Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!uw-beaver!rice!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!texbell!merch!cpe!techsup!qat!joew
From: joew@qat.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.os.os9
Subject: Re: Formatting problems with OS-9
Message-ID: <2600001@qat>
Date: 28 Feb 90 16:06:00 GMT
References: <2469@ektools.UUCP>
Lines: 65
Nf-ID: #R:ektools.UUCP:2469:qat:2600001:000:3064
Nf-From: qat.UUCP!joew    Feb 28 10:06:00 1990



> /* Written  9:14 pm  Feb 26, 1990 by ektools.UUCP!fall in qat:comp.os.os9 */
> /* ---------- "Formatting problems with OS-9" ---------- */
>
> [stuff deleted]
>   I would like to pose a list of questions probably anyone who has
> installed a B&B hard drive adapter/software package might pose.  Some
> of these are simply problems I have no solution (yet) fo.
>   1) Does anyone have the exact data for an ST125 Seagate Hard disk?
> mine is from a stripped AT and I don't have a data sheet.  I used the
> values supplied by B&B but question the accuracy of such values.
>
>   2) I had little success using OS9gen to alter the base system or gen.
> as supplied by Tandy.  I followed B&B's manual on using DDmaker to
> produce a device descriptor for the Seagate ST125.  I selected the
> full function devioce driver: BBFhdisk.dr.  I loaded both H0.dd
> and BBFhdisk.dr into the MODULES directory of the CONFIG disk.
> I ran config and selected the default D0_35S drive and the new
> H0 entry which showed up at the bottom of the menu.  Config
> ran smoothly and produced a bootable floppy.  Upon booting
> the floppy, OS-9 comes up and I was able to format the hard
> drive and store files on it.  I tried then to format a floppy
> on /D0 and am returned a ERROR #244.
>   To check the build, I ran config again and selected all previous
> devices except the H0 hard disk. Booted new gen and was able to format
> /D0 flawlessly.  I'm wondering if the drivers for /H0 and /D0 are
> interfering with each other? B&B is `XT 2.4b' release and OS-9 is
> level II on a CoCo III.  Floppy is FD-502.

I had similar problems on my first attempts so I called for technical
assistance from B&B.  Chris Burke suggested that the problem was the BLOB
(Boot List Order Bug) and recommended that I use his bootfile generator EZGen
to rearrange the order of the boot file.  His suggestion was to move the files
around until I got RBF in the address range of &h2000 - &h2400 or &h4000 -
&h4400 (I think that these are the correct address).  This did improve the
performance some but not totally.  I then decided to rearrange the list order
until I had RBF drivers and descriptors in this order;

         RBF
         CC3Disk
         D0
         D1
         dd
         BBFhdisk
         H0

>
> [stuff deleted]
>
>   4) I'm using to Western Digital `GEN' series of hd disk
> controller.  I soldered the B&B bootable ROM into the controller
> and am not able to boot or produce even an error when
> I have selected slot 3 which is where the hd controller lives.
> It's like the CoCo can't even see the ROM in the controller.
> Do I have to strap addresses on the WD GEN hd controller card??
> B&B doesn't address GEN card configuration.

Do a POKE &hFFDE,0 and PEEK the two bytes &hC000 and &hC001, if they are not D
and K respectively then you probably got one of the bad batch of ROM's like I
did.  Extended basic will not read the ROM into ram and execute it unless
these are the first two bytes out there.  All I had to do was call B&B and
they sent me the correct ROM.

JTW