[Coco] CocoSDC booting OS9

[Brett Gordon]

yeah...I am dabbling with the idea of cocoboot modifying the loaded ram
copy of the rbf descriptors on boot to match cocoboot's parition table..
much like i do to hdbdos.  But I really this should be OS9's job.  Maybe
ill poke around the RBF code and see how hard it would be.  Logically
speaking, this should be a simple change in the RBF drive instantiation
code.

i do believe that any sort of partitioning should be simple, sit on the
drive it describes (descriptors dont have to be on the drive they
describe), and be OS agnostic. (which again descriptors fail that).

Side note:  The existing BASIC dos's,  other than SDC dos, are pretty much
out of room to implement proper partioning.

food for thought...

-b
On Nov 18, 2014 9:12 PM, "Gene Heskett" <gheskett at wdtv.com> wrote:

> On Tuesday 18 November 2014 11:14:04 Brett Gordon did opine
> And Gene did reply:
> > See inlines, below
> >
> > On Tue, Nov 18, 2014 at 9:49 AM, Bill Pierce via Coco
> >
> > <coco at maltedmedia.com> wrote:
> > > I run all my systems (real and emuled) the way Robert describes. Even
> > > my starter kits are set up this way (I modded the roms with the
> > > offset).
> > >
> > >  I have been complaining for almost 4 years now that a 2nd set of
> > >  hdbdos roms needs to be generated with the ofset at $5A000 and got
> > >  nothing but flack. Now it's slowly coming back on everyone :-)
> >
> > Cool... its nice to know there is some sort of standard HDB offset.
> >
> > > Even the stock Vcc 1.4.2 and it's accompanying vhd (which needs to be
> > > updated to NOS9 v3.3.0) is set like this. This is s atandard set by
> > > Alan deKok when he developed the emudsk driver for the Coco
> > > emulators. SuperIDE uses a different offset, and needs to be sat
> > > different. It's the only odd case I know of.
> >
> > I have a SuperIDE, and with the development of CoCoBoot, I know I have
> > it set to stock, and have set it a million times to:  0x52ddc .  This
> > seems to be another more-or-less standard.  Of course to modernize the
> > two systems,  Disks should probably have a actual on-disk (meta)
> > partition table... PC's have had partition tables for 40 years... why
> > don't we?
>
> We do, but it isn't on the drive, its in the drive descriptor as wpc and
> ofs, signifying the starting address in LBA sectors as a 3 byte value.
>
> There IS empty space in LSN0 to do that, but to use it would take a major
> rewrite of the rest of the nitros9 system.  The descriptor works well.
>
> > > If the roms could become available with the offset, then a copy of
> > > Robert's RGBDOS/HDBDOS Tools disk needs to accompany the roms as
> > > they allow you to use the auto boot feature to boot straight into
> > > OS9 or RSDOS.
> >
> > I'll have to check out Roberts utilites they sound fun!
> >
> > > Bill Pierce
> > > "Today is a good day... I woke up" - Ritchie Havens
> > >
> > >
> > > My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
> > > https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
> > > Co-Webmaster of The TRS-80 Color Computer Archive
> > > http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/
> > > Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
> > > http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
> > > E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Robert Gault <robert.gault at att.net>
> > > To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> > > Sent: Tue, Nov 18, 2014 8:52 am
> > > Subject: Re: [Coco] CocoSDC booting OS9
> > >
> > > Brett Gordon wrote:
> > >><snip>
> > >>
> > >> Usually, I think most user partition there HD's with OS9 at the
> > >> beginning, and HDBDOS *after* it.  With Boisey's Super Driver for
> > >> OS9 you can partition the drive the other way around with HDBDOS
> > >> drives taking the lower partition and OS9 the higher. If you format
> > >> your HD this way, then you have the ability to create a bootdisk
> > >> that is readable from HDBDOS (and the DOS command) solve the Bob's
> > >> proposed dillema.
> > >>
> > >><snip>
> > >>
> > > Maybe you can place the Basic portion first and OS-9 last with the
> > > Super Driver but that would NOT be good. Further there is no reason
> > > to do that with HDBDOS.
> > >
> > > RGBDOS and HDBDOS start in Disk Basic mode and read Basic disks based
> > > on the offset at $D938-$D93A in the Disk ROM. If you want just Disk
> > > Basic then the offset (stock I believe for HDBDOS) is $000000. The
> > > default for the emulators JVC, MESS, and VCC is $5A000.
> > > You can backup a 35-track single sided NitrOS-9 disk to any of 256
> > > drives after the $5A000 break and boot into NitrOS-9 from that disk.
> > > It just requires the correct Boot module and the program LINK.BAS to
> > > correctly set LSN0 in the NitrOS-9 portion of the .vhd drive.
> > > There should not be any reason why the SDC can't work this way and be
> > > compatible
> > >
> > > with all other Coco installations including real hard drives with
> > > RGBDOS. Also, if you don't like Disk Basic, you can have HDBDOS
> > > automatically boot into NitrOS-9 on startup with the use of only 1
> > > or 2 Disk Basic "drives" on the hard disk.
> > >
> > > With real hard drives, the offset is set by the user based on the
> > > size of the drive and the desire or lack of it for OS-9 or Disk
> > > Basic. The original code RGBDOS was written when drives were small;
> > > not like todays monsters. :)
> > >
> > > Robert
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Coco mailing list
> > > Coco at maltedmedia.com
> > > https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Coco mailing list
> > > Coco at maltedmedia.com
> > > https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>
>
> Cheers, Gene Heskett
> --
> "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
>  soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
> -Ed Howdershelt (Author)
> Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
> US V Castleman, SCOTUS, Mar 2014 is grounds for Impeaching SCOTUS
>
> --
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>