[Coco] NitrOS9 VHD under MESS

[Robert Gault]

Mike Rowen wrote:
> Hi Robert,
>
> I don't have your URL, but would like to have it. :) I successfully built a
> boot floppy that includes EmuDsk and the H0 descriptor. I can access the
> VHD, but of course I still am booting from /D0. If I understand you
> correctly, what you are suggesting is that I create a DECB partition on the
> HD that contains a boot image, that is built using a different boot module
> (one that knows about the partition offset).
>
> So my immediate questions would be;
>
> What and where is this alternate boot module?
> How does the partition offest get assigned to the boot module?
> How do I format/partition my HD to create the DECB portion of the HD?
>
> I think HDBDOS includes utilties to do this exact thing, but at the time, I
> simply ran the included the utility to do this. I am interested in knowing
> how to do this "manually" to better understand the workings of the
> environment. Thanks.
>
> Cheers,
> -Mike
>

Hmmm, not sure what Cloud-9 sends out but it looks like the nightly builds do 
not include everything for VCC or MESS.

You can find the source code for the boot module in the Sourceforge repository 
NitrOS-9\3rdparty\booters. Also look at the NitrOS-9\3rdparty\drivers\emudsk for 
emudsk support if you want to build your own modules from scratch.

The easy way to get documentation and programs is at
http://aaronwolfe.com/robert.gault/Coco/Downloads/Downloads.htm
under 10) RGBDOS. Make sure to also get the package under UPDATES.
The documentation will walk you through the process of creating a .vhd image 
with both OS-9 and Disk Basic partitions. LINK.BAS and other support programs 
are included.
I'm sure that something similar is available from Cloud-9 for HDBDOS SCII and 
IDE systems.

The program LINK handles alterations of LSN0 in the .vhd OS-9 partition so that 
it points to OS9Boot in the Disk Basic partition. Normally LINK runs 
interactively but you can modify the Basic program to run silently. That means 
you could have multiple Boot disks with different OS9Boot files and select what 
you want from a menu program. The version of LINK run would select the type of 
boot you get.

Try the above and if you have questions, you can contact me directly. I've also 
got an OS-9 program that reads Disk Basic disks floppy or on the .vhd image. 
I've a package that permits I/O from OS-9 with 35-track OS-9 disks on the .vhd 
image, although it may not be on the web page.