[Coco] Weird errors

[Gene Heskett]

On Saturday 16 September 2006 12:02, Christopher Hawks wrote:
>Gene Heskett wrote:
>> On Saturday 16 September 2006 09:29, Boisy Pitre wrote:
>>> After looking at the xmode.asm source and examining the compatibility
>>> issue that has plagued users of tmode, I am considering a different
>>> approach than the one I expressed in the email below.  Specifically,
>>> I am considering resurrecting the old tmode/xmode utilities and
>>> renaming the current "new syntax" tmode/xmode to some variant, such
>>> as tmode2/xmode2 and including those as part of an enhanced utilities
>>> package that would also include things like bawk and other commands.
>>> This utility package would be downloadable as a separate disk image
>>> alongside NitrOS-9.
>>
>> Given the trouble this has caused, including for me, I vote for the
>> above scenario. Those that need it can still get it, but via this
>> method, all the legacy stuff runs again by default.  In re xmode, iirc
>> there is an original, and a more all-encompassing version that covered
>> the windows related stuff and expanded on the rs-232 controls. 
>> Syntacticly compatible with the original for those options the original
>> covered, I'd vote for the second edition of xmode to be the one
>> restored.  I don't know if there was an expanded tmode or not, never
>> having encounterd it or a need for it that I know about now.
>
> Me too!
>
> Gene, are you thinking of exmode?? I have it on my AT306 (OS9-68000,
>running from Compactflash), and ISTR there was one for Level 2 as well.
>
> Maybe exmode and etmode as the new versions.
>
This one wasn't called exmode though.  This one was slightly post level 2 
by a year or so.

Anyway, that got my curiosity up, so I fired up what little of a system I 
have since the drive change, did a cx to /dd/MAXTOR/cmds to get to the 
exec dir of the image of my old drive, and I have an xmode with the new 
syntax (eko=) and a tmode with the old echo, -echo syntax.  Since xmode is 
something *I* do from the cli, where tmode is something a program would 
use, I have tolerated that difference for years.  And I still could, but 
its rather frustrating to try and make a new boot disk, using the commands 
to make a new one, while running from the floppy boot when things don't 
work smoothly because that tmode doesn't.  So I've yet to succeed.

Too many things missing.  The stock nitros9 boot does not contain a 
working /t2 so I can use one of these machines as a relay to the network.  
From the symptoms, both an 8n1 missmatch, and a flow control miss-match 
exists.  I can type at human speeds from one machine to the other, but any 
attempt at a file transfer never gets past the 10th byte by the time 
zmodem gives up.  I've used the new xmode to make the default /t1 into an 
image of my old /t2 descriptor, but apparently more has been changed and 
it doesn't work, where it did once work at 750 cps with full flow controls 
and no errors when using rz/sz.

I've not been able to make a boot disk containing the sacia and t2.dd from 
a known working floppy boot from a decade back that will actually boot 
instead of locking up like it can't find cc3go.  Ditto for any attempts to 
put my personal version of cc3io, which contains my seriel mouse driver 
and the hooks to wecho etc to run my 2nd monitor into it.  And ditto again 
for any attempts to build a new boot disk with the tc^3 scsi driver in it.  
Since that locks me out of my personal archive right there, its no longer 
fun when I can only make the fdutils work to read or write an os9 disk 
using dd about once in 50 tries, I've given up on the sneakernet aspect.

Maybe if we had an os9 file system for linux so I didn't have to screw 
around for 4+ hours carrying a 3.5"  drive back and forth, rebooting this 
box to enable the floppy when I do since if I don't turn it off in the 
bios, no boot, all this to move one 3k file by making it part of the disk 
image, I might be able to make some progress.

I suppose my best bet is to see if I can find a printer that can work 
with /p, but they've all been used up.  That would at least give me the 
ability to hardcopy what I've got and where it is so mb could be edited 
with some semblance of intelligence.  Anybody know where I can find a 
ribbon for a dmp-120?  But I can't recall now if its seriel interface 
works.  I still have that xerox 1650ro too, but no room to set that tank 
up.  Its out in a storage shed in the back yard, buried behind enough 
flooring to do a 300 sq foot room at the moment.  Which I need to get to, 
one of the honeydoos thats keeping me from building a new carport.  I've 
NDI if the one we have now will last another winter before it collapses 
from dry rotted (and carpenter bee drilled) roof beams.

I finally found some 3.5" floppy drives that will work reliably with the 
250kb data rates and DD diskettes, so I might eventually, need a round 
tuit of course, be able to build a disk that has all this stuff collected 
on it, build an all floppy boot that works and then sub the stuff it needs 
for a hard disk installable boot that works.  Unforch, I've tried the 
backup method from rsbasic to install such a boot to the hard drive, and 
the hard drive still boots from the old boot file regardless of how many 
times I run the basic proggy thats supposed to edit that.  Eventually my 
frustration reaches the point of flipping the power switch and walking 
away before I sledgehammer the whole thing.

Sorry this got so off-topic & turned into a rant.  My apologies.

>--
>Christopher R. Hawks
>HAWKSoft
>---------------------------------------------------------
>It has been said that man is a rational animal.  All my life I have been
>searching for evidence which could support this.
> -- Bertrand Russell

-- 
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)
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Copyright 2006 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.