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VCS BIOS Related Discussions

andymanone

By andymanone
in VCS PC-Mode Discussion

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Posted by davpa,

it really is Atar!C3l3br8te$50Ye4r$   that is a lowercase L between the 3s.  It is a complicated password and easily mistyped.  You also have to be sure your keyboard is outputting the keystrokes as some keyboards might default to using a keypad on the right half of the keyboard (typically the blue secondary letters).  This can also be an issue with international keyboards.   I flash and go into the BIOS multiple times a week.  The password really does work.  This morning I w
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Posted by davpa,

Ok, so I made a video where I take a VCS, one from our warehouse, flash it and update it (OS and BIOS) to the current states, and then go into the BIOS with the password.  I just wanted people to see it work on a VCS that I didn't update the password or make any other changes.     If you want to go right to where I type in the password, skip to 16:30.     
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Tidus79001 Dragonstomper

Tidus79001

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, NISMOPC said:

Nope, but I was able to login to 23 bios tonight with the celebrate password and make changes. Happy happy joy joy ?

Awesome.  I am happy that I was able to sort this out and leave useful tips for the community which is helping out those with newly purchase Atari VCS consoles.  This all tells me that Atari intentionally set a different BIOS password on the Black Walnut consoles.  Hopefully they don't update all consoles at a later date to this new BIOS password that is unknown to the consumer.

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Tidus79001 Dragonstomper

Tidus79001

Posted
Posted
On 12/6/2021 at 4:22 PM, zzip said:

Do the BIOS changes you make under 21 keep when it upgrades to 23?

Not sure, but I would recommend verifying your setting in PC mode after the BIOS is updated back to as when version 23 was released earlier this year it was found to have some very odd behaviors where the setting that were made were made prior to the update were still in place when viewed in the BIOS but not actually being picked by the OS as verified when booting in PC mode.  See the following thread for details on that issue and how to resolve it.

 

 

 

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DazRetroDomination Space Invader

DazRetroDomination

Posted
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On 12/11/2021 at 1:07 AM, Tidus79001 said:

I have sent the the link to via email where you can download the Atari OS Recovery media.

Hi there, I just got my Walnut console and am unable to install Batocera. Will what you have suggested work for me to install it? I'm so bummed out as I was looking forward to pimping this thing. I would appreciate the software to do this please.

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Tidus79001 Dragonstomper

Tidus79001

Posted
Posted
12 hours ago, DazRetroDomination said:

Hi there, I just got my Walnut console and am unable to install Batocera. Will what you have suggested work for me to install it? I'm so bummed out as I was looking forward to pimping this thing. I would appreciate the software to do this please.

Yes, I should work.  I will send you details via PM,

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BloatedToad Combat Commando

BloatedToad

Posted
Posted
15 hours ago, DazRetroDomination said:

Hi there, I just got my Walnut console and am unable to install Batocera. Will what you have suggested work for me to install it? I'm so bummed out as I was looking forward to pimping this thing. I would appreciate the software to do this please.

Tidus will take care of you :)

How are you going to pimp this out? Explain in all your glory :)

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zzip Quadrunner

zzip

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, DazRetroDomination said:

Batocera and Steam OS ;) 

 

Let us know how Steam OS goes.    I tried it a few years back on my regular PC and it was kind of a headache.   Very picky about how your drive is partitioned, and felt like a buggy and incomplete distribution.  I found it easier to install Steam on a more mainstream distribution.  Hopefully SteamOS has improved dramatically since.

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zzip Quadrunner

zzip

Posted
Posted
21 hours ago, IndyJones1023 said:

Long time Atarian, new to the Black Walnut VCS as of yesterday. I have the .23 BIOS and no passwords work. I see there is a fix to downgrade the BIOS. How do I do that, please?

Several of the people who reported this password issue have reported that the password starts working after a few days.    Not sure what the trigger is.  

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leech Quadrunner

leech

Posted
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3 hours ago, zzip said:

Several of the people who reported this password issue have reported that the password starts working after a few days.    Not sure what the trigger is.  

That is kind of whacky.  I honestly haven't tried it since it changed, since I put Debian on mine, and it supports Secure Boot.

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Zoyx Stargunner

Zoyx

Posted
Posted
On 12/24/2021 at 10:58 AM, IndyJones1023 said:

Long time Atarian, new to the Black Walnut VCS as of yesterday. I have the .23 BIOS and no passwords work. I see there is a fix to downgrade the BIOS. How do I do that, please?

Interested in this also.

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leech Quadrunner

leech

Posted
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47 minutes ago, zzip said:

It is weird,  but I have seen more than one person complain about no passwords working, and then one day they can suddenly get into BIOS

Well, these days BIOS is kind of the wrong term anyhow.  Think of UEFI as more of an embedded operating system in its own right.  Most modern ones can actually be updated on their own.  Not saying the Atari one does, this seems more to me about typos... you know the Occam's Razor thing...

