified, except when the -u option is used. -u UNINSTALL: If RAMLIGHT is installed, uninstall if possible, disable otherwise. -tmm[,cc[,s]] The activity indicator can only be provided in text modes. This option allows the user to specify nonstandard text modes. 'mm' is the mode number, in decimal. 'cc' is the number of columns; if not present, it defaults to 80. 's' is a letter indicating where the video memory is located for that mode: C = color text (B800) M = monochrome text (B000) G = graphics (A000) If not present, it defaults to C. Note that this option is not necessary for the common 80x43 and 80x50 modes; settings for various popular cards are listed in section 3.6 below. Note that if RAMLIGHT is installed when the display is in a nonstandard mode, it will do nothing until the mode is changed to one that RAMLIGHT recognizes, unless an appropriate -t option has been given. -? Prints this usage message. Options are case-insensitive, and may not be combined. 1.3 Copyright, License, and Warranty Disclaimer ----------------------------------------------- RAMLIGHT is not in the public domain. All the files are copyright 1993 by James W. Birdsall, all rights reserved. Permission is granted to do the following: You may freely redistribute this archive, so long as it contains all the files listed in the file MANIFEST, intact and unmodified. You may use the programs contained in this archive freely. You are encouraged to notify the author that you are using RAMLIGHT so that you may receive update notices and bug reports, but no registration fee is required. Source code is available for a $5 fee. Users may modify the source code for their own private use, but may not distribute modified copies or other software incorporating RAMLIGHT code without permission of the author. The contents of the distribution archive, and all other related files, information, and services are provided "as is" and without warranty. To the extent permitted by applicable law, the author disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to, any implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. While effort has been made to ensure that the files, information, and services are accurate and correct, the author shall not be liable for damages arising out of the use of or inability to use this product, including but not limited to, loss of profit, data, or use of this software, or special, incidental, or consequential damages or other similar claims, even if the author has been specifically advised of the possibility of such damages. Some states do not allow the exclusion of incidental or consequential damages, so the foregoing limitation may not apply to you. Information on contacting the author is provided at the end of this file. 2. USAGE -------- RAMLIGHT must be called with at least one monitorable drive specified on the command line. If there are no monitorable drives specified on the command line, RAMLIGHT will print a message to that effect and exit. See sections 2.1 and 2.1.1 below for information on what drives are or are not monitorable. Note that RAMLIGHT can detect a resident copy of itself and will not install itself more than once unless the resident copy has been disabled. 2.1 Monitoring drives --------------------- RAMLIGHT is actually not restricted to monitoring only ramdrives. It can be used to monitor many sorts of drives; the exceptions are listed in section 2.1.1 below. Monitoring a drive is simple -- just place the drive letter followed by a colon on the command line. For example, to monitor drive E:, all that is needed is: RAMLIGHT E: Note that because of the way RAMLIGHT works, sometimes other drives will be monitored as well. This is because RAMLIGHT monitors by intercepting calls to device drivers, and some drives share a device driver. RAMLIGHT detects this condition and prints messages listing drives which do not appear on the command line which will be monitored. 2.1.1 Unmonitorable drives -------------------------- As stated above, RAMLIGHT monitors drives by intercepting calls to the device driver. Hence, a drive must operate via a normal block-type device driver for RAMLIGHT to monitor it. Network drives in particular frequently do not do so, although the same technique may be used for any type of drive. RAMLIGHT will not monitor any drive which was identified to DOS as a network drive, and will not monitor any other drive for which it cannot find a valid block-type device driver. 