[Coco] Booting OS9 on my CoCo 3

Tue Aug 8 14:26:36 EDT 2017

Hi Dave,
Since you are trying to use the floppy drive for the first time is years, I don't suppose you can make a disk image of this floppy so I can test it in my 512KB Coco 3?  Do you have a PC with a 3.5" floppy drive you can use to make the disk image file?
I don't remember how much memory was left over after booting the Original OS-9 master boot disk in a 128KB Coco 3 because it has just been too long ago.  The number 8KB does come to mind.  It wouldn't have been much more than that.  I can say that after booting one of the recent release disks from earlier versions of NitrOS-9 that I could take a directory listing but I definitely could NOT run format much less start up a ramdisk.  So I would concur that for that particular OS-9 master boot disk with ramdisk you mentioned, you will definitely need at least 512KB of ram to get it to boot and run on your Coco 3.  
Now, if you can get Drivewire 4 running on your PC or Linux box and connect it up to your 128KB Coco 3, you should be able to get one of the current unaltered NitrOS-9 release disk images to boot.  Of course that is about all you can do with 128KB, but at least you could dir all your 3.5" disks.  
If you need me to help you put something special together to boot the 128KB Coco 3, then I can create a floppy only version of NitrOS-9 so you can test your new hardware setup.  I could also grab the original OS-9 master boot disk and send it to you if that's what you would like to use.  
Let me know what you think.  I'll help you in any way I can.  Take care my friend.

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

-----Original Message-----
From: Coco [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of Dave Philipsen
Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2017 11:47 AM
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [Coco] Booting OS9 on my CoCo 3

In fact, that may be the solution to all of my problems.  The only 
reason I'm trying to boot from a floppy is to take a look at all of my 
old disks to see if there's anything I want from way back.  I'm 
especially interested in seeing if I still have the original source code 
for SuperComm.  The source that's floating around now was Randy Wilson's 
disassembly and is missing a lot of good comments.  There are also some 
other projects that I had worked on that would be fun to resurrect...

Dave

On 8/8/2017 10:42 AM, Dave Philipsen wrote:
> Yeah, that might be a good idea. The only problem is that I'm not 
> exactly sure what I'll need in the CoCo3, software-wise, to accomplish 
> that.  Is it best to boot from an alternate disk system with dw 
> support built in?  I can easily burn a new ROM if you can direct me to 
> an image.
>
> Dave
>
>
> On 8/8/2017 10:37 AM, Bill Pierce via Coco wrote:
>> Dave, I agree with Robert. It could be that you have 128k and the 
>> boot is requiring 512k due to the ramdisk.
>>
>> Why not make a drivewire cable, boot from drivewire, then you can 
>> explore/modify your real disks and see what the problem is.
>>
>>
>>
>> Bill Pierce
>> "Charlie stole the handle, and the train it won't stop going, no way 
>> to slow down!" - Ian Anderson - Jethro Tull
>>
>> My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
>> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
>> Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
>> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
>>
>> E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Dave Philipsen <dave at davebiz.com>
>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>> Sent: Tue, Aug 8, 2017 3:12 am
>> Subject: [Coco] Booting OS9 on my CoCo 3
>>
>> Ok, so it's been a REAL long time since I booted OS9 on my real CoCo 
>> 3 from a floppy disk.  Like almost thirty years.  So I picked up a 
>> used FD501 controller from eBay awhile back and I just now hooked up 
>> a 3.5" floppy to it.  I can format a floppy and I can save/load 
>> programs from it.  But when I try to boot an old disk (probably 30 
>> yrs old) I get the familiar "OS9 BOOT" screen and then the floppy 
>> does a seek at what sounds like a faster step rate and then it does 
>> nothing.  Frozen with "OS9 BOOT" on the screen and the floppy is 
>> still selected with the motor running.This is a very old boot disk 
>> that I labeled "OS9 Level II System Master with ramdisk".  My old 
>> setup was a CoCo 3 with 512K and a multipak and one of the old 
>> full-size floppy controllers and an RS232 Pak.  My new setup is a 
>> CoCo 3 with 128K, no MPI,  the FD501, and a 63C09.I've got some 5.25" 
>> OS9 disks too but I don't currently have a 5.25" drive so I'm hoping 
>> to get things worked out with the 3.5" drive. It may be that the 
>> floppy is just so old it's lost some of its retentivity but I just 
>> thought I'd put it out there to see if anyone has an idea. Maybe I'm 
>> missing something obvious.  The FD501 does not seem to work at 
>> hi-speed. Could that be the problem?Dave-- Coco mailing 
>> listCoco at maltedmedia.comhttps://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>
>
>
>

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