11 Jan
2023
11 Jan
'23
4:58 p.m.
hello cctalk! i have been working for the past few days on a DECmate II with what i
believe to be an ailing RX50. i have a gotek with updated flashfloppy firmware, but for
some strange reason i have been completely unable to get the DMII to boot a floppy image
from it.
i have been trying to convert the OS/278 and WPS images on the dbit and ibiblio archives
into a working format for the gotek but none of them will work. at this point i have tried
too many conversions to recall but they all result in the same blinking floppy icon when
the unit boots. i have “host = dec” in my FF.CFG per the wiki.
has anyone else been able to get this working? if so, could you please provide known-good
images for a gotek, or the steps to generate them?
thank you in advance!
—
.hush
Got interesting stuff to sell? Let me know!
Looking for DEC, IBM, CDC, SGI, Data General, and more!
11 Jan
11 Jan
5:29 p.m.
On 12/01/2023 00:58, hush(a)dec.dog via cctalk wrote:
hello cctalk! i have been working for the past few
days on a DECmate II with what i believe to be an ailing RX50. i have a gotek with updated
flashfloppy firmware, but for some strange reason i have been completely unable to get the
DMII to boot a floppy image from it.
i have been trying to convert the OS/278 and WPS images on the dbit and ibiblio archives
into a working format for the gotek but none of them will work. at this point i have tried
too many conversions to recall but they all result in the same blinking floppy icon when
the unit boots. i have “host = dec” in my FF.CFG per the wiki.
has anyone else been able to get this working? if so, could you please provide known-good
images for a gotek, or the steps to generate them?
I've used a Gotek (semi-successfully) with the DEC Rainbow using raw
image files and the following lines in ff.cfg:
host = dec
pin02 = low
pin34 = rdy
The image file format should not be important though you may run into
problems with sector ordering depending on how the source image was
created. It was the pin02 and pin34 lines that got it working for the
Rainbow.
Matt
7:14 p.m.
appreciate the reply, Matt! unfortunately it doesn’t seem that that did the trick, another
round of feeding it disk images and it still doesn’t want to boot.
i tried the block and sector RX50 images on the dbit[.]com archive both as-is and
converted to IBM MFM raw and HxC formats, and the teledisk images on ibiblio[.]org
converted to the same.
my img.cfg:
[rx50]
cyls = 80
heads = 1
secs = 10
interleave = 2
bps = 512
id = 1
rpm = 300
rate = 250
mode = mfm
iam = no
should i start suspecting my gotek (or worse, the system board) or is it still possible
that i’m at fault?
—
.hush
Got interesting stuff to sell? Let me know!
Looking for DEC, IBM, CDC, SGI, Data General, and more!
On Wednesday, Jan 11, 2023 at 8:47 PM, Matt Burke via
cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org (mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org)> wrote:
On 12/01/2023 00:58, hush(a)dec.dog via cctalk wrote:
hello cctalk! i have been working for the past
few days on a DECmate II with what i believe to be an ailing RX50. i have a gotek with
updated flashfloppy firmware, but for some strange reason i have been completely unable to
get the DMII to boot a floppy image from it.
i have been trying to convert the OS/278 and WPS images on the dbit and ibiblio archives
into a working format for the gotek but none of them will work. at this point i have tried
too many conversions to recall but they all result in the same blinking floppy icon when
the unit boots. i have “host = dec” in my FF.CFG per the wiki.
has anyone else been able to get this working? if so, could you please provide known-good
images for a gotek, or the steps to generate them?
I've used a Gotek (semi-successfully) with the DEC Rainbow using raw
image files and the following lines in ff.cfg:
host = dec
pin02 = low
pin34 = rdy
The image file format should not be important though you may run into
problems with sector ordering depending on how the source image was
created. It was the pin02 and pin34 lines that got it working for the
Rainbow.
Matt
7:52 p.m.
On Wed, Jan 11, 2023 at 8:14 PM hush(a)dec.dog via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
appreciate the reply, Matt! unfortunately it doesn’t
seem that that did
the trick, another round of feeding it disk images and it still doesn’t
want to boot.
i tried the block and sector RX50 images on the dbit[.]com archive both
as-is and converted to IBM MFM raw and HxC formats, and the teledisk images
on ibiblio[.]org converted to the same.
my img.cfg:
[rx50]
cyls = 80
heads = 1
secs = 10
interleave = 2
bps = 512
id = 1
rpm = 300
rate = 250
mode = mfm
iam = no
should i start suspecting my gotek (or worse, the system board) or is it
still possible that i’m at fault?
I don't think you want the interleave. At least for the Rainbow and the Pro
they did do an interleave of 2, but it was done at the logical level, not
the physical level (which is confusing). So, if the images are physical
images (that is, they record the physical sector numbers that are on the
media), then you don't need it. If the images are logical (so some or all
of the tracks have the interleave applied), then you will need it.
Also, I think should be 0. Unlike the PC, where 1 and 0 are flipped by a
cable (you have a straight through cable, right?), the top RX-50 is ID 0
and the bottom is ID 1.
