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@@ -2,7 +2,8 @@
## Z80/Z180 System Software
Version 2.9.2 of March 18, 2020
Version 2.9.2
Friday 20 March 2020
Wayne Warthen <wwarthen@gmail.com>
@@ -26,7 +27,7 @@ RomWBW provides a complete software system for a wide variety of
hobbyist Z80/Z180 CPU-based systems produced by these developer
communities:
- [Retrobrew Computers](https://www.retrobrewcomputers.org)
- [RetroBrew Computers](https://www.retrobrewcomputers.org)
- [RC2014](https://rc2014.co.uk)
- [retro-comp](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/retro-comp)
@@ -79,11 +80,12 @@ distributions are found on the [releases
page](https://github.com/wwarthen/RomWBW/releases) of the repository. On
this page, you will probably see both pre-releases as well as normal
releases. Unless you have a specific reason, I suggest you stick to the
most recent normal (not pre-release) release. Expand the “Assets”
most recent normal release (not pre-release). Expand the “Assets”
drop-down for the release you want to download, then select the asset
named RomWBW-vX.X.X-Package.zip. The Package asset includes all
pre-built ROM and Disk images as well as full source code. The other
assets called Source Code do not have the pre-built ROM or Disk Images.
assets are Source Code only and do not have the pre-built ROM or disk
images.
The pre-built ROM images will automatically detect and support a
reasonable range of devices including serial ports, video adapters,
@@ -109,13 +111,13 @@ directory contains the pre-built ROM and disk images. The ROM image
files all end in “.rom”. Based on the table below, **carefully** pick
the appropriate ROM image:
| Platform | ROM Image File | Baud | Description |
| ------------- | --------------- | ------ | ----------------------------------------------- |
| SBC V1/V2 | SBC\_std.rom | 38400 | RetroBrew SBC v1 or v2 ECB Z80 |
| Zeta V1 | ZETA\_std.rom | 38400 | RetroBrew Zeta V1 Z80, ParPortProp (optional) |
| Zeta V2 | ZETA2\_std.rom | 38400 | RetroBrew Zeta V2 Z80, ParPortProp (optional) |
| N8 | N8\_std.rom | 38400 | RetroBrew N8 Z180, date code \>= 2312 |
| Mark IV | MK4\_std.rom | 38400 | RetroBrew Mark IV ECB Z180 |
| Platform | ROM Image File | Baud | Description |
| ------------- | --------------- | -----: | ----------------------------------------------- |
| SBC V1/V2 | SBC\_std.rom | 38400 | RetroBrew SBC v1 or v2 ECB Z80 |
| Zeta V1 | ZETA\_std.rom | 38400 | RetroBrew Zeta V1 Z80, ParPortProp (optional) |
| Zeta V2 | ZETA2\_std.rom | 38400 | RetroBrew Zeta V2 Z80, ParPortProp (optional) |
| N8 | N8\_std.rom | 38400 | RetroBrew N8 Z180, date code \>= 2312 |
| Mark IV | MK4\_std.rom | 38400 | RetroBrew Mark IV ECB Z180 |
| RC2014 Z80 | RCZ80\_std.rom | 115200 | RC2014 w/ Z80 CPU, requires 512K RAM/ROM module |
| RC2014 Z180\* | RCZ180\_ext.rom | 115200 | RC2014 w/ Z180 CPU & 512K banked RAM/ROM module |
| RC2014 Z180\* | RCZ180\_nat.rom | 115200 | RC2014 w/ Z180 CPU & 512K native RAM/ROM module |
@@ -123,12 +125,12 @@ the appropriate ROM image:
| SC126 | SCZ180\_126.rom | 115200 | Stephen Cousin’s SC126 Z180 |
| SC130 | SCZ180\_130.rom | 115200 | Stephen Cousin’s SC130 Z180 |
| SC131 | SCZ180\_131.rom | 115200 | Stephen Cousin’s SC131 Z180 |
| Dyno | DYNO\_std.rom | 38400 | Steve Garcia’s Z180 Dyno Computer |
| Dyno | DYNO\_std.rom | 38400 | Steve Garcia’s Z180 Dyno Computer |
\*The RC2014 Z180 requires a separate RAM/ROM memory module. There are
two types of these modules and you must pick the ROM for your type of
memory module. The “ext” ROM supports Spencer’s official 512K RAM/ROM
banked memory module. The “nat” ROM supports any of the thrid-party Z180
banked memory module. The “nat” ROM supports any of the third-party Z180
native memory modules.
