[Coco] Glenside IDE Controller Question...

Randy Just randyjust at comcast.net
Sun Oct 21 20:53:49 EDT 2007


DSKINI A: NitroOS_1.DSK where the long filename was renamed to this

The file appears to be written out --- it just won't boot.

I tried to do a RETRIEVE and was unable to read coco floppies from 
the drive as well.  I
have an assortment of drives here.  I have tried this on both a PC/XT 
(yes, I have one of
those still) and a PII.  Both systems are using DR-DOS.

Randy

At 05:25 PM 10/21/2007, you wrote:
>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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>>http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>
>
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