Ira Goldklang's TRS-80 Revived Site

This HOWTO: will guide you through the process of getting David Keil‘s TRS80 (Model3 & 4) or TRS81 (Model 1) EMULATOR running in Ubuntu 10.04 under DOSBox.

PREWORK:

1. Somehow find David Keil’s emulator.

2. Install DOSBox via Synaptics Package Manager

You will need to install Dosbox in Ubuntu by using Synaptics or apt-get.

REF:

http://www.dosbox.com

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/wiki

3. Copy the complete EMULATOR subdirectory from CDR to your /home/loginuser directory

Copy the complete folder TRSDOS from the CDR to /home/loginuser

4. DOSBox – Command Summary

The following commands can be used in DOSBbox:

intro

intro mount

intro cdrom

intro special

help

help /all

CNTL F11 Slow down Emulation – Decrease DOSBox Cycles

CNTL F12 Speed up Emulation – Increase DOSBox Cycles

ALT-ENTER go FULL Screen & Back

There are several special commands that are shown on the help screens.

5. TRS80 – Command Summary

The following three commands apply ONLY to Montezuma Micro CP/M:

F1 does a DIR A:

F2 does a DIR B:

F3 does a DIR M:

F5 key brings up the ‘Configuration Screen’.

Shift F5 key will shell to DOS.

F6 key toggles 1, 2, 4, 8 MHZ

Shift F6 Locks the Speed at the current setting.

F7 key will save a snapshot of the TRS-80 system.

Shift F7 key will load a snapshot of the TRS-80 system allowing you to continue running a TRS-80 program after exiting the emulator.  Like a save game feature.

Added ability to load & execute /CMD files directly from a PC directory use Shift F7 to bring up “load Snapshot” window then use F1 to toggle load /CMD options

F9 will bring up the virtual drive status screen.  From this screen you can insert, remove and change virtual disks.

Shift F9 selects virtual hard disk selection screen.

In the virtual drive selection screens have changed.
Pushing INSERT now brings up a window for entry of a path+filename of a virtual disk to be mounted in the currently selected drive.

Pushing ENTER brings up the point & shoot screen for selecting a virtual disk to be mounted in the currently selected drive. (same as before)

Pushing the numbers 0-3 now selects the corresponding drive.

Pushing Shift-Tab selects the previous drive.

F10 Reset Emulator (Same as CNTL C in CP/M)

Shift F10 now exits even if CPU is stopped.

F11 now selects virtual cassette selection screen.

Shift F11 selects audio/wave cassette selection screen.

F12 stops & single steps Z80 CPU.

Shift F12 stops and restarts Z80 CPU.

6. Testing DOSBox commands and methods.

Let’s use this example as a guide for the commands we will need to use to mount and unmount the directory.

I had several recipes that were saved in C:\pw\2_LDK\Cookin on an old Dos machine.  I copied the complete C:\pw folder to /home/larry/C:/.

This folder will be mounted as C: Drive in DOSBox so the EXE, COM, or BAT files can be executed.  To mount your C: drive, you will use the mount command to mount the Linux folder as c and then change to Drive C:\> and execute your old DOS Program.

I executed DOSBox from the Ubuntu menu.

Start DOSBox via:

APPLICATIONS -> GAMES -> DOSBox

When the dosbox window opened I typed the following to mount a SUBDIRECTORY as Drive C. So, when I change to Drive C, I am really pointing at /home/larry/pw

DOSBox positions you at Drive z:

mount c ~/C:C:dir/pcd pwpw

From within pw I just used a normal program exit.

Before you can unmount the drive you must change back to drive z: then you can issue the unmount command.

To UNMOUNT C: and exit DOSBOX use the following commands:

z:mount -u cexit

Locate the .DSK or .DMK (NEWDOS, DOSPLUS, LDOS, TRSDOS, ULTRADOS, MULTIDOS, or MONTEZUMA MICRO CP/M) OS files you will use:
(If you are using Montezuma Micro 2.31 CP/M, use Tim Mann’s mkdisk to reset the write protect attribute of the file, so you can use CONFIG to change the Drive Parameters and save the settings.  If you don’t change the file to unprotected, you won’t be able to save the parameters so the settings won’t survive a reboot.  If you are using Newdos and want to use the Pdrive command you will also need to use Tim’s mkdisk to allow the Pdrive command to write the changes.

