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NitrOS-9 ReadMe
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Welcome to NitrOS-9!

DISTRIBUTION
============
There are two double-sided 40 track DSK images ending in '_ds40_1.dsk',
and '_ds40_2.dsk' for disks 1 and 2, respectively.  For those with
3.5" 720K drives, an 80 track DSK image ending in '_ds80.dsk' is also
included in the distribution.

USING THE DISK IMAGES
=====================
If you wish to transfer the disk images to a floppy disk for use with a
real CoCo, follow the steps below:

WINDOWS/DOS:

1. Download and install the latest version of DSKINI/RETRIEVE at
   http://www.nitros9.org/

2. Insert a blank double-sided floppy in to your drive (we assume B:)

3. Type the following command, replacing the name of the image:

             DSKINI /T40 /D B: <diskimagefile>     (360K 5.25" floppy disk)
             DSKINI /T80 /D B: <diskimagefile>     (720K 3.5"  floppy disk)

   Where <diskimagefile> is the image file you want to transfer to the
   floppy disk.  The image file transfer should start.  When it is done,
   take out the disk and try booting your CoCo with it.

Repeat steps 2-3 for each additional disk.


LINUX:

1. Download and install the latest version of fdutils from
   http://fdutils.linux.lu/

2. Once installed, edit the /usr/local/etc/mediaprm file and add the
   following lines at the end of the file:

     "COCO360":
      DS DD sect=18 cyl=40 ssize=256 tpi=48

     "COCO720":
      DS DD sect=18 cyl=80 ssize=256 tpi=96

3. Insert your blank floppy into the drive on your Linux box.

4. Type the following command:

             setfdprm /dev/fd1 coco360    (360K 5.25" floppy disk)
             setfdprm /dev/fd1 coco720    (720K 3.5"  floppy disk)

   This assumes your floppy drive is /dev/fd1.  You may need to make
   adjustments to the above commands for your environment.

5. After typing the setfdprm command, the floppy drive unit should spin
   for a second then stop. Type this command:

             dd if=<diskimagefile> of=/dev/fd1

   Where <diskimagefile> is the image file you want to transfer to the
   floppy disk.  The image file transfer should start.  When it is done,
   take out the disk and try booting your CoCo with it.

Repeat steps 3-5 for each additional disk.

Addendum by Gene Heskett

Unfortunately, many of the fdc chipsets shipping on motherboards for
the last 5 years or so, do NOT understand, and will probably crash your
pc when a 256 byte/sector disk read or write is attempted.  This rather
high priced Asus M2n-SLI Deluxe board is one such board, so using floppies
for the 'sneakernet' to get this stuff onto my coco3 cannot be done.
email to gheskett AT wdtv DOT com.

1. This repo is newer than the sourceforge repo, and a lot more of it
Just Works(TM).  If you find something that doesn't, use the above
email address.

2. This repo's work will be transfered back to sourceforge when I can
figure out how to do a commit in mercurial.  Tutorials on this are welcome.
There are, since I did the hg clone about the 27th of October 2012, 
probably at least 50 files needing committed, changed in getting this
back to buildable and bootable.

3. Since we now have drivewire, the appropriate for your machine .dsk
files can be downloaded and mounted directly as a fully read/write
virtual disk.  Drivewire is the cats meow, many thanks to Aaron Wolfe.
Make yourself a cable and join in on the dance floor, its amazing.

4. I am still using mamou as the assembler, no attempt has been made
to convert it to using William Astles lwtools just yet as I wanted
this to be as close to 100% usable as possible before attempting the
conversion so that only the conversion generated errors remain.  There
will be some teething problems while that is going on in a separate
tree that won't be visible until it Just Works(TM).

5. One thing that was recently done by Boisy was to convert the
boot_scsi.asm file from, because of code size constraints, the use of 
the former drive addressing scheme of a single marching set bit across 
the scsi bus drive address field, into a base zero decimal scheme, so the
drive address contained in the 4th byte from the end can now be looked
at as a decimal value where $00 is now a legal address for drive 0 on
the bus.  A MAJOR change, and one in the right direction IMO, that was
not even mentioned in the comments of the boot_scsi.asm header till I
discovered it yesterday while reading the code trying to figure out why
with that byte set to $01 like it had been for years, the boot was 
failing because it was trying to find OS9Boot on my drive 1, s1, and 
fixed the makefiles accordingly.

6. I am not trying to keep this a secret but it probably will not get
any ink on the coco list until such time as I have committed to source-
forge and that repo is again useable, so bear with me.  I have cable
dsl so my 'intertube' at 3 megabits isn't that fast.  A lot of traffic 
will probably result in my isp blocking the port address I do use to
get past the port 80 block just like they do without admitting to it 
because if they did admit it, the FCC would probably discuss their 
common carrier status with the ISP's legal dept.  As that status has
huge tax and licensing advantages to the ISP, they will not give that
status up without a prolonged court fight.  I have even considered
putting this page on port 6809, but when and if that happens, you'll
see it in my email sig.

Thats all for now folks, keep the old girl running till the rapture
or whatever.

Cheers, Gene