Hello Mike!

Monday March 05 2001, Mike Luther writes to Jonathan de Boyne Pollard:

Yes, I've downloaded your suite.

Please don't chide me for asking a useless question if it is already covered in your FORMAT replacement. Between converting all the boxes to FP 15, and a ton of other troubles, I've not begun to work out the substitutions of your work..

what problems are you having with FP15? I thinking of upgrading from FP12.


Vince

--- Maximus v3.01/GoldED/2 2.50+#10UK3 under OS/2
* Origin: Air Applewood; OS/2 Gateway to Essex +44-1279-792300 (2:257/609)

Hello Mike,

Monday 05 March 2001 13:16, Mike Luther wrote to Jonathan de Boyne Pollard:

One thing a great many of us have hit in the BOOTOS/2 and Create
Utility Disk game is what to do with space for the later Adaptec SCSI drivers. They eat up so much room that, either you have to hand
modify Disk #1 of Create Utility Disk's operations, or, give up any combination of IDE and SCSI operations if you want to use BOOTOS2 any longer.

Why don't you use LxLite to compress them?

What we need, somehow, if it can be done, maybe, is a way to use the standard 1.44 MB floppy to actually create 2.88 MB floppy disks!

I think that this ain't going to work. 1,4 MB floppies don't have the specifications to support the 2,8 MB format. The most you can put on 1,4 MB floppies is around 1,8 MB or maybe 2,0 MB, I believe.

Apparently, if you actually do have a 2.88 MB floppy system, with the
BIOS set so that it can see it, OS/2's Create Utility Disk game per
FP15, as well as BOOTOS/2 can actually operate and use these disks.

Do you think this or have you read this somewhere?

Some of us think the 1.44 MB floppy drives, can actually see these
disks, a la the old INSTALL DISK and other IBM stuff early-on
distributed. After all, you can install OS/2 with these disks, even
on a so-called 1.44MB floppy unit. If you don't REFORMAT them, you
can still, I think actually erase files and write others to them.

I don't think so.

But once you re-format them to the 1.44 MB game, unless you have a
true 2.88 MB unit, you can't use them that way again.

I'm skeptical about this with a true 2,8 MB floppy drive.

Or would this be getting us into the same trouble as we used to get in
by punching holes in the floppy disk plastic with a paper punch to
make them Double Density disks? Grin!

Oh, I remember those days!! ;-))


Greetings -=Eddy=-

email: e.thilleman@freeler.nl
e.thilleman@hccnet.nl

... Windows NT: From the makers of GW-Basic!
--- GoldED/2 3.0.1
* Origin: "A good man doesn't betray his own people!" - Kira (2:280/5143.7)

Hi Eddy!

Why don't you use LxLite to compress them?

Kenneth Kahn already done done that in the version that is the latest I have seen. It's version 9.26 .. so noted it was released on September 26th ..

When you have the appropriate LXLite tools in the same directory as the BOOTOS2
deal works from, the BOOTOS2 utility already goes to work slammin' and a'jammin' it all down to size!

There was an off-hand remark in the Usegroup areana that there was more that could be done with LXLite. Messr. Kahn wasn't inclined to work any longer at the deal. He indicated he'd rather spend time with his growing up kids than continue to bash at contributed software which wasn't his work-job at IBM. I and a lot of others can identify with that just fine...

What we need, somehow, if it can be done, maybe, is a way to use the ML>

standard 1.44 MB floppy to actually create 2.88 MB floppy disks!

I think that this ain't going to work. 1,4 MB floppies
don't have the specifications to support the 2,8 MB
format. The most you can put on 1,4 MB floppies is
around 1,8 MB or maybe 2,0 MB, I believe.

So I think I have heard elsewhere. Although a companion set of format tools called 2M20 AND 2M21 that are here now from a Spanish gent from a number of years ago, seem to indicate in the documents that the 2.88 MB format is actually possible on the whole system! My dug up copies of the tools date to 1994 by Ciricao Garcia de Celis.

