SDX 80-column E: driver to replace

[drac030]

Fellows who have VBXE and use SDX + S_VBXE driver + 80-column CON: driver (CON.SYS), please enable the 80-column mode (CON 80 at the DOS prompt), then enter a BASIC interpreter (BASIC, TB, UBI), and run this program:

 

5 ? CHR$(125):A=PEEK(711)
10 FOR X=0 TO 15
15   FOR Y=0 TO 15
20     POKE 711,X*16+Y:POSITION Y,X:? CHR$(32+128);
25   NEXT Y
30 NEXT X
35 POKE 711,A

 

If the display looks like this:

 

 

and not like this:

 

 

you have the CON.SYS driver to replace. Please try this one:

 

vcon.zip

 

(of course backing up the old one just in case).

 

[+Stephen]

Getting some strange behaviour with this.  I have the following lines in my config file in this order:

DEVICE QUICKED

SET SCRDEF=12,148

S_VBXE.SYS /X

VCON.sys 0 /E

 

When I 1st get to the command processor, the "CON: driver installed" is correctly displayed in white.  The SDX info is displayed green (standard OS 204 I believe).  After I type DIR a few times, all the text eventually turns white and stays white.  This happens after an entire screen full of text scrolls.

 

Pressing reset makes the text go back to green again, but after scrolling a few times, it reverts to white.

[drac030]

Does it get any better if you define the default colors as the parameters to S_VBXE? I.e. S_VBXE 12,148 /X (the .SYS extension is assumed inside the config.sys, BTW.) Otherwise the driver will inherit the colors from the OS. Hence, I guess, the appearance of the green.

 

The $SCRDEF is a COMMAND.COM variable, and it is (should be) taken into account when the COMMAND.COM get loaded. So if different colors are set for the video driver and the COMMAND.COM, strange-looking things may indeed happen to the display.

Edited March 31, 2020 by drac030

[Roydea6]

20 hours ago, drac030 said:

you have the CON.SYS driver to replace. Please try this one:

 

This zip file does not unzip for me..

[drac030]

Oups... it seems it is a misnamed TGZ. Sorry for that. Here is a proper ARC which should unpack on Atari without a problem:

 

concon.arc

[+Stephen]

8 hours ago, drac030 said:

Does it get any better if you define the default colors as the parameters to S_VBXE? I.e. S_VBXE 12,148 /X (the .SYS extension is assumed inside the config.sys, BTW.) Otherwise the driver will inherit the colors from the OS. Hence, I guess, the appearance of the green.

 

The $SCRDEF is a COMMAND.COM variable, and it is (should be) taken into account when the COMMAND.COM get loaded. So if different colors are set for the video driver and the COMMAND.COM, strange-looking things may indeed happen to the display.

Works perfectly now!  Thanks a bunch, for that, and the updated VCON driver.

[Mark2008]

This is interesting.

 

So on my 130XE with Side2 cart, it loads autoexec.bat, but ignores config.sys, which literally does nothing on that machine.  And eventually I figured out, the issue is it is simply not finding or reading config.sys.  Does not matter if I specify a drive, or use default pathing.

 

However, on my 1200XL, which has U1MB, config.sys and autoexec.bat both work....I can either turn on PBI bios and specify in the config which drive to find config.sys, or turn that off, and normally I do have it off, due to the fact that disables my cartridge port completely.

 

So I"m slowly figuring out which instructions work on which set of equipment.

 

And that takes me to finding this thread again.   So on the 1200xl, which does respect the config.sys, I add, S_VBXE 12,148 /X,

 

which gives me white!   For a very short period of time!

 

Then it turns back yellow again.   This might be as expected, I don't know.   SO, it turns white, yellow, white, yellow at various steps in the bootup, but it is right now in 80 column mode, white, at a d1: prompt.  I have Mac/65 in the cartridge port. 