RomWBW will automatically attempt to detect and support typical add-on
@@ -136,8 +138,8 @@ components for each of the systems supported. More information on the
required system configuration and optional supported components for each
ROM is found in the file called “RomList.txt” in the Binary directory.
All pre-built ROM images are simple 512KB binary images. If your system
utilizes a 1MB ROM, you can just program the image into the first 512KB
of the ROM.
utilizes a larger ROM chip, you can just program the image into the
first 512KB of the ROM.
Connect a serial terminal or computer with terminal emulation software
to the primary serial port of your CPU board. You may need to refer to
@@ -184,16 +186,19 @@ not been updated and the next time you boot your system, it will revert
to the system image contained in ROM. You may find that you are unable
to load the .com file because it is too large to fit in available
application RAM (TPA). Unfortunately, in this case, you will not be able
to use the .com file to start your system.
to use the .com file mechanism to start your system.
If you do not have easy access to a ROM programmer, it is entirely
If you do not have easy access to a ROM programmer, it is usually
possible to reprogram your system ROM using the FLASH utility from Will
Sowerbutts. This application called FLASH.COM can be found on the ROM
drive of any running system. In this case, you would need to transfer
the new ROM image (.rom) over to your system using XModem. The ROM image
will be too large to fit on your RAM drive, so you will need to transfer
it to a larger storage drive. Once the ROM image is on your system, you
can use the FLASH application to update your ROM:
the new ROM image (.rom) over to your system using XModem (or one of the
other mechanisms described in the Transferring Files section below). The
ROM image will be too large to fit on your RAM drive, so you will need
to transfer it to a larger storage drive. Once the ROM image is on your
system, you can use the FLASH application to update your ROM. The
following is a typical example of transferring ROM image using XModem
and flashing the chip in-situ.
E>xm r rom.img
@@ -226,9 +231,9 @@ device yet. Review the boot messages to see if any issues have occurred.
Once you are satisfied that the ROM is working well, you will need to
update the system images and RomWBW custom applications on your disk
drives. The system images and custom applications are matched to the
RomWBW ROM firmware in use. If you attempt to use a disk or applications
that have not been updated to match the current ROM firmware, you are
likely to have odd problems.
RomWBW ROM firmware in use. If you attempt to boot a disk or run
applications that have not been updated to match the current ROM
firmware, you are likely to have odd problems.
The simplest way to update your disk media is to just use your modern
computer to overwrite the entire media with the latest disk image of
@@ -272,7 +277,8 @@ The systems supported by RomWBW all have the ability to use persistent
disk media. I am referring to all kinds of disk devices including floppy
drives, hard disks, CF Cards, and SD Cards. Some systems have disk
interfaces built-in, while others will require add-in cards. You will
need to refer to the documentation for your system.
need to refer to the documentation for your system for your specific
options.
In the RomWBW bootup messages, you will see hardware discovery messages.
If you have a disk drive interface, you should see messages listing
@@ -304,7 +310,7 @@ an example of this:
C:=IDE0:0
D:=IDE0:1
You will probably see mroe drive letters than this. The drive letter
You will probably see more drive letters than this. The drive letter
assignment process is described in more detail later in this document.
Be aware that RomWBW will only assign drive letters to disk interfaces
that actually have media in them. If you do not see drive letters
@@ -322,13 +328,13 @@ is also explained later in this document.
Once you are seeing drive letters referring to your disk media, you can
follow the instructions below to begin using the disk media with the
operating system. Your disk media **must** be initialized prior to be
operating system. Your disk media **must** be initialized prior to being
used. There are two ways to initialize your media for use.
You can initialize the media in-place using your RomWBW system. This
process is described below under Disk Initialization. In this scenario,
you will need to subsequently copy any files you want to use onto the
newly initialized disk.
newly initialized disk (see Transferring Files).
