[Coco] Update: os9gen on 128k coco3, rs323 pack

[Gene Heskett]

On Sunday 15 February 2009, Michael Furman wrote:
>Robert and everyone else:
>
>Thank you very much for your help getting os9gen to work.  I wanted to
>let you know that it worked and I have been trying to create working
>3.2.8 and 3.2.6 boot disks all weekend.
>
>There are many potential issues.
>
>It looks like both of my source 3.2.8 disks created from the
>distribution images have bad sectors or hard-to-read sectors.  Some of
>the 3.2.8 boot disks that I create with the term_vdg driver have the
>issues I mentioned previously, that it gets i2xoC then hangs.  When I
>try to use the 80 col term I get a Nitros9 boot message then the
>system hangs.  Unfortunately I don't have a desktop PC with a floppy
>drive in it currently so I can't write new images out to continue with
>this.
>
>I have been using the silly default line editor.  I learned that
>without giving it additional memory, it doesn't read the entire
>standard.bl file into memory.  It doesn't truncate the file but it's
>still rather weird.  After figuring this out, giving the editor enough
>memory and building yet more disks the hangs mentioned above still
>happen.  This doesn't appear to be the problem.
>
>I made a boot disk using 3.2.6 and added the sc6551.dr and
>t2_sc6551.dr modules to it.  this booted up.  When I tried something
>like echo hi >/t2 the system hangs.  Not sure what's going on.  Any
>specific rs323 handshaking issues I need to be aware of?  I even tried
>booting the standard unmodified disk and manually loading the driver
>and descriptor with the same result.  This might  be due to some
>additional problems:
>
>I tried using the rs232 pak ROM and it seems to hang occasionally.  My
>RS323 pack no longer has its black plastic case.  I don't think this
>in itself is a problem but it's been unprotected for many years (some
>kid took it out of the box to look at it and lost the parts, hmm, I
>wonder who that is...)  I know that static discharge is less of an
>issue with mounted parts than it is with unmounted parts, but still...
>I have to wonder if there's any damage to this board...
>
>I'm using an MPI that has not been modified for use with a coco3.  I
>need to order a new PAL and get this done.
>
>Seems like I have more problems than good news to report.  I will go
>off and continue playing around to see what I can get to work.   It is
>also apparent that I need to get some additional hardware...
>
>--Mikey

Mikey, are you perchance running Linux?  If so, you can put these 2 lines in 
the coco's startup file, and then run a minicom session in a linux shell if 
you have the correct rs232 cabling.  I am actually using a hunk of cat-5, 
wired up as '7 wire' here, with a db25 on the coco end and a db9 on the pc 
end, and about 25 feet long.  You will have to play with minicoms character 
translations using stty.  A query shows what I use here:

[root at coyote grub]# stty -F /dev/ttyS0 -a
speed 9600 baud; rows 0; columns 0; line = 0;
intr = ^C; quit = ^\; erase = ^?; kill = ^U; eof = ^D; eol = <undef>; eol2 = <undef>; swtch = <undef>; start = ^Q; stop = 
^S; susp = ^Z;
rprnt = ^R; werase = ^W; lnext = ^V; flush = ^O; min = 1; time = 0;
-parenb -parodd cs8 hupcl -cstopb cread clocal -crtscts
-ignbrk -brkint -ignpar -parmrk -inpck -istrip -inlcr -igncr icrnl ixon -ixoff -iuclc -ixany -imaxbel -iutf8
opost -olcuc -ocrnl onlcr -onocr -onlret -ofill -ofdel nl0 cr0 tab0 bs0 vt0 ff0
isig icanon iexten echo echoe echok -echonl -noflsh -xcase -tostop -echoprt echoctl echoke

See man stty for how to arrive at a similar translation setup.

The startup file additions:
iniz /t2
shell i=/t2 &

I would think there might be a windows terminal proggy that would also work, 
but there isn't any windows here for me to test.

As my coco3 has a 1 GB drive and all the rz/sz goodies, I can then use that 
to move stuff from the network to the coco, including whole .dsk images that 
can then be put on a coco floppy with a "copy image.dsk /d0@", which if I 
didn't mess up the @ syntax (its been a while), should write that image to 
the disk just as if I had used linux's dd to do it.

--
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-- 
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)
A prohibitionist is the sort of man one wouldn't care to drink with
-- even if he drank.
		-- H.L. Mencken