AVGCART

[Faicuai]

3 minutes ago, tmp said:

now when you brought respeqt into the picture, i'm officially lost

 

if you try to boot atx via respeqt (not via avg), it doesn't work even when avgcart only emulates basic cart (and works with a real basic cart)?

 

Correct.

 

Not only that, I can actually see the boot log, polling, sector reads, errors, etc. It all stalls when the Basic image is hosted on AVG.

 

( NOTE; cart-launching on AVG is done via shortcut, once in Selector menu. SIO chain is already primed-and-ready before doing so).

[tmp]

does it behave differently if you don't run it via shortcut but directly by hitting return on it?

[Faicuai]

26 minutes ago, tmp said:

does it behave differently if you don't run it via shortcut but directly by hitting return on it?

CORRECTION:

 

Please, ignore post #1626.

 

I just decided to re-test  by fully re-setting the SIO-to-USB chain from RespeQt, and now it works as it should. It seems the issue is NOT on AVG side, but on the test SIO-chain itself.

 

However, posts  #1623 and 1624 are CONFIRMED, and remain in place.

[Mclaneinc]

40 minutes ago, Faicuai said:

@tmp

 

Another issue I noticed with AVG selector:

 

1. Shortcut any bootable (DOS) .ATR of choice.

2. Mount any other .ATR and assign SIO-slot #2 (so both .ATR could be accessed later)

3. Press shortcut for #1 above: BOOT FAILURE (system lands on Memopad or Self-Test rom).

 

Tested on reference 800 CTIA, and 800 / Incognito in both XL/XE and Colleen modes.

The same test situation on my XL works fine...Must be purely 800 based.. (this is all most certainly taken as such but just posted as clarification its XL ok)

[Faicuai]

48 minutes ago, Mclaneinc said:

The same test situation on my XL works fine

?? Good to know!

 

I will double check on my 800XLs, but did not work on the 800s, for sure.

 

(UPDATE: problem described on post #1624 is CONFIRMED / REPLICATED on my 800XL U1MB (PBI=off), taking place exactly as they take place on the 800-CTIA/GTIA and the 800 / Incognito). No doubt. 

[Mclaneinc]

Ah, I'll turn the PBI off and see if that happens..

 

EdiT: Still works here with PBI off, do me a favour and describe exactly what you do to get the error. I Short cutted DOS2.5 with Ctrl+1, tabbed it to mount it as drive 1, tabbed DOS3 in the same directory (I believe they must be in the same directory). I tried to mount DOS3 as drive 2 but it only goes to drive one if no other disk is mounted. (I bet there's a step here i'm getting wrong (as in can a drive be mounted to any drive 1-8?  After all that I pressed 1 to start it all off..

 

Edit2: Just checked Mr Robots excellent guide and I can only see one way to mount a drive and that is tab and each tabbed items increments the drive used up to D8: ?

 

I don't know if it has any bearing but have you got the SIO cable enabled..

Edited August 13, 2021 by Mclaneinc

[Faicuai]

23 minutes ago, Mclaneinc said:

do me a favour and describe exactly what you do to get the error.

Simple:

 

1. Navigate to ANY arbitrary directory on AVG selector and select bootable .ATR (e.g. MyDos) and CTRlL+9 (my actual shortcut).
2. Navigate to ANY arbitrary directory on AVG selector and select and mount secondary .ATR image, with SHIFT+2 (as D2:)
3. Press '9' shortcut, and boot error (goes to Basic if plain XL/XE OS or MemoPad on 800 OS/b).
4. Double-check: if only pressing '9' without mounting secondary .ATR as D2:, the shortcut .ATR boots just fine.

 

Let me know if you can replicate on your end.

[tmp]

10 minutes ago, Faicuai said:

Simple:

 

1. Navigate to ANY arbitrary directory on AVG selector and select bootable .ATR (e.g. MyDos) and CTRlL+9 (my actual shortcut).
2. Navigate to ANY arbitrary directory on AVG selector and select and mount secondary .ATR image, with SHIFT+2 (as D2:)
3. Press '9' shortcut, and boot error (goes to Basic if plain XL/XE OS or MemoPad on 800 OS/b).
4. Double-check: if only pressing '9' without mounting secondary .ATR as D2:, the shortcut .ATR boots just fine.

