[Coco] DriveWire - test results using the now free code

[Boisy Pitre]

Robert,

The NitrOS-9/6809 Level 2 image is up and available for download.

Regards,
Boisy G. Pitre
--
Tee-Boy
Mobile: 337.781.3570
Email: boisy at tee-boy.com
Web: http://www.tee-boy.com

On Mar 6, 2009, at 10:36 PM, Robert Gault wrote:

> Here are some results of testing DriveWire3 on a Coco3 without  
> burning an EPROM. Since I already have a SCSI system, I put the ROM  
> image on my hard drive in LOADM format. The preamble loads the ROM  
> at $3000. There is also a short binary to move the ROM to $C000- 
> $DFFF, overwriting my SCSI DOS with HDBDOS for DriveWire3.
>
> I was able to read any Basic .dsk image on my PC from my Coco.  
> Initially I was not able to read any of the virtual Disk Basic disks  
> on a .vhd image, although part of the OS-9 section was displayed.
>
> Normal RGBDOS or HDBDOS contains an offset in ROM to indicate the  
> start of the Basic partition of a hard drive. This offset is at  
> $D938-$D93A. Looking at the DriveWire3 ROM at this location found  
> that the offset is set to $000000. That make complete sense when  
> trying to read a floppy or a hard drive which has no OS-9 partition.
> OK, so after booting DriveWire3, I POKEd the value $5A000 into the  
> ROM offset location. This value is the default for most .vhd drives  
> that have an OS-9 partition and it is the default offset value in  
> RGBDOS for Coco emulators.
> Now after mounting a .vhd image in the DriveWire3 Win server, I was  
> able to read the Basic drives on the PC from my Coco. The system  
> behaved exactly like running RGBDOS in VCC or MESS.
>
> As soon as Boisy posts the NitrOS-9 boot disk for DriveWire3, I  
> expect it to work just as well as the above. I should be able to put  
> the boot disk on my Coco hard drive system, and boot into NitrOS-9  
> on a .vhd drive on the PC.
> Probably I will also be able to put the boot disk on a Basic drive  
> of the .vhd image and after starting HDBDOS as above, boot NitrOS-9  
> on the PC without having any OS-9 code at the Coco end.
>
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