New (alt) BIOS for Ultimate 1MB/Incognito

[drac030]

SDX prior to 4.49 does not boot correctly under Q-MEG, maybe that is why there was a problem.

[flashjazzcat]

21 minutes ago, mikro said:

flashjazzcat, I didn't mean to imply that there is something wrong with your firmware. I just wanted to mention it, in case someone else falls into the same issue.

No - that's appreciated. I was really trying to address the notion that the upgrade instructions should include caveats about Q-Meg operation, which appears to be rather inconsistent depending on the version of DOS/OS in use.

16 minutes ago, drac030 said:

SDX prior to 4.49 does not boot correctly under Q-MEG, maybe that is why there was a problem.

Thanks - mystery solved, then.

[Faicuai]

Well, finally caught a rather elusive bug that kept creeping from time-to-time on my screen. It seems worth correcting, for sure.

 

Not sure if this has been already reported by other means, but here's the summary, after being able to reproduce it systematically (on INCOGNITO BIOS):

1. Profiles 1,2,3 are XL/XE and profile 4 is Colleen.
2. Go to, say, profile 2, then to HD/PBI sub-menu, and position cursor over Config.sys drive option.
3. When cursor is there, ONLY press "4" (this will immediately move to Colleen profile, landing exactly on same sub-menu, where there is only ONE option).
4. As soon as landing there, ONLY press "RETURN" key, and see what happens.

If it is not possible to replicate above user-interface issue, let me know, and I will try posting pics. or video, or if more information is needed regarding my actual profiles configuration, not a problem, either.

 

In addition to the above, I would like to mention that, if  we attach .ATR images when navigating above profiles 1-3 and, after that, we move to profile 4, and then attempt to simply return to any 1-3 profiles, the .ATR images previously attached will be dropped IF and ONLY IF the non-Colleen profile sitting under 4th profile (Colleen) itself has PBI-BIOS disabled. This is easy to resolve, but it is worth noting, nonetheless.

 

 

 

[flashjazzcat]

5 minutes ago, Faicuai said:

• Profiles 1,2,3 are XL/XE and profile 4 is Colleen.
• Go to, say, profile 2, then to HD/PBI sub-menu, and position cursor over Config.sys drive option.
• When cursor is there, ONLY press "4" (this will immediately move to Colleen profile, landing exactly on same sub-menu, where there is only ONE option).
• As soon as landing there, ONLY press "RETURN" key, and see what happens.

Thanks. I'll fix this in the next update and forcibly un-mount ATRs as soon as a Colleen profile is booted.

[flashjazzcat]

1 hour ago, Faicuai said:

Well, finally caught a rather elusive bug that kept creeping from time-to-time on my screen.

Quite fiddly to figure out a fix since it was an entirely unaccounted for situation (primarily the menu being spontaneously truncated during a profile switch). Nevertheless, this appears to fix it:

Incognito_main_BIOS_v.3.11_RC070720.zip

 

Please test it if you would, and let me know of any problems. I also addressed the ATR issue. Booting the system from the BIOS menu now clears the PBI BIOS warmstart flag if the hardware profile has changed. If you go from XL/XE to Colleen and back again, then, the PBI BIOS will re-read the partition table from disk.

 

If you notice any other such obscure bugs, do let me know, and thanks for being the first to note and report the menu problem.

Edited July 7, 2020 by flashjazzcat
typo...

[Faicuai]

1 hour ago, flashjazzcat said:

Quite fiddly to figure out a fix since it was an entirely unaccounted for situation (primarily the menu being spontaneously truncated during a profile switch). Nevertheless, this appears to fix it:

Incognito_main_BIOS_v.3.11_RC070720.zip 9.72 kB · 2 downloads

 

Please test it if you would, and let me know of any problems. I also addressed the ATR issue. Booting the system from the BIOS menu now clears the PBI BIOS warmstart flag if the hardware profile has changed. If you go from XL/XE to Colleen and back again, then, the PBI BIOS will re-read the partition table from disk.

 

If you notice any other such obscure bugs, do let me know, and thanks for being the first to note and report the menu problem.

Beautiful.

 

Will test as soon as I reach my retro-desk!

[flashjazzcat]

Can I assume this was a silver bullet fix?

[Jeffrey Worley]

On 7/7/2020 at 1:08 PM, Faicuai said:

Well, finally caught a rather elusive bug that kept creeping from time-to-time on my screen. It seems worth correcting, for sure.

 

Not sure if this has been already reported by other means, but here's the summary, after being able to reproduce it systematically (on INCOGNITO BIOS):

1. Profiles 1,2,3 are XL/XE and profile 4 is Colleen.
2. Go to, say, profile 2, then to HD/PBI sub-menu, and position cursor over Config.sys drive option.
3. When cursor is there, ONLY press "4" (this will immediately move to Colleen profile, landing exactly on same sub-menu, where there is only ONE option).
4. As soon as landing there, ONLY press "RETURN" key, and see what happens.

If it is not possible to replicate above user-interface issue, let me know, and I will try posting pics. or video, or if more information is needed regarding my actual profiles configuration, not a problem, either.

