[Coco] DW4 Nitros9 and floppy disk access

Sun Jan 13 09:33:58 EST 2019

And more...

If I attempt to os9gen a blank DriveWire 360k floppy:
Os9gen /x1
/dd/os9boot

Then it still complains files are present on track 34!

I run a dheck /x1 and it shows me there are no unallocated clusters and there 1 directory and 1 file.

Is it possible to os9gen or cobbler a DriveWire disk?

Walter

-----Original Message-----
From: Coco [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of Walter
Sent: Sunday, 13 January 2019 10:21 PM
To: 'CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts'
Subject: Re: [Coco] DW4 Nitros9 and floppy disk access

And one last bit of information.

I after rebooted the contents of the floppy can be seen again so the backup didn't wipe it.

However I obviously don’t have something right!

Walter

-----Original Message-----
From: Coco [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of Walter
Sent: Sunday, 13 January 2019 10:14 PM
To: 'CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts'
Subject: Re: [Coco] DW4 Nitros9 and floppy disk access

Some more info.

With the miniFlASH in slot 3 and the FD-502 in slot four.

If I start the CoCo with the MPI selector set to slot 3 I get the behaviour described before.

If I set the MPI to slot 4 then I get the DECB and I can access the floppy but HDB-DOS does not start. But
I suppose this is to be expected.

If I start the MPI on slot 3 again and after HDB-DOS has started I change the MPI selector to slot 4
I can access both DriveWire and the floppy drive.  Now we're talking!

However I'm not sure I like changing the MPI selector while it is on!

Is there a way I can do this via software?

And one last thing.  Only the real Tandy floppy drive works my crazy Chinon floppy drive doesn't work!
I can hear the Chinon floppy trying to read but it just re-attempts several times and then errors.

However at this point let's just forget the Chinon drive. I would like to have both HDB-DOS and the Tandy floppy
working at the same time.

Continuing. Once I get in Nitros9 I can see both DriveWire and the Tandy floppy.

I then attempted to backup a 40track DS floppy to a blank 40TDS.dsk on drive wire and it started.

backup /d0 /x1 #32k

However it crashes with error #248 (media full error).  I can see on DriveWire it gets about 95% of the way
through the backup.

Now I know the virtual floppy was the same size as the real floppy because Drivewire shows the sector count
(1440) and free /d0 showed the same sector count (1440). So I'm not sure why it ran out of media!

The when I "dir /x1" it is blank!!!

Seems the backup didn't work at all!!!

And when I "dir /d0" it is now also blank!!!  It seems to have wiped the source disk during the backup!!!
Lucky that was a spare!

I will put a write protect tab on the next floppy I try!

Walter

-----Original Message-----
From: Coco [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of Walter
Sent: Sunday, 13 January 2019 8:42 PM
To: 'CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts'
Subject: Re: [Coco] DW4 Nitros9 and floppy disk access

Hi Guys

I don’t think my inability to see the floppy drive has anything to do with Nitros9!!!

I can't even access the real floppy drive from DECB.

I have the miniFLASH set to HDB-DOS 1.4 in MPI slot 3 and the Tandy FD-502 controller in slot 4.

I can see the Drivewire server no problem with "drive on" but with drive off the real floppy is not accessed.

Walter

-----Original Message-----
From: Coco [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of Bill Pierce via Coco
Sent: Sunday, 13 January 2019 1:25 PM
To: coco at maltedmedia.com
Cc: Bill Pierce
Subject: Re: [Coco] DW4 Nitros9 and floppy disk access

NitrOS9 does not need the "DISKON/DISKOFF" as that is only for RGB/HDBDOS to access RSDOS disks on the HD. In NitrOS9, the drives are ALWAYS active.
If your system is not recognizing /d0, but all drivers are there, then it sounds like something is corrupt in the bootfile.

-----Original Message-----
From: Walter <zambotti at iinet.net.au>
To: 'CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts' <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Sat, Jan 12, 2019 8:31 pm
Subject: Re: [Coco] DW4 Nitros9 and floppy disk access

I used :

Nitros9-6809L2-3.3.0-dw-30M.dsk (I think I got this from the archive)

It does indeed contain rb1773 and /d0, /d1, d2, /d3

/dd is for /x0 and not /d0 (in this case as it booted off /x1)

Is there an Nitros9 command to do the drive on/off as in BASIC or is this not necessary?

Walter

-----Original Message-----
From: Coco [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of Bill Pierce via Coco
Sent: Sunday, 13 January 2019 1:58 AM
To: coco at maltedmedia.com
Cc: Bill Pierce
Subject: Re: [Coco] DW4 Nitros9 and floppy disk access

Do an mdir and you'll see all loaded drivers. If you used one of the repo disks to create the boot, then you should have "rbf", "rb1773", "d0", "d1", and "d2" (at least) for floppies. Almost all boot disks on the repo include these driver/descriptors.

Also, if you used the standard floppy boot disk from the repo  to create your boot, then /d0 is probably labeled /dd. In a dw boot /x0 should be /dd.

-----Original Message-----
From: Walter <zambotti at iinet.net.au>
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Sat, Jan 12, 2019 11:04 am
Subject: [Coco] DW4 Nitros9 and floppy disk access

I can now boot nitros9 over DW4!

However when I try to access a real floppy on my Tandy FD-502 with /d0 it
returns error #240 (no such unit number)

In OS9 Lvl II the floppy driver was called CC3Disk (I think) which I can't
find under Nitros9.

What driver and descriptors do I need to access my physically connected
FD-502 floppy drives?

Walter

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