Last episode, I covered the process of partitioning the hard drive, and preparing it for a multiple boot system. Now that we have a good foundation, we can begin building the framework for our ultimate Workbench. This fresh start will give me a chance to detail the strategies I've come up with over the course of writing this series, and also point out a few of the pitfalls I've encountered.
Getting an Early Start
I'm going to assume you've created a fresh partition and are going to use it for installing a secondary "test" Workbench. Much of what I cover here can be used for your work-a-day Workbench, but it's nice to have a stable working partition to boot from should you encounter difficulties.
Once you've created the partition, made it bootable, and installed Workbench on it, you can test it by using the Amiga Early Startup Control menu. To access the Early Startup menu, hold both mouse buttons down when booting the Amiga. The initial screen allows you to toggle between PAL and NTSC video modes, boot with or without the Startup-Sequence, and access the Boot Options, Display Options, and Expansion Board Diagnostics sub menus. See Figure 1.
Figure 1:The Early Startup Control menu
We are only interested in the Boot Options button for now. Pressing this reveals the Boot Options sub menu. See Figure 2.
The left hand box shows a list of bootable devices attached to your Amiga. These include floppies, hard drives, Recoverable Ram devices, even the 1200's PCMCIA slot. To boot from a new Hard drive or partition, simply select the desired device and click on use. The right hand box displays more information about the attached devices, and allows you to disable any device, if you don't want the system to see it. Disabling your main hard drive partition(s) for examples, could be useful for testing unknown, or possibly virus infected programs. Simply click on the name of the device in the right hand box to disable or enable it.
The right hand box also shows the boot priority of each device. When booting, the Amiga uses the device with the highest priority. If that does not prove to be bootable, the Amiga moves on to the next device in the list. As you can see from Figure 2, the floppies are checked first, then the hard drives in order of priority.
Figure 2:The Boot Options screen
Building the Framework
OK, now we've got a shiny clean new Workbench install. Before we start installing all the latest gizmos, a little planning and forethought is in order. One of the biggest problems in keeping modern computer systems stable and efficient is the ensuing complications resulting from installing, configuring, upgrading and uninstalling software. Every time you install a program, like as not, new files will be scattered hither and yon, all over your hard drive. Often installing a program will replace the files already on your hard drive, even, in the worst case, overwriting newer versions with older versions, and without asking, or even informing you of what files have been changed. Ever installed a program, and then later, found that another program had stopped working? This is bad enough if you catch it right away, but imagine running that program after a few weeks have gone by. It becomes quite difficult to track down these mysterious problems. And lest you think I am being overly critical of the Amiga, rest assured, the problem exists and is even worse in Windows. Luckily, most developers have taken notice of this, and are beginning to address this problem with better install procedures.
Safety Inspections
Unfortunately, there are no perfect solutions to this problem, and you can't really count on the wisdom of developers to keep your Amiga humming along. Let's take a quick tour through the Amiga's OS setup. When you install the Amiga's Workbench, it creates a number of directories (also know as drawers in Amiga parlance), each of which is dedicated to a more or less specific task (listed in alphabetical order):
C - Here we find most of the AmigaDOS commands, such as Dir, List, and LoadWB. This drawer is
for CLI/Shell programs, i.e. programs with no GUI.
Classes - Contains the heart of the datatype system, as well as some GUI related stuff.
Devs - This directory contains mostly device drivers, and mountlists for adding and controlling
hardware. Printers, Monitors, CDROM drivers, all reside here.
Expansion - directory, which holds drivers for some third party hardware.
Fonts - Not surprisingly, is where the Amiga keeps its bitmap and vector fonts.
L - Similar in function to the Devs directory. Here are stored filesystems, such as CrossDOS
for accessing MSDOS disks, CDROM filesystems etc., and handlers. Handlers are used to extend the Amiga's system, as with VMM-handler, which is part of Martin Apel's Virtual Memory program.
Libs - Probably the hardest working directory on the Amiga's hard drive. This directory
contains shared libraries. These are programs which are not accessed directly by users, but rather by other programs. The concept of shared libraries is somewhat similar to clip art used by a large art department. Instead of each artist drawing their own version of say, a company logo, they can just use the clip art, which provides a consistent result and saves them time. Likewise, programmers can access these shared libraries, and thus are spared writing their own version. In addition to the Amiga's own system libraries like ASL (file requester) and datatypes libraries, many third party programmers have created shared libraries for everything from system enhancements to file and disk compression to antivirus software.
Locale - This is where the Amiga's International language system is kept. The files in here
allow the Amiga to be used in many different languages. Also sometimes kept in this drawer are help files.
