APT Hard Disk Preparation and Utilities

[+Roydea6]

BTW: Did anyone try this yet?

 

To end the day on a high note: every problematic ATR which ProWizard sent me now works.

I just tried it and it worked ,,,,, but took several tries with several different CF cards before I got a card that Bios 0.6 would and could ID as a card name and not just junk in the ID slot.

I just have to ask why? revert to and old DOS even though I did use x33a for many years.

 

Query: With the Myide.sys and side.sys file the CF cards that could not be seen by the PBI ROM 06. were identified properly.. Why not with the PBI 06?

[flashjazzcat]

No clue regarding last question (MYIDE.SYS runs on totally different hardware for a start, so I'm not going to start more CF card hypothesising), but the point of the experiment was to find out if it's only me and ProWizard who get a screen full of garbage when powering on the machine with SDX disabled and BASIC enabled. It had nothing to do with PBI behaviour. I take it, then, that your screen looked perfectly normal?

 

As for reverting to an old DOS: why not? And what's to say that there aren't other reasons to boot with SDX disabled, or that there won't be in the future? Point being that it should work.

Edited February 10, 2014 by flashjazzcat

[+Roydea6]

One more comment about ASPEQT and this CF setup... Reading for Coping from D2: (ASPEQT) to D1: CF card I get a lot of read sector Naks.

 

Serial port speed set to 19200.

 

[AspeQt Client] Date/time sent to client (2/9/2014 5:00:09 PM).

[Disk 2] Read sector 32769 NAKed. [x14]

[Disk 2] Read sector 1 (128 bytes).

[Disk 2] Read sector 32788 NAKed. [x14]

[Disk 2] Read sector 20 (256 bytes).

[Disk 2] Read sector 32789 NAKed. [x14]

[Disk 2] Read sector 21 (256 bytes).

[Disk 2] Read sector 40481 NAKed. [x14]

[Disk 2] Read sector 7713 (256 bytes).

[Disk 2] Read sector 40750 NAKed. [x14]

[Disk 2] Read sector 7982 (256 bytes).

[Disk 2] Read sector 42645 NAKed. [x14]

[Disk 2] Read sector 9877 (256 bytes).

[Disk 2] Read sector 32769 NAKed. [x14]

[Disk 2] Read sector 1 (128 bytes).

[Disk 2] Read sector 32789 NAKed. [x14]

Edited February 10, 2014 by rdea6

[flashjazzcat]

Roy, don't waste time on test ROMs. What you see is already fixed. Can you confirm regarding screen corruption or lack thereof as per my question?

[+Roydea6]

Yes I had some garbage and re booted to get into basic and TB32q for SDX33a would not run either.

I finally got into Basic thou 2nd or 3rd try I think I pressed RESET some..

 

And I have a Reverse Basic OS in my first Basic slot. So I only got the corrupted screen trying to get into basic or turbobasic..

Edited February 10, 2014 by rdea6

[flashjazzcat]

Thanks Roy. Sorry about the Aspeqt issues, but rather than start throwing more ROMs around, I'd prefer to roll things out properly.

 

To be clear about the garbage issue, it's something I've experienced even when booting SD 3.x via Aspeqt with the SIDE Hardware turned off. What's odd is that starting up Altirra with the exact same configuration does not produce similar issues. In any case, the screen rights itself on the first reset, and as I've said, booting Sparta 3.x with Option held down results in a perfectly normal boot. The problem does not arise when rebooting the machine (i.e. via "COLD /N" from the SDX prompt, or after disabling SDX in the Ultimate menu and then quitting). It is confined to a cold powerup with SDX turned off. Of course I've informed Candle; I'm simply at a loss as to what could be causing it.

Edited February 10, 2014 by flashjazzcat

[Aking]

Well, the APT reboot was somewhat delayed, but this is fortunate since it coincided with ProWizard providing some really excellent test results from his new Ultimate and SIDE hardware.

 

UMPBI06.XEX

 

This is a test update of the Ultimate PBI BIOS pending a proper release, hopefully in a few days.

