[Coco] Disk sizes was make case sensitive?

[Gene Heskett]

On Sunday 14 July 2013 14:45:50 Bill Pierce did opine:

> >Why do you want to back up a superIDE disk image if you don't have a
> >superIDE system? Just curious.
> 
> I was referring to every bootdisk in the repo. You cannot set up an
> HDBDOS to NitrOS9 boot without building a new bootdisk. Period. By the
> way.... how many "new" users know what an "sdc" is? 0.  How many would
> download it to see what it is? 99% Why do you think people keep asking
> about how to do it?
> It's tough for newcomers to OS9 when they can't even back a standard
> floppy boot to a standard floopy because there is no standard copy of
> the standard floppy.... Okie dokie artichokie? :-) Almost all of the
> NitrOS9 boot disks SHOULD have a 35trk SSDD version (multi disk to have
> all stuff available). (DW & Becker excluded though still would be
> useful)
> 
> Let's say I just got a Coco 3 from ebay. I haven't used the Coco in 20
> years and never used OS9 because of the complexity of the system. I
> decide to give this Nitros9 a go since everyone is talking about how
> "easy" it is to use. I download the standard disk image for
> nitros96809l2030209coco3.dsk I somehow made it through the obscure and
> mystical instructions to get HDBDOS running using a cassette cable... I
> even made a drivewire cable and can load the disk. But it won't boot. I
> need a dw bootdisk. back to download... I can boot the dw bootdisk in
> drivewire..... but have access to ONLY that disk. There's no HD
> drivers, only floppy drivers and something called "x0", "x1" "x2" &
> "x3".... I don't remember nothing like that and I can't get the disk to
> my 35trk floppy. How do I copy this 40trk DSDD disk to HDBDOS partition
> 255 so I can set up a bootdisk???? Answer: YOU CAN'T.... You have to
> make a boot disk... wait for it.... here it comes.... How do you make a
> boot disk?????
> Then the whole can of worms gets dumped again for someone else to have
> to pick them up and put em back for next victo... err... I mean user.
>
You started to type it, then miss-spelled it, its victim, and correct.  But 
after reading above, I can see why.  If you have the drivewire server 
running on your PC, and the cable properly setup from the bit-banger port 
to a seriel port on the PC, _OR_ the bit-banger cable plugged into an FDTI 
seriel to usb adaptor, and if the distance is more than 5 feet or so, this 
IS the preferred method, I have a 3 foot bit-banger cable plugged into an 
adaptor, the adaptor is plugged into a USB2.0 7 port hub, and that hub is 
connected to a 10 meter USB-2.0 extension cable, which in turn is plugged 
into a USB-2.0 port on this motherboard after running across the basement 
ceiling to a hole in the floor behind the PC tower.  Drivewire, the server 
is configured to use /dev/ttyUSB0 (different on winders) and it all just 
works.

That is the preliminary, next is the disc menu in the drivewire GUI, where 
you can choose to open a *.dsk image for every /x# descriptor in your boot 
file.  If there are no errors in doing that, then from the coco's keyboard, 
do a "dir /x#" and you should see the contents of that dsk.

If you have a hard drive, then installing from the .dsk to a subdir on the 
hard drive make it super easy to install, and you can then do your boot 
floppy building directly from your own hard drive.  Or, since the .dsk, 
once mounted to one of the /x# descriptors, is 100% read and write, you can 
the mb and bootlist files to build a floppy directly from the mounted dsk.

There are other ways of course, but for a relative newbie that's probably 
the best way to 'get your feet wet'.
 
> I have personally helped over 25 people get booted into nitros9 just
> this year alone. I would hate to count back to 1987. I completely
> understand the animosity towards OS9. Luckily, I caught on to the whole
> boot process quickly and never really had much problem except for "boot
> list order bugs" (BLOB) back in the 80s. I even have a couple of
> standard vhd images I send to people for Vcc and real Coco so I won't
> have to try to explain the whole process of setting up a virtual hard
> drive system. There are those on this list that know this :-)

> Bill Pierce
> My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
> Co-Webmaster of The TRS-80 Color Computer Archive
> http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/
> Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
> E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
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Cheers, Gene
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