I sent this before, but it didn't show up on the list;
Part 1;
>>> Which versions of DOS let you boot off B: ?
Obviously, NO command that you run in DOS (which would be after it has
booted), will change the boot sequence, which is before DOS is present.
Nor will such a change last through a boot (although MICROS~1 could have
included a tepid/partial boot, if they had wanted to.)
DRIVER.SYS achieved prominence in DOS 3.20. PC-DOS 3.20 was the first time
that IBM supported a 3.5" ("720K") drive. Several other companies, other than
IBM, already used 3.5" drives for laptops, such as Data General, Gavilan, etc.
with their own drivers in MS-DOS, particularly version 2.11, which was similar
to 2.10, but used by OEMs that needed to customize MS- DOS. In many cases,
the 3.5" disk formats that those companies created were different from what is
supported in DOS 3.20 http://www.xenosoft.com/fmts.html
IBM PC/JX was an IBM machine with 5.25" "720K" drives, but was never sold in
USA.
Because IBM's 5170, and most already existing 286 machines, did not include
"720K" as any of the options in the "CMOS Setup" for identifying what kind of
drive each physical drive was, DRIVER.SYS permitted creating a
logical/virtual/shadow drive that would share a physical drive, as E:, F:,
etc.
LASTDRIVE was also needed if you already had more than two floppy drives and a
HDD, to permit assigning drive letters past D:
Another alternative was DRIVPARM ! It was a CONFIG.SYS command to alter the
parameters of floppy drives, WITHOUT creating any new logical drives or drive
letters! DOS 3.20 and onwards.
Something that has always confused me:
DRIVPARM is documented in MS-DOS 3.20, but is not mentioned in the PC-DOS 3.20
documantation.
I used MS-DOS with DRIVPARM on a generic 286 machine, and it worked!
I used PC-DOS with DRIVPARM on a generic 286 machine, and it worked!
I used MS-DOS with DRIVPARM on a genuine 5170, and it failed, with a "BAD
CONFIG.SYS COMMAND" message (possibly mistaken on the exact wording)
I used PC-DOS with DRIVPARM on a genuine 5170, and it failed, with a "BAD
CONFIG.SYS COMMAND" message (possibly mistaken on the exact wording)
I used MS-DOS with DRIVPARM on a generic 286, with copy of the 5170 BIOS, and
it failed, with a "BAD CONFIG.SYS COMMAND" message (possibly mistaken on the
exact wording)
I used PC-DOS with DRIVPARM on a generic 286, with copy of the 5170 BIOS, and
it failed, with a "BAD CONFIG.SYS COMMAND" message (possibly mistaken on the
exact wording)
So, therefore, I concluded that DRIVPARM was incompatible with the IBM 5170
BIOS. But present in both MS-DOS 3.20 and PC-DOS 3.20, although it is
UNDOCUMENTED in PC-DOS.
Chuck has mentioned that if you insert 3 Ctrl-A characters, it will work
on most;
DRIVPARM ^A^A^A B: /F:2
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com
So I'm working on restoring a Compaq DeskPro/XE system to allow me to
use the 5.25 floppy to copy files from my 3.5 floppies which will come
from my Windows 10 system so that I can extract on the Deskpro/XE using
teledisk the .td0 files that make up a RX50 floppy disk set so I can
load POS 3.2 on my Pro/380 and see if the DECNA card works.
What a pain in the rear.
So far the XE boots but has no setup. Setup requires a special floppy
(Diagnostic disk) which mine was bad after 30 years so I'm trying to
create a new one. I have the official Compaq disk creation thing for a
floppy but it's in QRST format and the QRST under DOSBOX on Windows10
can't properly access a floppy even if "mounted" with a -t floppy extension.
Before I drag out my rusty and trusty Windows 95 Toshiba 660AV laptop,
is there another way to get this onto a floppy? I have an endless supply
of Rpi's, and doing a DD from a .img file works fine but this of course
is a QRST file.
Thoughts?
CZ
Message: 2
Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2023 18:27:52 +0000
From: silcreval <silvercreekvalley(a)yahoo.com>
Subject: [cctalk] Re: PDP-8/A FPP8/A
To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
Message-ID: <4EF3AB13-972C-4EE0-8105-C11128DA4BFA(a)yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>Hi Bob
>Thanks - thats very interesting. I guess there was quite a >bit of overlap with the 11 and the 8/A so 'marketing' >stepped in :-)
Exactly what happened, you are correct. We did want to sell more 8 systems into labs... where small memory models made sense (256K words or less) and kept having this dream of a Fortran Machine that went fast for the times.
I don't recall exactly but I think one of the 11 models with FPU that got blown out of the water was the 11/60 (a harvard arch implementation by O'Loughlin iirc) that was a decent and very very reliable 11 (used pairs of them for a critical system and they were exceptionally reliable when compared with disk drives!!)
