floppy.c problems?

floppy.c problems?

[Gene Heskett]

Greetings all; Slightly offtopic but maybe I can find some info here.

I have a requirement to format and use a floppy, either mechanical 
size, 256 byte sector, 18 sectors per track at 250kilobaud data rate.  
I have been assured that the "superio' chip on my mobo can indeed do 
that format.  Soooo...

I've added 4 more lines to the floppy definition array in floppy.c, 
and increased the array count at the top to match, but I don't seem 
to be able to get any output, its working as usual.  Stuck in 512 
bytes per sector modes, 9 to the track that is.

I even turned on several debugging options, but haven't found out 
where the logging is going if its working.  Looks like if its doing 
any debugging outputs, they're being sent to /dev/null.

Ideas?

Secondary problem too, I have a zombie of minicom that I can't kill.  
Its sleeping for disk access or some such twaddle.  It always trashes 
the X window cli screen I run it in, and often locks up like a piece 
of MS software from 1983.  Surely that thing has been cleaned up and 
'sane'itized for use with x somewhere along the line.  Or am I useing 
the wrong comm terminal utility in the first place?

-- 
Cheers, Gene
AMD K6-III@500mhz 320M
Athlon1600XP@1400mhz  512M
99.22% setiathome rank, not too shabby for a WV hillbilly
Yahoo.com attornies please note, additions to this message
by Gene Heskett are:
Copyright 2003 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.

Re: floppy.c problems?

[dan carpenter]

On Wednesday 10 December 2003 02:58 pm, Gene Heskett wrote:
>
> I've added 4 more lines to the floppy definition array in floppy.c,
> and increased the array count at the top to match, but I don't seem
> to be able to get any output, its working as usual.  Stuck in 512
> bytes per sector modes, 9 to the track that is.

Can you show us your code.

regards,
dan carpenter

Re: floppy.c problems?

[Gene Heskett]

On Thursday 11 December 2003 00:36, dan carpenter wrote:
>On Wednesday 10 December 2003 02:58 pm, Gene Heskett wrote:
>> I've added 4 more lines to the floppy definition array in
>> floppy.c, and increased the array count at the top to match, but I
>> don't seem to be able to get any output, its working as usual. 
>> Stuck in 512 bytes per sector modes, 9 to the track that is.
>
>Can you show us your code.
>
>regards,
>dan carpenter

sure, from the top of the array in floppy.c:
--------------
static struct floppy_struct floppy_type[36] = { /* it was [32] */
--------------
Then at the bottom, including 2 lines of the old code for reference:
--------------
        { 1600,10,2,80,0,0x25,0x02,0xDF,0x2E,"D800"  }, /* 30 800KB 3.5"    */
        { 3200,20,2,80,0,0x1C,0x00,0xCF,0x2C,"H1600" }, /* 31 1.6MB 3.5"    */
        {  720,18,1,35,0,0x2A,0x02,0xDF,0x00,"OS935s"}, /* 32 160k 5.25" ss os9 */
        {  720,18,1,40,0,0x2A,0x02,0xDF,0x00,"OS940s"}, /* 33 180k 5.25" ss os9 */
        {  720,18,2,40,0,0x2A,0x02,0xDF,0x00,"OS940d"}, /* 34 360k 5.25" dd os9 */
        {  720,18,2,80,0,0x2A,0x02,0xDF,0x00,"OS980d"}, /* 35 720k 5.25" hd os9 */
};
---------------

With those changes, and some additional defines in 
/usr/local/etc/mediaprm:
---------------
# TRS-80 Color Computer OS9 formats(to be confirmed)

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

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

# Now we know this one works!
"COCO3.5DD":
 DS DD sect=18 cyl=40 ssize=256 tpi=135

"COCO3.5HD":
 DS DD sect=18 cyl=80 ssize=256 tpi=135
---------------
And using "setfdprm /dev/fd0 coco3.5dd"
before each fdformat invocation,
I was finally able to make useable disks.  Note
that the COCO3.5HD is still on a "DD" diskette,
the coco's controllers cannot do 500 kilobaud
data rates.  So those last 2 should make 360k
and 720k disks.

But fdformat still lies like a fsking rug when
its formatting the disk, and outputs are odd
during the verify, skipping tracks, sometimes
several, at random.  Now if I could find the
srcs for fdformat, I'd make it tell the truth,
even if i have to give it a shot of pentathol.
 :-)  <--happy camper

-- 
Cheers, Gene
AMD K6-III@500mhz 320M
Athlon1600XP@1400mhz  512M
99.22% setiathome rank, not too shabby for a WV hillbilly
Yahoo.com attornies please note, additions to this message
by Gene Heskett are:
Copyright 2003 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.