drac030 Posted April 7, 2020 Share Posted April 7, 2020 Hi, so after three years of doing nothing DLT is pleased to present SpartaDOS X 4.49 release version. It is available for download at the SpartaDOS X Upgrade Project website: sdx.atari8.info also known as spartados.com and spartadosx.com Apart from downloading the software please read the release notes (whatsnew.txt). The Toolkit, for those who do not like it being distributed in the ATR image form, has alternatively been uploaded as a tar.gz archive (containing the same subdirectory and file structure as on the ATR). Traditionally not everything has been done what was planned, especially the SIO drivers traditionally have not been updated and still cannot cope with the Pokey divisor 0. Next time, then. Also, there is no new User's Manual, but the SpartaDOS X 4.48 documentation is still valid. When in doubt, please take a look at the respective manual (*.MAN) files and the release notes. Have fun, 19 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamm Posted April 7, 2020 Share Posted April 7, 2020 Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a8isa1 Posted April 7, 2020 Share Posted April 7, 2020 Were there any changes beyond beta 4.49c? Thanks (to all involved) for SDX development! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted April 7, 2020 Author Share Posted April 7, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, a8isa1 said: Were there any changes beyond beta 4.49c? Yes, here is a less or more accurate list of changes relative to 4.49c Changes in SpartaDOS X 4.49 (relative to 4.49c) =============================================== KERNEL ------ * External cartridge will now be initialized and run at SDX startup only when OPTION+ESC is depressed. The proper way to run a cartridge is now to wait for the SDX startup, then use the CAR command at the command prompt. * Changed the boot procedure (and QMEG-OS likes us more now!). DRIVERS AND RESIDENT PROGRAMS ----------------------------- * QUICKED.SYS: now faster and using less memory. * ENV.SYS will now check if it had not been previously loaded. * SIO0.OVL: increased the delay between asserting the command signal and sending the actual command out. * IDEPTIME.SYS: now searching for the clock firmware ROM even if no PBI devices were initialized by the OS. * RS232.SYS: 1) new options: /R - sending up to 850 POLLF deletion procedure, so you don't have to turn the interface off and on again when rebooting your computer /F - force loading the R driver, even when there is one registered in HATABS /E - use of previously registered R: in HATABS (only COM :) 2) COM support: for SDX, e.g. DIR >> COM :, TYPE COM: 3) characters with codes 3,4,26 mean the end of the transmission (Atari/Unix/DOS terminal compatibility). * DOSKEY.SYS: eliminated a conflict on the zero page between this program and other system components. LIBRARY ------- * Due to a missing branch instruction, FGETS was not able to detect the EOF reliably. * Error 170 (File not found) will now display the name of the file which has not been found. * Fixed the old ICD bug where ending the pathname with an apostrophe caused the file name terminated so to be interpreted as a directory name. Same fix in the SPARTA.SYS. * Lowercase pathnames caused problems, e.g. RENAME did not work, if the source pathname was typed in lowercase characters. * The formatter will now preserve the step rate parameter it has read along with the other PERCOM data, and send it back to the drive when configuring it before formatting. UTILITIES --------- * BAT files: IF var=="" (to detect EOL) did not work, fixed. * BAT files: in constructions such as IF FILE fname1.ext NT fname2.ext the non-existing file will always be considered older, shorter etc. than the existing one. * CAR.COM will now automatically initialize cartridges (including BASIC), if it was not done before and if no SAV file was loaded. The /I switch can still be used to force this manually, when needed. * COMMAND.COM currently allows you to type comments starting from any column (previously the ";" character had to be positioned at the beginning of the line). TOOLKIT ------- * SC 1.0.3: 5) BAT files: the Headache (the BAT file game by pirx & co.) seems to work now when started under SC. 6) when copying/moving/deleting tagged files the program will take into account these directory entries only which match the file mask defined for the source panel. * KTRACE: added a possibility to trace calls directed at a specific device/unit (e.g. drive 6 only), and to stop recording on the specified type of error. * Added RAMD816N.SYS - a ramdisk for the 65C816 high RAM, like the L version, but twice as fast. * Added CIODEV: a command which displays information about the installed OS CIO devices. * XLESS: new command, a clone of LESS.COM using the Ext RAM to load the file to be viewed (thus allowing much larger files than the stock LESS.COM does). * SHUFFLE: a new tool. * CLX 1.9e: 1) fixed buggy code dealing with data found past the end of a directory. 