2.1 KiB
SETMAC.SYSTEM
SETMAC.SYSTEM is a simple utility for setting the MAC address on an Uthernet-II card
in an Apple //e or GS.
It is intended to be placed in the top level directory of a ProDOS boot disk (ie: in the "volume directory").
Configuration File
SETMAC.SYSTEM looks for a configuration file called SETMAC.CFG in the directory
from which it was started. If this file is not found, then SETMAC.SYSTEM will
fall back to default values of assuming an Uthernet-II in slot 5 and using the
MAC 00:08:0d:10:20:30. You will almost certainly want to change this.
SETMAC.CFG is an extremely simple text file, which you can create in EDIT.SYSTEM
or any ProDOS text editor that can save plain text files. It consists of a single
digit representing the slot where the Uthernet-II is installed, followed by a
space, then the six byte MAC address in hex, with colons separating the octets. A
sample SETMAC.CFG file for an Uthernet-II in slot 3 could look like this:
3 01:02:03:aa:bb:cc
The parser is very simple minded so please stick to the formatting of the file as specified here, or you may have surprises!
If the config file does not exist or is unreadble, SETMAC.SYSTEM will display
a message explaining that it could not open the file so it is using default
parameters and will pause awaiting a keypress to acknowledge this status.
Chaining .SYSTEM Files at Startup
When ProDOS starts, it will automatically run the first .SYSTEM file it finds in
the volume directory. This is often a file such as BASIC.SYSTEM but it can be
any valid .SYSTEM file.
Before SETMAC.SYSTEM terminates, it searches the volume directory to find the entry
matching itself, and then scans forward looking for a .SYSTEM file. If it finds
one it loads it into memory and starts it executing.
If for example, one had the following files in order in the ProDOS volume directory on the boot volume:
PRODOS
SETMAC.SYSTEM
BASIC.SYSTEM
Then ProDOS would start SETMAC.SYSTEM on boot and SETMAC.SYSTEM would, in turn,
start BASIC.SYSTEM. Longer chains are possible, with other compliant programs
such as the No Slot Clock Driver (NS.CLOCK.SYSTEM).