The USBASPI.SYS Panasonic(TM) USB to ASPI driver v2.06
Reference
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Description:
File size : 37,903 bytes
Last modified : 27 Nov 2002
Supports UHCI/OHCI (USB 1.x) and EHCI (USB 2.0) and is
compatible with many USB implementations from major chipset
manufacturers like INTEL, VIA, NVIDIA, SiS, NEC and TI for
integrated, onboard, PCI bus or CardBus USB 2.0 host controllers.
===========
Uses:
When used in conjunction with an ASPI Mass Storage Driver, it
allows USB storage devices to be accessible in DOS. This is
particularly useful in drive cloning, partition resizing and image
backup utlities that need to run in DOS mode (e.g. emergency disks
for GHOST 2003, Partition Magic, etc...) Examples of USB storage
devices are:
1. external hard disks
2. removable storage
like Zip, Jaz, LS-120, and floppy drives
3. flash memory like
pen drives, or memory cards in USB card readers
Furthermore, with a USB CD-ROM Driver, it allows USB optical
drives (like DVD-ROM, CD-ROM drives, and (re)writers) to be used
in DOS after MSCDEX extensions are loaded. This makes it possible
to install burned images or Operating Systems onto newly formatted
systems or replacement hard drives.
Advantages over similiar drivers:
1. Support for USB 2.0 as
well as USB 1.x (There are many other files named USBASPI.SYS but
most are actually limited to USB 1.1 devices).
2. Compatible
with many USB chipset implementations, including Intel, NEC, VIA,
NVidia and SIS - onboard, PCI bus, Cardbus.
3. Automatically
obtains configuration parameters from Motherboard PnP/ PCI BIOS to
minimize difficulties with I/O, Mem and IRQ mapping.
============================================
NOTE: USB
support in DOS is considered experimental!
Most hardware
manufacturers do NOT provide support for their USB DOS
drivers.
============================================
Recommended Usage:
> To detect and map your USB mass storage device to an ASPI
device, add this line to your boot diskettes' CONFIG.SYS file
device=USBASPI.SYS /w /v
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USBASPI.SYS Switches:
Here are the known valid switches identified so far with the
Panasonic(TM) v2.06 USBASPI.SYS driver in CONFIG.SYS
device=[{path}]USBASPI.SYS [/e] [/o] [/u] [/v] [/w] [/r]
[/l[#]] [/f] [/slow] [/nocbc] [/norst] [/noprt]
You can specify more than one controller type (e.g. /e /u).
This switch can also be used to force slower speed operation on
high-speed USB controllers & devices.
The driver will scan
for all types of USB controllers, so use these switches to specify
which port types to enable. This allows for faster USB scanning.
By specifying /u or /o and omitting /e, it forces Full-Speed mode
on High-Speed devices. One can't make a Low- or Full-Speed device
run at High-Speed.
/e EHCI, for enabling only USB 2.0
controller
/o OHCI, for enabling only add-on/onboard USB 1.1
controller
/u UHCI, for enabling integrated USB 1.1 controller
In verbose mode. USBASPI displays details on controller type
and USB devices it detects. It displays the vendor & product
ID codes, the controller address range (memory map or I/O port
map) of controllers, and the connection speed code for each
device.
/v Verbose, shows USB details - excellent
troubleshooting tool
These switches modify driver actions
/w Wait, displays
prompt message to allow swapping/attaching of target USB
device
/l# Luns, to specify highest number of LUN assigned,
default /L0
/slow to enter SLOW down mode, gives longer delays
when scanning USB devices
/nocbc NO Card Bus Controller?, to
disable detection of USB on CardBus slots
This switch is typically used on portable systems with an
external USB floppy drive connected to the single USB port for
boot-up. Used in conjunction with RAMFD.SYS so after the boot
floppy is copied to a RAM drive, (and after the /W pause...) the
USB floppy can be removed, and the target mass storage device can
be attached and detected
/r Resident, allows driver to stay
resident in memory when USB floppy drive is detected.
There are a number of switches whose specific function is still
unknown. Please post your discoveries in the USBMAN end-user
forum, or the Computing.Net DOS forum.
/noprt - Have found
that on some systems with USB on Intel chipset (1.1 or 2.0), if
UHCI is normally I/O mapped, using this switch causes USBASPI.SYS
to "hang" while detecting host controllers. Could it be for I/O
port mode?
/norst
/f
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Download Sources:
The USBASPI.SYS driver is supplied for portable USB 2.0 drives
from Panasonic and available in the Japanese market. Follow any of
the links below to the manufacturer's self-extracting drivers:
http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/cdrrw/kxlrw40an/download.html
Follow the link to download kxlr40an.exe - these are Japanese
files for their CD-R/RW drive. USBASPI.SYS is extracted from the
F2H subdirectory, and is compatible with English version DOS.