TYPICAL Pdrive commands are:

pdrive,0 //This will display the current settings

pdrive,0,1=4,a //This will change Drive 1 to displayed Drive 4 settings and make it effective immediately

pdrive,0,1=2,a //This will change Drive 1 to displayed Drive 2 settings and make it effective immediately

These parameters allow you to read a Model 1 Floppy in a TRS-80 Model III or Model 4)

mkdisk -u -k filename.dmkmkdisk -u -k MMCPM231.DSKmkdisk -u -k ND80-M1.DSK

7. Running TRS80 (Model 3 & Model 4 Emulator) or TRS81 (Model 1
Emulator)

Start DOSBox via:

APPLICATIONS -> GAMES -> DOSBox

DOSBox will come up and you will be on Drive z:

(Type the following commands adjusting for the specific Emulator.)

mount c TRSDOSc:dir /ptrs80 MMCPM321.DSK

(I copied the Monetzuma Micro CP/M DSK file into the TRSDOS subdirectory.  You could have just used trs80, and then immediately used F9 to select the Drive, and the OS used on that drive, and then used F10 to read the Disk’s information and reset the Emulator.)  Use CNTL F12 to increase cycles to around 9K or 10K so the “DIR B:” command in CP/M, or the “DIR :0″ command in TRSDOS acts like a real TRS-80 Model 4.

Montezuma Micro ver 2.3.1 will come up running.

MY OH MY, Formatting a disk takes about 30 seconds, and booting up is less than 30 seconds……… That was the good ole days….and the CPU speeds were 2 MHZ with 64 or 128 Meg RAM. WOW!

Use F9 to configure another DSK file to view in Drive :1

Use F10 to RESET the System

Use PIP to transfer a couple of files to Drive M:. (pip destdrive:=sourcedrive:filename.*)

pip m:=a:mdm730*.*

F1 does a DIR A:

F2 does a DIR B:

F3 does a DIR M:

F5 key brings up the ‘Configuration Screen’.

Shift F5 key will shell to DOS.

F6 key toggles 1, 2, 4, 8 MHZ

Shift F6 Locks the Speed at the current setting.

F7 key will save a snapshot of the TRS-80 system.

Shift F7 key will load a snapshot of the TRS-80 system allowing you to continue running a TRS-80 program after exiting the emulator.  Like a save game feature.

Added ability to load & execute /CMD files directly from a PC directory Use Shift F7 to bring up “load Snapshot” window then use F1 to toggle load /CMD options.

F9 will bring up the virtual drive status screen.  From this screen you can insert, remove and change virtual disks.

Shift F9 now selects virtual hard disk selection screen.

In the virtual drive selection screens have changed.
Pushing INSERT now brings up a window for entry of a path+filename of a
virtual disk to be mounted in the currently selected drive.

Pushing ENTER brings up the point & shoot screen for selecting a
virtual disk to be mounted in the currently selected drive. (same as before)

Pushing the numbers 0-3 now selects the corresponding drive.

Pushing Shift-Tab selects the previous drive.

F10 Reset Emulator (Same as CNTL C in CP/M)

Shift F10 now exits even if CPU is stopped.

F11 now selects virtual cassette selection screen.

Shift F11 selects audio/wave cassette selection screen.

F12 stops & single steps Z80 CPU.

Shift F12 stops and restarts Z80 CPU.

So, the whole world of CP/M, TRSDOS, LDOS, NEWDOS along with all the
others is now available for your work or play.  Be sure to check out DUP, and
CONFIG,
in Montezuma Micro CP/M and all the other nice utilities from the CP/M and TRSDOS Days back in
the 1980′s.  With Config you can read and write
almost any format available at that
time.

When you are finished with the Emulator use SHIFT F10 to exit.  Then you
need to unmount the subdirectory and exit the Terminal Window.  Here are the
commands

z:mount -u cexit

If DOSBox doesn’t terminate properly, open another Terminal Window and
use the top command to find the DOSBox process ID Number. Assume 4790.
Use CNTL C
to stop the top command and then use kill -9 4790 to terminate DOSBox.

top

CNTL C

kill -9 4790

HOW TO COPY THOSE OLD 5.25″ FLOPPY’S USING THE CATWEASEL PCI CARD:

The Catweasel MK4 PLUS is a multi-format floppy disk controller PCI
Card that can be plugged into a spare PCI slot, and used from a Terminal Window in
Ubuntu.

I plugged mine in my Desktop running 8.04.4 LTS.

CATWEASEL FEATURES:

Read/write real Amiga floppy disk’s on a Windows PC

Use a real Amiga keyboard on a PC

Use a real Amiga mouse/joystick on PC

Ideal for WinUAE and Amiga Forever – transfer all your Amiga floppies
over to the PC

Empty SID chip socket for realistic C64 sound emulation

Third Party Support

Catweasel MK4 drivers for classic Amiga available:

Multidisk V3.65 uses OpenPCI to access the controller through the
Prometheus PCI Busboard.

