U1MB, Incognito, 1088XEL/XLD, SIDE, SIDE2 firmware 4.2 released

[flashjazzcat]

Wishbone interface is dead, I'm afraid. Regarding US flashing: Candle told me 'this will present no problem', so presumably he's the person to contact.

[flashjazzcat]

1 hour ago, macsonny said:

I have a video upgrade installed and FujiNet. Oh, and it's a 65XE that I took up to 128 k. Assume none of those would be "getting int he way"?

Are you sure this is a SIDE2 and not an original SIDE? SIDE detection in UFLASH is busted. In any case: use the DLT flasher as per Beeblebrox's suggestion.

[MARIO130XE]

Big thanks. 

 

One question: are the old plugins still compatible? 

In this old thread you have made the VBSOS2ST.rom Plugin. I'm still using that combination of hardware in my 600xl.

 

 

If I need an updated plugin, I would be very happy, if you can make a newe one for the new firmware. (VBxe SOphia2 Side2 STereo) 

 

Greetinx

 

 

[flashjazzcat]

3 hours ago, MARIO130XE said:

One question: are the old plugins still compatible? 

They are; nothing changed there aside from some bug fixes, but since one bug was a serious one in the Sophia 2 plugin, you should certainly update.

3 hours ago, MARIO130XE said:

If I need an updated plugin, I would be very happy, if you can make a newe one for the new firmware. (VBxe SOphia2 Side2 STereo) 

Here it is:

VBSOS2ST.rom

[MARIO130XE]

Wow, that was fast. 🥰 Big THANKS

[flashjazzcat]

FujiNet issue was caused by having PBI SIO set to 'HSIO+SIO2BT' instead of 'HSIO', apparently, so that's that mystery solved.

 

[MARIO130XE]

Flashed the U1MB + new plugin and the SIDE2. Everything is working fine. Thanks again. 👍 

[ggn]

Hi @flashjazzcat, thanks for all your hard work!

 

I have an open question: Did anyone try to update the firmware using an AVG cart? I tried the following:

• Memory config set to 1088K RAMBO
• AVGcart plugged in + SIO cable installed
• SDX disabled
• PBI disabled
• Boot to AVG menu, mount FIRMWARE.ATR and reboot
• Go to U1MB menu, enable SDX, reboot
• SDX comes up, I can DIR and see the files of the mounted disk
• I try to run UFLASH.XEX

At this point I see the AVG's led flashing for a few seconds, then everything apparently freezes. I tried a couple of things like holding OPTION while booting, but same result.

I thought I've managed to do this in the past but I'm not sure. In the end I just loaded the ATR from a SIOSD and upgraded the BIOS with no problems. So it's not a biggie, I'm just curious to see if this is possible or not.

 

[flashjazzcat]

It should be possible; since I don't have the cable for AVG ATR support, I just left SDX enabled in the U1MB menu, turned off the PBI HDD, booted to SDX, typed 'CAR' which ran the AVG menu, then started UFLASH.XEX, which auto-detected the U1MB hardware and sat there waiting for me to flash something. Unfortunately I couldn't do anything beyond that point since the AVG doesn't provide access to the FAT partition via a CIO disk handler.

Edited January 27, 2023 by flashjazzcat

[Beeblebrox]

Flashed my Incognito with the new ver 2 Jed this evening.

 

Would have been fairly hasslefree had it not been for my Windows laptop upgrading to Windows 11 the other day. (The Xilinx software doesn't like it as has been mentioned). 

 

I had the software on this laptop before as last year I had flashed the experimental Jed once. 

 

So I had to download, install and patch the software again on my work Windows 10 laptop. After freeing up a good 15gb of space in order to install the software to then patch it and fiddling about with the connector to the Jtag, it flashed without any issues. 

 

At some stage I plan to get a hold of the VBXE carrier board and undertake the 800 VBXE install, so great to have the required new Jed all ready to go.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 27, 2023 by Beeblebrox

[macsonny]

I forgot about this method I had to use last time to flash my unit.

 

This may help some others who may be struggling too.

 

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/332943-side2com-file-to-flash-side2/?do=findComment&comment=5027348

[ggn]

An answer to my question above has been found, so I'll quote the list again with the extra steps needed for future reference to myself and everyone who wants to try this:

 

20 hours ago, ggn said:

• Memory config set to 1088K RAMBO
• AVGcart plugged in + SIO cable installed
• SDX disabled
• PBI disabled
• Boot to AVG menu, mount FIRMWARE.ATR
• Disable HSIO (Ctrl-H)
• Reboot
• Go to U1MB menu, enable SDX, reboot
• SDX comes up, I can DIR and see the files of the mounted disk
• Run UFLASH.XEX
• Perform all the relevant steps mentioned in @flashjazzcat's manual
• Re-enable HSIO (Ctrl-Shift-H)

Many thanks to the person who gave me the suggestion! (you know who you are)

[Beeblebrox]

Absolutely lovin the new Jed/Firmware for Incognito. The previous Jed saw me rebooting the entire machine after viewing an individual Rastaconverter xex image or playing a music xex. Now pressing fire/anykey after viewing the former, or esc after playing a track quickly takes you back to the folder you were in.   It's pretty much inline with SIDE3 in that respect, (although SIDE3 can be set to also remember which file you were viewing)

 

Forgot how rich the colours are on a stock 800 video output on S-video:

 

    

Edited January 28, 2023 by Beeblebrox

[+remowilliams]

On 1/24/2023 at 2:31 PM, flashjazzcat said:

I have fixed the Sophia 2 plugin (users reported lengthy black-screen pauses, and this was caused by a very nasty bug), and the U1MB BIOS now reports the hardware JED version correctly.

