[Coco] Trying to build new images

[Gene Heskett]

On Sunday 08 January 2017 11:38:53 Bill Gunshannon wrote:

> On 1/8/17 10:05 AM, Bill Pierce via Coco wrote:
> > Robert, first, he is trying to build a boot from/for L1... A
> > daunting task to say the least LOL Probably not enough memory to run
> > all the needed cmds. In fact, I don't think the shell in L1 supports
> > all the script cmds.
>
> Huh?  What scripts are you talking about?
>
> This is the script from the system that I am trying to use.
>
> -t
> -x
> tmode .1 pau=0
> echo * NitrOS-9 Level 1 Boot Creation Script
> echo *
> echo * This script creates a bootable DriveWire 3 disk image
> echo * using the dw.bl bootlist file.
> echo *
> echo * The resulting disk will boot NitrOS-9 from DriveWire drive 0.
> echo *
> prompt Insert a blank disk in /x1 and press a key:
> echo *
> echo * Step 1: Format disk in /x1
> format /x1 "NitrOS-9 Level 1 Boot Disk" r
> ynn
> echo *
> echo * Step 2: Create a custom boot track
> del bttemp
> merge ../MODULES/BOOTTRACK/rel ../MODULES/KERNEL/krn
> ../MODULES/KERNEL/krnp2 ../MODULES/SYSMODS/init
> ../MODULES/BOOTTRACK/boot_dw>bttemp
> echo *
> echo * Step 3: Create the bootfile and boot track
> os9gen /x1 -t=bttemp<../BOOTLISTS/dw.bl
> del bttemp
> echo *
> echo * Step 4: Populate the disk with essential files
> copy ../MODULES/SYSMODS/sysgo_dd /x1/sysgo
> makdir /x1/CMDS
> copy -w=/x1/CMDS ../CMDS/shell
> echo *
> echo * We're done
>
> What commands are not in Level1?  And, as stated previously, script
> runs to completion with only one error and it's not really an error.
> "del bttemp" fails because at that point "bttemp" does not yet exist.
>
It very well should exist, the merge command above it should have created 
it.  Had it not been there, os9gen should have complained.  However I 
think I see the error above. as I've also had problems with mb, such 
that my mb script does things somewhat differently.

The first thing to try is adding a space in this statement:

merge ../MODULES/BOOTTRACK/rel ../MODULES/KERNEL/krn
 ../MODULES/KERNEL/krnp2 ../MODULES/SYSMODS/init
 ../MODULES/BOOTTRACK/boot_dw>bttemp

so it becomes:

merge ../MODULES/BOOTTRACK/rel ../MODULES/KERNEL/krn
 ../MODULES/KERNEL/krnp2 ../MODULES/SYSMODS/init
 ../MODULES/BOOTTRACK/boot_dw >bttemp

Bear in mind this is an email, and the word-wrap has broken up the line 
in the mb script and the above 3 lines you see here are actually a 
single long line.

And do the same with the os9gen line

os9gen /x1 -t=bttemp<../BOOTLISTS/dw.bl

makeing it:

os9gen /x1 -t=bttemp <../BOOTLISTS/dw.bl

> > 2nd, I've found in most cases those scripts do not work as the
> > syntax for copy does not match the version currently in the repo, so
> > usually, grfdrv, sysgo, startup, and shell (or any of the cmds dir)
> > do not get copied. I think it works with the old copy. There are
> > other problems with those scripts that I have mentioned here on the
> > list as they are old and do not reflect the current repo. Hopefully,
> > that is getting ready to be changed.
>
> I am truly confused by this.  Are we even talking about the same
> scripts?
>
> > 3rd, he's not using hdbdos and is trying to boot from a floppy disk
> > or image.
>
> Well, I am using an HDB-DOS ROM but once youi boot into NitrOS9
> doesn't that just sit on the side lines idle anyway with NitrOS9
> handling all the hardware access itself?  And I am booting from
> Drivewire and trying to build what I thought would be the same image
> built on a different drive.
>
> > And Bill, most people actually build their disk images using the
> > same utilities used to make the disks in the repo which are
> > generated by PC tools (LWTools & ToolShed), and not in OS9.

Something I have never done. LWTools and Toolshed build the full maryann 
of Nitros9 from the sources, and do it about 500x faster if not 
generating the listings. I always mount the .dsk I want to build a boot 
floppy from in one of drivewires x drives, copy into that image the mb 
and bl files that make a floppy image someplace, and then move it to my 
hd as one of the hdbdos disks.
>
> Then why provide the scripts and bootlists at all? Why not just say
> "you can't get there from here?"  I do not have a PC build environment
> and I would really like to do this on OS9.  If I wanted to work on a
> PC I would throw all the COCO's out and just work on a PC.  Heck, I
> don't even run emulators.  :-)

Neither do I, this is a pure linux house, with 5 pc's and one 
raspberrypi, all running linux. And all but this one has a metalworking 
machine attached to it. One of my other hobbies.

AIUI, your system does not have a working big drive. I think that would 
be the first thing I'd do, is getting the hard drive working. However, 
with drivewire working, drive size isn't a limit until you need to up 
the cluster size at about 131 megabytes. So as long as DW is working, a 
x descripter can point to a big enough disk image to hold most of what 
we've done in the last 30 years on coco3's.

I still have some floppies that work, but those are beginning to be rare 
& hard to find.  The drive interface technology has changed so much over 
the last 30 years, such that if Mark or any of our hardware whiz's were 
to try and build an interface to handle a sata drive, I can easily see 
the end product at well above a hundred dollar bill. That won't sell to 
us in enough qty's to pay the bills.  Sad but true.

> bill


Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
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