DirtyHairy Posted November 4, 2020 Author Share Posted November 4, 2020 13 minutes ago, BitMerge6502 said: Does the "time machine" feature have working support? (I remember hearing something about past issues, and not to use it on the R77)? I'm not 100% sure from the top of my head, but I think we limited the depth of the history on the R77, so it should be safe to use. Just give it a try and report if you encounter issues --- the worst thing that can happen is a crash ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BitMerge6502 Posted November 4, 2020 Share Posted November 4, 2020 9 minutes ago, DirtyHairy said: Just give it a try and report if you encounter issues Will do. Also, I noticed that with the new build the Armbian kernel seems a bit out of date. Are there any plans to update it, or is it possible to do so on the console itself per the usual "apt-get"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted November 4, 2020 Share Posted November 4, 2020 36 minutes ago, DirtyHairy said: I think we limited the depth of the history on the R77, so it should be safe to use. Correct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyHairy Posted November 4, 2020 Author Share Posted November 4, 2020 (edited) 5 hours ago, BitMerge6502 said: Will do. Also, I noticed that with the new build the Armbian kernel seems a bit out of date. Are there any plans to update it, or is it possible to do so on the console itself per the usual "apt-get"? The kernel is ancient (3.4 series from 2012). However, it is heavily patched, and you cannot just drop in a current mainline kernel. At a minimum, you'll have to overhaul the userland, port the Hyperkin input driver and enter the Mali GPU rabbit hole again (getting Mali to work was a pain in the ass ). That's a shitload of work, and I don't see any benefit from it --- even if it is ancient, the kernel works well, and the device is not connected to the internet, so there are no security issues involved. The firmware on the console is not based on any distribution, but a hand-rolled userland based on busybox with a few selected components, so there are packages that can be upgraded. EDIT: I forgot U-Boot, you'd also have to upgrade that one, and port the hardware definition to linux device tree Edited November 4, 2020 by DirtyHairy 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClassicGMR Posted November 4, 2020 Share Posted November 4, 2020 Yes. Excellent upgrade. Thank you all! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyHairy Posted November 4, 2020 Author Share Posted November 4, 2020 Rereading what I wrote: I meant to say *no* packages that can be upgraded ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted November 4, 2020 Share Posted November 4, 2020 Plus, newer kernels may be a bit slower, and we're already on the edge with some ROMs as it is. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unixdude Posted November 4, 2020 Share Posted November 4, 2020 Many thanks to @DirtyHairy for all the work on the R77 Stella port. The result is quite awesome at this point. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StormSurge Posted November 7, 2020 Share Posted November 7, 2020 I'm hoping this is a dumb question with a simple solution. I've upgraded my R77 to 6.4.0. The paddles seem to be recognized (both CX-30s & the Ranger) as I can move the seesaw in Circus Atari. However, the button doesn't work on either. Is there a step I missed along the way? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+fdr4prez Posted November 7, 2020 Share Posted November 7, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, StormSurge said: I'm hoping this is a dumb question with a simple solution. I've upgraded my R77 to 6.4.0. The paddles seem to be recognized (both CX-30s & the Ranger) as I can move the seesaw in Circus Atari. However, the button doesn't work on either. Is there a step I missed along the way? It seems to be a new issue being worked on: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/313085-stella-64-released/?do=findComment&comment=4671614 Edited November 7, 2020 by fdr4prez 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StormSurge Posted November 7, 2020 Share Posted November 7, 2020 Excellent, thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quohog Posted November 7, 2020 Share Posted November 7, 2020 Sorry for this noob question, but I'm not sure what to try next. I downloaded sdcard.img, and tried to flash an SD card with the image, but I get this error: I've re-downloaded it a few times. Not sure what could be wrong. One weird thing is, the readme on github says to download a zip file and then extract the .img file, but when I looked at the available releases the .img file was right there so that's what I downloaded. I downloaded sdcard.img from here https://github.com/DirtyHairy/r77-firmware-ng/releases/tag/stella-6.4.0 And I'm using balenaEtcher to flash my sd card. My sd card is an 8G sandisk formatted to fat32. Is that a problem? Any ideas what to try next? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BitMerge6502 Posted November 9, 2020 Share Posted November 9, 2020 On 11/7/2020 at 3:50 PM, quohog said: the .img file was right there That is the file to use, It's not zipped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quohog Posted November 9, 2020 Share Posted November 9, 2020 Thanks. But that is the file I’m using. That’s what’s giving me the error. Ill try with something besides etcher I guess? