PCPro v3.06 release note
========================

This text file contains information that did not make it into the manual
before press time.

Contents
--------
Installation
Additions to !Boot
Possible problems during installation
Windows 3.X users
PCPro3 user guide errata
Monitor Mode selection
Known Problems
Change List


Installation
------------
Follow the instructions in the manual, but note that the contents of the disc
have changed slightly. The two utilities mentioned (!NewSys and InstToolbox)
have been combined into one called !UpdateSys, which you will be prompted to
run if necessary. 

Note that the installer will back up your old !PC and !PCconfig for you if
you do an 'update installation'. However it will not backup anything else in
the folder as we don't know what you might have put in there. The new PCPro
software will only add !PC, !PCconfig and Docs. Any other files in the folder
are either things you have added/created (eg Drive_C) or things left over
from older installations (eg !boot, Misc) which should be backed-up or
deleted. 

Note that you should not keep your old !PC in a folder called 'PC', and
install the new one into something like 'newPC'. This will confuse the
installer. If you want to make your own copy of the old installation, then
call it 'oldPC'. For a normal upgrade installation the installer does this
for you (subject to the limitations outlined in the paragraph above), so it
is not normally necessary.


Additions to !Boot 
------------------
This window in !InstallPC offers to add various things to your !Boot. In
general adding all the suggested items will give you the best functionality,
but there are a circumstances where this is not appropriate:

If you have a Castle 'Storm' RISC-PCs then GuardDD is not recommended, and
if you have problems you may also want to remove FilerPatch. There have been
problems if GuardDD is used on Castle Technology Risc-PCs which boot off a
SCSI filing system.

The Win95 keyboard patch or !Filerptch can cause problems if one is in
your boot sequnce but unable to complete it's patch. It generates an
error which stops the boot sequence, leaving you in an odd half-booted
state. The most obvious symptom is that you will have returned to a
default screen mode like mode 27. The Win95 Keyboard patch is only
recommended for RISCOS 3.7, although it will also work on some RISCOS 3.6
setups. The installer will now only suggest it for RISCOS 3.7 machines.
!Filerptch is not needed for RISCOS 4 or later and so is only installed
on earlier setups.


Castle Kinetic Cards
--------------------
These have the memory directly on the card where it is faster, but not
accessible to the PC Card. The PC Card can only use the memory on the
motherboard. A small amount of this memory will also still be used by
RISC OS, so if you have a 32Mb SIMM on the motherboard you will not be
able to allocate all 32Mb to the PC Card - only the next size down -
28Mb, even though only a few hundred K is probably being used by RISCOS.

In this release !InstallPC reports all the memory in the machine as
'available' even though the Kinetic memory (normally 64Mb) is not
available - this will be fixed in the next release.

The Castle 'Memfix' module is needed for !PC to be able to allocate any
memory at all - this fixes a bug in RISCOS 4.03. !InstallPC will offer to
install this if it finds RISCOS 4.03 is present.

So far as we are aware the changes to !PC memory management mean that it
should now operate correctly with Kinetic cards, but there may be other
changes needed - the situation is being actively worked on by Castle
Technology and Aleph One. Feedback on whether this verson solves or
improves problems you may have is welcome.


Possible problems during installation
-------------------------------------
Toolbox/!System update.

!PC v3.00 (And !PCconfig & !InstallPC) use Acorn's toolbox modules (earlier
versions did not). It needs reasonably up-to-date versions of these modules
to operate properly. The way that the Toolbox modules work means that you
cannot load a newer toolbox module during a session if an old one has already
been loaded. Thus you must have the newest modules that any application you
are going to run this session needs loaded when you start up. !UpdateSys and
!PCinstall try to make sure that this is the case, but due to the variation
in people's boot-sequences this may not always work. 

This subject is quite complex, so we have not included all the details in
this file. If you find that running !UpdateSys and rebooting is not working
then read the 'TboxInfo' file on this disc, or (after installation) in the
Docs folder where you have installed !PC.


Windows 3.X users 
-----------------
The manual deals largely with Windows95/98 installations, this is because the
DOS and Windows 3.X driver installation is now automated. All you have to do
is 'answer the questions' the installer asks you, as described in section 6.1.

Normally you would say 'y' for
 CDROM driver, fast display driver and sound driver, and 'n' for mouse driver.

Only say 'y' for the ASPI driver if you have a SCSI card that you wish to
access from the PC side.

Note that you do not need the mouse driver for normal use. Windows and DOS
will both provide their own drivers. Use the Aleph One mouse driver if you
don't have a DOS mouse driver, or it doesn't support bus mice.

