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Let me begin by setting the record straight. I'm not a GS/OS guru, as suggested in the promotion for this file! I didn't have an opportunity to work with GS/OS 6.0 in beta, so timewise I'm a Johnny-Come-Lately to GS/OS 6.0. I did, however, spend many hours working with GS/OS 6.0 immediately after it was released, and I have personally installed GS/OS 6.0 on 4 differently-decorated Apple 2GS computers. I've received a wealth of 6.0 information from many users on America Online. I've been working with several GS/OS 6.0 users via ham radio. Consequently, I'm beginning to get a feeling for what works and what doesn't work. My own GS/OS 6.0-based system is working like a Swiss Watch now, with no remaining glitches that I know about. First Things First... It's very important to orchestrate your GS/OS 6.0 installation correctly. Begin your installation by running Easy Update! Don't try to outguess the _real_ gurus at Apple by doing an end run around Easy Update! Easy Update anticipates virtually every situation that must be managed properly. Easy Update will precondition your boot drive's system files to prevent conflicts with leftovers from older system files. Don't try to be a hero, begin with Easy Update! The installer, with the Easy Update option, can only run under GS/OS 6.0, so you should bring up your system with a floppy-based GS/OS 6.0. The disk of choice for bootup is labelled INSTALL. (System.DISK is the pre-configured floppy intended for use when a high-capacity volume isn't available. SYSTEM.DISK has been trimmed to be lean and mean. It carries only the bare essentials will fit on an 800K floppy. You normally won't want to start up with SYSTEM.DISK to run the Installer.) Run the Installer after booting into the INSTALL disk then choose Easy Update. Remember, Easy Update will make certain that no troublesome files will be left from your 5.0.4 system. Easy Update will substitute all required drivers from 6.0 for those you were using in the system you're replacing. Easy Update will also tally all the driver-needing hardware items you have connected even if you haven't installed drivers for them. It's smart enough to "know" where you'll need additional drivers, and it will install them for you automatically. Easy Update seems to be too good to be true! It creates the feeling that "It can't be this easy!" Relax, it's that good! There is a Customize option available on the Installer screen. After you've run Easy Update it's ok to kick off the Customize facility to add extra features you want. Customize your GS/OS 6.0 system to your heart's content now, because Easy Update has removed the pitfalls and traps you might have missed with a hit-or-miss manual installation. There is just one "But first... " that I ran into. My second installation was onto a 40-Mbyte Vulcan, newly upgraded to Vulcan Gold status. Easy Update did not work properly without the Vulcan Driver, and of course, the INSTALL disk doesn't include the Vulcan Driver as a part of its armament. If you have a Vulcan Drive, you'll need to find some way to fit the Vulcan Driver on to the GS/OS 6.0 disk you boot before running the Installer. I did it the hard way, I suspect, because I was groping for the cause of the difficulties. After several unsuccessful attempts to run Easy Update from the unmodified INSTALL disk without the Vulcan Driver, I used to GS/OS 5.0.4 to copy all files from the 6.0 SYSTEM.DISK onto the newly formatted boot drive of the Vulcan. Then, with enough room to accommodate the extra file, I copied the Vulcan driver into the hard drive system's DRIVER folder, rebooted into the hard drive, ran Easy Update and the rest was downhill. This worked for me, but a better procedure would have been to make room for the Vulcan Driver on the Install disk. I didn't think of that at the time. A little planning goes a long way. While You're in the Installer... Most of the commonly-reported GS/OS 6.0-based problems can be eliminated now, before you vacate the Installer. Or, if you want to see these problems for yourself, you can always come back to the installer later to put things in order. Many users have had frustrating episodes of keyboard and mouse lockup. Some game programs freeze at the splash screen. I had my share of these problems, and they were frustrating! When the keyboard locks up after one of these events, the only possible recovery is a powerdown restart. Then everything is normal until the next lockup. Fortunately, the fix is easy, at least from the user's stand point. The difficulties seem to arise because of the capabilities that GS/OS 6.0 has added to make life easier for physically challenged users. These features add a sticky keys option to eliminate the need for simultaneous key presses, a Close View option that permits a magnified presentation of selected parts of the screen for those with impaired vision, and a Video Keyboard option, where keys can be selected from an onscreen representation of the keyboard. If you need them, these features may open worlds of possibilities for you. If you don't use them, however, they have a downside action and the keyboard lockups, screen freezes, etc. are the result. While you're in the Installer Customize routine, drop to the bottom of the menu. You'll see three Special Applications listed. If you want to bypass these features and the attendant problems they bring, click REMOVE on the menu, highlight the three Special Applications, and they'll be dropped from your installation along with the problems they bring. When the underlying difficulties are solved, as they most surely will be, you can add them back into your installation if you wish. I'd be guessing if I told you which of these three Special Applications causes which of these difficulties. I haven't, as of this writing, taken the time to research the problem. It is for the moment, sufficient for to know that the gears all mesh without grinding. But curious, and I'll do the trial and error work soon. I did try inactivating these capabilities without removing the files, but I still had the problems as before. Using the Installer to remove these features is an easy, and probably sure method of making certain that their mischief potential is eliminated. I had two other nuisance problems that were banished by removing the Special Applications. ProTerm begins dropping an occasional character now and then, and the emulation mode beep acquires a very ragged sound. It appears that one or more of these special applications uses interrupts very aggressively, and an occasional byte gets overlooked when ProTerm stutters every so often. With the Special Applications eliminated, ProTerm works flawlessly as it does under GS/OS 5.0.4, and the standard Apple beep no longer sounds as if the computer needs to clear its throat. Problems Not Caused by Special Applications ProDos 2.0.1, installed when you upgrade to GS/OS 6.0, is a lot smarter than ProDos 1.9 and earlier versions when it comes to coping with more than two volumes per slot when working in ProDos 8. Prodos 2.0.1 now sees more volumes. The number of volumes-per-slot limitation of the old ProDos versions was frustrating. The RamFAST SCSI card, with upgraded ROMS, has been able to deal with more than two volumes per slot for some time now. The advent of ProDos 2.0.1 presents an interesting problem, easily solved, but perplexing at first. When both the later RamFAST cards and ProDos are doing their thing to reveal the additional volumes per slot beyond the previous two limit, they conflict. The result is occasional confusion. The answer to this problem, for the moment, appears to require the disabling of this feature on the RamFAST (easy to do), or the disabling of this feature by making a one-byte patch to ProDos 2.0.1. Drew Vogan, (CVTech) has posted step-by-step instructions for the RamFAST reconfiguration, and TGrams has posted the details of the ProDos 2.0.1 patch. Look for these instructions in the Apple HardWare Let's Discuss areas. Neither the RamFAST nor ProDos 2.0.1 can be faulted for this duplication, in my opinion. The RamFAST's approach was a very helpful feature in the days before ProDos 2.0.1, but this feature is no longer required now that ProDos 2.0.1 will do the job for everyone. Mel Brooks made history with a comedy routine where he played "The 2000 Year Old Man"... I recall one part of his schtick where he said that he was "Thrilled and delighted..." I can't remember what the gag premise was from Mel Brooks's routine, but the words "Thrilled and delighted..." continually come to my mind as I work through GS/OS 6.0 and the marvelously supercharged new finder by Andy Nicholas and Dave Lyons. Thanks, guys! I'm "Thrilled and Delighted..."