[Coco] format memory (was) Gotek floppy emulator

[Gene Heskett]

On Monday 15 February 2016 20:29:02 Bill Pierce via Coco wrote:

>  Gene, on both my emulator and real Coco, smap shows 11k free. As I
> said, I can format from the cmd line, but not from within something
> else like the boot script from the ditro disks.
>
> One thing I've noticed is that 3.3.0 does not like older drivers. It
> fares better with drivers built from the same build. Are all your
> drivers in the 3.3.0 boot current? Or did you use some of your older
> custom drivers? I even formatted my 4 gig partions on my Glenside IDE
> with with my current boot.

I did go down & play. I also have 11k free but its fragmented.

Format needs $2b70 worth of memory for its data, or 11,120 bytes.
With the dw cable unplugged, I was able to format a 180k disk, once.

But then an old problem surfaced. This hd boot never lets go of the 
startup file, rendering it read-only to anything else, which means I 
cannot edit to kill some other things I do in it, the startup file  that 
could gain me some memory.  That seems to have been the scene since 
about 3.2.4 or so.  I can copy it,to a renamed file, edit it and save it 
by a different name, and once I have done that I jumped thru a couple 
hoops and managed to delete the original, but last night I saved it with 
a longer name from an older session of minted, twice, without finding 
the filename I had saved it as, so apparently my copy of minted can't 
save a renamed file.

I have to plead that I've forgotten the save syntax of what I call vim on 
my system which is the tsedit with the patch that called it vi, but 
somewhere in the nitros9 history, vi became a device descriptor without 
consulting anyone who was using it as an editor, the best editor we ever 
had as it can handle a file 56k long!

But no consideration to that, so someone destroyed the only editor we had 
that can handle a big file. I tested minted, and it out of memory at 
about 10k for max file size. Dynastar is unlimited, but a PITA to use as 
it only handles 8 or 10k at a time, so I had to use ded to rename it 
vim, no problem there as the original 6 byte space was still there. dEd 
was also used to rename the directory entry to vim.  And I had been 
runing it that way for quite a few years.

So neither vim, nor minted, can now save an edited startup file.  Any 
other file BUT startup, no problem.

The "file exists" is minteds output as it does a error exit. So obviously 
there is something in the startup file than needs an ampersand as its 
end of line. Easy to say, impossible to do when you cannot even edit the 
file.

The mb.floppy script tried to run, but errored out on the standard.bl 
(this is in the 3.3.0 subdir so it would have been all 3.3.0 stuff but 
with my HD descriptors, had it worked. But the standard.bl managed to 
gain 3 dots in front of the .../MODULES/SCF/w4.dw descripter, so it 
bailed out, leaving TemBoot. minted was able to fix that, but then the 
format crash was back no matter how many times I reset it, and I was so 
frustrated I hit the switch and went to bed.

I need to drill another hole in the floor so I can bring the dw cable 
back up and use dw, which that boot has in it. I had to use that hole it 
was in, to get a cat5 to the milling machine in the garage. And with my 
back, thats not an easy job. A spade bit gets this shag rug wrapped 
around it, so the bit, if it can be pulled from the hole as the shag 
melts and sticks to the bit and the floor locking the bit into the 
partial hole, which has to be cleaned up quite a few times to finish the 
hole.  The holes is about 4" deep as it hits a floor joist. And I keep 
forgetting to bring in a contractors razer blade knife so I can remove a 
strip of that 40 yo rug just to get a clear spot to start a new, 3rd 
hole in the floor but straight down but 2 or 3" from the wall so I miss 
the joist.  For me and my crushed disks back, thats back breaking work 
these days.

Sorry if I sound frustrated, but when every tool we have is being 
frustrated by such errors, its catching.  And until I can get that hole 
drilled, I've no way to get any better tools to the machine.

But I'll see if I can get it done in the next few days.

>
> Bill Pierce
> "Charlie stole the handle, and the train it won't stop going, no way
> to slow down!" - Ian Anderson - Jethro Tull
>
>
>
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>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gene Heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com>
> To: coco <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Mon, Feb 15, 2016 6:51 pm
> Subject: Re: [Coco] format memory (was) Gotek floppy emulator
>
>  I cannot format a disk from a fresh reboot. I may hear the drive step
> 2 to 4 times, but then it stops and I see flickering dashes in the
> video, as its crashed.  And it quite often takes several taps on the
> reset button if very quick cadence before it will again do a cold
> boot.  Wash, rinse and repeat.  And my normal boot has at least 11k of
> ram free, but for some reason, is not contiguous, but in 2 pieces. The
> gap I believe is the space between the end of the bootfile in memory,
> and the beginning of the 8k block with shell & some other utils to
> mostly fill an 8k block. The biggest piece has more than enough room
> for the 6144 byte track buffer.I am half tempted to go see if I can
> make format use only the bigger piece of memory as  my vfy can easily
> modify that in the executables header.  If I have any good luck, I'll
> report back.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>-- Coco mailing
> listCoco at maltedmedia.comhttps://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/co
>co


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>