Applicard CP/M partition on CFFA3000?

[EricN]

Has anyone had any success setting up a CP/M partition on the new
CFFA3000 for the Applicard? I've been attempting to use the PCPIPro
and ProPart tools provided by Steve but no success so far. Here's
what I'm seeing:

PCPIPro method (from PCPIPro.txt):
- Everything successful up to -FBOOT then when the system reads in the
drivers from the recently created boot diskette, the pdoshd driver
errors on loading and is not able to detect a CP/M hard disk
partition.

ProPart:
- Thought perhaps I first needed to use ProPart first to create a CP/M
partition
- Run pro/part.com, run through menu settings, then program hangs when
attempting to write the data blocks to a ProDOS partition not he
CFFA3000.

Any help is much appreciated.

[Chuck Morris]

This may be off target, but I seem to recall that Rich had indicated
that some formatting operations did not work properly, such as
formatting of Pascal volumes. For simpler problems such as that one,
Ciderpress can provide a solution since it can format a virtual Pascal
volume that can be copied onto a CF or USB stick for use with the
CFFA3000. If that is the root cause of your problem AND if it is
possible to run the same setup procedure on an emulator to partition a
virtual hard drive, then you should be able to transfer that to the
CFFA3000 as a workaround. Plenty of "ifs" there, but it might be a
workable solution.

[David Schmidt]

How are you configuring the CFFA3000? Are you starting with a ProDOS or
Pascal disk image, and mounting that as a SmartPort drive? What slot is
the CFFA3000 in?

It seems like you should be able to start with a hard drive image that
is already prepared for the Applicard and just mount and use that.

[Steven Hirsch]

On 11/15/2011 06:57 AM, David Schmidt wrote:
> On 11/15/2011 1:06 AM, EricN wrote:
>> Has anyone had any success setting up a CP/M partition on the new
>> CFFA3000 for the Applicard? I've been attempting to use the PCPIPro
>> and ProPart tools provided by Steve but no success so far. Here's
>> what I'm seeing:
>>
>> PCPIPro method (from PCPIPro.txt):
>> - Everything successful up to -FBOOT then when the system reads in the
>> drivers from the recently created boot diskette, the pdoshd driver
>> errors on loading and is not able to detect a CP/M hard disk
>> partition.
>>
>> ProPart:
>> - Thought perhaps I first needed to use ProPart first to create a CP/M
>> partition
>> - Run pro/part.com, run through menu settings, then program hangs when
>> attempting to write the data blocks to a ProDOS partition not he
>> CFFA3000.

> How are you configuring the CFFA3000? Are you starting with a ProDOS or Pascal
> disk image, and mounting that as a SmartPort drive? What slot is the CFFA3000 in?

Both the partitioning tool and driver assume a device that ids and behaves as
a ProDOS block device. It does not have to be a SmartPort drive. I've yet to
see anything it wouldn't work with, including a ProFile. I have one of my
original CFFA cards configured with a CP/M partition on it and don't recall
any issues during setup.

> It seems like you should be able to start with a hard drive image that is
> already prepared for the Applicard and just mount and use that.

That might work, but sizings would have to match up precisely. The driver is
looking for a fingerprint on the volume and uses the size to get its bearings.

I'll refresh my memory a bit and see if I can offer more concrete advice in a
follow-on post.

Steve

[David Schmidt]

Then the CFFA3000 should be good when it hosts a disk image. The
trouble with 'formatting' comes in when something tries to write timing
nibbles during low-level formatting - something that I doubt your code
is doing. If it is coloring inside the lines, there's no reason why
hosting an image on a CFFA3000, mapped into a slot+drive combination,
wouldn't work.

I'd recommend against the old scheme of using hard-coded partitions on a
CF card and using the new, much more flexible image hosting capabilities.

>> It seems like you should be able to start with a hard drive image that is
>> already prepared for the Applicard and just mount and use that.
>
> That might work, but sizings would have to match up precisely. The
> driver is looking for a fingerprint on the volume and uses the size to
> get its bearings.

The sizing will match up precisely... because the CFFA3000 can host the
image file directly. ;-)

[EricN]

More details on mounting a CP/M partition. Good suggestions from
everyone, but still no luck so far:

- CFFA is in slot 7 of an enhanced //e with SmartPort assigned
CompactFlash image (set to both drive 1 and drive 2 with same results)
- Started with stock bootable 32MB ProDOS image and attempted to use
ProPart to partition. ProPart hangs towards the end of the partition
process where it's trying to write the data blocks
- Image was generated by CiderPress and one was also derived from
stock CF image shipped with CFFA card. Same results from both

The emulation idea was a good one, however, I don't know of any
emulator that supports the Applicard. I tried running Pro/Part in
Virtual ][ with the generic-Z80 card, but Pro/Part won't run in that
environment so I can't make a CP/M partition image to transfer over to
the CFFA.