Alternatively, you can use your modern Windows, Linux, or Mac computer
to copy a disk image onto the disk media. RomWBW comes with a variety of
@@ -343,40 +349,38 @@ filesystem. On RomWBW, the initialization is done using the CLRDIR
application. For example if your C: drive has been assigned to a storage
device, you would use `CLRDIR C:` to initialize C: and prepare it hold
files. Note that CLRDIR will prompt you for confirmation and you must
respond with a **capital** ‘Y’ to confirm. Once CLDIR has completed, you
can copy files onto the drive, for example `COPY *.* C:`. Be very
respond with a **capital** ‘Y’ to confirm. Once `CLDIR` has completed,
you can copy files onto the drive, for example `COPY *.* C:`. Be very
careful to pay attention to your drive letter assignments prior to
running CLRDIR to avoid accidentally wiping out a filesystem that has
running `CLRDIR` to avoid accidentally wiping out a filesystem that has
data on it.
Running CLRDIR on a disk device is roughly equivalent to running FORMAT
on MS-DOS. Note that unlike MS-DOS you do **not** partition your mass
storage device. CP/M knows nothing about disk partitions. You may notice
a partitioning application on your ROM disk (FDISK80), but this is
strictly for an advanced technique of adding an MS-DOS FAT filesystem to
your media in addition to the CP/M area. Do not use FDISK80 unless you
are specifically attempting to add an MS-DOS FAT filesystem to your
Running `CLRDIR` on a disk device is roughly equivalent to running
FORMAT on MS-DOS. Note that unlike MS-DOS you do **not** partition your
mass storage device. CP/M knows nothing about disk partitions. You may
notice a partitioning application on your ROM disk (FDISK80), but this
is strictly for an advanced technique of adding an MS-DOS FAT filesystem
to your media in addition to the CP/M area. Do not use FDISK80 unless
you are specifically attempting to add an MS-DOS FAT filesystem to your
media.
If you are using a floppy drive, you will need to physically format your
floppy disk prior to use. This is only required for floppy disks, not
hard disk, CF Cards, or SD Cards, etc. To format a floppy drive, you can
use the interactive application FDU. FDU is not terribly user friendly,
but is generally documented in the file “FDU.txt” found in the Doc
directory of the distribution. It is not necessary to run CLRDIR on a
floppy disk after physically formatting it – the directory is cleared as
part of the formatting.
## Booting Disks
use the interactive application `FDU`. FDU is not terribly user
friendly, but is generally documented in the file “FDU.txt” found in the
Doc directory of the distribution. It is not necessary to run `CLRDIR`
on a floppy disk after physically formatting it – the directory is
cleared as part of the formatting.
Once you have initialized a disk device and copied your desired files
onto it, you may want to boot directly to this disk device at startup.
On CP/M filesystems, you must perform one additional step to make a disk
bootable. Specifically, you need to place a copy of the oeoprating
system on the system tracks of the disk. This is done using the
`SYSCOPY` command. Let’s say you have prepared drive C: by initializing
it with `CLRDIR` and copied some files onto it. You can now make C:
bootable by running the following command:
onto it, you may want to make the disk bootable. On CP/M filesystems,
you must perform one additional step to make a disk bootable.
Specifically, you need to place a copy of the operating system on the
system tracks of the disk. This is done using the `SYSCOPY` command.
Let’s say you have prepared drive C: by initializing it with `CLRDIR`
and copied some files onto it. You can now make C: bootable by running
the following command:
`B>SYSCOPY C:=B:ZSYS.SYS`
@@ -395,49 +399,9 @@ you want CP/M 2.2 instead, you would replace `B:ZSYS.SYS` with
Transfer system image from B:ZSYS.SYS to C: (Y/N)? Y
Reading image... Writing image... Done
After successfully putting the operating system on the disk, you can
restart your system. When you get to the boot loader, notice the line
starting with “Disk:”. This line lists the disk devices that you can
choose to boot directly.
You will notice that you do not have an option to boot a drive letter
here (like C:). This is because the operating system is not yet loaded.
When you ran `SYSCOPY` previously, remember that C: was assigned to
IDE0:0 which means device IDE0, slice 0. So, to boot the disk that you
just setup with SYSCOPY, you would choose option 1. You will then be
prompted for the slice on IDE0 that you want to boot. For now, just
press enter to choose slice 0. Once you are familiar with slices, you
can `SYSCOPY` and boot alternate slices. Here is what you would see when
booting to a disk device:
MARK IV Boot Loader
ROM: (M)onitor (C)P/M (Z)-System (F)orth (B)ASIC (T)-BASIC (P)LAY (U)SER ROM
Disk: (0)MD1 (1)MD0 (2)IDE0 (3)IDE1
Boot Selection? 2 Slice(0-9)[0]?
