[Coco] NitrOS-9, Cobbler and Fragmented Boot Files

[Gene Heskett]

On Tuesday 09 December 2014 21:36:47 Robert Gault did opine
And Gene did reply:
> Darren,
> 
> I just made a test using an 80d.dsk image. I booted from it, deleted
> OS9Boot, deleted some other files, and used dEd on the disk allocation
> table to make sure that there was no empty space where OS9Boot would
> fit.
> Cobble /D0  resulted in a fragmented boot message, however OS9Boot was
> created.
> 
> I then did a dir -e to find out where OS9Boot was located and was given
> $0C, the original location of the file descriptor. Cobbler had left
> LSN0 DD.BT and DD.BSZ blank so I entered $00000C for DD.BT using dEd.
> The disk booted perfectly!
> 
> So that means if the only error that cobbler gives is fragmentation,
> dEd can fix it. It also means the only change to cobbler that is
> required is that on fragmentation to set DD.BT to point to the file
> descriptor but leave DD.BSZ $0000.
> 
> Robert

That does seem like an easy fix. Is this cobbler only, or an os9gen 
problem too?

There is another problem with os9gen too.  If there is data existing on 
track 34 of a floppy, it will not replace track 34 with the -t=bttmp 
option even if the fat bits for it are cleared.  This was defeating any 
efforts at making progress as I tried to make L3 boot.  OS9Gen needs to be 
able to "just do it"

Cheers, Gene Heskett
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