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How to set up SD Sparta dos hard drive?


gs80065xe

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I would like to setup my Atari to behave like a pc with a hard drive. I have Lotharek’s SIO2SD and SIO2USB. The MyDos the SIO2SD is OK. But I would prefer to use the Sparta DOS command line shell. Is there a way to configure my Atari to boot a Sparta DOS 16mg disk image? And load ATR programs from the command line like we did on DOS PC’s? I worry powering off the Atari every time I want to load a different program will cause the power switch to fail. I had one on XF551 freeze on me before.

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Setup a 16meg atr file on either device. if you cannot, use an emulator to create one, get spartados x or better on emulator to build the directory. copy file to device sd card or usb stick.

If you are going to use a disk based version of sparta, copy desired version (3.2 or latter) onto the atr using whatever means you desire and use boot command.

If using spartaX or newer. You are complete.

Make sure sio2usb has latest firmware. Early versions didn't handle large partitions properly. ie close to when it was 1st released.

 

James

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If you need assistance in any step, please let us know.

 

1. Create 16MB atr (65535 sectors, double density -> 256 bytes/sector). There are several ways doing this. 

2. Put ATR from step 1 in D3: of your Sio2SD

3. Put SpartaDos 3.2g or 3.3b ATR on D1:

4. Boot the Atari. SpartaDos will be booted if everything is right.

5. Start the tool HDINIT (I hope it is on the spartados disk in D1:)

6. Format the HD partition in D3: (the ATR from Step 1)

7. Copy from D1: the SpartaDos file to D3: (like X32G.DOS)

8. Go to D3: by typing D3: followed by RETURN

9. Type BOOT X32G.DOS (if that was the SpartaDos systemfile)

10. Your partition is now ready to be used. Swap D3: to D1: and you can boot.

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Thank you for the information. I have Sparta Dos 3.2 on floppies. But think SpartaDos X would be better. Where’s the best place to get it? I know there used to be a cartridge version. But I haven’t found it for sale anywhere. But booting off SD would be preferable. It frees up the cart slot.

Edited by gs80065xe
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6 minutes ago, gs80065xe said:

Than you for the information. I have Sparta Dos 3.2 on floppies. But think SpartaDos X would be better. Where’s the best place to get it? I know there used to be a cartridge version. But I haven’t found it for sale anywhere. But booting off SD would be preferable. It frees up the cart slot.

SDX is always on hardware. This can be cart (like  SDX cart, atarimax, sic, Myide, Side) internal (like U1MB) or external (like on Ide+)

 

On atari level you can say that SDX is always on cart. That is how it is designed. You can't get SDX in your atari loading it from disk.

 

Of course you could have SDX on cart and then have a disk booted from D1. But that is then a disk with an autoexec.bat

 

 

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3 hours ago, gs80065xe said:

Thank you for the information. I have Sparta Dos 3.2 on floppies. But think SpartaDos X would be better. Where’s the best place to get it? I know there used to be a cartridge version. But I haven’t found it for sale anywhere. But booting off SD would be preferable. It frees up the cart slot.

Dropcheck sells a version of the SpartaDOS X cartridge PCB that also includes RTC, it doesn't include the cartridge shell but there is one available. This has a cartridge port pass-thru, just like the original ICD versions.

Super SDX PCB: https://www.bitsofthepast.com/?product=super-spartados-pcb

Super SDX case: https://corei64.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&path=62_87&product_id=67

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I followed Marius’ instructions using v4.1 Atari 800 emulator on Linux. Everything works fine on the emulator. The atr file is created. Will boot on the emulator. But, it will not boot on real hardware. Few beeps and freezes with the cursor in upper left hand corner. Does the same thing for the diskette atr files. Tried several Sparta dos art files downloaded from two sites. One 3.2 atr I had for years. One I just downloaded from here. http://ftp.pigwa.net/stuff/collections/holmes%20cd/
 

Even the 3.2g fails. Tried booting both the xf551 and sio2sd, but goes to basic. Changing the sio2sd device number in its settings didn’t help.

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5 hours ago, gs80065xe said:

Even the 3.2g fails. Tried booting both the xf551 and sio2sd, but goes to basic

Do you get the READY prompt immediately or after a delay? If it was delayed DOS may have loaded, but with BASIC enabled you end up at the READY prompt. If it was loaded typing "DOS" will take you to the command line.

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The atr is probably wrong structure. Have had this issue too. Emulator boots it but real hw don't. Has something to do with the header of the atr and the size.

 

Is there another way for you to create the 16mb atr? Mine were created with atari800mac and they were not working on real hw.

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6 hours ago, BillC said:

Do you get the READY prompt immediately or after a delay? If it was delayed DOS may have loaded, but with BASIC enabled you end up at the READY prompt. If it was loaded typing "DOS" will take you to the command line.

No delay. Boot’s like nothing is plugged in the SIO port.

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Booted MyDos that came with SIO2SD on D1. Mounted the hard disk ATR ON D2. My dos shows gibberish and about 1900 sectors on D2. 
 

I was able to boot the Turbo BASIC XL ATR I got from AtariMania. But it has MyDOS. None of the Sparta DOS ATR files will boot on real hardware.

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Your ATR is correct in itself. I booted it successfully from SIO (using RespeQt, at 57600 bps) and from a real HDD (IDE+ 32 MB partition). So the problem must be in the configuration of your SIO2SD. Maybe the serial speed you selected is still too high for SpartaDOS, try something like 52-57 kbps (POKEY divisor from 8 to 10).

 

By the way, many programs you have collected on that ATR in the SD_UTILS directory are SpartaDOS X programs which will not run under SpartaDOS 3.2. For example: CONFIG, ECHO, INIDOS, KILLDIR, MDUMP, NEW, RUN, TOMS, TRACE, TTD, VIEW. Most of them is so old that I doubt if they could run even under modern versions of SpartaDOS X.

 

And, by the way...

 

Seeing KILLDIR.COM in there truly touched my heart. It was my first ever program written for SpartaDOS X (then version 4.20) with the use of the SpartaDOS X library calls and compiled into the native, relocatable SDX binary format. I still have the source code, it is dated 21 Sept 1993, which must have been the day I last touched it. Since there was no appropriate assembler which would allow to generate the relocatable binary (no Mads, not even Fast Assembler yet), the source code is named KILLDIR.M65 - yes, MAC/65. All the fixups and stuff generated as blocks of .BYTE data, plus probably a helper program (I do not have it) which fixed the header afterwards. We had no information on the SDX internals (nobody had, as far as I know), so all the stuff: that it is there, what it is, and how to use it, had to be gathered first by analyzing the binary code.

 

The program lives until now, cleaned up, debugged, enhanced, renamed, compiled with Mads, but still the same: it is CAR:DELTREE.COM in the current SpartaDOS X distributions.

 

MDUMP.COM is probably mine too, and I too still have the source: same M65 format, same stuff as above. And it is MDUMP.COM until this day (CAR:MDUMP.COM).

 

Man, people were doing such stuff when the world was young :)

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Thanks. I tried setting high speed to off this weekend. But maybe it didn't save. The fastest I can get SpartaDos 3.2 to boot is at 58K. 

 

I got it from the FTP site a mentioned above. Along with SD 3.2g. I had 3.2d from way back. Thought I got it from AtariMania. But when I looked this weekend, I found only 1.0. So I found the ones on the Holmes ftp site to try. And with it were these utility atr files.

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