 

I type car..  Now I'm in Mac/65 with white fonts and 80 column text, sweet!     I type DOS.  It is now yellow again, boo!

I type car again, it is yellow still.

 

I'm sure I don't understand why it turns back to yellow, anyone know how to keep it white?

 

BTW, I tried SET SCRDEF=12,148 and now it hilariously changes from white to yellow, yellow to white, white to yellow as I move around the system.

 

 

 

[Mark2008]

[drac030]

20 minutes ago, Mark2008 said:

from white to yellow, yellow to white, white to yellow as I move around the system.

You must have somehow managed to setup conflicting settings in various places, therefore they try to override one another. Also, MAC/65 usually sets own colors, so no wonder the settings change when you load it.

 

[flashjazzcat]

21 minutes ago, Mark2008 said:

So on my 130XE with Side2 cart, it loads autoexec.bat, but ignores config.sys, which literally does nothing on that machine.  And eventually I figured out, the issue is it is simply not finding or reading config.sys.  Does not matter if I specify a drive, or use default pathing.

I am not sure if I addressed this query elsewhere already, but to recap: a SIDE2 without U1MB will never read CONFIG.SYS from the hard disk at boot time since it is the ROM-based CONFIG.SYS (on the SDX CAR: device) which installs the SIDE driver which provides access to said hard disk.

 

The reason this does work with U1MB/SIDE2 is that the HDD is then driven by a PBI BIOS which intercepts SIO transfers from the moment the OS starts the boot process.

[Mark2008]

1 minute ago, flashjazzcat said:

I am not sure if I addressed this query elsewhere already, but to recap: a SIDE2 without U1MB will never read CONFIG.SYS from the hard disk at boot time since it is the ROM-based CONFIG.SYS (on the SDX CAR: device) which installs the SIDE driver which provides access to said hard disk.

 

The reason this does work with U1MB/SIDE2 is that the HDD is then driven by a PBI BIOS which intercepts SIO transfers from the moment the OS starts the boot process.

Thanks for repeating (if it is a repeat).  Because I didn't see this before, but great!  That solves that mystery.

 

I may have to simply install a u1mb in my systems.  Having a SDX without config.sys ability, doesn't seem like what I want to do.

[Mark2008]

4 minutes ago, drac030 said:

You must have somehow managed to setup conflicting settings in various places, therefore they try to override one another. Also, MAC/65 usually sets own colors, so no wonder the settings change when you load it.

 

@drac030

 

I definitely appreciate any  help, but I will say I setup config.sys for the first time today, it isn't any ancient install where I may have forgotten something, and I tried to change colors based on this thread only....

 

Hmmm, well, the best course of action is to havew a completely cut down config.sys and see if it makes a difference, then, ok,....will try that.

[drac030]

Here is a (file) version of MAC/65 which should not change colors: http://drac030.krap.pl/en-fixes.php

 

The colors are by default inherited by the S_VBXE from the OS. The green text looks like it definitely came from the OS. To override you should give the desired colors in the S_VBXE command line: S_VBXE f,b where f = foregound, b= background.

 

Now there is $SCRDEF which defines color and margin settings for COMMAND.COM. This gets in effect whenever COMMAND.COM gets loaded. The settings of the screen driver and $SCRDEF in your system are probably conflicting, better unset $SCRDEF if you have set it, or just omit the color parameters in it.

 

[Mark2008]

OK, first, I did copy config.sys from the car device.  This is on the 1200xl with u1mb.

 

That gave me this starting point for config.sys

 

DEVICE SPARTA OSRAM

DEVICE SIO

DEVICE ATARIDOS

DEVICE INDUS 4

DEVICE ULTIME

DEVICE JIFFY

DEVICE RAMDISK

 

Then I added:

DEVICE \DRIVERS\S_VBXE 12,148 /X

DEVICE \DRIVERS\CON.SYS

SET SCRDEF=12,148

 

Even though there are flashes of yellow, it is not behaving as before, and is mostly white.

