[Coco] OS-9 loading NEW WAY

[Richard E. Crislip]

On Wed, 22 Apr 2015 14:24:35 -0400
Gene Heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com> wrote:

> On Wednesday 22 April 2015 09:50:20 Aaron Wolfe wrote:
> > On Tue, Apr 21, 2015 at 1:52 PM, Gene Heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com> 
> wrote:
> > > On Tuesday 21 April 2015 09:55:06 Aaron Wolfe wrote:
> > >> projects.  It offers improvement for existing systems too, for
> > >> instance simplifying the nitros9 boot up while saving precious
> > >> system ram at the same time.
> > >
> > > Can you elaborate on that Aaron?  I could sure use some help with
> > > the sysram squeeze.
> >
> > Brett could definitely explain it better than I can, but the general
> > idea is that there are a few sections of code in a standard OS9 boot
> > process used only for IPL but not freed afterwards.  By using
> > cocoboot to place the modules into ram (and possibly other
> > initialization tasks), this code isn't needed and can be left out.
> >
> > -Aaron
> 
> Since the whole "boottrack" in front of what used to be os9p1, is in
> that category, it would be very nice if that could be relegated to a
> small program similar to boot/rel that did get freed and overwritten
> at some point.  The os9p1/krn functions could then be merged into
> what is krn2 now, potentially saving some sysram we sorely need
> elsewhere.  Once krn is entered to start building the various tables
> it needs in the permanently allocated block 0, quite a bit of that
> could simply be overwritten.
> 
> I am not sure of the implementation details, but it does seem to be a 
> good idea.
> 
> If Brett could elaborate on how cocoboot can accomplish this, its 
> certainly worth the try for a new Nitros9 V4.0, indicating a huge
> change by the version number.
> 
> Cheers, Gene Heskett

I've been following this thread and if I understand what I'm reading,
attempts are being made to get OS9?Nitros9 to auto boot on power up,
correct? Has anyone considered building a custom disk controller ROM
with the necessary code built in, kind of like BIOS on the PC?

My 2 cents 8-) and WAAAYYY beyond my pay grade.

Cheers