J. Steele
7-6-84
COLD BOOT INITIALIZATION K10 CPM 2.2 F
Purpose: KAYPRO, in it's corporate wisdom decided to go for the most common
IO configuration which is 300 baud on the serial ports and using
the parallel printer. Those who don't do this, and especially
those who use a variety of customized CP/M's have to use CONFIG
or a special boot-up routine to overcome the Kaypro scheme. The
following technique avoids this problem once and for all plus
you learn a few added things about the "inner" secrets of the
Kaypro BIOS. (It might be easier on Kaypro to release the BIOS
and let the hackers have at it. No telling what good things might
be done.)
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On the COLD BOOT the IO byte and the baud ports are initialized from high
memory locations which means we can get to them for our own needs.
o The initial IO byte is loaded from EA33h
o The initial Printer Baud is loaded from EA48h
o " " Modem " " " " EA47h
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These locations are on either side of the cursor-keypad table which makes
them very easy to find and change with EDFILE to eliminate continual
use of the (barf) CONFIG program.
+-> This is the IO byte +----> Modem Bd
| +>cursor <+ +--> keypad table here <---------------+ | +-> Printer Bd
| | keys | | | | |
81 00 0B 0A 08 0C 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 2D 2C 0D 2E 05 05
^ v <- ->| 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 - , EN .|
up dn lf rt| keypad face values for above bytes |
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Changing the values with the EDFILE disk editor (any will do that can find
a string in the file)
>EDFILE PUTSYS.COM (whatever putsys you are using)
S \123456\ (search for the string "123456"
This will put you in the sector and you can edit the appropriate bytes
as you desire. Consult the KAYPRO manual for baud rates and any good
CPM text for a discussion of the IO byte.
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The IO byte is comes stock set to 81h which enables the Parallel Printer
and can be set for the serial printer by changing it to 01h. Don't make
any other changes as the PUNCH and READER don't care and if you set the
CONSOLE to 0 it will bring the system up looking to the PRINTER port
for keyboard-screen. Nice, though if you use the K10 with a "real"
terminal.
Both the MODEM and PRINTER baud come in set at 300 baud which is 05h.
I set the printer to 07h as I use a 1200 baud serial printer. (an OKI
that has a parallel port but is two feet too far from the box and I
can make a long RS232 cable a heck of a lot cheaper than a Centronics)
Note that at the same time, you can alter the initial values of the cursor
keys and the keypad. The keypad keys can be changed directly to a single
byte value or by changing the desired key to 00h you may then make up to
a 4 byte value in the table which follows this stuff. Best to do what you
want with config first, use DDT to look at the area and then make the final
edit with EDFILE or another disk file editor. (I am assuming this isn't
compu-garbage talk to you, but if it is, then you need the experience of
learning a bit more before you hack up the main software of the machine)
When you have made your changes, just run the PUTSYS (or whatever) and
reboot from a RESET. If the computer chokes, try again. I suggest you
work on RENamed copies of PUTSYS.COM to avoid junking your on disk
backup. These bytes only affect the COLD boot from power-up or reset so
any later finagling you do with Config, Stat, or Whatzit.com will be on
your head.
The only r-e-a-l bad thing you can do playing around with the BIOS
would be to accidentally call on the ROM monitor to junk up a disk
area. This doesn't even go close. (Ask me about the time a WS went
bonkers and dumped a file on the directory tracks - Real soon after,
KAYPRO gave me a brand new main board, HD controller and a new Hdisk
that worked right. That was before the bean counters started adding up
the cost of in-the-field fixes on THEIR engineering errors. They've
stopped being so nice now, but Lord help you with the first versions of
the Western Digital board. The big expensive chips roast out and KAYPRO
only stocks assemblies, not replacement chips. $210 in exchange cost to
the dealer. Ask me how I know!!)
THAT'S ALL FOLKS !!!!!
PS: Works just fine with ZCPR2 for the K-10. Enjoy!