Figure 3-1. Sample MIO Configuration Display

Drive Configuration

This section describes the procedure for configuring your drives. Press '1' to enter the "Drive Configuration" sub-menu. The middle third of the screen shows the status of the selected drive number (1 through 8). The bottom third is a condensed version which shows drive type and size if applicable (floppy switch setting if a floppy drive).

N – Drive Number
Press 'N' to select the drive number. This allows you to cycle through the possible drive numbers and edit whichever drive you desire (with T, S, or L).

T – Drive Type
Press 'T' to change drive type. Now press SPACE to toggle through the possible choices: RAM Disk, Hard Disk, Floppy, or not assigned. Press 'RETURN' when the desired choice is displayed.

If selecting a RAM Disk, then press the space bar until the desired size appears (in increments of 32K), finally press RETURN when done. Note that the every RAM disk (in the MIO) is reformatted whenever you change a RAM Disk size or Print Spooler Size.

If selecting a floppy drive, you must then select the physical drive number of the drive (the number the drive would normally be accessed by). Note that if you choose "not assigned" ("n/a") for a particular drive number, the floppy drive connected as that drive number will respond. (e.g. Selecting "n/a" for D1: with a floppy #1 connected as any other drive number, will still allow access to floppy #1 but now as "D1:".)

If selecting a hard drive, you must follow the prompts with the following responses (follow each response with a RETURN): a) "Interface" — press SPACE until correct choice is displayed, b) "ID, LUN" — enter the correct SASI/SCSI bus ID (0-7), followed by the drive until number (0-7) (no RETURN necessary if both numbers entered, otherwise press RETURN), c) "Cylinders" — enter the number of cylinders the drive contains (or RETURN for no change), d) "Heads" — enter the number of heads your drive has (or RETURN for no change), e) "Start Sector" — enter first sector number in this partition (more on this later), f) "End+1 Sector" — enter the last (plus one) sector number in this partition (more on this later).

S – Swap Drives
Press 'S' to swap two drives. You will be asked "Exchange With D?" — enter the drive number you wish to swap the current drive with. This allows you to quickly move drives around. The primary use for this is to select desired hard drive to boot from (as drive 1) or to select a RAM disk to boot when system powered up.

L – Write Lock
Press 'L' to write lock current drive. This is the same as placing a write protect tab on a floppy. All writes to the drive are disabled. Note that only RAM drives and Hard drives will allow you to write protect them (cover the notch on floppies to protect them). This does not protect a hard disk from HDFMTPH.COM — it bypasses much of the configuration tables.

If setting up a hard drive, read Chapter 4 thoroughly before attempting the configuration menu. Briefly, there are 3 main steps to set up the hard drive: 1) set interface type, ID/LUN, cylinders, and heads, 2) format hard drives, 3) set partitions, and 4) build directory structures. Chapter 4 will take you step by step through this procedure. It will also discuss the meaning of the "Start Sector" and "End+1 Sector" numbers.

Printer Configuration

This section describes the procedure for configuring your printer. Press '2' to enter the "Printer Configuration" sub-menu. The middle third of the screen shows the current status of the printer spooler and options. The options sub-menu choices (in the upper right corner) are as follows:

P – Pause/Resume
Press 'P' to toggle paused state. When the spooler is paused, the printer will stop printing until you press another 'P' to continue printing. This is only applicable if using the spooler.

C – Clear Spooler
Press 'C' to clear the spooler. All pointers will be reset and the buffer emptied. This is only applicable if using the spooler.

R – Repeat Copies
Press 'R' to instruct the spooler to print another copy of the document just printed. This will reprint everything currently in the buffer. Make sure that before you print a document (that you want several copies of), that you clear the buffer first. You may stack up to 9 repeat copies. Again, this is only applicable if using the spooler.

