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Kaypro CP/M versions

clh333

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Joined
Feb 22, 2015
Messages
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Location
Cleveland, OH, USA
I have been rebuilding a K4/83 and have progressed to the point that it powers on, boots, resets, sees and actuates all the drives and keyboard keys and displays characters on the screen. The board is a PC81-240, the character ROM is 81-146 and the BIOS ROM is 81-232.

The K4 had been modified with an Advent add-on co-processor board - which was broken - and I was suspect of the BIOS ROM contents, so in the diagnostic phase I erased and re-flashed the BIOS EPROM, a Hitachi 2732. My boot disk is one left over from a K II and so when the machine boots it identifies CP/M 2.2 Kaypro II. Obviously the next step is to find the right version of Kaypro CP/M for use with the double-sided drives.

The question is: Which one is the right one? Dunfield's site has images of Kaypro CP/M disks for Kaypro 4 and for 3/83. There may be another repository and/or another version of the OS that would be a better fit. Does anyone have a suggestion about how to proceed?

Thanks for your replies,

-CH-
 
I'm also not sure what the difference is between those two. They are TeleDisk format diskette images, compressed. I'm not familiar with tools to extract those and make real diskette images.
 
Teledisk was a Sydex product. It runs under MS-DOS. Chuck(G) can tell you more about it.

(I have a copy already)

Thanks again for your help.

-CH-
 
Looks like there are some errors with K4836765

TD 1.4 5.25 LD FM S-step, 2 sides ADV
07/0: CRC error (bad sector)
14/0: CRC error (bad sector)
16/0: CRC error (bad sector)
27/0: CRC error (bad sector)
28/0: CRC error (bad sector)
34/0: CRC error (bad sector)
35/0: CRC error (bad sector)
36/0: CRC error (bad sector)
37/0: CRC error (bad sector)
40/0: CRC error (bad sector)
81 tracks, 801 sectors converted.


cpmls -f kpii -D K4836765.RAW
Name Bytes Recs Attr update create
------------ ------ ------ ---- ----------------- -----------------
ASM .COM 8K 64
BASICLIB.REL 41K 324
BAUD .COM 1K 6
CONFIG .COM 12K 89
COPY .COM 8K 60
DDT .COM 5K 38
DPLAY .BAS 1K 4
DUMP .ASM 5K 33
DUMP .COM 1K 4
ED .COM 7K 52
FAC .BAS 1K 2
LOAD .COM 2K 14
MOVCPM .COM 10K 76
OVERLAYB.COM 7K 54
PIP .COM 8K 58
SBASIC .COM 26K 204
SSCOPY .COM 8K 60
STAT .COM 6K 41
SUBMIT .COM 2K 10
SYSGEN .COM 1K 8
TERM .COM 1K 6
USERLIB .REL 1K 6
XAMN .BAS 20K 154
XSUB .COM 1K 6
24 Files occupying 98K, 95K Free.


K4836768:
TD 1.4 5.25 LD FM S-step, 2 sides ADV
40/0: CRC error (bad sector)
81 tracks, 801 sectors converted.

cpmls -f kpii -D K4836768.RAW
Name Bytes Recs Attr update create
------------ ------ ------ ---- ----------------- -----------------
ASM .COM 8K 64
BASICLIB.REL 41K 324
BAUD .COM 1K 6
CONFIG .COM 12K 89
COPY .COM 8K 60
DDT .COM 5K 38
DPLAY .BAS 1K 4
DUMP .ASM 5K 33
DUMP .COM 1K 4
ED .COM 7K 52
FAC .BAS 1K 2
LOAD .COM 2K 14
MOVCPM .COM 10K 76
OVERLAYB.COM 7K 54
PIP .COM 8K 58
SBASIC .COM 26K 204
SSCOPY .COM 8K 60
STAT .COM 6K 41
SUBMIT .COM 2K 10
SYSGEN .COM 1K 8
TERM .COM 1K 6
USERLIB .REL 1K 6
XAMN .BAS 20K 154
XSUB .COM 1K 6
24 Files occupying 98K, 95K Free.


Larry
 
Last edited:
Some of the Kaypros I have acquired also had software distribution disks (or copies thereof) as part of the deal.

Today I found a Kaypro CP/M master and also a working disk labeled "F" and tried booting the K4/83 from each of those. The drive accepts the disk and begins to boot but hangs after displaying a message about Kaypro 63K CP/M version 2.2F. I never get to an A: prompt.

The drive is a Tandon TM-100-2A, dated 1984, which has an IBM faceplate but otherwise is identical to all other TM-100-2As. It was properly identified (option shunt 1E, pins 1-14 and 2-13 for drive A) as Kaypro recommends but does not have a terminating resistor, though drive B: does.

