Re: Applicard CP/M partition on CFFA3000?

[David Schmidt <schmidtd@my-deja.com>]

On 11/15/2011 7:38 AM, Steven Hirsch wrote:
> On 11/15/2011 06:57 AM, David Schmidt wrote:
> > On 11/15/2011 1:06 AM, EricN wrote:
> > > Has anyone had any success setting up a CP/M partition on the new
> > > CFFA3000 for the Applicard? I've been attempting to use the PCPIPro
> > > and ProPart tools provided by Steve but no success so far. Here's
> > > what I'm seeing:
> > >
> > > PCPIPro method (from PCPIPro.txt):
> > > - Everything successful up to -FBOOT then when the system reads in the
> > > drivers from the recently created boot diskette, the pdoshd driver
> > > errors on loading and is not able to detect a CP/M hard disk
> > > partition.
> > >
> > > ProPart:
> > > - Thought perhaps I first needed to use ProPart first to create a CP/M
> > > partition
> > > - Run pro/part.com, run through menu settings, then program hangs when
> > > attempting to write the data blocks to a ProDOS partition not he
> > > CFFA3000.
>
> > How are you configuring the CFFA3000? Are you starting with a ProDOS
> > or Pascal
> > disk image, and mounting that as a SmartPort drive? What slot is the
> > CFFA3000 in?
>
> Both the partitioning tool and driver assume a device that ids and
> behaves as a ProDOS block device. It does not have to be a SmartPort
> drive. I've yet to see anything it wouldn't work with, including a
> ProFile. I have one of my original CFFA cards configured with a CP/M
> partition on it and don't recall any issues during setup.

Then the CFFA3000 should be good when it hosts a disk image.  The 
trouble with 'formatting' comes in when something tries to write timing 
nibbles during low-level formatting - something that I doubt your code 
is doing.  If it is coloring inside the lines, there's no reason why 
hosting an image on a CFFA3000, mapped into a slot+drive combination, 
wouldn't work.

I'd recommend against the old scheme of using hard-coded partitions on a 
CF card and using the new, much more flexible image hosting capabilities.

> > It seems like you should be able to start with a hard drive image that is
> > already prepared for the Applicard and just mount and use that.
>
> That might work, but sizings would have to match up precisely. The
> driver is looking for a fingerprint on the volume and uses the size to
> get its bearings.

The sizing will match up precisely... because the CFFA3000 can host the 
image file directly. ;-)