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APT update for Ultimate, Incognito, SIDE and compatibles


flashjazzcat

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Hi fjc,

 

I just noticed that within the latest U1MB SDX if I use MATR I gain the capability to mount ATR residing in the FAT32 partition of the SIDE2 CF.

As a nice side effect I can now use U1MB CAR embedded uflash to read ROMs from the mounted ATRs, not the most straightforward way but until SideLoader gets the fix I still can create full flashing ATRs (TRG or URomBld) and whether they boot or not now I can simply "SDX+MATR" them and uflash their rom payload.

 

My question for you then is: if SDX MATR is perfectly capable to "see" FAT32 ATRs and mount them, why would uflash not be able to do the same?

OK bad choice of words. How about an SDX only version of uflash that, as MATR does, can "mount" ATRs from within the FAT32?

 

Just kidding, it works with the 2 steps so no point in making you do the work ;-)

 

I simply wanted to report this positive effect of having MATR + uflash on CAR:, nice call indeed.

Edited by phoenixdownita
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Thanks man! I was going to make UFLASH read "raw" FATs until Candle reminded me this was not necessary, since his loader provides DOS 2.5 compatible access to 8.3 files on the FAT. Of course we await the fixed version, as you say. ;)

 

A point I try to get across in the documentation is that there are usually two or three other ways of doing something if one way doesn't work for whatever reason. Occasionally people find this "confusing", but I simply regard it as flexibility and it's something I've attempted to build into the tools. You can put your ROMs on mounted ATRs, as you say, or you can use the FATFS.SYS driver to read them straight from FAT16 (this procedure is described in the docs). You can put the ROMs in APT partitions, too, so along with the loader method there's four different ways to do the same thing. :)

 

The positive feedback is greatly appreciated. :)

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How does one reward you without being "offensive"?

 

I mean , the whole U1MB was like 45€, not sure what bounty to put on a well done PBI BIOS + SDX goodies.

I wish you had a deal with the "manufacturer" so you'd get some for your hard work, so if you don't get mad at just a beer worth of a reward, then that's on me.

 

Let me know, thanks, I'd really hate to piss you off for no good reason and too low of a reward could be worse than kind words.

Edited by phoenixdownita
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Jon has a "Donate" button on his page, it takes you here: http://atari8.co.uk/donate/index.html

 

He has done so much wonderful work for our community. I strongly encourage donations to help him with his project(s).

 

I am unemployed and broke, (for now), but I donated, and if everyone would help him, no matter what the amount, this could lead to even more amazing software.

 

Please support Atari 8 bit developers if you want more software (and hardware), as I do :)

 

-Kyle

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I knew that, my question was a little more on the side of "how much is too little".

 

I guess I'm trying to figure out a reasonable donation amount (reasonable for both me and fjc), without belittling fjc efforts.

I'm not exactly a generous person when it comes to pay for someone else's work, by God I'd squander hundreds for myself but only donate pennies to others.

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The reason I don't have a "suggested amount" is that not only do I feel bad enough asking for donations in the first place, but also that (as Kyle has inferred) the community is full of people strapped for cash right now (myself included), and I don't want people to feel awkward if they can't afford or just feel disinclined to donate. I offered to refund Kyle's kind donation but he refused. Certainly a small donation from everyone who uses the software (and I have no idea what the numbers are, but it's reasonable to suppose we're talking about most people who bought a SIDE or SIDE2 and an Ultimate 1MB or Incognito, unless they wrote their own firmware and partitioning tools or use nothing but the SIDE loader) would be a wonderful thing, but a donation button is no more than an invitation to assist: at the end of the day, the software is free to download and use. I pushed the donation thing in the recent documentation a little because having worked at a relaxed pace on the revised APT toolkit since last November, after Marius approached me about non-working ATRs and such in February, I did a solid three week coding stint (late nights, etc) to get things sorted out and it didn't always feel like I was having fun. :) However, having undertaken a task, I'd feel bad about not seeing it through to the end. ;)

 

So - it's hard to feel insulted when someone backs up verbal praise with cash, no matter what the amount. I have a list of developers to whom I'm determined to show support the instant I'm able. Of course, I'd worry about donation amounts too, but I'm sure other developers are as realistic as I am.

 

For the record, I've received four donations since and relating to the APT update, and one was from an OEM. I can say that the total amount received was sufficient to cover my annual website hosting bill twice over, and I am immensely appreciative of that. :)

Edited by flashjazzcat
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All right then, I hope a couple of beers worth is not going to make you feel belittled, hopefully more users would come forward and support the effort.

Only derision would be "belittling", and I feel no sense of entitlement. :) With this in mind, your kind donation is very gratefully accepted. Thank you!

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For the record, I've received four donations since and relating to the APT update, and one was from an OEM. I can say that the total amount received was sufficient to cover my annual website hosting bill twice over, and I am immensely appreciative of that. :)

 

Lack of spare money has been why lately I've been trying to do swaps.. So, here's an offer.. I can host your website for you on my servers, at no cost.. PM me if interested.

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Where money is an issue, maybe arranging some existing device or software into a tight, practical package would be helpful. Last year I uploaded and documented a configuration for the MyIDE-II that turned it into an SDX cart with FDISK on CAR:. FJC seemed "Jazzed" about that. Some other guy uploaded a series of 16MB disk images that comprised a really nice games collection. That was cool. Just think of some really useful arrangement, create it, and then share it up to the community.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ultimate pbi 1.0 XEGS and 130 XE , problem is when osb is selected

Ah right - thanks. I had absolutely no way of knowing whether you meant Ultimate or Incognito.

 

So the loader is still accessible when a different OS is switched in? Does "L" on the BIOS menu do nothing at all? Does it work again when you select a different OS?

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Ah right - thanks. I had absolutely no way of knowing whether you meant Ultimate or Incognito.

 

So the loader is still accessible when a different OS is switched in? Does "L" on the BIOS menu do nothing at all? Does it work again when you select a different OS?

 

"L" works right with all other oss

but

with osb enabled it starts side loader but shows no files or dirs

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"L" works right with all other oss

but

with osb enabled it starts side loader but shows no files or dirs

We'd better ask Candle about this: PBI BIOS cannot be the cause of this behaviour, and if flasher had obliterated the loader, it would be gone for good, regardless of which OS is present.

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We'd better ask Candle about this: PBI BIOS cannot be the cause of this behaviour, and if flasher had obliterated the loader, it would be gone for good, regardless of which OS is present.

on the same setups Side Loader worked right even on OSB slot (ultimate)

before upgrading pbi and spartados roms

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on the same setups Side Loader worked right even on OSB slot (ultimate)

before upgrading pbi and spartados roms

That may well be the case but what I'm saying is that the PBI ROM has nothing to do with the XEX loader appearing when "L" is pressed. Nor should the choice of OS. Please post a dump of your ROM, however (use UFLASH), since I'm intrigued to understand what's going on here. Edited by flashjazzcat
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Quick question, is the FATFS.SYS driver still read-only and limited to 32MB?

 

It is - at least I know of no driver with write capability yet. As for the 32MB limit: overcoming this requires fundamental changes to the SDX internals, which I understand are being undertaken.

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