flashjazzcat Posted August 16, 2015 Author Share Posted August 16, 2015 I was pleased to hear that previously reported troubles setting the clock when the new BIOS was used on a Rapidus equipped machine running at c. 21MHz were caused by Phi2 timing issues on the machine in question. The inability of the BIOS to correctly ID the 65C816 under Rapidus has been fixed, however, by running the CPU test every reset rather than only on cold power up (the Rapidus' FPGA core is not even initialized until the OS is started, so the 65C816 was previously never visible at the time that the BIOS was testing the CPU). 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larek Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 Hello, I use Ultimate 1MB with BIOS 0.31 and found a small error (?). I like Q-Meg OS, because the option Shift + Reset giving a Cold reset. When loading games from SIO2SD this option is very convenient because you do not need to turn off and turn on the Atari. The BIOS version 0.31 does not work Shift + Reset in the Q-Meg OS! Bios version 0.24 option Shift + Reset in Q-Meg OS works properly. PS. Sorry, you do not know the English language. He translated from Polish Google translator. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted August 19, 2015 Author Share Posted August 19, 2015 Hi. I received an email regarding this same issue, and the problem arose because of the need to await the release of the coldstart modifier key so that it didn't automatically trigger the boot device menu after reset. Because of this, the modifier key (Shift) is never seen by the underlying OS, since it's released by the time the OS is restarted. I found this a little puzzling in one sense, since Shift+Reset can be selected as a cold boot hotkey in the BIOS itself, and this forcibly reboots the OS anyway (even if the OS itself lacks a cold start facility). In any case, the best solution seems to be to use non-conflicting keys for startup options so that the need to release the modifier key before the restart can proceed is removed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 How about help+reset, then press c? That works for me to quickly reboot without using the power switch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted August 19, 2015 Author Share Posted August 19, 2015 Yeah. The cold boot hotkey might be largely redundant for that reason, but the issue seems to be that turning it off does not currently stop the BIOS from waiting for the keyboard register to clear on rebooting. I'll fix it shortly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted August 22, 2015 Share Posted August 22, 2015 Hey, FJC - I was looking through my .atr files getting ready to play some classic text adventures tomorrow with my wife and I think I found a bug with the SIDEloader. Not sure if this is your code or Candle's, but take a look at tonight's day/date display. Nothing critical, obviously, but just one of those little things. This is with version 31 of your BIOS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted August 22, 2015 Author Share Posted August 22, 2015 (edited) The loader is Candle's code. The day of the week was always off by one, as it was in the original BIOS. This is because he could never agree with Trub about the day of the week encoding. I just agreed with Trub, however, and the day of the week issue is already rectified in the new main BIOS. If the new loader displays the day anywhere, be assured I'll be correct there too. Edited August 22, 2015 by flashjazzcat 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon375 Posted August 22, 2015 Share Posted August 22, 2015 I dunno if this would be easy to implement or not.. but maybe a key to boot into the sideloader directly with the PBI enabled (instead of holding HELP then "L') . It's not a bad thing the way it is now, you get a chance to make sure the BIOS is set the way you want it before you go into the sideloader, but once you have the BIOS setup, it seems kinda redundant to have to go through that screen every reset. BTW, FJC just lovin the new BIOS.. always thought the old one looked like beta software. Still digging thru stuff to find my ST mouse so I can give your GUI a try. You do awesome work and looking forward to future releases. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted August 22, 2015 Author Share Posted August 22, 2015 I dunno if this would be easy to implement or not.. but maybe a key to boot into the sideloader directly with the PBI enabled (instead of holding HELP then "L'). Not a bad idea at all, although the PBI isn't mandatory if one simply wants to run XEX files, so I'll have to give that part some careful thought. The new BIOS already silently enables SDX banking when invoking the loader even if SDX was disabled, so silent enabling of the PBI follows similar logic, perhaps. Even without this, it'll be possible to boot straight into the loader by default in the next release (I just figured I'd wait until the new loader was a little closer to completion). In addition, we could possibly re-purpose the ATR button (when not used for ATR swapping) to jump direct to the loader on the next reset, as it does when SIDE is used stand-alone. Thanks also for the kind words. