DOS 2.6f?

[Urchlay]

Has anyone ever heard of Atari DOS 2.6f?

 

A long time ago someone gave me a copy of this, with no docs. He claimed the F stands for Fast, and that it was faster than regular Atari DOS, but only on an 810. All I had back then were 1050s (on which the DOS worked, but definitely not faster than DOS 2.5)... He also told me it was some kind of Atari internal version that had been leaked. However, this guy was known for exaggerating and occasionally making things up, so I took what he said with a grain of salt.

 

The DUP.SYS menu looks a lot like the DOS 2.0S one, except the text background is black, and there's an option for testing drive RPM. As far as I could tell, the DOS didn't support 1050 enhanced density or true double density. The DUP menu didn't have a "Format single" option (the "Format" option only formatted single density), so I'm assuming that, whoever created it, this DOS was a modified 2.0S.

 

A bit of googling found a mention of DOS 2.6f in a list of Atari DOSes: http://www.oshistory.net/metadot/index.pl?...ategory;op=show

Another list, with a downloadable ATR image: http://mousenet.radtkes.net/bbs/bbsmenu/ataristuff.htm

A brief mention here: http://bf.amfband.com/aboutme.html (Boot Factory BBS... why is that name familiar to me?)

 

Here's what the DUP menu looks like (running downloaded image in atari++):

 

 

Despite the "Modified for use with Atari 800" text, it runs fine on XL/XE machines.

 

So... anyone know what's the deal with this DOS?

[JR>]

I have ATR's of 3 different 2.xF DOSes. 2.5F, 2.6F and 2.8F. They all have the same additional menu items so I assume they were all modifications of each other. 2.5F says 'enhancements by L J Silver'. It looks like most of the additional menu items were lifted directly out of SmartDOS. The prompts and screens for things like copy sectors, check sectors and Drive Speed look identical to the SmartDOS equivelants.

 

2.6F says "MODIFIED FOR ATARI 800 USE" so perhaps 2.5F would not run on an 800 and this version fixed it?

 

2.8F says "Modifications by E T Horst" so apparently he used one of the predecessors and made his own modifications.

[+Larry]

I have ATR's of 3 different 2.xF DOSes. 2.5F, 2.6F and 2.8F. They all have the same additional menu items so I assume they were all modifications of each other. 2.5F says 'enhancements by L J Silver'. It looks like most of the additional menu items were lifted directly out of SmartDOS. The prompts and screens for things like copy sectors, check sectors and Drive Speed look identical to the SmartDOS equivelants.

 

2.6F says "MODIFIED FOR ATARI 800 USE" so perhaps 2.5F would not run on an 800 and this version fixed it?

 

2.8F says "Modifications by E T Horst" so apparently he used one of the predecessors and made his own modifications.

 

Hi JR-

 

SmartDos and 2.6x may have a common ancestor, but 2.6f predates SmartDos by several years. 2.6f was also known as "Black Dos" for obvious reason. It is nothing special (IMO). I always hated the hard-to-read black screen, so I made mine blue.

 

Perhaps the best and earliest Dos hack was David Young's "Super Dup" version of Dos 2.0s. For a short period, it allowed copying games that could not be copied from regular Dos.

Ah, those were the days...

 

-Larry

[olavese@online.no]

Anybody able to post me DOS 2.5f? I have 2.6f and 2.8f, but never seen 2.5f. I'd really appreciate it!

 

Thanks and take Atarian care

[JR>]

Hi JR-

 

SmartDos and 2.6x may have a common ancestor, but 2.6f predates SmartDos by several years. 2.6f was also known as "Black Dos" for obvious reason. It is nothing special (IMO). I always hated the hard-to-read black screen, so I made mine blue.

 

Perhaps the best and earliest Dos hack was David Young's "Super Dup" version of Dos 2.0s. For a short period, it allowed copying games that could not be copied from regular Dos.

Ah, those were the days...

 

-Larry

 

Thanks Larry, that's good to know. I guess the SmartDOS guys 'lifted' the code from the 'F' DOSes then. I guess I just assumed 'L J Silver' was the pirate

 

Here ya go Olavese. AKA Long John Silver DOS back in the day:

 

DOS25F.zip

[olavese@online.no]

Hi JR-

 

SmartDos and 2.6x may have a common ancestor, but 2.6f predates SmartDos by several years. 2.6f was also known as "Black Dos" for obvious reason. It is nothing special (IMO). I always hated the hard-to-read black screen, so I made mine blue.

 

Perhaps the best and earliest Dos hack was David Young's "Super Dup" version of Dos 2.0s. For a short period, it allowed copying games that could not be copied from regular Dos.