Third party driver support for Linux 2.6 also available

Third party driver support for AmigaOS 4.1 now also available (limited)

Third party driver support for AROS now also available

I purchased my Catweasel from:

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/…roducts_id=842

Tim Mann has a nice website with support for the CP/M and TRS-80 Floppy
Disks at:

http://www.tim-mann.org/trs80.html

http://www.tim-mann.org/catweasel.html

From Tim’s website you can download his Catweasel Floppy Read/Write
Tools, version 4.4  cw2dmk-4.4.zip or cw2dmk-4.4.tar.gz and extract the folder containing
his files for version 4.4.

LINUX:

From within my Desktop running Ubuntu 8.04, I just opened a Terminal
Window, and used the following commands:

cd ~cd cw2dmk-4.4sudo ./cw2dmk -v1 trstst01.dmksudo ./cw2dmk -v1 trstst02.dmksudo ./cw2dmk -v1 trststxx.dmk

to copy the TRS-80 floppy disks to the DMK image format that is used by
most Emulators.

WINDOWS:

There are Windows Drivers on the Catweasel CDR along with other
Software, but I haven’t

looked into that so far.

WARNING – UNAPPROVED METHOD:

One CAUTION here is that if your Floppy Disk’s are 25+ years old as
mine were, the Oxide coating on most of the floppy’s are ready to fail, and you may
ruin them
by trying to read them. (You may find that a tiny bit of Alcohol placed on a
cotton swab will totally remove all the Oxide coating from the platter making then
unreadable, so DON’T try Alcohol as a cleaner or lubricant for your floppy’s.)  Also, the
inner lining of the old Floppy’s have lost their lubricating ability by becoming
dry over
the years, and this causes DRAG on the heads as the platter tries to spin so the read heads
can recover the data.  I chose use a lubricant from KANO LABS in
Nashville, TN called Aerosol
“SiliKroil” to lubricate my floppy’s.  I was able to recover about 85% of the disks using this
TOTALLY UNAPPROVED method.
I ruined the first 4-5 disks by trying to read them. A costly ERROR!

http://www.kanolabs.com

SiliKroil is an Industrial Penetrating Lubricant that works wonders,
and doesn’t remove the Oxide coating as Alcohol and Silicone does.  Alcohol can be used to
clean
the Floppy Drives read heads as usual.

COPYING AMPRO DS/DD DISKS – Using a real bootable Ampro system

Since I had the Catweasel installed, and I had 26 Ampro disks in a
mix-n-match of SS/DS & DS/DD, I wanted to try and save all the information from
these 5.25″
disks.  I read each disk several times with my Catweasel card making multiple
attempts at good reads. Examples for Disk #8 are:

sudo ./cw2dmk ADSDD008.DMKsudo ./cw2dmk ADSDDa08.DMKsudo ./cw2dmk ADSDDb08.DMKsudo ./cw2dmk ADSDDc08.DMKsudo ./cw2dmk ADSDDd08.DMK

This gave me an option of trying more than once at recovering the files
as the multiple reads found different sectors bad for successive sequential reads.  A
step that
was very valuable as I proceeded.

Since I had a System that contained two 5.25″ TEAC 360K drives, I
booted my Ampro SS/DD CP/M system disk and used AMPRODSK to FORMAT a FRESH
DS/DD Disk, and used
SYSGEN to copy the System.  Next I used NSWEEP to copy all the files. Now I have a good bootable
DS/DD Boot SYSTEM Disk.
Next I used Catweasel to WRITE my first Disk 08 Image (ADSDD008.DMK) to
a fresh Floppy with:

sudo ./dmk2cw ADSDD008.DMK

I inserted that disk in my Drive after running NSWEEP. NSWEEP was used
to LOG the New Disk, and to copy it to my PURGED DS/DD CP/M Disk.  If the file
copying had
bad sectors for specific File Names, I made a note of those errors for attempt #2 by using
ADSDDa08.DMK, then a third attempt using
ADSDDb08.DMK……..etc.

When all the files were successfully copied I used my Catweasel to
create a new Image of this disk, renaming it ADSDD008.DMK with:

sudo ./cw2dmk ADSDD008.DMK

Then, I just repeated the process for the 26 Disks I had
saved……….. Unfortunately, Disks 1, 2, &3 were ruined in the process, but gave
me the UNAPPROVED

METHOD noted above.

When all the disks had been gone through I burned a DVD of all the
Images, with each disks’ images in a separate folder just in case I needed to try and recover a
file at a later date.

This method should also work for you on any CP/M System, such as Kaypro
II or IV, Ampro, TRS-80 Model 1, 3, & 4, or by using Virtual Disks in an Emulator.

Email me if you have questions, or need help.

Larry Kraemer

08-03-2011