Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!yale!husc6!ukma!simon From: simon@ms.uky.edu (George Simon) Newsgroups: comp.os.cpm Subject: Need help with brain-damaged bdos. Message-ID: <9936@e.ms.uky.edu> Date: 12 Jul 88 13:33:18 GMT Reply-To: simon@ms.uky.edu (Simon Gales) Organization: U of Kentucky, Mathematical Sciences Lines: 47 Help!!! I have a z80 cpm box at work that has problems, and I'm looking for ideas to improve it a little. If it were up to me, I'd replace it with a Pc, but for several reasons, we need to continue to use it. The version of cpm that it is running seems to be < 2.2, and the bdos seem to be brain-damaged. (1) There is no escape code to position the cursor, however calling the bios CONOUT routine to print a 0x18 with the row/col in HL does the job. (don't even ask how I found this out!) (2) Bdos function 6 (direct console i/o) does not exist, but the corresponding bios calls work ok. Other bdos calls may be ok, but I trust the bios much more. The bdos also refuses to return the version#. The computer itself is a Videoplan form Kontron Electronics (in Munich & California), has 1 Z80-sio, 1 ctc, 2 pio's (keyboard & printer) and a WD1771-B01 floppy controller (single density). The motherboard is a (4mhz?) KDT rev. IV. If anyone from Kontron is reading this, and has any docs on this board, please send me e-mail. Even its disks are strange - single density, 35 tracks x 2 sides, and 16 sectors/track yielding about 138K per disk. I've been thinking about getting Z-cpr to replace the bdos/ccp, but I'm not sure if it would even install in such a brain damaged system. I have no hardware or software docs on this machine, but I have found all of the port#s for the sio/ctc/pio's, and can probably find the floppy controller and video (Motorola 6845L) if needed. Anyone got any other ideas? I'd love to be able to do double-density, but I don't know if the WD1771 can do this. I have heard that Z-Cpr 3.4 is self-installing, but it may have problems here... I have managed to get kermit running, but I'd like to get turbo pascal or a c-compiler working. Respond via e-mail, or post it if you think others would be interested. Thanks in advance, Simon. <--------------------------------------------------------------------------> <--- Simon Gales@University of Ky (606) 257-3597/254-9387 ---> <--- [ simon@ms.uky.edu ] | [ simon@UKMA.BITNET ] ---> <-------------------------------------------------------------------------->