Unable to boot OS9 on a real D64 using Gotek and FD502 controller

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Jackall
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2018 8:27 am

Unable to boot OS9 on a real D64 using Gotek and FD502 controller

Post by Jackall »

Hi,

I managed to bring back to life a Dragon 64, bought off ebay listed as for parts, I also have two working D32's.
I have managed to boot to OS9 using a COCOSDC, however I cannot get it to boot off a Gotek coupled to a FD502 Disk controller running DOS E7T,
Most of the other DSK /VDK work successfully, (I am using the latest FlashFloppy firmware on the Gotek), but when I try to boot to OS9, the dragon gets stuck on the OS9 BOOT screen.

Does anyone have any experience with this kind of setup please ? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

J
sixxie
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Location: Hertfordshire
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Re: Unable to boot OS9 on a real D64 using Gotek and FD502 controller

Post by sixxie »

I think your main issue there is going to be that OS-9 has its own disk drivers, and they’re not going to expect to find the CoCo hardware (SuperDOS E7T is patched to use it, but OS-9 doesn’t use that code).
KenH
Posts: 182
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2012 9:50 am

Re: Unable to boot OS9 on a real D64 using Gotek and FD502 controller

Post by KenH »

You should be able to run Nitros9. The tano build is nitros9 for dragon with drivers for the rsdos controller.
Download image link:
https://nitros9.sourceforge.io/snapshot ... _40d_1.dsk
Jackall
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2018 8:27 am

Re: Unable to boot OS9 on a real D64 using Gotek and FD502 controller

Post by Jackall »

Hi KenH,

Thank you very much for your reply. I have tried the DSK image you attached but it still hangs on the boot screen. Your theory about the drivers makes 100% sense.

I have tried a few Dragon Dos rom files from here http://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/ ... roar-roms/ onto the eprom of my FD-502 controller. None of them get the dragon to boot, except for DOSPLUS 5.0, which (eventually after about 20 seconds) gets to the OK prompt, however using this ROM nothing happens on the Gotek, like when you issue a DIR command, the screen goes blank (no cursor or anything) for a prolonged period of time and there is no disk activity whatsoever on the Gotek.

I have two questions :

1. Is it possible to find a firmware which is OS9 compatible for the FD-502 Disk controller ? and

2. Failing 1, is it possible to find or build (I can create my own pcb's not a problem) a proper dragon dos controller which runs on a proper dragon dos firmware (it seems the ones I can see on ebay are all running the E7T firmware) ?

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply.

Best regards

Johann
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robcfg
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Location: Stockholm, Sweden
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Re: Unable to boot OS9 on a real D64 using Gotek and FD502 controller

Post by robcfg »

Which firmware is your Gotek running?
Jackall
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2018 8:27 am

Re: Unable to boot OS9 on a real D64 using Gotek and FD502 controller

Post by Jackall »

Gotek is running 3.32.

Have also had a go with 4.x. to no avail (also found this version is not yet very stable, and will sometimes go in a boot loop when certain vdk files are selected so switched back to 3.x). In the mean time i am etching a pcb out of https://hardware.speccy.org/temp/Dragon-1.html this project, and have ordered a couple of WD2797A-PL's off ebay.

The final goal is to burn 4 Different Dragon Dos firmwares inside a 27C256 selectable via jumpers. I have prepared a rom file with Dragon Dos 1.0, 1.2, 4.0 and E7T. Hopefully when I finally get all the parts and put the thing together, will make some progress :)

J
bluearcus
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Joined: Wed Sep 07, 2016 4:45 pm

Re: Unable to boot OS9 on a real D64 using Gotek and FD502 controller

Post by bluearcus »

Hi Jackall,

With a CoCo type controller you will always have some software compatibilities problems, even if you were to find or create CoCo-ised ROMs based on any of the other DragonDOS variants. This is always going to cause problems with OS9, though a fun project might be to create a boot disk that handled this difficulty.

There are actually DragonDOS controller clones available at the moment on SellMyRetro though...

https://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/detai ... on32-62111
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