U1MB, Incognito, SIDE2, SIDE3, 1088XEL/XLD Firmware 4.0 Released

[_The Doctor__]

3 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

Just fixed the bug in the Sophia 2 plugin which would periodically result in several seconds of black screen inactivity when entering the U1MB setup menu. Went ahead and fixed a few other bugs as well, so I'll be releasing update 4.07 fairly soon.

 

FJC, creator and exterminator of bugs...   that's called job security           My funny bone lives.

 

Here's to the update. All the blessings, none of the curses.

Edited May 1, 2022 by _The Doctor__

[flashjazzcat]

15 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said:

that's called job security

I think it's the definition of 'programming'.

Edited May 1, 2022 by flashjazzcat

[Panther]

6 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

Just fixed the bug in the Sophia 2 plugin which would periodically result in several seconds of black screen inactivity when entering the U1MB setup menu.

Does this mean it also won't attempt the video test when switching to fresh profiles?

 

[flashjazzcat]

31 minutes ago, Panther said:

Does this mean it also won't attempt the video test when switching to fresh profiles?

It doesn't anyway. The only known bug was a 'wait for sync' function which would hang for long periods of time when the NMIs were enabled. The only possible entry point to a resolution test is selecting a new resolution, and if that code is executed by any other means, the ROM is probably corrupt or there's some other serious problem.

 

EDIT: I was never able to replicate the issue you described, but if you can provide details of how to replicate it, I'll see if I can do so.

Edited May 1, 2022 by flashjazzcat

[flashjazzcat]

Speaking of bugs, I spent about four hours today tracking down a weird one in the new FAT DOS. Having written a test harness in BASIC, I noticed that a data file containing 'THIS IS A STRING' <EOL> was getting a truncated string error when read back, but only when using Altirra BASIC and not if RESET was pressed immediately after the interpreter was started. Eventually I discovered that the test file - which should have been 17 bytes long - was actually 19KB in size when this problem manifested itself. This explained the truncated error, since the file actually contained the BASIC program itself at its head. But why? Cue much miserable single-stepping in the Altirra debugger.

 

Anyway: turned out that I'd forgot to add a check to make sure the CIO GET/PUT byte function was called from the OS, rather than directly by the application (Altirra BASIC). The burst write function was being triggered by a spurious buffer size in the ZIOCB when Altirra was calling the put byte function directly during string writes. RESET was clearing the ZIOCB, and Atari BASIC wasn't doing this at all, so it's lucky that I caught this one.

[flashjazzcat]

I have nearly all the autorun shortcut types working in the new SIDE3 loader now, so I thought I'd share a short video showing the autorun set-up, and the system cold-booting directly to the FAT DOS's command processor:

 

 

(After setting up the shortcut, I cold-booted the emulated machine and hit 'L' at the U1MB splash screen, although this will also work stand-alone and without U1MB if you have the cartridge switch in the 'loader' position).

 

You could do this with any XEX/COM/EXE file, and you can have autorun disk and cartridge images too. If you boot an application XEX, it will have read/write access to the host FAT partition via the CIO FAT filesystem driver. You can just boot into the CLI and run your application from there, of course. After I get all this stuff tightened up and fix a series of known bugs, I'll release this as a beta.

[Ricky Spanish]

Good stuff !

 

[Bikerbob]

Hello all, I have been out of the 8-bit stuff for a couple of years, and now playing again. This might be a stupid question but I am missing something.

 

Using a 1088xel - I built, with my Side2 - I have updated both the 108xel and the SIde2 firmware to the latest versions.

 

On my 1088xel if I setup a profile and turn on the PBI device and hard drive the Side2 is not seen - is that normal? because on my 800xl with U1mb - thats how I setup the side2.

 

If I have a profile just clean- everything disabled including spartados, then the SIDE2 is seen and loaded using a SIDE Driver v 4.03 .. this is new to me.. but looks good. 

 

But on my other machine I could go into the loader and change partitions etc.. This way I cannot. Am I missing something? a Video? Tutorial? RTFM?

 

Thanks

James

[Beeblebrox]

@Bikerbob  Have you flashed the plug in for SIDE2?

 

To use Side3 for example the U1mb needs the plugin flashed. 

 

FJC's website includes the extensive manual here:

https://atari8.co.uk/firmware/ultimate-1mb/

[Bikerbob]

I figured out what was wrong.. the firmware changed since I built the machine.. aka when the 1088xel was first out (when I bought and bilt it) it had the FJC firmware with the SIDE PBI bios... now the firmware is specific to the XELCF adapter.. which I have but have not installed yet.  SO.. I am building it.. rather than flashing bits and bobs of firmware to get it back working with the SIDE2.

 

James

[Scyzor]

On 6/8/2021 at 2:21 AM, flashjazzcat said:

Yep. 'Please enable extended RAM'.

OK, trying to find that option to enable due to the same error message. Even can't even find it in the manual

 

Also another question. Currently, I have U1MB + SIDE2 (both up to date) but recently got SIDE3. From the description, I need to flash only U1MBS3FW.ROM but then I will lose backward compatibility with SIDE2? I mean I need to backup stuff non-FAT partitions from SIDE2 before flashing U1MB to add SIDE3 support?

Edited August 24, 2023 by Scyzor

[flashjazzcat]

7 hours ago, Scyzor said:

OK, trying to find that option to enable due to the same error message. Even can't even find it in the manual

It's literally the first setting explained in the manual, and the first setting at the top of the first menu, highlighted by default every time you enter the setup menu.

