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Weird ROMPAGE behaviour...


Brufnus

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Hi everybody,

 

First of all, let me apologize for any display of ignorance; despite the fact that I've had the TI-99 since the mid 80's and the Geneve shortly after, I haven't been using it for several years and also, I'm rather cut off from any other TI users... the few that remains.

 

Anyway, I've finally started using it again, and even managed to get my two RAMDISK's batteries and the 9640's RTC battery replaced, so that it now remembers both the time and the contents of my HRD's. :-D

 

Initially everything worked fine - my MDOS 6.50 with a GPL with the same version #, a total of about 1,5 MEG thanks to a MEMEX, my HFDC and the two Horizons.

However, suddenly - after replacing the RTC battery and doing some online work on the Horizons - nothing special - it has started to freeze (again, it did that the last time I worked with it, but I had forgotten about that), whenever I try to execute the ROMPAGE - whether it's by F5 from the menu or from an external file. The screen simply turns green or something, and I have to do a power cycle to get it working again.

I believe it's because some area in the memory is being falsely written to... any suggestions?

 

(I haven't tried the recent MDOS 7.30 yet; I look forward to that and perhaps that will solve the problem, too..)

 

Regards from

Bruno, Denmark

 

P.S. Thanks Tim, for enabling me to work with the MEMEX enhanced Geneve once again...! I'm forever grateful for the work, you did for me!

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41 minutes ago, Brufnus said:

Regards from

Bruno, Denmark

 

P.S. Thanks Tim, for enabling me to work with the MEMEX enhanced Geneve once again...! I'm forever grateful for the work, you did for me!

 

Good to see you on AtariAge, Bruno :)  

 

What program did you use to format the Horizon ramdisks and what CRU addresses?   It sounds as if you used ROS and CFG, which are not really meant to be used with the Geneve.   Let us know.

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Thanks, Patroller! :-D

 

Problem solved! I had my config messed up because it's the first time ever I've had more than one Horizon in my PEB. I had reconfigured my original HRD to >1600 and my "new" one to >1400; however, they didn't like that config... now I tried with the original one only, set at >1400 and assigned as DSK6/H:, and now my ROMPAGE works again.

 

I suppose I should be able to install the other one at >1600 now, and still have it working.

 

The HRD I'm using now, is not recognized by the ROS CFG utility, the other one is... the latter was formatted using FORM123, and the old one I've always formatted from BASIC with the CALL HDSZ() statement.

 

Damn, it's fun working with that Geneve again! :-D Modern PC's may be faster and more efficient, but they lack the spirit and fun of the old TI-99's, Geneve's Amiga's, etc...

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...well, not entirely. c".)

 

When reinstalling the 2nd HRD (at >1600), it does the same again with my ROMPAGE. I guess I'll have to experiment a little in order for it to accept the 2nd one. Really, I had no idea the ROMPAGE was affected by the RAMdisks, but I've definitely learned something new today! c",)

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Thanks, Quadrunner!

 

Yes, I've been using V9T9 some time ago, and I'll look into the MAME as well. Actually, I have two working Geneve's now, both with their own HFDC's (perhaps I should just throw one of the HRD's in the other one); what I miss the most is a SCSI controller and perhaps some of that TIPI stuff... that sounds pretty exciting.

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54 minutes ago, Brufnus said:

Thanks, Quadrunner!

 

Yes, I've been using V9T9 some time ago, and I'll look into the MAME as well. Actually, I have two working Geneve's now, both with their own HFDC's (perhaps I should just throw one of the HRD's in the other one); what I miss the most is a SCSI controller and perhaps some of that TIPI stuff... that sounds pretty exciting.

You should really consider going ahead and upgrading to MDOS 7.30 and then utilizing the GenCFG program @InsaneMultitasker wrote that will format your HRD's.  You will need to check the documentation for GenCFG as I am not sure it is compatible with the earliest HRD's.

 

The thing to be aware is that in Rompage mode, the device needs to have a DSR on the chip which then conflicts with use in MDOS.  Unless there is something more on the rare side you need to use Rompage for and to have access to the HRD, you really need to avoid that setup.  Otherwise, MDOS 7.30 will take care of everything for you within it's own DSR.  You just need to use the GenCFG program to set it up.

 

The only time I would suggest using Rompage with a HRD is if you are moving that HRD back and forth between a 4A and a Geneve.

