[Coco] Ramdisk under Nitros9

[Robert Gault]

Tony Cappellini wrote:
>> What about the hard drive descriptor? There's an HD image in the Vcc
>> emulator downloads, but I can't access it under RSDOs or Nitros9
>>
> 
> Vcc includes my modifications to RGBDOS which permits access to an
> emulated hard drive. All you need to do is turn it on.
> 
>>> The hard drive on that site already has (or did at one time) a version
>>> of NitrOS-9 installed. You just need to check the directories of 250-255
>>> one of which will be a boot disk that boot directly from the hard drive
>>> under RGBDOS.
> 
> There is an HD image + Cloud 9 RTC in MPI Slot 3, in the VCC download.
> I've selected that slot, and pressed F9. I see the RGBDOs boot
> message, followed by "Hard Drives Not found"
> I dont see an external vhd image on the VCC download site, and nothing
> is mounted under the HD0 in VCC by default.
> 
> Trying to access Drives 250 and higher while running rgbdos results in
> "DN error"

Simple, you don't have any .vhd drives mounted in Vcc. If you did, then 
the drive would be "found" and all RGBDOS hard drive commands would work.

> 
> I've looked for some docs on RGBDOs on your site, but didn't see
> anything available to download.
> Are these still available?
> 

==============
OK, there is a good bit of confusion on how to use Vcc. There is a pdf 
file Welcome to Vcc.pdf that explains how to use the emulator but the 
explanation seems to need some help.

There are two ways that Vcc can access hard drives. The harddsk.dll that 
can be mounted in the MPI emulates the Cloud-9 ide controller. In this 
Vcc implementation, it includes RGBDOS. The main reason for mounting the 
Cloud-9 controller in Vcc is to access the real time clock RTC. You can 
access a .vhd drive using the 502 controller after selecting RGBDOS from 
FD-502 configuration menu.
So for example, if slot 4 is selected for the Cloud-9 controller then 
RGBDOS is active and a .vhd drive can be accessed but no floppies. If 
the FD-502 is mounted in slot 4 and RGBDOS is selected, a .vhd image can 
be accessed as well as floppies but there is no RTC. If you then mount 
the Cloud-9 controller in slot 3 with slot 4 active, you get RGBDOS from 
the 502 but also have an RTC in slot 3.

With the hard drive (pre-installed hard drive) available from 
http://vcc6809.bravehost.com/downloads.html and the FD-502 and RGBDOS in 
VCC you will see the RGBDOS message and then an OK. That's because there 
is no AUTOEXEC.BAS program installed on drive0 of the hard drive.
Do a DIR250TO255 and drive253 appears to be free. That's because this 
.vhd image was not set up correctly. In fact, drive253 is the NitrOS-9 
boot disk. The first thing you should do is issue the command,
RENAME DRIVE 253, "NITROS9 BOOT"
Then the next time you do a DIR253 you will see
DIR253

NITROS9 BOOT
DRIVE253 FREE=68
Not perfect because the drive is not completely free but at least you 
know it is a boot disk.

Now as NitrOS-9 is already installed along with the boot disk and LINKed 
by the LINK.BAS program on drive 254, just enter DOS253 and NitrOS-9 
will boot.

==================
 > I've looked for some docs on RGBDOs on your site, but didn't see
 > anything available to download.
 > Are these still available?

All the needed docs are contained inside the RGBDOS.zip file found on 
the Downloads page. Further as HDBDOS (Cloud-9) is modeled on RGBDOS for 
which Boisy now own the rights, you can also get the HDBDOS docs from 
Cloud-9 and they will match the emulator RGBDOS functions quite well.

The helper programs included with RGBDOS, some of which are on the VCC 
.vhd image, are self explanatory for the most part.