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CP/M device files

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First post, by babtras

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I have a Kaypro II with questionable drives - I can read and boot from the drive but cannot write to either drive and I don't have the confidence to disassemble and repair the drives.
I'd like to transfer BASIC source over to it. Unfortunately the 360kB disks it uses cannot be read by the other 5.25 drives that I have in other machines. So the only means I have to transfer a file is over serial, and again I can't write to disk to transfer a file.

So my great idea was to launch the BASIC interpreter and run "LOAD "TTY:"" and transfer text directly from a PC to the Kaypro over serial. But it fails with "File not found" after trying to read from disk.
I assumed that CP/M device files worked the same as DOS device files and I would be able to open and read the serial port like a file using the filename "TTY" (as opposed to "COM1" in DOS). But it doesn't work.

What is the fundamental understanding of CP/M that I'm missing? Shouldn't this work?

Reply 1 of 5, by Jo22

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Hi, I know little about Kaypros I'm afraid.
But I remember that the serial device in CP/M was called AUX.
DOS also has AUX, as an alternate device name for COM1.

Good luck! 🙂

Edit: "TTY" wasn't exactly wrong.
That's a reference for a serial terminal or an old school teletypewriter.
Similarly, "CRT" is a reference for a built-in video hardware (text generator aka character generator)
that's connected directly to the computer (usually not via serial).

Last edited by Jo22 on 2021-07-17, 15:42. Edited 1 time in total.

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Reply 2 of 5, by BitWrangler

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So if you've got a low density 5.25 drive on a DOS machine, you wanna look for a package called 22DISK or 22DSK which is the disk interpreter package for the 22Nice CP/M emulator that can read Kaypro disks. It may "sorta" work on 1.2MB for reading them, but only the 360K can write to them reliably.

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.

Reply 3 of 5, by Jo22

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That's interesting. There also was Teledisk, right?

Maybe a serial connection is also a possibility?
My father told me that "KERMIT" was used to transfer files between CP/M machines.

He said, this was because KERMIT was small and a receiver program could quickly be typed in by hand.
That way, someone could download a real communications program then.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 4 of 5, by babtras

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BitWrangler wrote on 2021-07-17, 15:13:

So if you've got a low density 5.25 drive on a DOS machine, you wanna look for a package called 22DISK or 22DSK which is the disk interpreter package for the 22Nice CP/M emulator that can read Kaypro disks. It may "sorta" work on 1.2MB for reading them, but only the 360K can write to them reliably.

22Disk helped me quite a bit. I was able to use a 386 with a 5.25" drive to write files to disk that I was subsequently able to read on the Kaypro.

I'm guessing I'll need to try Teledisk next to make bootable disks

Reply 5 of 5, by Jo22

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Hi! Glad to hear thinga are going well again! 🙂

Good luck with the remaining problems, too!

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

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