flashjazzcat Posted July 11, 2021 Author Share Posted July 11, 2021 35 minutes ago, Level42 said: Unrelated: I wanted to run the Prozac Dream demo (https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=68622) but the XEX file goes to a black-screen when trying to run it from SIDE3. This XEX works without any special settings (i.e. PBI HDD on or off), so if it crashes, you have other issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Level42 Posted July 11, 2021 Share Posted July 11, 2021 42 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said: Did you update the PBI BIOS as well? If not, you'll have the SIDE/SIDE2 PBI BIOS uselessly polling for the CF card before the loader starts up and before the OS finishes initialising. That'll take 4-5 seconds. I didn't and sure enough doing that fixed it 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Level42 Posted July 11, 2021 Share Posted July 11, 2021 1 hour ago, Beeblebrox said: The 74F08 chip is dirt cheap and has solved a lot of issues for me. Well worth it, as is running a modern usb 5v 3a power supply. Ordered 2 74F08's from Germany for just 5,57 Euro incl. Shipping from Germany (http://www.kessler-electronic.de/Halbleiter/integrierte_Schaltkreise/digital/74_F/74_F_08_i458_3420_0.htm) It's U7 on the 600XL....at least that's the only 74LS08 I can find on it If it's not fixing anything, it's not making anything worse either I guess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Level42 Posted July 11, 2021 Share Posted July 11, 2021 1 hour ago, flashjazzcat said: This XEX works without any special settings (i.e. PBI HDD on or off), so if it crashes, you have other issues. Doesn't want to run, either in NTSC or PAL setting. Did get the demo (or it's preview ?) to run from a large Silly Venture ATR file though...so it's not the demo itself..... Let's try downloading it from somewhere else... My machine is full of stuff but hasn't let me down so far, not even with PoP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted July 11, 2021 Author Share Posted July 11, 2021 1 minute ago, Level42 said: If it's not fixing anything, it's not making anything worse either I guess Hopefully not, but it's never a happy day when the source of the buffered O2 signal on the Atari has to be modified to make it work with something, since there's a slight possibility that doing so will make the machine stop working with something else. This fix is so determinate and effective, however, that hopefully it will result in a fix on the cartridge which makes it unnecessary. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted July 11, 2021 Author Share Posted July 11, 2021 5 minutes ago, Level42 said: Doesn't want to run, either in NTSC or PAL setting. Have you run RWCRC on one of your APT partitions? http://drac030.krap.pl/en-inne-pliki.php Any errors detected here would suggest IO problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Level42 Posted July 11, 2021 Share Posted July 11, 2021 17 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said: Have you run RWCRC on one of your APT partitions? http://drac030.krap.pl/en-inne-pliki.php Any errors detected here would suggest IO problems. I haven't. I see it's a COM file....need to get this into an ATR I guess to run it from (Sparta)DOS ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted July 11, 2021 Share Posted July 11, 2021 1 minute ago, Level42 said: I haven't. I see it's a COM file....need to get this into an ATR I guess to run it from (Sparta)DOS ? It should just run directly from any DOS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted July 11, 2021 Author Share Posted July 11, 2021 Ideally, run it on a 512 byte per sector partition to best reflect sector transfers in the loader; this will mandate SDX, since no other DOS can handle 512 byters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Level42 Posted July 11, 2021 Share Posted July 11, 2021 6 hours ago, mytek said: It should just run directly from any DOS. Yeah I know but I need to put it in an ATR to be able to load it from SIDE3 or through SIO2PC using Redpeqt, right ? Haven't created an ATR and added files to one on my Mac in ages.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted July 11, 2021 Share Posted July 11, 2021 10 minutes ago, Level42 said: Yeah I know but I need to put it in an ATR to be able to load it from SIDE3 or through SIO2PC using Redpeqt, right ? Haven't created an ATR and added files to one on my Mac in ages.... Yes for SIO2PC you will need it in an ATR container, but not for either either SIDE3 or SIDE2 (or the numerous other multi-carts out there). Files with the COM or XEX ext will run directly from the SIDE Loader. Just copy them into a FAT32 formatted card and they'll appear in the Loader ready to run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted July 11, 2021 Author Share Posted July 11, 2021 You don't need an ATR at all. If you have SIO2PC and RespeQt, set up a virtual folder as a DOS 2.x or SDX volume in an unused drive number. Drop whatever you need into said folder and then use the SDX COPY command to copy the file into a 512bps SDFS formatted APT partition. Once that's done, make the partition the default by typing its drive number at the SDX command prompt, then type RWCRC. Done. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted July 11, 2021 Author Share Posted July 11, 2021 4 minutes ago, mytek said: Files with the COM or XEX ext will run directly from the SIDE Loader. Just copy them into a FAT32 formatted card and they'll appear in the Loader ready to run. This isn't going to be much use here since RWCRC writes a large CRC file to the HDD and then reads it back again. When the SIDE3 loader is capable of writing to the FAT (soon), RWCRC will work, but right now it will immediately trigger a "no function in device handler" error if you try to run it directly from the loader. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted July 12, 2021 Share Posted July 12, 2021 29 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said: This isn't going to be much use here since RWCRC writes a large CRC file to the HDD and then reads it back again. Forgot about that little detail (me bad). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Level42 Posted July 12, 2021 Share Posted July 12, 2021 .... set up a virtual folder as a DOS 2.x or SDX volume in an unused drive number..... OK.....how do I do that ? I can OPEN a Folder Image but how do I create a virtual one ? (Yes I feel dumb) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted July 12, 2021 Author Share Posted July 12, 2021 10 minutes ago, Level42 said: OK.....how do I do that ? I can OPEN a Folder Image but how do I create a virtual one ? Click the folder icon on the drive number of interest. Navigate to folder. Done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Level42 Posted July 12, 2021 Share Posted July 12, 2021 Holy crap...... I was completely overthinking this....? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted July 12, 2021 Author Share Posted July 12, 2021 23 minutes ago, Level42 said: Holy crap...... I was completely overthinking this....? Wait till you get around to installing the PCLINK.SYS driver in SDX. Then you can even write to the mounted folder via the PCL: device. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Level42 Posted July 12, 2021 Share Posted July 12, 2021 Hold your horses my friend.... I'm trying to get "a 512bps SDFS formatted APT partition" But I need to honor your incredible work on the U1MB firmware manual and f-ing RTFM before asking the stuff you already explained (Printing 91 pages as we speak....handier to have it on paper next to the 600XL). Guess I'll need some SpartaDOS manual too. It's about time I learn to use it for more than just flashing U1MB Thanks for your patience with me 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wildstar87 Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 Would it be possible to get the VBSOX3 plugin with the NTSC palette? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazzspeed Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 (edited) I've got a bit of a problem. I flashed the entire ROM using 'U1MBS3.ROM', which went fine, SIDE3 is detected and boots as normal, but I have the 'VXS3STCO' plugin installed - Which is no good as I have Sophia 2. I try to flash the 'SOS3P2.ROM' to the 'BIOS Plugin' slot and I get the error 'File too large: Expected 1KB'. What am I missing here? EDIT: This doesn't look right? Edited July 13, 2021 by Mazzspeed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazzspeed Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 Tragedy averted... I started the whole process again from scratch. Reflashed the entire ROM with 'U1MBS3', rebooted and flashed the plugin slot with 'SOS3P2.ROM', which seemed to flash and verify just fine. Booted back into the U1MB BIOS screen and checked, everything is good now. How odd...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted July 13, 2021 Author Share Posted July 13, 2021 5 hours ago, Mazzspeed said: How odd...? You upgraded from firmware 3.x to firmware 4.x without a power-cycle. Technically, the fact UFLASH didn't notice the transition in plugin size from 1K to 2K is a bug, but it is not a good idea to jump firmware generations and then start applying plugins without power-cycling first, since the entire configuration layout changed. If you happened to have the PBI BIOS enabled during the update, the whole SIO subsystem will be invalidated as well when moving from 3.x to 4.x. I will fix this, anyway, but that appears to be your problem. I could reproduce it only by starting with firmware 3.x, turning off the PBI BIOS, updating to 4.x, and then attempting to flash a plugin without power cycling the computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazzspeed Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 4 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said: You upgraded from firmware 3.x to firmware 4.x without a power-cycle. Technically, the fact UFLASH didn't notice the transition in plugin size from 1K to 2K is a bug, but it is not a good idea to jump firmware generations and then start applying plugins without power-cycling first, since the entire configuration layout changed. If you happened to have the PBI BIOS enabled during the update, the whole SIO subsystem will be invalidated as well when moving from 3.x to 4.x. I will fix this, anyway, but that appears to be your problem. I could reproduce it only by starting with firmware 3.x, turning off the PBI BIOS, updating to 4.x, and then attempting to flash a plugin without power cycling the computer. I was already on firmware 4.0, upgrading to 4.05 - I honestly can't remember if I power cycled between the firmware update and the plugin reflash. Point taken, for now on I'll be sure to power cycle between firmware flashing and plugin flashing. Cheers FJC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted July 13, 2021 Author Share Posted July 13, 2021 (edited) 3 minutes ago, Mazzspeed said: I was already on firmware 4.0, upgrading to 4.05 UFLASH clearly thought differently. It checks the firmware revision (apparently only when probing the hardware for the first time, forgetting to do so after a BIOS update) and if it's >=4.0, it expects a 2K plugin. Your photo showed UFLASH expecting a 1K plugin at the older plugin address. I don't know how you managed to accomplish this, but there is no determinate explanation for it other than the scenario I have outlined, or by using an old version of UFLASH which has no knowledge of the 2K plugins. Edited July 13, 2021 by flashjazzcat 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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