[Coco] NitrOS-9 Cobbler Problems

Bob Devries devries.bob at gmail.com
Mon Jan 4 04:00:29 EST 2010 

One of the things I've found with the various NitrOS9 distros is that you 
can't make a bootable disk from the scripts, unless you booted from the boot 
disk in the distro. I don't know why that is, but that's what my experience 
has been.

--
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 7:29 PM
Subject: Re: [Coco] NitrOS-9 Cobbler Problems


> Bob Devries wrote:
>> 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.
>>
>
> I tried the mb-dw script, unmodified, and it created a single-sided disk 
> image that has over 1000 tracks.  The boot record was apparently in a 
> different location from $4C8.  But it still didn't boot.  I'm now going to 
> hack up a copy of one of the disk images that comes with Drivewire, erase 
> all extraneous stuff, and put the slideshow on that.  If that doesn't 
> boot, I really don't understand what's going on...
>
> JCE
>
>> 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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>>>>>
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