IDE+2 Rev D. Issues

[+Larry]

I have two Rev D devices, and with a little effort, I managed to make both of them non-functional. So I have some questions.

 

I actually ran across one that I didn't know that I had while sorting through some boxes of Atari stuff.  My "in use" model worked perfectly, until I tried to set up the partitions on the one I found using the CF card from the working one.  So I think partitioning is the root of my problems with both.

 

I'm going to set everything up from scratch, including the firmware.  Can the Rev D use the latest bios (1.6)?

 

Which FDISK file is used -- I want the "new" partitioning scheme (whose name escapes me at the moment)?

 

Any other suggestions would be most welcome.

 

Thanks,

Larry

[flashjazzcat]

The partitioning scheme you're thinking of is APT. FDISK should already be on the SDX ROM already, although it appears to be missing from the currently available SDX build for IDE Plus 2.0 on the DLT site. There's a permalink for the stand-alone and CAR versions of the tool here:

 

http://atari8.co.uk/dlt/

 

You can use the SDX Imaging Tool to place the files from the SDXCAR ZIP file into the CAR: device on the SDX ROM. Insert the small 'FDISK.COM' file and the 'OVL' files, and make sure the hidden (+H) attribute is set on the OVL files, otherwise it won't work. Alternatively, you can just run the stand-alone FDISK.COM file from the BIN directory.

[Rybags]

On the subject (sort of) - I've never updated mine so can you flash straight to the latest firmware?

Likely I'm on a very old version as I was a fairly early adopter.

 

And once updated, is there anything else that has to be done?

I'd probably start again re media, I've recently scrapped a couple of over 15 YO laptops with the specific intention of trying out a real drive with the +2.

[flashjazzcat]

I've had no problems updating my older (Rev D) device to the latest available BIOS.

[+Larry]

Hi Jon-

 

I should have added to my post that I use MyDos.  My Current bios in both the D devices is 2.0. I actually have an E (so I haven't used the D's in years), but the E has issues with losing its settings when powered off.  So I've gone back to the D.

 

I hate to ask such a basic question, but what file is used to flash the firmware?  I downloaded the APT Toolkit for 1.6, but it has only UFLASH on it, which was for the Ult 1 Meg.  Even if I load UFLASH, it wants to know if I have an Ultimate or Incognito. So surely UFLASH is not used to flash the IDE+2.  In the meantime, I'll keep looking, but if you can point me in the correct (MyDos) direction, I'd certainly be grateful. I keep getting no results when I try to search the forum, so either I'm doing something wrong, or the search function in the new software has issues.  (Edit -- I see the bios has .COM file, so I need to use that.  Slowly this stuff is coming back to me.)

 

[flashjazzcat]

55 minutes ago, Larry said:

 

I should have added to my post that I use MyDos.  My Current bios in both the D devices is 2.0.

 

The highest BIOS revision number appears to be 1.6:

 

 

NVRAM data loss appears to have been addressed in Rev. 1.4. Here's the full changelog:

 

Spoiler

1.6
---

* the hardware revision test will now be executed before everything else.
* added extra validation pass for the NV-RAM contents, so that the data will certainly be reset to defaults when the V3021 RTC is defective or missing.
* added support for the DS1307 RTC.
* the BIOS menu, after "IDE+2.0", will now display a letter corresponding to the hardware revision detected by the BIOS: C, D, E (= rev. E with V3021 RTC), or F (= rev. E with DS1307 RTC).
* the Boot drive number was not taken into account after Ctrl/B. Fixed now, thanks FJC for reporting this.
* on rev. E the menu option disabling and enabling the SpartaDOS X module will now work as an equivalent to the physical switch.
* forcing cold boot with Select/Reset or Help/Reset caused the ATRs to be unmounted. Thanks ProWizard for reporting this.
* the WP switch was not effective with the $20 device (= physical drive). Thanks to ProWizard for reporting this.

1.5a
----

* fixed wrong address at one JMP: APT fdisk now works.
* the flasher replaced, fixes in the PBI detection routine.
* KMKDIAG now version 1.46.