 

Beery

 

 

 

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12 minutes ago, 9640News said:

You should really consider going ahead and upgrading to MDOS 7.30 and then utilizing the GenCFG program @InsaneMultitasker wrote that will format your HRD's.  You will need to check the documentation for GenCFG as I am not sure it is compatible with the earliest HRD's.

 

The thing to be aware is that in Rompage mode, the device needs to have a DSR on the chip which then conflicts with use in MDOS.  Unless there is something more on the rare side you need to use Rompage for and to have access to the HRD, you really need to avoid that setup.  Otherwise, MDOS 7.30 will take care of everything for you within it's own DSR.  You just need to use the GenCFG program to set it up.

 

The only time I would suggest using Rompage with a HRD is if you are moving that HRD back and forth between a 4A and a Geneve.

 

Beery

 

 

 

Hi, Beery! (Miller, is that you?)

 

Yes, I've only learned about the 7.30 a few hours ago, when I looked for any interesting stuff here. Anyway, I've been using the Rompage for TI emulation (WDS, etc.) and not done anything specifically with respect to the HRD, but it definitely does seem to affect the behaviour.

I just reformatted the 2nd HRD with FORM3MEG, and everything works again.

 

Anyway, I look forward to witness the new MDOS in action. I also happen to have an Atronic disk controller at hand; I think I'll experiment a little with that on my other Geneve/PEB and, hopefully, make it work with the PC Transfer program. As of this moment, my only option for transferring from PC is by RS232-interface... not very efficiient, I think. c".)

 

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2 minutes ago, Brufnus said:

Hi, Beery! (Miller, is that you?)

 

Yes, I've only learned about the 7.30 a few hours ago, when I looked for any interesting stuff here. Anyway, I've been using the Rompage for TI emulation (WDS, etc.) and not done anything specifically with respect to the HRD, but it definitely does seem to affect the behaviour.

I just reformatted the 2nd HRD with FORM3MEG, and everything works again.

 

Anyway, I look forward to witness the new MDOS in action. I also happen to have an Atronic disk controller at hand; I think I'll experiment a little with that on my other Geneve/PEB and, hopefully, make it work with the PC Transfer program. As of this moment, my only option for transferring from PC is by RS232-interface... not very efficiient, I think. c".)

 

Yep, that is me!

 

Been back in the group for the last 4+ years with a few contributions.

 

You have likely heard about it, but the Raspberry PI with a TIPI for the Geneve if you can acquire one, is definitely the way to go if you are transferring very many files around as it is drag and drop with a mapped folder.

 

You mentioned WDS, I assume you mean the Myarc Hard and Floppy Disk controller and not the Myarc Personality card?  If you mean the Myarc Personality Card, then it is not supported in MDOS 7.30 unless you go into Rompage mode assuming it even worked there with the earlier versions of MDOS.

 

Beery

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1 minute ago, 9640News said:

Yep, that is me!

 

Been back in the group for the last 4+ years with a few contributions.

 

You have likely heard about it, but the Raspberry PI with a TIPI for the Geneve if you can acquire one, is definitely the way to go if you are transferring very many files around as it is drag and drop with a mapped folder.

 

You mentioned WDS, I assume you mean the Myarc Hard and Floppy Disk controller and not the Myarc Personality card?  If you mean the Myarc Personality Card, then it is not supported in MDOS 7.30 unless you go into Rompage mode assuming it even worked there with the earlier versions of MDOS.

 

Beery

Yes, I thought so... Hi, Beery - there are a couple of names in this context, which I regard as being quite famous! :-D

 

Indeed; the Raspberry/TIPI has crossed my eyes a few times during the last few days, and it really sounds like something I should try and get my hands on.

Yes, it's the HFDC - I have had relatively few expansion cards since my first encounter with the TI, the first being the original TI controller when I purchased the PEB; later on I got a HFDC and a GRAM card, and finally the Geneve (which rendered the GRAM card obsolete, of course).