The tool requires a DOS-VDM prompt .. On which you load a special driver,then do the format deal. Here is what the actual command line prompt from 2MF says on load:

(c) April 1994 Ciriaco Garcia de Celis - Grupo Universitario de Informatica
Apartado 6062 - Valladolid (Spain). Email: ciri@gui.uva.es

2MF U: [/DD] [/F|M] [/E] [/N] [/T=nn] [/R=nn] [/S] [/K]

This program formats diskettes at a higher capacity and/or speed than the
normal ones. 2M must be installed on memory to provide support for the new
diskettes. Also, high-density diskettes can be left into A: drive and then
computer can be rebooted: really it will boot from hard disk and after this
moment 2M diskettes will be supported in the standard read-write operation.
2MF is a 100% freeware utility.

Meaning of switches:

/DD Request a double-density format (by default it will be high-density).
/F Fast and secure diskettes -by default- (54:820-1476K, 32:984-1804K).
/M Formats diskettes up to maximum capacity (54:902-1558K, 32:1066-1886K).
/E Formats 3.5-ED diskettes at 3608K (or 3772K if /M option enabled).
/N Do not verify target diskette (dangerous in /M mode).

/T Sets the number of tracks to be used (80-86).
/R Sets the number of root directory entries (1-240).
/S Tells 2MF not to make sound effects.
/K Do not make the initial pause before formatting.

I found out that if you actually called:

2MF A: /E /T:80 /R=240

Voila! It starts off making a true 2.88 MB floppy in a 1.4MB drive, but for some reason it comes to a halt and complains that the drive door is not closed a bit of a ways into the burn!

One other poster verified the same error with these tools...

Apparently, if you actually do have a 2.88 MB floppy system, with the ML>

BIOS set so that it can see it, OS/2's Create Utility Disk game per ML> FP15, as well as BOOTOS/2 can actually operate and use these disks.

Do you think this or have you read this somewhere?

I *THINK* this, and it was said to be so in the Usegroup postings. As well,I made a statement in them about the Purple Cow .. 2.88 MB actual drive!

"I've never seen a Purple Cow,
I hope I never see one!
But if I saw a Purple Cow,
I'd rather see than be one!"

One of the other things I found out about at least FP 15 for OS/2, is that if you *DO* tell your mother board BIOS that you have a 2.88 MB floppy drive, OS/2
will automatically assume that it is going to FORMAT 2.88 MB disks! Moreover, it will balk with Track 0 errors if you try it on a 1.44 MB floppy drive.

Worse, I also found out something else that caused me to modify the Purple Cow quip! When you *DO* attempt to access Drive A: as a 1.44 MB device, it will read and write from those disks just fine! But, once you open the channel to a
floppy in Drive A:, you cannot leave the session unless you have logged out of that disk drive and closed it prior to closing the session! For some reason, disk disconnection is blocked until you disconnect from the drive, much the way
you get in trouble when you open up a network share and then blow away the server side. The whole workstation goes nuts trying to figure out how it's shared object was stolen!

So I modified the Purple Cow to:

"It's never seen a 2.8,
but once it thinks it's seen one!
Until you log the disk drive out,
there darned sure better be one!"

As in the above. If you like and you will either post an address or netmail me an address, I'll be glad to send you a MIME copy of these two toolsets.

Now whether either Create Utility Disks or BOOTOS2 can figure out there is a 2.88 MB formatted disk in that hole and use it, I dunno.

I have read the docs for BOOTOS2. It plainly states that BOOTOS2 can create a bootable run from *ANY* bootable format. To me that means CD-ROMS, 2.88 MB floppies, whatever. After all OS/2 would install from a 1.44 MB disk drive from those 2.88 MB disks, wouldn't it?


Remember the whine? ;)

Of which, I'll groan make a worse observation!

We shall sell no Whine before its time! Grin!



Mike @ 1:117/3001

--- Maximus/2 3.01
* Origin: Ziplog Public Port (1:117/3001)

OK Tobias..

Yes, but this narrower read pattern is not a 2.88 MB
format - your 1.44 MB drive simply can NOT handle
this. It is only a slightly more dense format,
something like 1.7 MB IIRC.

The ... somehow, can we, somehow format floppy disks in the XDFormat mode which
will let us still have two disk BOOTOS2 disks?