1.5
---

* KMKDIAG now version 1.45.
* the X key is now ignored during warm starts.
* RECOVER.BIN updated for the IDE+ rev. E and made more user-friendly.
* the built-in flasher in the BIOS??.COM executable updated for the rev. E hardware.
* verification pass added to the flasher to ensure that the flash ROM contents is correct.
* also added a CRC-32 check to ensure that the binary has not been damaged.
* sectors 1-3 from a DD partition (with 256-byte sectors) are now by default loaded as 128-byters. This prevents MAC/65 from hanging when used with a DOS booted from a DD partition. Thanks go to Marius Diepenhorst (ProWizard) for finding out what the problem was.
* if at the boot time the drive number passed from the OS is not 1, do not remap it to our boot drive.
* minor corrections in the USpeed code (setting variables which are not used, but their values may be looked for by other SIO drivers like in disk based SpartaDOS or such).
* fixed seemingly bad reentrancy problem in the RTC routines, which resulted in occasional screen garbage and such effects when using TD Line under SpartaDOS X.
* printers (SIO devices $4x) excluded from being handled by the internal SIO.
* IDE+2.0 rev. E support: IRQ switch, WP switch.
* fixed a bug in the IRQ initialization.
* fixed zero page corruption problem in the IRQ routines (thanks, phaeron, for pointing that out!)

1.4
---

* selecting an ATR from the binary loader will now disable the "CONFIG disk" and "BOOT disk" selections in the menu temporarily. This is to prevent problems with custom OS-es which feature disk boot selection.

* fixed a bug in the code which retries last I/O operation.

* added program XMENU.COM which invokes IDE+ menu to the screen. It is useful if the START key in your computer has stopped working.

* added internal vectors allowing to divert the basic I/O routines themselves to someplace else. Especially 65C816 turbo boards may be interested in using them to speedup I/O with a driver loaded to Fast RAM.

* while the binary loader sets boot?=1 to fulfill requirements of some game cracks, it will now also set dosini to a clc/rts.

* fixed a problem with mounting write-protected ATR images R/W (using ATRM /X).

* fixed a problem with mounted ATR rotation.

* KMKDIAG: update to v.1.43.

* holding the X key down during power-up/cold restart will disable the SpartaDOS X module even if it was enabled in the menu (Note: SDX combo OPTION+Esc should have similar effects).

* fixed a typo in the init routines: as a result these sometimes used to mess up the MEMTOP value.

* fixed a minor bug in the NVRAM handling, as a side effect expect the NVRAM settings to get reset at first reboot.

1.3
---

* added binary loader kludges to run a demo called "Studio Dream".

* when starting binary loader, External Cartridge will not be unconditionally switched off, but it will be either activated or deactivated according to NV-RAM settings (option External cart in the menu).

* fixed SpartaDOS 3 subdirectory access in the binary loader.

* changed operation of "Boot drive" option in the main menu. It now has a sub-option "D1: swap". When the sub-option is "off", everything is as before, i.e. the system boots from the specified drive. When it is "on", the system boots from D1:, but both drives (D1: and the specified one) drives are swapped; the specified drive will be seen as D1: (and vice versa) even after the boot.

* fixed a bug in handling single-density (128 bytes per sector) partitions. This does not affect IDE+ media, but may be important when interchanging data with other HDD interfaces (like SIDE).

* added support for write-protection switch present in rev. D interfaces.

* APT SPEC: added support to new APT global metadata flag.

* swapped options "Slave drive" and "Quick disable" in the menu.

* the BIOS updater will now ask the user if to continue searching for IDE+ device, when it finds an empty PBI ROM.

* APT API: fixed bug in DISKINFO command: device sub-id field returned was off by 1.

* APT SPEC: added support for new type of APT partitions ($03 - external MBR DOS partition).

* APT API corrections: STATUS command for device $20 (raw disk) will now return a value of $40 in first byte of the block returned (instead of a 0).

* APT API: STATUS command for device $31 will also return set bit 6 (+$40) of the first byte of the status block, for a partition or ATR with 512-byte sectors.

* APT API: likewise, it will set bit 7 (+$80) for partitions with 128-byte logical sectors and 1040 sectors size.

* APT API: DEVINFO command will now return controller name string at offset $30 of the returned buffer.

* internal SIO now will not handle SIO devices $4x, $5x, $7x.

* multiple (up to 15) ATR files can now be mounted at the same time.

* added a (fake) FORMAT DISK command to the ATR I/O subsystem, so that you can now "format" ATR files with DOS-es and programs which do not support soft formatting.

* added mounted ATR rotation after pressing the additional button present in rev. ? ATRs are rotated towards lower disk ids, e.g. if you have mounted FOO.ATR as D1:, BAR.ATR as D2: and FOOBAR.ATR as D7:, pressing the button will shift the assignments so that BAR.ATR becomes D1:, FOOBAR.ATR will be D2: and FOO.ATR becomes D7:.

1.2
---

* Shift/Reset deactivated the interface permanently, i.e. next Reset did not restore the operation as intended.

* fixed subtle bug in US SIO routines which sometimes resulted in returning status $01 instead of 138 when the drive in question was not present.

