GS Tips: Booting Directly to ProDOS 8
By Dan Crutcher
Copyright (c) 1990 Apple Users' Group, Sydney
Republished from Applecations, a publication of the Apple Users' Group, Sydney, Australia.
Reprinted from Apple Access a publication of the Louisville Apple Users Group
If you are a GS user, have you ever stopped to think how much time you spend in GS-mode versus ProDOS 8 mode? A rough guess is that I spend about 70 to 80 percent of my computer time using AppleWorks ("classic" - that still unsurpassed ProDOS 8 program) and another 10 percent using ProTERM or other ProDOS 8 programs. So I spend maybe 10 to 15 percent of my time in GS/OS.
If there were more and better GS-specific programs this ratio would change but for many of us the best word processing, database, spreadsheet and communication programs are still the old ProDOS 8 ones.
Which led me to wonder: Is there a way to avoid the "thermometer" delay every time I boot and still be able to access GS/OS without rebooting to another disk? That is, can I boot into ProDOS 8, which takes only a few seconds, and be able to run Appleworks or ProTERM - and then, if I want, load GS/OS from a ProDOS 8 program selector so that I can run S16 programs?
The answer, of course, is "Yes" (or I wouldn't be writing this, would I?). Keep in mind that this tip is probably going to be truly useful only to those with hard disks or fairly large ROM disks. If you're running everything from floppies you may find this information useful in special circumstances but most of the time it will be just as easy to pop in a new disk and reboot.
Here's how to boot into ProDOS 8 (presumably into a program selector) and how to load GS/OS from the program selector:
Using whatever utility program you like (Finder, ProSEL, Copy ][+, etc.) rename and/or copy the following files on your SYSTEM BOOT DISK:
1. In the root directory, change "PRODOS" to "GSOS" (no period in the middle). Note: This file will be 2K, or 4 blocks, long.
2. Copy the file "P8" from your Boot.Disk/SYSTEM subdirectory to the root directory and rename it "PRODOS". (You should still leave a copy of P8 in your /SYSTEM directory.) This version of PRODOS will be 16K, or 32 blocks long, unless it has been altered.
3. Copy or move your ProDOS 8 selector program (ProSEL 8, Squirt, Windows, etc. - It must be a program of the type "SYS" or a BASIC program) to the root directory.
4. ProDOS 8 will attempt to launch the first "SYS"-type file in the root directory which contains the string ".SYSTEM" in its filename. You can control which file should be launched by using the rename option. Since you normally want your program selector to be the file which is launched, rename it XXXX.SYSTEM (where XXXX is the actual program name). Then rename any other file in the root directory which contains the string ".SYSTEM" to XXX.SYS. For example, you would
normally have to rename BASIC.SYSTEM to BASIC.SYS unless, of course, the program you want to launch is a BASIC program. In this case, BASIC.SYSTEM should be the first SYSTEM file in the root directory and your BASIC program should be named "STARTUP".
After you've done all this, re-boot. You should see PRODOS 8 v.1.X loading for a few seconds and then go immediately into your program selector. From there you can run any ProDOS 8 program.
If you want to load GS/OS, just select the file "GSOS" and you should see the familiar thermometer. Just as before, GS/OS will load the "S16"-type file in your /SYSTEM directory named "START". That will normally be the Finder, unless you have changed it. Of course, you must have all of the necessary Tools, Drivers, Desk Accessories, etc. available when you run GS/OS, just as before.
The real advantage to this configuration is that should you ever have to reboot (I'm always trying new programs and weird configurations so I do a LOT of rebooting), you don't have to wait every time for GS/OS to load to get to your program selector or utilities program. And even if you use GS/OS most of the time, it takes no more than a couple of seconds to choose "GSOS" in your selector menu and you're on your way.
If you're interested, here's a non-technical and not very precise explanation of why making the above changes does what it does: All the Apple //'s at power-up, load first a file named "PRODOS" in the root directory of the boot disk. In order to get the computer to load GS/OS (and retain the ability to run ProDOS 8 programs), the GS System.Disk contains a "bogus" PRODOS file that really loads GS/OS. So, in renaming that ProDOS file "GSOS" (you can give it any name you want) you are preventing it from being automatically executed. The "real" PRODOS, of course, is the file that is called "P8" on the System.Disk, which is why we rename it and move it to the root directory. The "real" PRODOS, after loading in, is designed to run the first "SYS"-type program it finds in the root directory. (And if the first SYS file is BASIC.SYSTEM, that in turn will automatically run the first BASIC program named "STARTUP"). GS/OS, on the other hand, first runs any "S16"-type file in the /SYSTEM subdirectory which is called "START".

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