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@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ |
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## Z80/Z180 System Software |
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Version 2.9.2 of March 17, 2020 |
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Version 2.9.2 of March 18, 2020 |
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Wayne Warthen <wwarthen@gmail.com> |
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@ -268,26 +268,176 @@ While the RAM/ROM disks provide a functional system, they are not useful |
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in the long term because you cannot save data across power cycles. They |
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are also constrained by limited space. |
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If your system has working disk devices, then you should notice some |
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drive letters assigned at startup. The specific drive letters assigned |
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will depend on your system configuration. Note that there **must** be |
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media installed in IDE, CF, SD interfaces in order for drive letters to |
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be assigned at boot. |
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The systems supported by RomWBW all have the ability to use persistent |
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disk media. I am referring to all kinds of disk devices including floppy |
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drives, hard disks, CF Cards, and SD Cards. Some systems have disk |
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interfaces built-in, while others will require add-in cards. You will |
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need to refer to the documentation for your system. |
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In the RomWBW bootup messages, you will see hardware discovery messages. |
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If you have a disk drive interface, you should see messages listing |
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device types like FD:, IDE:, PPIDE:, SD:. Additionally, you will see |
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messages indicating the media that has been found on the interfaces. As |
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an example, here are the messages you might see if you have an IDE |
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interface in your system with a single CF Card inserted in the primary |
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side of the interface: |
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IDE: IO=0x80 MODE=MK4 |
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IDE0: 8-BIT LBA BLOCKS=0x00773800 SIZE=3815MB |
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IDE1: NO MEDIA |
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The messages you see will vary depending on your hardware and the media |
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you have installed. But, they will all have the same general format as |
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the example above. |
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Once your your system has working disk devices, you can boot an |
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operating system and the operating system will have access to the media. |
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At the boot loader prompt, select either either CP/M 2.2 or Z-System to |
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boot from ROM. As the operating system starts up, you should see a list |
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of drive letters assigned to the disk media you have installed. Here is |
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an example of this: |
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Configuring Drives... |
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A:=MD1:0 |
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B:=MD0:0 |
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C:=IDE0:0 |
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D:=IDE0:1 |
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You will probably see mroe drive letters than this. The drive letter |
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assignment process is described in more detail later in this document. |
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Be aware that RomWBW will only assign drive letters to disk interfaces |
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that actually have media in them. If you do not see drive letters |
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assigned as expected, refer to the prior system boot messages to ensure |
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media has been detected in the interface. Actually, there is one |
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exception to this rule: floppy drives will be assigned a drive letter |
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regardless of whether there is any media inserted at boot. |
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Notice how each drive letter refers back to a specific disk hardware |
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interface like IDE0. This is important as it is telling you what each |
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drive letter refers to. Also notice that mass storage disks (like IDE) |
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will normally have multiple drive letters assigned. The extra drive |
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letters refer to additional “slices” on the disk. The concept of slices |
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is also explained later in this document. |
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Once you are seeing drive letters referring to your disk media, you can |
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follow the instructions below to begin using the disk media with the |
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operating system. Your disk media **must** be initialized prior to be |
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used. There are two ways to initialize your media for use. |
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You can initialize the media in-place using your RomWBW system. This |
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process is described below under Disk Initialization. In this scenario, |
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you will need to subsequently copy any files you want to use onto the |
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newly initialized disk. |
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Alternatively, you can use your modern Windows, Linux, or Mac computer |
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to copy a disk image onto the disk media. RomWBW comes with a variety of |
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disk images that are ready to use and have a much more complete set of |
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files than you will find on the ROM disk. This process is covered below |
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under Disk Images. |
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## Disk Initialization |
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To use a disk device, you will need to initialize the directory of the |
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filesystem. This is done using the CLRDIR application. For example if |
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your C: drive has been assigned to a storage device, you would use |
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`CLRDIR C:` to initialize C: and prepare it hold files. Note that CLRDIR |
