[Coco] Does anyone have a Level3 disk that actually boots?

Sat Nov 29 14:10:13 EST 2014

Well Gene, I don’t know if this will help. but grab Roberts boot file from my repo here:

https://github.com/bnobel/Nitros9-Level-3 <https://github.com/bnobel/Nitros9-Level-3>

It boots perfectly in VCC with a ‘emudsk’ VHD, and raw disk rom (no DW). I know you are trying to make a bootfile on a real floppy, but I myself have not successfully modified the boot. I do boot and use it for my disassembly, as I do use a ‘emudsk’ VHD as my main Coco3 (under VCC, don’t have a real Coco3).  Which of course gives me access, of course to all my files in L3.  It works very cool the system map has a lot more room.

Once I figure out exactly what Alan did I am merging that code to V3.3.0 source.  Then I can start to play with modifying the boot.

Bill Nobel

> On Nov 29, 2014, at 12:31 PM, Gene Heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com> wrote:
> 
> On Saturday 29 November 2014 07:31:27 Bill Pierce via Coco did opine
> And Gene did reply:
>> Aaron, I've yet to try any experiments, but I was thinking of trying to
>> put the dw sub in the system area, then rbdw in RBF, and scdwn in SCF.
>> But until Bill Nobel gets the code up to 3.3.0 standards (if he can),
>> I doubt it will work at all since the Level 3 code is based on Nitros9
>> 1.2.1 or 1.2.2. A while back, I tried dw4 installed in a very early
>> nitros9 release (pre 2.0.0 I think) as well as vanilla OS9 and neither
>> would boot. It's probably a small problem with a call to something
>> that has been added or moved since then and could probably be fixed to
>> work on vanilla. One of the few "system" modules I've seen that will
>> work on all versions of OS9/NitrOS9 is EmuDsk, so I know it can be
>> done.
>> 
>> 
>> 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: Aaron Wolfe <aawolfe at gmail.com>
>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>> Sent: Sat, Nov 29, 2014 1:59 am
>> Subject: Re: [Coco] Does anyone have a Level3 disk that actually boots?
>> 
>> 
>> On Nov 28, 2014 10:22 AM, "Bill Pierce via Coco" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>> 
>> wrote:
>>> So far, there is one MAJOR disadvantage to Level 3..... The
>>> drivewire4
>> 
>> drivers will not function. The reason being the drivewire sits on the
>> "line" as it is an RBF driver with SCF functions. and cannot be
>> seperated.
>> 
>>> <y question is.. could create another RBF module, renamed to "DW4" or
>> 
>> something (same for SCF), then move ALL the dw drivers out to another
>> space. How much is DW tied to RBF? I know it's tied heavily to SCF.
>> 
>> The SCF, RBF, and clock functionality of Drivewire is already split
>> into separate modules that do not communicate with each other. 
>> However, all three of these share a dependency on the common "DW sub"
>> module that provides the low level serial communication.  This common
>> module will need to be available to both the rbf and SCF address space
>> (and the clock if that's made into a separate area).  So long as that
>> is done, there should not be a problem.
> 
> I will repeat a question I've asked before, has anyone actually gotten a 
> disk made from os9L3.os9 to boot?
> 
> My /d0 is a 40 track ds drive but is normally set for a 35 track ss 
> configuration.
> 
> The .os9 image is of a 2880 sector drive, but doesn't have enough stuff in 
> the image to even fill a 35trkss disk. I cannot with my present default 
> boot, format a disk, so my std mb scripts are hand crafted to delete 
> everything on the disk including the boottrack, leaving a disk with an 
> empty root dir that reports as 630 sectors capacity, with 620 sectors 
> free.
> 
> Now, dsave has an option to  handle the boottrack and os9boot files if 
> invoked with the -b -v options, so a supposedly bootable disk is created.
> 
> So I created, from a copy of a working mb script, one that uses dsave to 
> create a 35 trk ss copy of this 2880 sector .os9 file.
> 
> But dsave -b is buggier than a 10 day old road kill in late July!!!
> 
> It installed a boottrack and an os9boot file but GOT THEM FROM MY DEFAULT 
> vdisk boot disk!  So when I rebooted to the floppy, it instantly reverted 
> to my default level 2 boot because the boottrack contained boot_tc3!
> 
> And returning to the os9gen method , I have been about 5 hours making boot 
> disks that jump to the hard drive the instant it loads the boottrack, 
> apparently because while the mb script gives os9gen a good boottrack file 
> in bttemp, os9gen will not write the new boottrack if it finds a boottrack 
> already installed!  It makes a good OS9Boot file, then reports an error 
> 216 file not found unless I run a basic09 utility that creates a KERNAL 
> directory entry that hooks up to the boottrack, making a deletable file 
> out of it,  But thats not all, I then have to use dEd to write the first 
> line of the file with a string of 5e5e5e5e5e5 etc so os9gen thinks it is 
> working with a pristine freshly formatted disk.  That is because I cannot 
> format a disk here using the default bootup, only 3 pages of sysram left.
> 
> To Bill:
> I also used mshell to copy several bits, like a copy of boot_1773_6ms into 
> a local directory so I could replace the boot I got when if did a "vfy -sk 
> /x1/KERNAL after running the basic09 utility and creating a file for the 
> boottrack in the /x1 mounted OS9L3.os9 file.
> 
> But everything I copied with mshell was bad.  Looked like it was grabbing 
> the /dd LSN0 but wasn't an exact match.  I have to run mshell without a 
> mouse as it doesn't even know I have one. So hitting a c for copy, which 
> brings up the menu, and another c to confirm, is not working here.  I get 
> a file, but not the contents.
> 
> Then, without some things like /H0 and its /DD copy and scsisys, and made 
> a genes-DD out of a copy of Alan's /D0, I am now crashing someplace after 
> the rel screen is opened, but the screen is slid 4" to the right 
> preventing me from seeing how far the boot's module listing got but I am 
> not getting a FAILED, it either hangs or goes to out to pasture with a big 
> shower of confetti on the screen.  So next I saved a copy of my rel_80 and 
> rebuilt the bttemp file, but that I believe looks for krn so I'd expect 
> I'll have to use ded to change its internal name to krn while leaving it 
> as OS9p1 in the local directory.
> 
> Or I could say screw it and walk away for the rest of the day, or maybe 
> forever.  And it looks like I need to write a delfmt utility that will 
> first overwrite the files contents, making it look as if its freshly 
> formatted disk, before deleting it.
> 
> Unless by chance there is some switch we can set on the os9gen command 
> line that will force it to blindly overwrite an existing boottrack.
> 
> Is there such a -f beast?  A help os9gen does not show it.
> 
> Cheers, Gene Heskett
> -- 
> "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
> soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
> -Ed Howdershelt (Author)
> Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>>
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> 
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