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Tidus79001 Dragonstomper

Tidus79001

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 12/24/2021 at 10:58 AM, IndyJones1023 said:

Long time Atarian, new to the Black Walnut VCS as of yesterday. I have the .23 BIOS and no passwords work. I see there is a fix to downgrade the BIOS. How do I do that, please?

 

On 12/25/2021 at 12:01 PM, IndyJones1023 said:

I don't see how a BIOS password could possibly work after a few days.

 

The BIOS password requires flashing the BIOS back to 1.0.21 to set it the password that it out in the wild. 

 

The guide and recovery image can be be found at the following link.  For the most part the guide is not very useful other than to tell you how to create the recovery flash drive, so I would refer to for those steps

 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1pgC39vlSaK-8am4cbGKLgQrnKILRU1iK?usp=sharing

 

There are steps you have to do that aren't in the guide, and you will need a keyboard connected to your Atari VCS to complete these steps.  If you don't have a keyboard it will only flash the Atari OS not resolve the issue.

 

  • You need to use the keyboard and select the flash BIOS option from the menu that appears on the screen when you power on your Atari VCS with the Atari OS Recovery USB drive the you created from the downloaded image (if you don't select anything then it will just flash the Atari OS).  From the menu select "BIOS Upgrade & Reset Settings (VCS21)" and press the Enter key using the keyboard that you have connected to your Atari VCS. This process will downgrade the BIOS from 1.0.23 to 1.0.21 (the BIOS will automatically get updated again to 1.0.23 the next the the Atari VCS boot into the Atari OS).
  • You shouldn't need to reimage the Atari OS, but I did that as my first step before the BIOS.  If you find just flashing the BIOS doesn't work then reimage the Atari OS, power off & then on again and flash the Atari VCS BIOS before the system boots into the Atari OS.  After then boot into the Atari OS and let the system update the BIOS.

Once done you should be able to access the BIOS using the Atari Celebrate password.

Edited by Tidus79001
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Firefox42 Combat Commando

Firefox42

Posted
Posted
43 minutes ago, Tidus79001 said:

 

 

The BIOS password requires flashing the BIOS back to 1.0.21 to set it the password that it out in the wild. 

 

The guide and recovery image can be be found at the following link.  For the most part the guide is not very useful other than to tell you how to create the recovery flash drive, so I would refer to for those steps

 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1pgC39vlSaK-8am4cbGKLgQrnKILRU1iK?usp=sharing

 

There are steps you have to do that aren't in the guide, and you will need a keyboard connected to your Atari VCS to complete these steps.  If you don't have a keyboard it will only flash the Atari OS not resolve the issue.

 

  • You need to use the keyboard and select the flash BIOS option from the menu that appears on the screen when you power on your Atari VCS with the Atari OS Recovery USB drive the you created from the downloaded image (if you don't select anything then it will just flash the Atari OS).  From the menu select "BIOS Upgrade & Reset Settings (VCS21)" and press the Enter key using the keyboard that you have connected to your Atari VCS. This process will downgrade the BIOS from 1.0.23 to 1.0.21 (the BIOS will automatically get updated again to 1.0.23 the next the the Atari VCS boot into the Atari OS).
  • You shouldn't need to reimage the Atari OS, but I did that as my first step before the BIOS.  If you find just flashing the BIOS doesn't work then reimage the Atari OS, power off & then on again and flash the Atari VCS BIOS before the system boots into the Atari OS.  After then boot into the Atari OS and let the system update the BIOS.

Once done you should be able to access the BIOS using the Atari Celebrate password.

Thanks a ton, quick and worked like a charm

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justclaws River Patroller

justclaws

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, Tidus79001 said:

The BIOS requires flashing the BIOS back to 1.0.21 to set it that it out in the wild. 

Thanks for the tip, but this statement can be a bit misleading, as it does not apply for everybody.
I, and many others, have the 1.0.23 BIOS, and the "celebrates" password (out in the wild, listed above), works 100% with our VCS.

At the same time, a BIOS downgrade for some people with problems, for sure is a solution.
My conclusion on this is that (some of) the latest batch of VCS systems from the factory, come with a new password and latest BIOS.

Older systems, like mine, had an older BIOS originally, got the Atari "celebrates" password, and kept it with the 1.0.23 upgrade.
Presumably if the people who downgraded to get the known password, then upgrade, there would also be no change, after upgrade.

The 1.0.23 upgrade in itself does not reset the BIOS password, so that's the only explanation I can think of.
Presumably Atari don't know about the discrepancy from the factory, with some units, and that's why they keep giving the "celebrates"
password to user who ask. I think that is also what you say, in your explanation, but it's not 100% clear, so I am just confirming that.
(An Atari contact I made, also confirmed that there was no password change, as far as they are concerned.)

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