Note that not everything is new in this version of !PC. The HPC_CD.SYS driver
has not changed since v1.995, for example. The sound drivers have not changed
since v1.73. However you may need to run the setup program to update your
display driver (previously called the 'windows driver'). If upgrading from a
version of PCPro then we suggest that you upgrade !PC and then try running
Windows. If you have a display problem then run the setup program to update 
things; otherwise if it ain't broke...


PCPro3 user guide errata
------------------------
Section 3.1: Toolbox Modules
 InstToolbox has become !UpdateSys.
 
Section 4.7: Network Links
 The advanced configuration is described in section 11.5, not chapter 7, as
stated.

Section 5.1: Making a boot disc
 You must make a boot disc with MKBootDisc in order to install the drivers.
The paragraph implies that this is optional - it is not.
Note that the disc you use should be formatted first to check that it
verifies OK, *with no errors*. The image copied directly to this disc by
!MKBootDisc can not adjust for errors on the disc surface and thus will not
work properly on a disc with missing sectors.

Section 6.4: Installing the Windows95/98 display driver
 This mentions the level 2 cache setting in !PCConfig's advanced
configuration, but there isn't one! It refers to the 'External Cache'. (These
two terms are synonyms, and 'level 1 cache' is the same as 'Internal cache').

Section 7.3: Extending your partition files
 When it says 'Boot !PC from your boot disc', it means the disc made by
!MKBootDisc. This contains the version of XCOPY that should be used with the
options given. Other versions will need different options, or even may not do
the job at all. Using XCOPY alone will not make a disc bootable - you also
need to use the correct version of SYS for your system. This is a complicated
subject, and we recommend that you look at the Aleph One Website support area
for current best advice. 

Note that there is a bug in !PCconfig.MkDOSDisc dated 1998.01.15 (shipped
with PCPro releases 3.00a-d) which incorrectly formats the drive and stops
SYS from transferring the boot system properly. The drive you are copying _to_
needs to be created with the !PCConfig from PCPro v3.01 or later or PCPro
2.13 or earlier.

Section 12.1: The phone number for Warm Silence Software is wrong. It should
be 0585 487642 (a mobile).


Monitor Mode selection
----------------------
Your computer can only display modes that are in the Monitor Definition File
(MDF) that is in use. The modes the you select with the Windows 95/98 Display
Properties, are is derived from the monitortype you select and the Aleph One
Driver INF file. These may not match the mode in your MDF files and so it is
possible to select a mode for Windows that the host machine cannot display.
This can cause unpredictable results, and should be avoided. Check that the
mode you want to use is a valid RISC OS mode before trying it.

We also recommend that you select one of the 'standard' monitor types (eg
SVGA 800x600 ) - the one that most closely matches your monitor, rather than the
specific manufacturers monitortypes. This is less likely to cause problems in
our experience.


Known Problems
--------------
This software is continually developing so there are always a few known
problems being worked on. Here are a few you might encounter. All of these
are being worked on, and free updates will be available when fixes are found.


* 'Mouse trails' in VESA 1.2 modes
Something obscure got broken that worked properly in PCPro v2.xx. The
symptoms is software using VESA 1.2 graphocs (usually games) where the
mouse rubs out a black square around it, or if 'fast video' is turned on
you get multiple overlapping repeats of part of the screen on the
display. The workaround for the time being is to use PCPro v2.13p (which
is config-compatible with PCPro3).

* Windows 95 OSR2 control panel problem
There are sometimes problems running some of the control-panel items. This
only occurs for a few installations of Windows 95 OSR2, also known as Windows
95b. The most usual symptom is that after double clicking on 'display' in
control panel, or 'properties' on the backdrop, nothing happens. (The
'display properties' dialog-box should appear). This may be cured by taking
the desk.cpl file from Windows 95a (the 'retail' version) and copying it into
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM. If this does not work you need to install Windows 95a
instead.

* Serial port slow on return to RISCOS
PCPro3 is significantly improved on PCPro2 in this respect, but there are
still circumstances where you may find that the serial port will only operate
slowly under RISCOS after running !PC. It will only occur if the serial port
is used before running !PC, the 'Use serial port directly' option is selected
in PCConfig, then !PC is quit and the serial port is used again. Using the
serial port whilst running !PC (using the toolbar to temporarily release the
serial port) does not cause a problem. To cure the slow serial port you need
to reset the machine after quitting !PC.

