[Coco] EZGen on NitrOS9 level 1

Sat Nov 24 11:57:06 EST 2012

Gene,
It's level 1 so there's no "gshell" that's level2 multivue. It just uses the os9 graphics primatives. It doesn't even use GFX or GFX2. Since it's level 1, It probably cheats and writes directly to the screen as that was the norm for level 1 ML graphics.

Bill

Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
Bill Pierce
ooogalapasooo at aol.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Gene Heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com>
To: coco <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Sat, Nov 24, 2012 11:48 am
Subject: Re: [Coco] EZGen on NitrOS9 level 1

On Saturday 24 November 2012 11:37:36 Bill Pierce did opine:

> Gene,
> This is actually a Nitros9 level 1 bootfile so I doubt it has the extra
> bytes.

The OS9Boot file does not have those..  It is mainly so rsbasic knows its a 
legit fle & what to do with it.

> The whole problem is trying to get InterBank Incident to run on
> Drivewire. I made a Nitros9 level 1 DriveWire boot and then stripped it
> down to nothing but the DW drivers. The bootfile is actually smaller
> than the original Tandy boot installed on the game disk. BUT, after
> booting and trying to run the game, it reports "not enough memory".
> From what I read in the manual to the game, you get that error if there
> is not enough contegious memory to set up a 6k pmode4 graphics screen, 
> and it probably needs 2 screens, one for the game and one to set up
> items to get/put to the main screen. But it may just use one. Anyway,
> the Nitros9 level 1 boot shows more memory usage than the larger Tandy
> boot. The question is, do you know a memory mp progrzam that will show
> memory usage of each system module? pmap & smap only show total system
> usage and not individual usage. I'm suspecting it's the newer shell
> being used by Nitos9 as that seems to be the culprit lately to a lot of
> Nitros9 memory problems.
> 
> Bill P

I wonder if theres a clash of sorts because this game probably uses gshell?  
OTOH, I'm about as far from a gfx guru as you'll get in these here parts. 
:)

Shellplus is considerable smaller than shell21, but ISTR I found there were 
things it could not do, so I personally have not used shellplus in at least 
a decade.  Consequently I am ill equipt to comment on it.  

Any one with more recent experience, please chime in here.

> Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
> Bill Pierce
> ooogalapasooo at aol.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gene Heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com>
> To: coco <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Sat, Nov 24, 2012 10:55 am
> Subject: Re: [Coco] EZGen on NitrOS9 level 1
> 
> On Saturday 24 November 2012 09:35:49 Chester A Patterson did opine:
> > Hi. Level 1 OS9Boot has 4 "lost" bytes that are not part of any OS9
> > module tacked onto the end of one of the bona fide modules, I don't
> > recall now if REL or BOOT or which exactly. What they are I do not
> > know, but they are needed. If you make a new bootfile, EZGen will not
> > add those bytes and OS9 L.1.xx will not boot. If all you do is edit
> > modules, there may be safer (and easier) ways, like DED. If you plan
> > on replacing entire modules, be careful. Replace them ONLY from disk
> > files, not RAM! I personally love EZGen's versatility but for L1 you
> > gotta watch out for those 4 bytes.
> 
> This could be something that my 'vfy' can handle, particularly since you
> are dealing not with the os9boot file, but with the contents of the
> boottrack itself.
> 
> There is extra data on each end of the track 34 image.  If a directory
> entry is constucted for the boottrack so that it is no longer hidden
> from view, then vfy -sk will split that track into its 5 parts as
> seperate files.  Work in an empty directory so they don't get lost in
> the noise. And, once that directory name has been made with
> KRNL_to_DIR, DON'T EVER DELETE IT as that will also free the boottrack
> area of the disk for other uses.
> 
> It can however make it easy to generate a new boottrack by opening it
> for update in basic09, and writing a newly merged, must be $1200 bytes
> long, 'bttemp' file to it.
> 
> Back to vfy -sk
> 
> The first file generated will be the header bytes that identify it as OS
> (two bytes) its size and execution address (4 bytes) then the three
> modules will be identified and saved as separate files.  Anything left
> over, which is actually the IRQ jump table, will then be saved as the
> filler data.
> 
> You can, because the 3 modules in the middle are padded to be a fixed
> size, write a merge list that could have the boot module that boots
> from a floppy, replaced by a boot module that boots from a hard drive
> for instance.  Or the os9p1 module could be replaced with a newer one
> but be aware that the os9p2, because some functions have been moved
> from one to the other to balance the os9p1 used space, that the
> corresponding os9p2 build would have to be used in the OS9Boot.  Since
> rel also has a simplified screen driver, I've not tried to ever change
> that on an L1 system.
> 
> ISTR I wrote a utility that made that boottrack directory entry way back
> in the mists of time.  I haven't used it in yonks, I hope its not been
> lost, but that can also be done with dEd.  Yup, found it, I'll put a
> copy in Genes-os9-stf of my web page shortly.  It is called
> KRNL_to_DIR.  The .B09 version is loadable into basic09, the plain
> version is packed b09 code and if your runb doesn't have the usual
> utils attached, it may not run.  The runb I used back in the day had
> inkey, syscall, and gfx2 merged to it.  So I also put that 'runb' on
> that page, but ISTR there is a patch, a 1 byter IIRC, that has not been
> done to that runb that I can recall doing, and I don't believe its a
> show stopper.
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Bill Pierce [mailto:ooogalapasooo at aol.com]
> > Sent: Friday, November 23, 2012 5:23 PM
> > To: coco at maltedmedia.com
> > Subject: [Coco] EZGen on NitrOS9 level 1
> > 
> > 
> > Hi Guys,
> > Is it safe to run EZGen from a level 2 system to work on a level 1
> > bootfile? I'm trying to build a special level 1 v2 boot and would like
> > to use EZGen. I just don't whether it will mess up the level 1
> > bootfile.
> 
> Ezgen should work on the bootfile, but not on the boottrack Bill.  Disks
> that don't have enough contiguous free space to construct a copy of the
> modified OS9Boot file are its major problem.  You can make it throw a
> non- destructive error a lot faster by using dmode to set the sas of
> that drive to about 98 before sending ezgen into the lions den. That
> will make it search for a bit less than 40k of contiguous space, and
> when it can't allocate that much it will bail out before any damage has
> been done.
> 
> > Any help appreciated
> 
> I hope this helps.
> 
> > Bill P
> > 
> > Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
> > https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
> > Bill Pierce
> > ooogalapasooo at aol.com
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > --
> > Coco mailing list
> > Coco at maltedmedia.com
> > http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> 
> Cheers, Gene

Cheers, Gene
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