[Coco] NitrOS-9 L3 Code and Disk Images

[Gene Heskett]

On Thursday 23 October 2014 17:01:04 Bill Pierce via Coco did opine
And Gene did reply:
> Tormod, I sent you a private email concerning Nitros9 level 3
> yesterday. I think it got screwed in the process so I'll send it
> again. And yes, there was a working Level 3 at one point, but Alan
> took it with him when he left us. Unless Kip had a copy from Alan's
> old website, I don't see how he could've run it. It was only available
> for Nitros9 L2 v1.2.2. The level 3 that Alan was working on was based
> on code from Nitros9 L2 v1.22 (yes, that old), which was still being
> sold by Northern Exposure at the time. They at one point announced
> they "may" provide the Level 3 upgrade if enough people showed
> interest. I don't think they ever actually released it. Alan did have
> it available on his website later.
> 
> 
> The Level 3 code in the repo is missing 4 important files and WILL NOT
> run without them. These files are "IOMan.L3", "OS9P1.L3" (now named
> Krn), "OS9p2.L3" (now named KrnP2), and "Clock.L3" (now split into 2
> modules). These files have gone through many changes since Nitros9 l2
> v1.22 and the original L3 files will have to be disassembled and the
> newer modules reworked to do what these modules intended for L3.
> Again... Level 3 WILL NOT WORK without these modules, and I'm NOT
> referring to the current build of these modules as Alan did special
> versions of each one. They were not the same modules as in Nitros9 l2
> v1.2.2.

ioman.asm in the level2 modules directory, is, as of edition 13r5, 
conditionalized to build level3 if the makefile specifies it.  So IOMan.L3 
isn't missing, just hard to identify. What is currently being built, 
located in the modules/sysmods directory after the build, is ed 13 rev 5, 
and looks like this to vfy:
{t2|08}/X0/NITROS9/6309L3/MODULES:vfy sysmods/ioman
Length of file: $000009AF

Module found at offset $00000000 in this file
Header for    : IOMan
Header parity : $5A (good)
Module size   : $09AF
Edition       : $0D
Ty/La At/Rv   : $C1   $85
System module, 6809 object, Re-enterable, R/O
Exec. off     : $0013
Data Size     : $0000
Module CRC is : $08FDCC (good)

Bytes read    : $000009AF

Similarly the level2 6309 version reports:
{t2|08}/X1/NITROS9/6309L2/MODULES/SYSMODS:vfy ioman         
Length of file: $00000916

Module found at offset $00000000 in this file
Header for    : IOMan
Header parity : $E3 (good)
Module size   : $0916
Edition       : $0D
Ty/La At/Rv   : $C1   $85
System module, 6809 object, Re-enterable, R/O
Exec. off     : $0013
Data Size     : $0000
Module CRC is : $0E58CA (good)

Bytes read    : $00000916

Shorter because the L3 stuff isn't being built in the level2 tree.

So is clock.asm, same makefile caveat.

Length of file: $00000205

Module found at offset $00000000 in this file
Header for    : Clock
Header parity : $FB (good)
Module size   : $0205
Edition       : $09
Ty/La At/Rv   : $C1   $85
System module, 6809 object, Re-enterable, R/O
Exec. off     : $019A
Data Size     : $0000
Module CRC is : $972B38 (good)

Bytes read    : $00000205

For the level 2 clock
{t2|08}/X1/NITROS9/6309L2/MODULES/CLOCKS: vfy 
/x0/nitros9/6309L3/modules/clocks/clock_60hz
Length of file: $00000274

Module found at offset $00000000 in this file
Header for    : Clock
Header parity : $8A (good)
Module size   : $0274
Edition       : $09
Ty/La At/Rv   : $C1   $85
System module, 6809 object, Re-enterable, R/O
Exec. off     : $0209
Data Size     : $0000
Module CRC is : $3F2F24 (good)

Bytes read    : $00000274

For the level 3 clock

So until I know better, I am chasing other gremlins.

The krn and krn2 have also had some changes, but I don't think they are 
level specific for more than level2, and should be just fine for level3.