* Windows 98 installation hangs on restart
The automatic restarts during installation will usually hang trying to reset
the machine. Just use the reset button on the toolbar, or the 'reset' menu
item.

* Windows 98 installation gives 'COMMAND.COM not found' on restart
You need to change 'DoubleBuffer=2' to 'DoubleBuffer=1', or remove the option
completely (it doesn't do anything useful), from the [Options] section of the
MSDOS.SYS in the root of your DOS partition. This file is locked so you will
have to unlock it before editing, and lock it again after editing.

* CDROM driver causes Exception in VXD
If you have installed the protected mode CDROM driver, you may find that when
Windows 95/98 first reads the CD table of contents (on startup if there is a
CD in the drive, or when you put a CD in if not) a blue screen exception will
be generated. This is more likely if you have a fast CDROM drive. The
workarounds for this are to use the DOS CDROM driver or the HPC ASPI driver
(for SCSI CDROMs).

* Win95KbdPat can cause problems on RISCOS 3.6
If on a RISCOS 3.6 machine, after installing !PC, your system will not
start-up properly, apparently due to being unable to access the hard disc,
try removing !Win95kbdPat from $.Boot.Choices.Boot.Predesk. The installer now
no longer installs this option by default, unless you have PS2Driver v0.17
(ie RISCOS 3.7) or later.

* Problems with PD and 3rd Party software

Clares !Spool version 1.01 
!InstallPC error report was "no writable memory at this address" try to 
quit new error "File wimp$ScrapDir !Run not found".

Doggy Soft's !NewerLook and NewerLook2 are incompatible with PCPro. They
should be removed prior to instalation.


Change list
-----------
v3.06  PCMEM works with Castle Kinetic card correctly
       !PCinstall and SYSupdate allow for 350.modules.toolbox existing
       !PCinstall can install MemFix for ROS 4.03 amd URIconv
       Improved VESA 2.0 BIOS support
       Direct SCSI recognises Fat32 drives
v3.05  PCMEM/!PC fixed to work with RISCOS 3.71+ StrongARM
       !PC saves all files in !Boot so it will work on Read-only drives
       'Current configuration' file moved from <wimpscrap$dir>.PCconfig to
         <wimpscrap$dir>.PC.PCconfig 
v3.04  PCMEM fixed to work properly with RISCOS 4 and 256Mb RAM
       SINGLET/MULTIT/QUIT utils fixed to exit on all versions of DOS
       ScanDCI4 automatically records results in <wimpscrap$dir>PC.EtherX file               
v3.03a Correct version number in !PC 'Info' menu!
       Checkdiva recognises TI DX4-100-GA CPU 
v3.03  !PC, !PCconfig, !PCinstall and !UpdateSYS compatible with RISCOS 4
       !PC (PCmem module) can now always allocate available memory when 
       128Mb SIMMs are present.
       Warm Silence's CDROMFS is now supported
       !PC is now compatible with RC5PC and Debugger Plus
       !PCconfig v0.85 
        * Compatible with RISCOS 4 look and feel
        * 'revert to defaults' option added 
        * Scaletofit option re-instated 
         
v3.02e  Revised manual (issue 8) supplied.
        New !PCConfig.MKDOSDisc deals with !GuardDD transparently
v3.02c/d InstallPC v0.81 - fixes problem with Network Links registration codes
v3.02b  ARMASPI v0.07c module and ASPI debug version and utilities
        included. Fixes problem with epson scanners.
        !PCconfig now recognises SCSI cards it didn't before.
v3.02  Bug fixed where wrong memory size reported for <16Mb RAM with no VRAM
         allocated. DOS driver installation now puts lines at start of files
         not the end, to avoid the problem of loading drivers after Windows 
         or shells.
       !MkBootDisc Setup.bat is more robust, especially for Windows 3.x users
v3.01  !PCConfig v0.81
        * doesn't allow TurboDriver bodge selection without Direct Parallel
        * bug fixed where it forgot about drives dragged onto it if the 
            window didn't have focus.
        * the DOSDisc creator has bug fixed which made flawed boot sectors
            in v3.00 (this stops SYS from working properly)
       !UpdateSys tries harder to unplug old modules
       !PC can now be used on a locked disc.
v3.00d Readme Updates, Windows keyboard patch only applied on RISC OS 3.7
       Missing XCOPY put on boot/driver disc. Co-exists with v2.13 better.
v3.00c Setup.bat deals properly with Windows 3.1 as well as 3.11
v3.00a More robust !UpdateSys
v3.00  Initial release of PCPro3


Aleph One 2000.06.15