[Coco] Nitros and Drivewire question

[Frederick D Provoncha]

> Is it possible to install Nitros from a PC to a CoCo using 
> the Drivewire?  The reason why I ask is that it would be 
> nice to use the PC's resources to either download Nitros 
> to the PC then install from the PC to the CoCo or intall 
> off of a CD ROM on the PC to the CoCo.
> 
> It would be nice to have a boot floppy for the CoCo which 
> would synch up the CoCo with the PC via drivewire then 
> complete the install using the PC's resources.  
> 
> I hope I'm clear enough with my explanation and I hope 
> this isn't too dumb a question.  
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> -Jim 

Hey Jim,

The answer is YES! That is exactly what I just succeeded in doing a few
days ago. I've had trouble for a few months now reading 40-track,
double-sided disks on my Coco, and so I had been unsuccessful in
installing the latest version of Nitros, which comes on 40dsdd disks. So
I came across the idea of using Drivewire to install the latest version
of NitrOS-9 on my Coco. All you have to do is install Drivewire on your
Coco and your PC, and then download the latest NitrOS-9 disk images from
www.nitros9.org and attach them to the Drivewire server software
following the instructions provided in the Drivewire manual.

Next, take the 5 1/4" disk that comes with Drivewire, put it in your
Coco's floppy drive, and type "DOS". The coco will then access the
Drivewire server on the PC and boot NitrOS-9 from the disk image attached
to the server. And away you go! Once you're at that point you can use the
scripts provided with the NitrOS-9 distribution to create new boot disks
and customize your system.

Fred Provoncha