[Coco] The Beta Test release of MShell

Thu May 15 02:22:28 EDT 2014

Kip Koon
computerdoc at sc.rr.com
http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon
http://computerpcdoc.com/

Hi Tony!
Yes, I did replace the cable inside the DEC RX-180 cabinet since I wanted
four half-height 5.25 floppy drives and I didn't like the idea that the 34
conductor floppy cable standard had been boogered up.  This was years ago
back in the early '80s I guess.  I left the two 25-pin connectors in the
case to keep it looking nice but it was by far no ordinary floppy cable
hookup.  I soldered half of the internal floppy drive cable to one 25-pin
connector and the rest of the cable to the other 25-pin connector.  That
would put 17 wires on each connector.  I installed four 5.25" female 34-pin
floppy drive connectors on to the ribbon cable and connected everthing up.
As for power I probably just used floppy drive power Y cables.  
Now for the external floppy cable.  I of course matched the solder
connections for the other half of each 25-pin connector.  I say other half
because it has been literally decades since I have seen it and believe me I
have tried to find it so I don't remember if the DB-25 connectors on the
case were male or female!  Why DEC didn't use a 34 pin connector of some
sort on the case I don't know.  In any event I used what was there on the
case and of course on the other end of the external floppy drive cable I
used a standard female 34-pin card edge connector to connect to the Coco
Floppy controller.  
The DEC case is very heavy so it housed 4 floppy drives quite nicely.  It
ran very successfully for many years.  I sure would love to see that cabinet
again.  It is very nice.  Anyway that is how I hooked up 4 floppy drives to
a Coco Floppy controller.  Later of course I found out that I could not use
the fourth floppy drive on my Coco Floppy Controller.  I don't remember if I
ever understood the real reason why back then, but I have definitely learned
why since I found this Coco List.  
I have learned a great deal since I have returned to the Wide Wonderful
World of the Coco from many of the brillant people on this list!  I hope
this will help you utilize your DEC RX-180 Dual Floppy Drive Cabinet.  It
was a lot of work, but a rather simple task to do, just tedious.  Once done
though I carried that 4 floppy drive cabinet everywhere I took my Coco.  I
even ran it with my first PC! Floppy drives A, B, C, D and the hard drive
was E!  Later on though I changed it back down to just two floppy drives on
the PC since everybody else in the Intel PC world used Drive C for their
hard drive once I got more 5.25" floppy drives so I would not have to use my
DEC cabinet anymore.  When I do find my DEC RX-180 cabinet with my four
floppy drives in it, I'll take some pictures of it and post them to my
Cocopedia.com Wiki page.  Take care my friend.
Kip

-----Original Message-----
From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On
Behalf Of CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2014 11:37 PM
To: 'CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts'; coco at maltedmedia.com
Subject: Re: [Coco] The Beta Test release of MShell

WIsh I could find a cable for my DEC RX-180 for more than the two drives...

How'd ya manage that cable Kip? Did you swap out the inbuilt DB-25/floppy
cable from the case?

Tony
tonym at compusource.net

---- Original Message ----
From: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: 5/14/2014 12:12:15 AM
To: "'CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts'" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Subject: Re: [Coco] The Beta Test release of MShell

Kip Koon
computerdoc at sc.rr.com
http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon
http://computerpcdoc.com/

Hi Bill!
-> Now, for someone with a SuperIDE, a CocoSDC, B&B HD, Disto HD, and 
-> any
others....
I have a SuperIDE on line, a Glenside IDE Controller online, a Burke & Burke
HD in a box with a bunch of other stuff which the last time I looked for I
could not find, and my DEC Dual Floppy drive cabinet with four 5.25" height
floppy drives which is also still in a box somewhere.  As soon as I find
those last two, then I'll have a more expended system.  I sure could use a 8
or even 12 slot expansion interface of some type for the Coco!  I have way
more than 4 cartridge paks in my collection.  I'm reading all the emails
now.  I'll be testing MShell in a few.
Kip

-----Original Message-----
From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On
Behalf Of CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2014 2:59 PM
To: coco at maltedmedia.com
Subject: Re: [Coco] The Beta Test release of MShell

Robert,
Nothing needs to be done for the update beforehand. It should "just work" as
long as DW4 has a connection.
After hitting "u", "u", you see a "Yes/No" box with "Update MShell via DW4
Internet", clicking "Yes" brings up the big update dialog and checks for
updates, hitting "No" returns you to the main screen.