Booting Disk Unit 2, Slice 0...
Reading disk information...
Loc=D000 End=FE00 Ent=E600 Label=Unlabeled Drive
Loading...
Following this, you would see the normal operating system startup
messages. However, your operating system prompt will be `A>` and when
you look at the drive letter assignments, you should see that A: has
been assigned to the disk you selected to boot.
If you receive the error message “Disk not bootable\!”, you have either
failed to properly run `SYSCOPY` on the target disk or you have selected
the wrong disk/slice.
Note that although MD1 (RAM disk) and MD0 (ROM disk) drives are listed
in the Disk boot line, they are not currently “bootable” disks because
they have no system tracks on them. Attempting to boot to one of them,
will fail with a “Disk not bootable\!” error message and return to the
loader prompt.
Once this process succeeds, you will be able to boot directly to the
disk from the boot loader prompt. See the instructions in Booting Disks
for details on this.
## Disk Images
@@ -447,8 +411,8 @@ It is generally easier to use these disk images instead of copying all
the files over using XModem. You use your modern computer (Windows,
Linux, MacOS) to place the disk image onto the disk media, then just
move the media over to your system. In this scenario you **do not** run
`CLRDIR` or `SYSCOPY` on the drive(s). The directory prepared and the
disk is already bootable, if it is an operating system.
`CLRDIR` or `SYSCOPY` on the drive(s). The directory is prepared and the
disk is already bootable, if it is an operating system boot disk image.
To copy the disk image files onto your actual media (floppy disk, CF
Card, SD Card, etc.), you need to use an image writing utility on your
@@ -459,7 +423,7 @@ you can use the `dd` command on Linux or MacOS. On Windows, in the
For floppy media, you can use RawWriteWin and for hard disk media, you
can use Win32DiskImager. In all cases, the image file should be written
to the media starting at the very first block or sector of the media.
This will destroy any other data on the media.
This will **destroy** any other data on the media.
The disk image files are found in the Binary directory of the
distribution. Floppy disk images are prefixed with “fd\_” and hard disk
@@ -474,11 +438,11 @@ well as real spinning hard disks.
| Floppy | Hard | Description |
| ------------- | ------------- | ---------------------------- |
| fd\_cpm22.img | hd\_cpm22.img | DRI CP/M 2.2 bootable disk |
| fd\_zsdos.img | hd\_zsdos.img | ZSDOS 1.1 bootable disk |
| fd\_nzcom.img | hd\_nzcom.img | NZCOM bootable disk |
| fd\_cpm3 | hd\_cpm3.img | DRI CP/M 3 bootable disk |
| fd\_zpm3 | hd\_zpm3.img | ZPM3 bootable disk |
| fd\_cpm22.img | hd\_cpm22.img | DRI CP/M 2.2 boot disk |
| fd\_zsdos.img | hd\_zsdos.img | ZSDOS 1.1 boot disk |
| fd\_nzcom.img | hd\_nzcom.img | NZCOM boot disk |
| fd\_cpm3 | hd\_cpm3.img | DRI CP/M 3 boot disk |
| fd\_zpm3 | hd\_zpm3.img | ZPM3 boot disk |
| fd\_ws4 | hd\_ws4.img | WordStar v4 application disk |
In addition to the disk images above, there is also a special hard disk
@@ -512,6 +476,52 @@ boot from disk as is. You do not need to run `SYSCOPY` on them to make
them bootable. However, if you upgrade your ROM, you should use
`SYSCOPY` to update the system tracks.
## Booting Disks
When starting your system, following the hardware initialization, you
will see the Boot Loader prompt. In addition, to the ROM boot options,
you will see another line listing the Disk boot options. This line lists
the disk devices that you can choose to boot directly.
You will notice that you do not have an option to boot a drive letter
here (like C:). This is because the operating system is not yet loaded.
When you ran `SYSCOPY` previously, remember that C: was assigned to
IDE0:0 which means device IDE0, slice 0. So, to boot the disk that you
just setup with `SYSCOPY`, you would choose option 1. You will then be
prompted for the slice on IDE0 that you want to boot. For now, just
press enter to choose slice 0. Once you are familiar with slices, you
can `SYSCOPY` and boot alternate slices. Here is what you would see when
booting to a disk device:
MARK IV Boot Loader
ROM: (M)onitor (C)P/M (Z)-System (F)orth (B)ASIC (T)-BASIC (P)LAY (U)SER ROM
Disk: (0)MD1 (1)MD0 (2)IDE0 (3)IDE1
Boot Selection? 2 Slice(0-9)[0]?
