Earliest MSXDOS1 version

Your MSX-DOS kit has the following files.

Relocatable objects for MSX disk system.

DOSHEAD.REL Cartridge header for Disk ROM
BIOS.REL Console I/O module
MSXDOS.REL Dos kernel
SMLDISP.REL Function dispatcher
INIT.REL Disk system initializer
DSKBASIC.REL Disk BASIC
MSXDATA.REL Data area for kernel
BASDATA.REL Data area for other modules

Guide for your disk driver.

DISK.MEM Requirements for the disk driver

Samples for disk driver.

DSKDRV.Z80 Sample disk driver
BOOT.Z80 Standard boot sector source

LINK.SUB Batch file for L80

Guide for this kit.

README This file

Write your own disk driver which meets all the conditions documented in DISK.MEM, and produce an object file named DSKDRV.REL using Microsoft's M80. Then link it with all the .REL files described above using LINK.SUB submit file. Make sure that the data segment ends at 0F380H. Your disk driver must not contain any DSEG parts in it.

[NOTE]
Please make sure DISINT and ENAINT are called properly, and EI's are inserted at the beginning of each entries of DSKDRV.MAC. Without this, RS232C driver will drop many characters.
See our sample driver for details.

June 20, 1984

************************************************************************
* *
* Following notes are the changes made to the MSX-DOS kit. *
* *
************************************************************************

MSX DISK INTERFACE UPDATE HISTORY

DOSHEAD.REL

Jun 20, 1984 first release
Mar 1, 1985 added motor off function

BIOS.REL

Jun 20, 1984 first release

MSXDOS.REL

Jun 20, 1984 first release
Jan 29, 1985 fixed write protect problem
Sep 2, 1985 fixed disk damage and template problem

SMLDISP.REL

Jun 20, 1984 first release

INIT.REL

Jun 20, 1984 first release
Mar 1, 1985 added motor off function
Mar 7, 1985 fixed MKI bug
May 28, 1985 fixed interslot routines

DSKBASIC.REL

Jun 20, 1984 first release
Mar 7, 1985 fixed MKI bug

BOOT.Z80

Jun 20, 1984 first release
May 28, 1985 fixed interslot routines
Aug 23, 1985 fixed control-C problem

DSKDRV.Z80

Jun 20, 1984 first release
Jan 29, 1985 fixed single drive copy problem
Feb 23, 1985 fixed single drive copy problem
Mar 1, 1985 added motor off function
May 28, 1985 fixed interslot routines

MSXDATA.REL

Jun 20, 1984 first release

BASDATA.REL

Jun 20, 1984 first release

------------------------------------------------------------------------

MSXDOS.REL

Fixed the problem that "abort" did not abort writing to a disk.

. . . Write-protect a disk which has some files in it, and put it into drive A:.

A>DELETE *.* Try to delete files.

. . .

Write protect error... When the "write protect error"
Abort, Retry, Ignore?_ message appears, type in "A" to abort the command.

. . . Remove the write-protected disk and insert a non-write-protected disk.

A>DIR Enter any command that accesses this disk.

File not found The directory update is retried and the files are erased.

October 31, 1984
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DSKDRV.Z80

Fixed the problem when copying a file with single disk drive.

(1) Format three disks. Call them FD1, FD2 and FD3.

(2) Insert FD1 to the drive and enter "COPY CON T" and [RETURN] to the "A>" prompt, followed by [CTRL-Z] and [RETURN].
This makes a one-byte file with the name "T" in FD1.

(3) When the "A>" prompt reappears, enter "COPY T B:" and [RETURN]. Exchange diskettes according to the prompt.
This copies the file from FD1 to FD2 by single drive.

(4) When the "A>" prompt reappears, enter "COPY T B:" and [RETURN] again.
This copies the file from FD1 to FD3 as above.

(5) Find the remaining space on each of the disks using "DIR" and [RETURN].
FD1, FD2 and FD3 should have same file and same free space, but:
FD1 358400 bytes
FD2 358400 bytes
FD3 357376 bytes (1024 bytes are missing.)
[Note]
The amount of free bytes depends on the type of Floppy disk drive that was used to format.

January 29, 1985
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DOSHEAD.REL, INIT.REL and DSKDRV.Z80

A function to stop the disk drive motors from an application program has been added to the MSX Disk System. This function is optional.

Write following routine in your DSKDRV.Z80, and link it with *.REL files.

PUBLIC MTOFF

Inputs:
None

Outputs:
None

Registers:
AF, BC, DE, HL, IX, IY may be affected.
Except for the stack pointer, all registers may be altered.

Function:
Turn off the motors of all disk drives supported by that cartridge.

An application program can stop the motors of all disk drives by calling the address 4029H of the disk interface ROM. See example. Note that contents of the address 0F348H is the slot address of the master cartridge.

Example

LD IY,(0F348H-1) ; get slot address to high byte
; of IY
LD IX,4029H ; get address to IX
CALL 1CH ; inter slot call

Questions on Compatibility

In the present disk interface, if address 4029H is called, nothing is done and a return is made from the disk interface. Other than stopping the motor, no other function is performed in the proposed change.