 

Changes/Bug Fixes

• Critical bug whereby other SIO devices (such as "R:") would become unresponsive when the PBI was enabled has been fixed
• Page zero locations 0x3D-3E are no longer used by the PBI BIOS. Their use prevented some versions of SpartaDOS 3.x and RealDOS from booting, either as mounted ATRs or bootable APT partitions. Strictly speaking, DOS should not use these locations at all, but their (mis)use is so widespread (for reasons unknown, when any "safe" page zero locations could reasonably be employed during the boot process) that I have amended the BIOS for the sake of compatibility.
• Experimental support for "padded" double-density ATRs has been added. Padded DD ATRs typically have 384 bytes of dead space immediately following the three single-density boot sectors. I have found a way to detect these non-standard ATRs without recourse to anything but the ATR header itself, but I want to know if a) it breaks anything which previously worked, and b) if it's worth keeping the new code or not. I have so far encountered only one non-standard ATR, containing SpartaDOS 3.3a. However, it now works flawlessly.

AA member ProWizard has been entirely and solely responsible for bringing the issues which led to these important changes to my attention. He has kindly offered to test a wide range of "problematic" ATRs on an ongoing basis, but in the meantime the SIO device fix (which is probably what was preventing my P:R: Connection from working) is critical enough to warrant an official release of the update in its current form at the earliest possible opportunity. The fix is pertinent to Ultimate, Incognito, SIDE and all APT devices (not including IDE Plus, obviously), and will be released as part of the slew of APT updates very shortly.

 

In the meantime, any feedback on the attached PBI BIOS would be warmly welcomed.

 

is UMPBI06.XEX final or beta ?

[flashjazzcat]

is UMPBI06.XEX final or beta ?

UMPBI06.XEX

 

This is a test update of the Ultimate PBI BIOS pending a proper release...

Also, final build will be discernible by a version number of 1.0.

[flashjazzcat]

It seems I have finished coding, so please bear with me while I prepare eight updated APT drivers for upload to my website.

[Marius]

FJC has done a fabulous job on the PBI driver the last days. I have played with it a lot, and did some serious testing. Finally got a serious use for my Turbo Freezer (Which is absolute an excellent piece of hardware, thanks Abbuc) ... and I must say: I'm impressed. SIDE with this new PBI driver is really powerful.

 

Stay tuned for FJC's release. I am sure you all will love it.

[flashjazzcat]

FJC has done a fabulous job on the PBI driver the last days. I have played with it a lot, and did some serious testing. Finally got a serious use for my Turbo Freezer (Which is absolute an excellent piece of hardware, thanks Abbuc) ... and I must say: I'm impressed. SIDE with this new PBI driver is really powerful.

 

Stay tuned for FJC's release. I am sure you all will love it.

 

Many thanks, and thanks also for your tireless testing and detailed feedback this past week. Although the 2am finishes at this end weren't always a pleasure, your help made a very gruelling round of troubleshooting educational and enjoyable. If problems with the drivers had always been reported so pragmatically and constructively (or - indeed - noticed in the first place), this kind of added value would have been present two years ago.

 

Unfortunately I have now - at the last hurdle - run into a question of disk format compatibility with another interface, and since compatibility is (quite reasonably) an important issue for users, I'll have to wait until it's unambiguously resolved.

[Aking]

which are the advantages over the already great PBI 0.4?

[flashjazzcat]

which are the advantages over the already great PBI 0.4?

 

Quick summary:

• Problems with SIO devices other than $3x and $20 ($Bx and $A0 if using XDCB) eliminated
• Compatibility issues with SpartaDOS 3.x and RealDOS eliminated
• Issues with bootable DOS partitions (e.g. SD 3.x and MyDOS) eliminated
• Hugely improved compatibility with bootable ATRs (many more games and demos now work)
• Bugs in ATR caching fixed (mainly affected multiple ATRs on different drives)
• Non-standard ATR compatibility introduced, further increasing the number of ATRs which now work
• ATR read/write speeds improved
• Cheap data transmission checks introduced (no impact on performance)
• SD HDD partitions made compatible with IDE Plus 2.0

Various other minor stuff as well, which will be explained in the readme files. Basically, it's a big improvement.

Edited February 13, 2014 by flashjazzcat

[flashjazzcat]

Launch day tomorrow... ran out of hours tonight, writing DOC files. Likely the web page will take some time tomorrow, but it should be done in the evening. There is a LOT of stuff...