 

In addition to the above, I would like to mention that, if  we attach .ATR images when navigating above profiles 1-3 and, after that, we move to profile 4, and then attempt to simply return to any 1-3 profiles, the .ATR images previously attached will be dropped IF and ONLY IF the non-Colleen profile sitting under 4th profile (Colleen) itself has PBI-BIOS disabled. This is easy to resolve, but it is worth noting, nonetheless.

 

 

 

I just duplicated this bug.  Remember to set your profile 4 to colleen and save before you try to duplicate or it may not work.  I'd changed 4 to xl/xe and so...

 

With that in order, I observed an inverse D1: appear in the middle of a blankish screen where that option does not exist in colleen mode, only Hard disk enable/disable appears, with this inverse D1: hanging in space.  It appears to have negative consequences on reboot with side2 only.  I had to power-off restart to get it to come up.  I think it is mostly a cosmetic thing.

 

Jeff

[Jeffrey Worley]

3 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

Can I assume this was a silver bullet fix?

I just tested the new bios for this bug and the menu works as it should, hard disk enable/disable toggles rather than putting a D1: in a place it does not belong.  I'll run this and see if any unusualness results, but it looks good on its face.

 

Best,

 

Jeff

[flashjazzcat]

28 minutes ago, Jeffrey Worley said:

I just tested the new bios for this bug and the menu works as it should, hard disk enable/disable toggles rather than putting a D1: in a place it does not belong.  I'll run this and see if any unusualness results, but it looks good on its face.

Thanks Jeff. I appreciate it. Note that the bug would exhibit itself in any menu which became truncated during a profile transition from XL/XE to Colleen mode if the selected item was initially outside of the truncated range.

 

In addition, any mounted ATRs should now be auto unmounted after an XL/XE-Colleen-XL/XE series of OS boots.

[Faicuai]

8 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

Can I assume this was a silver bullet fix?

My apologies for responding late but... I have been immersed on other issues, but also testing as much as I could...

 

User-interface issues seem fully corrected. I would only recommend consider not dropping (instead) .ATRs during a [ XL-> Colleen -> XL ] profile navigation sequence... (said in other words, make the Colleen profile separate / abstract from whatever happens on XL/XE ones, which by nature is, as there is no PBI-rom accessible on Colleen OS loads).

 

The reasons for this is that I often start on XL/XE mode, with .ATR images attached, then temporarily switch to Colleen, test something there, then come back to XL/XE mode, still needing the .ATRs I had attached. If they are dropped, I then have to go back Loader menu, re-attach, and resume work.

 

However, if the above is not possible or, for some reason, not consistent with other operating principles already part of the BIOS logic, then let's move fwd. as it is, now.

 

A big THANKS for such a lightning-fast fix, though!

 

 

Edited July 11, 2020 by Faicuai

[flashjazzcat]

4 minutes ago, Faicuai said:

User-interface issues seem fully corrected. I would only recommend consider not dropping (instead) .ATRs during a [ XL-> Colleen -> XL ] profile navigation sequence... (said in other words, make the Colleen profile separate / abstract from whatever happens on XL/XE ones, which by nature is, as there is no PBI-rom accessible on Colleen OS loads).

 

The reasons for this is that I often start on XL/XE mode, with .ATR images attached, then temporarily switch to Colleen, test something there, then come back to XL/XE mode, still needing the .ATRs I had attached. If they are dropped, I then have to go back Loader menu, re-attach, and resume work.

You'll have to re-word the explanation of the originally observed ATR issue, then, since I may have completely misunderstood it. The original remarks seem to describe a Colleen profile (4) with PBI enabled/disabled, but there is no PBI BIOS in Colleen mode, so I'm left confused.

[_The Doctor__]

As I understand,

user is doing something on his Atari with XL/XE profile and disks are set up the way he likes...

he pops into Collen mode to do something...

he pop back into XL/XE profile and now has to set up all the drives again... not cool... they should come back with the profile...

 

The disembodied D1: is now gone as it should be... but losing all your setup drives on return is a pain.

[Jeffrey Worley]

9 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

Thanks Jeff. I appreciate it. Note that the bug would exhibit itself in any menu which became truncated during a profile transition from XL/XE to Colleen mode if the selected item was initially outside of the truncated range.

 

In addition, any mounted ATRs should now be auto unmounted after an XL/XE-Colleen-XL/XE series of OS boots.

I tried to make it choke on any number of items that are not there or not the same between modes, and it responds well to those mode switches.  Even  when the option you land on in xl/xe mode is different from the option you were on when you hit the mode switch (profile swap), it responds properly to the new option.  One that comes to mind is switching to XL/XE and having the option change to Enable Spartados, that works just peachy.  I think it is fixed.

 

Best,

 

Jeff

[flashjazzcat]

5 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

The disembodied D1: is now gone as it should be... but losing all your setup drives on return is a pain.

Well, you didn't lose anything until I was asked to change it. If the original problem was that disabling and enabling the HDD setting itself caused the ATRs to be unmounted, then this was entirely deliberate. If enabling the HDD didn't re-read the partition table, there would be no partitions visible if the feature hadn't previously been active since power-up.

