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New in V45: Can also load the 3.9 exec.library, and can upgrade the ROM
fully automatically from disk. See below for details.
For a quick start, just run "ExtractModule" without any
arguments on an Os 3.9 system. This will place all modules
of the ROM Updates in the right places, and LoadModule AUTO
will pick them up correctly.
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Purpose of LoadModule:
LoadModule installs so called "resident modules" in a reset-proof way,
possibly replacing ROM modules by disk-based modules, similar to what
SetPatch and its "ROM-Updates" mechanism does. "Resident modules" are
loadable binaries containing a special structure telling the Os how to
initialize them and what to perform on initialization - Amiga libraries
and devices are the canonical example of these modules, the "ram-handler"
is another.
"LoadModule" can be used to install these resident modules in a reset
proof way such that they are available immediately at system bootstrap
time. This is desired whenever a module is required for booting, as
for example some of modules in the Amiga-Os ROM-Updates. "LoadModule"
can therefore be used as a more canonical form of the ROM-Updates since
it does not require an undocumented file format - modules have to be
provided as loadable disk based binaries in their most canonical form,
and can be kept in their canonical location. For example, the V45
"console.device" could be kept in DEVS: similar to all other devices.
"LoadModule" can be used as well to replace the ROM-based icon and
workbench.libraries by their disk-based 3.5 and 3.9 replacments, or
to make modules reset-proof that are typically disk-based, for example
the diskfont.library or the mmu.library.
Features:
- Requires modules as loadable binaries in a canonical and documented
file format rather than requiring an undocumented file structure.
- Checksums all modules such that damaged modules will be detected.
- May place modules in non-MEMF_KICK-able memory using some "arcane
magic" for boards where no autoconfigurable memory is available,
provided this memory is reset-persistent. This goes for most A2K
based GVP accelerators.
- May or may not cause a reboot and can therefore be bundled with
Os 3.5/3.9 SetPatch and MuMove4K.
- Before rebooting, ensures that disk buffers are written out to
avoid invalidated disks.
- Allows listing of the installed resident modules.
- Can be told to remove itself when required.
- Can be extended by means of MuProtectModules to optionally
write protect some ROM modules.
- Also supports loading a new exec.library (system core) into RAM
- Can automatically replace ROM modules by checking the disk contents.
- It's free! (But check the licence conditions below.)
_____________________________________________________________________________
Synopsis:
LoadModule MODULE/M,LIST/S,NOREBOOT/S,IGNOREVERIFY/S,NOMEMFKICK/S,
REVERSE/S,HEADERFORWARDS/S,REMOVE/S,AUTO/S,ROMUPDATE/S,
EXECTOCHIP/S,ALLTOCHIP/S,DOWNGRADE/S
MODULE/M: Several file names of resident modules to be made
reset-resident. The file names need not to correspond
to the names of the resident modules, though.
"LoadModule" will figure out the correct names itself.
The module names can also be specified by wildcards
which will be resolved by LoadModule automatically.
LIST/S: List all resident modules installed by "LoadModule"
NOREBOOT/S: Avoid a reboot even if this would be apropriate. This
is useful for cascading "LoadModule" with other tools
that would reboot the machine anyhow, e.g. MuMove4K.
"LoadModule" tries to reboot the machine whenever it
is invoked for the first time and no resident modules
are found, or whenever it shall be removed and some
modules are installed.
IGNOREVERIFY: Ignore invalid or non-validated devices when rebooting.
Otherwise, LoadModule would abort the reboot process
printing a warning message.
This is useful if you must work with a damaged drive
always returning an error status.
This will also disable the smart shut-down mechanism
which would otherwise shut down all filing-system
devices in a "friendly" way.
NOMEMFKICK: Use MEMF_PUBLIC memory to keep the resident modules.
This also overrides the ALLTOCHIP flag.
Note: This requires some magic *and* reset-persistent
memory. It should be used *only* in case
a) otherwise MEMF_CHIP or 16-bit memory would be used
and this is not tolerateable
*AND*
b) you really really really know what you're doing.
REVERSE: Allocate resident modules "upside down" moving them
in the top area of the memory. It is usually a good
idea to use this option.
HEADERFORWARDS: Allocate the resident part of LoadModule itself in
non-reverse sense. This resident part will install
and replace all resident modules by the disk-based
modules on a reboot and *MUST* go into MEMF_KICK able
memory (no magic here!). It is by default allocated
"upside down", but this can be disabled in case it
conflicts with some programs.