I removed drive A: and swapped the drive identification jumpers to Drive B: (also a TM-100-2A, which became the only drive in the system, A:, with termination). I attempted the boot once again with the same results: no A: prompt, only the message:

KAYPRO 63K CP/M Version 2.2F

Yesterday I was successful in booting from an earlier version of Kaypro CP/M. In the same session I also created a copy of the master disk using FORMAT and SYSGEN and PIP. Today I inserted that disk into the modified system and it immediately booted to an A: prompt. It also displayed the message:

KAYPRO II
64K CP/M v 2.2

Something is not aligned properly here but I don't know what. It looks like the disk I'm trying to boot from is expecting a different configuration; maybe the board, maybe the BIOS. I'm at the limits of my knowledge, however.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

-CH-
 
It appears that the Maslin files for K4836565.TD0 (for both drives) have the same CRC problems.

I extracted all the files in K4836765.RAW and K4836768.RAW, and did a binary compare. There are two files
that have one byte differences. COPY.COM and BASICLIB.REL. I've found BASICLIB.REL in another
Image and the K4836768.TD0 file is correct. (The K4836765.TD0 has a byte that is incorrect.)

Those compares are attached.

I've copied both files from the k*68 subdirectory to my k*65 subdirectory.
That should make the k*65 image correct again.


kay4-1.jpg kay4-2.jpg

Larry
 
Last edited:
I've got a pretty good stash of Kaypro samples. Specifically, which one are your looking for? (Use one of the 22Disk types if you're not certain).

In particular, I've got a 400-500 Kaypro customer floppies that are due to hit the trash bin.
 
Chuck,
It's the Kaypro 4 Image name K4836765.TD0 from the Maslin ZIP file. There are errors when I copy it to a
floppy. I finally formatted the floppy with 22DISK and tried copying the .TDO image again. After a couple of
times I'm sure I have a good image as I read it back with Teledisk and it reads fine. (That was with a Fresh
Floppy I bought a couple of years ago.)

So, now I want to extract at the files using cpmtools and do another binary compare.

Thanks.

Larry
 
Last edited:
Tor,
Yes, somehow I had it wrong. I was lucky enough to be able to edit the previous posts
for K4836765 and K4836768.

Thanks.

Larry
 
I've got a pretty good stash of Kaypro samples. Specifically, which one are your looking for? (Use one of the 22Disk types if you're not certain).

In particular, I've got a 400-500 Kaypro customer floppies that are due to hit the trash bin.

Hello Chuck, do you still have those diskettes? I too have a Kaypro 4/83 and thus far have not been able to find a matching CP/M Master. It seems as if there are not any properly dumped versions floating around. I also have a Kaypro 4/84 Plus 88 it would nice to have the original disks as well, but at least I have working images for that.
 
Hello Chuck, do you still have those diskettes? I too have a Kaypro 4/83 and thus far have not been able to find a matching CP/M Master. It seems as if there are not any properly dumped versions floating around. I also have a Kaypro 4/84 Plus 88 it would nice to have the original disks as well, but at least I have working images for that.

Do you have the CP/M-86 images?

Also would you happen to have any way to read the PAL on the Z80 daughterboard?
 
As I've said, I've got a lot of old Kaypro diskettes; give me some way to identify system and I'll see what I can do.

e.g. something specific in the floppy format or identification on a system track; something so that I'm not foundering in my search.
 
As I've said, I've got a lot of old Kaypro diskettes; give me some way to identify system and I'll see what I can do.

e.g. something specific in the floppy format or identification on a system track; something so that I'm not foundering in my search.

Chuck, thanks for the response. I have to say though that I am not entirely certain that there is enough information on the diskettes themselves to distinguish which system they are intended for; however someone with more knowledge may be able to do so. This link however has helped with the 4/84 Plus 88:

http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/Kaypro/Software488.html - Scans of the diskettes always help.

In regards to the Kaypro 4/83, the only information I can provide is what comes off the system itself:

ROM: 81-232A
Character Set: 81-146
Board: PC81-240A

IMG_1277.jpg

My fear is that the matching diskettes may have to be found by trial and error, sifting through stacks until the proper ones are found. I would not be bothered taking up the effort, however.
 
According to the Kaypro technical manual, you want CP/M 2.2F. They say the disks are DD/DS 390K, but the Kaypro double-sided format is a little different from most. If you've got IMD or TD0 images, I would expect that to be handled.
 
I have 2.2 F and it does not boot the 4/83. It does boot the 4/84. The 4/83 does not have the enhanced graphical capabilities of the 4/84 and later models; in that regard it is more like the Kaypro II. In fact at one point they were putting the same board and ROM in both models (II and 4/83), just adding DSDD drives in the 4/83.

I can boot my 4/83 on a KII CP/M disk, but it has no idea about the second side of a disk. For example, when booted with the K II OS a 4/83 will read one side of a DSDD drive (with a DIR call, for example) but will not "see" the second side. Obviously the hardware is capable, so the limitation seems to be in the software version of the OS.

-CH-
 
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