[Coco] Setting up .vhd drives was Re: C compiler crashes VCC with Nitros9

[Robert Gault]

Walter ZAMBOTTI wrote:

>
> Is there is guide for creating a .vhd &/| .dsk?
>
> Regards
>
> Walter
>
> (P.s. it's nice to see a coco community still exists)
>

Walter,

One of the problems with setting up .vhd disks is that there are so many varieties.
The original format was a .vhd split into both OS-9 and Disk Basic partitions 
with the intent to boot into OS-9 directly from the .vhd without need for 
floppies. This required the use of the RGBDOS disk ROM. In short this emulated 
the RGBDOS Ken-Ton scsi hard drive systems.
I distributed a package that created such .vhd images for use with JVC amd MESS 
emulators
http://aaronwolfe.com/robert.gault/Coco/Downloads/Downloads.htm
under RGBDOS.

Since that time, VCC was created and made use of my version of RGBDOS. The 
author of VCC made up a .vhd disk with both NitrOS-9 and Disk Basic installed 
for use with VCC. Then Cloud-9 bought the rights to RGBDOS and created HDBDOS 
for use with multiple hardware systems. Eventually HDBDOS was modified for use 
with Drivewire so that a Coco could communicate with a PC and not require real 
Coco drives. It was still necessary to have a disk controller to install the 
HDBDOS ROM.
Now Drivewire .vhd disks can be in several formats as could previous .vhd 
images. They can be pure OS-9, pure Disk Basic, or both.

So now there are RGBDOS/HDBDOS Coco hardware systems that work with real Coco 
hard drives. There are RGBDOS/HDBDOS Coco hardware systems that work with 
Drivewire and .vhd disk mounted in Drivewire. There are RGBDOS systems running 
with emulators JVC, MESS, and VCC.
Further there is no constraint on the sizes of the OS-9 partitions on the hard 
drives, real or emulated and that means the disk ROMs will need adjustment for 
easiest use.

These different systems will require different OS-9 Boot modules and drivers. 
The ROMs used by JVC differ from those required by VCC and MESS. By default, the 
Drivewire HDBDOS ROM assumes there are no Disk Basic drives on the .vhd images.

You can see why it is difficult to address installation on so many different 
systems. If you will indicate exactly what system you intend to use a real hard 
drive or .vhd emulated hard drive, you will get help setting it up.
There are scripts on the latest NitrOS-9 releases that will install NitrOS-9 on 
both real floppies or hard drives (.vhd or real)..The is also a script for 
Drivewire use.
http://www.nitros9.org/latest/

We can continue this here or by private email.

Robert