 

I have a hard time believing any of this is particularly inconvenient, but I'll just undo the change and the user can eat it.

[flashjazzcat]

Here's another update to test:

Incognito_main_BIOS_v.3.11_RC120720.zip

 

This one performs a lot more checks when deciding if Colleen mode configuration changes should mandate a reboot, and in so doing it's able to tell the difference between the HDD being turned off in XL/XE mode and the hard disk being disabled in Colleen mode. I took the opportunity to optimise some strings to make room for this, so you'll see the wording of the main Colleen settings has changed a bit.

 

In testing, you should find that any ATRs mounted in XL/XE mode will stay put through any number of hardware mode transitions, providing the PBI hard disk wasn't explicitly turned on or off while in XL/XE mode. Hopefully this addresses the secondary issue as originally described.

 

Edited July 12, 2020 by flashjazzcat
typo

[Faicuai]

On 7/12/2020 at 11:33 AM, flashjazzcat said:

Here's another update to test:

Incognito_main_BIOS_v.3.11_RC120720.zip 9.72 kB · 7 downloads

 

This one performs a lot more checks when deciding if Colleen mode configuration changes should mandate a reboot, and in so doing it's able to tell the difference between the HDD being turned off in XL/XE mode and the hard disk being disabled in Colleen mode. I took the opportunity to optimise some strings to make room for this, so you'll see the wording of the main Colleen settings has changed a bit.

 

In testing, you should find that any ATRs mounted in XL/XE mode will stay put through any number of hardware mode transitions, providing the PBI hard disk wasn't explicitly turned on or off while in XL/XE mode. Hopefully this addresses the secondary issue as originally described.

 

This is PERFECT.

 

It effectively addresses the "phantom" drop of .ATRs attached in XL/XE modes, before transitioning into a Colleen profile, and then back out again to XL/XE profiles.

 

Best part: it does not seem to matter what you do in the Colleen profile slot (e.g. changing to XL/XE and back to Collen, without ever leaving the profile slot). .ATRs don't seem to go orphan and "slaughtered"...

 

THANKS!

[Kyle22]

I will try it ASAP, but, unfortunately, my video cable just crapped out. I must order another one.

 

[Roydea6]

On 6/4/2020 at 2:53 AM, flashjazzcat said:

This setting gives you an OS coldstart

Could this be the reason that I can no longer boot into my xegs game slots.  I just recently tried to load Deluxe Invaders rom and failed.

So I tried all 4 game slots and none will load like they use to.  

Yes xegs pins are jumper-ed and a rev4 rom in the os slot..

OKAY I figured it out need to turn off SDX slot first.

 

   

[Kyle22]

Go into SDX and type 'CAR' [press return].

Or try 'COLD /C'.

 

[_The Doctor__]

Looking Good!

[rcamp48]

I would like to flash Basic XE Version 7.2 and rewrite Forem XE to use SpartaDos X, is this possible ?

 

[flashjazzcat]

3 hours ago, rcamp48 said:

I would like to flash Basic XE Version 7.2 and rewrite Forem XE to use SpartaDos X, is this possible ?

If you've bought SIDE3, you're good to go with BASIC XE.

 

I'm not sure about Forem XE. You could write it as a native SDX binary if you felt up to it.

[+bf2k+]

On 11/25/2021 at 1:29 PM, flashjazzcat said:

If you've bought SIDE3, you're good to go with BASIC XE.

 

So I just got a SIDE3 and I got Basic XE loaded on it but I cannot seem to get it to boot from the APT D1: partition.  I want to boot SD 3.2g... not SDX.  In a normal operation, I use the CAR command in my Startup.Bat file to go into BASIC XE but in the SIDE3 environment, the car command loads SIDE3.

 

Instead of APT do I maybe have to use an ATR for this?

 

(I am trying to run Forem XEP on the SIDE3)

 

[rcamp48]

Have you disabled SDX in the U1MB ?, ..... its all in the config for the U1MB, as for it booting into side3 , I don't have one so I don't know about that....hmmm I use an atr to bring up the extensions disk and all of that, I do have  a new script file that gives you 5 directories on the data disk and 14 sub directories for each directory (A,b,c,d,e) you have to put a file in each sub directory or Forem XE Pro will not handle the sub directories properly. I put a short description file of what the sub directory is ie: apps, basic, bbs, comms, demos, docs, games, graphics, midi, music, language, program, text, utility Those are the actual sub directory names for each directory. You may be able to go 3 levels deep instead of 2, ie: A>Atari8\Apps, I will configure a disk with that and see if it works. The only difference is that in SIGINIT.BXE you need to specify the full path and then it should work OK. I am still testing my script file and the whole install disk, once it is totally bug free and fully tested I will upload it, of course the disc atr does NOT create a fully working BBS, you have to do that part yourself, it just makes it easier to set up. You still have to run the INITBBS file.

 

 

This is the video (3 hours sped up to 34 mins, time lapse video, some errors in the script file but it shows what I am doing), there will be a new video with the complete setup and running of the BBS

 

 

Edited February 10, 2022 by rcamp48
additions