AspeQt: Yet another SIO2PC/APE clone

[atarixle]

I got AspeQt running in a Wine-Bottle too ... the secret is to create a symbolic link from the Windows »COM1« Port to Mac OS X' »/dev/{USB_serial}« (as intel mac don't have built-in on-board serial boards) device file.

 

Communication works well if you have the right USB2Serial device, like the »Future Technology Devices International, Ltd FT232 USB-Serial (UART) IC« (this is what Linux' lsusb-command tells me). A very good and easy to install Mac OS X driver for this chipset can be downloaded here:

http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm.

 

in my WineSkin winery build I did it like this:

cd ~/Applications/Wineskin/AspeQt\ 0.8.8.app/Contents/Resources/dosdevices/
ln -s /dev/tty.usbserial-FTFW83YT com1

Download: http://wineskin.urgesoftware.com/tiki-index.php

Edited July 26, 2014 by atarixle

[flashjazzcat]

This looks worth a shot.

[flashjazzcat]

For information: I just tested the generally available Mac OS X build of Aspeqt on the Intel Snow Leopard laptop with the standard FTDI drivers and everything works absolutely perfectly. Meanwhile, the AMD set-up is clearly a lost cause.

[atarixle]

My own build of AspeQt 0.8.2 doesn't work at all, even with the FTDI drivers. Can you give me the link to the OS X build you're using?

[flashjazzcat]

Can you give me the link to the OS X build you're using?

This one works:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/154949-aspeqt-yet-another-sio2pcape-clone/page-31?do=findComment&comment=3033023

 

And this one:

 

http://frederik.hol.st/atari/8-bit/AspeQt4Mac/

 

Haven't tried this one yet:

 

http://cl.ly/0c420q0g2Z1m

 

Using 32-bit VCP drivers here:

 

http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

[mellis]

For information: I just tested the generally available Mac OS X build of Aspeqt on the Intel Snow Leopard laptop with the standard FTDI drivers and everything works absolutely perfectly. Meanwhile, the AMD set-up is clearly a lost cause.

 

This Apple tech note might explain the difference between Mavericks and earlier OS X versions. Apple is now bundling their own FTDI drivers with the OS. The tech note includes instructions for using the FTDI drivers instead of Apple's own driver. I wonder if doing so might help AspeQT users.

 

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/technotes/tn2315/_index.html

[+DrVenkman]

 

This Apple tech note might explain the difference between Mavericks and earlier OS X versions. Apple is now bundling their own FTDI drivers with the OS. The tech note includes instructions for using the FTDI drivers instead of Apple's own driver. I wonder if doing so might help AspeQT users.

 

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/technotes/tn2315/_index.html

 

I read this a week or two ago but it makes no sense to me. WITHOUT the FTDI drivers installed, OS X doesn't want to make use of the device at all. It shows up in System Profiler but OS X doesn't put anything in /dev/ to allow software to interact with it.

 

WITH the FTDI driver installed, SIO Server works great, SIO2OSX works great, it's just AspeQt that doesn't want to play nice with my system. I think it's GOT to be something in Qt 5.3 but I don't know enough about Qt to even start to figure out what.

Edited July 30, 2014 by DrVenkman

[mellis]

 

I read this a week or two ago but it makes no sense to me. WITHOUT the FTDI drivers installed, OS X doesn't want to make use of the device at all. It shows up in System Profiler but OS X doesn't put anything in /dev/ to allow software to interact with it.

 

WITH the FTDI driver installed, SIO Server works great, SIO2OSX works great, it's just AspeQt that doesn't want to play nice with my system. I think it's GOT to be something in Qt 5.3 but I don't know enough about Qt to even start to figure out what.

 

Correct - without a driver, the hardware cannot be used.

 

However, the tech note reluctantly explains how to configure your system to use FTDI's original drivers instead of Apple's bundled driver (which is new in Mavericks). From the symptoms described here, I suspect the problem exists at the driver level. There are many ways to interact with a TTY (serial) device, and it is possible that SIO2OSX and SIO Server happen to use the port and its signal lines in a way that is more in line with the driver author's expected use case.

[+DrVenkman]

 

Correct - without a driver, the hardware cannot be used.

 

Right. But the Tech Note SEEMS to say there is an Apple-provided driver that will work instead. Yet with the FTDI driver removed, there is no sign that OS X recognizes the device as something it should be controlling, and doesn't install the Apple driver instead. Perhaps I misunderstood the note.

 

 

From the symptoms described here, I suspect the problem exists at the driver level. There are many ways to interact with a TTY (serial) device, and it is possible that SIO2OSX and SIO Server happen to use the port and its signal lines in a way that is more in line with the driver author's expected use case.

