[Coco] NitrOS-9 newbie needs some help (Progress!)

[Boisy G. Pitre]

On Aug 10, 2004, at 4:12 PM, Nickolas Marentes wrote:

> 7) Tandy's OS-9 (setup as 40 track, Double sided)  works perfectly!! No
> formatting problems whatsoever!

Ok.  This tells me that there is most likely an issue with the SS.WTrk 
routine in the rb1773 driver.  It *could* possibly be the format 
utility.  However, just to be sure Nick, try the following:

(1) Boot into NitrOS-9.
(2) Insert the stock OS-9 Level Two System Master disk in /d1
(3) At the shell prompt, type: load /d1/cmds/format
(4) Now put a blank disk in /d1 and attempt to format.  This is using 
the stock format utility.  If there are still problems, then its' 
definitely in the driver somewhere.


> CONCLUSION?
>
> 1) My CoCo3 is most likely not perfect (possibly the RAM expansion
> tolerances?).

If OS-9 Level Two formats just fine, then it's a software issue with 
NitrOS-9, not a hardware issue.

> 2) NitrOS-9's formatter is "too fine with very little margin for 
> fault".
>
Here's something additional to try:

(1) Boot into NitrOS-9
(2) Insert a blank disk in /d1
(3) Type: format /d1 1 '35' :4:

This will give an interleave of 4.  The default is 3.  I doubt the 
interleave is the problem, but it's worth a try to see the result.

Boisy