Creating DOS 3.2 Systems Masters where there were none

["schmidtd@my-deja.com" <schmidtd@my-deja.com>]

As part of a recent eBay purchase, I received a Disk ][ card with both
old and new P5/P6 ROMS.  You can switch between 13 and 16 sector
firmware with a little toggle switch.  Pretty cool.  BUT... I of course
needed a DOS 3.2 system master, and I had none.  What to do?  Ask here
for a physical floppy?  Look on eBay for originals?  Nah.  Where's the
challenge in that?

There's much discussion on the topic in this group going back for
years.  We have a classic chicken-and-egg situation.  You need DOS to
write DOS, and 3.2 DOS is tough to come by with current tools - mostly
because the 232,960 byte nibble images of 3.2 diskettes don't have an
easy route to get onto a real Apple for writing.  So, here's how I did
it.

Step 1: download nibbleized images of DOS 3.2 masters (Asimov one for
the ][+ and one for the plain ][).  Fire up an emulator with a DOS 3.3
master; run BOOT13; boot the DOS 3.2 image.

Step 2: copy out the DOS in memory to the virtual 3.2 diskette:
BSAVE DOS32,A$9600,L$29FF
Turns out I had to erase a file or two on my virtual 3.2 system master
to make room for it.  But now I have a memory image of DOS 3.2 on a 3.2
disk.  So far so good.

Step 3: get the dos memory image file onto a 3.3 virtual diskette for
ADT transfer to the physical apple.  Boot DOS 3.3, use MUFFIN to copy
off the DOS32 file we created to an otherwise blank .DSK file.  I'll
call it PHASE0.DSK.

Step 4: transfer PHASE0.DSK down to the physical apple with ADT.  We
now have a physical floppy in DOS 3.3 format that contains a file,
DOS32, which is the memory imprint of DOS 3.2.

Step 5: get DOS 3.2 into memory.  You can't just BLOAD DOS32, because
it'll step all over your buffers, running DOS, and everything right in
the middle of loading!  So, we've got to move it around a little.
First, load it up into some free space:
]BLOAD DOS32,A$2000
Next, get into the monitor and move it to it's real home, and give it a
call for good measure:
]CALL -151
*9600<2000.49FFM
*3D0G
The vectors are already set close enough to what we want, so we don't
have to modify anything in the $3D0 range.  We now have DOS 3.2 in
memory.

Step 6: At this point, I flipped the switch on my Disk ][ card and
typed
INIT HELLO
and held my breath.  The disk just spun aimlessly for what seemed like
an eternity.  I hung my head in despair and tried to figure out what
went wrong, what to try next.  But then, out of nowhere - the stepper
motor stepped!  Victory was mine!  At the end of the init cycle, I had
a disk formatted with DOS 3.2.  I tested it by switching the firmware
back to 3.3, booted DOS 3.3 system master, and booted my 3.2 disk with
BOOT13.

Step 7: Get the rest of the DOS 3.2 System Master diskette contents
onto the physical 3.2 diskette image.  With MUFFIN on my emulator, I
copied all the files from the virtual 3.2 system master onto
PHASE1.DSK.  I sent PHASE1.DSK to the physical Apple via ADT.  Now, you
need the reverse of MUFFIN to copy the programs on the 16-sector PHASE1
diskette onto the physical 3.2 diskette.  I used DUBBELDOS:
www.apple2.org.za/mirrors/ground.icaen.uiowa.edu/apple8/Misc/Dubbeldos.dump
and then normal FID to copy all the files onto my 3.2 diskette.

Step 8: Flip the switch back to 13 sectors, reboot with the new 3.2
system master, and relish the victory!  Ancient history reconstituted.

If you have to ask, "why?"  Then I say you're in the wrong newsgroup.
:-)

- David Schmidt