2.2 Options ----------- RAMLIGHT has a variety of options to modify its function. Options are case-insensitive ("-u" is the same as "-U") and may not be combined. 2.2.1 -u Uninstall ------------------ RAMLIGHT can usually uninstall itself. Unless something has been badly corrupted and it cannot talk to the resident copy, it can always disable itself, which allows another copy to be installed if necessary. RAMLIGHT will be unable to uninstall itself if it is not the last TSR to hook the 10h and 1Ch interrupts, or if the 2Dh AMIS interrupt chain has been corrupted (see section 3.5). In these cases, it will unhook as many interrupts as it can and disable itself. Otherwise it unhooks all the interrupts, disables itself, and removes itself from memory. 2.2.2 -t Text mode ------------------ In order to know where to display the activity indicator, RAMLIGHT keeps track of the current video mode. The activity indicator is only displayed in text modes. RAMLIGHT automatically recognizes the standard 40x25 and 80x25 text modes on color displays, and the standard 80x25 text mode on monochrome displays. The extended 80x43 (EGA) and 80x50 (VGA) modes frequently encountered are indistinguishable to RAMLIGHT from the 80x25 mode and are also handled automatically. If you wish to use other text modes, such as 132-column modes, you must inform RAMLIGHT using the -t option, since these modes are completely nonstandard and vary from video card to video card. This option takes from one to three parameters. The first parameter is the mode number, in decimal. The second parameter (optional) is the number of columns in the given mode; if not present, it defaults to 80. The third parameter (also optional) is a letter which indicates where video memory is located for the given mode: C normal color text location (segment B800h) M normal monochrome text location (segment B000h) G location typically used only by graphics modes (segment A000h) If no third parameter is given, it defaults to C. The parameters must be separated by commas and there must be no spaces. The third parameter can only be present if the second parameter is present. The third parameter must be one of the listed uppercase letters. Up to five -t options may be given. Consult the documentation of your video card to determine the appropriate parameters. For your convenience, parameters for a variety of popular cards are listed in section 3.6. Note that it is not necessary to inform RAMLIGHT of all modes which your card has, only those which you actually use. Note that this option can be used to fool RAMLIGHT into providing an indicator in graphics modes. However, the size, shape, and location of the indicator will vary from mode to mode and there is no guarantee that it will even be visible on the screen. Note that if you install RAMLIGHT when the display is in a nonstandard mode, RAMLIGHT will not activate the indicator until the display mode is changed to one that it recognizes. Hence, it is especially important to include a -t option describing the current mode when RAMLIGHT is installed, if it is not one of the standard modes. 2.2.3 -? Help ------------- This option, or any syntax error on the command line, causes a usage message to be displayed. No processing is done. 3. SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS ------------------------- 3.1 Installing -------------- RAMLIGHT uses a number of undocumented DOS features. It performs extensive sanity checks to ensure that these features are working properly. If RAMLIGHT issues an odd-looking ERROR or WARNING message, one of the sanity checks has failed. RAMLIGHT is designed to work with DOS versions 2.0 through 6.0, and should work properly with DR-DOS. It is unlikely to work with unusual versions of DOS such as the European DOS 4.0, the Asian versions of DOS, or the multiuser versions available from various sources. It detects when it is running in an OS/2 or Windows NT DOS compatibility box and will not run. If RAMLIGHT is used with Windows or Desqview, it should be installed before Windows or Desqview is started, and should not be uninstalled from a DOS command line within Windows or Desqview. It is not known whether RAMLIGHT will actually do anything useful under these conditions. 