 

 

I'm going to stop troubleshooting, this 1200XL is flaky, it just jumped to altirra OS, that isn't cool.

 

No point in troubleshooting on a flaky machine that does random things, nothing can be verified.  I just got tempted back into it, because the 130XE doesn't have vbxe, and being a side2 system, cannot alter the config.sys

 

 

My bad.  I do have a system being built since December, it just takes a while to get a system together that requires internal parts ---ok, I'll go back to programming on the emulator.

 

 

[Mark2008]

10 minutes ago, drac030 said:

Here is a (file) version of MAC/65 which should not change colors: http://drac030.krap.pl/en-fixes.php

 

The colors are by default inherited by the S_VBXE from the OS. The green text looks like it definitely came from the OS. To override you should give the desired colors in the S_VBXE command line: S_VBXE f,b where f = foregound, b= background.

 

Now there is $SCRDEF which defines color and margin settings for COMMAND.COM. This gets in effect whenever COMMAND.COM gets loaded. The settings of the screen driver and $SCRDEF in your system are probably conflicting, better unset $SCRDEF if you have set it, or just omit the color parameters in it.

 

oh thanks for that!

 

[+Stephen]

50 minutes ago, Mark2008 said:

OK, first, I did copy config.sys from the car device.  This is on the 1200xl with u1mb.

 

That gave me this starting point for config.sys

 

DEVICE SPARTA OSRAM

DEVICE SIO

DEVICE ATARIDOS

DEVICE INDUS 4

DEVICE ULTIME

DEVICE JIFFY

DEVICE RAMDISK

 

Then I added:

DEVICE \DRIVERS\S_VBXE 12,148 /X

DEVICE \DRIVERS\CON.SYS

SET SCRDEF=12,148

 

 

Add the colour settings also, to your CON.SYS driver.  I had this exact same issue, until I made this change.

[BillC]

1 hour ago, Mark2008 said:

I may have to simply install a u1mb in my systems.  Having a SDX without config.sys ability, doesn't seem like what I want to do.

IIRC you can also have CONFIG.SYS on an SDX formatted floppy on D1:, this could be a physical drive or an ATR on an Sdrive/SIO2PC/SIO2SD/etc.

[+Stephen]

29 minutes ago, BillC said:

IIRC you can also have CONFIG.SYS on an SDX formatted floppy on D1:, this could be a physical drive or an ATR on an Sdrive/SIO2PC/SIO2SD/etc.

Also keep in mind - the main config.sys file will rarely need to change.  Use a floppy in D1, with a SPARTA.DOS subdirectory in it.  Once you get the debugging done, you can use a tool to write that config.sys back to your CAR device.  The way the tool works is, you modify the ROM and re-burn it.

 

Now - I VERY much recommend an Ultimate 1MB device, especially if SDX will be your main use case.  Extra RAM will not help for games, but under SDX it just opens up a world of possibilities.

[Gunstar]

I've been using config.sys on a Sparta D1: boot floppy for years and have never updated it on CAR: because it's much easier for me to just update the floppy disk config.sys when ever I want too, with no re-flashing hassles at all. But then I like to use my floppy drives still (which are all upgraded for HSIO as much as possible anyway). It's just my preference and for my convenience.

 

I do it with SpartaDOS X cartridge with MyIDE II piggy-backed on my 1200XL with 32-in-1 OS instead of U1MB (I also use alternative extended memory options) and I do it for my Incognito so I can use some older stuff that only runs on SpartaDOS 3.2/3.3, like ATOS, so I can bypass SpartaDOS X and still make use of my HDD CF. I'll be doing the same with Snapshot if it won't work with SDX, though I haven't had time to check it out yet.

 

U1MB and Incognito are great, but U1Mb is not the end-all be-all of upgrades, for XL/XE's, to me anyway. On the other hand, Incognito is pretty much the end-all be-all for 800 owners who want to enjoy what XL/XE owners can do with upgrades. I enjoy my MyIDE II and SDX cart and alternate OS and memory upgrades every bit as much as my Incognito and they work, in their own way, every bit as well, for me.

