[Coco] Nitros9 Boot Disk "issues"

[Gene Heskett]

Roger Merchberger wrote:
> Well, the "issues" I have is that I are stoopid...
> 
> I snagged the latest version of Nitros9, and I want to make "real" boot 
> disks for my CoCo3 setup to eventually transfer to Compact Flash on the 
> SuperIDE interface... but I have a few limitations, and this is giving 
> me fits.
> 
> My PC system won't format a readable DS floppy with OmniFlop, but I can 
> write disks if they're formatted first on the CoCo; but as I don't have 
> a working Nitros9 boot floppy yet, I can't format a DS disk on the CoCo. 
> So, I'm limited to DECB for formatting which limits me to single-sided 
> disks.
> 
> Yes, I *do* have Drivewire, yes I can boot nitros9 3.2.4 on it, no I 
> *can't* format real floppies on the system... When XP doesn't bluescreen 
> due to buggy Belkin USB->RS232 drivers (which I believe I've got the 
> right drivers now, but I've not tested it yet) the CoCo locks *hard* no 
> later than halfway through the format. :-( I've tried it *at least* 50 
> times with the same result (yea, I'm a glutton for punishment) so 
> there's got to be some weird little timing issue or something with 
> nitros9 3.2.4 and/or drivewire and/or my hardware and/or the alignment 
> of the planets...
> 
> I've taken the stock standard.bl file and made DS boot disks no problem, 
> but SS is just no worky.
> 
> I've tried creating new SS device drivers - is it safe to assume that 
> dmode'ing the /dd and /d0 drivers, save'ing them to a different disk, 
> copying them into the ../MODULES/RBF directory and calling them from the 
> standard.bl bootlist is all that's necessary to get a working device 
> driver, or am I missing something? (At first, I thought I was missing 
> something, until I tried making a boot disk with the supplied 35tk SS 
> drivers, and that won't boot, either.)
> 
> It shows:
> 
> KREL Boot Krn tb0.......
> 
> (Yes, that's 7 dots after tb0) and locks.
> 
> Now, *waaaaayy* back in the day, I could diagnose a failed OS-9 boot 
> just by the sound of the floppy drive, but I've been testing builds in 
> the emulator - faster turnaround. MESS .103, CoCo3 6809 ROM.
> 
> Any hints/tips/quibbles/quarrels/brickbats available out there?
> 
> Good thing:
> 
> My knowledge of OS-9 has improved immensely over the last few hours!
> 
> Bad thing:
> 
> My knowledge of 'edit' has improved immensely over the last few hours!
> 
> Is there a small freeware full-screen editor for Nitros9 out there 
> anywhere??? I'm spoiled by Jove on the Linux platform... rather like 
> nano/pico but with a more emacs-like key-command set, so moving to/from 
> emacs is effortless... However, I'd be more than happy to learn a new 
> keyset... I'm OK with vi as well, but AFAIK TS-Edit was never ported to 
> the 80-column screen, was it?
> 
The patchkit that turns TS-Edit into vi, seems to run on an 80 column 
screen just fine Roger.  As to locating a copy of the patch, I *think* 
Eddie Kuhns did that, and I may even have a copy of it on my machine at 
home, but thats almost 1000 mi SE of my present 10-20.  And I'll be here 
  for at least another month or more.

> Anyway, thanks any & all for help on trying to get this rascal over to 
> the "real thing."
> 
> Thanks & Have a good nite!
> Roger "Merch" Merchberger
> 
> P.S. I have moved over the DriveWire RBF drivers to the Nitros9 boot 
> disk on the emulator - would attempting to make a DriveWire boot disk be 
> as simple as using the DW /dd and /d0 drivers to make a new boot disk? 
> Would I be better served trying this next? Or is the bootdisk crashing 
> before that point?
> 
> -- 
> Roger "Merch" Merchberger  --  SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers
> zmerch at 30below.com
> 
> Hi! I am a .signature virus.  Copy me into your .signature to join in!
> 
> 


-- 
Cheers, Gene