Booting Disk Unit 2, Slice 0...
Reading disk information...
Loc=D000 End=FE00 Ent=E600 Label=Unlabeled Drive
Loading...
Following this, you would see the normal operating system startup
messages. However, your operating system prompt will be `A>` and when
you look at the drive letter assignments, you should see that A: has
been assigned to the disk you selected to boot.
If you receive the error message “Disk not bootable\!”, you have either
failed to properly run `SYSCOPY` on the target disk or you have selected
the wrong disk/slice.
Note that although MD1 (RAM disk) and MD0 (ROM disk) drives are listed
in the Disk boot line, they are not “bootable” disks because they have
no system tracks on them. Attempting to boot to one of them, will fail
with a “Disk not bootable\!” error message and return to the loader
prompt.
# General Usage
Each of the operating systems and ROM applications included with RomWBW
@@ -519,18 +529,18 @@ are sophisticated tools in their own right. It is not reasonable to
document their usage here. However, you will find complete manuals in
PDF format in the Doc directory of the distribution. The intention of
this section is to document the RomWBW specific enhancements to these
OSes.
operating systems.
## ROM Disk
In addition to the ROM-based operating systems and applications, the ROM
also contains a ROM disk with a small CP/M filesystem. The contents have
been optimized to provide a core set of tools and applications that are
helpful for either CP/M 2.2 and ZSDOS. Since ZSDOS is CP/M 2.2
compatible, this works fairly well. However, you will find some files on
the ROM disk that will work with ZSDOS, but will not work on CP/M 2.2.
For example, `LDDS`, which loads the ZSDOS date/time stamper will only
run on ZSDOS.
also contains a ROM disk with a small CP/M filesystem. The contents of
the ROM disk have been chosen to provide a core set of tools and
applications that are helpful for either CP/M 2.2 or ZSDOS. Since ZSDOS
is CP/M 2.2 compatible, this works fairly well. However, you will find
some files on the ROM disk that will work with ZSDOS, but will not work
on CP/M 2.2. For example, `LDDS`, which loads the ZSDOS date/time
stamper will only run on ZSDOS.
## Drive Letter Assignment
@@ -577,8 +587,8 @@ accessible to any of the operating systems.
Since storage devices today are quite large, RomWBW implements a
mechanism called slicing to allow up to 256 8MB filesystems on a single
large storage device. This allows up to 2GB of useable space on a single
media. You can think of slices as a way to refer to the first 256 8MB
chunks of space on a single media.
media. You can think of slices as a way to refer to any of the first 256
8MB chunks of space on a single media.
Of course, the problem is that CP/M-like operating systems have only 16
drive letters (A:-P:) available. Under the covers, RomWBW allows you to
@@ -594,10 +604,10 @@ devices, you will see that each device is allocated four drive letters.
Referring to slices within a storage device is done by appending a :n
where n is the device relative slice number from 0-255. For example, if
you have an IDE device, it will show up as IDE0: in the boot message
meaning the first IDE device. To refer to the second slice of IDE0, you
would type “IDE0:1”. So, if I wanted to use drive letter L: to refer to
the second slice of IDE0, I could use the command `ASSIGN L:=IDE0:1`.
you have an IDE device, it will show up as IDE0: in the boot messages
meaning the first IDE device. To refer to the fourth slice of IDE0, you
would type “IDE0:3”. So, if I wanted to use drive letter L: to refer to
the fourth slice of IDE0, I could use the command `ASSIGN L:=IDE0:3`.
There are a couple of rules to be aware of when assigning drive letters.
First, you may only refer to a specific device/slice with one drive
@@ -618,22 +628,22 @@ so you will know if you make a mistake. There is no tracking of your use
of slices – you will need to keep track of your use of slices yourself.
Nothing automatically initializes a slice as a file system. You must do
that yourself using `CLRDIR`. Since CLRDIR works on drive letters, make
absolutely sure you know what media and slice are assigned to that drive
letter before using `CLRDIR`.
that yourself using `CLRDIR`. Since `CLRDIR` works on drive letters,
make absolutely sure you know what media and slice are assigned to that
drive letter before using `CLRDIR`.
