[Coco] EZGen on NitrOS9 level 1

Sat Nov 24 11:48:32 EST 2012

On Saturday 24 November 2012 11:37:36 Bill Pierce did opine:

> Gene,
> This is actually a Nitros9 level 1 bootfile so I doubt it has the extra
> bytes.

The OS9Boot file does not have those..  It is mainly so rsbasic knows its a 
legit fle & what to do with it.

> The whole problem is trying to get InterBank Incident to run on
> Drivewire. I made a Nitros9 level 1 DriveWire boot and then stripped it
> down to nothing but the DW drivers. The bootfile is actually smaller
> than the original Tandy boot installed on the game disk. BUT, after
> booting and trying to run the game, it reports "not enough memory".
> From what I read in the manual to the game, you get that error if there
> is not enough contegious memory to set up a 6k pmode4 graphics screen, 
> and it probably needs 2 screens, one for the game and one to set up
> items to get/put to the main screen. But it may just use one. Anyway,
> the Nitros9 level 1 boot shows more memory usage than the larger Tandy
> boot. The question is, do you know a memory mp progrzam that will show
> memory usage of each system module? pmap & smap only show total system
> usage and not individual usage. I'm suspecting it's the newer shell
> being used by Nitos9 as that seems to be the culprit lately to a lot of
> Nitros9 memory problems.
> 
> Bill P

I wonder if theres a clash of sorts because this game probably uses gshell?  
OTOH, I'm about as far from a gfx guru as you'll get in these here parts. 
:)

Shellplus is considerable smaller than shell21, but ISTR I found there were 
things it could not do, so I personally have not used shellplus in at least 
a decade.  Consequently I am ill equipt to comment on it.  

Any one with more recent experience, please chime in here.

> Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
> Bill Pierce
> ooogalapasooo at aol.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gene Heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com>
> To: coco <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Sat, Nov 24, 2012 10:55 am
> Subject: Re: [Coco] EZGen on NitrOS9 level 1
> 
> On Saturday 24 November 2012 09:35:49 Chester A Patterson did opine:
> > Hi. Level 1 OS9Boot has 4 "lost" bytes that are not part of any OS9
> > module tacked onto the end of one of the bona fide modules, I don't
> > recall now if REL or BOOT or which exactly. What they are I do not
> > know, but they are needed. If you make a new bootfile, EZGen will not
> > add those bytes and OS9 L.1.xx will not boot. If all you do is edit
> > modules, there may be safer (and easier) ways, like DED. If you plan
> > on replacing entire modules, be careful. Replace them ONLY from disk
> > files, not RAM! I personally love EZGen's versatility but for L1 you
> > gotta watch out for those 4 bytes.
> 
> This could be something that my 'vfy' can handle, particularly since you
> are dealing not with the os9boot file, but with the contents of the
> boottrack itself.
> 
> There is extra data on each end of the track 34 image.  If a directory
> entry is constucted for the boottrack so that it is no longer hidden
> from view, then vfy -sk will split that track into its 5 parts as
> seperate files.  Work in an empty directory so they don't get lost in
> the noise. And, once that directory name has been made with
> KRNL_to_DIR, DON'T EVER DELETE IT as that will also free the boottrack
> area of the disk for other uses.
> 
> It can however make it easy to generate a new boottrack by opening it
> for update in basic09, and writing a newly merged, must be $1200 bytes
> long, 'bttemp' file to it.
> 
> Back to vfy -sk
> 
> The first file generated will be the header bytes that identify it as OS
> (two bytes) its size and execution address (4 bytes) then the three
> modules will be identified and saved as separate files.  Anything left
> over, which is actually the IRQ jump table, will then be saved as the
> filler data.
> 
> You can, because the 3 modules in the middle are padded to be a fixed
> size, write a merge list that could have the boot module that boots
> from a floppy, replaced by a boot module that boots from a hard drive
> for instance.  Or the os9p1 module could be replaced with a newer one
> but be aware that the os9p2, because some functions have been moved
> from one to the other to balance the os9p1 used space, that the
> corresponding os9p2 build would have to be used in the OS9Boot.  Since
> rel also has a simplified screen driver, I've not tried to ever change
> that on an L1 system.
> 
> ISTR I wrote a utility that made that boottrack directory entry way back
> in the mists of time.  I haven't used it in yonks, I hope its not been
> lost, but that can also be done with dEd.  Yup, found it, I'll put a
> copy in Genes-os9-stf of my web page shortly.  It is called
> KRNL_to_DIR.  The .B09 version is loadable into basic09, the plain
> version is packed b09 code and if your runb doesn't have the usual
> utils attached, it may not run.  The runb I used back in the day had
> inkey, syscall, and gfx2 merged to it.  So I also put that 'runb' on
> that page, but ISTR there is a patch, a 1 byter IIRC, that has not been
> done to that runb that I can recall doing, and I don't believe its a
> show stopper.
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Bill Pierce [mailto:ooogalapasooo at aol.com]
> > Sent: Friday, November 23, 2012 5:23 PM
> > To: coco at maltedmedia.com
> > Subject: [Coco] EZGen on NitrOS9 level 1
> > 
> > 
> > Hi Guys,
> > Is it safe to run EZGen from a level 2 system to work on a level 1
> > bootfile? I'm trying to build a special level 1 v2 boot and would like
> > to use EZGen. I just don't whether it will mess up the level 1
> > bootfile.
> 
> Ezgen should work on the bootfile, but not on the boottrack Bill.  Disks
> that don't have enough contiguous free space to construct a copy of the
> modified OS9Boot file are its major problem.  You can make it throw a
> non- destructive error a lot faster by using dmode to set the sas of
> that drive to about 98 before sending ezgen into the lions den. That
> will make it search for a bit less than 40k of contiguous space, and
> when it can't allocate that much it will bail out before any damage has
> been done.
> 
> > Any help appreciated
> 
> I hope this helps.
> 
> > Bill P
> > 
> > Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
> > https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
> > Bill Pierce
> > ooogalapasooo at aol.com
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > --
> > Coco mailing list
> > Coco at maltedmedia.com
> > http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> 
> Cheers, Gene

Cheers, Gene
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