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted August 28, 2015 Author Share Posted August 28, 2015 (edited) Just about up and running again following the expense and inconvenience of troubleshooting a PSU failure. Current A8 projects are quite tough on modern-day equipment: just threw out an Antec power supply which cost 120GBP when new. Anyway - alpha test of loader which I was working on when the PC died: Half of the long pause is the Numen XEX loading (quite fast), and the other half is Numen setting up RAM. The directory contains 130 files: rather than reading the directory then sorting it, the list in RAM is created in sorted order, which is faster. I'm using speed-search to get to the desired file. The loader is currently calling the PBI BIOS's SIO routines, but I'll write stand-alone IDE code so XEX's can be run without the PBI being enabled. ATR mounting works, so it's a question of fixing bugs and adding functionality. The loader uses a FMS starting $700 which has sector buffers which will be used for read/write FAT access when the FMS is plumbed into the CIO. I'll have to leave this for the moment, however, since I need to complete the loader menu for another project quite urgently. PC problems were incredibly timely as usual. Edited August 28, 2015 by flashjazzcat 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spookt Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 Looks great Jon. Looking forward to givining it a run out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenixdownita Posted August 29, 2015 Share Posted August 29, 2015 Is SideLoader redux also going to be available for Side[1|2] stand-alone BIOS or only within the confines of U1MB? [i admit for the moment I am holding off on updating anything on my U1MB ... waiting for a more stable release] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted August 29, 2015 Share Posted August 29, 2015 Just about up and running again following the expense and inconvenience of troubleshooting a PSU failure. Current A8 projects are quite tough on modern-day equipment: just threw out an Antec power supply which cost 120GBP when new. Anyway - alpha test of loader which I was working on when the PC died: Half of the long pause is the Numen XEX loading (quite fast), and the other half is Numen setting up RAM. The directory contains 130 files: rather than reading the directory then sorting it, the list in RAM is created in sorted order, which is faster. I'm using speed-search to get to the desired file. The loader is currently calling the PBI BIOS's SIO routines, but I'll write stand-alone IDE code so XEX's can be run without the PBI being enabled. ATR mounting works, so it's a question of fixing bugs and adding functionality. The loader uses a FMS starting $700 which has sector buffers which will be used for read/write FAT access when the FMS is plumbed into the CIO. I'll have to leave this for the moment, however, since I need to complete the loader menu for another project quite urgently. PC problems were incredibly timely as usual. Hi Jon, Suggestion -> could you create an option where the loader is in another location? Let's say someone adds [400] to the filename, the loader will be on $400 for instance. Some titles won't run with a loader on $700 Perhaps you even could add .BAS files compatibility this way (every file that ends with .BAS) ? Btw. I saw NUMEN.XE in stead of NUMEN.XEX on the status line in your movie (on the bottom of the screen). Just a small thingy, but perhaps a thing you did not noticed yet. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted August 29, 2015 Author Share Posted August 29, 2015 Is SideLoader redux also going to be available for Side[1|2] stand-alone BIOS or only within the confines of U1MB? I'll be available for SIDE, stand-alone as well. [i admit for the moment I am holding off on updating anything on my U1MB ... waiting for a more stable release] Main BIOS seems stable right now: have only seen issues on machines which turned out to have hardware problems, so unless any bugs remain unreported, the only changes in the final version will relate to functionality. Suggestion -> could you create an option where the loader is in another location? Let's say someone adds [400] to the filename, the loader will be on $400 for instance. Some titles won't run with a loader on $700. Not a bad idea, although I'll be trickier to make the loader relocatable. Perhaps it can be pre-assembled at two addresses. Perhaps you even could add .BAS files compatibility