Table of Contents
HD-Park-Switch
(or How to Patch a CMD-HD to your own needs)
- By Ninja/The Dreams
- Originally published in Domination #17
- Converted to ascii by Jazzcat/Onslaught
One thing I really like about the C64 nowadays is that it is a quiet computer. No fans or similar, just wonderful! Unfortunately, the SCSI-HDD inside my CMD-HD is the opposite. When it is running, it sounds like an aeroplane. Being a curious programmer, I tried to get rid of this annoyance. I realised that I never use the 'Write protect' button. So, maybe I could abuse it to park/unpark my HDD?
Well, the forthcoming project might not be too useful for most of you. Nevertheless, it might give you an idea how the CMD-HD works and how to apply own patches to the CMD-HD-ROM. You never know when you might need that!
How to do
First of all, the HD-ROM is not really ROM but in fact RAM which can be protected from storing data to it. This makes sense, as the HD-KERNAL has to be loaded from the system partition when the HD boots up. Furthermore, upgrading the HD-DOS does not require hardware modifications. Ofcourse, it also means that applying patches is pretty easy: unprotect RAM, modify KERNAL, protect RAM. If the 1541 had such capabilities…
The patch itself is quite simple. Install a backpack to that point where the 'Write protect'-flag was toggled. From there, send the corresponding SCSI-jobcode to park/unpark the HD-mechanism. Finally go back to the standard procedure.
ROM-versions 1.86, 1.90 and 1.92 are handled (are there any more though?), though only 1.92 was tested. As we do just easy stuff, I do not expect many problems with those older versions. For the rest, I will let the source-code speak (I assume you know a little about sending and executing drive code. All necessary information was re-engineered (and that was the main work) by me or Doc Bacardi/The Dreams
Enjoy and comments are welcome.
The code
; HD-Park-Switch V1.0 by Ninja/The Dreams in 2002 org $0801 binclude "help/hdpshead.prg",2 ; include BASIC-header, which contains ; some information and will start the ; following routines. ; Works in 64 and 128-mode! align 256 ; start at beginning of a page jmp in: lda #$0f ; channel #15 ldx $ba ; use current device tay ; use command channel jsr $ffba ; set file-parameters lda $fff6 cmp #$ff ; check platform bne c64_found ; c64, then jump lda #$0f tax ; set memconfig for channel jsr $ff68 ; in C128-mode ldy $2e ; get C128-BASIC-start byt $2c ; skip next opcode c64_found: ldy $2c ; get C64-BASIC-start iny ; increment to point to this ; page ldx #lo (mw-command) ; lobyte of ; command lda #hd_code_len+6 ; we send all ; bytes at once jsr $ffbd ; set up memory-write- ; command jsr $ffc0 ; send command ldx #$0f jsr $ffc6 ; set channel as input jsr $ffcf ; get char cmp #'0' ; "0" from OK-string? bne drive_err ; if not, skip execution ; will probably be a non ; CMD-HD-drive ; complaining about the ; long command string ldx #$0f jsr $ffc9 ; channel as output lda #'U' jsr $ffd2 lda #'3' jsr $ffd2 ; send "U3", executes at ; $0500 drive]err: jsr $ffcc ; restore input/output lda #$0f jmp $ffc3 ; close channel and go ; back mw]command: byt "M-W",0,5,hd_code_len hd]code: phase $0500 ; HD-code is at $0500 sei ; no interrupts ldy #2 ; check 3 ROM versions ; (1.86, 1.90, 1.92) next_rom: ldx rom_ofs,y ; get version-specific ; offset into x lda #$4c ; $4c = JMP opcode cmp $f28a,x ; present in ROM? bne wrong_rom ; no, then next version sta bp_mod+1 ; store address]lo into ; our backpack lda rom_jmplo,y ; get version-specific ; offset into x lda #$4c ; $4c = JMP opcode cmp $f28b,x ; present in ROM? bne wrong_rom ; no, then next version sta bp_mod+1 ; store address]lo into ; our backpack lda_rom_jmphi,y ; get version-specific ; address]hi cmp $f28c,x ; present in ROM? beq rom_found ; yes, then go patch wrong_rom: dey ; try next version bpl next_rom ; still one left? cli rts ; no, then goodbye ; without changes rom_found: sta bp]mod+2 ; store address]hi into ; our backpack lda $8f00 ora #20 sta $8f00 ; unprotect RAM ldy #bp_len-1 copy_bp: lda backpack,y sta $ff60,y dey bpl copy]bp ; copy backpack to $ff60 lda #$60 sta $f28b,x lda #$ff ; apply JMP $ff60 to ; version-specific sta $f28c,x ; address lda $8f00 and #$df sta $8f00 ; protect RAM cli rts ; goodbye backpack: lda #$f8 ; SCSI_Jobcode 'Start ; Device' bit $49 ; Check for 'Write Protect' bpl wp_disabled ; disabled, then skip ; next opcode lda #$fa ; SCSI-Jobcode 'Stop Device' wp_disabled: sta $20 ; into Native-Job-Que bp]mod: jmp $ffff ; back to original routine self- ; modified from above bp_len = *-backpack ; V1.86 V1.90 V1.92 roms_ofs: byt $f28a-f28a,$f2f6-f28a,$f331-f28a ; where to patch rom_jmplo: byt $be , $2a , $65 rom_jmphi: byt $f2 , $f3 , $f3 ; what to patch dephase hd_code_len = *-hd_code end $0801