I'm still chasing an XDFormat deal of some kind that actually works with OS/2,
but several utilities I've tried all fail...

Thanks ..

MIke @ 1:117/3001

--- Maximus/2 3.01
* Origin: Ziplog Public Port (1:117/3001)

Dag Mike,
maandag 12 maart 2001 15.55, Bericht van Mike Luther aan Kris Steenhaut:

am I correct to remember that the common 1.44 MB drive can *READ* that disk as well?

Don't know, really. The only "experience" I have is I had the bios to set to 2.88 floppy in order to read an xdf formatted floppy. (On an AST that was)

Are not some of the ffiles that are on the install disk
actually in that format?

Unlike an xdffloppy, an 2.88 is supposed to be "normally" FAT formatted.

I know that when you do a boot run from BOOTOS2 with the 2 disk option,whenever the disk hits the IBM2FLPY.ADD driver in the load run,

IBM2FLPY.ADD is meant for and works only for MCA systems. You should have onle ONE of these in or config: or IBM1FLPY.ADD or IBM2FLPY.add

make some off the FIXPACK disks from the LOADSKF operation, you hear
this same different ptich floppy access mode.

Thus, to me, it seems that what I am hearing is a narrower read
pattern going on, indicative of something other than 1.44 MB
operations.

Correct?

Not really.



Groeten uit Gent,

Kris

--- GoldED+/EMX 1.1.4.7 OS/2 Warp 4 FP9
* Origin: Hersendood punt #11 (2:292/8125.11)

Hello Kris,

Monday 12 March 2001 10:50, Kris Steenhaut wrote to Eddy Thilleman:

I'm skeptical about this with a true 2,8 MB floppy drive.

No need to be.
IBM1flpy.add supports the genuine floppy 2.8 format, so bootos2 will

On a true 2.8 MB floppy, meaning with specifications for 2.8 MB, and in a true 2.8 MB floppy drive, ofcourse then the 2.8 MB floppy format will be supported. But Mike was talking about using the 2.8 MB floppy format on a 1.4 MB floppy, and that's I'm very skeptical about if I see claims for this, but I never have seen such a claim.

use an entire 2.8 (on condition the bios supports that too ofcoz).
Albeit, I never had an 2.8 floppy in my eyesight anywhere <G>.

I've never seen a floppy nor a floppy drive that's specified at 2.8 MB, either.

Incidentally, the 2.8 format is a life safer nevertheless. The eCS- GA
will use two virtual 2.8 floppy formats in order to boot from a
bootable CD. Apparently the only way to overcome the louzy OS/2
INSTALLER.

Or, if your BIOS has support to boot from cdrom, put the eCs boot cdrom in a IDE/ATA cdrom drive (attached to your system and turned on) and make sure the "Boot from" option in the BIOS is set to cdrom. If eCs has the system rebooted to start from its boot partition for the first time, set the "Boot from" option
in the BIOS to whatever that allows that boot partition to be started.


Greetings -=Eddy=-

email: e.thilleman@freeler.nl
e.thilleman@hccnet.nl

... * <- Tribble % <- Tribble on drugs
--- GoldED/2 3.0.1
* Origin: C:\ Bad command or file name! Go stand in the corner. (2:280/5143.7)

Dag Mike,
dinsdag 13 maart 2001 17.01, Bericht van Mike Luther aan Tobias Ernst:

The ... somehow, can we, somehow format floppy disks in the XDFormat
mode which will let us still have two disk BOOTOS2 disks?

You are longing for the impossible. You can't boot fron an xdf formatted floppy, for two good reasons:

1. a. Plain Dos doesn't support XDF natively, so the story ends already here. (Dos only can read xdf formats when the system files are in memory already).
b. In OS/2 prior to the boot, xdfflpy.add should be loaded in memory, which
is also a mission impossible as you well are aware of.

2. xdf formatted floppies are *read only*. Even at a minimal boot the os has to
write some minimal temp files to disk (even when the tempfile is zero in size).

So, save some of your own precious time and forget about it.
Bottom line: the xdf format wasn't one of Big Blue's brightest ideas.



