[Coco] DriveWire on the Raspberry Pi in five easy steps.

[Christopher R. Hawks]

On Mon, 9 Feb 2015 22:02:27 -0600
Allen Huffman <alsplace at pobox.com> wrote:

> 
> > On Feb 9, 2015, at 9:24 PM, Bill Pierce via Coco
> > <coco at maltedmedia.com> wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > Allen, there is no form of Wiki for the Nitros9 dw descriptors.
> > Basically, it just a /t1 driver on steroids :-)
> 
> Except this one:
> 
> http://sourceforge.net/p/drivewireserver/wiki/OS9_Modules/
> <http://sourceforge.net/p/drivewireserver/wiki/OS9_Modules/>
> 
> "The driver for all virtual serial port functionality, including
> virtual modems and TCP/IP networking, is scdwn.dr.”
> 
> Maybe this is a typo for scdw(v).dr.
> 
> It mentions the /N descriptors, but no reference to /V and /Z.
> 
> > The error problem is probably that the dw4 server does not return
> > actual Os9 style error numbers, so somewhere along the line of
> > communication, the error number gets assigned and may not be the
> > actual error that was encountered, just what the driver "thought"
> > may have happened (my theory anyway :-)
> 
> That would make much more sense than #207 with 352K free.

	As has been discussed here more times than grep can count,
Error #207 is 'Process Memory Full' (usually the 'System' process). All
the modules in the System Process space have their own memory needs
and that memory is also in the System's memory map (64k only). You have
just stolen 8k for your modules (plus their memory requirements). This
has always been a problem with NOs9 and it's many drivers. This will be
the major benefit of level 3! Brett Gordon's efforts will also help as
REL and friends reside in system memory as well.

Try smap before and after inserting you modules.


> > To me, the benifits and capabilities of dw4 beyond just the disk
> > access stuff makes it almost a nessecity to have it in the boot...
> > telnet, PC console, Midi, printing, moving files between PC and
> > Coco, ftp access, etc.
> 
> Indeed. I have no MIDI on the CoCo and not sure what I would want to
> print that I couldn’t just copy off the SD card.
> 
> I need to find the docs so I can learn about the other features. The
> only thing I want to do is possibly use the Pi as a development
> system and move files back and forth. 
> 
> > Coco too far from the PC? just use a wifi or bluetooth usb adapter
> > (yes, they work).
> 
> Alas, I do not have one, and the computers normally are in the back
> bedroom while the CoCo is here in the livingroom where the TV is. I
> have my laptop out here right now, but it won’t stay here - it needs
> to be plugged up back there to my DROBOS and such.
> 
> I also don’t want to have to boot a full computer just to use my
> CoCo, which is why I am using the Pi It is in a tiny case (half the
> size of the CoCoSDC) sitting behind my CoCo. Very nice. Sadly, it
> takes almost a minute to boot and maybe longer for the DW server to
> be ready, while my CoCo is at the shell prompt in less than 3. I’m
> going to look in to some of the Linux fastboot stuff and see if that
> can be improved since most of the OS I don’t need.
> 
> > And hopefully with the upcoming version... Coco networking! (Coco
> > to Coco).
> 
> True CoCo to CoCo? Or is it CoCo to PC to PC to CoCo?
> 
> > And dw4 can live nicely along beside the sdc drivers. Then you
> > don't have to pull the sd card, insert it in the PC, copy images
> > from the PC to the sd, then insert it back in the sdc... just copy
> > them from dw4 "/Xx" to "/SDx" and never leave Nitros9 or the Coco..
> > much easier.
> 
> Thus why I loaded the DW on my CoCoSDC system :) The notes in the
> docs about when it caches concerns me, but it does state it will
> write data out. I hope I can at least pull things off an actively
> mounted .dsk, else doing an eject / copy / mount will have to
> suffice. Since the CoCo boots in 3 seconds, it’s just blazing fast to
> power off, move the SD card, type an “os9 copy" command, then swap
> back.
> 
> > But all that aside, it's much easier to show people to use the new
> > Nitros9 dw disks than have them load it every time they want it.
> > Remember, they may not have an sdc... or a floppy... or an HD... dw
> > may be their only form of I/O. It was mine until recently.
> 
> Yep. Hopefully someone out there is doing a good job documenting that.
> 
> It’s a great thing, but I wouldn’t have room for a PC and monitor and
> keyboard and mouse on my CoCo desk. I just don’t have the setup. But
> the Pi seems like it will do everything I need and it was insanely
> easy to get running.
> 
> 		— A
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 




Christopher R. Hawks
HAWKSoft
-- 
"You can't weld all of the ports shot on a PC and call it a thin client.
It's a fat client in a corset with the strings pulled real tight and a
red face."
		-- Scott McNealy, CEO, Sun Microsystems