[Coco] Trouble booting NitrOS9 under MESS 148

[Philip Zeigler]

I'm currently using a Mac so my emulator choice is pretty much limited to MESS for coco3.

I can download the nos96809l2v030209_80d.dsk from the nitros9.com website and successfully boot using ./mess coco3 -flop1 nos96809l2v030209_80d.dsk -video opengl -window

I would like to set up a vhd file to boot nitros9.  I've downloaded RGBDOS from Robert Gaults' site and renamed disk11.MESS to disk11.rom and MESS starts with RGBDOS.

I've created a coco3.vhd zero-byte file using the touch command.  I've run the CREATE.BAS file from the tools.dsk and it does properly create the vhd file with tools on 253 and the boot disk on 254.

The problem I am having is that the boot always fails from the menu or executing DOS 254.

If I use the provided os9boot.dsk I get OS9 Boot Failed.  If I use the provided nitros9boot.dsk I get a screen filled with XMXMXMXMXMXM.  This happens even if I change the extensions from dsk to os9

If I use the 80d disk from nitros9 as the boot disk that I know boots on its own will not boot after it is moved to 254.
BTW, LINK.BAS returns a wrong format when I use this disk.

Anyone have any suggestions how to get past this?

FYI… I can boot directly from the 2 40 track dsk files or the 80 track dsk file but not the dw3 or becker versions.

Thanks,

Philip Zeigler