[Coco] NitrOS-9 V03.02.00 Released

[Boisy Pitre]

On Dec 9, 2003, at 8:06 PM, Gene Heskett wrote:

> On Tuesday 09 December 2003 18:09, David wrote:
>> On Tue, Dec 09, 2003 at 04:42:54PM -0500, Gene Heskett wrote:
>>> On Tuesday 09 December 2003 14:46, Boisy Pitre wrote:
>>>>> So where can I get a copy of that directory tree?  I think I
>>>>> can read a 3.5" DD diskette here.
>>>>
>>>> I'm going to email you the zip file.
>>>>
>>>> Boisy
>>>
>>> That won't do me any good Boisy, I have no workable method to get
>>> it to the coco other than you sending it up on a 5.25 DSDD or a
>>> 3.5 DD, formatted in regular os9 format.  Sorry.
>>
>> Gene, do you have fdutils for Linux?  That, coupled with Boisy's
>> os9tools will allow you to copy files to a disk you have mounted.
>>
>> It seems that you don't even have to dd a .dsk image.  You can
>> simply "os9 copy" a file straight onto that disk.
>
> That doesn't float either.  Error 214 in trying to write to a disk
> that was just os9format'ed.
>
> --------------------
> [root at coyote nos96309]# /root/bin/os9copy -help
> Syntax: os9copy {[<opts>]} <srcfile> {[<...>]} <target> {[<opts>]}
> Usage:  copy files
> Options:
>      -b=size    size of copy buffer in bytes or K-bytes
> [root at coyote nos96309]# /root/bin/os9copy
> ./nos96309l2v030200_ds40_1.dsk /dev/fd0
> /root/bin/os9copy: error 214 creating
> '/dev/fd0/nos96309l2v030200_ds40_1.dsk'

Gene, you are using the wrong syntax.  It should be:
os9 copy ./nos96309l2v030200_ds40_1.dsk /dev/fd0,

The comma at the end is important.

> -----------------
> So I rewrote them with dd again:
> ----------------
> [root at coyote nos96309]# dd if=nos96309l2v030200_ds40_1.dsk of=/dev/fd0
> 663+0 records in
> 663+0 records out
> [root at coyote nos96309]# /root/bin/os9format /dev/fd0
> [root at coyote nos96309]# dd if=nos96309l2v030200_ds40_2.dsk of=/dev/fd0
> 313+1 records in
> 313+1 records out
> -------------
> and then ran os9dcheck against the second disk. It munched along for
> 10 seconds or so and segfaulted:
> -------------------------
> [root at coyote nos96309]# /root/bin/os9dcheck /dev/fd0
> Volume - 'NitrOS-9/6309 Level 2 Disk 2' in file: (null)
> $00B4 bytes in allocation map
> 1 sector per cluster
> $0005A0 total sectors on media
> Sector $000002 is start of root directory file descriptor
> Segmentation fault

Strange.  I suspect dcheck read bogus data and freaked.

> ---------------------------------
>> However, with the os9tools, you can create, format, dsave|copy to a
>> .dsk image and then dd that image onto the floppy just to be safe.
>> As a matter of fact, you can even os9gen an os9 boot disk on your
>> linux machine.
>
> That may be another path I might wander down.  The disks I just made
> with fdtools and dd are bad, in an odd sort of way.  I can't do a dir
> on them, error 214.  Then I tried ded /d1@ and found that the root
> dir's file descriptor was supposed to start in sector 2 according to
> DD.DIR!  Sector 1 being the bit allocation map, and sector 2 was
> blank, all zero's, as was every sector up to 6, at which time I ran
> into the bootfile itself I think.  Humm, no, it started with the
> usual executable of $87CD, so that wasn't the bootfile.

> And the second pass, this time using os9format as you suggested to
> init the disks, apparently also failed for the exact same reasons.
> And it looks like os9copy is file oriented, not raw disk oriented
> like dd is.
>
> One thing I haven't tried is to set dd's block size to 256 bytes, let
> me try that once.  Nope, same result for dcheck, a segfault.  Exact
> same output so I won't bother to paste it in here.
>
> It looks like I need someone with a valid, real hardware fdc in their
> chipset to make me some disks.  This one is terminally fubared.  I
> already sent Boisy a request as I think he probably still has my card
> number from the last time.  Damn this is discouraging...

Here's what I *think* you need:

1. Possibly: A different floppy disk controller on your Linux box.  
Which, I cannot recommend.
2. Almost positive: A 360K 5.25" floppy drive.  It sounds like you're 
doing this on a 720K or 1.44MB 3.5" floppy drive?  I haven't had much 
luck with the 1.44MB on my Linux box making 720K disks that are 
readable on a CoCo.

At any rate, Mark can quote you shipping on the NitrOS-9 disks.  But 
ideally you want to make those disks yourself from the images since 
they are updated from time to time with new versions.

Boisy