Edited February 8, 2021 by Gunstar

[Gunstar]

3 hours ago, Stephen said:

Add the colour settings also, to your CON.SYS driver.  I had this exact same issue, until I made this change.

Yep, I change the color settings too, at boot-strapping, though I have them in an autoexec.sys on the HDD partition I have config.sys boot to, but either way will work. I do this because I have several floppies with config.sys that boot to different partitions that I have set up for different things, and a different autoexec.sys on each partition using a different color scheme so I know I'm in a particular set-up. I do this with Incognito HDD partitions too, and of course different colors in the Incognito BIOS for the different machine configurations I use.

Edited February 8, 2021 by Gunstar

[andyhants]

On 2/8/2021 at 3:06 AM, Gunstar said:

On 2/7/2021 at 11:33 PM, Stephen said:

Add the colour settings also, to your CON.SYS driver.  I had this exact same issue, until I made this change.

 

Yep, I change the color settings too, at boot-strapping, though I have them in an autoexec.sys on the HDD partition I have config.sys boot to, but either way will work. I do this because I have several floppies with config.sys that boot to different partitions that I have set up for different things, and a different autoexec.sys on each partition using a different color scheme so I know I'm in a particular set-up. I do this with Incognito HDD partitions too, and of course different colors in the Incognito BIOS for the different machine configurations I use.

Hi can anyone please advise how I set the above. According to the SDX manual the CON driver (from the SDX Toolkit) accepts arguments for left margin &  couple of key / repeat thingys - but nothing on passing arguments for setting color settings ?

 

Thanks

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by andyhants

[+Stephen]

I took a look at the config I am using and this is what I have:
S_VBXE.SYS $0C, $90 /X (This sets character colour to $0C, background colour to $90, and clears screen)

SET SCRDEF = $0C, $90

 

If you are not using VBXE, RC_GR8.sys works the same way.  Also, when switching back to 40 column mode, the SCRDEF setting ensures they will match.

 

If using VBXE, the DIRCOLORS variable is a fun one to set.  That takes 4 parameters for directory, file, protected directory, protected file.

[andyhants]

19 hours ago, Stephen said:

I took a look at the config I am using and this is what I have:
S_VBXE.SYS $0C, $90 /X (This sets character colour to $0C, background colour to $90, and clears screen)

SET SCRDEF = $0C, $90

 

If you are not using VBXE, RC_GR8.sys works the same way.  Also, when switching back to 40 column mode, the SCRDEF setting ensures they will match.

 

If using VBXE, the DIRCOLORS variable is a fun one to set.  That takes 4 parameters for directory, file, protected directory, protected file.

 

On 2/8/2021 at 3:06 AM, Gunstar said:

Add the colour settings also, to your CON.SYS driver.  I had this exact same issue, until I made this change.

Sorry perhaps I misunderstood - when you said the above I thought you were saying that you pass arguments to CON.SYS for color settings - which according to the SDX manual you cant do, hence my question. I have added various color arguments for S_VBXE & used the same for SET SCRDEF - however I cant seem to get consitent colors between 40 & 80 col modes. When I first go to 80 col the text comes up as white & then when I come back to 40 cols the text is first green then after a DIR, white. OD I just have to live with that or is that unusual do you think?

 

It also seems unstable - it crashes Altirra regularly when I'm in the 80 col mode - is this something others suffer ?

[+Stephen]

1 hour ago, andyhants said:

When I first go to 80 col the text comes up as white & then when I come back to 40 cols the text is first green then after a DIR, white.

This is a bug which I also experience.  You can type EXIT once you are back in 40 cols and it will also fix it.  I have not experienced any crashes in 80 column mode, in Altirra or real hardware.

[kenames99]

thanks drac030