SVI-707 problems | MSX Resource Center (Page 2/7)

Resident (33)

29-05-2018, 20:38

zeilemaker54 wrote:

I have used the tool DiskManip (Windows tool) to convert the IMD files to DMK. DMK file can be used by openMSX.

Okay. Many thanks for the info. I am learning and got double help from this nice forum. The opener of this thread, a gentleman from Luxembourg kindly responded to my private message. I got two DMK files from him and they work just fine with openMSX, yeah, CP/M is now up and running!

I have no access to Windows, but I wanted to try DiskManip. The solution was to install WINE on my Fedora Linux 28. Then the conversion from IMD to DMK worked fine. But for some reason the DMK file is much bigger than what I received by email. In other words, the one I converted with DiskManip is 1044497 bytes while the smaller is 510256 (CP224R13.dmk).

In case someone else wants to try this too, the IMD files can be found at:

http://www.bluemsx.com/rel_download/SVI728/Svi728SystemDisks...

Thanks again!!! This is the first time I have seen CP/M. I think I am going to try out Wordstar or something like that.

In fact, this thing started because I just bought a boxed SVI-707 yesterday and I wanted to try out its emulation using openMSX.

By Manuel

Ascended (19227)

29-05-2018, 20:55

svi2dmk is for SpectraVideo 3x8 disk images.

zeilemaker54: for some reason these CP/M and SVI disks also come in DSK extension. (Together with IMD files.)

By Manuel

Ascended (19227)

29-05-2018, 21:37

I created the similar tool for SVI CP/M disk images: svicpm2dmk. See that same Contrib dir, krazyminer.

The IMD file contains much more details compared to the DSK format, so more of those details end up in the DMK file. That's why it's much bigger.

By Manuel

Ascended (19227)

29-05-2018, 23:16

Never mind that last remark about the filesize.DMK files always have the same size. Perhaps the DiskManip tool made it double sized?

By krazyminer

Resident (33)

30-05-2018, 16:41

Manuel wrote:

Never mind that last remark about the filesize.DMK files always have the same size. Perhaps the DiskManip tool made it double sized?

Yes, that could well be possible. The size is indeed approximately doubled.

I am now trying to get Wordstar running on this Spectravideo CP/M system.

I have found WS.COM and other files that I guess are from 1979 and should be for CP/M-80.

I also have found cpmutils-2.20 package for Linux, and it compiled without problems. Then I created a blank
disk with:

dd if=/dev/zero of=cpmfloppy bs=1 count=$((360 * 1024))

Next I created a CP/M filesystem using cmputils:

mkfs.cpm -L koelabel cpmfloppy

Then I copied Wordstar to the virtual floppy:

cpmcp cpmfloppy WS.COM 0:WS.COM

cpmls shows that the WS.COM is indeed on it.

But I don't know if this is the right approach. I guess I would have to create a DMK image next.

openmsx/Contrib/dmk/empty-dkm.cc

exists, so I could create a blank DMK with it. But how do you transfer the cpmfloppy inside it? I am a bit confused here.

By krazyminer

Resident (33)

30-05-2018, 17:06

Okay, I suppose I made a mistake. I recreated the floppy as 340K:

dd if=/dev/zero of=cpmfloppy bs=1 count=$((340 * 1024))

Then I used Manuel's new utility:

svicpm2dmk wsfloppy wsfloppy.dmk

I boot to CP/M, press F10 and:

diska eject
diska wsfloppy.dmk

Then F10 again to get back to CP/M. I type

dir

But WS.COM is not there. Instead I many lines saying: "A: :". Maybe I should give some kind of parameter to
mkfs.cpm with -f ?

By krazyminer

Resident (33)

30-05-2018, 17:24

krazyminer wrote:

Maybe I should give some kind of parameter to mkfs.cpm with -f ?

As far as I know, mkfs.cpm uses a file called diskdefs. Like the name suggest, it contains several disk definitions. I guess the -f option for mkfs.cpm chooses one of those. I have tried a few, but without success.

By krazyminer

Resident (33)

30-05-2018, 17:53

With the following, there was some progress. I created a 170K disk with KayPro II CP/M disk defs:

dd if=/dev/zero of=wsfloppy bs=1 count=$((170 * 1024))
mkfs.cpm -f kpii -L koelabel wsfloppy
cpmcp wsfloppy wordstar/WS.COM 0:WS.COM

Now after changing floppies after booting to CP/M, I type:

dir

and get:
NO FILE

So at least this time it seems the file system was understood? But no WS.COM there even though cmpls shows it before conversion to DMK. This is more complicated than I thought. Any help appreciated! It would be cool to have Wordstar running on Spectravideo SVI-728.

By Manuel

Ascended (19227)

30-05-2018, 18:30

If the MSX can understand both floppy formats you could copy the file from an MSX-DOS floppy to the CP/M floppy on the (emulated) MSX.

I'm not sure your 170x1024 is correct. Better use something like 40x256*17.... which is.... identical CP/M disks on the SVI have 40 tracks, 17 sectors per track and 256 bytes per sector. OK, so your 170kB is OK.

By krazyminer

Resident (33)

30-05-2018, 19:06

Manuel wrote:

If the MSX can understand both floppy formats you could copy the file from an MSX-DOS floppy to the CP/M floppy on the (emulated) MSX.

I'm not sure your 170x1024 is correct. Better use something like 40x256*17.... which is.... identical CP/M disks on the SVI have 40 tracks, 17 sectors per track and 256 bytes per sector. OK, so your 170kB is OK.

Thanks! Speak of the devil, I just read your source code svicpm2dmk, I picked the values from there. I added this to diskdefs file and use mkfs.cpm -f svi to select it:

diskdef svi
seclen 256
tracks 40
sectrk 17
blocksize 1024
maxdir 64
skew 0
boottrk 2
os 2.2
end

But it does not work. I tried with "skew 1", too, but don't understand what it means. With "boottrk 0", cpmcp fails...