[Coco] Need help using ram drive as default drive

Thu Jun 23 15:52:14 EDT 2011

-----Original Message-----
>From: gene heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com>
>Sent: Jun 22, 2011 8:03 PM
>To: coco at maltedmedia.com
>Subject: Re: [Coco] Need help using ram drive as default drive
>
>On Wednesday, June 22, 2011 11:25:20 PM Vanderberg Family did opine:
>
>> Thanks for responding.
>> 
>> I seem to have misled all of you.  I will try again.
>> 
>> I am not in a position to buy a hard drive controller so I am faking it
>> in a very small way with ramdisk.
>> 
>> Goal - ramdisk as default drive so help and error files work quickly
>> enough to be of use and /d0 not required as it is my work disk (80t
>> 720k).  /d1 is mostly used to quickly load ramdisk with prebuilt ram
>> disk images.  At this time I routinely use 3 images (from diff
>> floppies).  #1=CMDS, SYS, et.,  #2=Basic09 stuff I don't want wasting
>> space on ram drive normally and #3=Game & App stuff when diff config is
>> required.  So in essence I have a ram-based hard drive which can be
>> quickly reloaded with the appropriate image.  Normally of course it
>> contains CMDS, SYS, etc.  Also provides a way to retain some data
>> through boot for use in another config.  Reminds me of one I used years
>> ago with small scsi drives mounted in removable trays - swap a drive &
>> it is a whole diff machine.
>> 
>> There have been several answers assuming requirements beyond what I am
>> trying to do (interesting ideas, though). On cold boot I format ram
>> drive and restore the CMDS-SYS image from /d1, chx /r0/cmds and i'm
>> hot. On warm boot I only need to chx /r0 and there we are.
>> This all works fine and saves me a lot of frustration.  The only flaw is
>> not having helpmsg & errmsg - Boo.
>
>That is fixable if you have disk space enough to afford to have duplicate 
>files laying about.  Copy the helpmsg and errmsg files to the ramdisk as 
>is.  But copy the help and error utils from a separate directory containing 
>copies that you have fixed with dEd so they are then using /r0/sys instead 
>of /dd/sys to look for the *msg files.

Thank you and I will try that if I cannot get the stock /ddr0 descriptor to work.  If I start modifying other modules I start losing standardization with everyone else.  But to do as you suggested, do you think the helpmsg and error commands would be the right place to start making mods?  Or is it somewhere deeper in the OS?

>
>> Mention was made of actually booting
>> to ram disk for warm boots (Would love to if possible - call that phase
>> 2). Someone also suggested prepopulating ramdisk in rsdos (OK, way
>> beyond my skills and maybe overkill? like the idea, though).  However,
>> just using ram drive as default, not necessarily boot, is all I really
>> need.  Sounds easy.  Not for me - see below.
>> 
>> Also, to answer, I use cobbler only to reflect dmoded changes to the
>> current boot disk.  Sysgo in memory crept in when I started over with
>> stock standard.bl without quite enough attention (too much coffee I am
>> afraid) Using os9gen and your standard.bl (with mods for my hardware,
>> of course) to create boot disk - works fine - boots fine as above.
>> Problem comes in when I comment /ddd0 and enable /ddr0 in standard.bl.
>> - making only that change, My boot fails with >>>>> Pipe Clock Clock2
>> i2xtot*g
>
>That is a change, (you posted a *j previously) look up the ascii value for 
>a lowercase g, add 128 and that is the error you have encountered, doing 
>that in my rusty & aged wet ram says the g=103+128=241, and that comes back 
>as a 'Sector Error'.
>

Yes, that is a change - from my brain to my fingertips. was really Pipe Clock Clock2 i2xtot*j (module not found?)
Last night I started all overwith orig distrib disk -no mods
Rebuilt using all stock descriptors for all hardware to eliminate any self-inflicted errors.
I really thought that it would work - /ddr0 SHOULD work as default drive, or why does it exist?
Same results exactly.
If I gen using /ddd0 as default, everything is great (no progress, but it works as it should) however if I change to /ddr0 with no other changes in my standard.bl for os9gen, the boot fails with 12xtot*j
>Humm, so my next question is: are the /r0.dd and /ddr0.dd descriptors you 
>are using an exact match except for the internal name and crc?

They weren't and I thought that may be the problem which is why I started over from distrib disks.  No luck

> 
>> I tried the above stock and also after copying /r0_192k.dd to
>> /ddr0_192k.dd and using ded to modify the R0 reference to DD (44 C4 -
>> correct?)
>
>Yes.
>
>> to try to avoid the expected /ddr0 choke on the preexisting
>> /r0 with diff format.  Did this make sense to you?
>
>Post a dump of the /ddr0.dd you are trying to use, please.

I can, but I am now using the orig so I don't think you really want to see them now.

>
>> In other words, I am trying to change a working standard.bl to use the
>> /ddr0 descriptor from the distrib disk. So, my question is what needs
>> to be done in addition to selecting the /ddr0 descriptor in order to
>> enable ram drive as default?  If I am thinking correctly, that change
>> will achieve all I have described.  THEN I can think about /r0 as a
>> boot device on warm boots - another question for another day.
>
>A warm boot from the ramdisk, unless you can figure out how to swap the 
>boot module that is in memory, cannot be done.  However you can make 
>everything run from /r0 by editing sysgo and fixing the help and error 
>files I alluded to above.
>

Not trying to boot from ram disk - booting from /d0, just trying to establish /ddr0 as default, not boot.

>I assume we are talking about a half meg coco3 here, which will eventually 
>run out of /r0 to add stuff to.  I have a 2 meg disto kit in mine that I 
>have used at 1.7 megs, but those haven't been on fleabay anytime I know of, 
>fleabay itself is too new.
> 

Yes, my mother told me envy was bad so I should wish I had your 2-meg and you had a better one <grin>
I understand the limitations and accept them, however for my purposes the size works well.  I format the /r0 to match my 40tSS /d1 which allows me to flash a whole new (albeit tiny) hard drive in about 30 seconds using backup.  Far better than dsave to repopulate ram drive.  So I have a prebuilt image (from diskette) on ram drive to match my current purpose.  #1 CMDS, SYS, etc.   #2 Basic09, support files and progs   #3 Games requiring diff setup or that access a drive for routines (speed)  #4 Multi-Vue (just playing).
My point is that withing 30 seconds I have a small "harddrive" custom tailored to my current task.  This only works well as the /r0 is formatted identical to /d1 so for me, maybe only 512k is a blessing.

Has anyone actually used any of the /ddr0 default ram drive descriptors?

And again I thank you and all others for the help.
Ed
>> 
>[snip]
>
>Cheers, gene
>-- 
>"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
> soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
>-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
>UNIX is many things to many people, but it's never been everything to 
>anybody.
>
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