[Coco] Bootlink

[Gene Heskett]

On Sunday 05 May 2013 04:22:01 Kip Koon did opine:

> Gene,
> Wow!  You really have thought this thing through.  I had no idea RBSuper
> would enable me to directly access an HDB-DOS disk.  Thank you my
> friend.  I will be using that tool, er module too!  :)

If you need more than one bank of 256 HDBDOS disks, you could copy the 
existing sh.dd driver to si.dd, use dmode to rename it si internally before 
you even add it to your bootlist.  Now this gets specific to your system 
and how it was laid out when you originally formatted it.  And once the 
numbers have been determined, use dmode -si.dd to set those offset values  
into the modules you will use to generate all subsequent boots.

I was lazy, and keeping track of all that in each new builds bootlist was 
such a pain that since I now do my boot disk generation directly from the 
.dsk image, I wrote a script I keep in the coco3's hard drive that updates 
the .dsk image.  I run it whenever I 'make dsk' in my /opt/nitros9 
directory.

I dw mount that dsk right where it sits, and run this shell script:

{t2|09}/DD:list updt-vdsk
echo * this is to update a freshly made dsk image 
echo * for the broken scsi descriptors being made
echo * at the moment.  Enter drive to update
var.1
cd %1/NITROS9/6309l2/MODULES/RBF
del dds0_tc3.dd
save dds0_tc3.dd dd
del s1_tc3.dd
save s1_tc3.dd s1
del sh_tc3.dd
save sh_tc3.dd sh
cd ../../scripts
copy -r /d0/mb.dw3fd mb.dw3fd
copy -r /d0/mb.dw3hd mb.dw3hd
cd ../bootlists
copy -r /d0/dw3hd.bl dw3hd.bl
echo * "%1" should now be updated

Now, obviously, that stuff on /do needs the correct disk in /d0, or to be 
made into a subdir on /dd, but since I can do a mb.dw3hd straight to /sh on 
wherever I may have it pointed at the time, I could just as easily maintain 
that continuity by copying that stuff from /sh, except they may already 
have been erased by my mb script.  My mb.**** scripts save that stuff to 
the disk being os9gen'd so I can call those up and make another with 
perhaps only one change, or even no changes when its a fresh build of 
nitros9.  That set of modified modules, customised for my machine are 
actually in the dsk you can download from my web page, its the same dsk.

They obviously won't be correct for your system, but then neither are they 
usable as built because there is no way for the build to know what size 
your HD is, or how its partitioned for hdbdos use.

I've left it on /d0 as I usually do boot disk devel on a floppy by running 
mb.dw3fd which creates a floppy boot disk, then once its working as 
desired, switch to mb.dw3hd which generates a track 34 with boot_tc3 as its 
'boot' module.  And because its a dice throw looking for snake eyes where I 
have enough sysram to run format, my mb scripts don't use format, but 
'touch' then 'del' or 'deldir' to clean up the disk just as if format had 
done it.  A bit slower but in my case faster than all the format crashing. 
:)

Now, since its 5:30 in the morning, I've no doubt forgotten something, so 
the usual disclaimers apply.

> Since there has been a lot of updating going on in NitrOS-9 over the
> years, has the documentation been updated to show  each module under
> its new name, what that is in charge of and what it does?

That part unforch is way out of date.  Waaaay out.  I try to keep a local 
changelog but even that is hopelessly out of date.

> I want to play with my Deluxe RS-232 paks and my soon to be Direct
> Connect Modem to RS-232 Pak conversion under NitrOS-9,  but I don't
> know which driver and descriptor module to pick.

For the first one, use t2_sc6551.dd, which needs sc6551.dr as its driver.  
There is also a t3_sc6551.dd. Stock, its addressed at $FF64.  You could 
hack up the modem pack to put it there.  I don't recall exactly what I did 
as that was 20 years ago but its not a huge hack.

> Is there any known modifications for the Deluxe RS-232 Paks to address
> them to different addresses?

That has been pretty much up to the individual as the address decoding in 
the pack is not carved in stone, but subject to the usual exacto knife and 
wire wrapping wire jumpers to get the address you need for your particular 
lashup.  The pack I have in service ATM is I believe at its stock $FF68 
base address, and I have a 2nd one at $FF6C.  All have been rewired 
somewhat as those little aztec switchmode invertors to make +-12 volts from 
5 volts have all smoked over the years.  My main MPI has no PSU parts in it 
as it all runs on an old XT PSU.  Similarly the PSU parts have been 
stripped from my main coco3 as it too is powered by that XT supply.

> Thanks a bunch.
> Kip

Cheers, Gene
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