On Saturday, July 29, 2017 at 5:26:30 AM UTC-7, ldkr...@gmail.com wrote:
> You can start with one of these files:
> 1. mboot3.asm
> 2. pipio.asm
> 3. pipmodem.asm
>
> There are two good articles on this subject:
> V3N4_198308.pdf - from the SuperBrain Superletter Aug/Sept Vol 3 Number 4
> On The Move with PIP by Steve McMahon from Profiles magazine
>
> Both would be a good read for you. From there you will likely need a package
> like Modem7, or another CP/M Modem Package that supports your specific Serial
> Hardware. With the ASCII files transfered by one of the above, you could
> assemble the *.asm, or mload the hex files (uudecode | uudecode) that were transfered as ASCII and then converted back to HEX.
>
> More specific information on your CP/M Computer needs to be posted, along with what type computer will be transferring the files.
>
>
> Larry

Second question is the best way to get CP/M boot disks from archive files to the blank floppy.

David

David,
I'd suggest starting with Udo's Emulator and get it all functional.
[url]https://www.autometer.de/unix4fun/z80pack/[/url]

Once you have the Emulator running, you have a way of getting different floppy images loaded and tested.

Here is one archive of Altair information:
[url]https://web.archive.org/web/20170903195743/https://amaus.org/static/S100/altair/[/url]

To access floppy IMAGES, I typically use a couple different ways. You can use either of the two ways with
Windows or Linux OS's. You can install libdsk (by John Elliott) and then install cpmtools (by Michael Harrdt).
libdsk's utilities all you to find more information on floppy images and transfer image types. Some
typical commands of libdsk are (dskparse, dskid, dsktrans, dskconv, dskscan, dskdump, dskutil, and dskform.
Libdsk is described along with cpmtools in this tutorial. [url]https://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=112244[/url]

I don't have any Floppy 8" drives, so I am limited with no hardware for that support. You could substitute a
3.5" Floppy drive for an 8" as per a couple of postings.
https://majzel.blogspot.com/2009/03/cromemco-z2-now-using-525-hd-diskettes.html
https://majzel.blogspot.com/2009/04/converting-from-8-to-35-inch-floppy.html

You will have to copy the above url's and paste them in the wayback machine for different dates.
[url]https://archive.org/web/[/url]

as per this:
[url]https://web.archive.org/web/20200405211851/https://majzel.blogspot.com/2009/04/converting-from-8-to-35-inch-floppy.html[/url]
[url]https://web.archive.org/web/20200224040823/https://majzel.blogspot.com/2009/03/cromemco-z2-now-using-525-hd-diskettes.html[/url]

For writing floppy's libdsk will do that with the proper definitions. Some definitions I have conjured up are:
[url]https://github.com/ldkraemer/CPM-Floppy-Definitions[/url]
Writing floppy's with libdsk is described in my Tutorial. [url]https://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=112244[/url]

Linux can also write the floppy's, as it still supports floppy's, with the proper definitions.
[url]https://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=151313[/url]

Imagedisk by Dave Dunfield (Version 1.18) will also write the various images to a real floppy, by using a DOS Computer.
The DOS Computer just needs the proper Floppy Disk Controller (FDC).
[url]http://dunfield.classiccmp.org/img/[/url]
Imagedisk has a lot of included utilities (BIN2IMD, TD02IMD, IMDA, IMDU, IMDV, and TESTFDC.)

To answer your first question, I've never started from scratch and actually built a system from scratch,
then moved a bootable floppy image into that system. It's a bit past my experience level, although it
should be easy enough to do.

Larry

On Monday, May 2, 2022 at 4:49:21 AM UTC-7, ldkr...@gmail.com wrote:
> David,
> I'd suggest starting with Udo's Emulator and get it all functional.
> [url]https://www.autometer.de/unix4fun/z80pack/[/url]
>
> Once you have the Emulator running, you have a way of getting different floppy images loaded and tested.
>
> Here is one archive of Altair information:
> [url]https://web.archive.org/web/20170903195743/https://amaus.org/static/S100/altair/[/url]
>
> To access floppy IMAGES, I typically use a couple different ways. You can use either of the two ways with
> Windows or Linux OS's. You can install libdsk (by John Elliott) and then install cpmtools (by Michael Harrdt).
> libdsk's utilities all you to find more information on floppy images and transfer image types. Some
> typical commands of libdsk are (dskparse, dskid, dsktrans, dskconv, dskscan, dskdump, dskutil, and dskform.
> Libdsk is described along with cpmtools in this tutorial. [url]https://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=112244[/url]
>
> I don't have any Floppy 8" drives, so I am limited with no hardware for that support. You could substitute a
> 3.5" Floppy drive for an 8" as per a couple of postings.
> https://majzel.blogspot.com/2009/03/cromemco-z2-now-using-525-hd-diskettes.html
> https://majzel.blogspot.com/2009/04/converting-from-8-to-35-inch-floppy.html
>
> You will have to copy the above url's and paste them in the wayback machine for different dates.
> [url]https://archive.org/web/[/url]
>
> as per this:
> [url]https://web.archive.org/web/20200405211851/https://majzel.blogspot.com/2009/04/converting-from-8-to-35-inch-floppy.html[/url]
> [url]https://web.archive.org/web/20200224040823/https://majzel.blogspot.com/2009/03/cromemco-z2-now-using-525-hd-diskettes.html[/url]
>
> For writing floppy's libdsk will do that with the proper definitions. Some definitions I have conjured up are:
> [url]https://github.com/ldkraemer/CPM-Floppy-Definitions[/url]
> Writing floppy's with libdsk is described in my Tutorial. [url]https://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=112244[/url]
>
> Linux can also write the floppy's, as it still supports floppy's, with the proper definitions.
> [url]https://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=151313[/url]
>
> Imagedisk by Dave Dunfield (Version 1.18) will also write the various images to a real floppy, by using a DOS Computer.
> The DOS Computer just needs the proper Floppy Disk Controller (FDC).
> [url]http://dunfield.classiccmp.org/img/[/url]
> Imagedisk has a lot of included utilities (BIN2IMD, TD02IMD, IMDA, IMDU, IMDV, and TESTFDC.)
>
> To answer your first question, I've never started from scratch and actually built a system from scratch,
> then moved a bootable floppy image into that system. It's a bit past my experience level, although it
> should be easy enough to do.
>
> Larry

Larry,

Thanks so much for all the detailed information. A treasure trove all in one place!

David

David,

I have recently gotten my Imsai 8080 system working with a CCS 2810 Z80 CPU, and a CCS 2422 floppy disk controller
attached to two Shugart 8" drives. The system is temperamental, but if it continues to run as well as it
has for the last several weeks, I can make you bootable disk for the CCS boards. Do you have at least
48 Kbytes of RAM? If you are using the CCS 2810's built-in serial port for the console and a Windows or
Linux-based terminal emulator that can transfer by xmodem, I wrote a couple of CP/M programs
that will do file transfers through the console port without the need for a separate serial port.

Jim.