[Coco] 1) NitrOS9 memory requirements? and 2) Using DLOAD with Linux serial ports

[Eric Keppel]

Hi folks!

  The help I've received lately from you guys out there on the list has
been just great, and has allowed me to open up lots of new ways of
communicating with my 64K Coco2 from my PC.  

  My goal at this point is to be able to load and execute as many
different types of programs as possible on a stock Coco2 without using
replacement ROM chips, ROM Carts, or the like -- just a cassette cable
and a bit-banger cable.

1) I have been successful in getting NitrOS9 running in RAM by first
loading one of the DW3 Loader/HDBDOS .WAV files provided by Boisy Pitre
for Drivewire 3.  Next, I start up the Drivewire server, and boot into
NitrOS9. Since I am running this from RAM and not a ROM pak, am I going
to have enough memory to run any useful NitrOS9 programs or is not going
to be an issue?
  I must say that I don't really have a clue yet what types of files are
executable or how to run them at this point. All I know how to do are
simple things like DIR /X1 to list what is on a the virtual disk.  It
seems like most of the disksets I have tried all look about the same
(STARTUP CMDS SYS or other similar directories and files).  What gets me
is that there never seems to be an obvious file that looks like it
should start the program.  What am I doing wrong here?  I just need to
know enough to launch a program or two under NitrOS9 if that is possible
with this setup.  The NitrOS9 Getting Started hasn't really been a lot
of help in this regard. :(

2) Looking over the forum history I came across a little bit of info
mentioning the DLOAD command, but I have been unable to make it work
thus far.  I would like to be able to send and receive program listings
in ASCII format to and from my PC.  That way if I find a BASIC program
listing somewhere, I can just cut and paste it from the web, and then
send it over the bitbanger port to the coco instead of typing it all in
by hand.  Am I understanding correctly that DLOAD can do that?

All I have gotten is an I/O error when I start to send the file to my
serial port.  I am running Ubuntu Maverick (10.10) and used setserial to
set the baud to 38400 with a divisor of 32, which should bring the
actual baud rate to 1200.  Then I did 'DLOAD"myfile",1' on the Coco, and
'cat test.txt > /dev/ttyS0' on my linux box.  As soon as the cat command
starts sending text to the serial port, the coco throws the I/O Error.
Any hints on getting this going?  I also tried sending the file via
ASCII format in minicom with similar results. :/

I apologize for these huge posts.  I probably need to be trying to be
more brief -- hope that's not annoying anyone out there.  Is there a way
to search the list archives?  There is a lot to go through, and I hate
to ask a question that has been asked a hundred times before.

Thanks in advance,
Eric