[Coco] NitrOS-9 Cobbler Problems

[Bob Devries]

Hmm,
It's entirely possible that HDB-DOS will only work with a single-sided (35 
track?) virtual disk. In that case the sector with $4F53 in it will be at 
sector $264. I haven't had any experience with HDB-DOS.

DECB looks for the boot track at track 35 sector 1 side 1, regardless of the 
type of floppy is in the drive.

How about making the 720k descriptor into a single-sided one, format it, and 
re-doing the cobbler? To keep the same disk size, you would need to change 
the number of sides from 2 to 1, and the number of tracks from 80 to 160.

Regards, Bob Devries

--
Besides a mathematical inclination, an exceptionally good mastery of one's 
native tongue is the most vital asset of a competent programmer.

Edsger W.Dijkstra, 18 June 1975

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joel Ewy" <jcewy at swbell.net>
To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Monday, January 04, 2010 4:41 PM
Subject: Re: [Coco] NitrOS-9 Cobbler Problems


> Bob Devries wrote:
>> Yes, Joel,
>>
>> You can use 'ded' to access the disk this way:
>>
>> ded /dx@
>>
>> Where x is the drive number where your virtual disk resides. Then use the 
>> 'S' command and type 4C8 in response to the 'SECTOR =' question. 'Q' 
>> quits back to the command line prompt after the ubiquitous 'are you sure' 
>> prompt.
>>
>
> Ok, I'm coming to the conclusion that the bootable disk images made for 
> Drivewire don't have the boot block in the same place as a floppy disk.  I 
> just tried running the mb.dw3 script to make a new bootable disk image. 
> However, I used it on an existing, blank, 720K disk image and I modified 
> the script so it wouldn't format the image file.  On that disk image, and 
> on the one I had made previously with Cobbler, sector $4C8 begins with 
> $4F53 as we expect.  And neither image boots from HDB-DOS at cold start.
>
> I examined sector $4C8 on two different NitrOS9 Drivewire distribution 
> images, and in neither case did I find $4F53.  So apparently HDB-DOS 
> expects to find the boot block in a different place when it boots from a 
> Drivewire server than when booting from a floppy disk.
>
> I guess there's no reason my disk image has to map exactly to a floppy 
> disk for the Drivewire version, as long as the data I'm putting on the 
> disk can fit on a differently-constituted bootable floppy image, which I'm 
> now realizing will have to be developed separately.  Hmmph.
>
> JCE
>
>>
>> -- 
>> Besides a mathematical inclination, an exceptionally good mastery of 
>> one's native tongue is the most vital asset of a competent programmer.
>>
>> Edsger W.Dijkstra, 18 June 1975
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joel Ewy" <jcewy at swbell.net>
>> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>> Sent: Monday, January 04, 2010 3:58 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Coco] NitrOS-9 Cobbler Problems
>>
>>
>>> Bob Devries wrote:
>>>> If cobbler has done its job right, then you shoul see $4F53 at the 
>>>> beginning of sector $4C8 on a 720K disk.
>>>>
>>>> If it's not there, then cobbler failed somehow.
>>>>
>>>> Be sure that your descriptors are properly set before you use cobbler.
>>>>
>>>> I'm assuming you're using a virtual disk with HDB-DOS? Do you have the 
>>>> DRIVE ON/OFF command set to make drive 0 the virtual drive instead of 
>>>> the real one?
>>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks for the response, Bob.
>>> I'm using only virtual disks at this point, though I have been able to 
>>> access the real floppy drives using the /d0 and /d1 device descriptors. 
>>> I wouldn't think that HDB-DOS' DRIVE ON/OFF command would have any play 
>>> in OS-9.  But in any case, I'm booting OS-9 immediately on power-up, so 
>>> I don't think that's relevant.
>>>
>>> I'm not quite sure how to check the contents of sector $4C8.  Would that 
>>> be the proper LSN if I use 'ded' on the whole disk?
>>>
>>> JCE
>>>
>>>> I'm sure there's other issues, but that's all I can think of right now.
>>>>
>>>> -- 
>>>> Besides a mathematical inclination, an exceptionally good mastery of 
>>>> one's native tongue is the most vital asset of a competent programmer.
>>>>
>>>> Edsger W.Dijkstra, 18 June 1975
>>>>
>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joel Ewy" <jcewy at swbell.net>
>>>> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>>>> Sent: Monday, January 04, 2010 3:08 PM
>>>> Subject: [Coco] NitrOS-9 Cobbler Problems
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Hey everybody,
>>>>>
>>>>> I've been working on a demonstration of using 8-bit composite (NTSC) 
>>>>> artifact colors that I'd like to distribute as a 720K NitrOS-9 disk 
>>>>> image file, bootable over Drivewire 3.  (I may also make a version 
>>>>> that will boot from a regular 720K floppy.)  The slideshow is all 
>>>>> ready to go, but I'm having problems making a bootable disk image.
>>>>>
>>>>> I started with a NitrOS-9 image file that, IIRC, was distributed with 
>>>>> Drivewire.  It is 'nos6809l2.dsk'.  I made some other disk image files 
>>>>> using the Toolshed tools (os9 format -ds -t80 diskname.dsk) and copied 
>>>>> my converted image files onto them, then loaded them up into the 
>>>>> Drivewire server.  No problem.
>>>>>
>>>>> Then I made another blank image the same way, and immediately used 
>>>>> cobbler to put an OS9Boot file on the disk.  Doesn't cobbler add the 
>>>>> proper code to the boot track?  I copied a shell, merged with a few 
>>>>> utilities, grfdrv, and sysgo.  I tested it by hitting reset, and 
>>>>> (after I got all the appropriate files copied) it seemed to boot and 
>>>>> run the slideshow.
>>>>>
>>>>> However it doesn't boot cold.  After typing 'DOS' HDB-DOS simply 
>>>>> returns to the 'OK' prompt.  So it seems as if the boot track is not 
>>>>> being laid down.  I tried 'os9gen -q=os9boot' and I tried deleting the 
>>>>> OS9Boot file and re-running cobbler, but neither of these things made 
>>>>> any difference. What am I forgetting?
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm almost done with this demo... So close...  Need to get some other 
>>>>> work done... :-)
>>>>>
>>>>> JCE
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> -- 
>>>>> Coco mailing list
>>>>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>>>>> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>>>
>>>>
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