T – Set Port Type
Continue pressing 'T' until the desired port type is displayed. This toggles through 2 parameters: the line feed option, and the port type (serial/parallel). If "Yes" to "Line Feeds", then a line feed will be printed after every carriage RETURN (EOL character on Atari). This is how most computers operate. If "No", then the printer must be set in a forced line feed following carriage return mode (usually by some internal switches on the printer). The other parameter "Port Type" determines which port will be used for the printer. If "Parallel", then the parallel port on the right of the MIO is used (this is the usual configuration). If "Serial", then the serial port on the left of the MIO is used. The RS-232 port supports XON/XOFF software handshake protocol and READY/BUSY hardware handshaking protocol for serial printers.

S – Spooler Size
Continue pressing 'S' until the desired printer spooler size is shown. The size is selected in 32k increments. If a size of 0 (Spooler: Off) is selected, then the buffer is disabled and the port acts like a normal P:R: Connection or 850 printer port. Note that the every RAM disk (in the MIO) is reformatted whenever you change a RAM Disk size or Print Spooler Size..

N – Port Number
Press 'N' until the desired port number is displayed. You have the option of letting the MIO act as printer 1, (1 is normal) 2, or none at all (printer port disabled). This will override all other external printer interfaces, however, if you select the MIO as "P1:", then printing to "P2:" will go to the external printer interface and vice versa.

RS-232 Configuration

This section describes the procedures for configuring your RS-232 port. Press '3' to enter the "RS-232 Configuration" sub-menu. The middle third of the screen (the status area) shows the current setting of the RS-232 port. The port configuration (baud rate, stop bits, and parity) is primarily used when configuring for a serial printer. When using the port through the "R:" handler, it is configured through XIO calls to the "R:" handler (by terminal programs and bulletin boards — BBS).

B – Baud Rate
Continue pressing 'B' until the desired baud rate is displayed. This value is a default only and can be overridden by an XIO to the "R:" handler (if enabled).

S – Stop Bits
Continue pressing 'S' until the desired number of stop bits is displayed. This value is a default only and can be overridden by an XIO to the "R:" handler (if enabled).

P – Parity Mode
Continue pressing 'P' until the desired parity mode is displayed. This value is a default only and can be overridden by an XIO to the "R:" handler (if enabled).

A – Port Assign
Press 'A' to change the port assignment. If the port is already assigned to the printer, then pressing 'A' does nothing. If the port is not assigned, then it may be assigned to the "R:" handler and used to interface to MODEMs or other computers.

Save Configuration

Press '4' followed by a 'Y' ("Are you sure?") to save the current configuration to the hard disk (Unit 0,0). Then, when you reboot the system (and the MIO has been powered off and back on again), your configuration will be read from the hard disk. This is so that you do not have to set the configuration each time you boot your system, however, as long as the MIO remains on, it will retain its current configuration. Thus, the configuration is read from the hard drive only when the MIO has lost power and you are rebooting your system.

Using SpartaDOS

SpartaDOS 3.x or higher supports parallel devices. You cannot use the MIO with any SpartaDOS version lower than that. SpartaDOS 3.2 supports up to 16 megabytes per drive and gives a MEMLO of $1A88 with the MIO installed. SpartaDOS is strongly recommended as the DOS to use with the MIO! We will not be responsible for problems arising from the use of other DOS types with the MIO.

Using Other DOS Types

Most DOSes (except MyDOS) will not support drives larger than 1024 sectors (about 256K). This is a limitation of the Atari DOS 2 compatible sector chain, not the MIO. MyDOS doesn't have this limitation, but it is still a small computer style of DOS. Simply put, you get more flexibility with SpartaDOS than any other DOS for the Atari 8-bit line of computers. (SpartaDOS is much like MS-DOS and UNIX — there must be a reason they are so popular.)

Since you have a lot of flexibility in drive assignments, you may still want to put DOS 2 (or MyDOS) on one of the partitions of a hard drive — this way you can swap drives and boot whichever DOS you would like.

Using Boot Disks

To use a boot disk, go to the configuration editor and set "D1:" as "Floppy #1". The best way to do this is to "Swap Drives" between "D1:" and the drive that says "Floppy #1" after it. If none are configured as floppy 1, then swap with a "n/a" drive. The computer can now be rebooted from floppy drive 1.