Groeten uit Gent,

Kris

--- GoldED+/EMX 1.1.4.7 OS/2 Warp 4 FP9
* Origin: Hersendood punt #11 (2:292/8125.11)

Dag Eddy,
dinsdag 13 maart 2001 11.38, Bericht van Eddy Thilleman aan Kris Steenhaut:

in a true 2.8 MB floppy drive, ofcourse then the 2.8 MB floppy format
will be supported. But Mike was talking about using the 2.8 MB floppy format on a 1.4 MB floppy, and that's I'm very skeptical about if I
see claims for this, but I never have seen such a claim.

Likely he was confused bout the "real" 2.8 floppy and the 1.8 Mb an XDF-ed 1.4 floppy can take.
An XDF-ed 1.4 floppy still is an 1.4 floppy, albeit it can take 1.8 Mb read-only.
BTW: An XDF-ed 2.8 floppy would take 3.6 Mb read only of course. But here we are discussing the angel's gender.

Or, if your BIOS has support to boot from cdrom, put the eCs boot
cdrom in a IDE/ATA cdrom drive (attached to your system and turned on)
and make sure the "Boot from" option in the BIOS is set to cdrom. If
eCs has the system rebooted to start from its boot partition for the
first time, set the "Boot from" option in the BIOS to whatever that
allows that boot partition to be started.

No, no, it wasn't about that I was talking. The eCS GA will have quite a different system to boot from CD as the actual beta packets do have.

On the GA cd boot, the whole bunch will be piloted into a RamFS virtual disk. Meaning:

1. In first instance will be created two virtual 2.8 floppies, from which eCS will do the "three floppy boot". <G>
2. This virtual "three floppy boot" from the two virtual 2.8 disk will end in an installation on a virtual Ramfs station Z:
3. Out from this virtual station Z: existing partitions will be updated and/or new partitions created/installed.

This trick wouldn't be possible if OS/2 wouldn't support the 2.8 floppy from within the kernel, for simply there wouldn't be enough of space for the basic drivers. And things would have been rather grim for eCS IMHO. That's the reason
why I called the "genuine 2.8 floppy" support a live saver. (As is RamFS in this respect).

Incidentally, this very week we discovered how to boot from SCSI Adaptecs. Finally!


Groeten uit Gent,

Kris

--- GoldED+/EMX 1.1.4.7 OS/2 Warp 4 FP9
* Origin: Hersendood punt #11 (2:292/8125.11)

Moin Mike!

13.03.2001, Mike Luther wrote a message to Tobias Ernst:

Yes, but this narrower read pattern is not a 2.88 MB
format - your 1.44 MB drive simply can NOT handle
this. It is only a slightly more dense format,
something like 1.7 MB IIRC.

The ... somehow, can we, somehow format floppy disks in the XDFormat
mode which will let us still have two disk BOOTOS2 disks?

I'm still chasing an XDFormat deal of some kind that actually works
with OS/2, but several utilities I've tried all fail...

The XDF format is copyrighted "Backup Technologies, Tampa", that may be the reason why virtually nobody is able to process it (other than bitcopying or using IBM utilities under the hood).

What do you make of the following description? I could convince myself that this mean that one is able to create a 1.84MB ramdisk, copy files into it and dump the filled ramdisk to floppy. But read yourself:

=====================<start>================================
svd120.zip 127K 1/05/99
Super Virtual Disk driver V1.20 for OS/2 2.1+. SVDisk provides a swappable/lockable/removable virtual disk or virtual floppy using OS/2's advanced memory management facility. Virtual disk can be anything from 16KB to 128MB, and virtual floppy supports 360KB to 2.88MB devices, including XDF device for managing XDF diskette images in OS/2 Warp Version 3. Virtual floppy device can be dynamically reconfigured. You can even create large SVDisks on a system with just 4MB of RAM! HPFS formatting and diskette support for SVDisk. Command line and PM utility provide complete control of the SVDisks.

