Well, it's October again, and that means RetroChallenge! Hurray! ;D
Last year's challenge found me playing around with MS-DOS every day (https://zappbots.altervista.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=452 (https://zappbots.altervista.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=452).) So I decided to continue with the Operating System theme, and will be working on MS-DOS' predecessor CP/M-86 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP%2FM-86.) While I have played around with CP/M previously, it was for the 8-bit systems rather than the 16-bit(ish) PC.
So, here we gooooo...
Day 1:
I actually should have posted this earlier (but life gets complicated) but I was working on this back around July.
Here are the notes that I wrote about my RC-2024 project:
QuoteRun CP/M-86
Prep:
- Obtain CP/M-86 on 720K floppies
- Back up SupersPort (Zip drive)
- Copy Zip S/W to floppies
- Format HD
- Get Arduino PDP-8 working with RS-232
- Setup BBS (on Pi Zero?)
Operation
- Boot to CP/M
- Use HD from CP/M
- Boot to CP/M from HD
Usability
- Install editor/word processor (WS?)
- Install Pirx Commander
- Install other S/W
- Port FreeDOS Edit to CP/M-86
Development
- Install BASIC (w/ peek, poke, inp & out)
- Write non-trivial program (CardIAC emulator?)
- Install C (to port FreeDOS Edit)
- Develop w/ PicoMite
- Develop w/ ATtiny
Communication/Networking
- Talk to Arduino PDP-8 or PC
- Talk to BBS (via wifi)
- Get (write?) browser
- Transfer files to/from network server
Well, we shall see how far we can get on this over the next 31 days. ;)
Post #2
So, the first thing to do is to get a copy of CP/M-86. Since my computer only has a single 720K 3.5" (although also with a 20MB hard drive,) I needed the 720K version of CP/M-86 For The IBM PC. The Digital Research Binary Files page at http://www.cpm.z80.de/binary.html has a copy, so let's see how that works.
First, we download the .ZIP file and extract it. CP/M does not use the FAT disk file format that MS-DOS (nor Linux floppy format) does, so we need to copy those files over to my SupersPort. In addition, since I do not know if my SupersPort has the driver files for my Zip drive, I will copy those files onto another disk. Then I will just run the extraction program to create a CP/M-86 boot disk on that floppy disk. Thankfully, Linux does not have any trouble with reading, or writing, 720K floppy disks on my external USB floppy drive. Actually, in playing with my Tandy 600, I found out that Linux plays well with 360K 3.5" disks as well.
So, while copying the files over to the SupersPort, I decided that I would need a bootable floppy, so that I can restore the SupersPort back to the way it was. When I tried to format a boot disk, it started formatting at 360K! Bummer! I had forgotten that I had removed a DRIVPARM command from CONFIG.SYS – this is necessary for some PCs to enable 720K formatting on the older 3.5" drives. I had hunted this down earlier, and had found it at: https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/headstart-lx-40-anyone-know-of-it.23880/. The entire thread covers this config, but my confirmation came in reply #6 (about the SupersPort.) So, now I just edit my CONFIG.SYS, reboot and I'll be able to create that MS-DOS 6.22 bootable floppy disk. After that, I'll copy the CP/M-86 install, and create the CP/M-86 boot disk.
Till' Monday...
How's your project going?
It hasn't. :(
It's been a pretty rough month for me, but it's starting to get better (ironically, by suddenly getting worse. ??? ) I'll explain in another post, later.
Have you tried "CP/M-86 for Newbies"?
https://www.novabbs.com/devel/article-flat.php?id=4846&group=comp.os.cpm#4846
Adam
Quote from: Adam on May 14, 2025, 03:25 PMHave you tried "CP/M-86 for Newbies"?
https://www.novabbs.com/devel/article-flat.php?id=4846&group=comp.os.cpm#4846
Adam
Thanks for the link, but unfortunately it's for Windows. :(
I do have a (some?) CP/M emulators (including setting up the Humongous CP/M disk on VirutalBox - cannot find the ISO on-line, but I can send it to you, if you want - 45MB.) That one boots into a CP/M 2.2 environment and has a ton (literally a
Humongous ;D amount) of software.
I'll probably (someday ;) ) get (redo?) my 720K
CP/M-86 binary for 720K floppies (http://www.cpm.z80.de/download/720cpm86.zip (http://www.cpm.z80.de/download/720cpm86.zip)) onto a floppy for my Zenith SupersPort (80C88) laptop, and then play around with that system. I've been wanting to back up my current (MS-DOS) hard drive to a Zip disk, and then format the HD for CP/M, and see how that works - unfortunately, I heard that that CP/M cannot boot from the HD, and requires a floppy to boot.
Quoteunfortunately it's for Windows. :(
Right, but...
The "CP/M-86 for Newbies" uses the PCE emulator and four 8 MB disk images with operating system preinstalled (in four different versions) plus one 8 MB disk image with utilities.
You could just take these images and place them in an emulator you are just using.
If your emulator does not recognise the disk image used by the PCE emulator (.pimg) then just convert it to a standard raw disk image (.img) that your emulator should read. See: PCE tool called pce-img.exe (included).
I hope It should work.
Adam
Thanks, I'll look into that in a little while.