S command to see Slices in Boot [H=Help]:

[John Sandlin]

I could have sworn there was an S for Slices command we could to at the Boot [H=Help]: prompt. I don't see it any more. I think it might have happened when I updated my hbios from 3.0.1 to 3.4.0. Is there a way to get it back? I also thought it would be in the Help text, but I don't see it there now either.

[Wayne Warthen]

Hi John,

So, I think you are talking about the way that you boot into a specific slice from the boot loader.

Yes, the boot loader has changed since v3.0 and is now more flexible.  To boot a disk slice, you use the command format u.s where u is the disk unit number and s is the slice.  So, for example, if you want to boot into slice 1 of disk unit 2, you would enter "2.1".

There is quite a bit of documentation on this in the Starting Operating Systems from Disk section of the RomWBW User Guide.

Let me know if this does not answer your question.

Thanks, Wayne

[John Sandlin]

Yes, the booting into a slice works fine, as long as I remember which slice is which. The challenge is the S command in the Boot menu is gone, so I can't see the short list 

2.0 takes me into CP/M-80 v2.2 with drives A: B: C: and D: listed and - D: isn't available, A: B: and C: are. I get "Bdos Err On D: Select" trying to access D:
2.1 takes me into ZDOS v1.1 with drives A: B: C: :D and E: listed and available

2.2 also takes me into ZDOS v1.1 with drives A: B: C: D: and E: listed and available

2.3 takes me into CP/M v3.0 [Banked] doesn't list the available drives, but all partitions A: B: C: D: E: F: G: H: I: and J: are available

2.4 takes me into ZPM3 [Banked] All partitions available A: through J:
no more slices are bootable

[Wayne Warthen]

On Thursday, September 11, 2025 at 3:30:51 PM UTC-7 John Sandlin wrote:

Yes, the booting into a slice works fine, as long as I remember which slice is which. The challenge is the S command in the Boot menu is gone, so I can't see the short list 

Hmm... previously, you would enter the number of the disk device to boot followed by the number of the slice on that disk to boot.  The revised boot loader just combines this into a single command where you specify both the unit and the slice at one time.  Perhaps I have misunderstood something?  If you are referring to the list of ROM applications such as BASIC, FORTH, etc., that list is still there.  You just type 'L' to list them.

You might be interested in trying the current v3.6 development snapshot.  It has a "Slice Inventory" function at the Boot: prompt that will truly list the available slices and what is actually on them (courtesy Mark Pruden).  Here is an example from a system with 3 hard disk devices:

Boot [H=Help]: s

Un.Sl Label
----- ----------------
2.0   CP/M 2.2
2.1   ZSDOS 1.1
2.2   NZ-COM
2.3   CP/M 3
2.4   ZPM3
6.0   CP/M 2.2
6.1   ZSDOS 1.1
6.2   NZ-COM
6.3   CP/M 3
6.4   ZPM3
7.0   CP/M 2.2
7.1   ZSDOS 1.1
7.2   NZ-COM
7.3   CP/M 3
7.4   ZPM3

2.0 takes me into CP/M-80 v2.2 with drives A: B: C: and D: listed and - D: isn't available, A: B: and C: are. I get "Bdos Err On D: Select" trying to access D:

2.1 takes me into ZDOS v1.1 with drives A: B: C: :D and E: listed and available

2.2 also takes me into ZDOS v1.1 with drives A: B: C: D: and E: listed and available

2.3 takes me into CP/M v3.0 [Banked] doesn't list the available drives, but all partitions A: B: C: D: E: F: G: H: I: and J: are available

2.4 takes me into ZPM3 [Banked] All partitions available A: through J:
no more slices are bootable

This does not seem right.  Booting into CP/M-80 2.2 (2.0), ZSDOS 1.1 (2.1), or NZCOM (2.2) should list exactly the same drive/slice mount list.  The boot code for all of these is identical.  For CP/M 3 (2.3) or ZPM3 (2.4), you will not get a drive/slice mount list at startup, but you can just use the ASSIGN command to list them.  Assuming you have a hard disk type device, I would expect you to get more that A:-E:.  The A:-J: of CP/M 3 and ZPM3 seem correct.  We may need to investigate this further.  If you can post a full log of your bootup from the starting HBIOS banner all the way through the bootup of CP/M 2.2, that would be very helpful.

Thanks, Wayne

[John Sandlin]

So it's possible I read about the S in the Documentation and somehow my brain constructed a memory of using it. A very real seeming memory.