2) the program is now less insisting when it comes to trust the PERCOM data returned by the drive. * HIMEM: a new tool. * CON.SYS: 1) hitting Break was sometimes ignored. 2) fixes in handling the local color (relevant for VBXE only). * INDUSX.SYS: a new driver with RAMCharger track buffering. * PERCONF: a new tool to setup floppy's density via PERCOM commands. FLASHER ------- * The flasher will now optionally use the SDX (instead of the built-in minidos) to load the ROM data to flash. Edited April 7, 2020 by drac030 8 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted April 7, 2020 Share Posted April 7, 2020 weren't there some memory detection and use fixes in the flasher or is that in the next revision? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted April 7, 2020 Author Share Posted April 7, 2020 Memory detection fixes in the DLT flasher? None I can recall now. But this flasher does not use any memory worth detecting, just the base 40k. Do you by chance not mean UFLASH? But UFLASH is not "ours". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted April 7, 2020 Share Posted April 7, 2020 (edited) I'll have to repair the machine I though I had something about it on.... I think it's something discovered when messing around with 'd' though. being it's own thing no reason it couldn't be with 'c'. I sometimes miss remember though.... but not normally. might be what you were doing 1 November 2017 or the day before. You fixed something. it was across the board for flashing all devices with SDX. While working on OSRAM configurations a couple of fixes rolled out. Sparta I/O being used or not used in the process. As soon as I get a new screen for the laptop that was in use at that time I will dig around. Doesn't really matter I guess, just wanted to help with the notes or see if it rolled out as part of things. edit* thanks for all your work on this and the update/change I see. Edited April 7, 2020 by _The Doctor__ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted April 7, 2020 Share Posted April 7, 2020 Awesome - thanks everyone on the team for the continued work on this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted April 7, 2020 Author Share Posted April 7, 2020 (edited) 46 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said: might be what you were doing 1 November 2017 or the day before. You fixed something. it was across the board for flashing all devices with SDX. While working on OSRAM configurations a couple of fixes rolled out. Sparta I/O being used or not used in the process. Yes, I seem to recall something now. The changelog says something about "minor fixes regarding Ultimate and SIDE/SIDE2", then "further fixes regarding SIDE2 (mainly)". It had soething to do with copying ROM to RAM, if I remember correctly. So, these have been committed to the CVS and the flasher contains these fixes, yes. This information somehow did not make it to the release notes, though. Edited April 7, 2020 by drac030 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillC Posted April 7, 2020 Share Posted April 7, 2020 I just want to confirm that the supercart version is for Dropchecks Super SDX board with integrated RTC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faicuai Posted April 7, 2020 Share Posted April 7, 2020 (edited) 3 hours ago, drac030 said: Hi, so after three years of doing nothing DLT is pleased to present SpartaDOS X 4.49 release version. It is available for download at the SpartaDOS X Upgrade Project website: sdx.atari8.info also known as spartados.com and spartadosx.com Apart from downloading the software please read the release notes (whatsnew.txt). The Toolkit, for those who do not like it being distributed in the ATR image form, has alternatively been uploaded as a tar.gz archive (containing the same subdirectory and file structure as on the ATR). Traditionally not everything has been done what was planned, especially the SIO drivers traditionally have not been updated and still cannot cope with the Pokey divisor 0. Next time, then. Also, there is no new User's Manual, but the SpartaDOS X 4.48 documentation is still valid. When in doubt, please take a look at the respective manual (*.MAN) files and the release notes. Have fun, NICE (!!!) Are these ones updated with FDISK, Colleen.sys, etc.? Looking forward to