[Coco] Glenside IDE Controller Question...

Sun Oct 21 20:58:22 EDT 2007

Randy, what is the size of the file you're trying to write?
It should be ~158K if it is a single sided disk image. If it is larger, then 
you need extra switches to tell the programme to use both sides of the 
physical disk.

--
Regards, Bob Devries, Dalby, Queensland, Australia

Isaiah 50:4 The sovereign Lord has given me
the capacity to be his spokesman,
so that I know how to help the weary.

website: http://www.home.gil.com.au/~bdevasl
my blog: http://bdevries.invigorated.org/

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Randy Just" <randyjust at comcast.net>
To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Monday, October 22, 2007 10:53 AM
Subject: Re: [Coco] Glenside IDE Controller Question...

>
> DSKINI A: NitroOS_1.DSK where the long filename was renamed to this
>
> The file appears to be written out --- it just won't boot.
>
> I tried to do a RETRIEVE and was unable to read coco floppies from the 
> drive as well.  I
> have an assortment of drives here.  I have tried this on both a PC/XT 
> (yes, I have one of
> those still) and a PII.  Both systems are using DR-DOS.
>
> Randy
>
> At 05:25 PM 10/21/2007, you wrote:
>>Randy,
>>with regards to DSKINI.EXE, please tell us *exactly* what your command 
>>line is. You may be (a) using the wrong version of that programme, or (b) 
>>using the wrong command line switches.
>>
>>--
>>Regards, Bob Devries, Dalby, Queensland, Australia
>>
>>Isaiah 50:4 The sovereign Lord has given me
>>the capacity to be his spokesman,
>>so that I know how to help the weary.
>>
>>website: http://www.home.gil.com.au/~bdevasl
>>my blog: http://bdevries.invigorated.org/
>>
>>----- Original Message ----- From: "Randy Just" <randyjust at comcast.net>
>>To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>>Sent: Monday, October 22, 2007 10:16 AM
>>Subject: Re: [Coco] Glenside IDE Controller Question...
>>
>>
>>>
>>>Your notes are helpful, but....
>>>
>>>Unfortunately, I have spent a number of hours with this thing and am not 
>>>much further than when I started.
>>>
>>>In particular I am trying to create the pair of NitrOS 9 floppy 
>>>diskettes. I am assuming #1 is bootable
>>>if it is made correctly and I can just type DOS when the Coco boots up.
>>>
>>>At this time, I just get read errors.  This is after trying 3 different 
>>>360K drives under DR-DOS.  I don't
>>>know if DR-DOS has any bearing.
>>>
>>>The *.DSK images indicate 40 tracks --- however, when using dskini, 0-79 
>>>tracks are written.  Confused
>>>on that point.
>>>
>>>As much as I would like to use the Coco with the hard drive, it appears 
>>>this may be a futile endeavor.
>>>
>>>At 01:47 AM 10/20/2007, you wrote:
>>>> >Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 08:07:24 -0700
>>>> >From: Randy Just <randyjust at comcast.net>
>>>>
>>>> >After swapping out a few drives and changing my controller to a
>>>> >FD-501, the thing came to life.  While the IDE card was plugged in
>>>> >and power on, I changed the jumper to 70 from 50 and then the thing
>>>> >starting working.
>>>>
>>>>You really shouldn't change jumpers while things are on.  Talk like
>>>>that make me cringe.  Please don't terrify me, I've had a rough
>>>>day. ;-)
>>>>
>>>> >I am a bit puzzled as I thought the floppy was at 70 and per the
>>>> >Glenside doc, the jumper should be in the 50 setting with a multipak
>>>> >controller.
>>>>
>>>>Yeah, the Glenside docs kinda suck.  The dood threw them together, and
>>>>he clearly knew more about the IDE end then the CoCo end.
>>>>
>>>> >Is there a step-by-step procedure I can find somewhere to get a boot
>>>> >diskette set-up where I can lformat the drive?
>>>> >
>>>> >Also, I see the update files for the IDE controller, but what is the
>>>> >process to get them copied to 5.25" floppy diskettes?
>>>>
>>>>OK, frankly, you've got some homework to do.  First, goto
>>>>http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/nitros9 and download it.  The
>>>>Readme is a good introduction to transfering files and virtual disks
>>>>between CoCo and PC.  (besides, NitrOS is much improved over old
>>>>OS-9).
>>>>
>>>>Once you have a standard floppy-only NitrOS boot, the only other
>>>>software you'll need is the Glenside drivers and utilities, BASIC-09,
>>>>and a good text editor.
>>>>
>>>>Run detect_ide.  Think about what it tells you.  How many partitions
>>>>are you going to create?  As I said before, 1-sector clusters are
>>>>good.  NitrOS can handle bigger clusters, but some of the old OS-9
>>>>software can cause problems because they all assume 1-sector
>>>>clusters.  Is the drive LBA compatible?  There's a bug in makedesc
>>>>concerning CHS partitions.  It's documented with the software on my
>>>>site and rtsi and maltedmedia but I didn't *fix* it in those files.
>>>>
>>>>There are two versions of the driver, one supports 5 partitions and
>>>>the other supports 11.  Choose which driver you will use.  I've had
>>>>much better luck with the drivers which have the zero-sector bug
>>>>fixed.
>>>>
>>>>Then run makedesc.  Something else not mentioned in the Glenside docs
>>>>is that device descriptor names are 3 chars. max.  Regular OS-9 naming
>>>>convention for hard drives is H0, H1, etc.
>>>>
>>>>When you're done with makedesc you should have the device descriptors
>>>>saved on your disk as h0.dd or whatever.  Copy the descriptors into
>>>>NITROS9/6809LII/MODULES/RBF.  Copy the proper driver into the same
>>>>directory.  Note the file names.
>>>>
>>>>In NITROS9/6809LII/BOOTLISTS, make a copy of standard.bl.  Call it
>>>>original.bl or whatever.  Edit standard.bl.  In the RBF section, add
>>>>the glenside driver and the descriptors.
>>>>
>>>>In ...6809LII/BOOTSCRIPTS, run the "mb" script to make a new bootdisk.
>>>>When that's done, use dsave to copy the files on disk 1 to your new
>>>>boot(use help to check the syntax of dsave, it has changed from the
>>>>original).  Add the glenside utilities.
>>>>
>>>>Reboot with your new boot disk.  If the gods are pleased it'll boot
>>>>and you can lformat /h0.
>>>>
>>>>No, this isn't the quickest or easiest way to make a new boot disk,
>>>>perhaps, but it's the way with the most control and the most
>>>>educational.  Once you understand all of this, then you can play with
>>>>ezgen or whatever.
>>>>
>>>>The last, and perhaps fussiest, step.  When you've copied stuff onto
>>>>/h0 and you're confident everything's working, you can make a new DD
>>>>descriptor.  Either use makedesc and be very careful to give it the
>>>>same parameters as H0, or edit a copy of your H0.dd with ded, changing
>>>>the name to DD (make sure the 0'th bit of the second "D" is set).
>>>>Make a new bootdisk, replacing dd_ds40 with your new dd_ide.  If you
>>>>can get this to work, it's the next best thing to having a IDE aware
>>>>boot ROM. When you boot NitrOS, it will load os9boot and cmds/grfdrv
>>>>off the floppy, then switch to the ide drive for everything else.
>>>>
>>>>Willard
>>>>--
>>>>Willard Goosey  goosey at sdc.org
>>>>Socorro, New Mexico, USA
>>>>"I've never been to Contempt!  Isn't that somewhere in New Mexico?"
>>>>    --- Yacko
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>--
>>>>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
>>
>>
>>--
>>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 