- eXtended Density Format (XDF) support for OS/2 Warp V3 XDF
diskette image files. This includes 1.52MB, 1.84MB and 3.68MB
XDF diskettes. Utility is included to transfer XDF image file
to and from XDF VFloppy. ======================<end>=================================


AFAIR OS/2 is able to read floppies created by VGACOPY and VGACOPY is able to format a 1.44 MB medium to 1722 KB. I'm sure you remember VGACOPY?


I do have an entry in my "get hold of it" list which contains the following description:

=====================<start>================================
BPC-XDF.ARJ
-[PRO]- =XDF FORMAT DESC.= -[PRO]-
│ -─── -──────-───-──-──────-─ ──-────
│ Well, it's the XDF diskettes format
│ description. C++ source to read/write
│ XDF disks!
│ [06/03/95]∙─═╛ ======================<end>=================================

Perhaps you have more luck when searching for it?


Bye,
Vitus

PS: I *do* have used 2.88 floppy drives in the past and there is just now such a drive in front of me. Unfortunately it's from a PS/2 and does not have a power connector. Made by Mitsubishi, manufactured for IBM Corporation in 1993. ---
* Origin: Windows 47.4. Finally, they got it right! (2:2474/424.1)

Thank you Kris.

2. xdf formatted floppies are *read only*. Even at a
minimal boot the os has to write some minimal temp
files to disk (even when the tempfile is zero in size).

So, save some of your own precious time and forget about it.
Bottom line: the xdf format wasn't one of Big Blue's brightest ideas.

EOF .. ;)

Mike @ 1:117/3001

--- Maximus/2 3.01
* Origin: Ziplog Public Port (1:117/3001)

*** Quoting Vitus Jensen to Mike Luther dated 03-16-01 ***

PS: I *do* have used 2.88 floppy drives in the past and there is just
now such a drive in front of me. Unfortunately it's from a PS/2 and
does not have a power connector. Made by Mitsubishi, manufactured for
IBM Corporation in 1993.

Vitus,

I have seen many of the 2.88 floppy drives at work in disposal. All the ones I looked at did not have the power plug as you stated, and I azzumed that was the way they all come.

Do you (or anyone) know if there is an adapter for these drives to use them in normal systems??

If I could get a pin out of the single connector, maybe one could be fabricated with a break out type box??

TIA
Rich
I-Net turtil@frontiernet.net


... Yeah, but what's the speed of DARK?
---
* Origin: Turtil's Pond BBS. Monroe NY 845-783-2106 (1:2625/50)

Moin Rich!

17.03.2001, Rich Wonneberger wrote a message to Vitus Jensen:

PS: I *do* have used 2.88 floppy drives in the past and there is just
now such a drive in front of me. Unfortunately it's from a PS/2 and
does not have a power connector. Made by Mitsubishi, manufactured for
IBM Corporation in 1993.

I have seen many of the 2.88 floppy drives at work in disposal. All
the ones I looked at did not have the power plug as you stated, and
I azzumed that was the way they all come.

Do you (or anyone) know if there is an adapter for these drives to use them in normal systems??

If I could get a pin out of the single connector, maybe one could be fabricated with a break out type box??

The was a post on usenet which Willy Steger forwarded to me. But I always were
to lazy to try this out and besides: I only have a single drive and no 2.88MB medium so there is no point in spending much work on it.


=================================== NETMAIL ====================================
Fran: Willy Steger 2:2474/400.6 30 Oct 2000 23:54:24
Till: Vitus Jensen 2:2474/424.1 31 Oct 2000 21:26:14
Aemne: 2.88 Floppy von IBM

================================================================================
Hallo Vitus!

