New (alt) BIOS for Ultimate 1MB/Incognito

[Faicuai]

Ok, yesterday came accross the following which I have been able to consistently reproduce after multiple tries (not sure if it is or not intended behavior):

 

1. Press "L" from main BIOS screen (tested on Incognito, have not tested on my XL-Ultimates).

2. Dive into ANY folder path, one or two levels (sub-directories) down.

3. Press "ESC" key, TWICE, consecutively.

4. ISSUE: from that point on, CANNOT navigate back-up to any directory.

5. WORKAROUND: use "<-" key until Device top-icon is selected, and choose again "SIDE: {compact flash}" device, which will restart at root directory.

 

F.

[flashjazzcat]

Any idea which version you're using? Beta or current release version?

[Faicuai]

Any idea which version you're using? Beta or current release version?

 

As it shows on (?) icon:

 

Side Loader: © 2018 JFC

Loader Version: 2.02

[flashjazzcat]

OK: so that's a beta version in which I remember the ESC behaviour had been experimentally fiddled with. No such issue appears to exist in the pre-release version.

[flashjazzcat]

Rapidus doesn't seem to get much love (at least mine doesn't), so I've updated the PBI BIOS plugin. It's a little faster than before:

 

 

This one will eventually support 24-bit buffer addressing throughout (via the XDCB, accessed by setting bit 7 of DDEVIC).

[flashjazzcat]

Graphic (from manual I am editing right now) depicting (unfinalised) enhanced joystick control in the XEX loader:

 

[flashjazzcat]

Nearly done here. This is a video I just shot while testing the firmware on a Rapidus 130XE running at 20MHz. The loader is searching through 5,400 FAT folders and 17,000 files for 'ZYBEX', all versions of which are right at the back-end of the folder structure.

 

 

The same search at 1.79MHz completes in a sprightly 3m 40s, although it makes for slightly less exciting viewing.

 

[tuf]

Love all the updates!  Still not convinced I need an accelerator...

[flashjazzcat]

3 hours ago, tuf said:

Still not convinced I need an accelerator...

If you're not convinced you need one, you don't need one. I only need one for testing and experiments such as those in the video. I'm perfectly happy with the search speed on a stock CPU.

 

[flashjazzcat]

I used a SIDE cart to test a machine I'm working on, and even I was mildly surprised for a second at what booted up.

 

[flashjazzcat]

My Incognito 800 just died while I was putting the release ROMs together. Demented laughter echoes around the house...

 

Ah... it lives. Investigation time.

 

 

Edited July 7, 2019 by flashjazzcat

[+DrVenkman]

9 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said:

 Demented laughter echoes around the house...

 

You've drawn the attention of the Matrix, Mr. Halliday ...

 

https://gph.is/2cksq2O

 

[flashjazzcat]

Feels like it. I actually figured out the problem after I closed up shop for the night. The system crashed when I was idly bouncing between BIOS config profiles and wouldn't start again after a power cycle. Pulling the battery (thus resetting all profiles) didn't help. Finally, rolling back the firmware allowed the machine to boot straight to the first (empty) profile.

 

Pretty sure the profile it crashed on was uninitialised, so I think I just (fortunately) found a bug in the (new) profile reset code. U1MB doesn't have the issue and it should be very easy to fix, but phew... Glad it didn't get released with this bug.

[_The Doctor__]

sometimes when the spray doesn't work, the heel of a boot need be applied! Good to see it didn't make it's way out the door. A quick stomping hopefully ended it!

[Kyle22]

4 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said:

sometimes when the spray doesn't work, the heel of a boot need be applied! Good to see it didn't make it's way out the door. A quick stomping hopefully ended it!

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane  ALWAYS works. That's all I use, and there's not a bug in the place.

 

I just wish computer bugs were as easy to solve.

:)

 

[flashjazzcat]

3 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

A quick stomping hopefully ended it!

It did:

//
//	Reset configuration to defaults
//

	.proc ResetConfig
	lda #0
	ldy #.len[Config]-1
@
	sta Config,y
	dey
	bpl @-
	lda #1
	ldy #.len[DefaultTab]-1
@
	ldx DefaultTab,y
	sta Config,x
	dey
	bpl @-
	mva #3 Config.RAM
.ifndef Incognito
	ldy #Plugin.Defaults
	jmp CallPlugin
.else
	rts
.endif
	.endp
	

'.else / rts' was missing.

 

[+JAC!]

Hello Jon,

 

I've just updated the firmware to the July 2019 version from your site and tried my disk duplication again (the onw the the format timeout problem).

PBI BIOS enabled with HSIO for D1-D4 (Note: Same with SIO driver disabled)
D1: Set to SIO in SIDE loader
D2: 130k ATR mounted from SIDE loader

Boot from D1: (SIO2USB) as regular DOS 2.5 with DUP (133k ATR).