3.2 Uninstalling ---------------- Because of the way RAMLIGHT works, it should be uninstalled only with the -u option. Do NOT use other uninstallers such as Turbopower Software's MARK and RELEASE to uninstall RAMLIGHT; if you do so, your system will probably lock up the next time you access any of the drives which RAMLIGHT was monitoring -- unless something worse happens. Note that you may use MARK, install RAMLIGHT, uninstall RAMLIGHT with the -u option, and then use RELEASE to uninstall other TSRs. You may also use MARK and RELEASE freely while RAMLIGHT is installed as long as the MARK was made after RAMLIGHT was installed. Note, however, that if you uninstall RAMLIGHT and then use RELEASE, you will cause interrupt vectors to point to free memory and your system will probably lock up quickly. 3.3 Hercules graphics, text pages --------------------------------- Because the graphics mode of the Hercules monochrome graphics card (and compatibles) is not accessed via the video BIOS interrupt (10h), RAMLIGHT has no way to determine that a Hercules-compatible card is in graphics mode, as opposed to monochrome text mode, hence the indicator will not be disabled while in that mode. The indicator may or may not be visible on the screen, depending on which graphics page is in use. Since RAMLIGHT is careful to restore the previous contents when removing the indicator, this should be only a minor inconvenience at most. Most of the standard text modes provide more than one "page", each page being a completely independent text screen. RAMLIGHT displays the indicator on the first page only. Fortunately, few programs use the additional pages, so this should be only a minor inconvenience at most. 3.4 RAMLIGHT and UMBs --------------------- It is very important that the correct location letter be specified in a -t option. This is because many modern systems use upper memory locations for TSRs and device drivers, via EMM386, QEMM, 386-to-the-Max, and other utilities' LOADHI(GH) services. If RAMLIGHT is putting the indicator at a location that is not in video memory, it may be putting it in the middle of an upper memory block containing a TSR or device driver, with unpredictable results. 3.5 AMIS -------- RAMLIGHT is fully compliant with Ralf Brown's Alternate Multiplex Interrupt Specification (AMIS) version 3.5. 3.6 Text mode listing --------------------- This list was derived from Ralf Brown's Interrupt List v.33. This list is sorted by columns, then rows, then approximately alphabetically by card. Note that a given card may have multiple modes for a given resolution. A location letter of '?' indicates that the video memory location was not given for that mode. 40x25 Quadram (CGA double scan) -t112,40,C Genoa SuperEGA BIOS 3.0+ -t112,40,? 80x25 Genoa SuperEGA BIOS 3.0+ -t64,80,? -t113,80,? NEL Electronics BIOS -t83,80,? Quadram (CGA double scan) -t113,80,C 80x29 Genoa SuperEGA BIOS 3.0+ -t67,80,? 80x30 ATI VGA Wonder -t91,80,C Lava Chrome II EGA -t81,80,? NEL Electronics BIOS -t81,80,? Paradise EGA-480 -t81,80,? Trident TVGA 8800/8900 -t80,80,C 80x32 Genoa SuperEGA BIOS 3.0+ -t68,80,? Genoa 6400 -t88,80,? 80x33 ATI EGA Wonder, ATI VIP -t88,80,C 80x34 Ahead B (Wizard/3270) -t50,80,C -t51,80,C -t66,80,C Lava Chrome II EGA -t80,80,? WD90C -t65,80,C 80x43 NEL Electronics BIOS -t88,80,? -t89,80,? Tatung VGA -t64,80,? Tecmar VGA/AD -t64,80,? Trident TVGA 8800/8900 -t81,80,C VEGA VGA -t64,80,? -t80,80,? WD90C -t103,80,C Video7 V-RAM VGA -t64,80,? 80x44 Genoa SuperEGA BIOS 3.0+ -t69,80,? 80x45 Ahead B (Wizard/3270) -t67,80,C 80x50 WD90C -t102,80,C 80x60 Allstar Peacock VGA -t38,80,? Cirrus 510/520 chipset -t83,80,? Genoa 6400, Genoa SuperEGA BIOS 3.0+ -t114,80,C Lava Chrome II EGA -t82,80,? Morse VGA -t83,80,? NEL Electronics BIOS -t90,80,? Oak OTI-067/077 -t78,80,C Orchid Prodesigner VGA -t38,80,? Quadram Ultra VGA -t114,80,C Tatung VGA -t67,80,? Trident TVGA 8800/8900 -t82,80,C Tseng ET4000 chipset -t38,80,C Tseng Labs EVA -t38,80,? Video7 V-RAM VGA -t67,80,? VEGA VGA -t67,80,? 80x66 Ahead B (Wizard/3270) -t52,80,C ATI VIP -t85,80,G -t89,80,G Genoa 6400, Genoa SuperEGA BIOS 3.0+ -t116,80,C Quadram Ultra VGA -t116,80,C 94x29 Genoa SuperEGA BIOS 3.0+ -t118,94,? Quadram Ultra VGA -t118,94,C 100x30 Morse VGA -t64,100,? Cirrus 510/520 chipset -t64,100,? 100x37 Genoa 6400 -t107,100,? NEL Electronics BIOS -t92,100,? -t107,100,? 