[Coco] NitrOS-9 Cobbler Problems

Bob Devries devries.bob at gmail.com
Mon Jan 4 04:35:53 EST 2010 

The DW disk image has its boot track at sector $0264. That image is $4800 
sectors which works out to 1024 tracks at 18 sectors per track, single 
sided.

Hmm, VCC won't boot that image, but it does load the boot track, and show 
the usual NitrOS9 boot screen with KREL Boot Krn tb*, before printing 
NITROS9 BOOT FAILED.

--
Besides a mathematical inclination, an exceptionally good mastery of one's 
native tongue is the most vital asset of a competent programmer.

Edsger W.Dijkstra, 18 June 1975

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joel Ewy" <jcewy at swbell.net>
To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Monday, January 04, 2010 7:29 PM
Subject: Re: [Coco] NitrOS-9 Cobbler Problems


> Bob Devries wrote:
>> Hmm,
>> It's entirely possible that HDB-DOS will only work with a single-sided 
>> (35 track?) virtual disk. In that case the sector with $4F53 in it will 
>> be at sector $264. I haven't had any experience with HDB-DOS.
>>
>> DECB looks for the boot track at track 35 sector 1 side 1, regardless of 
>> the type of floppy is in the drive.
>>
>> How about making the 720k descriptor into a single-sided one, format it, 
>> and re-doing the cobbler? To keep the same disk size, you would need to 
>> change the number of sides from 2 to 1, and the number of tracks from 80 
>> to 160.
>>
>
> I tried the mb-dw script, unmodified, and it created a single-sided disk 
> image that has over 1000 tracks.  The boot record was apparently in a 
> different location from $4C8.  But it still didn't boot.  I'm now going to 
> hack up a copy of one of the disk images that comes with Drivewire, erase 
> all extraneous stuff, and put the slideshow on that.  If that doesn't 
> boot, I really don't understand what's going on...
>
> JCE
>
>> Regards, Bob Devries
>>
>> -- 
>> Besides a mathematical inclination, an exceptionally good mastery of 
>> one's native tongue is the most vital asset of a competent programmer.
>>
>> Edsger W.Dijkstra, 18 June 1975
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joel Ewy" <jcewy at swbell.net>
>> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>> Sent: Monday, January 04, 2010 4:41 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Coco] NitrOS-9 Cobbler Problems
>>
>>
>>> Bob Devries wrote:
>>>> Yes, Joel,
>>>>
>>>> You can use 'ded' to access the disk this way:
>>>>
>>>> ded /dx@
>>>>
>>>> Where x is the drive number where your virtual disk resides. Then use 
>>>> the 'S' command and type 4C8 in response to the 'SECTOR =' question. 
>>>> 'Q' quits back to the command line prompt after the ubiquitous 'are you 
>>>> sure' prompt.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Ok, I'm coming to the conclusion that the bootable disk images made for 
>>> Drivewire don't have the boot block in the same place as a floppy disk. 
>>> I just tried running the mb.dw3 script to make a new bootable disk 
>>> image. However, I used it on an existing, blank, 720K disk image and I 
>>> modified the script so it wouldn't format the image file.  On that disk 
>>> image, and on the one I had made previously with Cobbler, sector $4C8 
>>> begins with $4F53 as we expect.  And neither image boots from HDB-DOS at 
>>> cold start.
>>>
>>> I examined sector $4C8 on two different NitrOS9 Drivewire distribution 
>>> images, and in neither case did I find $4F53.  So apparently HDB-DOS 
>>> expects to find the boot block in a different place when it boots from a 
>>> Drivewire server than when booting from a floppy disk.
>>>
>>> I guess there's no reason my disk image has to map exactly to a floppy 
>>> disk for the Drivewire version, as long as the data I'm putting on the 
>>> disk can fit on a differently-constituted bootable floppy image, which 
>>> I'm now realizing will have to be developed separately.  Hmmph.
>>>
>>> JCE
>>>
>>>>
>>>> -- 
>>>> Besides a mathematical inclination, an exceptionally good mastery of 
>>>> one's native tongue is the most vital asset of a competent programmer.
>>>>
>>>> Edsger W.Dijkstra, 18 June 1975
>>>>
>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joel Ewy" <jcewy at swbell.net>
>>>> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>>>> Sent: Monday, January 04, 2010 3:58 PM
