[Coco] Reading the RS-DOS part of a VHD (or CF/HD)

Wed May 29 09:44:29 EDT 2013

Last year the NitrOS-9 version included in Cloud9 stock's CF had a broken
descriptor for the /IH. This bug appeared when they ported nos-9 to lwasm
and a HDBDOS descriptor was missing in the mercurial repo, something like
that. You must check if you have this "broken version", is so the /IH
descriptor cannot be used to access it.

But If you get a fresh NitrOS-9 this descriptor should be Ook, but you will
need to make another OS9Booot with the good descriptors and backup it to
your drive 255 or boot from a floppy having rbsuper, llide, i0 and ih
descriptors.

With the good descriptors, you just use STP as disk number, so dmode /IH
STP=80 will make you access the virtual drive 128. But for DECB you will
need the rsdos utility (found at rtsi) to handle it properly like rsdos dir
/ih

On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 11:59 PM, Gene Heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com> wrote:

> On Tuesday 28 May 2013 23:41:39 Bob Devries did opine:
>
> > Oops, I forgot one vital bit of detail...
> >
> > How do I access the Disk BASIC virtual disks from OS-9. On a *real*
> > Coco3 with SuperIDE
> >
> > Sorry. my bad.
> >
> > Regards, Bob Devries
> > Dalby, QLD, Australia
>
> If you are using the SuperIDE, then there s/b an IH.dd descriptor, but you
> will probably need to configure it, and save the configured one where you
> can make boot disks using it.
>
> Configuration in its simplest essence consists of telling it an offset
> value that is one sector greater than DD.SIZ from the first 3 bytes of the
> hard drive in most cases.
>
> I don't have mine booted ATM, but near the end of the dmode output when
> doing a "dmode /IH" or for a disk file "dmode -ih.dd", and you will see an
> OFS= and one more byte whose name escapes me ATM.  Copy DD.SIZ's 3 bytes,
> adding one to the final byte, into those locations in the ih descriptor.
>
> Note too, reading in the superdesc doc, that the stp value is the HDBDOS
> disk stated in hexidecimal, where $80 there means virtual disk 128.
>
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Robert Gault" <robert.gault at att.net>
> > To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> > Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2013 12:42 PM
> > Subject: Re: [Coco] Reading the RS-DOS part of a VHD (or CF/HD)
> >
> > > Bob Devries wrote:
> > >> Hi all,
> > >>
> > >> I'm sure I read about accessing the 256 virtual Disk Basic disks on a
> > >> VHD or CF/HD drive, but I can't find the reference.
> > >>
> > >> Can someone enlighten me if this is possible, and how?
> > >>
> > >> Regards, Bob Devries
> > >> Dalby, QLD, Australia
> > >
> > > Assuming the .vhd drive is formatted on those 256 drives you can I/O
> > > them if you are using an RGBDOS or HDBDOS ROM. The distribution of
> > > VCC makes use of my RGBDOS ROM for emulators and gives access to such
> > > a disk.
> > >
> > > If you are using MESS instead of VCC, I can supply you with a ROM
> > > image. If you have a Cloud-9 system and HDBDOS, you should be set.
> > > Both the Cloud-9 site and my site hosted by Aaron
> > > http://aaronwolfe.com/robert.gault/Coco/Downloads/Downloads.htm
> > > have documentation on how these DOS should be used and a command list.
> > >
> > > Robert
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Coco mailing list
> > > Coco at maltedmedia.com
> > > http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> >
> > --
> > Coco mailing list
> > Coco at maltedmedia.com
> > http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>
>
> Cheers, Gene
> --
> "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
>  soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
> -Ed Howdershelt (Author)
> My web page: <http://coyoteden.dyndns-free.com:85/gene> is up!
> My views
> <http://www.armchairpatriot.com/What%20Has%20America%20Become.shtml>
> "Never ascribe to malice that which is caused by greed and ignorance."
>                 -- Cal Keegan
> A pen in the hand of this president is far more
> dangerous than 200 million guns in the hands of
>          law-abiding citizens.
>
> --
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>

-- 
Long live the CoCo