Antwort auf eine Message von Vitus Jensen an Willy Steger:

Kennt jemand die Dinger und hat sie schon einmal an einen normalen
Disketten Controller angeschlossen? Am 34poligen Steckverbinder ist Pin
3 mit *5V* bezeichnet, ist der Rest wie ueblich? Und was liegt
normalerweise auf Pin 3 (Masse?)? Na, alle Ideen wie ich das Ding in den
Rechner bekomme, werden gerne entgegengenommen. Und fuer die IBMer unter
uns:

IBM FRU 64F4148
IBM ASM 64F5996
Mitsubishi MF356F-899MB

Ich werde den Dejanews Artikel mal suchen (wenn ich den finden kann, Deja killt anscheinend ihre Datenbank: man findet immer weniger). Und sonst, klar, ich halte Dich auf dem laufenden.

aus reiner Lageweile :-) hab ich auch nochmal ein paar Minuten gesucht und zumindest das Pinout gefunden:


-------------------------cut-----------------------
Message 1 of 1 in this thread [Image]help[Image]
+ [Image]Return[Image] to current thread

Re: PS/2 2.88 floppy question
Author: Peter H. Wendt <peterh.wendt@gecits-eu.com>
Date: 2000/05/17
Forum: comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Alexander !

Does anyone know, could I use PS/2 2.88 floppy drive with
ordinar PC (I have 2.88 floppy in BIOS on my Intel FX motherboard).
I have bought one at local flea-market, and seems it have no
power connector... ;-(

The PS/2 FDD differs a bit from "ordinary FDDs" - it has integrated
power within the data connector. I don't think that it will work with
generica systemboards - or will at least require massive rewiring and
cutting out unused wires. There were however 2.88MB FDDs from Sony for
OEM machines ... these had been used with the IBM PC-330/350 and
730/750.

For feeding the curiosity I'd added a 2.88MB pinout here:

Pin-Out 34-pin double pin-row drives
3.5" 1.44 / 2.88MB PS/2
(Mod. 35 / 40 / 56 / 57 / 76 / 77)
OEM-manufacturers name: Mitsubishi MF356F-899MF
P/N 64F5996 / FRU 64F4148

+-------------------------------------------------+
|Pin|Signal Name |Pin|Signal Name |
|---+--------------------+---+--------------------|
| 1 |Ground | 2 |Data Rate Sel. 1 |
|---+--------------------+---+--------------------|
| 3 |+5 Vdc | 4 |Drive Type ID 1 |
| | | |Drive Status 1 + |
|---+--------------------+---+--------------------|
| 5 |Ground | 6 |+12 Vdc |
|---+--------------------+---+--------------------|
| 7 |Ground | 8 |- Index |
|---+--------------------+---+--------------------|
| 9 |Drive Type ID 0 |10 |Reserved |
| |Drive status 0 + | | |
|---+--------------------+---+--------------------|
|11 |Ground |12 |- Drive Select |
| |Drive status 2 | | |
|---+--------------------+---+--------------------|
|13 |Ground |14 |- Security Cmd. + |
|---+--------------------+---+--------------------|
|15 |Ground |16 |- Motor Enable |
|---+--------------------+---+--------------------|
|17 |Media Type ID 1 |18 |- Direction In |
| |Drive status 3 + | | |
|---+--------------------+---+--------------------|
|19 |Ground |20 |- Step |
|---+--------------------+---+--------------------|
|21 |Ground |22 |- Write Data |
|---+--------------------+---+--------------------|
|23 |Ground |24 |- Write Enable |
|---+--------------------+---+--------------------|
|25 |Ground |26 |- Track 00 |
|---+--------------------+---+--------------------|
|27 |Media Type ID 0 |28 |- Write Protect |
| |Drive status 2 + | | |
|---+--------------------+---+--------------------|
|29 |Ground |30 |- Read Data |
|---+--------------------+---+--------------------|
|31 |Ground |32 |- Head 1 Select |
|---+--------------------+---+--------------------|
|33 |Data Rate Sel. 0 |34 |- Diskette Change |
+-------------------------------------------------+

+ The drive status and security command signals are
used on an optional diskette drive that provides
removable media security RMS If both a 2.88 MB and
a 1.44 MB diskette drive are installed, the security
functions of the 2.88 MB drive are disabled.

NOTE: The media type ID signals are used for 2.88 MB
diskette drives only. If both a 2.88 MB and a 1.44 MB
diskette drive are installed, the media type ID
signals are disabled.