 

Then I purchased a 2 MEG MEMEX but never got it to work with the GENMOD, so it was shipped to the U.S. and then I never saw it again... frankly, I had given up ever receiving it back, but then Tim Tesch stepped in, sent me an overhauled Geneve and my MEMEX, which gave me a total of 1.5 MEG - not the full 2 MEG, but still quite an improvement (and he also sent me that 2nd HRD as a compensation for the waiting time, even though he had nothing to do with it...) it's a 250K disk, not much but well worth installing alongside the old 184K disk. :-D

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1 hour ago, 9640News said:

You should really consider going ahead and upgrading to MDOS 7.30 and then utilizing the GenCFG program @InsaneMultitasker wrote that will format your HRD's.  You will need to check the documentation for GenCFG as I am not sure it is compatible with the earliest HRD's.

If I recall correctly, the HRD I sent Bruno was an 8-bit Horizon card, not a Chicago ramdisk, and we already know it works with Form v1.23 so it should be OK with GenCFG. (I did not have an 8-bit ramdisk to test GenCFG).

 

2 hours ago, Brufnus said:

and the old one I've always formatted from BASIC with the CALL HDSZ() statement.

Bruno, does this ramdisk have the Peter Hoddie ramdisk EPROM installed?  I don't recognize the HDSZ command.  I don't know if it will work properly with MDOS 6.50 or MDOS 7.30.

 

Also, please keep in mind that MDOS 7.30 defaults DSK6. to a "16 bit" ramdisk, which means that you will need to use REMAP if and when you load the new OS. 

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1 hour ago, InsaneMultitasker said:

If I recall correctly, the HRD I sent Bruno was an 8-bit Horizon card, not a Chicago ramdisk, and we already know it works with Form v1.23 so it should be OK with GenCFG. (I did not have an 8-bit ramdisk to test GenCFG).

 

Bruno, does this ramdisk have the Peter Hoddie ramdisk EPROM installed?  I don't recognize the HDSZ command.  I don't know if it will work properly with MDOS 6.50 or MDOS 7.30.

 

Also, please keep in mind that MDOS 7.30 defaults DSK6. to a "16 bit" ramdisk, which means that you will need to use REMAP if and when you load the new OS. 

Oh, it's you, Tim... River Patroller? :-D Of course, had I thought about the "InsaneMultitasker"... c",)

 

Once again, thanks a lot for your efforts; I haven't had much time for any Geneve business since then, but I did get the initial setup in place and started backing up some of our old club archives, which I inherited many years ago.

I really feel like getting started again, however!

 

Yep, i think that's it... I don't recall the details, but it does have a non-standard config - the Peter Hoddie EPROM sounds correct. It adds a couple of commands to BASIC, namely CALL HDSZ(), which formats the drive, and CALL HDDN(), which assigns a drive number to it. It's merely 184 K in size, but it just manages to hold the SYSTEM/SYS along with a few system files, such as GPL, etc.

It hasn't given any problems in relation to the MDOS 6.50, except for that ROMPAGE issue... but, as mentioned, a reconfig and a reformat of the HRD you sent me, and it worked flawlessly again.

 

Anyway, I had some dead batteries on the Hoddie one, but now I finally got a proper 3-piece holder and brand new batteries installed. The other one had some corrosion between the terminals, so I cleaned this up and installed new batteries in that one as well, and now both HRD's are as healthy as ever!

The Geneve clock didn't remember it's settings, but it turned out to be just a matter of replacing the battery. Except for an unstable power supply for the hard drives - on my todo list - I should be good to go on the hardware side now.

 

I think I'm ready for the MDOS 7.30, too - I don't seem to have anything that conflicts with that version, and my HRD is already designed as DSK6, so that should be fine, as well.

 

Once again, thank you very much for all your help! :-D Our tiny club was tiny enough back in the good ol' days, but now it consists of only me... so it's hard to get any support here in Denmark nowadays, ha ha :-D

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From Denmark, even? c".) I haven't been in touch with any for several years... we used to meet once every month, only 6 or so... but then people started drifting away, until we were only a few left. And, eventually, it died completely.

 

One from Northern Germany I can think of, is Jens-Eike Hartwig. He used to attend to our meetings, but I haven't seen or heard from him in a long time, either. Hopefully I'll get in touch with some of them.

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13 hours ago, Brufnus said:

Indeed; the Raspberry/TIPI has crossed my eyes a few times during the last few days, and it really sounds like something I should try and get my hands on.

Yes, it's the HFDC - I have had relatively few expansion cards since my first encounter with the TI, the first being the original TI controller when I purchased the PEB; later on I got a HFDC and a GRAM card, and finally the Geneve (which rendered the GRAM card obsolete, of course).