1.1
---

* fixed bug in the RTC routines: wrong weekdays were displayed for December due to a typo in an internal table.

 

Download updates here:

 

http://drac030.krap.pl/en-kmkjz-pliki.php

Edited June 19, 2019 by flashjazzcat

[Roydea6]

Larry, I had one of my Rev D IDE +20 go bad with a easy fix of just replacing the IDE 2 CF adapter ..

And I use MyDos with one of my IDE +20..  First 9 partitions for MyDos and J through O as SpartaDos .  Using Bios16 and the latest Uflash and also added the Fdisk files as Jon stated.

 

 

Edited June 19, 2019 by rdea6

[+Larry]

Ah, yes... I meant bios 1.2. 

 

On my E, I have bios 1.5 or 1.6, so I presume the fix carried through.  (?) Simius indicated it is a hardware issue and not fixable except to replace it with an F (or leaving it powered by separate power supply.)  Do you have any other info?  There was a "fix" that I applied shortly after getting it initially which added or replaced the electrolytic cap near the power jack.  That worked for a year or so, then it started losing the settings again. Maybe a "supercap"?  ?

 

[flashjazzcat]

Oh: I didn't realise the Rev. E boards had a design fault which couldn't be mitigated in software. Unfortunately I don't have any info on the matter.

 

[Rybags]

Mine is a Rev C - does this limit me?  Seems there's 1 bank and 2 bank devices (1.5K each) which can limit what firmware is used.

[flashjazzcat]

33 minutes ago, Rybags said:

Mine is a Rev C - does this limit me?  Seems there's 1 bank and 2 bank devices (1.5K each) which can limit what firmware is used.

I think we're talking about two different devices here. The 'version 1.0' KMK/JZ IDE host adapter is also known as the 'IDEa', and lacks the RTC, on-board SDX, cart slot, etc. The older boards have the BIOS on an EPROM (not flashable in-situ) and I think only certain revisions had bank-switching logic which permitted the use of a secondary 1.5K code bank. I designed a number of APT firmwares for this device, targeting both 1.5K and 3K ROM sizes (note the download has been unavailable for a while since I'm updating it).

 

If you're interested in testing the updated APT firmware for the IDEa, let me know, since I'll be getting back to it presently. Another forum member is still waiting for me to send him a copy on EPROM when I get it fixed up.

 

The IDE Plus 2.0 (certainly up to Rev. D) has a comparatively vast amount of firmware ROM space, as well as two separate flash ROMs, one containing SDX and another entirely unused by the stock firmware.

[+Larry]

I looked back through my correspondence, and evidently it is the RTC chip on the E devices that results in the settings being lost when powered off. I used a 1500 uF cap on mine which worked for a long time, but ultimately that "fix" failed.

 

 

[flashjazzcat]

The issue mustn't have been widely publicised, since I can find nothing about it.

 

[+Larry]

I was successful in setting up the first of my D devices.  The bios flashed to 1.6 without issue.  Then I successfully used the APT FDISK to set up my D1: partition. Right now, I'm sector copying the drive data.  Passes VTOCFIX.COM, so I think I'm all set. Setting up the other Rev D should be quite easy.

 

Jon, are there any other docs for FDISK.COM?  I.E. a step-by-step of what has to be added to the APT table when setting up the partition.  Not saying there should be, just asking if it exists.

 

-Larry

[flashjazzcat]

9 minutes ago, Larry said:

 

Jon, are there any other docs for FDISK.COM?  I.E. a step-by-step of what has to be added to the APT table when setting up the partition.  Not saying there should be, just asking if it exists.

 

There should be... and there is:

 

https://atari8.co.uk/apt/documentation/

 

User manual is top of the list, and Konrad's APT spec (at the bottom) delves into the actual partition table structure for those interested.

[+Larry]

Thanks! 

I downloaded and read it -- outstanding!

[Rybags]

We're talking the same thing - problem is the page I read on Drac's site seemed to be referring to the older device and I thought it was for the IDE +2.

 

http://drac030.krap.pl/en-kmkjz-info.php

Edited June 20, 2019 by Rybags

[flashjazzcat]

?

[+CharlieChaplin]

22 hours ago, Larry said:

I looked back through my correspondence, and evidently it is the RTC chip on the E devices that results in the settings being lost when powered off. I used a 1500 uF cap on mine which worked for a long time, but ultimately that "fix" failed.

 

 

 

Aha, good to know. Sold my Rev. B (?) some years ago and bought a newer Rev. E (cartridge sized, with polish cart. shell) afterwards. Maybe it's time to sell my Rev. E now, have not used it anyways, since I bought it...