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Other Useful Files:
Here are some alternate links for USBASPI.SYS plus other
useful device drivers that complement it:
http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/cdrrw/kxlrw40an/driver/kxlrw40an.exe
http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/cdrom/kxl840an/driver/kxl840an.exe
http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/combi/kxlcb20an/driver/kxlcb20an.exe
These are Panasonic driver files for different OEM drives in a
Windows self-extracting file. Aside from USBASPI.SYS in the F2H
subdirectory the other important drivers are:
USBCD.SYS v1.00 from Panasonic, USB CD-ROM device
driver
RAMFD.SYS v1.01 from Panasonic, copies boot floppy disk
contents into a RAM disk, write protects and remaps drive letters
to RAM disk.
As USBASPI.SYS merely maps USB devices to an ASPI device,
additional driver is needed to map the ASPI mass storage to a DOS
drive letter. The famous "Motto Hairu" driver includes this
important piece, and can be downloaded from:
http://www.driver.novac.co.jp/driver/Mhairu_351u_drv/mhairudos.zip
http://www.stefan2000.com/darkehorse/PC/DOS/Drivers/USB/mhairu.zip
UnZip the file to get these files (the latter has an english
translation readme file)
DI1000DD.SYS v2.00 from Novac, ASPI Mass Storage Device Driver
{reportedly drive needs to be ATA66 or faster)
In case you have compatibility problems, there are some
similiar drivers here
http://www.datoptic.com/Drivers/DAT.exe
This image file creates a bootable diskette that supports USB
and firewire in DOS. Of relevance are these
drivers:
USBASPI.SYS v2.01 from Medialogic Corp, is very
similiar but less-featured version than Panasonic's
USBASPI.SYS.
NJ32DISK.SYS v1.06 from Workbit Corp. is very
similar to Novac's DI1000DD.SYS.
SBP2ASPI.SYS v1.02 from
Medialogic Corp provides ASPI mapping of Firewire storage devices.
===========
Examples:
> If you want to enable only the high-speed USB controller
and the mass storage drive, try
device=USBASPI.SYS /e
device=DI1000DD.SYS
> If you have only a single USB port and no internal
floppy, use this CONFIG.SYS combination:
device=RAMFD.SYS
device=USBASPI.SYS /w /v /r
> With a CD-ROM drive, install the ASPI CD-ROM device driver
after loading USBASPI.SYS in CONFIG.SYS like this:
device=USBASPI.SYS
device=USBCD.SYS /d:USBCD001
and in AUTOEXEC.BAT:
MSCDEX /d:USBCD001
> If you want to connect a USB 2.0 optical drive and an
external USB2.0 hard disk simultaneously, put these in the
CONFIG.SYS file:
device=USBASPI.SYS /e
device=USBCD.SYS
/d:USBCD001
device=DI1000DD.SYS
and in AUTOEXEC.BAT:
MSCDEX /d:USBCD001
> For troubleshooting USB connections, install all your
devices and boot from your diskette with this in CONFIG.SYS:
device=USBASPI.SYS /v
===========
Thank you to members of the DarkeHorse,
Computing.NET and USBMAN forums for sharing their knowledge and
experiences.
===========
Important Notes:
There are other USB 2.0 DOS drivers released on the web, but
were found to have a number of limitations in terms of
compatibility and configuration:
1. DATOptic's Speedzter supports USB 2.0 & Firewire - their
DOS driver seems to be the next best driver in terms of
compatibility and functionality.
2. Cypress(TM) DUSE (ver 4.4)
supports USB 2.0 and offers many options but seems to have issues
for I/O port address or Memory address settings - particularly a
limit on the address space range.
3. Iomega(TM) USB &
Firewire drivers also support USB2.0 (via ASPIEHCI.SYS) and is
also used in Norton/Symantec GHOST but has limited compatibility.
Your boot OS determines what kind of partitions will be
supported in your USB device. For FAT32 support, use the DOS boot
disk for Windows 98 (MS-DOS 7.10) or the Windows ME Emergency Boot
Disk (MS-DOS 8.00). You can add support for long file names using
special drivers. Check out these site for relevant links -
http://www.opus.co.tt/dave/utils.htm
On the still unknown switches:
/norst - could this mean a RESET will not be sent on the USB
device? what is the effect? have tried on a USB printer but saw no
difference ...
/f - does NOT seem to be speed related (as in full-speed or
fast device detection). Suspect it could be for "floppy" or "flash
memory" devices ...