[Coco] Glenside IDE Controller Question...

[Bob Devries]

Randy,
with regards to DSKINI.EXE, please tell us *exactly* what your command line 
is. You may be (a) using the wrong version of that programme, or (b) using 
the wrong command line switches.

--
Regards, Bob Devries, Dalby, Queensland, Australia

Isaiah 50:4 The sovereign Lord has given me
the capacity to be his spokesman,
so that I know how to help the weary.

website: http://www.home.gil.com.au/~bdevasl
my blog: http://bdevries.invigorated.org/

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Randy Just" <randyjust at comcast.net>
To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Monday, October 22, 2007 10:16 AM
Subject: Re: [Coco] Glenside IDE Controller Question...


>
> Your notes are helpful, but....
>
> Unfortunately, I have spent a number of hours with this thing and am not 
> much further than when I started.
>
> In particular I am trying to create the pair of NitrOS 9 floppy diskettes. 
> I am assuming #1 is bootable
> if it is made correctly and I can just type DOS when the Coco boots up.
>
> At this time, I just get read errors.  This is after trying 3 different 
> 360K drives under DR-DOS.  I don't
> know if DR-DOS has any bearing.
>
> The *.DSK images indicate 40 tracks --- however, when using dskini, 0-79 
> tracks are written.  Confused
> on that point.
>
> As much as I would like to use the Coco with the hard drive, it appears 
> this may be a futile endeavor.
>
> At 01:47 AM 10/20/2007, you wrote:
>> >Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 08:07:24 -0700
>> >From: Randy Just <randyjust at comcast.net>
>>
>> >After swapping out a few drives and changing my controller to a
>> >FD-501, the thing came to life.  While the IDE card was plugged in
>> >and power on, I changed the jumper to 70 from 50 and then the thing
>> >starting working.
>>
>>You really shouldn't change jumpers while things are on.  Talk like
>>that make me cringe.  Please don't terrify me, I've had a rough
>>day. ;-)
>>
>> >I am a bit puzzled as I thought the floppy was at 70 and per the
>> >Glenside doc, the jumper should be in the 50 setting with a multipak
>> >controller.
>>
>>Yeah, the Glenside docs kinda suck.  The dood threw them together, and
>>he clearly knew more about the IDE end then the CoCo end.
>>
>> >Is there a step-by-step procedure I can find somewhere to get a boot
>> >diskette set-up where I can lformat the drive?
>> >
>> >Also, I see the update files for the IDE controller, but what is the
>> >process to get them copied to 5.25" floppy diskettes?
>>
>>OK, frankly, you've got some homework to do.  First, goto
>>http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/nitros9 and download it.  The
>>Readme is a good introduction to transfering files and virtual disks
>>between CoCo and PC.  (besides, NitrOS is much improved over old
>>OS-9).
>>
>>Once you have a standard floppy-only NitrOS boot, the only other
>>software you'll need is the Glenside drivers and utilities, BASIC-09,
>>and a good text editor.
>>
>>Run detect_ide.  Think about what it tells you.  How many partitions
>>are you going to create?  As I said before, 1-sector clusters are
>>good.  NitrOS can handle bigger clusters, but some of the old OS-9
>>software can cause problems because they all assume 1-sector
>>clusters.  Is the drive LBA compatible?  There's a bug in makedesc
>>concerning CHS partitions.  It's documented with the software on my
>>site and rtsi and maltedmedia but I didn't *fix* it in those files.
>>
>>There are two versions of the driver, one supports 5 partitions and
>>the other supports 11.  Choose which driver you will use.  I've had
>>much better luck with the drivers which have the zero-sector bug
>>fixed.
>>
>>Then run makedesc.  Something else not mentioned in the Glenside docs
>>is that device descriptor names are 3 chars. max.  Regular OS-9 naming
>>convention for hard drives is H0, H1, etc.
>>
>>When you're done with makedesc you should have the device descriptors
>>saved on your disk as h0.dd or whatever.  Copy the descriptors into
>>NITROS9/6809LII/MODULES/RBF.  Copy the proper driver into the same
>>directory.  Note the file names.
>>
>>In NITROS9/6809LII/BOOTLISTS, make a copy of standard.bl.  Call it
>>original.bl or whatever.  Edit standard.bl.  In the RBF section, add
>>the glenside driver and the descriptors.
>>
>>In ...6809LII/BOOTSCRIPTS, run the "mb" script to make a new bootdisk.
>>When that's done, use dsave to copy the files on disk 1 to your new
>>boot(use help to check the syntax of dsave, it has changed from the
>>original).  Add the glenside utilities.
>>
>>Reboot with your new boot disk.  If the gods are pleased it'll boot
>>and you can lformat /h0.
>>
>>No, this isn't the quickest or easiest way to make a new boot disk,
>>perhaps, but it's the way with the most control and the most
>>educational.  Once you understand all of this, then you can play with
>>ezgen or whatever.
>>
>>The last, and perhaps fussiest, step.  When you've copied stuff onto
>>/h0 and you're confident everything's working, you can make a new DD
>>descriptor.  Either use makedesc and be very careful to give it the
>>same parameters as H0, or edit a copy of your H0.dd with ded, changing
>>the name to DD (make sure the 0'th bit of the second "D" is set).
>>Make a new bootdisk, replacing dd_ds40 with your new dd_ide.  If you
>>can get this to work, it's the next best thing to having a IDE aware
>>boot ROM. When you boot NitrOS, it will load os9boot and cmds/grfdrv
>>off the floppy, then switch to the ide drive for everything else.
>>
>>Willard
>>--
>>Willard Goosey  goosey at sdc.org
>>Socorro, New Mexico, USA
>>"I've never been to Contempt!  Isn't that somewhere in New Mexico?"
>>    --- Yacko
>>
>>
>>--
>>Coco mailing list
>>Coco at maltedmedia.com
>>http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>
>
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