>>>> Subject: Re: [Coco] NitrOS-9 Cobbler Problems
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Bob Devries wrote:
>>>>>> If cobbler has done its job right, then you shoul see $4F53 at the 
>>>>>> beginning of sector $4C8 on a 720K disk.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> If it's not there, then cobbler failed somehow.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Be sure that your descriptors are properly set before you use 
>>>>>> cobbler.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm assuming you're using a virtual disk with HDB-DOS? Do you have 
>>>>>> the DRIVE ON/OFF command set to make drive 0 the virtual drive 
>>>>>> instead of the real one?
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for the response, Bob.
>>>>> I'm using only virtual disks at this point, though I have been able to 
>>>>> access the real floppy drives using the /d0 and /d1 device 
>>>>> descriptors. I wouldn't think that HDB-DOS' DRIVE ON/OFF command would 
>>>>> have any play in OS-9.  But in any case, I'm booting OS-9 immediately 
>>>>> on power-up, so I don't think that's relevant.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm not quite sure how to check the contents of sector $4C8.  Would 
>>>>> that be the proper LSN if I use 'ded' on the whole disk?
>>>>>
>>>>> JCE
>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm sure there's other issues, but that's all I can think of right 
>>>>>> now.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -- 
>>>>>> Besides a mathematical inclination, an exceptionally good mastery of 
>>>>>> one's native tongue is the most vital asset of a competent 
>>>>>> programmer.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Edsger W.Dijkstra, 18 June 1975
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joel Ewy" <jcewy at swbell.net>
>>>>>> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>>>>>> Sent: Monday, January 04, 2010 3:08 PM
>>>>>> Subject: [Coco] NitrOS-9 Cobbler Problems
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Hey everybody,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I've been working on a demonstration of using 8-bit composite (NTSC) 
>>>>>>> artifact colors that I'd like to distribute as a 720K NitrOS-9 disk 
>>>>>>> image file, bootable over Drivewire 3.  (I may also make a version 
>>>>>>> that will boot from a regular 720K floppy.)  The slideshow is all 
>>>>>>> ready to go, but I'm having problems making a bootable disk image.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I started with a NitrOS-9 image file that, IIRC, was distributed 
>>>>>>> with Drivewire.  It is 'nos6809l2.dsk'.  I made some other disk 
>>>>>>> image files using the Toolshed tools (os9 format -ds -t80 
>>>>>>> diskname.dsk) and copied my converted image files onto them, then 
>>>>>>> loaded them up into the Drivewire server.  No problem.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Then I made another blank image the same way, and immediately used 
>>>>>>> cobbler to put an OS9Boot file on the disk.  Doesn't cobbler add the 
>>>>>>> proper code to the boot track?  I copied a shell, merged with a few 
>>>>>>> utilities, grfdrv, and sysgo.  I tested it by hitting reset, and 
>>>>>>> (after I got all the appropriate files copied) it seemed to boot and 
>>>>>>> run the slideshow.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> However it doesn't boot cold.  After typing 'DOS' HDB-DOS simply 
>>>>>>> returns to the 'OK' prompt.  So it seems as if the boot track is not 
>>>>>>> being laid down.  I tried 'os9gen -q=os9boot' and I tried deleting 
>>>>>>> the OS9Boot file and re-running cobbler, but neither of these things 
>>>>>>> made any difference. What am I forgetting?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I'm almost done with this demo... So close...  Need to get some 
>>>>>>> other work done... :-)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> JCE
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> -- 
>>>>>>> Coco mailing list
>>>>>>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>>>>>>> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
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>>>>>
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