Ah, those were the days...

 

-Larry

 

Thanks Larry, that's good to know. I guess the SmartDOS guys 'lifted' the code from the 'F' DOSes then. I guess I just assumed 'L J Silver' was the pirate

 

Here ya go Olavese. AKA Long John Silver DOS back in the day:

 

DOS25F.zip

 

Thanks a bunch! Brilliant!

 

Though doing a search, a lot of DOS'es I don't have was listed on Holmes Archive. I bought those CDs earlier, but don't think all those DOS'es were there. The links on the page were not working, so I couldn't download any. Is there a place where the DOS'es are listed?

[JR>]

Thanks a bunch! Brilliant!

 

Though doing a search, a lot of DOS'es I don't have was listed on Holmes Archive. I bought those CDs earlier, but don't think all those DOS'es were there. The links on the page were not working, so I couldn't download any. Is there a place where the DOS'es are listed?

 

This site has a pretty good selection:

 

http://www.mixinc.net/atari/download_a8/dosdisk.htm#top

[+bf2k+]

Has anyone ever heard of Atari DOS 2.6f?

 

When I bought my first 1050, it would not boot so I took it back... the replacement also would not boot - both of these 1050's had DOS 3 disks in them. The third one finally had a good disk in it so it booted. Meanwhile a friend gave me DOS 2.6f and suggested I use it. It was so much better than DOS 3 that I used it for a year or two until I discovered SpartaDOS - this was back around 1984. I liked 2.6f a LOT even after getting 2.0, SmartDOS and a few others. It was definitely my 2nd favorite and most used DOS (after Sparta). DOS 2.5 actually came out after I had 2.6f (and Sparta). 2.5 came out after DOS 3... I'm rambling...

 

But that is my history with 2.6f.

[olavese@online.no]

Thanks a bunch! Brilliant!

 

Though doing a search, a lot of DOS'es I don't have was listed on Holmes Archive. I bought those CDs earlier, but don't think all those DOS'es were there. The links on the page were not working, so I couldn't download any. Is there a place where the DOS'es are listed?

 

This site has a pretty good selection:

 

http://www.mixinc.net/atari/download_a8/dosdisk.htm#top

 

Thank you! I found a couple of more there

[+CharlieChaplin]

Afaik,

DOS 2.5f, DOS 2.6f and DOS 2.8f all use the DOS.SYS portion of DOS 2.0s. So, if you want to have that DOS 2..f to format in enhanced density, just try, if you can write Atari DOS 2.5 to a disk, then delete DUP.SYS (of Atari DOS 2.5) and copy the DUP of DOS 2.5F, 2.6f or 2.8f to the Atari DOS 2.5 disk...

 

If it works and (upon booting) you don`t get the error message "Insert DOS 2.0s, RETURN", the format option of DOS 2.5f, DOS 2.6f, DOS 2.8f should now format in enhanced Density (since it uses XIO 254 which is single density in DOS 2.0s, but enhanced density in DOS 2.5)... Alas, all other options of DOS 2.5f-2.8f are still restricted to single density... This is just a thought, have not tried it however... -Andreas Koch.

[+Guitarman]

Holmes Collection

 

Disc 1 has a slew of DOS images, including the 'F' series.

[Urchlay]

Holmes Collection

 

Disc 1 has a slew of DOS images, including the 'F' series.

 

Unfortunately, none of the 2.5F, 2.6F, or 2.8F images have any documentation...

[olavese@online.no]

I found most of the DOS'es, but not DOS XL 2.45

 

Anybody know why that link was dead? Copyright stuff?

[Rybags]

Sounds like Long Johns to me, although from memory it had yellow screen, brown characters.

 

AFAIK, the 810 didn't have any trick undocumented commands like the 1050 does (ie half track stepping).

 

LJs copying procedure was nothing extraordinary either. Just copies every sector unconditionally, rather than the traditional DOS method of only duplicating sectors which are marked as in use in the VTOC.

[Urchlay]

AFAIK, the 810 didn't have any trick undocumented commands like the 1050 does (ie half track stepping).

 

So the guy who gave me a copy of 2.6f was, er, stretching the truth a bit when he said "it's faster than 2.0S on the 810"... not out of character for him at all.

[Rybags]

You can't speed up a non-modded drive with software.

 

Actually, not 100% true there.

 

I found that you get a slight increase if you read the sectors on a track backwards. But that was with my 1050, so might not be true for all drives (ie 810, 3rd party, or even other 1050s).

 

But getting a DOS to write files in that fashion would likely cause some degree of bloat to the code.