Is swapping TOS ROMs really necessary for converting German machine to US?

[1200XL M.U.L.E.]

My Mega 4 machine has German TOS 1.04 installed. I'd rather not crack open the machine to swap out the German TOS for a US TOS. Would it be practical to load a US TOS from a solid-state hard drive device like UltraSatan or ACSI2STM? 

 

I thought I read somewhere a long time ago that TOS is copied from ROM to RAM upon bootup and it is possible to overwrite that area of RAM with another TOS. Is that correct? Or would I end up with two copies of TOS in RAM with one dormant and one active? I would rather not lose the memory space.

 

Thanks!

[masteries]

There is a software called SELTOS that perform the exact thing you ask:

 

https://atari.8bitchip.info/tosload.htm

 

and RAMTOS (appears the same as SELTOS?):

 

https://atari.8bitchip.info/astopensw.php#seltos

 

 

Also there is an EmuTOS disk image that perform something like you ask;

it entirely loads EmuTOS into RAM.

 

 

 

[1200XL M.U.L.E.]

Thanks for the reply, @masteries !

 

I will try SELTOS this weekend. The README file says the overall RAM will be decreased. It looks like both versions of TOS will be mapped inside the memory space.

 

I wonder ... is there a ROM that does nothing but boot an OS (TOS, EMUTOS, etc) from a disk? That would be most efficient it seems.

 

I did try EMUTOS on disk. It was kind of cool, kind of weird, kind of interesting! I thought it looked like it takes the best of TOS 1.4, 1.6, and 2.06 and puts it all together. My hope was to use it with my German Mega 4 and get English language OS displays. Unfortunately, it cleared out all the USB drivers and I couldn't control the machine anymore.   

[Tillek]

Well, yes... if you're converting ROM to RAM... yeah... Ram will be used.

 

EmuTos cleared out the USB drivers?  Are you using a HD?  It should boot from the hard disk, then use the HD to do the auto/acc's.  I've done this a lot with the BBS machine and only stopped using EmuTos because the HD driver built in causes some problems with my BBS software the HDDriver doesn't have which causes... well... ok... not going into details... it doesn't work.

 

But loading other drivers/auto programs through the HDD (UltraSatan or whatever) should be fine.

 

You could burn EmuTos roms...  The real question is what is the problem with opening it and swapping roms?  If you're just concerned about it, ok... that's valid... but otherwise, open the case and take a look.... It might be easier than you think and then the problem is solved.

 

Long as the TOS ROMS are socketed, it's not that big of a risky ordeal.

 

[Bee]

FWW - I did this this morning.  I had a spare set of US ST roms already.  Took about an hour to swap test and get everything buttoned up.

 

It's matter of $ if you don't have a way to make Roms.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/131980589633?hash=item1ebaa7fa41:g:6YQAAOSwgihdLoYm&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoFd%2FjectWtTg4juM39CxAcrDuvRH5in10z7idSFfWtdCWk6KFbye%2FRBzk2Ff4xUWkj8ndwOW3R2rRCdmnFqAUf5fwTo7LR5zvfyqUVgINyZ0Mh8z5OXtdq0wgjQu2M4fH6tN53OBMuvJBwAdMyGgvarvjv%2FGyPRPEW%2F3q8Jk%2BP2DWaLtdij1hdmR9BgVNKUC%2FInrCHXTuIKWrxDtl2vJpNQ%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR57F6oXuYA

 

not me but someone I'm told is dependable.

 

or get custom ones here:

 

https://atari.8bitchip.info/

 

Thank you

[1200XL M.U.L.E.]

On 9/23/2022 at 7:47 PM, Tillek said:

Well, yes... if you're converting ROM to RAM... yeah... Ram will be used.

 

EmuTos cleared out the USB drivers?  Are you using a HD?  It should boot from the hard disk, then use the HD to do the auto/acc's.  I've done this a lot with the BBS machine and only stopped using EmuTos because the HD driver built in causes some problems with my BBS software the HDDriver doesn't have which causes... well... ok... not going into details... it doesn't work.

 

But loading other drivers/auto programs through the HDD (UltraSatan or whatever) should be fine.

 

You could burn EmuTos roms...  The real question is what is the problem with opening it and swapping roms?  If you're just concerned about it, ok... that's valid... but otherwise, open the case and take a look.... It might be easier than you think and then the problem is solved.

 

Long as the TOS ROMS are socketed, it's not that big of a risky ordeal.

 

 

@Tillek No, I am not using any hard drive device on my Mega 4. I am using a floppy drive with EmuTOS as a PRG and I didn't load EmuTOS correctly. 😇 I should have copied the AUTO folder to the EmuTOS floppy. For some reason I thought the drivers from my initial boot into the German TOS would carry over. They don't. Loading EmuTOS as a PRG is like resetting the computer, isn't it? With the AUTO folder on the EmuTOS floppy, it all worked. Lesson learned.  

 

I've swapped ROMs before but am always hesitant to do so. Believe it or not, my biggest fear is losing a screw and fatiguing the plastic threads of the case. 😉 

 

12 hours ago, Bee said:

FWW - I did this this morning.  I had a spare set of US ST roms already.  Took about an hour to swap test and get everything buttoned up.

 

It's matter of $ if you don't have a way to make Roms.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/131980589633?hash=item1ebaa7fa41:g:6YQAAOSwgihdLoYm&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoFd%2FjectWtTg4juM39CxAcrDuvRH5in10z7idSFfWtdCWk6KFbye%2FRBzk2Ff4xUWkj8ndwOW3R2rRCdmnFqAUf5fwTo7LR5zvfyqUVgINyZ0Mh8z5OXtdq0wgjQu2M4fH6tN53OBMuvJBwAdMyGgvarvjv%2FGyPRPEW%2F3q8Jk%2BP2DWaLtdij1hdmR9BgVNKUC%2FInrCHXTuIKWrxDtl2vJpNQ%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR57F6oXuYA

 

not me but someone I'm told is dependable.

 

or get custom ones here:

 

https://atari.8bitchip.info/

 

Thank you

 

Thanks for the links, @Bee ! I may get those ROMs and call it good since I don't have an EPROM programmer. Plus, I don't like losing a chunk of RAM when loading TOS from a floppy.