this way (every file that ends with .BAS) ? Sure! Btw. I saw NUMEN.XE in stead of NUMEN.XEX on the status line in your movie (on the bottom of the screen). Just a small thingy, but perhaps a thing you did not noticed yet. I noticed, but as said it's me typing the name in speed search. I only typed enough of the name to make it unambiguous, so the cursor arrived at the correct entry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted August 29, 2015 Share Posted August 29, 2015 For what it's worth, for every day fooling around and just casual use, FJC's current BIOS is working just great on my 800XL. I'm very much looking forward to the new SIDEloader functionality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvas Posted August 29, 2015 Share Posted August 29, 2015 Can somebody upload a bootable atr image with the latest version of the falsher/bios for the incognito? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted August 29, 2015 Author Share Posted August 29, 2015 (edited) Can somebody upload a bootable atr image with the latest version of the falsher/bios for the incognito? For Incognito: inbios35.atr For Ultimate: ulbios35.atr BTW: You request bootable, but SDX must be enabled for flashing to take place anyway, so there's no DOS on these ATRs, since it's pointless including one. Edited August 29, 2015 by flashjazzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted August 29, 2015 Share Posted August 29, 2015 I see you've jumped from version 32 on the last page to 35 for this one. Anything interesting added, or specific thing you'd like us to test out on it? I'll flash my U1MB later tonight or tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted August 29, 2015 Author Share Posted August 29, 2015 Just cosmetic changes and some Rapidus fixes to ensure the 65C816 is properly detected (it doesn't activate until the OS boots, so the cold start CPU test missed it). CPU test is now run every system reset. There's also a progress bar on the splash screen. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madi Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 Just cosmetic changes and some Rapidus fixes to ensure the 65C816 is properly detected (it doesn't activate until the OS boots, so the cold start CPU test missed it). CPU test is now run every system reset. There's also a progress bar on the splash screen. When I flashed a clean Ultimate1mb.rom with the new bios (ULBIOS35.ROM), I got a black screen. nothing else. (under Altirra X64 v2,7 test 23) ----------------------- Ultimate.rom v24 extracted from "Ultimate BIOS Beta 0.24 Release" zip, works as expected. HOWEVER.. I tried to flash it with the new bios (ULBIOS35.ROM) but flashing failed as shown in the pictures. Uflash doesn't recognize the Ultimate1mb. Note.. Older ultimate1mb roms flash just fine and easily updated to bios v1.0 madi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 Were you using the new version of UFLASH that supports the new BIOS? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madi Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 (edited) Were you using the new version of UFLASH that supports the new BIOS? I used the Uflash which is provided by flashjazzcat at post # 267. what I observed is that when I flash an older Ultimate1mb ROM (512K) i.e. old GUI rom, things comes great. .The Uflash version shows 1.2 But, when I tried to flash any Ultimate1mb rom that is v2,4 or newer (including v35) I get the fail flash message: The Uflash version showed 1.0 even though I loaded it from the same floppy disk . Edit: I realized that for some reason, when I try to flash a newer Ultimate1mb rom (new GUI), the older UFLASH is always loaded from hard drive. But, that is not true when flashing older Ultimate roms (Uflash is loaded from floppy). madi Edited August 30, 2015 by Madi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 I'll look into this tomorrow. My Altirra is a 2.70 beta, that may be part of it. I get a message saying device not recognized. -K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted August 30, 2015 Author Share Posted August 30, 2015 Wrong uflash version. 1.0 is not compatible with the new BIOS, period. Make sure you use the latest one. Specify the path: A:>UFLASH.XEX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roydea6 Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 (edited) @MADI TYPE CAR:U*.COM and if you get a response as UFLASH.COM then use the SDXImager ver. 3.06 and delete the uflash.com and uflash.ovl files from your SDX44x rom... OR rename the uflash file on hard drive or floppy to something unique like UF128.COM so that your are not pulling the file from the CAR device in SDX44x. This is my PATH$ SET PATH=:;CAR:;H:;C:SYS;C:SDOS Edited August 30, 2015 by rdea6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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