[Coco] Nitros9 on a CC3 512k

[Joel Ewy]

George Ramsower wrote:
> Finally I get around to play with Nitros9, build a boot disk on my XP 
> box using Cocodisk from nos96809l2v030208coco3_80d.dsk and it has a 
> problem.
> First, I used cocodisk to format the 720K 3.5" disk with 80 track, two 
> sided. Then did the "Write to disk" to do this.
> The coco does boot and gets as far as the startup file and hangs.
> Rebooting with a working OS9 disk and looking at the Nitros9 disk 
> reveals that the root directory appears to be intact but I cannot list 
> the startup file or peer into the cmds directory. Error 247.
> I tried formatting a floppy on the coco and trying again but, with the 
> same result.
>

George,

I also use 720K 3.5" disks and have had similar issues with NitrOS-9.  I 
would suggest that you start out with the default disk image size, (40t, 
ds) for your first stab at booting NitrOS-9, and then make a proper 80t 
disk from within NitrOS-9.

The problem I've had is with the DNS (density) flag in the disk 
descriptor.  It used to specify the Tracks Per Inch (as well as 
single/double density).  I think it may have been redefined.  All my old 
disks were 80T, 2S, 135TPI (3.5") with the DNS bits set accordingly.  
The default device descriptors in NitrOS-9 are set to [whatever the TPI 
is for 5.25" drives].  Just setting them to 80 tracks with dmode doesn't 
work right.  It can see the root directory, but can't read anything else 
on the disk.  Seems a lot like what has been happening to you.  I've 
given up dmode-ing the NitrOS-9 descriptors for 135TPI  and just leave 
DNS at the default, re-writing my old disks to match the new usage of DNS.

So my suggestion is to make a 40 track boot disk (so you waste half the 
disk -- you can reformat it later) and then when you boot, dmode the 
device descriptors for 80T.  Make a new boot disk with these descriptors 
and see if you have better luck.

JCE

> I would offer more info but don't what to tell you. Ask me questions 
> and I will begin the discovery process as to why I'm getting this 
> problem.
>
> Thanks,
>
> George
>
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