ldkraemer
Veteran Member
Debian (Versions 8 thru 11) Linux can be used to create CP/M Boot floppy's, if you know the Sector Size
and the Number of Sectors per Track. Debian (ver 8-11) still supports Floppy Drives if the FDUTILS and
MTOOLS Packages are installed.
FDUTILS Ver 5.6-2
MTOOLS Ver 4.0.26-1
For Linux you must have the proper permissions to access the Floppy Hardware. You can use the groups
command to determine who has permission to use the floppy hardware (/dev/fd0 & /dev/fd1).
If no floppy is detected there will be a message such as:
CONNECTING A FLOPPY DRIVE
All of the drives are typically shipped strapped from the Manufacture, ready to be inserted into a Computer
case as DS1. (Unless someone is selling on ebay and has changed the jumpers from DEFAULT.) To connect
to your Motherboards you just need a cable that has the IBM twisted connectors for the last floppy connector
on the cable having conductors 10 thru 16 twisted. One end of the cable goes to the Motherboard, and middle
connector is for Drive 1 (in a DS{0..3} configuration) and the end connector on the cable is Drive 0 (in
a DS{0..3} configuration). The Floppy at the End of the cable ALWAYS has the TERMINATOR located on
the Drive. (Note: if using 1.2M or 1.44M floppy's they already have the necessary PULL-UP resistors
installed so the Terminator resistors are not required.) Plug the floppy onto the end of the cable in the DS0
position (although the drive will be strapped for DS1). In fact both floppy drives (if used) will be strapped as DS1.
So, all you need is to connect the Power connector to the drive, attach the first Floppy Drive to the end of
the cable and double check that the floppy was strapped for Drive select 1 (DS1) in a DS{0..3} configuration.
The Floppy drive may have designations 1 to 4 versus 0 to 3 as in DS{1..4}. In this case the second floppy
would be DS2 in a DS{1..4} configuration.
After that you power up and make sure the BIOS is properly set for the type floppy 360K, 1.2M, 720K, 1.44M.
When you boot the floppy should turn on the LED and step the floppy to determine if it is a 48 TPI or 96 TPI
unit (40 or 80 Tracks). An error message pops up if the BIOS is set incorrectly.
Test the floppy by copying to and reading from it.
Linux lets you write a variety of floppy types as determined by the /etc/mediaprm file.
/etc/mediaprm is Attached
In this example I am wanting to write a Boot Floppy for the Otrona Attache which has 48 TPI Drives - DSDD 48 tpi 5.25"
This definition is already defined in my mediaprm file:
At this point I need to tell Debian to load the Otrona Parameters for the Floppy drive /dev/fd0.
I INSERT a Blank Floppy in Drive A = /dev/fd0 (for next commands)
and the response is:
Next, I load the Parameters
Which sets the floppy Drive for 512 x 10 and Double Density
Verify that the parameters are correct with:
And the response is:
I just VERIFIED the parameters are CORRECT!
Now, Format the Floppy:
and double check the configuration that wrote the floppy.
Get the *.RAW file to write to floppy
The finished response is:
Insert the Floppy in the Otrona Attache with 48 TPI Floppy Drives and Boot the Floppy.
Note: The Otrona 48 TPI Floppy is a RAW OUT-OUT format, and cpmtools can read/write RAW ALT,
RAW OUT-OUT, and RAW OUT-BACK formats. The Otrona 96 TPI Floppy is RAW OUT-BACK format.
In this case the real Floppy was Imaged with IMD, and I used the IMDA and IMDU utilities to
extract the raw image in DOS. You can also use DOSBox running on Linux.
Extracts the .RAW image from a .IMD file.
Larry
and the Number of Sectors per Track. Debian (ver 8-11) still supports Floppy Drives if the FDUTILS and
MTOOLS Packages are installed.
FDUTILS Ver 5.6-2
MTOOLS Ver 4.0.26-1
For Linux you must have the proper permissions to access the Floppy Hardware. You can use the groups
command to determine who has permission to use the floppy hardware (/dev/fd0 & /dev/fd1).
Code:
$ groups
larry tty lp dialout cdrom floppy sudo audio dip video plugdev netdev bluetooth lpadmin scanner
If no floppy is detected there will be a message such as:
Code:
$ ls -alt /dev/fd0
ls: cannot access '/dev/fd0': No such file or directory
CONNECTING A FLOPPY DRIVE
All of the drives are typically shipped strapped from the Manufacture, ready to be inserted into a Computer
case as DS1. (Unless someone is selling on ebay and has changed the jumpers from DEFAULT.) To connect
to your Motherboards you just need a cable that has the IBM twisted connectors for the last floppy connector
on the cable having conductors 10 thru 16 twisted. One end of the cable goes to the Motherboard, and middle
connector is for Drive 1 (in a DS{0..3} configuration) and the end connector on the cable is Drive 0 (in
a DS{0..3} configuration). The Floppy at the End of the cable ALWAYS has the TERMINATOR located on
the Drive. (Note: if using 1.2M or 1.44M floppy's they already have the necessary PULL-UP resistors
installed so the Terminator resistors are not required.) Plug the floppy onto the end of the cable in the DS0
position (although the drive will be strapped for DS1). In fact both floppy drives (if used) will be strapped as DS1.