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BitMerge6502 Posted November 9, 2020 Share Posted November 9, 2020 On 11/7/2020 at 3:50 PM, quohog said: 8G sandisk formatted to fat32. Is that a problem? Use the 128MB card that came with the Retron77. I used FAT format. 8GB may be too large. I have close to 500 games, homebrew, & demos on my card with screenshots for every ROM. It only occupies about ¼ of the 128MB card. You will not run out of storeage space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quohog Posted November 9, 2020 Share Posted November 9, 2020 Yeah that sounds smart. I guess I was trying to keep the stock card intact in case I mess up the installation, it I should probably just go for it. (But I’ll make a copy of the original, just in case. :D) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie_ Posted November 9, 2020 Share Posted November 9, 2020 Does this update help the cartridge slot? For example does the Smurf Rescue cart work now? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BitMerge6502 Posted November 9, 2020 Share Posted November 9, 2020 (edited) 7 minutes ago, quohog said: Thanks. But that is the file I’m using. That’s what’s giving me the error. Ill try with something besides etcher I guess? Possibly, I use "Win32 Disk Imager v1.0". It is the defacto standard for writing disk images in the Raspberry Pi community. sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/ (I've used this program for many years, It's safe). Edited November 9, 2020 by BitMerge6502 add link url 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BitMerge6502 Posted November 9, 2020 Share Posted November 9, 2020 (edited) 17 minutes ago, Charlie_ said: Does this update help the cartridge slot? For example does the Smurf Rescue cart work? I can confirm that 'Smurf Rescue in Gargamel's Castle' cartridge does NOT work with Stella v6.4 R77. However, the ROM dump version does. (This is also how you would play CBS RAM Plus games like 'Tunnel Runner'). I think this issue has been addressed previously, & the problem is due to the cart dumping software not recognizing the bankswitching method. Edited November 9, 2020 by BitMerge6502 add additional info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BitMerge6502 Posted November 9, 2020 Share Posted November 9, 2020 I noticed a few issues switching from v6.2.1 to v6.4, My previous save states do not seem to be compatible with v6.4 Original CX30 paddle buttons not working. The button does work with the Hyperkin Ranger in P-mode, but you do have to hold it down a second. [This issue is already being addressed I believe]. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted November 9, 2020 Share Posted November 9, 2020 53 minutes ago, Charlie_ said: Does this update help the cartridge slot? For example does the Smurf Rescue cart work now? I can pretty much answer that question forever. No future release of Stella will ever improve what the cart slot can do, since we don't have the source code for it. And I don't see getting the source any time soon, if ever. And even if we did, it may require specialized hardware to 'program' it (ie, updating BIOS, etc on the board). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted November 9, 2020 Share Posted November 9, 2020 19 minutes ago, BitMerge6502 said: I noticed a few issues switching from v6.2.1 to v6.4, My previous save states do not seem to be compatible with v6.4 Original CX30 paddle buttons not working. The button does work with the Hyperkin Ranger in P-mode, but you do have to hold it down a second. [This issue is already being addressed I believe]. Save states will sometimes change between releases. This happens when the internal structure of the code changes. Sorry, there's nothing we can do to fix this. The paddle buttons not working are a reported issue: https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/issues/725. We are looking into it for the next release. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noah98 Posted November 18, 2020 Share Posted November 18, 2020 Sorry for the newbie question, but do homebrew cartridges like Stay Frosty 2 and Space Rocks work with the community build, or only through the sd card? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted November 18, 2020 Share Posted November 18, 2020 No homebrew cart which includes an ARM CPU will ever work from the cart port. But they will work fine as ROMs. The two games you mention do use the ARM coprocessor, so they don't work with the R77 cart port. EDIT: Sorry, I mixed up if you were asking about the cart port or the community build. I don't know if ARM games will work with the original software that came with the R77, but they will definitely work with the most recent release (based on Stella 6.x). But again, only from SD card (as ROMs). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bcombee Posted November 20, 2020 Share Posted November 20, 2020 On the "no permissions" ... balenaEtcher seems to have problems with recent builds of Windows 10 and having the right permissions to re-write the SD card. I was able to get around this by right clicking on the etcher icon and running it as administrator. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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