REMOVE: Removes "LoadModule" and its modules from the
reset-resident list and causes a reboot, unless
NOREBOOT is given. In that case, removal is delayed
up to the next reboot.
AUTO: Will automatically scan the system disk for modules
that replace the ROM contents and will upgrade them.
This will augment the list of modules provided through
the MODULE argument.
See the separate "Modules.readme" file for the precise
path where LoadModule will check. For the impatient
readers: It is exactly where you would expect them,
plus a couple of additional places.
The modules from the AmigaOs 3.9 "ROM Updates" can be
placed on disk by typing the command "ExtractModules"
on the shell. This will perform the module extraction
automatically and will place the modules in the right
places.
ROMUPDATE: This works very much like AUTO, except that it only
considers modules for inclusion whose "p" (pure) bit
is set, indicating that these modules could be placed
in ROM. In particular, the Os 3.9 icon and workbench
libraries are *NOT* pure, and should not have this
bit set, whereas the contents of the ROM-Updates file
of 3.9 *are* pure.
EXECTOCHIP: Will instruct LoadModule to place the critical exec
library in chip memory instead of trying to detect a
suitable RAM type itself. The system may then boot
slower than necessary due to the rather slow chip
memory access. Exec (and other system modules) can
be remapped to faster RAM type during the boot process
with
MuProtectModules ON REMAP
MuProtectModules is part of the MuTools package and
available separately. Note that you need V45 or later.
ALLTOCHIP: Enforce that all resident modules, even the non-
critical ones (i.e. all except exec) go to chip memory
while this should rarely be possible, it might be
necessary on machines whose firmware announces memory
types incorrectly. This flag is overridden by
NOMEMFKICK.
DOWNGRADE: Also allow to replace an existing module by a module
of the same or lower revision.
DANGEROUS! THIS IS NOT RECOMMENDED! MODULES HAVE
VERSIONS FOR REASONS.
______________________________________________________________________________
Examples:
The following one-liner places the Os 3.5/3.9 based icon and workbench
libraries on the reset-resident list replacing the ROM-modules. This
line should go into the startup-sequence *in front of SetPatch*
(as otherwise SetPatch does this job anyhow by a different approach...)
LoadModule LIBS:icon.library LIBS:workbench.library reverse
The following lines show how to bundle LoadModule with MuMove4K as to
avoid a double reboot:
LoadModule LIBS:icon.library LIBS:workbench.library reverse noreboot
MuMove4K
The next example demonstrates how one could replace the ROM-Updates
mechanism of SetPatch provided you would have the modules as separate
files on disk. It also disables NSD.
LoadModule LIBS:icon.library LIBS:workbench.library +
DEVS:console.device L:Ram-Handler L:FastFileSystem +
reverse noreboot
MuMove4K
SetPatch NOROMUPDATE NONSD >NIL:
A simpler version of the above detects all modules automatically:
LoadModule AUTO
MuMove4K
SetPatch NOROMUPDATE NONSD >NIL:
Finally, the same on a GVP accelerator without autoconfiguring 32 bit
memory placing the modules in MEMF_PUBLIC instead. MuProtectModules is
here used to relocate the memory to the 32bit RAM while booting:
LoadModule ROMUPDATE NOMEMFKICK EXECTOCHIP
MuMove4K
SetPatch NOROMUPDATE NONSD >NIL:
MuProtectModules ON REMAP
List the installed resident modules:
LoadModule LIST
Modules may be extracted from the ROM-Updates file using the ExtractModule
command included in this archive. ExtractModule also sets the protection
bits of all modules correctly, including the "p" bit such that LoadModule
will pick them up.
ExtractModule FROM/K,MODULE/N,TO,OVERWRITE/S
FROM/K: The ROM-Updates file containing resident modules. Defaults
to "DEVS:AmigaOS ROM Update".
MODULE/N: The sequence number of the module to extract. I leave it as
an "easy exercise" how to identify the extracted module.
If no module is given, LoadModule will extract all modules.
TO: The file or directory name to which the extracted module or
modules will be written. If not given, ExtractModule will
pick a location for you. See the "Modules.readme" file
for details.
_____________________________________________________________________________
History:
LoadModule 40.1:
This is the first release. It was more or less written because I don't
like the ROM-Updates mechanism overly, especially its requirement for an
undocumented file format - and as favour for Ralph Babel in return for a
new Guru-ROM and helping me on my SCSI configuration.
