MiniSport Laptop Hacker - Vol 2

Remember to send me any hacker tips, resources, addresses, etc that you
have so I can include them in subsequent MLH volumes.  One correction from
Volume 1 has been pointed out to me.  The MiniSport is an IBM/XT compati-
ble, not an IBM/PC compatible


I. MAXIMIZING BOOTUP CONVENIENCE AND MINIMIZING BOOTUP DISK SPACE

The bootup sequence on this computer is a little different than you're
probably used to.  Most MS-DOS computers will boot up on hard drive C:,
looking for the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files in the C: root directory.
If the CONFIG.SYS isn't there, nothing special happens.  If the
AUTOEXEC.BAT isn't there, you will be prompted for a time and date entry.

The first, biggest difference on the MiniSport, is that you can choose your
boot device.  Normal MSDOS always tries the first floppy, then goes to hard
disk.  With the MiniSport, you can choose to boot from 2" floppy disk, the
internal ROM disk C:, the external floppy disk plugged in the back, or ROM
disk D:.  Lots of choices!

The least used is probably booting from an external drive.  I know where
they are available for about $125, but this price is higher than the street
price of the entire computer, so not many people have them.  Booting from
the built in 2" disk is similar, and more economical, since these disks are
available for $4-$6 each.  With either selection, the disk must be format-
ted and prepared with the MSDOS SYS.COM utility.

Booting from RAM disk D: gives you some flexibility.  You can create and
store CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files in the root directory of D:, and
they'll be used during bootup.  If AUTOEXEC.BAT is not there, you will be
asked for date and time.  The situation involving CONFIG.SYS is a little
bit more complicated, however.  If you boot from D:, the boot routine will
look for a command processor (COMMAND.COM or one of your choice) on disk
D:.  It's kind of disappointing to have to keep a copy on disk D:, since
there's one permanently available in ROM on disk C:.  To use the one over
on C:, the non-boot disk, you need to include a SHELL command in
CONFIG.SYS.  It might look like this:

   SHELL = C:\COMMAND.COM /P

The "P" option tells it to stay permanently in memory; the MSDOS command
EXIT will not exit from the command processor.  This gave me some trouble
because the COMPSEC variable (type SET at the DOS command line to see all
variables) was not getting properly set.  This may be a bug in the MiniS-
port firmware.  Does anyone else notice that when booting on C: or D:,
specifying or not specifying a command processor with SHELL, COMPSEC
doesn't get set correctly?

My preference is to boot from ROM disk C:.  The unpredictable part is that
when booting from C:, AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS from disk D: are used.
In this case, no SHELL command is required (hence no CONFIG.SYS file unless
you need it for other reasons) since COMMAND.COM is already available on
the default boot disk.  The only line "necessary" in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file
is "d:" to switch over to disk d: for the first command line.  Even that is
only necessary if you *want* to be over on disk D:

Personally, I use no CONFIG.SYS and the following AUTOEXEC.BAT on D:

   @echo off
   echo BjM (Opus-OVH) P autoexec.bat
   path c:\;d:\util;d:\
   prompt $p$g
   verify on
   d:

Let me know what parts of the MLH series are useful to you.  Pass on your
hints and pointers so others can benefit.

73, Brian, ka9snf@wb7nnf.#spokn.wa.usa or Internet ka9snf@jupiter.spk.wa.us