Re: myIDE emulation in altirra

[carmel_andrews]

having played around with this emulator (only using 2.0 and 1.9, not the svn versions)

 

I notice it has the ability to emulate myide

 

Question is how do you make the Myide image and how do you stick programs onto the myide image from w/i altirra (or do you need an external program)

 

Also what programs can by put onto the myide image (i.e xex's, atr's or just .com/.exe files)

 

lastly i noticed that it also emulates the maxflash or flashcarts (upto 8mbits/1mb) again what programs can be put onto these cart images and also how do you do it from within altirra or do you need a external program

[flashjazzcat]

I'm assuming you want to use the "official" MyIDE BIOS (I don't), so I'd say download that, attach it as the OS ROM. Then go to the hard disk dialogue in the system menu, tick "enable IDE hard disk", and point at a "dummy" file of the same size as the desired hard disk (i.e. a 2GB file full of zeroes if you want to emulate a 2GB flash card). You'll also need to enter suitable CHS geometry.

 

Now when you boot the machine, the MyIDE BIOS should detect the disk and you'll then need to follow whatever steps Sijmen outlines to partition the media using the in-built partition editor. You should then be able to format partitions using the DOS of your choice. As for getting files onto those partitions - basically the same as any other HDD: copy them from floppy ATRs or via the H: device. However, I recall that there are several third-party utilities out there for handling MyIDE partitions (memory is hazy), so there are probably more efficient ways of filling those partitions up on the PC.

 

As for the maxflash cart emulation: Use MaxFlash Studio to create ATR flashers, then run them in the emulator with the desired flash cart attached. Note that to get the functionality of the 1Mbit AtariMax Flash / IDE cart, just use a combination of external MyIDE emulation and a 1Mbit flash cart (you can choose to emulate external MyIDE without the flash cart present, otherwise).

 

Anyway - once you get the emulated hardware set up, procedures are much the same as for real hardware, so any exisiting start-up guides will be valid.

[Marius]

Unfortunately harddrive support on 'real' harddrive (like a CF card) is READ ONLY.

 

I guess this is done to prevent making damage on a wrong disk? Anyway... I would love to see full read/write access to my MyIDE CF card.

[a8isa1]

Unfortunately harddrive support on 'real' harddrive (like a CF card) is READ ONLY.

 

I guess this is done to prevent making damage on a wrong disk? Anyway... I would love to see full read/write access to my MyIDE CF card.

Could be the one and only time using a Windows app via wine/linux adds functionality. I can read/write my CFs directly from Altirra by just pointing the file selector at /dev/sdb (in my case)

 

-Steve Sheppard

Edited March 15, 2012 by a8isa1

[Marius]

Could be the one and only time using a Windows app via wine/linux adds functionality. I can read/write my CFs directly from Altirra by just pointing the file selector at /dev/sdb (in my case)

 

-Steve Sheppard

 

Hmmm I run this Emulator in VirtualBox (running on Mac OS X snow leopard). I'm afraid this is not gonna work on my side, since the XP is running rather standalone in tha virtual environment.

 

Sounds like a great solution to me though.

[phaeron]

Yeah, Altirra doesn't support raw write access at the moment because of the repercussions if something goes wrong, particularly with the auto-mount on startup. If it mounts the wrong drive for read access, the Atari program sees some garbage. If it mounts the wrong drive for write, you could lose the entire C: drive. Not so good.

 

There's also an issue that starting with Windows Vista, portions a device that are mounted as drives are blocked from raw write access. This is a good feature designed to help protect against inadvertent damage to a filesystem, but it's an impediment if the CF card you stuck in has something that looks like a valid filesystem and gets automounted. I haven't looked at what it takes to lock the device.

 

It's not as convenient, but you should be able to use dd to copy the CF card onto an image file and back.

Edited March 16, 2012 by phaeron

[Marius]

Yeah, Altirra doesn't support raw write access at the moment because of the repercussions if something goes wrong, particularly with the auto-mount on startup. If it mounts the wrong drive for read access, the Atari program sees some garbage. If it mounts the wrong drive for write, you could lose the entire C: drive. Not so good.

 

I agree on the point of the risk. I'd suggest: why not setting this READ ONLY on by default on start of the emulator.