The level2 modules versions of most of these things has been 
"conditionalized" to build level3 versions if the makefile does its part.

It may be that the conditional tests syntax may have to be refined to suit 
lwasm yet.  But it is being worked on.  But I believe the diffs shown 
above are telling me its working.

So, I think we are getting closer.
> 
> I think Kip may have been running a release of Nitros9 L2 v3.0.0 as
> I've seen it in several archives labeled as "L3" which is incorrect.
> It's just L2 v3.0.0,
> 
> 
> 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
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tormod Volden <lists.tormod at gmail.com>
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Thu, Oct 23, 2014 4:32 pm
> Subject: Re: [Coco] NitrOS-9 L3 Code and Disk Images
> 
> On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 3:38 AM, Kip Koon wrote:
> > Hi Tormod!
> > 
> > Are there any plans for reviving the NitrOS-9 Level-3 Code?
> 
> Hi Kip!
> 
> I believe Gene has such plans :)
> 
> I don't know of anyone else. Boisy put this stuff in the repo some
> years ago, but I think the original level3 work from Alan DeKok is
> decades old.
> 
> Other than that the only plans that I know anyone has or had for
> NitrOS-9 is here: http://sourceforge.net/p/nitros9/feature-requests/
> 
> Personally I would like to see it ported to more systems. There is a
> crowd of 6809 lovers outside the CoCo/Dragon scene, which I am sure
> you have seen for instance on the N8VEM list. Getting them involved
> and using NitrOS-9 as a unifying base would be great. NitrOS-9 offers
> the a well defined API to write programs that can run on a CoCo or a
> homebrew 6809 system.
> 
> Generally I think we need more new software running on NitrOS-9, more
> than we need new features in NitrOS-9. But I am not so much into the
> use of NitrOS-9 so what do I know. Of course a lot of people think the
> operating system itself is more interesting to develop than programs
> for it. And I could fit in there, I guess :)
> 
> > How do I put in my own changes into my local copy of the NitrOS-9
> > Repository without the Build process removing said changes every
> > time I try to assemble the source code and make the disks?  I have
> > some ideas I want to play with including cleaning up some scripts,
> > adding other scripts that I think are needed or at least would be
> > interesting and correcting at least one error in a module.
> 
> You can make your own local branch. See "hg help branch" for the short
> story, but read the mercurial documentation and tutorials for better
> explanations. I posted some of these here:
> http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.hardware.tandy.coco/75439
> 
> > Another reason why I'm asking is I have a friend named Bas De Jong
> > who is running a homebrew 68020 VME system he made using wirewrap
> > methods that runs OS-9 68K 2.3 and he wants to add Windowing
> > capabilities to His OS-9 Operating system.
> > 
> > He asked me some questions about the windowing system in NitrOS-9 and
> > I told him as far as I know the default distro disks have no
> > built-in GUI.  Then I remembered the Multivue disks.  I tried the
> > Multivue 6309 DW and Multivue 6809 DW disks in Drivewire with VCC
> > 1.43Beta and neither of them booted.  I also tried to boot the
> > Multivue 6309 and Multivue 6809 disks in VCC Drive 0 with the Drive
> > off Basic command and neither of these booted.  If I remember
> > correctly,  Multivue is the GUI application, but I cannot check it
> > out to get copies of the screen for Bas.
> > 
> > Are the Multivue disks broken or did I make a mistake in my
> > configuration in Drivewire and/or VCC?
> 
> I don't know. Maybe Bill Pierce knows, since he's the most heavy user
> of NitrOS-9 GUI systems that I know of.
> 
> > I tested a version of OS-9 Level 3 once quite a while back and it
> > seemed to work fine, but I didn't have a Coco mouse then so I did
> > not pursue it any further.  Now that I have VCC 1.43beta I'm going
> > to pull it out again and see if it still boots.  Any help would be
> > most appreciated.  Thanks in advance.  Take care my friends.
> 
> So there was a OS-9 Level 3? Interesting. Maybe someone can pitch in
> with some history and background. I have considered it more like
> vaporware, from reading the NitrOS-9 FAQ.
> 
> Cheers,
> Tormod


Cheers, Gene Heskett
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