 

Back about 6 years ago, I got my hands on a Geneve when I was living in Houston, TX.  My computer office was limited, and other hobbies kept me distracted somewhat.  Then, five years ago I moved to Kentucky, bought a slightly larger house, and had excess room for a nice office.  I setup two Geneves, two TI systems, three Windows systems, and a 99/5C from CADD.  

 

The big challenge for me was moving files from one system to another.  Then, Matt came out with the TIPI/PI setup, and I have both Geneve's and the two TI systems setup with TIPI's.  With Fred's DM2K(TI or Rompage Geneve) and then GDM2K (Geneve MDOS) and TIDIR, moving of files from system to system, and from Atariage to one of the systems became very simple.

 

To me, the TIPI, DM2K/GDM2K, and TIDIR are game changers pretty much allowing a way to network the systems together.

 

Another item I would suggest to be considered, and I have it on both HFDC's, is the DREM at www.DREM.info .  It replaces the hard drives, and you can have 2 x 64 MB images (HDS1 and HDS2, or WDS1/WDS2) storing the hard drive image on a SD card, allowing easy backup.  It is more pricey than a TIPI setup, but I have found well worth it for me.  Pretty much now, I can backup all my files to a Windows PC so I have the slimmest of chances of losing code, programs, etc.

 

Anyways, just wanted to point some things out to you for consideration since you just recently discovered Atariage.

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12 hours ago, Brufnus said:

From Denmark, even? c".) I haven't been in touch with any for several years... we used to meet once every month, only 6 or so... but then people started drifting away, until we were only a few left. And, eventually, it died completely.

 

One from Northern Germany I can think of, is Jens-Eike Hartwig. He used to attend to our meetings, but I haven't seen or heard from him in a long time, either. Hopefully I'll get in touch with some of them.

Jens-Eike is still quite active in the community. There are even somewhat regular meetings every year or so in Europe (on hold due to COVID). I haven't been able to get to Europe to be at one of the Treffs in a bit over ten years, but I will definitely make it to one when it aligns with my schedule again.

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5 hours ago, 9640News said:

Back about 6 years ago, I got my hands on a Geneve when I was living in Houston, TX.  My computer office was limited, and other hobbies kept me distracted somewhat.  Then, five years ago I moved to Kentucky, bought a slightly larger house, and had excess room for a nice office.  I setup two Geneves, two TI systems, three Windows systems, and a 99/5C from CADD.  

 

The big challenge for me was moving files from one system to another.  Then, Matt came out with the TIPI/PI setup, and I have both Geneve's and the two TI systems setup with TIPI's.  With Fred's DM2K(TI or Rompage Geneve) and then GDM2K (Geneve MDOS) and TIDIR, moving of files from system to system, and from Atariage to one of the systems became very simple.

 

To me, the TIPI, DM2K/GDM2K, and TIDIR are game changers pretty much allowing a way to network the systems together.

 

Another item I would suggest to be considered, and I have it on both HFDC's, is the DREM at www.DREM.info .  It replaces the hard drives, and you can have 2 x 64 MB images (HDS1 and HDS2, or WDS1/WDS2) storing the hard drive image on a SD card, allowing easy backup.  It is more pricey than a TIPI setup, but I have found well worth it for me.  Pretty much now, I can backup all my files to a Windows PC so I have the slimmest of chances of losing code, programs, etc.

 

Anyways, just wanted to point some things out to you for consideration since you just recently discovered Atariage.

Yes, I know exactly what you mean... I broke down with my old motorbike many years ago and couldn't obtain the spare parts anymore, so I ended up with buying three bikes from Switzerland (and later one more from the same guy as well as one without engine from Germany), so I probably have spare parts for the rest of my life now. :-D

It did consume quite a lot of space though; especially when I started dismantling them... c".)

 

Ok, I've never been in the U.S. but I have an idea that Kentucky is a nice place?

 

Anyway, the HFDC thing sounds pretty interesting. I guess it works like with the HRD - that it pretends to be a floppy drive, and the SD cards fools the HFDC into believing they're actually hard drives, am I right?

I remember when talks started about the SCSI controller, but things have obviously come a long way since then. Is it possible to buy that TIPI stuff from somewhere, and if so, what's the price? I'll look into that DREM stuff, that's for sure. It's probably not the best season for such things, but I do have some holiday right now, and the spring weather here in Denmark is awful, to say the least... rain most of the time, argh...! c".)