DSKDRV.Z80

Improved the fix of January 29 version, which made disk accesses slow.

March 1, 1985
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INIT.REL and DSKBASIC.REL

Fixed the DISK-BASIC software problems.

If you used the MKI$, MKS$, or MKD$ functions of Disk BASIC, the BASIC scratchpad was written over and the carriage returns on the screen display was abnormal.

MSXDOS.SYS and DSKDRV.Z80

The disk error handling procedure was improved.

There was a danger that a disk being damaged, if, the disk was a non-MSX-DOS format (such as CP/M), an disk error occurred and "Ignore" was selected.

To handle this case, changes have been made to the MSXDOS.SYS to display "Unsupported media type" and "Abort" the process. The version number of MSX-DOS.SYS has been changed to 1.01.

To support this function, cause error code 10 (decimal) when your disk driver detect illegal format.

March 7, 1985
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INIT.REL

Fixed the expanded slot problems.

1. If slot 0 is expanded, and RAM of page 3 is not in a slot that is expanded from slot 0, MSX-DOS runs away when booting.

For example

Slot 0 --+-- 0 BASIC ROM
+-- 1
+-- 2
+-- 3
Slot 1 ----- RAM
Slot 2 ----- FD interface
Slot 3 -----

2. If the master cartridge of FD interface and page 1 of RAM are in the secondary slots that are expanded from same primary slot, and slave cartridge of FD interface is in a primary slot, MSX-DOS runs away when the slave cartridge is accessed.

For example

Slot 0 BASIC ROM
Slot 1 --+-- 0 FD interface (will be master)
+-- 1 RAM
Slot 2 FD interface (will be slave)
Slot 3

To fix above 2 problems;

If your disk driver use XFER routine when read/write from/to page 0 or 1 of RAM, please link new INIT.REL.

DSKDRV.Z80 and BOOT.Z80

If your disk driver makes image of FDC port and the routine, that is relocated into RAM, accesses page 0 or 1 of RAM, please correct DSKDRV.Z80 and BOOT.Z80 according to the sample source and link it with the new INIT.REL.

May 28, 1985
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BOOT.Z80

Fixed the problem that boot procedure hanged when read error occurred while loading MSXDOS.SYS, and control-STOP or control-C were typed repeatedly. This was because "boot error" message was interrupted but no "Break" handler was present.

Changes are made to the boot procedure not to use the system calls that can be interrupted by "Break" keys.

August 23, 1985
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MSXDOS.REL

Fixed the following three problems;

1. Disk free space was eaten or file was jammed, if the file was truncated by "random block write" function with length zero. FAT buffer was marked invalid, and FAT was restored back from the disk to somewhere before truncation.

2. FAT data was lost if read error occurred in the middle of FAT read. Number of sectors was not properly reset for automatic read retry. This may be rare but dangerous.

3. Template data for "buffered line input" was lost if the previous user input filled the entire buffer.
This may be introduced when this function was implemented from MS-DOS.

RELATED BUGS:
Maximum characters for command line and CON input should have been 127 for the compatibility with MS-DOS. They have been assigned same "buffer size" as MS-DOS and accepted up to 128 bytes. This was also fixed.

****************************************************************
Following bugs are known to us. Currently, they seem hard to fix because of ROM patch space shortage.
****************************************************************

1. Bad data is written to a disk when
(a) first write does not start/end on a sector boundary, and
(b) second write begins on a sector boundary and overwrites
the entire sector of "partial sector" of (a). by a "random block write" function.
This is because the sector buffer is marked "dirty" at time of (a), but is not de-marked at time of (b). Sector image at time of (a) is re-written by later buffer flush.

2. "Device" files, such as AUX, CON, PRN or LST, get garbage data while doing input/output to/from page 1 (4000h to 7FFFh). Slot switching is missing, and the memory read/write is done from/to the disk ROM.

3. "Search First" and "Search Next" functions forget to set the drive number in the first byte of transfer address when the transfer address is in page 1 (4000h to 7FFFh). The field is left unchanged. The reason is same as 2.

RELATED BUGS:
Early documents on the "Search first" and "Search Next" function are noted as

The directory entry (32 bytes long) is copied to the transfer address.

This should have been

The drive number and the directory entry (33 bytes long) are copied to the transfer address.

4. Disk system hangs when user specified incorrect drive number for "absolute disk read" and "absolute disk write" functions. There is no check for incorrect drive number, and inter-slot call to a non-existent disk driver is performed.

[NOTE]
Drive number for these functions is zero-based (i.e. A:=0), and must not be confused with other functions.

5. control-C, control-N, control-P and control-S does not work when There's another key-code in the key buffer. Control-code handler watches only the top of the key buffer.

September 2, 1985

@zeilemaker54 Do you have perhaps a different version of this kit? Since I can’t find the list you pasted in the one tfh linked to.