Incognito Spartados X - FAT16 "Unknown file system"

[Lambda Mikel]

Hello all,

I am a newbie to Incognito PBI BIOS v.4.00 and Spartados X  4.49e. I just installed my Incognito in my Atari 800 yesterday, and I can use the Loader to access my FAT16 partition with ATRs etc. All good.

However, I am unable to access any FAT16 partition using the build-in Spartados X. I am following the instructions from here

 

 

to initialize the 32 MB CF flash card, and just create 2 small 16 and 15 MB partitions, one for DOS, the other for EXT. One is D3, one the EXT FAT16 for D4. Then I build the directory on D3 using FORMAT, and take the card to Ubuntu to format the FAT16  partition with GParted. Next, I copy some ATRs on it. The ATRs are visible from the Loader and work fine, however, trying to D4: and DIR then gives me"148 Unkown file system". I tried various cards, large and small, and always the same result.

 

I don't think that I need a driver or something like that, right? Isn't everything build in? Maybe a firmware upgrade would help? I have 4.03 FJC. Unfortunately, I don't have a way of transferring the INCOGN.ROM to the machine currently (still waiting for my new SIO2PC).

 

Any help / ideas greatly appreciated! I tried this about 10 times by now with different cards and partition schemes (FAT16, FAT32, Windows Format, GParted, ...). The result is always the same.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by Lambda Mikel
Adding images to post for clarity

[Lambda Mikel]

Thanks to Steven Tucker, I got 64 Bit Windows 10 drivers for my SIO2PC, and I was able to flash the firmware to (C) 2021 4.05 FJC using APE for Windows to host the firmware.atr!

 

However, I am still not further with accessing the FAT16 partitions. Is a special SpartaDOS required in order to access these?

 

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by Lambda Mikel
Adding image

[GoodByteXL]

5 hours ago, Lambda Mikel said:

and DIR then gives me"148 Unkown file system". I tried various cards, large and small, and always the same result.

 

I don't think that I need a driver or something like that, right?

RTFM ...

Driver - yes

 

[Beeblebrox]

@Lambda Mikel  I'll have to refresh my memory but one observation - to avoid confusion regarding the partitiion names you are using - I'd call them different names. You have called both APT, (one formatted FAT16 and one formatted APT).

 

Also I think I was formatting using FAT32 from the start if I recall, rather than 16. Both will work for the SIDE loader.

 

It's been a few months since I set up my Incognito's 8GB CF card (Trancend 133x), with the FAT32/APT partitions. On first glance it looks like you are doing it correctly, albeit on a Linux platform. I don't think the CF card is an issue here.

 

Thinking about it you might wanna check the paritition size limits with FAT16 as - and I may be wrong here - it could be that to use the sizes of partition you are currently using for the FAT16 one, it might be too large for SDX to read. Try either a small FAT16 paritition, (say under 4GB), or maybe a 14GB FAT32 partition. (Again I might be incorrect here - I can't recall if there is a FAT16 partition size limit in SDX).

 

Incidentally AFAIK although you can read and write to the APT parition from SDX, I think it is read only with FAT16 and FAT32. (Again it's been a while). You can read/access both types of partitions from the SIDE loader, and AFAIK read the FAT16 in SDX, but I think only the APT formatted partition via SDX allows both reading and writing.  Just though it worth mentioning.

 

So you should still be able to read the FAT16 and FAT32 paritions in SDX - pending my comment about Fat16 paritition size limits in SDX.

 

I'll see if I can find some time this weekend. (I've been focusing on my 1200XL a lot lately and my 800 has taken a back seat.

 

BTW aside the video you posted above have you been here and read all the manual sections pertaining to Incognito, etc?

https://atari8.co.uk/firmware/incognito/

 

It's great you have the latest Incognito firmware installed and you got the Atarimax SIO2PC to work.   

 

Are you able to post the Win10 drivers for you Atarimax SIO2PC here or PM then to me btw? I use a non Atarimax SIO2PC  - but do have one installed in my driver 800XL which I never got to work. Would be good to get it working with Win10.

 

[flashjazzcat]

You need the FATFS.SYS driver from the SDX toolkit disk in order to access FAT16 partitions, read-only, from SpartaDOS X. Also described on page 15 of the APT User Guide:

 

https://atari8.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/APT-Software-Manual-8th-Edition.pdf

 

[Lambda Mikel]

5 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

You need the FATFS.SYS driver from the SDX toolkit disk in order to access FAT16 partitions, read-only, from SpartaDOS X. Also described on page 15 of the APT User Guide:

 

https://atari8.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/APT-Software-Manual-8th-Edition.pdf

 

 

Excellent, it works! THANK YOU!

 

Being a newbie to these things, I would have been completely lost without your videos... there is a bit of complexity. Thanks much for making these! And that's the one little thing that I would suggest to add or improve - add a sentence or two to the video regarding the driver (or I must have missed it completely). Well the driver and config is mentioned, but my assumption was that the Default config is sufficient, and that the driver is build-in (else he would have explained it). Because your videos are made for folks like me, right? The more advanced folks would not have had that issue.

 

@goodbytexl, yes RTFM... true. But for a newbie that's a LOT to ask (hundreds of pages), and this is why intro & tutorial videos are made in the first place, right? I googled *a lot* for this, but I didn't find any howto or tutorial that would point to FATFS.SYS...

 

Thanks all, very happy with @flashjazzcat's fantastic firmware. Looking forward to the 400 version ?

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by Lambda Mikel

[Lambda Mikel]

Just wanted to share the pics of my installation - I didn't do the Power LED disk swap button mod, but just drilled 2 little holes for button and LED. Cable routing for button & LED out of the metal RF shield was done through one of the holes for the plastic clips, so I didn't need to cut anything inside, neither metal nor case:

 

 

[Lambda Mikel]

Alright, I tried just having a CONFIG.SYS with a single line: DEVICE FATFS on D3: (my boot drive). Of course, this resulted in an error at boot... So, in search for a valid CONFIG.SYS, I found that CAR1:CONFIG.SYS is being executed by default. I hence copied it to D3:, added the DEVICE FATFS line at the end using ED. And I also found an AUTOEXEC.BAT which I customized a bit. It is working great now (previously, I had to load FATFS.SYS by hand).

 

So, if I were to write a newbie tutorial on these issues, I would probably add a few lines regarding configuration.

 

Thanks all, thread can be closed.