[Coco] ok i am learning but not fast enough

[Robert Gault]

Richard Hawk wrote:
><snip>
>
> So anyways I type (POKE &HD938,5 : POKE &HD939,&HA0 : POKE &HD93A,0) and I
> have the .vhd in drive 0 in the drivewire.  I can access all the drives 0 to
> 255  no problems.  I copied a nitros9.dsk (one that actuall boots up and has
> the correct clock and all. And it is (good test
> nos96309l2v030209coco3_dw3.dsk 629kb) works well when you boot that up.
>  So anyways I copied it to 255 and run (link:253) and it won't link.  So anyways
> I tried dos 255 and it boots all the way and hangs right before the clock
> and shell prompt
>
><snip>

Richard,

You have the wrong idea about how you use and access OS-9/NitrOS-9 on a .vhd image.

Your .vhd image is split into two sections. The first section is OS-9 and has 
$5A000 bytes. The second section is 256 35-track Basic drives.
The point of POKEing $D938-$D93A is to tell HDBDOS where the Basic drives start.

Now each of the Basic drives is a 35-track single sided "disk". The disk image 
referred to above has $4800 sectors while a 35-track single sided disk would 
have $276 sectors. You can't copy that distribution disk onto the .vhd image and 
make it work as it is much larger than 35-tracks.

The purpose of the LINK.BAS program is to alter the first sector of the OS-9 
half of the .vhd image so that it indicates that the location of OS9Boot is on 
one of the 256 35-track disks rather than in the OS-9 partition. The DOS command 
will load the kernel from the indicated disk in the 256-disk section.
Also the modules in the OS9Boot file on the dw3.dsk think that /DD is a floppy 
not a .vhd disk. That means when NitrOS-9 tries to start, it can't find the 
necessary drive.

You need to create a new boot disk using the dw3.dsk image. The new disk must be 
a 35-track single sided disk and contain the kernel on track 34 and an OS9Boot 
file. You should use one of the scripts on the dw3.dsk to create the new boot 
disk but that script will need to be edited.
The new disk can be BACKUPed to one of the 256 drives on the .vhd image, and 
after using LINK.BAS, booting should work. One caveat, your OS9Boot modules and 
kernel will not be the same version of NitrOS-9 as is on the .vhd image unless 
when you currently boot into NitrOS-9 from the .vhd it says v3.3.0. As a result 
of the mismatch, there could be problems.
The correct method to update a .vhd image would be to replace all the OS-9 
commands on the .vhd image as well as creating a new boot disk.

Robert