OSI + Gotek (youtube video)

[bxdanny]

davisgw,
The hexdos4.hfe file (with no "v" in the name) contained in your HFEimages.zip was clearly corrupted, as evidenced by the fact that the "Compressed size" listed in the .zip file's "directory" is only 10 k. So I wouldn't worry about that one. (LOAD/ doesn't work right with it even in WinOSI. It does return to an OK prompt, but trying to LIST it just clears the screen and shows nothing. Nor does trying to LOAD any program by name from it work.) The hexdosv4.hfe file is a correct image of the Hexdos distribution disk. Or rather hexdosv4nhd.hfe is.

As for the DOS/65 image (dos65nhd.hfe), are you using the DOS/65 option (selection 8) from your boot ROM's menu when you try to boot it? Remember, DOS/65 cannot be booted with the standard OSI boot loader.

[davisgw]

bxdanny,
The answer to your question is, "Yes, of course", but...I realized that in order to attach both the Gotek and a floppy I needed to use a different ribbon cable so I needed to use the other 610 board to using a ribbon cable with a compatible connectors. So in order to make sure of my answer I needed to boot Dos/65 from a floppy, but something is wrong with the Motor On circuit so it only works within 30 seconds of powering up the system...after that the spindle motor never spins
So I can't be entirely sure that this is preventing booting Dos/65 from the Gotek but I've tried it with "index-suppression " set to both yes and no after system power on and it does not boot from the ROM Dos/65 loader either way.
The other issue is the Gotek does not play nice with my floppy when they are both connected.
Any ideas how to permanently fix the hfe images for hexdos and Dos/65? Do you think OSIHFE needs a fix? Thanks a bunch!

[bxdanny]

davisgw,
Hi. I thought you weren't trying to get the Gotek and the floppy drive to work together anymore, because you had seen that they wouldn't. I'm not sure what trying again has to do with trying to boot the DOS/65 image. But you do now have a working version of Hexdos for the Gotek, and there shouldn't be anything "impermanent" about it.

Which version of osihfe.exe are you using? I believe I was using 2.21, which is the first one listed on Mark's site. There is a 2.22 marked as "beta", which means it may be buggy, so I'd suggest using 2.21 for now. Perhaps Mark will comment further about this.

[davisgw]

bxdanny,
For the moment I have stopped trying to get the Gotek to work together with my floppy. But when you asked if I was trying to boot Dos/65 from the Loader in ROM I realized I'm using different hardware so I needed to make sure it still boots from a floppy (call me gun shy from the weeks spent trying to understand why Dos/65 would not boot).
I am using OSIHFE 2.21 and what I meant by "permanent fix" is that the Gotek is gaining interest because of this thread and others may be struggling with the same issues until this problem is understood. You said yourself that you did not know the significance of the bytes in the header that you changed. I hope Mark understands the issue enough to fix it or explain what's in the header.

In the meantime I'm hoping "nama" can explain how he got the Gotek to work with his floppy drive....

[Mark]

I finally got back to looking into the problems.
The values you changes are 2 bytes @ 0x0C-0x0D BitRate 500 to 250 and 2 bytes @ 0x0E-0x0F RPM 360 to 300. Probably something made it look like an 8" disk for some reason. yikes. Good catch

On my C4P I do have my Gotek Flash Floppy connected to the same ribbon cable as a 1/2 height TEAC FD-55BV. Currently Gotek is drive 1, Teac is drive 2, but I switch them back and forth. The data separator sits inline between the drives and the OSI, along with a D&N Disk Switch that turns off the disk motor after a few seconds of idle. I've used various drive pairs with the OSI and have not had any problems. The Gotek works like any other floppy I've used. I don't recall having to do anything special other than perhaps setting the drive select jumper.

[davisgw]

I've made some progress. The floppy interface card on my 610 board had some problems that were causing the Motor On line to be inactive and the drive select lines to look active to both drives....I guess I never tested this board with 2 drives before. Anyway I'm short a driver IC and have ordered some. In the meantime I jumpered the Motor On line active and am able to boot with both the Gotek and the floppy drive playing nice, but if I boot and try to read or write to the floppy (drive B) both drives think they are active so I avoid doing that for now.
bxdanny,
I found this document that explains the hfe file headers, and your changes to the hexdos image was correct.
https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_dri ... E_file_for mat.pdf

Mark,
I have verified that my 600D boots everything from floppies but I have been unable to boot the Dos65 image (yes I'm using the ROM Dos65 Loader) and only once have I been able to boot a Disktool5 image. The header in both images looks correct so I wonder if the FF.CFG file needs to be different? Have you tried them from your Gotek and been successful? I'm thinking of creating a bootable Loader image to see if I can load and run the Loader and boot the Dos65 image on the Gotek....

[davisgw]

bxdanny,
Try this link instead of what I just posted.
https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_dri ... format.pdf

[davisgw]

I FINALLY got all my images to boot and run on the Gotek, including OS65D, Hexdos, Enhanced Pico Dos (complements of bxdanny), WP6502, Dos/65, and a bootable Dos/65 loader image. And even Dos/65 boots from my ROM loader! I had tried everything I could think of, including flashing Fashfloppy on the Gotek twice because I thought version 4.6a might be a cause of my issues, I had changed the RPM parameter in the image headers to correct error 9's, and changed several parameters in the FF.CFG file and nothing seemed to work. Then I re-read the config document and realized the implication of the following paragraphs.
"Out of the box, FlashFloppy uses the default values described in the Options list. When these are modified by values in FF.CFG they are recorded into the Gotek's Flash memory and become the new default values when the drive is next powered on. If you wish to return to "factory defaults", press the Prev and Next buttons (or Select, or the rotary encoder, if you have them) for three seconds with no USB stick inserted. The display will show RST or Reset Flash Configuration: Factory defaults are restored when the buttons are released."
That means my FF.CFG changes were not activated without a reset of the Gotek flash memory. So I restored all the image changes and changed the FF.CFG parameter "index-suppression = yes" (I previously had it set to "index-suppression = no"), reset the flash memory in the Gotek, and everything boots and runs...except....

When I try to boot the Disktool5 image nothing happens unless I quickly switch to another image and after a couple seconds it comes up? Can you explain this behavior, Mark? It seems to end booting on track 5 and then nothing happens.

BTW I finally realized that the series of values in the display are the track numbers as the Gotek is being read.

[Mark]

Glad you got things working. I'm working on an update for DiskTool along with a fix for you booting issue.

[davisgw]

I am completely frustrated. My previous success booting all the images I have, except Disktool5, is more complicated and I'm convinced that there must be some magic incantation to get hexdos images to run on the Gotek. I've discovered that the ONLY Hexdos image I can boot and run on the Gotek is the one named "hexdos4enh.hfe" that Danny sent me, because I tried converting the hexasm4.65d image that Danny sent me to an hfe image, then corrected the header, and it did not boot. Then I tried the same with the hexdos4.65d image and it would not boot either. Then I tried all the other hexdos images I have and none will boot. In every case it looks like the Gotek cannot read track 0 or what it reads is incorrect. So then I wrote floppies of both hexdos4 and hexasm4 and they both boot and run perfectly! So what am I missing in the conversion process for hexdos images?

bxdanny,
How did you create a good hexdos4.hfe file? Did you change more than just the header?