While it probably obvious, you cannot use slices on any media less than
8MB in size. Specifically, you cannot slice RAM disk, ROM disk, floppy
disks, etc.
While it is probably obvious, you cannot use slices on any media less
than 8MB in size. Specifically, you cannot slice RAM disks, ROM disks,
floppy disks, etc.
# Inbuilt ROM Applications
In addition to CP/M 2.2 and Z-System, there are several additional ROM
applications that can be launched directly from ROM. These applications
are not hosted by an operating system and so they are unable to save
files to disk devices.
In addition to CP/M 2.2 and Z-System, there are several ROM applications
that can be launched directly from ROM. These applications are not
hosted by an operating system and so they are unable to save files to
disk devices.
The following options are available at the boot loader prompt:
The following ROM applications are available at the boot loader prompt:
| Application | |
| ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------ |
@@ -657,8 +667,8 @@ The operation of the RomWBW hosted operating systems is enhanced through
several custom applications. These applications are functional on all of
the OS variants included with RomWBW.
The following custom applications are found on the RomWBW ROM disk and
are, therefore, globally available.
The following custom applications are found on the ROM disk and are,
therefore, globally available.
| Application | Description |
| ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
@@ -672,7 +682,7 @@ are, therefore, globally available.
| FDISK80 | John Coffman’s Z80 hard disk partitioning tool. See documentation in Doc directory. |
| FAT | Access MS-DOS FAT filesystems from RomWBW (based on FatFs). |
| FLASH | Will Sowerbutts’ in-situ ROM programming utility. |
| CLRDIR | Format the directory areas of a CP/M disk. |
| CLRDIR | Initialize the directory area of a CP/M disk (Max Scane). |
Some custom applications do not fit on the ROM disk. They are found on
the disk image files or the individual files can be found in the
@@ -697,9 +707,9 @@ identical for all hardware supported by RomWBW because RomWBW hides all
hardware specifics from the operating system.
Note that all of the operating systems included with RomWBW support the
same basic filesystem format. As as result, a formatted filesystem will
same basic filesystem format. As a result, a formatted filesystem will
be accessible to any operating system. The only possible issue is that
if you turn of date/time stamping using the newer OSes, the older OSes
if you turn on date/time stamping using the newer OSes, the older OSes
will not understand this. Files will not be corrupted, but the date/time
stamps may be lost.
@@ -748,7 +758,7 @@ OS via an auto command submission process.
This is the Digital Research follow-up product to their very popular
CP/M 2.2 operating system. While highly compatible with CP/M 2.2, it
features many enhancements. It makes better use of banked memory to
features many enhancements. It makes direct use of banked memory to
increase the user program space (TPA). It also has a new suite of
support tools and help system.
@@ -761,14 +771,14 @@ tracks.
ZPM3 is an interesting combination of the features of both CP/M 3 and
ZCPR 3. Essentially, it has the features of and compatibility with both.
Like CP/M 3, to make ZPM3 boot disk, you put CPM3.SYS on the system
Like CP/M 3, to make ZPM3 boot disk, you put CPMLDR.SYS on the system
tracks of the disk.
## FreeRTOS
Note that Phillip Stevens has also ported FreeRTOS to run under RomWBW.
FreeRTOS is not provided in the RomWBW distribution, but is available
from Phillip.
FreeRTOS is not provided in the RomWBW distribution. You can contact
Phillip for availability.
# Transferring Files
@@ -790,18 +800,18 @@ file on your RomWBW system. Then, you will use your modern computers
terminal program to complete the process.
The `XM` application generally tries to detect the hardware you are
using and adapt to it. However, you must ensure that you have a
realiable serial connection. You must also ensure that the speed of the
connection is not too fast for XModem to handle. Alternatively, you can
ensure that hardware flow control is working properly.
using and adapt to it. However, you must ensure that you have a reliable
serial connection. You must also ensure that the speed of the connection
is not too fast for XModem to service. Alternatively, you can ensure
that hardware flow control is working properly.
There is an odd interaction between XModem and partner terminal programs
that can occur. Essentially, after launching `XM`, you must start the
protocol on your modern computer fairly quickly (usually about 20
protocol on your modern computer fairly quickly (usually in about 20
seconds or so). So, if you do not pick a file on your modern computer
quickly enough, you will find that the transfer completes about 16K,
then hangs. The interaction that casuses this is beyond the scope of
this document.
then hangs. The interaction that causes this is beyond the scope of this
document.
