[Coco] ok i am learning but not fast enough

[Bill Pierce]

Tormod, for use with HDBDOS or RGBDOS for mutipartition VHDs in Drivewire or the emulators, it's actually pretty simple. If the right "boot" module is there, all that's really needed on the 35trk disk is the kernel track (track 34)... nuthing more.

When the kernel loads from 255 (or any other partition), the "boot" module will look to it's native format for the os9boot... at that point, hdbdos and the rsdos partition is forgotten, so it loads from whatever the boot specifies..

boot_DW4 boots to /x0 so the os9boot needs to be on the OS9 /x0 partition, along wth the CMDS and all the rest.

boot_EmuDsk boots from H0 (actually boot_vhd)

When using a real Coco with Drivewire AND a real HD, and you want the HD to be "/DD", then you put the HD boot (boot_scsi, boot_ide etc) in the kernel on 255 then the OS9 boot goes on the HD.

That's why we have all those boots and what they're for. You set the drive you want as your system as "/DD" and use the boot for that type drive and that's where the proper boot module will look.

I can make a boot disk on a real floppy with "boot_dw" in the kernel, stick it in a real fd-502 drive 3, type DRIVE3:DOS and it will not boot unless OS9Boot is on /x0.
 
Floppies boot from floppies and need everything. The disks we have work fine, but again... RSDOS does not know 40trk or 80 track and users can't back them up to real floopies... We need a 35 track just for this.

On a boot disk, (real), all that is needed for OS9 to boot is the kernel, OS9boot, sysgo, CMDS/grfdrv, CMDS/shell, startup and what ever the startup needs (like load, link copy etc). After that, it's up to the user.

I could explain 100 ways to set up the boot, and still not cover them all. You can use "boot_1773" and then you'll need OS9Boot and sysgo on the disk (for booting to another drive)...  Boot_1773 will look to the current floppy for OS9boot, then when all the inits are done, it loads sysgo... but if sysgo points to /dd, then all the rest need to be where ever /dd is. If you want a scsi hd as /dd, the the rest is there. That's just another way...

I started out in OS9 L1 with a single drive. I ran level 2 with a single for 2 or 3 years until I finally got a 2nd and 3rd drive. I never owned a hard drive until I got my current system in 2011. I did learn a few things about HDs while using emulators from 1999 when my old Coco system got flooded, until 2011 when I got this system. On the single drive, I had my boot and a few cmds. Once booted, I swapped disks to a "CMDS" disk. Try making a boot with just one drive... it's lots of fun. I learned some tricks in those days LOL. Once I got a 2nd drive, I could use /d1 as my "data" drive. When I got the 3rd drive, that also when I discovered ShellPlus's "PATH" cmd and I could have a Boot disk with some cmds, a CMDS disk, and Data drive, all at once. I was in heaven.  

 


Bill Pierce
"Charlie stole the handle, and the train it won't stop going, no way to slow down!" - Ian Anderson - Jethro Tull

 

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-----Original Message-----
From: Tormod Volden <lists.tormod at gmail.com>
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Thu, Feb 18, 2016 10:55 am
Subject: Re: [Coco] ok i am learning but not fast enough

On Thu, Feb 18, 2016 at 6:04 AM, Bill Pierce wrote:>>  Richard, you did everything right except the disk. The problem is that RSDOS (HDBDOS in this case) will not handle that odd large disk size that is the dw disk. I'm not sure how you copied it, but you need a 35trk disk with that very boot on it so you can backup to drive 255. You may not be getting the entire disk contents.> Sadly, no one seems to be convinced there's a need for 35 track disks in the repo even though at least three times a year (sometimes more) someone can't backup a disk to an HDBDOS drive..Bill, since you identified this need, did you file a feature requeston www.nitros9.org ? To allow someone without floppy expertise to workon it you might add what format parameters are needed. One questionthat might appear is what to take away if there is not enough spacefor what is on the other image builds.Tormod-- Coco mailing listCoco at maltedmedia.comhttps://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco