[Coco] Multiple HDB-DOS 256 drive partitions Software Wanted

[Gene Heskett]

On Wednesday 24 April 2013 10:53:55 Mark Marlette did opine:

> Luis,
> 
> I don't believe this is correct.
> 
> In the current configuration of  the NitrOS-9 offset is 0 and works as
> you say but.....
> 
> If you were to add an offset to the SuperDriver descriptor it would then
> use that as it's relative LSN0 offset.
> 
> The size / drive geometry then kicks in to effect and you go up from
> there.
> 
There is a bit, IIRC in the IT.TYP byte of the descriptor, and I miss typed 
in the previous nsg & called it IT.DNS, my bad!

See the superdriver descriptor doc you have on your site, which tells 
format whether it should query the drive for its geometry and size, or 
should take the descriptor info as gospel.  For a virtual floppy, my /sh's 
IT.TYP is $81, but READ the docs!

THIS BIT IS THE MOST DANGEROUS MINEFIELD IN NITROS9.

Read, and set the bits in each device descriptor very carefully else you 
may format the whole drive with a MB script.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

With this bit properly set, and the offsets in the descriptor properly set 
so its safe to format based on the descriptor, you can do anything you 
want. One could theoretically setup the first partition at 120 megabytes so 
it would only need a 1 sector per cluster FAT map, then setup the next 
41,287,680 bytes of the disk as 256 hdbdos virtual floppies, then do the 
next 120 megs as a 2nd os9 partition, then by poking new values into 
HDBDOS, have another 41,287,680 byte piece of the drive as vdisks 257-512, 
and repeat that several more times on a 1Gib disk.  All accessable at the 
same time with nitros9 if you have enough /sh-like descriptors in the 
bootfile, each properly configured, with even the 257-xxx hdbdos vdrives 
being bootable with the use of my bootlink utility.

The theory there in case its not clear, is that the default HDBDOS boot 
vdrive is bootable, In my case drive $80.  The boottrack, track 34 is 
loaded from that location set into HDBDOS when the rom was configured & 
burnt.

But in the boot process, once that is loaded, AND the boot module itself is 
the correct one for your HD controller, in my case boot_tc3, then the boot  
module itself, looking to load the rest of the system known as the OS9Boot 
file, looks at the data in the drives LSN0 to find the address on the 
drive, and the size of the file to load.  This can be ANYWHERE on the 
drive!  You will need the /sh descriptor in your bootfile of course, and 
you can preset it to any of the hdbdos vdrives and do a MB on it.  Once 
that is done, and lets assume you've made a bootable vdrive 200 with MB, 
then booting from it, using that OS9Boot file, is a simple matter of 
issuing "bootlink 200".  It will check to see if its really bootable, and 
if so, will update the data in the hard drives LSN0 so the next time it 
boots, it will use that particular OS9Boot file.  And will continue to do 
so until you change it again.

> Boisy... is this a correct assumption from a hardware guy????    :)
> 
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Mark
> http://www.cloud9tech.com
> 
> 
> 
> ________________________________
>  From: Luis Antoniosi (CoCoDemus) <retrocanada76 at gmail.com>
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 8:34 AM
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Multiple HDB-DOS 256 drive partitions Software
> Wanted
> 
> 
> afaik you cannot create more than on os-9 partition since it begins from
> bottom-up. how can you put two LSN0 ?
> 
> the thing you can multiply is the 256-RGB disks, by poking a new hdb-dos
> offset. Check the last image I sent to you, it has a second 256-disk
> partition for mod player.
> 
> On Wed, Apr 24, 2013 at 6:23 AM, Kip Koon <computerdoc at sc.rr.com> wrote:
> > Hi Everyone,
> > 
> > Now that I have figured out how to poke the MPI slot register to
> > activate the Floppy drives under HDB-DOS 1.1D LBA rom image in the
> > flash memory of the SuperIDE, I want to experiment with multiple
> > HDB-DOS 256 Drive partitions and some type of Huge Disk cataloging
> > program to index all the partitions in one big database file.
> > 
> > I have a 4BG hard drive connected to the IDE connector to try my hand
> > at formatting what I understand is the Largest hard drive capacity
> > NitrOS-9 can
> > handle.  It has over 8 million LBA sectors on it.  I might have to
> > partition
> > the HD into multiple NitrOS-9 partitions, but I'm going to try one
> > huge partition first after the HDB-DOS 256 Drives are setup.
> > 
> > I'm trying to find a DB9F solder connector in my spare RS-232 parts
> > and/or cables, but so far I have found nothing compatible yet.  I
> > know it's in storage somewhere.  I want to get Drivewire 4 Server
> > communicating with my Coco 3 SuperIDE setup.
> > 
> > Well, everyone have fun at the CoCoFEST.  Please let us all know about
> > the video feed so I watch it this year.  I had forgot about the video
> > feed last year, so I missed all the action.
> > 
> > Take care all and have fun Cocoing!
> > 
> > Kip
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > --
> > Coco mailing list
> > Coco at maltedmedia.com
> > http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco


Cheers, Gene
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