--
Very friendly greetings from Peter in Germany [Image]http://members.aol.com/mcapage0/mcaindex.htm[Image]

*** Direct replies to: [Image]peterwendt@aol.com[Image] only ! *** -------------------------cut-----------------------

Servus, Willy!
======================<end>=================================


Bye,
Vitus

---
* Origin: And God said, "Windows 95", and the whole world crashed (2:2474/424.1)

*** Quoting Vitus Jensen to Rich Wonneberger dated 03-18-01 ***

IBM FRU 64F4148
IBM ASM 64F5996
Mitsubishi MF356F-899MB

Vitus,

Thanks for the info. The drive I have here is the same IBM numbers, prob an older Mistu drive. I will try a hack into an old cable at work.
The worst case, I trash an old 486. Nothing lost. :}

*** Quoting Vitus Jensen to Rich Wonneberger dated 03-18-01 ***

|---+--------------------+---+--------------------|
| 1 |Ground | 2 |Data Rate Sel. 1 |
|---+--------------------+---+--------------------|
| 3 |+5 Vdc | 4 |Drive Type ID 1 |
| | | |Drive Status 1 + |
|---+--------------------+---+--------------------|
| 5 |Ground | 6 |+12 Vdc |
|---+--------------------+---+--------------------|
| 7 |Ground | 8 |- Index |
|---+--------------------+---+--------------------|
| 9 |Drive Type ID 0 |10 |Reserved |
| |Drive status 0 + | | |
|---+--------------------+---+--------------------|
|11 |Ground |12 |- Drive Select |
| |Drive status 2 | | |

From what I recall, all the odd numbered pins on a 1.44, 720, 1.2, and 360k drive are ground. It should be funny if I put +5V on pin 3 (above) and the controller is at ground. :}

Will post back in a few days & a few systems.

Rich
I-Net turtil@frontiernet.net


... We found the wisdom not to destroy ourselves.
---
* Origin: Turtil's Pond BBS. Monroe NY 845-783-2106 (1:2625/50)

Dag Eddy,
dinsdag 06 maart 2001 10.52, Bericht van Eddy Thilleman aan Mike Luther:

I'm skeptical about this with a true 2,8 MB floppy drive.

No need to be.
IBM1flpy.add supports the genuine floppy 2.8 format, so bootos2 will use an entire 2.8 (on condition the bios supports that too ofcoz).
Albeit, I never had an 2.8 floppy in my eyesight anywhere <G>.

Incidentally, the 2.8 format is a life safer nevertheless. The eCS- GA will use
two virtual 2.8 floppy formats in order to boot from a bootable CD. Apparently the only way to overcome the louzy OS/2 INSTALLER.


Groeten uit Gent,

Kris

--- GoldED+/EMX 1.1.4.7 OS/2 Warp 4 FP9
* Origin: Hersendood punt #11 (2:292/8125.11)

What I want to know, Kris,

No need to be.
IBM1flpy.add supports the genuine floppy 2.8 format,
so bootos2 will use an entire 2.8 (on condition the
bios supports that too ofcoz).
Albeit, I never had an 2.8 floppy in my eyesight anywhere <G>.

Incidentally, the 2.8 format is a life safer nevertheless. The eCS- GA will use two virtual 2.8 floppy formats in order to
boot from a bootable CD. Apparently the only way to
overcome the louzy OS/2 INSTALLER.

am I correct to remember that the common 1.44 MB drive can *READ* that disk as well? Are not some of the ffiles that are on the install disk actually in that
format?

I know that when you do a boot run from BOOTOS2 with the 2 disk option,whenever
the disk hits the IBM2FLPY.ADD driver in the load run, the whole disk operation
changes pitch, turns into a completely different kind of read.

In similar fashion, if my memory and ears are correct, OS2LDR also shifts into this same different whine on access. As well, when you make some off the FIXPACK disks from the LOADSKF operation, you hear this same different ptich floppy access mode.

Thus, to me, it seems that what I am hearing is a narrower read pattern going on, indicative of something other than 1.44 MB operations.

Correct?


Mike @ 1:117/3001

--- Maximus/2 3.01
* Origin: Ziplog Public Port (1:117/3001)

Hallo Mike!

Thus, to me, it seems that what I am hearing is a narrower read
pattern going on, indicative of something other than 1.44 MB
operations.