Switch D1 to SIO2USB with 90k empty ATR

 

Displaying the content of D1: works, manually formatting from the DUP, too.

Displaying the content of D2: works.

 

Select "J - Duplicate Disk" with "1,2" from DUP.

- Loads contents from D2 (LED flashes)

- The hangs during the SIO IO. Here's the screenshot from the Turbo Freezer. Looks like it hangs polling somehow at $DB2F.

- BREAK stops the process.

 

- Peter.

[flashjazzcat]

1 hour ago, JAC! said:

Same with SIO driver disabled

Are you saying the same issue occurs without the high-speed SIO driver enabled? This would be puzzling, since the TF screenshot shows the high-speed driver getting hung up trying to read data from the disk. This is right in the middle of Hias' SIO receive code.

 

[flashjazzcat]

12 hours ago, JAC! said:

The hangs during the SIO IO

I've just tested the same duplicate disk operation at divisor 0 (127 Kb/s) on a 600XL with SIDE2, SIO2PC (USB, FTDI), RespeQt and the latest U1MB firmware. PBI-hosted ATR on D2:, SIO hosted ATR on D1:. PBI HSIO driver enabled. Duplicated in both directions without error (copied D2: to D1: and D1: to D2:). The only difference is I didn't have the Turbo Freezer connected at the time.

 

Tried the same operation at 3x SIO (57,600 Kb/s) and encountered no errors.

 

So: I'm guessing either some unreliability with SIO communications at your end, or some other undisclosed or undiagnosed hardware issue. If you can give me more precise direction on how to replicate the issue, I will keep trying.

 

[flashjazzcat]

Fixed bug concerning DVSTAT bits returned for enhanced density ATRs. Possibly this was related to the disk duplication issue (although it ostensibly only affected ED images).

[flashjazzcat]

Quick preview update for Incognito users while I prepare ROMs for the other build targets:

 

Incognito firmware 3.04 171119.zip

 

Precis of changes:

• XF551 high-speed detection bug fixed
• Setup menu bugs fixed
• Strict DCB (DBYT and DSTATS) checks
• ATR swap button now rotates disk images on screen immediately if pressed in the loader
• 'CONFIG.SYS' falls back to 'Boot drive' setting if the former is set to 'default' (fixes regression in v.3.02)
• ATR button disable feature added
• Numerous other minor improvements

The SDX ROMs also contain a version of FDISK with a bug fix for the 'large disk' initialisation bug and a couple of other issues.

 

If anyone has time to give this a spin I would appreciate it. I'm not aware of any issues and this firmware is hot off my own 800 here, but I thought it would be useful to have a copy out in the wild while I work on updating the documentation and preparing ROMs for U1MB, SIDE, etc.

 

[+DrVenkman]

15 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said:

Quick preview update for Incognito users while I prepare ROMs for the other build targets:

 

Incognito firmware 3.04 171119.zip 294.98 kB · 2 downloads

 

Precis of changes:

• XF551 high-speed detection bug fixed
• Setup menu bugs fixed
• Strict DCB (DBYT and DSTATS) checks
• ATR swap button now rotates disk images on screen immediately if pressed in the loader
• 'CONFIG.SYS' falls back to 'Boot drive' setting if the former is set to 'default' (fixes regression in v.3.02)
• ATR button disable feature added
• Numerous other minor improvements

The SDX ROMs also contain a version of FDISK with a bug fix for the 'large disk' initialisation bug and a couple of other issues.

 

If anyone has time to give this a spin I would appreciate it. I'm not aware of any issues and this firmware is hot off my own 800 here, but I thought it would be useful to have a copy out in the wild while I work on updating the documentation and preparing ROMs for U1MB, SIDE, etc.

 

I'll update my Incognito in just a moment Jon. Before I do, just a query - have added the feature that lets you boot to SDX from the Loader as you can in the 1088XEL/XLD builds?

 

EDIT: Nevermind, I see that CTRL-X does indeed boot to SDX. Awesome. And the "live" ATR swap functionality is fun as well as useful if you want to move your disk assignments around before booting (due to - for example - noticing you've got a two or three disk set in the wrong slots).

[+Stephen]

Man - I wish the 800 didn't take up so much space.  Only time I get to use mine is during VFC.  I'll see if I can make time and space sometime to check this out.  It won't be tonight, that much I know.

[flashjazzcat]

27 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

 

EDIT: Nevermind, I see that CTRL-X does indeed boot to SDX. Awesome

Yep: forgot to mention it!

 

28 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

And the "live" ATR swap functionality is fun as well as useful if you want to move your disk assignments around before booting (due to - for example - noticing you've got a two or three disk set in the wrong slots)

Note CTRL+S already does the same thing, but it's kind of cooler to use the swap button.

[flashjazzcat]

Found a bug already. I knew this would be a useful exercise. The button disable setting isn't greyed out when the HDD is turned off. Sorry about that. Will fix tomorrow and bump the version number.