Z80 Cromix and Gotek

[Mike Loewen]

I've been trying to boot Z80 Cromix 11.27 from a Gotek drive, and consistently getting:

0 00 01

Error-R 34 > Record not Found, Data Lost

Unable to Boot

The specific disk image is 337C1127.DSK. The catalog indicates that this is a bootable image. My Gotek IMG.CFG for this disk is:

[::406784]
cyls = 40
heads = 2
interleave = 1
rpm = 300
tracks = 0.0    ## Boot cylinder, head 0
  bps = 128
  sec = 18
  mode = fm
  id = 1
tracks = 0.1    ## Boot cylinder, head 1
  bps = 512
  secs = 10
  mode = mfm
  id = 1
tracks = 1-39
  bps = 512
  secs = 10
  mode = mfm
  id = 1

Is there something obviously wrong with my setup?

Hardware is DPU, 64FDC (w/mod), 4MB static RAM, STDC, IOP/QUADART. STDC ROM 1.27, RDOS 3.12.

[Roger Hanscom]

I could send you the content from my GoTek, Mike.   However I have different hardware:  ZPU, 16FDC and 256KZ.  Do you want it?  Do you think it might help?

Roger

[Christopher Mallery]

I have an .hfe of 11.27 that should boot off a gotek.  I have HxCs, but the newer flash floppy should boot off it

On Tue, Mar 18, 2025, 21:31 Roger Hanscom <norwe...@gmail.com> wrote:

I could send you the content from my GoTek, Mike.   However I have different hardware:  ZPU, 16FDC and 256KZ.  Do you want it?  Do you think it might help?

Roger

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[Richard Muse]

Don't think this is your 'Error-R 34' error but, AFAIK, the 4meg ram board does not support Cromemco's bank select scheme so 11.xx Z-80 cromix will not work. 

Since you have a DPU, 20.xx will work as well as 30.xx and 31.xx.

30 and 31.xx can boot directly to the STDC hard drive.

20.xx is basically a port of Z-80 Cromix with Z-80 kernel and memory mapping managed by the 68000 so memory does not have to support bank select. It will also run some 68000 executables if they were compiled for it.

Richard

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[Mike Stein]

Hi Roger,

I wouldn't mind a copy of that, as well as the Gotek configuration files; haven't played with Z80 Cromix for a while.

Thanks!

On Wed, Mar 19, 2025 at 12:31 AM Roger Hanscom <norwe...@gmail.com> wrote:

I could send you the content from my GoTek, Mike.   However I have different hardware:  ZPU, 16FDC and 256KZ.  Do you want it?  Do you think it might help?

Roger

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[Ken Lesniak]

Roger, would it be possible to post it publicly? I have those cromemco boards and I wouldn't mind trying it out.

Ken

[Roger Hanscom]

Mike, Ken --

Huh??  I thought that I did "reply all".

Anyway .... here you go.

As I told Mike (the other Mike *grin*), the file is really a .zip file, renamed.  There's a .sav file in there which is just another image.  I copied it there in case the original got buggered up.

Roger

[Ken Lesniak]

Roger, could very well be my fault and I didn't notice the file. I don't interact much with "groups" is my lame excuse. Sorry if I created some excess noise.

Ken

[Roger Hanscom]

Hi Ken,

>>  Sorry if I created some excess noise.

No problem!

Roger

[Mike Stein]

I'm finally back home with a little time to play. Took me a few hours to update & configure the (old, buttons only) Gotek (computer too old, .NET too old, bad USB cable, etc.) but when I finally did, it ran Roger's 8" 11.27 image no problem.

Thanks as usual, Roger, for always being helpful!

Mike Loewen: I assume you've got yours running by now?

(The other, other) mike.

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[Roger Hanscom]

Hi Mike,

>> Thanks as usual, Roger, for always being helpful!

No problem!  Glad it worked for you.  I should warn you that at one point I was only able to boot 11.27 one time off the Gotek.  A second boot attempt from the same flash stick (without changing anything) just hung.  Don't know why.  I was thinking that maybe Cromix wrote something to the file system during boot-up?  It hasn't happened recently, so maybe it was just a fluke?  Anyway, that's what that .sav file is in my stuff.  It's a back-up copy of the boot image in case the first copy got munged.

>> I'm finally back home with a little time to play.

[I'm going to pull your leg a little here!  *grin*]

Must be nice to "snowbird" in Hawaii for the whole winter!  Avoid the cold, harsh winters of Toronto.  Wish I could afford that!

Roger

[Mike Loewen]

(The other Mike) I had to put Z80 Cromix aside while I prepared my Cromix-Plus 31.68 exhibit for VCF East. All went well, and I had a lot of interested visitors.

There's something wrong with one of my 256KZ boards, which I'll have to figure out before diving back into Z80 Cromix.

[Mike Stein]

Sounds good! Any pictures of the exhibit?

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[Mike Loewen]

    A couple of pictures, here:

http://q7.neurotica.com/CromixPlus/

  Z2 with DPU, 64FDC, IOP/QUADART, STDC, 4MB Static RAM. David Gesswein MFM emulator, dual Goteks. Terminals: DEC VT420, Heathkit H19, Hazeltine Esprit III, HP 700/92. WiFi Retromodem to telnet out.

[Jay Cotton]

1 slight correction.  The person that created the 4meg static ram is John Monahan.  See s100computers.com

jc

[Mike Stein]

Great display!! Did you have to modify any termcaps entries for those terminals or did the supplied one work perfectly for all of them?

What was the modem connected to?

Any chance of a copy of that Cromix/Unix comparison chart? Thanks.

Once again, great job; must have taken a few hours altogether.

m

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[Mike Loewen]

I don't know why I keep typing "Dan Monahan"; I know it's John.

Attached is a copy of Unix vs. Cromix.

I had to put modified modern termcap entries in place for all of the terminals to reliably run 'CE'.

The WiFi Retromodem was connected to one of the QUADART ports, and it connected to the local WiFi network.

I used the 'ccall' program to talk to the modem (AT commands), which connected via telnet to a BBS system at home. One of the visitors also telneted into his Altos 286 system running Xenix. Info on the WiFi Retromodem is here:

https://tempestfpga.com/retromodem/

[Mike Stein]

Hah! I wish! Never been to Hawaii and probably never will, alas. No, my 'vacation' was actually even farther north of Toronto where the weather was pretty bad with freezing rain snapping branches and toppling trees, leaving almost 1/2 million folks without power for up to 6 or 7 days.

Besides, any Canadian vacationing in the US is considered a traitor; we're all supposed to stay home and shop Canadian to teach your president not to mess with us ;-)

I think I might have noticed one anomaly where a number of files temporarily disappeared from an image, and another one of the images reported read errors. I went through all the 8" 11.27 images and IIRC 4 out of 8 were actually bootable; don't really see the point of using 5.25" images to install an OS unless it's all that's available. 

I'll have to study those different image types and how to move files into and out of an image; lots of fun...

Thanks again for supplying the motivation to try out the Gotek; when I got a little frustrated I even ordered another one, this time with the display and selector (so much for my 'we doan' need no steenking emulators! ' mantra ;-) . Only small problem is that I've run out of driver slots. Until now I've had 4 floppy drives (A-D, 5.25DD, 5.25HD, 3.5HD and 8"DD), several 50-150MB MFM drives and several 20MB IMI HDs; they're all useful for reading and making 'real' diskettes so I guess I'll need another switch on the back panel...

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[Mike Stein]

Thanks again, Mike

I've seen several WiFi modems and have a couple but never that one; what a neat idea.

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