 

Let me know if you can replicate on your end.

if it works like this (which sounds plausible), it's "by design"

if you manually assign atr files to drives (instead of just pressing return on a single atr), atr, on which return is pressed is ignored (i felt it's more user friendly/usable)

the downside is that running a shortcut is equivalent to pressing return on that shortcut file so that's ignored as well since it's atr and you have atr in d2

 

i should probably force atr to d1 if it's being run via shortcut

[Faicuai]

53 minutes ago, tmp said:

i should probably force atr to d1 if it's being run via shortcut

Correct.

 

If workflow integrity/consistency is a concern, simply check if D1: slot has been already assigned by user on that session. If not, just force bootable .ATR shortcut to D1:

 

Another way to look at it is not just storing the .ATR filename when creating shortcut with CTRL+X, but also storing whatever Dn: assignment made by the user for that image before shortcut creation. In this way, when calling .ATR via shortcut, you also call its stored Dn: assignment and boot it if linked to D1:. An on-screen warning of pre-existing assignments could also help.

 

Whatever is simpler and more consistent to implement and operate.

[Mclaneinc]

Sorry, missed the new posts but it seems to have been explained..

 

Paul..

[Aking]

Cen you make the loader's background black?

 

Al that bright white on my crt monitor hurts my tired eyes...

 

Please

Edited August 20, 2021 by Aking

[_The Doctor__]

How about not black but maybe really dark blue, Green or even a nice Grey!

Edited August 20, 2021 by _The Doctor__

[Mr Robot]

bright green with red text

 

What's not to love? 

[_The Doctor__]

Very Merry!

[Mr Robot]

Which makes me wonder if it's possible to have a config file with foreground and background color values maybe also a bitmapped font of some sort 

 

how does the avg render text?  I'd swap my font for the mr robot font or the preppie font or maybe the llamasoft font 

 

[tmp]

6 hours ago, Aking said:

Cen you make the loader's background black?

 

Al that bright white on my crt monitor hurts my tired eyes...

 

Please

i forgot to finish the color scheme thing so currently it's not persisting

if you have any recent fw (newer than october or so), you can try to put the attached file to the root of the card, set a shortcut on it (e.g. ctrl-9) and then press 9 on every power on

it's stupid but better than nothing (and it needs to be in root since i just found out that ath shortcut works only in the same dir as you are currently in, another bug to fix)

White on black.ath

[tmp]

3 hours ago, Mr Robot said:

Which makes me wonder if it's possible to have a config file with foreground and background color values maybe also a bitmapped font of some sort 

 

how does the avg render text?  I'd swap my font for the mr robot font or the preppie font or maybe the llamasoft font 

 

the plan was to have color scheme configurable, not sure about the font, i feel it's a waste of space that could be used for something else (atari font set eats 1kB, right?)

[Mr Robot]

yep 1024 bytes each

[Mclaneinc]

Colour scheme sounds great, font, just fancy space taker, more features preffered

[Aking]

just a simple , color editable loader would be fine ,

alas ultimate 1541+ 

[Faicuai]

On 8/9/2021 at 12:26 PM, Faicuai said:

This may (or may not) be related, but there is I/O corruption, right from SDX prompt

Alrighty!

 

I've been working around the clock trying to find a way to systematically replicate this insidious problem, at will.

 

And here it is:

 

1. One or two APT partitions, 32 MB each, 512 bytes/sec, SDX-formatted.
2. Launch System Information 2.26 via "X" command, from SDX prompt (latest AVG version).
3. On SI options, configure I/O to "DOS" and DMA to "ON".
4. Select "HARD DISK" benchmark, and select any of your APT partitions.
5. Throws "ERROR 144" all over the place, and rarely being able to complete.
6. MITIGATION: turn DMA=OFF and test will be completed successfully (!!!)
7. Test Platform: 800, OS/b, 512 KB AXLON card, drop-in expansion. Otherwise STOCK.

 

We absolutely have a timing problem here, for sure. 

 

[tmp]

is the same happening on 800xl or is it 800 specific?

[MARIO130XE]

I always liked the colurs and segmentation/borders of the The!Cart menu. It's very ATARI-like by using the 'rainbow'.

Maybe that's an option. ?

 

 

 

Edited August 23, 2021 by MARIO130XE

[Mclaneinc]

Yes it's nice but that's a fair bit of DLI code which means more space on the flash used...

[_The Doctor__]

AVG is meant to be a lean, mean, doing its' business, works it all machine. Adjusting display to help our tired eyes is perfect... putting fonts in there puff's up the appearance, however it's too expensive,  as the cosmetic surgery would hurt the ever expanding brains of this handsome, capable device.