test the hell out of that track-buffering sweetness for my Indus-GTs ! :-))) Edited April 7, 2020 by Faicuai 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted April 8, 2020 Author Share Posted April 8, 2020 (edited) 16 hours ago, BillC said: I just want to confirm that the supercart version is for Dropchecks Super SDX board with integrated RTC. Yes. Supercart users, please make sure that you do not flash a SIDE image into the Supercart. Edited April 8, 2020 by drac030 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TGB1718 Posted April 8, 2020 Share Posted April 8, 2020 One question, I downloaded the new version and flashed it to U1M in Altirra, how do I save this update, when I close and re-open it's back to 4.49c. I've saved the profile and state, it does say before I close that I've not saved the U1M changes, but can't find a way to do this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trub Posted April 8, 2020 Share Posted April 8, 2020 I thnik you should use File -> Save Firmware -> Save Ultimate 1MB Flash. Then select the file as the default firmware for Ultimate. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted April 8, 2020 Share Posted April 8, 2020 23 hours ago, Faicuai said: Are these ones updated with FDISK, Colleen.sys, etc.? Apparently so, although the version of FDISK with the most recent bug fixes has not been released yet (nor uploaded to the DLT permalink), and since I had no idea a new SDX release was coming, FDISK on the SDX ROMs is one version behind what I am about to release. COLLEEN.SYS and SIDE.SYS face a similar situation (both were recently updated to version 4.0 here). But the drivers and tools are present in one form or another, and FDISK's OVL files have the proper hidden attributes set. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted April 8, 2020 Share Posted April 8, 2020 4 hours ago, flashjazzcat said: .. although the version of FDISK with the most recent bug fixes has not been released yet (nor uploaded to the DLT permalink), and since I had no idea a new SDX release was coming, FDISK on the SDX ROMs is one version behind what I am about to release. On to SpartaDOS X 4.49.1 (or maybe 4.50a) ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted April 8, 2020 Share Posted April 8, 2020 5 minutes ago, DrVenkman said: On to SpartaDOS X 4.49.1 (or maybe 4.50a) I'm half way through making the usual custom builds for my website, based on the new SDX version. As well as the updated FDISK and drivers, I've put the LSDEV and LSDSK tools on there (again, as usual). 9 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacques Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 (edited) On 4/7/2020 at 6:34 PM, drac030 said: Yes, here is a less or more accurate list of changes relative to 4.49c Changes in SpartaDOS X 4.49 (relative to 4.49c) =============================================== KERNEL ------ (...) * Changed the boot procedure (and QMEG-OS likes us more now!). I'm not quite sure about it, actually I witnessed new problem. Im using SDX on SIDE/SIDE2, together with QMEG 4.04 and SIO2SD (older firmware 2.5). For ATR mounting, I mainly use older but clean and simple Pajero's "SIO2SD configurator" dated 2007 (works with firmware 2.5), which I have mounted as D8 on SIO2SD (attached binary file). Up to SDX 4.48, I could power up the machine and immediately (SDX cart enabled) boot D8 from QMEG 4.04. Now with 4.49, attempt to load that 'SIO2SD configurator' ends almost immediately (like 0.5 second), then SDX 4.49 takes over and boots itself up to the command-shell. The workaround is to first enter SDX, disable it with "COLD /N" and now I can boot SIO2SD configurator without any problem from QMEG and D8. But it got quite inconvenient, any chance it could be sorted out, please? sio2sd.xex Edited April 9, 2020 by Jacques typo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted April 9, 2020 Author Share Posted April 9, 2020 Yes, the boot procedure has been intentionally changed (I would even say: fixed, because the previous one was not completely correct IMHO) so that SDX boots under QMEG without further hassle. Why this program cannot be loaded from the SDX prompt? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TGB1718 Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 18 hours ago, trub said: I thnik you should use File -> Save Firmware -> Save Ultimate 1MB Flash. Then select the file as the default firmware for Ultimate. I tried that, doesn't seem to work, re-tried several times again, just in case I missed something, a cold start is ok, but close Altirra and then restart and I'm back to 4.49c every time. I'm sure I'm not the only one who can't do this, anyone else can explain what I'm missing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacques Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 (edited) 47 minutes ago, drac030 said: Yes, the boot procedure has been intentionally changed (I would even say: fixed, because the previous one was not completely correct IMHO) so that SDX boots under QMEG without further hassle. Why this program cannot be loaded from the SDX prompt? Probably it could be, but after power on doing from QMEG "SHIFT+8" -> F -> ESC is way quicker than from my SDX with boot-menu for different SDX configs, then typing from the prompt, etc. Is it something that maybe Pajero could fix in the SIO2SD configurator itself? EDIT: The same PROBLEM is there with my SDX-formatted ATR with games, where I have MSDOS (MicroSpartaDOS) binary file set for boot on this ATR. It starts to be booted from QMEG, but then stops and enters SDX prompt. Oh dear... And again you can boot it from QMEG, if prior that, SDX cart is disabled e.g. with COLD /N. So it's not an issue of SIO2SD configurator, but general thing. Edited April 9, 2020 by Jacques Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 6 minutes ago, TGB1718 said: I tried that, doesn't seem to work, re-tried several times again, just in case I missed something, a cold start is ok, but close Altirra and then restart and I'm back to 4.49c every time. I'm sure I'm not the only one who can't do this, anyone else can explain what I'm missing Be sure that you're going into the Firmware Manager and clicking that 'Set as default' button on the entry of interest under 'Ultimate1MB ROMs'. Until you see an asterisk next to the desired ROM, it is unlikely to work. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TGB1718 Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 Many thanks, was missing that last step, what I did was flash the update, save the firmware, then go into the firmware manage, add the saved firmware and set it to default. Work fine now, many thanks for you help 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted April 9, 2020 Author Share Posted April 9, 2020 (edited) 43 minutes ago, Jacques said: The same PROBLEM is there with my SDX-formatted ATR with games, where I have MSDOS (MicroSpartaDOS) binary file set for boot on this ATR. It starts to be booted from QMEG, but then stops and enters SDX prompt. That is exactly why it has been changed: it was possible to boot a disk with the presence of the SDX. This was due to an unclean kludge in the SDX boot procedure. SDX prior to 4.49 allowed to boot a disk (!), $BFFD=$01, but prevented the boot by setting WARMST=$FF during cartridge initialization, effectively changing the cold start procedure to warm. XL/XE OS is fooled by this, so it does a JMP (DOSINI) (which also was set during the init) and so SDX starts. Now QMEG *restores* the WARMST value after the cartridge initialization routine hands the control back to it, effectively setting the boot to cold again. Since booting a disk is not forbidden ($BFFD=$01), it boots the system from the disk. So you end up with e.g. DOS 2.5 (or whatever is set as bootable in that disk) booted with the presence of SDX cart in the memory. This situation is incorrect and this is SDX's fault. Otherwise when the disk in D1 was not bootable, SDX did not start, but the bootsector was loaded instead, most of the time displaying only "Error: no DOS". This situation is incorrect too. This is why SDX 4.49 does not change WARMST during init, but starts in a clean way via CARTINI/CARTRUN vectors ($BFFD=$04). Sorry for disturbing your usual procedures, but I do not think at the moment that the return to the old, kludgy stuff would be very welcome. Edited April 9, 2020 by drac030 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacques Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 (edited) 18 minutes ago, drac030 said: Sorry for disturbing your usual procedures, but I do not think at the moment that the return to the old, kludgy stuff would be very welcome. Now understood logic behind it, thank you for an explanation. Unfortunately QMEG OS doesn't offer to disable cartridge from it's menu and doing full SDX boot-up to do COLD /N is quite inconveninent. Isn't there maybe a tiny, little binary, that could be booted from SIO2SD and would immediately disable SDX and return to the OS (QMEG menu), in fact do what COLD /N from SDX prompt does? That would be quite useful if the fix done in 4.49 is necessary and therefore stays in place. Thanks anyway! Edited April 9, 2020 by Jacques Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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