[Coco] OS-9 price

[Gene Heskett]

On Sunday 18 May 2014 12:12:31 Tormod Volden did opine
And Gene did reply:
> On Sun, May 18, 2014 at 12:01 AM, Gene Heskett wrote:
> > You can browse the site, and download various versions of it, to
> > match your hardware, in the form of .dsk files.
> > 
> > These .dsk files can then be written to a floppy, on linux systems
> > with the use of dd, but format the disk on the coco first.  Some
> > modern floppy chips do NOT support a 256 byte sector anymore, I have
> > one of those myself.  In that event, I am in a chicken vs egg
> > situation and if I didn't already had OS9 from day 1, I would be
> > looking for some sort of a skyhook to get that first bootstrap.  If
> > your "PC" can't do the 256 byte sectors without upchucking all over
> > the front lawn, then I suspect someone is going to have to mail you
> > the first "get started" floppy, or 2 maybe, one to boot it
> > initially, and a second one with the goodies to make a new boot disk
> > that fits your hardware better.
> 
> You can also start with DriveWire and you would not have a chicken and
> an egg problem. You can boot NitrOS-9 over DriveWire using DWDOS (from
> cassette or RSDOS floppy) or HDBDOS. Then from the running NitrOS-9
> system format the real floppies and copy stuff over.

But ATM I am without drivewire.  The handshaking got into a feedback loop, 
trading about 100k error packets a minute and because all of my bitbanger 
hardware was running on a full +- 12 volts, something got too hot and 
upchucked. I have replaced the salt chip to no avail, I have another, so I 
need to get me a 7808 and 7908, and throttle that old ATX psu that runs 
everything here so it only gets the same +-8 volts a real coco3 would give 
it.  Funny part is, it ran on full voltage for about 20 years, no 
problems.  Until a new version of dw went in with the automatic installer, 
and it seems I had an xml option set that needed nuked with the newer DW.

But progress has been slow. I had a couple nerve blocks put in my back, 
and things are some better, so maybe I can get it apart and trace the 
circuitry from the 6821 to the port and find the real problem in another 
few weeks.  I might even need another 6821 PIA. But those schematics in 
the PDF, are of little help, they were not scanned at a high enough 
resolution to be really usable.  I have a real set, but seem to have 
buried it someplace in the basement, so in addition to making the 8 volt 
regulators, I have GOT to find my big, green 4" binder that had all that 
stuff in it.

> But, yes, it takes a little more understanding and the cable.
> 
> > Once you get going, drivewire can mount those files, even from out on
> > the network, and use them as if they were local disks!  But you
> > won't do that the first day as its initial setup takes some
> > understanding.  You will also need java's jre on the PC, and a
> > special cable that Cloud9tech sells.
> 
> Tormod


Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
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Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
US V Castleman, SCOTUS, Mar 2014 is grounds for Impeaching SCOTUS