LoadModule 40.5:
LoadModule does no longer require 32K alignment for each of its modules,
32K alignment for the complete set of modules is now enough. However, this
requires release 40.2 of MuProtectModules or higher if module protection
is desired.
LoadModule 40.6:
Forgot to NULL terminate the resident list which could have caused crashes
on some systems. Fixed the "REMOVE" option which did not work properly.
LoadModule 40.7:
Some format strings of the "LoadModule" failure messages were corrupt. This
has been fixed now.
LoadModule 40.8:
Fixed handling of RELOC32SHORT hunks, I forgot the pad-word. (*sigh*)
LoadModule 40.9:
Fixed the installation of resident modules that did not conflict with one
of the ROM resident modules. LoadModule could have run into an endless
loop in the previous releases if you tried to install a non-ROM segment.
LoadModule 40.10:
Fixed again the installation of additional resident modules.
LoadModules failed to initialize the new modules completely
in this case due to the way how exec runs the init modules.
Fixed in 40.10. Thanks to Christian Sauer and Etienne Vogt
for reporting the bug.
LoadModule 40.11:
Fixed the new module initialization bug again as Thomas only had the source
code for version 40.9 in his backups. Fixed allocation of the stack saveback
area so it is not cleared and other resident stuff that may be located at
memory top is not wiped out. Made LoadModule 2.04 compatible by reverting
to the more restrictive MEMF_LOCAL memory attribute under 2.04 KickStart
instead of the 3.0+ MEMF_KICK.
LoadModule 40.12:
This release merges the changes Etienne made back into the main development
branch. No functional changes.
LoadModule 40.13:
Apparently, MEMF_KICK is broken on some installations in 3.0, and thus
is no longer the default for resident modules unless a 3.1 system is found.
NOMEMFKICK now also applies to the resident part of LoadModule itself
except that it will then try MEMF_LOCAL instead as MEMF_PUBLIC is definitely
unsuitable for the resident part of LoadModule itself. Note that for some
kickstarts, MEMF_REVERSE is also broken - try then HEADERFORWARDS.
LoadModule 45.5:
A major rework of the program. The exec.library can now be loaded as well,
though the mechanism is a bit different to the trick used by SetPatch (and
simpler, too.). "expansion.library" is the only library that cannot be
replaced by LoadModules on all systems - the same goes for SetPatch.
Added the "AUTO" switch to scan the disk automatically for replacment modules,
manual selection of modules is no longer necessary.
LoadModule 45.6:
Module names are now also allowed to be wild-cards. LoadModule will resolve
them automatically and will remove duplicates before attempting to load any.
Added the DOWNGRADE option due to popular demand. Note that this is not
recommended. Added the ALLTOCHIP option as last resort for machines whose
memory types are announced incorrectly. Refined the requirements for the
memory types for exec as apparently there are boards in the wild that provide
MEMF_LOCAL memory that is not suitable for kick tags.
LoadModule 45.7:
The previous release could not change the priority of ROM resident modules,
or rather, it did not leave the list of resident modules sorted by priority
as it should. This has been fixed. Also fixed (probably) the non-working
DOWNGRADE option of the 45.6 release.
LoadModule 45.8:
LoadModule uses MEMF_LOCAL memory in case it is told not to try MEMF_KICK.
Unfortunately, this memory type is broken in at least two cases: First,
Ranger memory (at 0x00c00000) is unfortunately corrupted during a reset
due to a bug in the exec coldstart function, so is not usable. Second, there
is at least one CD32 memory expansion that incorrectly announces its memory
as MEMF_LOCAL, even though the memory does go away on reset. This release
tries to detect such cases and automatically reverts to chip memory for
the critical system parts. Resident modules itself, except for exec, will
still go to regular memory if the NOMEMFKICK flag is provided.
LoadModule 45.9:
MuProtectModules REMAP did strange and wonderful things if used jointly
with LoadModule, and the system was reset and not exactly in the same
shape (or something else used up the memory for the modules). Bummer!
This version will reset the internal state variables of MuProtectModules,
avoiding the issue after a reset.
LoadModule 45.12:
This version fixes a bug in the system identification which called the
ReadGayle() function of exec. Unfortunately, due to incomplete addressing,
this call would trash registers of FatGary on the A3000, turning every
reboot into a coldstart. Furthermore, a MuForce hit was detected whenever
the AUTO option was used without any user-specified module list. This
release includes a _debug variant which outputs helpful information on
the serial port at 9600-8N1 you may want to use to identify problems.
