[Coco] Glenside IDE booting problems

[Frank Pittel]

On Fri, Dec 03, 2010 at 07:53:02PM -0500, Robert Gault wrote:
> Don Johnson wrote:
> 
> >
> >Okay, latest update.  The new System Disk I created with the Hard Disk modules installed will boot up only if the Hard Drive is turned off during boot up.  I find this to be weird considering everything in the Glenside Documentation suggested that it needed to be on during boot up or else if would fail.  To add to the weirdness if I turn the hard drive on after the boot up process has completed I can still access the hard drive at /h0.
> >
> >
> >>Any suggestions on how I can modify the device descriptor?
> >>
> >>
> >>-Don
> 
> Well so far so good. You have found the cause of the boot failure to
> be the order of modules in OS9Boot. You almost have correct access
> to the hard drive. Now you need to be sure that H0 matches the
> hardware capabilities of your hard drive.
> 
> Gene mentioned the program dmode. I'm not sure that is part of the
> stock OS-9 Level II package but probably anyone on this list can
> send you a copy by email. Dmode can alter the parameters of H0 and
> Cobbler will then save the changes to your OS9Boot file: dmode /h0
> cobbler /h0
> The problem will be knowing how to change H0. Here is a dmode output
> for a virtual hard drive used with MESS and VCC.
> 
> dmode /h0
> nam=H0 mgr=RBF ddr=EmuDsk
> hpn=07 hpa=ff80 drv=00 stp=00 typ=80 dns=01 cyl=005A sid=40
> vfy=01 sct=0040 t0s=0040 ilv=03 sas=20 wpc= ofs= rwc=
> 
> There are several parameters crucial for correct hard drive
> operation, cyl (number of tracks per head/platter) sid (number of
> heads/platters) sct & t0s (sectors per track) sas (minimum number of
> sectors allocated at one time).
> If you don't have a program that can read this information from the
> hard drive, you need written documentation. Go to the manufacturer's
> web site if you don't have the info. Tell us the specs of your
> drive.
> 
> OS-9 also has an issue with an allocation table where the system
> keeps track of free and used disk space. By default each bit in the
> map represents one sector which is fine for a floppy but won't work
> for a large hard drive as the map either can't get large enough or
> would be a great waste of space.
> LSN0 (first sector on any disk/drive) has DD.BIT as a 2-byte entry
> at $06 (base-0). This indicates how many sectors are represented by
> each bit in the allocation map. The value is 2^n or 1, 2, 4, 8, 16,
> etc.
> Probably a good starting value for a hard drive would be at least 8
> for DD.BIT but you can try 1. Unfortunately the stock Format module
> does not permit changing DD.BIT. I believe the NitrOS-9 format will
> accept a different value (cluster size).
> Anyway this is not an immediate issue but one you may want to pursue
> after you get proper hard drive access.
> 
> There is a program dEd which will permit you to examine byte by byte
> the contents of LSN0 on your hard drive ( or any other sector);  ded
> /h0@  . It would be very helpful if you could post both the dmode
> and ded data for your H0.
> 
> Without more information, I can't think of good things to try.

I should be careful about what I say and how I say it but while reading this
thread since I'm a member of GCCC but all I can think of is how glad my
introduction to os9 was through the superide board, superdrive and hdbdos!!
I got it setup  and configured by Mark with a 256meg CF card. When I power
up the coco an autoexec.bat file run and I get a menu giving my the option
of coming up in hdbdos or nitros! No muss, no fuss and best of all no floppy
needed!! I never realized how lucky I was! :-)

The Other Frank