OS-9
Introduction
The FNX6809 combined with the F256 makes a great system for running OS-9/6809. OS-9 is a real-time, embedded operating system created by Microware Systems Corporation. While it was used in many areas of industry, home computer users know it best for its implementation on the Tandy Color Computer sold by Radio Shack
Today, a community effort has led to the creation of NitrOS-9, an open source version of the OS-9 operating system. Throughout this page, I'll refer to NitrOS-9 as OS-9.
A word about platforms
This page assumes you're running on Linux or macOS. If you're using Windows, these instructions don't apply, and someone will have to step up and write steps to develop on that platform.
Tooling
Cross-hosted development is the fastest way to develop for the F256. For this you need the following:
- lwtools - an assembler/linker package
- ToolShed - a set of tools for creating disk images
- NitrOS-9 - the NitrOS-9 operating system in source form
- FoenixMgr - tools to load code into RAM or Flash of the F256.
You can pull these down individually, or better yet, use @strickyak's great CoCo Shelf repository. It has a Makefile
which gets all of the above and puts it in a convenient location (note that you'll have to update your shell script of choice to include the locations of the binaries in the PATH
environment variable).
Here are the terminal commands for Linux and macOS to pull down all the required software:
cd git clone https://github.com/strickyak/coco-shelf.git cd coco-shelf export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/coco-shelf/bin make mirror-stuff done-lwtools done-cmoc done-toolshed done-nitros9
Building FEU and OS-9 from scratch
FEU is the Foenix Executive Utility. It resides in flash and hosts a debugger and booters that can bring up operating systems like OS-9. FEU runs under OS-9 Level 1, so go ahead and build the entire operating system:
cd nitros9/level1/f256 make cd feu
Now you can flash the image into the F256. You must have a USB cable connected to the system from your computer. Note: if you're using a Mac, you won't be able to upload code into the F256 due to the driver manufacturer being so behind on updates. You can use a Linux VM and FoenixMgr tools in bridge mode on the Mac.
There are distinct builds of FEU for the F256 Jr and the F256K. Power up the machine, then select the correct command:
cd feu make flash_f256jr
or
cd feu make flash_f256k
Once the flash completes, restart the machine and FEU should come up.
Assembling OS-9 Level 2
Note: This assumes you have already built the feu boot loader and flashed it to the F256. Compiling NitrOS-9 requires lwtools and ToolShed.
Set the NITROS9DIR environment variable to the nitros9 directory
If you forget to do this, you will see an error when you compile like "*** No rule to make target '/rules.mak'."
cd nitros9 export NITROS9DIR=$PWD
Build lib and Rogue (if you want to play Rogue)
From the nitros9 directory:
cd lib make cd ../3rdparty/packages/rogue make
Build Level 2 Disk Image for the F256
From the nitros9 directory:
cd level2/f256 make dsk
- Note: do not type
make
in the root nitros9 directory. The nitros9 directory contains builds for every version and build of NitrOS-9 (coco, coco3, etc.). Make sure to invokemake
from the level2/f256 directory to avoid compiling every possible iteration of the system.
This will produce 2 disk images:
NOS9_6809_L2_v030300_f256_dw.dsk NOS9_6809_L2_v030300_f256_sd.dsk
The dw disk image will boot from DriveWire (if you have installed an ESP32 or ESP8266 and have a DriveWire server). The sd disk image will boot from the SD card. Use dd
on Linux, etc. to flash the disk to an SD card. On Linux, IF the card is named /dev/sdx:
dd if=NOS9_6809_L2_v030300_f256_sd.dsk of=/dev/sdx
Note: This is just a sample command, your SD card is probably not named /dev/sdx. Check and make sure you are writing to the correct device. On Linux, type lsblk
in a terminal to find the correct device. Substitute /dev/sdx in the above command with the correct device name for your SD card on your system. Double check the device name to avoid catastrophic data loss.