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will prompt you for confirmation and you must respond with a **capital** |
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‘Y’ to confirm. Once CLDIR has completed, you can copy files onto the |
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drive, for example `COPY *.* C:`. |
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If you are using a floppy drive, you will need to format your floppy |
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disk prior to use. This is only required for floppy disks, not hard |
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disk, CF Cards, or SD Cards, etc. To format a floppy drive, you can use |
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the interactive application FDU. FDU is not terribly user friendly, but |
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is generally documented in the file “FDU.txt” found in the Doc directory |
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of the distribution. |
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filesystem. On RomWBW, the initialization is done using the CLRDIR |
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application. For example if your C: drive has been assigned to a storage |
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device, you would use `CLRDIR C:` to initialize C: and prepare it hold |
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files. Note that CLRDIR will prompt you for confirmation and you must |
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respond with a **capital** ‘Y’ to confirm. Once CLDIR has completed, you |
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can copy files onto the drive, for example `COPY *.* C:`. Be very |
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careful to pay attention to your drive letter assignments prior to |
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running CLRDIR to avoid accidentally wiping out a filesystem that has |
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data on it. |
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Running CLRDIR on a disk device is roughly equivalent to running FORMAT |
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on MS-DOS. Note that unlike MS-DOS you do **not** partition your mass |
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storage device. CP/M knows nothing about disk partitions. You may notice |
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a partitioning application on your ROM disk (FDISK80), but this is |
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strictly for an advanced technique of adding an MS-DOS FAT filesystem to |
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your media in addition to the CP/M area. Do not use FDISK80 unless you |
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are specifically attempting to add an MS-DOS FAT filesystem to your |
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media. |
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If you are using a floppy drive, you will need to physically format your |
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floppy disk prior to use. This is only required for floppy disks, not |
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hard disk, CF Cards, or SD Cards, etc. To format a floppy drive, you can |
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use the interactive application FDU. FDU is not terribly user friendly, |
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but is generally documented in the file “FDU.txt” found in the Doc |
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directory of the distribution. It is not necessary to run CLRDIR on a |
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floppy disk after physically formatting it – the directory is cleared as |
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part of the formatting. |
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## Booting Disks |
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Once you have initialized a disk device and copied your desired files |
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onto it, you may want to boot directly to this disk device at startup. |
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On CP/M filesystems, you must perform one additional step to make a disk |
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bootable. Specifically, you need to place a copy of the oeoprating |
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system on the system tracks of the disk. This is done using the |
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`SYSCOPY` command. Let’s say you have prepared drive C: by initializing |
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it with `CLRDIR` and copied some files onto it. You can now make C: |
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bootable by running the following command: |
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`B>SYSCOPY C:=B:ZSYS.SYS` |
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This command means: copy the Z-System operating system onto the system |
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tracks of drive C:. In this example, it is assumed that you have booted |
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from ROM, so B: is the ROM disk drive. Additionally, this example |
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assumes you want the Z-System operating system to be booted from C:. If |
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you want CP/M 2.2 instead, you would replace `B:ZSYS.SYS` with |
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`B:CPM.SYS`. Here is a full example of this process. |
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B>SYSCOPY C:=B:ZSYS.SYS |
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SYSCOPY v2.0 for RomWBW CP/M, 17-Feb-2020 (CP/M 2 Mode) |
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Copyright 2020, Wayne Warthen, GNU GPL v3 |
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Transfer system image from B:ZSYS.SYS to C: (Y/N)? Y |
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Reading image... Writing image... Done |
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After successfully putting the operating system on the disk, you can |
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restart your system. When you get to the boot loader, notice the line |
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starting with “Disk:”. This line lists the disk devices that you can |
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choose to boot directly. |
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You will notice that you do not have an option to boot a drive letter |
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here (like C:). This is because the operating system is not yet loaded. |
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When you ran `SYSCOPY` previously, remember that C: was assigned to |
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IDE0:0 which means device IDE0, slice 0. So, to boot the disk that you |
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just setup with SYSCOPY, you would choose option 1. You will then be |
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prompted for the slice on IDE0 that you want to boot. For now, just |
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press enter to choose slice 0. Once you are familiar with slices, you |
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can `SYSCOPY` and boot alternate slices. Here is what you would see when |
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booting to a disk device: |
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MARK IV Boot Loader |
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ROM: (M)onitor (C)P/M (Z)-System (F)orth (B)ASIC (T)-BASIC (P)LAY (U)SER ROM |
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Disk: (0)MD1 (1)MD0 (2)IDE0 (3)IDE1 |
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Boot Selection? 2 Slice(0-9)[0]? |
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Booting Disk Unit 2, Slice 0... |
