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#49: Rebooting (Really)

Author: Matt Deatherage & Jim Merritt
Year: 1988

... discusses rebooting the Apple IIGS from software.

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Apple II
Technical Notes
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                                                  Developer Technical Support

Apple IIGS
#49:    Rebooting (Really)

Revised by:    Matt Deatherage                                   January 1989
Written by:    Matt Deatherage & Jim Merritt                    November 1988

This Technical Note discusses rebooting the Apple IIGS from software.
Changed since November 1988:  Corrected two assembly-language 
instructions in the FROMNATV routine in the example code.
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In days gone by, many Apple II applications had a Quit menu option.  
Unfortunately, a large number of these simply rebooted the machine.  Today, 
this is far from desirable.  Even with the advantages of GS/OS-reduced booting 
time (around 34 seconds with an Apple 3.5 Drive), waiting for the operating 
system to reload, as well as wiping out any ongoing tasks by desk accessories 
(such as an alarm clock) makes the standard ProDOS 8 or GS/OS QUIT call much 
more attractive.

However, there are still instances where an application may wish to require 
the user to reboot.  A common example might be a game.  The game might use 
GS/OS in a completely standard way, but if you QUIT from the program GS/OS 
booted into, you will be returned to the same program.  Since most 
applications will boot into the Finder, this is not a widespread problem.  
However, the Finder must also provide the reboot option, and alternate program 
selector applications may wish to provide this functionality as well.


The Easy Way

GS/OS provides a mechanism for rebooting with the OSShutdown call.  This call, 
documented in GS/OS Reference, Volume 1, will either reboot the system (after 
first shutting down all loaded and generated drivers and closing all open 
sessions) or will shut down everything and present a dialog box which states, 
"You may now power down your Apple IIGS safely."  A Restart button is provided 
which allows the user to reboot without pressing Control-Open Apple-Reset .

Note:    When using System Disk 4.0, if the Window Manager is active 
when you issue the OSShutdown call, there must be at least one 
open window; it need not be visible, but it must be open.  This 
will be fixed in the next revision of GS/OS.

The OSShutdown call also provides a way to resize the internal RAM disk (named 
/RAM5 by default).  Most programs have absolutely no need to use this 
mechanism, and should avoid it whenever possible.  A notable exception would 
be a third-party RAM disk utility which uses a battery backup, which may need 
to make changes which require resizing the RAM disk.  Of course, such a 
utility should ask the user to ensure that erasing the RAM disk content is 
acceptable.  Resizing the RAM disk is only possible when using the OSShutdown 
call; any other method you may be using to accomplish this function from 
software will break in the future.


If you are using GS/OS, you should always use OSShutdown. You must not reboot 
the system in any other fashion.  The OSShutdown mechanism provides a 
convenient and supported way to restart or shut down the system.  Doing it 
another way can easily cause a loss of data.


The Hard Way

Programs not using GS/OS have a little more work to do.  The supported non-
GS/OS method of rebooting is similar to the method used on 8-bit machines:  
change the value of POWERUP ($00/03F4) and do a long jump to RESET ($FA62).  
However, there are a few catches:

1.    The jump must be made in emulation mode.
2.    Interrupts must be disabled.
3.    The data bank register must be set to zero.
4.    The direct page must be zero.
5.    ROM firmware must be visible in the memory map.
6.    Internal interrupt sources (such as the ones for AppleTalk) must be 
      shut down.

Simply disabling interrupts without shutting down AppleTalk interrupt sources 
inside the system will cause the system to hang when the jump to RESET is 
made.  Turning off these internal interrupt sources is accomplished by 
changing softswitch values at $C039 (SCCAREG), $C041 (INTEN), and $C047 
(CLRVBLINT).

The following code example demonstrates the correct method:

POWRUP       equ    $0003F4    ;the power-up byte in bank zero
STATEREG     equ    $C068      ;ROM/RAM state register
CLRVBLINT    equ    $C047      ;clear VBL interrupt flags register
INTEN        equ    $C041      ;interrupt enable register
SCCAREG      equ    $C039      ;SCC register
RESET        equ    $00FA62    ;ROM reset entry point
;
FROMNATV     anop              ;enter here from native mode
             sei               ;disable interrupts
             pea    0
             pea    0          ;push four zero bytes on the stack
             plb               ;pull data bank register
             plb               ;(twice to balance the stack)
             pld               ;pull 16-bit data bank register
             sec    
             xce               ;go into emulation mode
             longa    off
             longi    off
FROMEMUL     anop              ;enter here from emulation mode
             sei               ;disable interrupts for people entering here
             dec    POWRUP     ;invalidate the power up byte
             lda    #$0C       ;ROM parameters
             sta    STATEREG   ;swap in the ROM and everything else out
             stz    CLRVBLINT  ;clear VBL interrupts
             stz    INTEN      ;turn off internal interrupt sources
             lda    #$09
             sta    SCCAREG    ;shut down SCC interrupt sources
             lda    #$C0
             sta    SCCAREG
             jml    RESET      ;and off we go into the wild blue yonder

These methods of restarting the system are presented for those applications 
that absolutely must do so.  Rebooting is not a suggested way of ending an 
application and the techniques described in this Note should be used with 
extreme caution.


Further Reference
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o    Apple IIGS Firmware Reference
o    GS/OS Reference, Volume 1