100x40 Allstar Peacock VGA -t42,100,? Orchid Prodesigner VGA -t42,100,? Tseng ET4000 chipset -t42,100,C 100x50 Cirrus 510/520 chipset -t65,100,? Morse VGA -t65,100,? 100x60 Cirrus 510/520 chipset -t66,100,? Morse VGA -t66,100,? Tatung VGA -t68,100,? VEGA VGA -t68,100,? Video7 V-RAM VGA -t68,100,? 100x75 Genoa 6400, Genoa SuperEGA BIOS 3.0+ -t120,100,? Morse VGA -t67,100,? NEL Electronics BIOS -t93,100,? Quadram Ultra VGA -t120,100,C 114x60 Genoa SuperEGA BIOS 3.0+ -t122,114,? Quadram Ultra VGA -t122,114,C 120x25 VEGA VGA -t77,120,? 120x43 VEGA VGA -t78,120,? 132x25 Ahead B -t35,132,C -t80,132,C Ahead Systems EGA2001 -t35,132,? -t80,132,? Allstar Peacock VGA -t36,132,? AST VGA Plus -t85,132,? ATI EGA Wonder, ATI VIP -t35,132,C -t39,132,M ATI EGA/VGA Wonder -t8,132,C -t8,132,M AT&T VDC600 -t87,132,? -t85,132,? Cirrus 5320 chipset -t24,132,M -t28,132,? -t35,132,? -t96,132,? Genoa 6400, Genoa SuperEGA BIOS 3.0+ -t70,132,? -t96,132,? Hewlett-Packard D1180A -t85,132,? Lava Chrome II EGA -t84,132,? NCR 77C22 -t85,132,G -t87,132,G NEL Electronics BIOS -t85,132,? -t87,132,? NSI Smart EGA+ -t87,132,M Oak Technologies VGA-16 -t80,132,C Oak OTI-037/067/077 -t80,132,C Orchid Prodesigner -t36,132,? Paradise EGA-480 -t85,132,? Paradise VGA -t87,132,M -t85,132,C Quadram Ultra VGA -t96,132,C Tatung VGA -t65,132,? Taxan 565 EGA -t87,132,? -t85,132,? Tecmar VGA/AD -t23,132,? Trident TVGA 8800/8900 -t87,132,C -t83,132,C Tseng ET4000 chipset -t25,132,M -t35,132,C Tseng Labs EVA -t25,132,? -t35,132,? VEGA VGA -t65,132,? -t79,132,? -t81,132,? Video7 V-RAM VGA -t65,132,? WD90C -t85,132,C XGA, IBM Enhanced VGA -t20,132,? 132x28 Ahead B -t36,132,C -t81,132,C Allstar Peacock VGA -t35,132,? Cirrus 5320 chipset -t36,132,? Orchid Prodesigner VGA -t35,132,? Tatung VGA -t69,132,? Tseng ET4000 chipset -t26,132,M -t36,132,C Tseng Labs EVA -t36,132,? -t26,132,? Video7 V-RAM VGA -t69,132,? WD90C -t71,132,C 132x29 Genoa 6400, Genoa SuperEGA BIOS 3.0+ -t97,132,? -t71,132,? Quadram Ultra VGA -t97,132,C 132x30 Cirrus 510/520 chipset -t80,132,? Morse VGA -t80,132,? Trident TVGA 8800/8900 -t84,132,C -t88,132,C 132x32 Genoa 6400, Genoa SuperEGA BIOS 3.0+ -t72,132,? -t98,132,? Quadram Ultra VGA -t98,132,C 132x34 Cirrus 5320 chipset -t25,132,M 132x43 Allstar Peacock VGA -t34,132,? AST VGA Plus -t84,132,? AT&T VDC600 -t84,132,? -t86,132,? Cirrus 5320 chipset -t29,132,? Hewlett-Packard D1180A -t84,132,? Lava Chrome II EGA -t83,132,? NEL Electronics BIOS -t84,132,? -t86,132,? NSI Smart EGA+ -t86,132,M Oak Technologies VGA-16 -t81,132,C Oak OTI-037/067/077 -t81,132,C Paradise EGA-480 -t84,132,? Paradise VGA -t84,132,C -t86,132,M Tatung VGA -t66,132,? Taxan 565 EGA -t84,132,? -t86,132,? Trident TVGA 8800/8900 -t85,132,C -t89,132,C VEGA VGA -t66,132,? -t82,132,? Video7 V-RAM VGA -t66,132,? WD90C -t84,132,C 132x44 Ahead B -t34,132,C -t82,132,C Ahead Systems EGA2001 -t34,132,? -t82,132,? ATI EGA Wonder, ATI VIP -t51,132,C -t55,132,C Cirrus 5320 chipset -t26,132,M -t30,132,? Genoa 6400, Genoa SuperEGA BIOS 3.0+ -t99,132,? -t73,132,? Orchid Prodesigner VGA -t34,132,? Quadram Ultra VGA -t99,132,C Tseng ET4000 chipset -t24,132,M -t34,132,C Tseng Labs EVA -t34,132,? -t24,132,? WD90C -t33,132,C 132x50 Cirrus 510/520 chipset -t81,132,? -t82,132,? Cirrus 5320 chipset -t97,132,? Morse VGA -t81,132,? NCR 77C22 -t86,132,G -t84,132,G WD90C -t105,132,C 132x60 Genoa 6400 -t100,132,? Morse VGA -t82,132,? some Oak Tech VGA -t79,132,? Trident TVGA 8800/8900 -t86,132,C -t90,132,C Tseng ET4000 chipset -t33,132,C 160x50 Ahead B (Wizard/3270) -t47,160,C 4. THE END ---------- Technical support via email is available from the following addresses: INTERNET (the following are alternate addresses for the same place): support@picarefy.com picarefy!support@amc.com picarefy!support@netcom.com uunet!uw-coco!amc-gw!picarefy!support COMPUSERVE: 71261,1731 GENIE: J.BIRDSALL2 Registrations should be sent to: James W. Birdsall 11112 NE 124 LN #D204 Kirkland, WA 98034 If you have an email address on any of the networks listed above, please include it when registering. It is much easier to send updates by email. Also, please specify what sort of archive (ZIP, ZOO, ARC, LZH, ARJ, UNIX shar) you can handle most easily. NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT PROVIDE AN EMAIL ADDRESS, YOU WILL ONLY RECEIVE MAJOR VERSION UPDATES. YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE MINOR VERSIONS. PLEASE PROVIDE AN EMAIL ADDRESS IF YOU HAVE ANY WAY OF DOING SO.