Charles L. Terra Ph.D.
USAF Veteran
Getting started with the PC JR is a challenge after so many years away from booting DOS and Floppies.
Listed is a quick start guide to setting up your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files.
This is intended to only give you a quick how-to get going with your Boot Disk !
For more details read the associated documents for indepth details on their use and configuration.
This example is setup up for DOS 5.0, with:
- JR-IDE installed Hard Drive / 640K / Clock
- ZIP-100 Drive
- Serial Mouse
- 3Flop Board using 3 disk drives 3.5" 720K
stacks=0,0
files=40
buffers=40
device=jrconfig.sys /v64 /m /t3 /b2 /d3
device=mouse704.sys
device=palmzip.sys /lpt1 /b /f
device=smartdrv.sys
device=driver.sys /d:0 /f:2 /h:2 /t:80 /s:9
device=driver.sys /d:1 /f:2 /h:2 /t:80 /s:9
device=driver.sys /d:2 /f:2 /h:2 /t:80 /s:9
device=ansi.sys
stacks=0,0 ( refer to your DOS manual for descriptions )
files=40
buffers=40
device=jrconfig.sys (refer to jrconfig documentation for details) (refer to DOS Manual for 'device=')
/M will turn off the PCjr's internal speaker
/Vn The default size of the video buffer is 16KB which is adequate for all programs designed to work with a CGA graphics adapter.
With the JR-IDE installed you have 640K memory so you can allocate 64K for your video.
/Tn T3 - for 80 X 25 Color
/Bn B2 - will move the screen n positions to the right, use /Bn where n is from 1 to 7
This is custom and allows the user to move the screen to better center your screen text on your monitor.
/Dn D3 - will tell DOS how many floppy drives to control and to assign a drive letter for each one of them use /Dn option, where n is 1 to 4
Using the 3Flop Board you have to tell the system you have 3 drives attached.
device=mouse704.sys Installs the mouse driver
device=smartdrv.sys Hard drive caching
device=driver.sys /d:0 /f:2 /h:2 /t:80 /s:9
device=driver.sys /d:1 /f:2 /h:2 /t:80 /s:9
device=driver.sys /d:2 /f:2 /h:2 /t:80 /s:9
Sets up the extra disk drives that are attached per the /Dn option in the JRCONFIG.
/d:0 = Drive A
/d:1 = Drive B
/d:2 = Drive D ( you have the JR-IDE installed so drive letter C is taken by the hard drive)
/h:2 = number of heads the drive has
/t::80 = tracks the drive has ( 80 is for a typical 3.5 720K drive)
/s:9 = sectors per track
device=ansi.sys this has many uses but I use this for the ESC sequences, graphics. (see the AUTOEXEC.BAT)
PROMPT $e[1;44m$p$g
jridertc /D
mouse704
path=c:\;c:\turbo7;
ver
PROMPT $e[1;44m$p$g This command uses ansi.sys esc character to set the screen to Foreground WHITE
and Background BLUE, and set the command line prompt to show:
$p = Current drive and path
$g = > displays the greater than symbol
jride / D reads the clock from the JR-IDE board and sets the DOS time
jride.com must reside in your c: root directory
mouse704 installs the mouse driver for the serial mouse
path=c:\;c:turbo7; sets the active paths, you will customize this for your system and needs.
ver DOS command that displays the version of DOS you are using ( this is personal preference also )