Correct?

Yes, but this narrower read pattern is not a 2.88 MB format - your 1.44 MB drive simply can NOT handle this. It is only a slightly more dense format, something like 1.7 MB IIRC.

Viele Grüße,
Tobias

--- Msged/2 TE 06 (pre)
* Origin: www.physcip.uni-stuttgart.de/tobi/projects.html (2:2476/418)

Hello Kris,

Thursday 15 March 2001 10:15, Kris Steenhaut wrote to Eddy Thilleman:

floppy, albeit it can take 1.8 Mb read-only. BTW: An XDF-ed 2.8 floppy would take 3.6 Mb read only of course. But here we are discussing the angel's gender.

True.

1. In first instance will be created two virtual 2.8 floppies, from
which eCS will do the "three floppy boot". <G>

How can you boot from a RamFS ramdisk without booting from a floppy or from a harddisk partition?

Incidentally, this very week we discovered how to boot from SCSI
Adaptecs. Finally!

The Adaptec SCSI BIOS has the option to boot from a SCSI cdrom drive.


Greetings -=Eddy=-

email: e.thilleman@freeler.nl
e.thilleman@hccnet.nl

... Computer (com-pyoo-ter) n.-Incredibly fast idiot!
--- GoldED/2 3.0.1
* Origin: DesqView's Upgrade Policy is good.... NOT! (2:280/5143.7)

Dag Eddy,
zondag 18 maart 2001 11.35, Bericht van Eddy Thilleman aan Kris Steenhaut:

How can you boot from a RamFS ramdisk without booting from a floppy or from a harddisk partition?

By booting from a CD. Dunno how they do it exactly, but at the boot two 2.8 floppies are emulated and "installed". From these the whole os is installed onto a Z: Ramfs station. Out from this Ramfs station then new and/or existing partitions are updated .

Incidentally, this very week we discovered how to boot from SCSI
Adaptecs. Finally!

The Adaptec SCSI BIOS has the option to boot from a SCSI cdrom drive.

Yes it has. However, you won't boot eCS with a SCSC cd-rom just like that.



Groeten uit Gent,

Kris

--- GoldED+/EMX 1.1.4.7 OS/2 Warp 4 FP9
* Origin: Hersendood punt #11 (2:292/8125.11)

Hi Kris,

Replying to a message of Kris Steenhaut to Eddy Thilleman:

The Adaptec SCSI BIOS has the option to boot from a SCSI cdrom drive.

Yes it has. However, you won't boot eCS with a SCSC cd-rom just like
that.

This is due to a lack of SCSI drivers in the CONFIG.SYS on the El Torito "floppy" of the CD-ROM. Alas, there is no way to update the CD. However (!!) you can always copy the CD to another, and modify/replace the floppy image with
one that works with your SCSI adapter.

[moderating]
Since this discussion is largely about configuring hardware and drivers, the OS2HW echo would be a better place for it. Especially since there might be a number of people who are interested in getting eCS working, but aren't technically inclined enough to poll OS2PROG.

Regards

Dave
<Team PL/I>

--- FleetStreet 1.25.1
* Origin: My other computer is an IBM S/390 (2:257/609.5)

Hello Kris,

Tuesday 20 March 2001 11:58, Kris Steenhaut wrote to Eddy Thilleman:

By booting from a CD. Dunno how they do it exactly, but at the boot
two 2.8 floppies are emulated and "installed". From these the whole os
is installed onto a Z: Ramfs station. Out from this Ramfs station then
new and/or existing partitions are updated .

I see.

The Adaptec SCSI BIOS has the option to boot from a SCSI cdrom
drive.

Yes it has. However, you won't boot eCS with a SCSC cd-rom just like
that.

Why not?

Anyway, my SCSI hostadapter doesn't have support for booting from a cdrom, so I
can't even try.


Greetings -=Eddy=-

email: e.thilleman@freeler.nl
e.thilleman@hccnet.nl

... I'm trying to write a routine, and I haven't a clue how to do it.
--- GoldED/2 3.0.1
* Origin: Home protected by COLT!.........Computer protected by (2:280/5143.7)