[Aking]

can't wait for the new pbi rom

[flashjazzcat]

It's worth waiting for, I think (at least I hope so).

 

I've spent most of the day working on documentation, so one way or another, everything will be online a matter of hours from now.

[flashjazzcat]

Just this minute finished the documentation (written using The Last Word). Who knew 10,000 or so words could take so long... uploading and website still to do. The end is in sight, thankfully.

Edited February 19, 2014 by flashjazzcat

[Aking]

Just this minute finished the documentation (written using The Last Word). Who knew 10,000 or so words could take so long... uploading and website still to do. The end is in sight, thankfully.

the suspense is killing me...

[flashjazzcat]

the suspense is killing me...

 

I know, me too... I'm sorry for underestimating the amount of time it would take to write some reasonable documentation.

[flashjazzcat]

It is done, following a couple of minor snags:

 

1) Somehow not being able to format a 360KB MyDOS ATR on the PC, so I did the whole thing using the ATR mounting in the new Ultimate BIOS, and it worked a treat (and threw in bit of extra testing for good measure)

2) Accidentally bending a couple of pins in the CF socket of my card reader, rendering the entire production line kaput until I straightened things out with some jewellers' screwdrivers and a pair of tweezers.

 

Funny how absolutely nothing works right when you're in a hurry... anyway, nothing else to do but upload stuff to the server tomorrow.

Edited February 20, 2014 by flashjazzcat

[Aking]

It is done, following a couple of minor snags:

 

1) Somehow not being able to format a 360KB MyDOS ATR on the PC, so I did the whole thing using the ATR mounting in the new Ultimate BIOS, and it worked a treat (and threw in bit of extra testing for good measure)

2) Accidentally bending a couple of pins in the CF socket of my card reader, rendering the entire production line kaput until I straightened things out with some jewellers' screwdrivers and a pair of tweezers.

 

Funny how absolutely nothing works right when you're in a hurry... anyway, nothing else to do but upload stuff to the server tomorrow.

 

 

please remember to eliminate the sanity check routines

[flashjazzcat]

please remember to eliminate the sanity check routines

No problem - and thanks again for the last-minute test.

 

For information: Aking is talking about a sanity check I added to the mounting API which requires a drive number to be "free" (i.e. any previous mounts to be unmounted first) before a partition or ATR is mounted on it. This works fine with MATR, MOUNT, ATRMNT, etc, but while the SIDE loader clears any previous ATR mounts beforehand, it does not clear partition mounts on the corresponding drive before attempting to mount an ATR on the same drive number. Since I don't have partitions mounted on drives 1 or 2, the issue was nearly missed, but Aking noticed the SIDE loader was failing to mount ATRs on D1: when a partition was already mounted on that drive. Thanks!

 

This is definitely a case of one precaution too many, and since I do NOT want to require changes to the SIDE loader, I'm simply going to remove the check.

Edited February 22, 2014 by flashjazzcat

[Aking]

No problem - and thanks again for the last-minute test.

 

For information: Aking is talking about a sanity check I added to the mounting API which requires a drive number to be "free" (i.e. any previous mounts to be unmounted first) before a partition or ATR is mounted on it. This works fine with MATR, MOUNT, ATRMNT, etc, but while the SIDE loader clears any previous ATR mounts beforehand, it does not clear partition mounts on the corresponding drive before attempting to mount an ATR on the same drive number. Since I don't have partitions mounted on drives 1 or 2, the issue was nearly missed, but Aking noticed the SIDE loader was failing to mount ATRs on D1: when a partition was already mounted on that drive. Thanks!

 

This is definitely a case of one precaution too many, and since I do NOT want to require changes to the SIDE loader, I'm simply going to remove the check.

 

 

now fixed,

works great !

 

looking forward for the official release now!

[flashjazzcat]

now fixed,

works great !

 

looking forward for the official release now!

Excellent - thanks so much for the feedback. Website update is being prepared offline, and update will be available this evening.

[flashjazzcat]

Anyone experiencing any issues in FDISK 4.5 when defining a large (more than 35) number of partitions? Pin reported an issue over on AtariArea but I don't have time to test it at the moment, and wondered if anyone else had run into troubles. He also mentioned something about the cursor vanishing when naming partitions(?). Thanks to Duddie for translating Pin's post.