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Reading disk information... |
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Loc=D000 End=FE00 Ent=E600 Label=Unlabeled Drive |
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Loading... |
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Following this, you would see the normal operating system startup |
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messages. However, your operating system prompt will be `A>` and when |
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you look at the drive letter assignments, you should see that A: has |
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been assigned to the disk you selected to boot. |
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If you receive the error message “Disk not bootable\!”, you have either |
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failed to properly run `SYSCOPY` on the target disk or you have selected |
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the wrong disk/slice. |
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Note that although MD1 (RAM disk) and MD0 (ROM disk) drives are listed |
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in the Disk boot line, they are not currently “bootable” disks because |
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they have no system tracks on them. Attempting to boot to one of them, |
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will fail with a “Disk not bootable\!” error message and return to the |
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loader prompt. |
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## Disk Images |
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@ -297,7 +447,8 @@ It is generally easier to use these disk images instead of copying all |
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the files over using XModem. You use your modern computer (Windows, |
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Linux, MacOS) to place the disk image onto the disk media, then just |
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move the media over to your system. In this scenario you **do not** run |
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CLRDIR on the directory of the drive letter(s). |
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`CLRDIR` or `SYSCOPY` on the drive(s). The directory prepared and the |
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disk is already bootable, if it is an operating system. |
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To copy the disk image files onto your actual media (floppy disk, CF |
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Card, SD Card, etc.), you need to use an image writing utility on your |
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@ -341,11 +492,11 @@ This is the layout of the hd\_combo disk image: |
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| Slice | Description | |
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| ------- | ---------------------------- | |
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| Slice 0 | DRI CP/M 2.2 bootable disk | |
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| Slice 1 | ZSDOS 1.1 bootable disk | |
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| Slice 2 | NZCOM bootable disk | |
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| Slice 3 | DRI CP/M 3 bootable disk | |
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| Slice 4 | ZPM3 bootable disk | |
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| Slice 0 | DRI CP/M 2.2 boot disk | |
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| Slice 1 | ZSDOS 1.1 boot disk | |
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| Slice 2 | NZCOM boot disk | |
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| Slice 3 | DRI CP/M 3 boot disk | |
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| Slice 4 | ZPM3 boot disk | |
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| Slice 5 | WordStar v4 application disk | |
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Note that unlike the ROM firmware, you do **not** need to choose a disk |
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@ -356,10 +507,10 @@ system and put it in a different system. The only constraint is that the |
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applications on the disk media must be up to date with the firmware on |
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the system being used. |
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All of the disk images that indicate they are bootable will boot from |
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disk as is. You do not need to run `SYSCOPY` on them to make them |
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bootable. However, if you upgrade your ROM, you should use `SYSCOPY` to |
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update the system tracks. |
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All of the disk images that indicate they are bootable (boot disk) will |
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boot from disk as is. You do not need to run `SYSCOPY` on them to make |
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them bootable. However, if you upgrade your ROM, you should use |
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`SYSCOPY` to update the system tracks. |
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# General Usage |
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@ -619,6 +770,125 @@ Note that Phillip Stevens has also ported FreeRTOS to run under RomWBW. |
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FreeRTOS is not provided in the RomWBW distribution, but is available |
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from Phillip. |
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# Transferring Files |
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Transferring files between your modern computer and your RomWBW system |
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can be achieved in a variety of ways. The most common of these are |
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described below. All of these have a certain degree of complexity and I |
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encourage new users to use the available community forums to seek |
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assistance as needed. |
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## Serial Port Transfers |
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RomWBW provides an serial file transfer program called XModem that has |
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been adapted to run under RomWBW hardware. The program is called `XM` |
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and is on your ROM disk as well as all of the pre-built disk images. |
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You can type `XM` by itself to get usage information. In general, you |
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will run `XM` with parameters to indicate you want to send or receive a |
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file on your RomWBW system. Then, you will use your modern computers |
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terminal program to complete the process. |
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The `XM` application generally tries to detect the hardware you are |
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using and adapt to it. However, you must ensure that you have a |
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realiable serial connection. You must also ensure that the speed of the |
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connection is not too fast for XModem to handle. Alternatively, you can |
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ensure that hardware flow control is working properly. |
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There is an odd interaction between XModem and partner terminal programs |
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that can occur. Essentially, after launching `XM`, you must start the |
