flashjazzcat Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 To clarify: removing the SIDE cart results in the PBI driver failing to detect the HDD and read the partition table, so the machine's OS boot sequence picks up D1: as normal (since the APT boot device is actually recorded inside the partition table). What we could really do with is separate SDX and non-SDX boot overrides in the U1MB BIOS menu. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNameOfTheGame Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 You've got the boot drive set to D3:? If so, the machine is still trying to cold boot from that drive. Try booting with shift or select pressed... I forget which. I wanted to see IDE Plus-like boot override options in the U1MB menu, but it hasn't happened yet. Ok I tried with both shift and then select during boot and didn't notice anything different. What is supposed to happen with pressing those during boot? So I'm thinking there is no way to make D1 boot with the SIDE 2 cartridge in. What would happen if I removed the boot flag from D3? Would it revert to D1? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 Yes: removing the boot flag from drive C will work, since this is what needs to be overridden to force a boot from A:. Hardly ideal, though. I'll look into why shift/select doesn't work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 (edited) It's Select on boot to ignore the HDD boot partition, and if it doesn't work for you, you need to update the PBI firmware to the version which has been on my website for a couple of months: http://www.atari8.co.uk/apt/u1mb/ Edited May 22, 2013 by flashjazzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNameOfTheGame Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 Ok, I updated to the pbi rom...now when I boot it says "Ultimate 1MB PBI BIOS v.0.3" so I guess I got the bios in there ok. I just used rom generator and loaded the U1MB rom and then selected the pbi slot and loaded in the bios I got from your site previously. Then I set the boot flag on the SIDE 2 cart and wrote out the table. Everything seems to be working ok, but not the disk loading. When I power cycle and press "select" during boot it doesn't try to load the floppy. If I detach the SIDE2 cart, it will try obviously. So for some reason select while booting isn't trying to boot from the xf551. Any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 try pressing select while powering on and keep it pressed untill normal screen appears Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNameOfTheGame Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 (edited) try pressing select while powering on and keep it pressed untill normal screen appears I did that, but it just goes to the D3 prompt (I set it to bootable with fdisk). Here is what it says: Ultimate 1MB PBI BIOS v.0.3Ultimate clock installed SpartaDOS X 4.46 2-01-2013 Copyright © 2013 by FTE & DLT D3: Doesn't even try to use the floppy, no light, no spinning disk Edited May 22, 2013 by TheNameOfTheGame Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNameOfTheGame Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 (edited) Uh, I just on a hunch tried to press "option" instead of select when booting and it goes to the floppy to load. Woot, so maybe it is option instead of select to bypass the side cart? Edited May 22, 2013 by TheNameOfTheGame Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNameOfTheGame Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 Maybe I spoke too soon....It does turn on the floppy, but it doesn't finish loading anything. There is some activity from the drive and then it drops out to the D1: prompt... Maybe my drive or disks are bad, because it definitely drops to D1 instead of D3 so it is bypassing the hdd boot flag. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 Option has nothing to do with PBI driver but I'll reupload to the website tomorrow despite the fact I tested it tonight. Maybe I made some silent changes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNameOfTheGame Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 Yea it definitely dropped to D1 when I pressed the option key while powering on. That raises another question since I had the SIO2SD on drive 2...how would I make the system boot from D2 hypothetically if I wanted to boot and ATR from there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 I believe option invokes the SDX configurator... The PBI driver deliberately does not interfere, so I will refer you to the SDX manual. As for booting an SIO device from D2... OS always wants to boot from drive one so you may be out of luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNameOfTheGame Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 (edited) I don't know how to respond. I respect your knowledge and expertise here, but it definitely tries to boot drive 1 when the option key is held down and drops to D1...If I hold down select it drops to D3: I don't have a clue about why but I am seeing it with my own eyes. Dunno, weird. Maybe I will make a youtube video to show it better. Do you think that would help? Edited May 22, 2013 by TheNameOfTheGame Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNameOfTheGame Posted May 23, 2013 Share Posted May 23, 2013 It may be cool to have a U1MB setting for boot disk override...the setting could indicate which drive to boot from D1, D2, D3..etc Do you think that is possible? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted May 23, 2013 Share Posted May 23, 2013 Is there any difference if you unplug your SIO2SD from the drive chain? Just test with XF551 as D1 and SIDE 2 cart inserted... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNameOfTheGame Posted May 23, 2013 Share Posted May 23, 2013 Is there any difference if you unplug your SIO2SD from the drive chain? Just test with XF551 as D1 and SIDE 2 cart inserted... Nope I just tried it and it behaves the same way. Didn't notice anything different from when the SIO2SD was in the drive chain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 23, 2013 Share Posted May 23, 2013 I don't know how to respond. I respect your knowledge and expertise here, but it definitely tries to boot drive 1 when the option key is held down and drops to D1...If I hold down select it drops to D3: I don't have a clue about why but I am seeing it with my own eyes. Dunno, weird. Maybe I will make a youtube video to show it better. Do you think that would help? What does the SpartaDOS X manual say, if anything, regarding the Option key when held down during startup? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8bit-guy Posted May 23, 2013 Share Posted May 23, 2013 is there a way to tweak side loader access to run atrs without having to go through ultimate bios in every game ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w1k Posted May 23, 2013 Share Posted May 23, 2013 yes, good question ..new side loaders are on atari.org.pl - that loader flashing to side II or to u1mb? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNameOfTheGame Posted May 23, 2013 Share Posted May 23, 2013 What does the SpartaDOS X manual say, if anything, regarding the Option key when held down during startup? Page 191 of the manual says: If you hold down the OPTION key when booting the computer, any CON-FIG.SYS on disk will be ignored and the default configuration will be used. This is very useful if you happen to forget to include SIO.SYS in your CONFIG.SYS or some similar fatal error. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted May 23, 2013 Share Posted May 23, 2013 first of all, if you want to boot from floppy, disable SDX, then disable hard drive mappings by pressing select option is ehm, optionable and depends on what you're going to load, for most of the titles you'll have to press it either Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNameOfTheGame Posted May 23, 2013 Share Posted May 23, 2013 first of all, if you want to boot from floppy, disable SDX, then disable hard drive mappings by pressing select option is ehm, optionable and depends on what you're going to load, for most of the titles you'll have to press it either Hmm, good suggestion. Thank you. When I disable SDX and SIDE in the U1MB bios then it goes to D1 and boots. That is fine with me, since most of my loading with be with the XEX/ATR Loader. This is coming together very nicely. Thanks again for you help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNameOfTheGame Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 I believe option invokes the SDX configurator... The PBI driver deliberately does not interfere, so I will refer you to the SDX manual. As for booting an SIO device from D2... OS always wants to boot from drive one so you may be out of luck. It would cool if there were an option to swap D1 and D2 from U1MB Bios...that way one could choose which device to boot from -- old school drive or new school SIO2SD. Is this possible? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 not really OS puts DUNIT to 0 meaning nothing really when BOOT and you can't do a thing about it unless you would rewrite OS or firmware inside every SIO device you want to connect in other words, they made a poo and we have to live with it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 The OS sets dunit to 1. We can boot the HDD from any drive simply by making the PBI code intuit that a boot sector read from D1 should be done on a different drive, and this is exactly what happens when you set D3, say, as the boot drive. We can do this with the HDD activated because the PBI code gets a crack at every SIO request. The PBI gets, for example, the first three sector reads for D1. If the APT boot drive is 3, when the OS requests each of these sectors, we pull them from the partition on D3, and leave DUNIT set at 3. We only do this redirection during the boot phase, since it would be somewhat disastrous at any other time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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