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Serial connection, Modern PC, DTK XT Clone, Serdrive?

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fjk61011

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Serial connection, Modern PC, DTK XT Clone, Serdrive.

XT-IDE with CF card. XT-FDC and Serial Port.

The setup works.

I'm stuck here: DOS doesn't seem to assign a drive letter.

As stated before, when the XUB discovers a serial drive, it will end up being mapped by DOS to a drive letter, e.g. A:, B:, C:, D:, ...
The following table will give you an idea of what drive letter may be used by DOS if a drive in the computer is booted from.

IMPORTANT: Here, we are not booting from the serial drive. Booting is different; things can change. See the following booting section.

Type of serial driveExisting hardware in vintage computerSerial drive ends up mapped as:
floppy/disketteMotherboard is configured for zero floppy drives. See note 1.Drive A: if booting from C:
floppy/disketteMotherboard is configured for one floppy drive.Drive B: if booting from A: or C:
floppy/disketteMotherboard is configured for two floppy drives.See note 6
hard driveThere is no existing hard drive (includes CF, DOM, etc.)Drive C: if booting from A:
hard driveThere is one existing hard drive (includes CF, DOM, etc.)Drive D: if booting from A: or C:
 
Last edited:
fjk61011 said:
I'm stuck here: DOS doesn't seem to assign a drive letter.
Click to expand...
The serial drive is partitioned and formatted with a file system supported by your DOS version?

The number of available drive letters is not limited by a LASTDRIVE statement in config.sys?
 
The serial drive is partitioned and formatted with a file system supported by your DOS version?

You have lost me right there.

No LASTDRIVE in config.sys on vintage pc
 
I used modem 7's my_720k.ima which is on the modern pc. The vintage pc "sees" the my_720k.ima. After that I'm stumped.
 
"If a server is found, the floppy and/or hard disk emulated will appear in the boot menu for the BIOS. You can now proceed as normal."

You can now proceed as normal???
 
When the serial drive is detected, you now have an extra drive letter (A:, B:, C:, etc.), which corresponds to the serial drive.
You won't be told what that is, but the first table at [here] helps.

Example:

My IBM XT is fitted with only a video card, an XT-IDE card, an IBM floppy controller, and one floppy drive. The motherboard switches are configired for one floppy drive.
The serial drive that I am using, MY_720K.IMA, is a 'floppy/diskette' type.
During the boot, I did what the XUB required to have it scan for serial drives, and it did report that it found MY_720K.IMA
I boot from the CF on the XT-IDE card, and see a C: prompt.
What I discover is that I now have a B: drive, which is the serial drive.

MY_720K.IMA is bootable and so I can boot from it if desired (a slow process, at 9600 baud, taking minutes).
I know from earlier that in the particular hardware configuration that I have, the serial drive (MY_720K.IMA) is appearing as B:
So when the computer boots, and I see the XUB's splash screen appear, I press the B key to boot from B: (just like how I would need to use the A key to boot from A: )
 
fjk61011 said:
I'm using the com port on the xt-fdc. I don't think I have another com port
Click to expand...
Try disabling the EPROM on the XT-FDC. What we are trying to do is remove as much potential interference as possible. Then when things are working as expected, we add the bits back one at a time.
 
fjk61011 said:
I do have another com. The card I was trying to ID in another thread.

I've managed to succeed. Shows as drive b:
Click to expand...
Good.

You are going to discover that the drive is slow. When you are happy that the drive is working okay (i.e. at 9600 baud), consider upping the speed. Refer to the paragraph at [here] starting with "For better performance ...'
 
Haven't upped the baud rate yet.

Trying to get a EtherLink III working in the XT 8-bit slot. I did have a driver for that but can't find it.
 
Given up on the EtherLink III. Using a XIRCOM PE3 parallel Ethernet adapter. Used serdrive to transfer Packet Driver to the XT clone. Up and running mTCP. On IRCjr as Zoidberg.
 
Just an update before I finish with this thread.

I've a memory card in the DTK bringing memory to 512 Mb.

I've removed the XT-FDC with Serial port and am using a FDC with a 360 Kb full height FDD.

The HDD is a 5.25" 20 Mb one.

I'm using a XIRCOM PE3 parallel port ethernet adapter as mentioned by Mr Brutman.

Using mTCP to connect to the Internet.

The lid is on the box now.
 
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