 

So after finding out my Xilinx USB programmer apparently died while sitting in a drawer doing nothing..  I'm flash capable again and sent the U1MBv3.jed over to the U1MB, as the last one I found in the local archives was v2.

 

The U1MB is on firmware 4.20 now, but the JED version info is still reporting 1.0

 

[flashjazzcat]

12 hours ago, remowilliams said:

JED version info is still reporting 1.0

As mentioned on the download page, it still reports v.1.0. You're good.

[+remowilliams]

I see.. it's cleverly concealed.. in that bright orange text.. that I somehow didn't take note of...   DOH   😄

 

In other news I've now updated two U1MBs, one Incognito and two SIDE2 carts, and all is good so far.  Thanks again for all the hard work you put in : )

 

 

[800xl_1984]

Successfully updated SIDE2 to version 4.20 firmware using an SDrive-MAX.

 

SIDE2 does not retain some options from session to session. For example, Colour reverts to 0 (grey). Is this the expected behavior?

 

Thanks,

J.

 

[Frankie]

31 minutes ago, 800xl_1984 said:

Successfully updated SIDE2 to version 4.20 firmware using an SDrive-MAX.

 

SIDE2 does not retain some options from session to session. For example, Colour reverts to 0 (grey). Is this the expected behavior?

 

Thanks,

J.

 

My Side 2 still retains color selection after updating to 4.20. 

[Dinadan67]

6 hours ago, Frankie said:

My Side 2 still retains color selection after updating to 4.20. 

 

7 hours ago, 800xl_1984 said:

SIDE2 does not retain some options from session to session. For example, Colour reverts to 0 (grey). Is this the expected behavior?

 

 

I have the same problem without updating the firmware. A new battery does not help. I don't know where the settings are stored, but maybe it can go wrong with older Side2 cartridges?

[flashjazzcat]

Settings are stored in the RTC's NVRAM and the code which handles this hasn't changed in years.

[_The Doctor__]

Is it true NV or battery backed up, might check the battery. Or reprogram, flash again.

Edited January 30, 2023 by _The Doctor__

[flashjazzcat]

DS1305, powered by the coin cell battery.

 

[woj]

Reporting this just in case this was in fact caused by flashing the update, maybe a small bug / feature, maybe I did something I do not remember. Today I noticed the reset button on my SIDE3 was not doing anything when I was trying to get out of a game back to the loader. Since the button on my SIDE3 was flimsy since day one, I opened the cartridge to check the button with the multimeter, but it was OK. So I went into U1MB settings and noticed the ATR swap button was enabled, disabling obviously solved my problem. But! I could swear I did not enable it myself, so my only remaining suspect is the flashing procedure (to be clear, I flashed U1MB core firmware (the 64k file), U1MB 320kb SDX to the one shipped with the update, then back to my previous 320kb SDX after noticing mine (beta Jon suggested to me once for one of my troubles) was newer, and before all that I flashed the SIDE3 update). Anyone else had this?

[flashjazzcat]

On 2/1/2023 at 8:24 PM, woj said:

Anyone else had this?

Most probably since the button setting was moved to plugin NVRAM some time ago, and you may have skipped a few versions. UFLASH (deliberately) doesn't clear NVRAM during updates; the firmware should zero out plugin settings when the plugin changes, but it's possible no change was detected, hence you ended up with a spontaneously enabled swap button. Sorry about that, but at least it was easily remedied.

 

In any case: bumping another of my threads before anyone else has the chance to do so, I was wondering (since I'm working on another U1MB/Incognito firmware update) how many people (in light of the existence of FujiNet) are still using SIO2BT? Not that the code in the PBI BIOS which supports SIO2BT is especially bothersome, but a few FujiNet users have encountered problems after enabling HSIO+SIO2BT mode accidentally, so I do wonder if the feature can still justify its presence in the firmware.

Edited April 7, 2023 by flashjazzcat

[+Stephen]

1 hour ago, flashjazzcat said:

how many people (in light of the existence of FujiNet) are still using SIO2BT

I've never used SIO2BT even though I have at  least one device which could support it.  No real reason other than I just haven't ever had the need.  I've pretty much gone HDD only on all of my machines that are in regular use, and my daily driver Atari is 100% tethered to a PC via APE.  Given that all of my machines also have U1MB I always have a hi-speed SIO OS in use and the USB version of APE has been flawless even at Divisor 0, same as FujiNet.