[Coco] partial OS9 boot from hard drive (back on topic)

Vern Burke vburke at skow.net
Sun Aug 28 21:31:12 EDT 2005 

<shrug> What I heard was "it's not worth my effort to contribute to the 
answer of this question without being paid", which is just fine. I'm far 
from an OS-9 newbie, although I've been gone long enough to need a few 
minor pointers on some of the odder stuff (1st CoCo in 1981, have run 
all three models, OS-9 Level I, Level II, even have a NitrOS-9 1.00 disk 
in the floppy box). I don't think I asked an unforgivably basic newbie 
question here either (apologies if I did). I just though it would a)be 
fun to get back into something I enjoyed now that I have all this time 
on my hands and b) maybe dig up some of the old software I wrote way 
back along to contribute to the library.

Guess I just sort of figured buying a Cloud 9 product (for which I have 
never asked at any time for support) and investing in another as yet 
undelivered might entitle me to ask one pertinent question "this is what 
I have done, did I do it right?".

Vern


Robert Gault wrote:
> Calm down Vern, Mark did not mean what you think he meant. There is a 
> steep learning curve with OS-9 and sometimes it is worth paying for a 
> service rather than trying to do it yourself.
> 
> The NitrOS-9 Level 2 boot process is described at
> http://nitros9.org/boot_process.html
> 
> Vern Burke wrote:
> 
>> Well, heaven knows I don't want to put anyone out by asking for help 
>> getting this to work, nor was I expecting free paid type support. I'm 
>> simply asking for someone who has done this before or knows more 
>> detail about the OS-9 boot process to either give me a brief rundown 
>> on the steps in the boot process so I can understand where this is 
>> going wrong or suggestions as to what it could be trying to load that 
>> I'm not aware of that would cause the machine to crash.
>>
>> Anyone who doesn't want to answer, feel free to ignore me, everyone 
>> else  who has replied with suggestions, I'm grateful.
>>
>> Vern
>>
>>
>> Mark Marlette wrote:
>>
>>> Vern,
>>>
>>> The files work. The details of getting a distribution setup. I do it 
>>> all the time and it can cause some problems in the process and the 
>>> tool kit required is a good one. My life on the coco is it. That is 
>>> why I offer the free installation on the drive. I have spent more 
>>> time on these two Email's than it takes to do the complete 
>>> installation of the distribution. I don't have the time to support a 
>>> free OS. The SuperBoard will require the same drivers for the SCSI/IDE.
>>>
>>> Mark
>>>
>>>
>>> At 8/27/2005 09:00 PM, you wrote:
>>>
>>>> Mark:
>>>>    It was just the controller (since I have/had a ton of SCSI hard 
>>>> drives hanging around on the shelf). Unfortunately, the recent 
>>>> disintegration of my business under extreme pressure and the loss of 
>>>> almost everything I've worked for for the last 12 years leaves me 
>>>> with no discretionary funds at the moment.
>>>>    I don't believe this is anything that hasn't been done before, 
>>>> but 99% of the question answer volume has been "buy something else", 
>>>> so I'll probably just end up re-shelving things.
>>>>    Regarding NitrOS-9, I was finally able to tease what appeared to 
>>>> be a good disk from the dsk file (now that I understand which 
>>>> distribution file is supposed to be what)(disk and files all 
>>>> readable from stock OS9)
>>>> however it totally refuses to boot (after DOS command, simply drops 
>>>> back to OK). The machine runs stock OS9 fine, has a 63C09E, and 
>>>> completely fails to run NitrOS9 (but runs the old Gale Force version 
>>>> I've still got hanging around on floppy).
>>>>    Maybe I'll bother pulling it back out when the SuperBoard comes 
>>>> around (yes, I've got an outstanding deposit on a SuperBoard from 
>>>> quite some time back).
>>>>
>>>> Vern
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Mark Marlette wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> At 8/27/2005 08:50 AM, Vern Burke wrote:
>>>>> Vern,
>>>>> Don't recall if you bought a SCSI system or just the controller. 
>>>>> The TCC512 is no longer supported because it is replaced with 
>>>>> SuperDriver.
>>>>> If you bought a drive from me then it has a nitros9 directory in 
>>>>> the root with the version you are running below it. Inside of that 
>>>>> directory is a script and bootlist directory that builds the boot 
>>>>> disks for you. If you didn't then you are probably finding out that 
>>>>> $25 isn't to bad for a drive and a free installation. :)
>>>>> If you have HDB-DOS then you will be able to boot directly from the 
>>>>> hard drive at powerup.
>>>>> Get to the current version of NitrOS-9,SuperDriver and HDB-DOS and 
>>>>> you will have no problems. If not enjoy the challenge.
>>>>> Regards,
>>>>> Mark
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> OS is OS9 L2, the SCSI controller is a TCCC/Cloud 9 unit. The 
>>>>>> driver is TCC512 and, yes, the working floppy boot contains the 
>>>>>> driver and /h0 description for the hard drive. I sometimes wish 
>>>>>> for the old days of my CoCo XT and the XT ROM.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> At the time I got mine, and as far as I know still, there is no 
>>>>>> provision to boot this combination without use of a floppy, or to 
>>>>>> load the boot track or os9boot from the hard drive.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I certainly can just make the /dd descriptor the hard drive 
>>>>>> descriptor, the problem is that the boot will not finish with /dd 
>>>>>> set as working directory and /dd/cmds set as execution. The boot 
>>>>>> finshes up /d0 and /d0/cmds and it's a pain in the butt because I 
>>>>>> have to do a manual chd/chx to the hard drive.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Vern
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Robert Gault wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Vern Burke wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Ok, we're straying way the heck off track here :). Lemme lay 
>>>>>>>> this out again:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> What I have to work with:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> A working hard drive and SCSI controller with no support for 
>>>>>>>> booting directly from the hard drive.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Why no support? What SCSI controller and OS? Do you just mean 
>>>>>>> that you don't know how to set up OS-9 to boot from the hard 
>>>>>>> drive or that your SCSI OS can't boot from the hard drive?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> A working OS9 boot floppy with /dd and /d0 as the floppy and /h0 
>>>>>>>> as the hard drive.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Does this working floppy contain a hard disk driver (hdisk) in 
>>>>>>> the os9boot file?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> All the standard disk manipulation tools (ezgen/etc, ded)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> The goal:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Boot from floppy and finish with the hard drive as /dd, the 
>>>>>>>> working directory set to /dd, and the execution directory set to 
>>>>>>>> /dd/cmds.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Just change /dd so that it is the hard drive. There should be 
>>>>>>> substitute /dd modules on the NitrOS-9 80T disk or 40T disk 2 for 
>>>>>>> this purpose.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I will not/can not:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Rewrite BOOT or any other module (I can patch where required, 
>>>>>>>> not a programmer).
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Buy an RS-BASIC replacement.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Meaning what? Again, what disk OS is in use with your hard drive 
>>>>>>> system?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> How do I get there from here? :)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Vern
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -- 
>>>>>> Coco mailing list
>>>>>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>>>>>> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -- 
>>>> Coco mailing list
>>>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>>>> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>

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