CP/M+ 1.7

[greatwolf1283]

JonB's project (the IDE board and driver) has given me the get up and go to finish repairing some of the disks I've been working on.  Do have a very old copy of CP/M+ 1.7 (the version that's able to use FID files) but unfortunately the disk had seen better days.  But I've been able to repair it first by imaging the disk, then taking out the particular file from the image (J17CPM3.EMS) and replacing the 1.4 version on the CP/M+ 1.4 image that I have.  I've then been able to write this back to a blank disk, popped it into my old PCW8256 and it worked!  So pleased.

I've checked the other utilities that came on the CP/M+ 1.7 disk that I have and would appear to be the same as the ones from CP/M+ 1.4 (did a binary comparisson on them so they are identical).  I've attached the DSK file for anyone that might want to use it on their 8000 series PCW.

[GeoffB17]

??


On the basis of the info on John Elliott's pages, v1.7 does NOT support .FID files.


A 'special' version of this version - labelled 1.7H - was supplied with the ASD HD add-on, and this could support FIDs, but this was not a regular version.   Is this the version you have.


Otherwise, FID support was not generally active until 2.9


Geoff

[greatwolf1283]

Damn it you're right.  Tried getting it to boot with a FID file and absolute no show.  Back to the drawing board for me I think.

[JonB]

Is v1.7 a CP/M Plus or a CP/M 2.2 implementation?


Either way, I think I can build a driver for it, if you cannot find a way to load the FID.

[GeoffB17]

Please note, back in November, in a thread titled 'Joyce emulator using HD', I posted a copy of the .EMS file for 2.9.


I see it's been downloaded 35 times so far?   Lots of folks using .FIDs??


That one will do the job.


Geoff

[greatwolf1283]

The only problem I can see is that the 2.9 version is potentially only meant for the 9512 and 9512+ systems, whereas the versions starting with 1 (eg 1.4) are meant for the 8000 series.  This is just going by he information on J Elliott's Amstrad XBIOS Internals page.  Luckily however, on the PCW Wiki there's a boot disk for the Datawin 8, which contains a copy of CP/M+ 1.15.  This looks to be the last version that was actually released (along with 2.15 version for the 9512 and 9512+).  I've been able to make a DSK image containing this particular version, and I've tried it in both Joyce and CPMBox and it appears to work.  I also tried it and it looks to boot with both FID and FIB files.

Tomorrow I'll have a go at writing a disk with a copy of the image and see if the actual hardware will boot from it.  I'll also see if I can get the actual hardware to accept the FID file as well.  You'll have to excuse me not trying the FIB files but the only ones I have are the ones from the Datawin 8, which unfortunately looks like it would play merry hell with attempting to boot into a PCW which doesn't have the hardware.

[GeoffB17]

Well, could be.


However, I've booted my PCW using it, and there was no indication of any problem.


Note that FIDs provided with systems like that include changing drives about, incl the option to have a 180k A: and a 720k B:, i.e. just like the 8xxx series.


I don't normally use the 2.9, as I've not determined how to tweak the file to remove the 'disk suitable' checks which are still there.   So, it's fine with the 3.5" B: I'm using, and is fine with the 5.25 A: when booting (as SSSD), but if I try to use the A: drive as 360K (i.e. DSDD) then I get the 'disk unsuitable' error.   As noted elsewhere, with help from John Elliott, I was able to 'tweak' the 1.1 version to get around this.   Other versions work differently, maybe even having similar code in more than one place, and a 'tweak' has not yet worked.


Note, I have not tried to do any printing.   This might be a problem?


Geoff