[Coco] Nitros9 Boot Process

[Bill Pierce]

Walter, DW allows vhds so /x0 can be the boot/system drive. I use a 128meg (abo) drive for my boot/sys drive and it holds about everything I need to run anything I want. In fact, I run my system a little different in VCC. Since the VCC native HD is 100% faster than the DW drives, I use the VCC HD as my system and DW as my data/storage drives
 
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Walter Zambotti <zambotti at iinet.net.au>
To: 'CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts' <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Tue, Jan 15, 2019 11:29 pm
Subject: Re: [Coco] Nitros9 Boot Process

Robert

Thank for all the info.

> You could turn on HDBDOS Translation and have a boot disk on any DW-4 drive.

I did play around with that but in HDBDOS mode every Nitros9 dw device (/x0, /x1, etc) ends up pointing to /x0 regardless of what I mount on the dw server.

I think you are right in that it would be better to have a separate boot floppy.

I'm not sure how I would arrange this.

Would I do:

/x0 (boot)
/x1 (main drive)
/dd = /x1

So I always have access to the boot to facilitate boot updates.
Or:

/x0 (boot but only initially)
/x0 (switch to main drive)
/dd = /x0
/x1 (boot - mount when needed)

I don't know what is possible!!!

I need some good reading.

Walter


-----Original Message-----
From: Coco [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of Robert Gault
Sent: Wednesday, 16 January 2019 4:15 AM
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Subject: Re: [Coco] Nitros9 Boot Process

The VCCemudisk.vhd should have a boot disk in the Basic drive 255. Drive 253 or 254 will have tools for changing the boot "drive".

What is critical is that the BOOT module on the "floppy" is able to read whatever is used to boot into NitrOS-9 .vhd, hard drive, etc.
Now if you want to have your T34 in the OS-9 partition of your .vhd or hard drive, you can but it requires much more bookkeeping to make sure that OS-9 does not disturb your T34 sectors than if you have a Basic partition on your drive and the boot disk has a 35-T single sided format.

Regards DW-4, you could mount a .vhd in one of those drives. You could boot either from a Basic "drive" on the .vhd if you have a DW-4 BOOT module on the disk and the right driver/descriptors in the OS9Boot file. You could turn on HDBDOS Translation and have a boot disk on any DW-4 drive.

The point is that you can boot from essentially any device into a real or .vhd drive mounted on any device with the required BOOT and OS9Boot file.

You should be able to find what you need in the way of files and scripts in the NitrOS9 nightly builds by looking in the appropriate NITROS9 sub-directory.

Robert

Walter wrote:
><snip>
> Why wasn't this same approach also used for the VCCemudisk? Because then you wouldn't have any DECB floppies???
>
> I'm figuring that I could convert a VCCemudisk to boot without a floppy if I can free track 34 to perform  a successful os9gen.
>
> Walter



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