LoadModule 45.13:
This release blacklists the 68040.library, the 68060.library and the
ppc.library from being automatically loaded through AUTO. Unfortunately,
some vendors decided to provide non-ROMable versions of their system
libraries while putting non-equivalent versions in ROM.
LoadModule 45.14:
This release includes a new switch, ROMUPDATE, which works like AUTO,
except that it only grabs pure modules (i.e. modules whose 'p' bit is
set). This might help to housekeeping and exclude some unwanted
modules. ExtractModule has been updated to set this bit as well, and
allows now to use the "TO" keyword also to specify a target directory
for individual files, making everyone's life a bit easier. The check
for the CD32 of LoadModule apparently did not consider the extended
ROM area of this device, hence failed to identify this model correctly.
Sorry about that.
LoadModule 45.14.1:
Not an update of LoadModule, but ExtractModule which forgot to release
locks upon recursive directory expansion.
LoadModule 45.15:
LoadModule identified A500 with expansion boards as A2000, though this
is not necessarily correct. LoadModule will now check the modules for
both models equivalently. Also, LoadModule identified an A2000 or
A500 with OCS chipset as A2000A or A1000, both of which is not necessarily
correct. OCS machines can either be the A1000, the A2000A, the A2000B
or the A500, and modules are now scanned in all directories that apply.
LoadModule 45.16:
Added the ANNOUNCESEGTRACKER option which will inject the start addresses
and sizes of the loaded modules into a running SegTracker instance. This
requires SegTracker 45.1. Unfortunately, there is no SegTracker API to
do this cleanly, so LoadModule hacks its way into the SegTracker internals
and thus requires a particular version.
A typical use case is to place a second call to LoadModule into the
startup-sequence right *after* starting SegTracker.
LoadModule 45.17:
This was an internal release only.
LoadModule 45.18:
Removed the ANNOUNCESEGTRACKER option again as SegTracker 46.1 is now aware
of LoadModule, and no additional announcement is necessary. Please upgrade
to SegTracker 46.1.
In case loading a module fails due to lack of memory, LoadModule now
aborts the loading loop.
_____________________________________________________________________________
The THOR/EV-Software Licence (v3, 23th March 2003)
This License applies to the computer programs known as "LoadModule"
The "Program", below, refers to such program. The "Archive" refers to the
package of distribution, as prepared by the authors of the Program,
Thomas Richter and Etienne Vogt. Each licensee is addressed as "you".
The Program and the data in the archive are freely distributable
under the restrictions stated below, but are also Copyright (c)
Thomas Richter (upto V40.10) and Etienne Vogt (V40.11 and up).
Distribution of the Program, the Archive and the data in the Archive by a
commercial organization without written permission from the authors to any
third party is prohibited if any payment is made in connection with such
distribution, whether directly (as in payment for a copy of the Program) or
indirectly (as in payment for some service related to the Program, or
payment for some product or service that includes a copy of the Program
"without charge"; these are only examples, and not an exhaustive enumeration
of prohibited activities).
However, the following methods of distribution
involving payment shall not in and of themselves be a violation of this
restriction:
(i) Posting the Program on a public access information storage and
retrieval service for which a fee is received for retrieving information
(such as an on-line service), provided that the fee is not
content-dependent (i.e., the fee would be the same for retrieving the same
volume of information consisting of random data).
(ii) Distributing the Program on a CD-ROM, provided that
a) the Archive is reproduced entirely and verbatim on such CD-ROM, including
especially this licence agreement;
b) the CD-ROM is made available to the public for a nominal fee only,
c) a copy of the CD is made available to the authors for free except for
shipment costs, and
d) provided further that all information on such CD-ROM is redistributable
for non-commercial purposes without charge.
Redistribution of a modified version of the Archive, the Program or the
contents of the Archive is prohibited in any way, by any organization,
regardless whether commercial or non-commercial. Everything must be kept
together, in original and unmodified form.
Limitations.
THE PROGRAM IS PROVIDED TO YOU "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY. THERE IS NO
WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS. THE ENTIRE
RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD
THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY
SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THIS LICENCE, YOU MUST DELETE THE PROGRAM, THE ARCHIVE
AND ALL DATA OF THIS ARCHIVE FROM YOUR STORAGE SYSTEM. YOU ACCEPT THIS
LICENCE BY USING OR REDISTRIBUTING THE PROGRAM.
Thomas Richter
Etienne Vogt
_____________________________________________________________________________
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