phoenixdownita Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 (edited) 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 March 9, 2014 by phoenixdownita 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 9, 2014 Author Share Posted March 9, 2014 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. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenixdownita Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 (edited) 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 March 11, 2014 by phoenixdownita Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 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 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenixdownita Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 11, 2014 Author Share Posted March 11, 2014 (edited) 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 March 11, 2014 by flashjazzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenixdownita Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 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. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 11, 2014 Author Share Posted March 11, 2014 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! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMartian Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 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. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 12, 2014 Author Share Posted March 12, 2014 Just paid (last week) for the next twelve months with Qbic Internet, but many thanks for the offer: might consider it next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMartian Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 Just paid (last week) for the next twelve months with Qbic Internet, but many thanks for the offer: might consider it next year. Looks like I have great timing, as usual! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelmischief Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aking Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 using pbi 1.0 you loose SIDE LOADER'S "L" command under OSB slot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 25, 2014 Author Share Posted March 25, 2014 How do you mean "under" OS B slot? Do you mean when OS B is enabled it doesn't work, or what? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 25, 2014 Author Share Posted March 25, 2014 using pbi 1.0 you loose SIDE LOADER'S "L" command under OSB slot Just tried Incognito XEX PBI 1.0 update (stand-alone) and loader still works. I'll need some more info, then, in order to try and track down your problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aking Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 Just tried Incognito XEX PBI 1.0 update (stand-alone) and loader still works. I'll need some more info, then, in order to try and track down your problem. Ultimate pbi 1.0 XEGS and 130 XE , problem is when osb is selected Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 25, 2014 Author Share Posted March 25, 2014 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aking Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 25, 2014 Author Share Posted March 25, 2014 "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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aking Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 26, 2014 Author Share Posted March 26, 2014 (edited) 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 March 26, 2014 by flashjazzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kogden Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 I'll have to check this update out on my IDE+! Quick question, is the FATFS.SYS driver still read-only and limited to 32MB? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 29, 2014 Author Share Posted March 29, 2014 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kogden Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 Ah, still very cool though. I'm sure full R/W support will come soon enough. 32MB really is a TON of XEX's or floppy images. Not real worried about that aspect. I have to work pretty hard to fill a 32MB partition with stuff I'll actually use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 29, 2014 Author Share Posted March 29, 2014 And of course for those using Ultimate 1MB/SIDE, no such limitation exists, since the XEX loader and PBI BIOS read the FAT directly and impose no limitation on volume size. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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