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2 hours ago, Ksarul said:

Jens-Eike is still quite active in the community. There are even somewhat regular meetings every year or so in Europe (on hold due to COVID). I haven't been able to get to Europe to be at one of the Treffs in a bit over ten years, but I will definitely make it to one when it aligns with my schedule again.

Yes I'm not surprised; he was one of the most enthusiastic back then. :-D My job rarely allow me to do much of that sort of things (I'm a train driver), but perhaps I can attend whenever there's another gathering in, say, Germany. Even the Southern part is not that far from Denmark, anyway.

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10 minutes ago, Brufnus said:

Yes, I know exactly what you mean... I broke down with my old motorbike many years ago and couldn't obtain the spare parts anymore, so I ended up with buying three bikes from Switzerland (and later one more from the same guy as well as one without engine from Germany), so I probably have spare parts for the rest of my life now. :-D

It did consume quite a lot of space though; especially when I started dismantling them... c".)

 

Ok, I've never been in the U.S. but I have an idea that Kentucky is a nice place?

 

Anyway, the HFDC thing sounds pretty interesting. I guess it works like with the HRD - that it pretends to be a floppy drive, and the SD cards fools the HFDC into believing they're actually hard drives, am I right?

I remember when talks started about the SCSI controller, but things have obviously come a long way since then. Is it possible to buy that TIPI stuff from somewhere, and if so, what's the price? I'll look into that DREM stuff, that's for sure. It's probably not the best season for such things, but I do have some holiday right now, and the spring weather here in Denmark is awful, to say the least... rain most of the time, argh...! c".)

Ah, emulator, of course... that's the name! c",)

 

It definitely looks interesting with that DREM, although a bit pricey... but then again, when you see what they want for their MFM drives at, say, ebay, it's not really that much. Impressive that the old MFM drives are still sold at these prices. I happen to have 14 of these, so I guess I could earn a fortune if I sell them in 15-20 years from now, ha ha. :-D

 

I can imagine the speed... the difference is probably pretty much like comparing an old ATA drive with an SSD drive. Perhaps this option is even better than a SCSI controller. It does seem to offer some possibilities you don't get with the SCSI solution.

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1 hour ago, Brufnus said:

I can imagine the speed... the difference is probably pretty much like comparing an old ATA drive with an SSD drive. Perhaps this option is even better than a SCSI controller. It does seem to offer some possibilities you don't get with the SCSI solution.

While it is an SD card in the DREM, the speeds for access are pretty much the same.  The big difference is if I pull the SD card and place in a Windows computer, I can backup the Drem in about 1 minute.

 

 

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On 5/26/2021 at 9:35 PM, 9640News said:

While it is an SD card in the DREM, the speeds for access are pretty much the same.  The big difference is if I pull the SD card and place in a Windows computer, I can backup the Drem in about 1 minute.

 

 

Okay, I see. Yes indeed; it's quite a lot easier and faster to make a backup that way.

 

For my own part, I've really had to dig deep in the not so often accessed brain cells, which contains the Geneve memory... when I wanted to transfer the new MDOS with Gentri, I simply couldn't remember how to use it... but finally I made it work. :-D

 

I do have some issues with MDOS 7.30, though - the most pressing matter is the fact that I can't access any of the Horizons. I've tried to REMAP, SCSMAP and ASSIGN, but to no avail. Perhaps I should set the non-Hoddie EPROM one to >1400 instead of >1600 which it is now.

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5 minutes ago, Brufnus said:

Okay, I see. Yes indeed; it's quite a lot easier and faster to make a backup that way.

 

For my own part, I've really had to dig deep in the not so often accessed brain cells, which contains the Geneve memory... when I wanted to transfer the new MDOS with Gentri, I simply couldn't remember how to use it... but finally I made it work. :-D

 

I do have some issues with MDOS 7.30, though - the most pressing matter is the fact that I can't access any of the Horizons. I've tried to REMAP, SCSMAP and ASSIGN, but to no avail. Perhaps I should set the non-Hoddie EPROM one to >1400 instead of >1600 which it is now.

I'm tagging @InsaneMultitasker on this thread in the event he did not see this message.  

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