So, all you need is to connect the Power connector to the drive, attach the first Floppy Drive to the end of
the cable and double check that the floppy was strapped for Drive select 1 (DS1) in a DS{0..3} configuration.
The Floppy drive may have designations 1 to 4 versus 0 to 3 as in DS{1..4}. In this case the second floppy
would be DS2 in a DS{1..4} configuration.
After that you power up and make sure the BIOS is properly set for the type floppy 360K, 1.2M, 720K, 1.44M.
When you boot the floppy should turn on the LED and step the floppy to determine if it is a 48 TPI or 96 TPI
unit (40 or 80 Tracks). An error message pops up if the BIOS is set incorrectly.
Test the floppy by copying to and reading from it.
Linux lets you write a variety of floppy types as determined by the /etc/mediaprm file.
/etc/mediaprm is Attached
In this example I am wanting to write a Boot Floppy for the Otrona Attache which has 48 TPI Drives - DSDD 48 tpi 5.25"
This definition is already defined in my mediaprm file:
Code:
"OTR1":
DS DD sect=10 ssize=512
At this point I need to tell Debian to load the Otrona Parameters for the Floppy drive /dev/fd0.
I INSERT a Blank Floppy in Drive A = /dev/fd0 (for next commands)
Code:
$ lsblk
Code:
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
fd0 2:0 1 4K 0 disk
sda 8:0 0 465.8G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 117.2G 0 part /
├─sda2 8:2 0 24.4G 0 part
├─sda3 8:3 0 321.7G 0 part
└─sda4 8:4 0 2.5G 0 part [SWAP]
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
Next, I load the Parameters
Code:
$ sudo setfdprm /dev/fd0 otr1
Which sets the floppy Drive for 512 x 10 and Double Density
Verify that the parameters are correct with:
Code:
$ getfdprm
Code:
DS DD sect=10
I just VERIFIED the parameters are CORRECT!
Now, Format the Floppy:
Code:
$ sudo superformat /dev/fd0 otr1
and double check the configuration that wrote the floppy.
Code:
S lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
fd0 2:0 1 400K 0 disk
sda 8:0 0 465.8G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 117.2G 0 part /
├─sda2 8:2 0 24.4G 0 part
├─sda3 8:3 0 321.7G 0 part
└─sda4 8:4 0 2.5G 0 part [SWAP]
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
Get the *.RAW file to write to floppy
Code:
$ cd Downloads/Otrona
$ sudo dd if=attbt225.raw bs=1 of=/dev/fd0 conv=notrunc
Code:
409600+0 records in
409600+0 records out
409600 bytes (409 kB) copied, 151.523 s, 5.4 kB/s
Insert the Floppy in the Otrona Attache with 48 TPI Floppy Drives and Boot the Floppy.
Note: The Otrona 48 TPI Floppy is a RAW OUT-OUT format, and cpmtools can read/write RAW ALT,
RAW OUT-OUT, and RAW OUT-BACK formats. The Otrona 96 TPI Floppy is RAW OUT-BACK format.
In this case the real Floppy was Imaged with IMD, and I used the IMDA and IMDU utilities to
extract the raw image in DOS. You can also use DOSBox running on Linux.
Code:
$ IMDA ATTBT225.IMD > ATTBT225.TXT
$ IMDU ATTBT225.IMD ATTBT225.RAW /B /E /D >> ATTBT225.TXT
Extracts the .RAW image from a .IMD file.
Code:
$ cpmls -f otr1 -T raw,otr1 -D ATTBT225.RAW
Name Bytes Recs Attr update create
------------ ------ ------ ---- ----------------- -----------------
AUTO .COM 2K 6
BACKUP .COM 2K 12
BARSAMPL.CHT 2K 3
BRUN .COM 16K 121
CHARTON .COM 26K 200
CHARTONF. 6K 46
D .COM 2K 11
DAY .COM 2K 10
DDT .COM 6K 38
DISK .COM 6K 44
EDFILE .COM 12K 86
EPSFIX .COM 12K 91
FORMAT .COM 2K 6
LINSAMPL.CHT 2K 3
MBASIC .COM 26K 195
MDM707 .COM 18K 132 R
MODEM .COM 20K 146
MUSIC .COM 10K 72
NULU .COM 16K 120
PIESAMPL.CHT 2K 2
PORTS .ATT 2K 3
PORTS .COM 14K 101
PRINTER .VL2 28K 224
SORTV .COM 2K 9
SQ .COM 14K 106
STAT .COM 6K 41
SYSDUP .COM 2K 6
SYSGEN .COM 2K 6
TIME .COM 2K 16
USQ .COM 10K 79
VALET .VL2 28K 224
XDIR .COM 4K 19
XF .COM 8K 62
XTYPE .COM 10K 70 R
34 Files occupying 322K, 74K Free.
Larry
Attachments
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