Date   : Sun, 30 Mar 1986 21:45:00 EST
From   : MKATZ%UMDB.BITNET@wiscvm.ARPA
Subject: Sorry...

It didn't work.

I figured out the DDT86 commands to fill a chunk of memory with E5s, and write
it to a file.  I did that.  The file did go at the beginning of the directory,
though I have no way of knowing if it went for sure at the beginning of
the disk.  I made a couple pips with [o] until it appeared at the end of the
dir.  I made the changes to the XIOS, asembled, gencmd, pip, gensys, etc.
I rebooted and I got a mess - bad sector error anytime it tried to read a CMD
file (or look for one) on the disk.  It did boot though, just wasn't very
useful after it booted.  Oh well.  If you have any more ideas please let me
know.  I think the problem is that to really get it to work right, I need
someone who has done this on an Altos 586 and knows what they are doing.
Unfortunately, since the machine is used for a business during the week, I
have to restore it to its former state.  If someone has any more suggestions,
I am still willing to try them - this really shouldn't be as hard as it is.

                                  Manasseh Katz