As a note, I just booted up my Coco3, run MShell which was the 'bad"
version, hit update, and updated to the new version. When you say all you
see is "ss" & yes/no, this makes me wonder as that box is generated before
the updater is even loaded into memory. It is a fragged sub and is only
called while in use. The yes/no box is a product of "Ms1Grf" which is the
graphics/text parser running in a 2nd 64k. The actual text message is
generated in the main then sent to the parser via pipes. So if the text
message is being garbled, then it's a problem in the main or in the piped
parser.... I would think the main if the display resumes to normal after
clicking "no". If the parser was crashing... all display from that point on
would be lost and MShell would crash. If the text buffer in the main is
getting over written, then either there's a memory leak (rogue pointer), or
maybe too many processes running in the 512k causing the vmem to somehow get
moved and overwrite string space. Bu  t it's recovering is it not? This
prabably means a bad pointer somewhere.
The thing that gets me, is that it runs fine in VCC and my Coco 3 ??? I can
not duplicate what you're seeing.
As a check... when you see the "ss" "yes/no" click "yes" and see if it
updates. If so, something's off in the dialog routine for the yes/no box. If
it crashes, then data is being overwritten. I'll then know what to look for.
I'm also wondering if it might be a 512k vs 1-meg memory problem. If you
have a lot of processes running, it may cause problems on 512k, but I
wouldn't really think so. All "memory" errors are reported whe assigning the
vmem buffers and anytime they are accessed, but the fragged update sub could
be overwwriting the mapped in 8k buffer when it loads.. I don't know how
secure OS9 is with these operations.

On another note, is the status bar reporting the proper info for your drives
and is the dirbar (top) showing the proper dirs? Just curious. I know you
have several storage options so you can check more formats than I can. It's
one of the reasons I like you checking it... I want you for your drives...
hahaha...

I just sent you a new copy, try it and see what happens in the updater

Thanks for all the help.

Now, for someone with a SuperIDE, a CocoSDC, B&B HD, Disto HD, and any
others....

Bill Pierce
"Today is a good day... I woke up" - Ritchie Havens

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

-----Original Message-----
From: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Tue, May 13, 2014 1:42 pm
Subject: Re: [Coco] The Beta Test release of MShell

CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts wrote:
>
> Ok.
> I think I got the drive check bug...
> I now have a new version up with the fix. I need someone with real 
> floppies
and possibly DW4 to give it a check. I also need the "Updater" function
checked as Robert was having problems with it but it may have been related
to the drive check problem.
> And PLEASE read the included text file. Also, the website has more 
> info and
requirements
>
> The MShell download
> https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23059963/MShell/MShell%201.0.3e.zi
> p
>
>
> The MShell website
> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/mshell---the-ultimate-os-9-
> gui
>
>
> Thanks to all who are participating... this is going to grow into 
> something
much bigger :-)
>
>
> Bill Pierce
> "Today is a good day... I woke up" - Ritchie Havens
>

Much better! No problems starting MShell whether booting NitrOS-9 from a
hard drive or a DrivePak. All disks can be accessed, OS-9 or Disk Basic, on
Drivewire, SCSI hard drives, DrivePak drives, and floppies.

No luck with Update. All I see is  "ss  hit Enter or click to continue". I
have an Internet connection active and DW4 is happy when asked to update. I
am assuming that I don't need to do anything with DW4 but just tell MShell
(U U) to 

update.
Does MShell automatically tell DW4 where to go on the Internet? Did I miss a
prerequisite that needs to be done before telling MShell to Update?

Robert

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