So no issues booting any kind of ProDos image I can create. I just
can't seem to create a CP/M image from any Pro-DOS image, and I don't
have an exiting CP/M hard disk image to transfer onto the CFFA.

If anyone has an existing CP/M image for Applicard, that would be very
helpful.

Thanks,
Eric

[David Schmidt]

I tried creating a PCPI boot disk with the PDOSHD.DVR configured (and
the printer driver unconfigured) but it crashes on boot. I'm using a
platinum IIe with an Ace 80 cad in slot 4. It boots PCPI CP/M just fine
otherwise. Running PRO/PART without the driver seems to just send me
back to the CP/M prompt with no error messages.

[Steven Hirsch]

Are the folks wrestling with ProPartition and the hd driver following the
directions carefully? If so, this is bizarre. I'm starting to wonder if
there isn't a corrupted distribution of my code floating around, since it's
worked fine for a lot of folks.

One thing does occur to me about Dave's situation. The Ace card was not
exactly the same as the later production Applicards, and it's possible the
system software is too old to support the 6502 host BIOS calls required by the
partitioner.

Still just guessing. When my CFFA3000 gets here, I'll try an install and see
what transpires.

Steve

[EricN]

On Nov 16, 8:41 am, Steven Hirsch <snhir...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 11/16/2011 08:46 AM, David Schmidt wrote:
>
> Are the folks wrestling with ProPartition and the hd driver following the
> directions carefully?  If so, this is bizarre.  I'm starting to wonder if
> there isn't a corrupted distribution of my code floating around, since it's
> worked fine for a lot of folks.

I'm using the ProPart image from Asimov: ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/cpm/os/

I've seen the Pro/Part software exit out to the CP/M prompt like David
described above when I tried to run it on my emulator with a non-PCPI
card. With my Applicard the software lets you get through all of the
partitioning steps, starts to write out the data and then seems to get
stuck on the third step where it's trying to write data blocks.

> Still just guessing.  When my CFFA3000 gets here, I'll try an install and see
> what transpires.

Thanks. The CFFA3000 is a very nice piece of hardware to have
regardless of CP/M support, but it would be very nice to have both
ProDOS and CP/M functionality on the card.

[Steven Hirsch]

On 11/16/2011 11:00 AM, EricN wrote:
> On Nov 16, 8:41 am, Steven Hirsch<snhir...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 11/16/2011 08:46 AM, David Schmidt wrote:
>>
>> Are the folks wrestling with ProPartition and the hd driver following the
>> directions carefully? If so, this is bizarre. I'm starting to wonder if
>> there isn't a corrupted distribution of my code floating around, since it's
>> worked fine for a lot of folks.
>
> I'm using the ProPart image from Asimov: ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/cpm/os/

Ok, thanks. I just downloaded and checked that against my master and it's
fine. So we can rule out corruption. You did see the warning about removing
the print buffer driver from the DRIVERS file, didn't you?

> I've seen the Pro/Part software exit out to the CP/M prompt like David
> described above when I tried to run it on my emulator with a non-PCPI
> card.

That makes perfect sense. It doesn't have a prayer of working in any
environment other than a PCPI/Starcard 2.x CP/M system. I rely on low-level
driver calls through the documented Z80/6502 interface, and that's completely
specific to the Applicard. What version does your Applicard system report?

> With my Applicard the software lets you get through all of the
> partitioning steps, starts to write out the data and then seems to get
> stuck on the third step where it's trying to write data blocks.

Can you try the partitioning on some other ProDOS block device? Do you have a
3.5" drive connected? Might even work on a ProDOS ramdrive (never tried this).

>> Still just guessing. When my CFFA3000 gets here, I'll try an install and see
>> what transpires.

> Thanks. The CFFA3000 is a very nice piece of hardware to have
> regardless of CP/M support, but it would be very nice to have both
> ProDOS and CP/M functionality on the card.
>

Since it's always worked properly on the original CFFA, I have to think this
is going to be solvable. My card has apparently not been shipped yet, and I'm
running out of time before leaving town for Thanksgiving. So, might be a few
weeks.

Steve

[EricN]

Here's a pic of where the ProPart software is hanging. It detects the
ProDOS image and make some progress before hanging on the data block
writes:
http://imgur.com/51dVG

I also tried creating a new blank 16MB disk image using the CFFA menu
but still see the same results.

>>Can you try the partitioning on some other ProDOS block device? Do you have a
>>3.5" drive connected? Might even work on a ProDOS ramdrive (never tried this).

Alas, All I have are 5.25 Disk II's. Bummer that I sold my SCSI card
and hard drive last year. I could have probably just imported that
image and dropped it onto the CFFA card.

[David Schmidt]

On 11/18/2011 4:36 PM, EricN wrote:
> Alas, All I have are 5.25 Disk II's. Bummer that I sold my SCSI card
> and hard drive last year. I could have probably just imported that
> image and dropped it onto the CFFA card.

Right - once we get a good image or two, we'll never need to go through
this low-level "formatting" again...