7 hours ago, Scyzor said:

I will lose backward compatibility with SIDE2?

You will, although since CF cards don't fit in SIDE3, it'll make sense to transfer everything from the old media to the new before the upgrade anyway.

[Scyzor]

12 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

It's literally the first setting explained in the manual, and the first setting at the top of the first menu, highlighted by default every time you enter the setup menu.

OK, so I had it set to 1088k Rambo. Looks like the naming nomenclature has changed since. At first, I thought I screwed something when flashing from 3.x to 4.x

12 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

You will, although since CF cards don't fit in SIDE3, it'll make sense to transfer everything from the old media to the new before the upgrade anyway.

I was looking at juggling carts, not CF cards   till I had all moved from SIDE2 onto SIDE3. I assume by switching the plugin from S2 to S3 I will lose access to the hard disks on SIDE2.

[flashjazzcat]

11 minutes ago, Scyzor said:

I was looking at juggling carts, not CF cards   till I had all moved from SIDE2 onto SIDE3. I assume by switching the plugin from S2 to S3 I will lose access to the hard disks on SIDE2.

Yes: as said, you'll lose 'backward compatibility' with SIDE2 when the SIDE3 plugin and PBI BIOS are installed, since there isn't space in the 8K PBI BIOS (which also hosts the high-speed SIO driver and FAT handler for mounted ATRs, etc) to support both devices (the IDE and SD protocols being entirely different, so all the low-level IO code is completely replaced). You could, for example, image every CF card on the PC thereby have no need at all for SIDE2 (since you can always mount the resulting card images direclty in Altirra, which now allows disk-explorer access to SDFS formatted APT partitions, etc, and selectively copy anything you need to SD media).

 

SIDE2.SYS (on the SIDE2's SDX ROM) will still allow the CF HDD to work, of course, so you can always fall back on that if you need to use the older cart in the machine after the PBI BIOS has been updated (turn the PBI HDD off, and boot SDX from SIDE2).

Edited August 24, 2023 by flashjazzcat

[Scyzor]

59 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said:

SIDE2.SYS (on the SIDE2's SDX ROM) will still allow the CF HDD to work, of course, so you can always fall back on that if you need to use the older cart in the machine after the PBI BIOS has been updated (turn the PBI HDD off, and boot SDX from SIDE2).

O yeah, standalone mode. Didn't thought about it. Thanks again! 

[w1k]

sometimes, when is atari power off maybe one day and then i turn it, its freeze on red or black screen. when i turn off/on again, its starts normal.. what can be wrong? (stereo, covox installed)

[Beeblebrox]

1 hour ago, w1k said:

sometimes, when is atari power off maybe one day and then i turn it, its freeze on red or black screen. when i turn off/on again, its starts normal.. what can be wrong? (stereo, covox installed)

way more information needed.   

 

Which Atari 8bit for a start?

 

On the occasions it powers up, does it remain stable for hours?

 

It could be the onset of ram, os chip or pia chip failure, or a few other things.

Edited January 15 by Beeblebrox

[w1k]

800xe, yes its stable.. only when I turn it off and turn it on after a few hours, for example in an hour

(u1mb, PTODT stereo, covox from lotharek, ultra video 1.0xe)

[flashjazzcat]

So... not entirely stable.  Intermittent connection possibly connected to thermals? Certainly not a firmware matter.

[w1k]

atari have o2fixer.. u1mb without side 3 is ok

but with side3 now cant boot with u1mb

and on u1mb is every time reseted date and time.. hmm

Edited January 15 by w1k

[flashjazzcat]

Stability problems with SIDE3 aren't uncommon, unfortunately. O2 Fixer is marketed as a means of remedying the problems, but I have no experience of the product yet. Installing 74F08 in place of 74LS08 has previously been my course of action. Works nine times out of ten.

[Beeblebrox]

9 minutes ago, w1k said:

atari have o2fixer.. u1mb without side 3 is ok

but with side3 now cant boot with u1mb

and on u1mb is every time reseted date and time.. hmm

What firmware is installed on u1mb?

What firmware/loader is installed on the side3?

What plugin have you got installed on u1mb?

 

Was it working with u1mb and side3 before, or is this a recent instability?

 

You have a lot of upgrades in the machine. Any recently added?

 

 

Edited January 15 by Beeblebrox

[w1k]

38 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said:

Stability problems with SIDE3 aren't uncommon, unfortunately. O2 Fixer is marketed as a means of remedying the problems, but I have no experience of the product yet. Installing 74F08 in place of 74LS08 has previously been my course of action. Works nine times out of ten.

will this helps?

https://www.jameco.com/z/74F08-Major-Brands-IC-74F08-Quad-2-Input-AND-Gate_287013.html

 

edit:

u1mb clock reseting when atari os on/off.. without side3

Edited January 15 by w1k

[flashjazzcat]

Flaky ribbon cable or sockets could cause this. Quite unusual to see any stability issues at all with U1MB (without SIDE3) on an XE. That F08 looks OK, but I'm not sure this is your issue.

 

EDIT: Needless to say, check the RTC battery as well.

Edited January 15 by flashjazzcat

[Beeblebrox]

@w1k one other thing. Make sure, with all the upgrades inside, that your power supply is sufficient enough to power it all.

 

What power supply are you using? If it is a modern one or a USB one, make sure you have a 5v, 2amp supply.