[Coco] Nitros9 Questions - new Nitros9 user

[Boisy G. Pitre]

On Jul 14, 2004, at 7:37 AM, Charlie wrote:

> I have Nitros9 installed on my COCO3 with a B&B hardrive controller. I 
> have made my own custom boot disk and everything boots up fine and 
> seems to be working.

Congratulations!  It's a big step to get this far on your own.

> I have a couple of questions.
>
> 1st, The distribution Nitros9 disk boots with a 80 collum white text 
> screen when you type dos. My custom boot disk stays in the 32 
> character screen. Not a big deal. I just thought the white boot screen 
> was cool and was wondering why the custom boot disk doesn't have it. 
> Of course when Nitros9 is running it goes to the regular Black on 
> Green 80 character screen. Whats the best way to make that default to 
> white on black?

I presume you used the 'mb' script to make your custom boot disk?  In 
the script, look for rel_32 and replace it with rel_80.

> Can someone explain to me how to create windows. I read the PDF file, 
> but I must admit, I'm lost. What used to work in my old OS-9 startup 
> file to create a couple windows for me at boot up locks Nitros9 up 
> solid. How would I create an 80,40, and 32 collum window? I'm not 
> interested in windows on windows, just seperate full screen windows 
> with a shell. I really need a 32 collum window to play Kings Quest 3 
> :-)

Please post the commands that you type which locks up NitrOS-9.  That 
should never happen, and if it is, then it is a bug and we need to 
track it down.

> xmode /w4 type01
> Shell i+/w4&
> That would normaly make my 32 collum window in os9.

You mean:

xmode /w4 typ=01
shell i=/w4&

If you look in the standard.bl file, you'll see a section for VDGInt as 
well as its descriptors (v1, v2, v3, etc.)  Be sure to uncomment these 
out and they should work fine.

> Last question (for now). I use Ed to edit text files and I noticed 
> under Nitros9 that my joystick isnt working as a mouse pointer 
> anymore. If I can get a 32 collum text screen to start KQ3 I'll see if 
> the joysticks are working at all.

Are you sure you are using joydrv_joy.sb in your standard.bl file?  
What program or test are you using to determine that the joystick isn't 
working?

Again, if this is the case, then it's a bug, and we need to fix it.

> Thanks!
> Charlie
>

So what are your impressions of NitrOS-9?  How painful was it to go to 
a custom boot disk.  Did you find the scripts to be a big help?

Also, are you using the 6809 or 6309 version?

Boisy