[Steven Hirsch]

The partitioning program does not do any low-level (physical) formatting.
It's just using ProDOS block calls for read and write. That's what makes a
hang so mysterious.

[GordT]

I've been trying to get it working on my //e with an Applicard and a
CFFA v1.4 - PRO/PART.COM hangs immediately after running it, no
messages at all. It looks like it accesses B:, then nothing.
Considering I appear to have gotten the boot disk configured to look
for a partition and this is the last step, a bit frustrating! Any
chance of getting source for PRO/PART so we can trace where it's
hanging?

Regards,
Gord

[Steven Hirsch]

I thought I released the sources... There's certainly no reason not to, but I
warn you that setting up a build environment will be challenging. It's
written in Turbo Modula-2 for CP/M Z80 and also requires, IIRC, the SLR
assembler and linker. Oh, you'll also need the PCPI OEM development kit and a
good working knowledge of all the above tools.

I have been hammered with work and family obligations for the past several
weeks, but this weekend I'm planning to set up for test and debugging. I'm
almost 99% sure I've used Pro-Part on a CFFA in the past, FWIW.

Steve

[Steven Hirsch]

All,

I think I may have found the reason that folks are having problems with the
partitioning tool! The .SHK diskette archive appears to be corrupted. I had
downloaded the one floating around the net and successfully compared it to my
master copy. Unfortunately, that doesn't really help since the master is
apparently bad :-(.

After going back to fresh copies of the binaries, I was able to partition the
CFFA3000 volume, install the driver and access the hard disk from Applicard
CP/M. Better still, you can copy the boot floppy to a 140k image in the CFFA
and boot directly off the image.

Would anyone having problems please contact me directly in e-mail? I'll send
you a known-good disk image.

Sorry for the problems - I do not know how this happened. Once I get
additional confirmation from the field I will put the new disk image up on the
Yahoo group and the "secret" mail account.

Steve

[Steven Hirsch]

A followup on problems with Propartition and the CFFA:

Dave Schmidt was kind enough to run down the road blindfolded and trip over
all the potholes :-) (thanks for the nice report, Dave!) On the basis of his
feedback, some warnings and advice:

0. MOST IMPORTANT: The SHK archived disk image appears corrupted. The KNOWN
BAD file has the following MD5 sum:

d72ba944971797a8a74210ec6ebf3805 PROPART.SHK

I am uploading a Dos-order (DO) disk image to the mail account and the Yahoo
Apple CP/M list. This will the following MD5:

32930d38febc5d7ac69a3ec23dbc2cfb PROPART.DSK

Feel free to contact me off-list if you need a copy.

1. The partition utility does NOT require that the PDOSHD driver be installed!
Further, it DOES NOT work in the presence of the print buffer driver. You
MUST remove that first and re-write DRIVERS and PCPICPM. Then boot from the
updated system before running the partitioner.

2. The opening screen of the partition program asks for a slot number. It
will not let you proceed (nor, unfortunately, exit) unless you give it the
location of a slot having valid block-device firmware. I will fix this when I
have time to permit exit on '0', but for now that's the way it is.

3. If you create a ProDOS volume for the CFFA using CiderPress, do NOT make it
65535 blocks or the partitioner will think there is no room left due to
numeric underflow in the code. Use 65534 as the maximum. I will try to fix
this in the future.

4. The ProDOS volume MUST be formatted for ProDOS in addition to being
created. I can probably detect this in the future, but for now be careful.

5. Please follow my notes carefully with regard to setting device numbers and
number of devices for the various block drivers. Both the stock Apple floppy
driver and the PDOSHD driver default to device "0" (disk A:). They cannot
BOTH by disk A! I suggest assigning A and B to floppy until you are confident
that things are working. That would mean that the Apple floppy driver is set
for Device=0 (default) and NumDevices=2 (default is 6!!). The PDOSHD driver
gets configured for Device=2 (allowing room for 0 and 1) and NumDevices equal
to however many CP/M volumes you created on the CFFA.

Hope this helps folks get going.

Steve

[Steven Hirsch]

On 12/04/2011 12:15 PM, Steven Hirsch wrote:
> A followup on problems with Propartition and the CFFA:

UPDATE: The PROPART.SDK file on the Yahoo group appears to be fine.

I removed the bad copies on the mail group and uploaded a new PROPART.DSK
image per my prior note.

[A2CPM]

Hi!

On Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 10:08:54 AM UTC-5, Steven Hirsch wrote:
> I thought I released the sources [to ProPartition]... There's certainly no reason not to, but I

> warn you that setting up a build environment will be challenging. It's
> written in Turbo Modula-2 for CP/M Z80 and also requires, IIRC, the SLR
> assembler and linker. Oh, you'll also need the PCPI OEM development kit and a
> good working knowledge of all the above tools.

<--- snip --->
> Steve

Were the sources ever released? If so. I have not been able to find them.

Willi