Prefs - This is where the Amiga's Preference programs are. Screenmode, fonts, printers etc.
all can be configured by these programs. This is also the home of the elusive Environment archive. This sub directory contains important system settings, such as screenmode, palette, Workbench pattern, default icons etc. Many third party programs store settings here as well.
Rexxc - Holds a few programs used when working with Arexx, Amiga's Rexx system.
S - This important drawer holds several vital files, namely the Startup-Sequence and
User-Startup. Also, a lot of other assorted junk tends to accumulate here as well, some programs store configurations files, misc. data, macros etc. By default, this is where Arexx programs are stored.
Storage - This is mainly a storage area for Devs, holding unused DOS drivers, monitors,
printers etc.
System - This is where a few programs are stored, such as the disk formatter and diskcopier,
as well as the shell, and the Intellifont program.
T - This is for temporary files, created and discarded in the course of a programs operations.
Normally this is moved to the RAM disk upon boot.
Tools - A variety of programs, like Icon Editor, Calculator, the Amiga's HD backup program, as
well as the system commodities. Commodities are program which generally run in the background, extending the Amiga's capabilities. You'll find Screen blanker, Clicktofront, Fkey and other useful goodies in here.
Trashcan - This poor neglected directory is Commodore's halfhearted attempt at a trash bin
similar to the Mac's. It really isn't very useful, although there are third party programs which make it more so.
Utilities - This directory contains multiview, more and a clock program.
WBStartup - Basically, the launch pad for all those system enhancement programs I've covered over the course of this series. If you want a program to be automatically run every time you start the Amiga, simply drag 'n drop the icon in here.
Your Assignment, should you choose to accept it...
These directories contain the basic framework of the Amiga. Left to themselves, they give the Amiga a stable and powerful OS, but, tragically, install any new software, and these drawers soon fill up with a bewildering array of potential headaches. Wouldn't it be nice if you could keep all the files installed by programs in a place of their own, away from the original system files? Well you can, at least to a large extent.
Using the Assign Command, and the Path command, you can create "separate but equal" directories for third party programs, libraries, fonts etc. For example, create a directory called Libs2, (New Drawer, under the Window menu). This can be anywhere you like, but it might be best to keep all of these extended system drawers together. Now, say you created the new Libs2 drawer on your Workbench drive, you would type (either in a shell window or by the by the execute command item under the Workbench menu):
Assign LIBS: Workbench:Libs2 ADD
Notice the ADD at the end, very important! The Amiga will now search both the original Libs drawer and the new Libs2: drawer when called upon to load a library. Similarly the path statement:
Path C2: Add
will notify the Amiga to search the C2: drawer in addition to the C: drawer when called to run a program.
You can do this for all the main system drawers:
Assign LIBS: Workbench:Classes2 ADD ; Classes are a special case of libs!
Assign DEVS: Workbench:Devs2 ADD
Assign L: Workbench:L2 ADD
Assign REXX: Workbench:Arexx ; I don't like any Rexx macros in the S: drawer, so no ADD
Assign FONTS: Workbench:Fonts2 ADD
Assign HELP: Workbench:Help ADD
Path Workbench2:C2 Workbench:Tools2 ADD
Note, if you want these assigns/paths every time you boot, use a text editor and add them to the top of the S:User-Startup file.
This may seem like a lot of work, and frankly, it isn't a perfect solution. While many programs let you specify your desired installation path for libraries and other files, many do not. Note that you need to choose the expert mode of installation to be allowed to choose your destination paths. Also, if given the option, always have the installer create a log file. This will tell you what occurred, including what files went where, during the installation. Keep these logs, they are helpful in crosschecking which programs use which libraries, etc. Another tip: When you have everything working, do two things...
1. Backup up your hard drive! In particular, make a backup of preference and configuration files and settings. People remember the data they've created but often forget all the work they went to to customize the program's settings. It's extremely frustrating to get your system set up just the way you like, then have a crash and lose it all. While it is easy to restore or reinstall programs, your custom settings can get lost in the shuffle. Since programs are wont to keep there settings in a number of different places, just backing up the program might not catch all the settings. It pays to keep track of this, and make the extra effort to back them up. Aside from the program drawer itself, two typical places programs store settings might be the S: drawer, and/or the Env-Archive drawer. While you're at it, remember to backup your Startup-Sequence and User-Startup files. A final place for settings might be in the Icon itself. These items are called tooltypes. Using the Icon Information menu item, you can look at these. You should either write them down, or just copy the icons (.info files) to a safe place.
2. Enjoy the peace and harmony of a well tuned and happy Amiga. It probably won't last!