 

But as soon as I'm positive that I mounted the right drive I would really like to be able to set it to read/write access.

 

You'd also could prevent the emulator access from/to PhysicalDrive0 since that I always the Windows bootdrive. As soon someone picks this one by accident, the emulator could go to READ ONLY by itself, or refuse access anyway.

 

Using dd and puting back is not really an interesting alternative. I'm talking about a 2GB CF card here. Using dd and writing back will take around 20 minutes.

 

I hope you will re-consider it... I would be happy

 

Thanks

Marius

[flashjazzcat]

I can read/write my CFs directly from Altirra by just pointing the file selector at /dev/sdb (in my case)

/dev/sde in my case, but I keep getting a permission error. How to run Altirra with elevated permissions? Tried (wrongly, apparently) running wine as root, but Altirra kept locking up.

[a8isa1]

/dev/sde in my case, but I keep getting a permission error. How to run Altirra with elevated permissions? Tried (wrongly, apparently) running wine as root, but Altirra kept locking up.

Oh, I never run apps as root.

 

It's been a while. I believe all I did is set permissions for my CF card. Using your example device, 'sudo chmod 664 /dev/sde'.

 

In Altirra instead of pointing to an image file I point to the device but remember in wine you have to use Windows naming convention. I think it's just Z:\dev\sde.

 

Another option to using a physcial CF, and possibly a safer option, is make an image of your CF and work with that. It's easy in linux.

 

dd if=/dev/sde of=your_image_file.

 

Use the image file in Altirra. When you need it on your real CF reverse the if and of parameters above.

 

dd if=your_image_file of=/dev/sde

 

In either case, before writing to your CF make sure you truly specifying the CF and not writing to some other disk.

Edited November 25, 2013 by a8isa1

[flashjazzcat]

Brilliant - thanks so much for that run through. I did make notes when we spoke about it before, but obviously not quite detailed enough. I'll give it a try.

 

The other thing I was wondering is whether Linux will let you mount partitions from an image file just as if it were a physical disk. This would be safer than using a real card, but would permit formatting of FATs, etc. Anyway - I'll try out your suggestions. Back in Win 7 at the moment, since Mint totally locked up on me and I lost patience with it somewhat.

 

I wonder if Avery will ever offer writes to a physical disk under Windows. I appreciate his reasoning for not doing so, though.

[flashjazzcat]

No luck. Still get "access denied", although this is a generic error which can be duplicated by typing any old crap into the image filename box, so perhaps it's not the correct device spec.

[a8isa1]

No luck. Still get "access denied", although this is a generic error which can be duplicated by typing any old crap into the image filename box, so perhaps it's not the correct device spec.

Sorry, John. I gave you some disinformation.

 

Where you are asked for the image name in hard disk setup use the linux device name verbatim, /dev/whatever. e.g /dev/sdb

 

After finding my CF that was already configured for MyIDE.

 

As root I used 'fdisk -l'. A FAT32 partition and a partition type 7F was a dead giveaway that I had the right disk.

 

Hope this helps. Now I have a question for you.

 

Years ago you gave me two customized MyIDE drivers for SDX. One looks for only an IDE master. The other only for a slave. Both were for an internal MyIDE.

 

Can I continue to use these drivers with your new FDISK or will I need replacement drivers?

 

-Steve

[flashjazzcat]

Sorry, John. I gave you some disinformation...

No problem Steve - and thanks for the update!

 

Years ago you gave me two customized MyIDE drivers for SDX. One looks for only an IDE master. The other only for a slave. Both were for an internal MyIDE.

 

Can I continue to use these drivers with your new FDISK or will I need replacement drivers?

Hmmm... and I think you're still waiting for updated versions of said drivers. That might be the easiest way to proceed. If they were APT drivers, they should work with the new FDISK. Not much about what is actually produced by the partition editor has really changed since the very first version which supported APT - just bug fixes, really, and the addition of external partition support.

[flashjazzcat]

Where you are asked for the image name in hard disk setup use the linux device name verbatim, /dev/whatever. e.g /dev/sdb

Still getting an "access denied" error, even with the permissions on the device modified. Starting to think this is Mint being obstinate...

 

Edited November 26, 2013 by flashjazzcat