The 8A was (and still is) a good machine but some of us wanted to build a 10Mhz clock 8 but the cost would have put it in the wrong price range for the types of customers we were allowed to have.
bb
> Izzat a "SPARCBook II"? If so, I have one with 2 drives, and
> the /usr drive is failing. I can replace that but I have no
> idea how to reinstall SunOS/Solaris/Whatever.
I did that in the past using a network install. One will need
ftfp (for kernel) and bootp (for parameters and paths) as well
as old style nfs on a server with the installation media. Worked
nicely and is pretty fast if CDs are copied to harddrive before-
hand...
Best wishes and good luck,
Erik.
''~``
( o o )
+--------------------------.oooO--(_)--Oooo.-------------------------+
| Dr. Erik Baigar Inertial Navigation & |
| Salzstrasse 1 .oooO Vintage Computer |
| D87616 Marktoberdorf ( ) Oooo. Hobbyist / Physicist |
| erik(a)baigar.de +------\ (----( )---------------------------+
| www.baigar.de | \_) ) /
+----------------------+ (_/
Well, the weekend of hardware sudden death continues. The reason for getting
the UltraBook IIi out was to do some more work on kOpenRay, the free Sun Ray
server software I very occasionally maintain. Among other devices I use(d) two
Accutech Gobi laptops to talk to it since they have an oddball VPN setup that
used to cause problems.
Unfortunately, neither will configure their network interfaces anymore and just
hang. The board is of course a cheap mass of unrepairable components.
If anyone has an Accutech Gobi (either the 7 or 8 model, both will suffice, I
don't need the 3.5G module but will use it if it's there) sitting around
gathering dust, I'd love to buy it off you. I have the power supply and
batteries already. Southern California.
--
------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ --
Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser(a)floodgap.com
-- And now for something completely different. -- Monty Python ----------------
I’ve been restoring a RM380 I picked up not long ago and it’s been good news and bad news. All the cards are in wonderful condition and the case is presentable however the two BASF 6106 floppy drives are highly corroded and probably won’t work again but this isn’t what I’m wondering, the original supply is a little rough but looks tone perfectly restorable with the exception of the key lock been stuck (problem to solve later) and I can get all the parts needed to replace the three filters but it is a 70s linear supply and if my s-100 experience has told me anything they might not be the most reliable. What would you all recommend restoring it and keeping it original or fitting some modern SMPS in its place. It is a low serial number as well (691) but saying I want it to be reliable I’m torn.
Don White designed the FPP8/A. From my recollection, the unit that
was sold with 8/A was the second iteration of an Omnibus FPP8. I waa
off in LCG working on Jupiter so I never got to see the original but I
recall that the redesign to use the cycle stealing version that went
to market was because the original 8/A version was too "powerful"
meaning that it out performed all of the PDP-11 FPP units and was more
precise. I recall it was capable of 72 bit vice 36 bit max operations.
The marketed design was a cost reduced and really an extraordinary
simple design, elegant would be a better description. I seem to recall
the original was built around either ALU or 4 bit Slice chips like
AMD2901 or some variation of a TRW chip.
bob
Your troubles with USB floppy drives reinforces my own experiences. They seem to work okay in windows using a Microsoft written utility but not too well in dos or user written programs. It’s hit or miss as to if the program will see the usb floppy. However, using a builtin floppy always seems to work.
Sent from my iPhone
> On Feb 26, 2023, at 12:17, Chris Zach via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
> Hi Henry!
>
>> You wanted a SETUP disk for a Deskpro/XE system, right? Like SP1363
>> as listed here https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=76542
>> <https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=76542> ? I was able to do
>> this in Dosbox-X no problem: mount the local directory with
>> sp1363.exe as C: or whatever, attach a disk image to A:, and then
>> let sp1363.exe create the disk image on A: . You can then write the
>> raw disk image to a 1.44" floppy.
>
> Interesting. I was using DOSBOX, not DOSBOX-X. I tried downloading it, set the A: drive to be the USB a: drive, and it doesn't work. This time it bombs out with QRST transfer incomplete.
>
> So I restarted, copied one of the diagnostic floppy images I did have to a filename of xe.img, mounted it in dosbox-x with the imgmount a (filename) command, then ran QRST and it seems to have worked.
>
> So if you try to use a USB floppy it can't see it, but if you use an image file it can. I wonder if Dosbox sees the external floppy as a SCSI device, but when you do an imgmount it knows to use the real, crappy DMA based routines to access the image file.
>
> Off to copy the image file to the pi, then to the USB floppy, then maybe to get the XE running. Fascinating, and thank yoU!
>
> CZ