 

Another mystery though: why does the Windows build of AspeQt, running inside a WINE/CrossOver bottle, run full speed without the excessive processor use and constant data stuttering that I see in the native OS X build I made? In both instances I'm using the AspeQt code, and both versions are using the same FTDI drivers in the same way. The only difference between the two seems to be Qt for windows versus Qt for OS X.

 

It's all very confusing.

[Tempest]

 

I am not sure if there is a way to run it in 64 bit, but I will try to compile a 64 bit version once I install QT to my 64 bit version of Ubuntu.

Any luck?

[atari8warez]

Any luck?

Oooops completely forgot about that, probably due to the fact that summer activities other than computer programming takes much of my time, nevertheless I will try to do it tonight and let you know...

[atari8warez]

Any luck?

 

Ok here's the 64 bit version of AspeQt v.1.0.0-preview-6 for Ubuntu/Debian. I verified that it loads and runs with my 64 bit version of Ubuntu under VirtualBox.

Edited August 13, 2014 by atari8warez

[atari8warez]

Decided to give 1.00 Preview 6 a go this evening since I needed to handle a 256KB file in a mounted folder. Unfortunately Aspeqt did not appear to return EOF after byte 262,144 (the last byte of the file) had been read. Fortunately UFlash (the software reading the file) does a sanity check to ensure a ROM file of an incorrect size is not programmed to the flash ROM (otherwise the Ultimate 1MB could have been bricked). I have not ascertained whether the extra byte returned by the CIO is simply a spurious appendage to the actual file, or whether something more serious has occured, such as the entire file content being offset by one or more bytes. I'll try to establish one way or another.

 

Fixed, fix will be available on the next release.

Edited August 14, 2014 by atari8warez

[Tempest]

It works! Thanks.

[atari8warez]

Great, nice to hear..

[Tempest]

I just noticed that when I start up the program it says: Cannot open Serial Port '/dev/ttyS0': Permission Denied. How do I give it permission?

[atari8warez]

I just noticed that when I start up the program it says: Cannot open Serial Port '/dev/ttyS0': Permission Denied. How do I give it permission?

 

You may need to add your Ubuntu user-id to the dialout group. Open a terminal window and type the following:

 

sudo adduser your_user_id dialout

 

Try that and see if it works, if it doesn't then verify that your SIO2PC device is recognized and mounted properly;

 

From the terminal window type the following (the following assumes that you have an FTDI chip based SIO2PC device):

dmesg | grep FTDI

 

Above command should produce an output similar to the following:

 

[ 159.987490] ftdi_sio 5-1:1.0 FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected

[ 159.989404] usb 5-1: FTDI USB Serial Device Converter now attached to ttyUSB0

Edited August 17, 2014 by atari8warez

[Tempest]

I added myself to that group but it still didn't work. I then did that dmesg command but it returned nothing.

 

I'm using a Serial to SIO cable (SIO2PC) that I've used in the past with a PC program.

[atari8warez]

So the SIO2PC cable you are using is a serial (RS232) type, not a USB to Serial converter type.

 

Do you have a real serial port on your computer? If so, you need to find out the name of the communication port (it wouldn't be ttyUSB0) and change the port name in AspeQt to use that instead.

 

From the terminal window type the following to see available devices:

 

ls /dev

 

and look for a device called ttySx (where x is a number between 0-3)

 

or you can type:

 

dmesg | grep ttyS

 

to list all devices with a name starting with ttyS

Edited August 18, 2014 by atari8warez

[Tempest]

Yes it's a serial type, not a USB one. I do have a real serial port, I have a card with two of them on it, maybe it's trying to detect the one I'm using for my Amiga transfers? I'll look into this tonight.

[atari8warez]

Apparently I haven't paid attention to the device name in your original post (which says ttyS0 and not ttyUSB0), sorry for the confusion over serial vs. USB. And yeah see if ttyS0 is already used by some other program, you can then change AspeQt to use ttyS1.

[Tempest]

New error: Cannot not set serial port speed to 19200. Input/Output error. I get this with ttyS0 and ttyS1.

 

Progress?

[atari8warez]

That's weird, I've never seen this error before, does the serial port(s) work with other comm programs?

[Tempest]

In Windows it does (I use it with SIO2PC and Amiga Explorer). I've never tried with Linux. Do I need a driver of some sort for the card.

[atari8warez]

Honestly, I don't know. I am pretty new to linux and don't have linux on a hardware that has a real serial port. I would think if the card is a standard RS232 serial card linux kernel would already have the drivers for it.