Anyway here is the boot up ::

~~~~~~~~~~~[BOOTSEQUENCE.LOG]~~~~~~~~~

RomWBW HBIOS v3.4.0, 2023-12-31

RCBus [RCZ80_std] Z80 @ 7.372MHz
0 MEM W/S, 1 I/O W/S, INT MODE 1, Z2 MMU
512KB ROM, 512KB RAM
ROM VERIFY: 00 00 00 00 PASS

CTC: IO=0x88 NOT PRESENT
SIO0: IO=0x80 SIO MODE=115200,8,N,1
SIO1: IO=0x82 SIO MODE=115200,8,N,1
DSRTC: MODE=STD IO=0xC0 Thu 2025-09-11 19:52:27 CHARGE=OFF
MD: UNITS=2 ROMDISK=384KB RAMDISK=352KB
FD: MODE=RCWDC IO=0x50 NOT PRESENT
IDE: IO=0x10 MODE=RC
IDE0: ATA 8-BIT LBA BLOCKS=0x0003E000 SIZE=124MB
IDE1: NO MEDIA
PPIDE: IO=0x20 PPI NOT PRESENT
CH0: IO=0x3E NOT PRESENT
CH1: IO=0x3C NOT PRESENT
FP: IO=0x00 SWITCHES=0x00

Unit        Device      Type              Capacity/Mode
----------  ----------  ----------------  --------------------
Char 0      SIO0:       RS-232            115200,8,N,1
Char 1      SIO1:       RS-232            115200,8,N,1
Disk 0      MD0:        RAM Disk          352KB,LBA
Disk 1      MD1:        ROM Disk          384KB,LBA
Disk 2      IDE0:       Hard Disk         124MB,LBA
Disk 3      IDE1:       Hard Disk         --


RCBus [RCZ80_std] Boot Loader
FP Switches = 0x00

Boot [H=Help]: 2.0

Booting Disk Unit 2, Slice 0, Sector 0x00000000...

Volume "Unlabeled" [0xD000-0xFE00, entry @ 0xE600]...

CBIOS v3.0.1 [WBW]

Formatting RAMDISK...

Configuring Drives...

   A:=MD0:0
   B:=MD0:0
   C:=MD1:0
   D:=MD1:0

   3588 Disk Buffer Bytes Free

CP/M-80 v2.2, 54.0K TPA

A>a:
A>b:
B>c:
C>d:

Bdos Err On D: Select

A>e:
Bdos Err On E: Select
A>
A>f:
Bdos Err On F: Select
A>g:
Bdos Err On G: Select
A>h:
Bdos Err On H: Select
A>i:
Bdos Err On I: Select
A>j:
Bdos Err On J: Select
A>k:
Bdos Err On K: Select
A>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Wayne Warthen]

OK, so the issue you are having with the list of drive/slice mappings and the disk errors is that you are using a newer ROM (v3.4.0) with an older disk image (v3.0.1).  The ROM version and the OSes on the disk must be kept in sync.  You will need to upgrade your disk image to match the ROM.  Since the disk image is much older than the ROM, it would be best to just overwrite the CF Card with a v3.4.0 image.  This would normally be the "hd1k_combo.img" image from the distribution.  Obviously, this will overwrite any data from your existing CF Card, so you will need to save any existing data first.

I would actually suggest that you just update both your ROM and your disk image to the current stable version (v3.5.1) or (if you want the new slice inventory), the latest development snapshot of v3.6.

Thanks, Wayne

[John Sandlin]

I have updated the ROM and the Hard Drive to 3.5.1. The NZCOM slice (2.2) works now. I actually made a fresh compact flash, so if I manage to forget to backup something I wanted to keep, I can still boot back to that drive and pull off whatever it was I missed. I used the FZ80_std_hd1k_combo.img for the compact flash drive, and RCZ80_std.rom for the ROM image. Even made a nice label for it:

Got a nice 3.5.1 boot "splash"


RomWBW HBIOS v3.5.1, 2025-05-21

RCBus [RCZ80_std] Z80 @ 7.372MHz
0 MEM W/S, 1 I/O W/S, INT MODE 1, Z2 MMU

512KB ROM, 512KB RAM, HEAP=0x24C4

ROM VERIFY: 00 00 00 00 PASS

LCD: IO=0xDA 20X4

SIO0: IO=0x80 SIO MODE=115200,8,N,1
SIO1: IO=0x82 SIO MODE=115200,8,N,1

DSRTC: MODE=STD IO=0xC0 Fri 2025-09-12 15:31:16 CHARGE=OFF
MD: UNITS=2 ROMDISK=384KB RAMDISK=256KB

FD: MODE=RCWDC IO=0x50 NOT PRESENT
IDE: IO=0x10 MODE=RC

IDE0: NO MEDIA

IDE1: NO MEDIA
PPIDE: IO=0x20 PPI NOT PRESENT

SD: MODE=PIO IO=0x69 DEVICES=1
SD0: NO MEDIA

CH0: IO=0x3E NOT PRESENT
CH1: IO=0x3C NOT PRESENT
FP: IO=0x00 SWITCHES=0x00

Unit        Device      Type              Capacity/Mode
----------  ----------  ----------------  --------------------
Char 0      SIO0:       RS-232            115200,8,N,1
Char 1      SIO1:       RS-232            115200,8,N,1

Disk 0      MD0:        RAM Disk          256KB,LBA

Disk 1      MD1:        ROM Disk          384KB,LBA

Disk 2      IDE0:       Hard Disk         --

Disk 3      IDE1:       Hard Disk         --

Disk 4      SD0:        SD Card           --

RCBus [RCZ80_std] Boot Loader
FP Switches = 0x00

Boot [H=Help]:

[Wayne Warthen]

Perfect.  Well done.

[Mark Pruden]

John

Another Just to give so more info about original question

> I could have sworn there was an S for Slices command we could to at the Boot [H=Help]: prompt.

There is also a new CP/M command utility "SLABEL" which displays a list of bootable Slices. The command also allows you to change these labels.

Hope this Helps

Mark.