Warner
—
.hush
Got interesting stuff to sell? Let me know!
Looking for DEC, IBM, CDC, SGI, Data General, and more!
I've used a Gotek (semi-successfully) with the DEC Rainbow using raw
image files and the following lines in ff.cfg:
host = dec
pin02 = low
pin34 = rdy
The image file format should not be important though you may run into
problems with sector ordering depending on how the source image was
created. It was the pin02 and pin34 lines that got it working for the
Rainbow.
Matt
On Wednesday, Jan 11, 2023 at 8:47 PM, Matt Burke
via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org (mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org)> wrote:
On 12/01/2023 00:58, hush(a)dec.dog via cctalk
wrote:
> hello cctalk! i have been working for the past few days on a DECmate
II with what i believe to be an ailing RX50. i have a gotek with updated
flashfloppy firmware, but for some strange reason i have been completely
unable to get the DMII to boot a floppy image from it.
>
> i have been trying to convert the OS/278 and WPS images on the dbit
and ibiblio archives into a working format for the gotek but none of them
will work. at this point i have tried too many conversions to recall but
they all result in the same blinking floppy icon when the unit boots. i
have “host = dec” in my FF.CFG per the wiki.
>
> has anyone else been able to get this working? if so, could you please
provide known-good images for a gotek, or the steps to generate them?
8:29 p.m.
still no luck there unfortunately, i disabled interleaving and changed the id to 0 as
well, it still does not want to boot. the cable i’m using is straight through though, i’m
using the cable the came with the unit originally. i have another on the way just in case
but since this cable is pretty hefty, i wouldn’t suspect that it’s damaged.
at this point i have to wonder, what the chances are that my floppy controller is dead? if
anyone in/around the columbia, MD area has a working RX50 (or other 5.25” drive, if the
DMII will take it) they can lend and the ability to prep some 5.25” floppies for me feel
free to reach out off-list, i unfortunately do not have any working 5.25” drives lying
around at the moment and the weekend is fast approaching.
—
.hush
Got interesting stuff to sell? Let me know!
Looking for DEC, IBM, CDC, SGI, Data General, and more!
On Wednesday, Jan 11, 2023 at 10:52 PM, Warner Losh
<imp(a)bsdimp.com (mailto:imp@bsdimp.com)> wrote:
On Wed, Jan 11, 2023 at 8:14 PM hush(a)dec.dog via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
(mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org)> wrote:
appreciate the reply, Matt! unfortunately it
doesn’t seem that that did the trick, another round of feeding it disk images and it still
doesn’t want to boot.
i tried the block and sector RX50 images on the dbit[.]com archive both as-is and
converted to IBM MFM raw and HxC formats, and the teledisk images on ibiblio[.]org
converted to the same.
my img.cfg:
[rx50]
cyls = 80
heads = 1
secs = 10
interleave = 2
bps = 512
id = 1
rpm = 300
rate = 250
mode = mfm
iam = no
should i start suspecting my gotek (or worse, the system board) or is it still possible
that i’m at fault?
I don't think you want the interleave. At least for the Rainbow and the Pro they did
do an interleave of 2, but it was done at the logical level, not the physical level (which
is confusing). So, if the images are physical images (that is, they record the physical
sector numbers that are on the media), then you don't need it. If the images are
logical (so some or all of the tracks have the interleave applied), then you will need
it.
Also, I think should be 0. Unlike the PC, where 1 and 0 are flipped by a cable (you have
a straight through cable, right?), the top RX-50 is ID 0 and the bottom is ID 1.
Warner
> —
> .hush
> Got interesting stuff to sell? Let me know!
> Looking for DEC, IBM, CDC, SGI, Data General, and more!
>
> > On Wednesday, Jan 11, 2023 at 8:47 PM, Matt Burke via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org (mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org)
(mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org)> wrote:
> > On 12/01/2023 00:58, hush(a)dec.dog via cctalk wrote:
> > > hello cctalk! i have been working for the past few days on a DECmate II
with what i believe to be an ailing RX50. i have a gotek with updated flashfloppy
firmware, but for some strange reason i have been completely unable to get the DMII to
boot a floppy image from it.
> > >
> > > i have been trying to convert the OS/278 and WPS images on the dbit and
ibiblio archives into a working format for the gotek but none of them will work. at this
point i have tried too many conversions to recall but they all result in the same blinking
floppy icon when the unit boots. i have “host = dec” in my FF.CFG per the wiki.
> > >
> > > has anyone else been able to get this working? if so, could you please
provide known-good images for a gotek, or the steps to generate them?
> > >
> >
> > I've used a Gotek (semi-successfully) with the DEC Rainbow using raw
> > image files and the following lines in ff.cfg:
> >
> > host = dec
> > pin02 = low
> > pin34 = rdy
> >
> > The image file format should not be important though you may run into
> > problems with sector ordering depending on how the source image was
> > created. It was the pin02 and pin34 lines that got it working for the
> > Rainbow.
> >
> > Matt
716
days inactive
716
days old
4 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
-
hush＠dec.dog -
Matt Burke -
Warner Losh