## Disk Image Transfers
@@ -823,7 +833,7 @@ computer is:
This process is a little complicated, but it has the benefit of allowing
you to get a lot of files over to your RomWBW system quickly and with
little change of corruption.
little chance of corruption.
The process can be run in reverse to get files from your RomWBW computer
to a modern computer.
@@ -835,14 +845,14 @@ documents.
Note that the build scripts for RomWBW create the default disk images
supplied with RomWBW. It is relatively easy to customize the contents of
the disk images that are part of RomWBW. This is described in more
detail in the Source\\Images driectory of the distribution.
detail in the Source\\Images directory of the distribution.
## FAT Filesystem Transfers
RomWBW provides a mechanism that allows it to read and write files on an
RomWBW provides a mechanism that allows it to read and write files on a
FAT formatted disk. This means that you can generally use your modern
computer to make an SD Card or CF Card with a standard FAT32 filesystem
on it, then place that media in your RomWBW computer and read/write the
on it, then place that media in your RomWBW computer and access the
files.
When formatting the media on your modern computer, but sure to pick the
@@ -868,23 +878,24 @@ and can be found in the Doc\\Contrib directory of the distribution.
# Startup Command Processing
Each of the operating system supported by RomWBW provide a mechanism to
Each of the operating systems supported by RomWBW provide a mechanism to
run commands at boot. This is similar to the AUTOEXEC.BAT files from
MS-DOS.
With the exception of ZPM3, all operating system will look for a file
With the exception of ZPM3, all operating systems will look for a file
called `PROFILE.SUB` on the system drive at boot. If it is found, it
will be processed as a standard CP/M submit file. You can read about the
use of the SUBMIT facility in the CP/M manuals included in the RomWBW
distribution.
distribution. Note that the boot disk must also have a copy of
`SUBMIT.EXE`.
In the case of ZPM3, the file called `STARTZPM.COM` will be run at boot.
To customize this file, you use the ZCPR ALIAS facility. You will need
to refer to ZCPR documentation for more information on the ALIAS
facility.
Note that automatic startup processing generally requires booting to a
disk drive. Since the ROM disk is not writable, there is no simple way
Note that the automatic startup processing generally requires booting to
a disk drive. Since the ROM disk is not writable, there is no simple way
to add/edit a `PROFILE.SUB` file there. If you want to customize your
ROM and add a `PROFILE.SUB` file to the ROM Disk, it will work, but is a
lot harder than using a boot disk.
@@ -900,10 +911,11 @@ a build script, but it is quite easy to do.
Essentially, the creation of a custom ROM is accomplished by updating a
small configuration file, then running a script to compile the software
and generate the custom ROM image. There are build scripts for Windows,
Linux, and MacOS to accommodate virtually all users. All required build
tools (compilers, assemblers, etc.) are included in the distribution, so
it is not necessary to setup a build environment on your computer.
and generate the custom ROM and disk images. There are build scripts for
Windows, Linux, and MacOS to accommodate virtually all users. All
required build tools (compilers, assemblers, etc.) are included in the
distribution, so it is not necessary to setup a build environment on
your computer.
The process for building a custom ROM is documented in the ReadMe.txt
file in the Source directory of the distribution.
@@ -951,6 +963,12 @@ for more information on UNA.
# RomWBW Distribution
All source code and distributions are maintained on GitHub. Code
contributions are very welcome.
[RomWBW GitHub
Repository](https://github.com/wwarthen/RomWBW%7Chttps://github.com/wwarthen/RomWBW)
## Distribution Directory Layout
The RomWBW distribution is a compressed zip archive file organized in a
@@ -965,14 +983,6 @@ are:
| Source | Contains the source code files used to build the software and ROM images. |
| Tools | Contains the MS Windows programs that are used by the build process or that may be useful in setting up your system. |
## Source Code Respository
All source code and distributions are maintained on GitHub. Code
contributions are very welcome.
[RomWBW GitHub
Repository](https://github.com/wwarthen/RomWBW%7Chttps://github.com/wwarthen/RomWBW)
# Acknowledgements
While I have heavily modified much of the code, I want to acknowledge