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protocol on your modern computer fairly quickly (usually about 20 |
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seconds or so). So, if you do not pick a file on your modern computer |
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quickly enough, you will find that the transfer completes about 16K, |
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then hangs. The interaction that casuses this is beyond the scope of |
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this document. |
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## Disk Image Transfers |
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It is possible to pass disk images between your RomWBW system and your |
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modern computer. This assumes you have an appropriate media slot on your |
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modern computer for the media you want to use (CF Card, SD Card, or |
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floppy drive). |
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The general process to get files from your modern computer to a RomWBW |
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computer is: |
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1. Use `cpmtools` on your modern computer to create a RomWBW CP/M |
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filesystem image. |
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2. Insert your RomWBW media (CF Card, SD Card, or floppy disk) in your |
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modern computer. |
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3. Use a disk imaging tool to copy the RomWBW filesystem image onto the |
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media. |
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4. Move the media back to the RomWBW computer. |
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This process is a little complicated, but it has the benefit of allowing |
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you to get a lot of files over to your RomWBW system quickly and with |
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little change of corruption. |
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The process can be run in reverse to get files from your RomWBW computer |
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to a modern computer. |
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The exact use of these tools is a bit too much for this document, but |
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the tools are all included in the RomWBW distribution along with usage |
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documents. |
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Note that the build scripts for RomWBW create the default disk images |
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supplied with RomWBW. It is relatively easy to customize the contents of |
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the disk images that are part of RomWBW. This is described in more |
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detail in the Source\\Images driectory of the distribution. |
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## FAT Filesystem Transfers |
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RomWBW provides a mechanism that allows it to read and write files on an |
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FAT formatted disk. This means that you can generally use your modern |
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computer to make an SD Card or CF Card with a standard FAT32 filesystem |
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on it, then place that media in your RomWBW computer and read/write the |
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files. |
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When formatting the media on your modern computer, but sure to pick the |
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FAT filesystem. NTFS and other filesystems will not work. |
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On your RomWBW computer you can use the `FAT` application to access the |
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FAT media. The `FAT` application allows you to read files, write files, |
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list a directory, and erase files on the FAT media. It can handle |
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subdirectories as well. It will only see 8.3 character filenames |
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however. Longer filenames will show up as a truncated version. |
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The `FAT` application is not on your ROM disk because it is too large to |
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fit. You will find it on all of the pre-built disk images as well as in |
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the Binary\\Apps directory of the distribution. |
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For advanced users, it is possible to create a hybrid disk that contains |
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CP/M slices at the beginning and a FAT filesystem after. Such a hybrid |
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disk can be used to boot an operating system and still have access to |
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FAT files on the FAT portion of the disk. David Reese has prepared a |
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document describing how to do this. It is called |
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“SC126\_How-To\_No\_2\_Preparing\_an\_SD\_Card\_for\_Use\_with\_SC126\_Rev\_1-5.pdf” |
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and can be found in the Doc\\Contrib directory of the distribution. |
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# Startup Command Processing |
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Each of the operating system supported by RomWBW provide a mechanism to |
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run commands at boot. This is similar to the AUTOEXEC.BAT files from |
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MS-DOS. |
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With the exception of ZPM3, all operating system will look for a file |
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called `PROFILE.SUB` on the system drive at boot. If it is found, it |
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will be processed as a standard CP/M submit file. You can read about the |
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use of the SUBMIT facility in the CP/M manuals included in the RomWBW |
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distribution. |
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In the case of ZPM3, the file called `STARTZPM.COM` will be run at boot. |
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To customize this file, you use the ZCPR ALIAS facility. You will need |
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to refer to ZCPR documentation for more information on the ALIAS |
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facility. |
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Note that automatic startup processing generally requires booting to a |
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disk drive. Since the ROM disk is not writable, there is no simple way |
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to add/edit a `PROFILE.SUB` file there. If you want to customize your |
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ROM and add a `PROFILE.SUB` file to the ROM Disk, it will work, but is a |
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lot harder than using a boot disk. |
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# ROM Customization |
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The pre-built ROM images are configured for the basic capabilities of |
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Wayne Warthen
6 years ago