MDOS Version 7.43 Release

[+9640News]

This is a minor release to MDOS Version 7.43.  There is only one minor change in this release of MDOS to address an issue when the Myarc HFDC is used as a single controller in the system.  This update fixes the issue.  Users with two disk controllers in their system do not experience this issue.

 

Included in the ZIP files are additional files released with MDOS V7.40 and the updates from V7.42.

 

 

MDOS743DIS.zip

[+dhe]

Hi @InsaneMultitasker and @9640News,

 

   Any chance this can get updated: https://github.com/BeeryMiller/MDOS/tree/main

 

   Also, I'd very much like to see a README.MD in the root, with instructions for using git to pull the source to a tipi drive and then building.

[+InsaneMultitasker]

The source can be assembled on TIPI but linking requires a non-TIPI device due to current TI DSR PAB limitations.  I have described this issue in other posts along with a possible solution that I don't have time to attempt i.e., leveraging opcodes >14 and >15 to go beyond the TI DSR (and by extension, the TIPI DSR)  save/load opcode 16-bit limitation.

 

I'll defer to @9640News for the repository update but I will say that we are taking slow steps with respect to github. For me, it's a matter of available time.  

Edited February 19 by InsaneMultitasker
Clarify (again) the issue here is a TI DSR limitation, not a TIPI limitation.

[+9640News]

7 hours ago, dhe said:

Hi @InsaneMultitasker and @9640News,

 

   Any chance this can get updated: https://github.com/BeeryMiller/MDOS/tree/main

 

   Also, I'd very much like to see a README.MD in the root, with instructions for using git to pull the source to a tipi drive and then building.

There are GIT utilities for Windows and I am sure other platforms as well to retrieve a repository.  The source files will be Text files (not D/V 80), so drag them over to a TIPI folder.  Make sure in the PI.CONFIG file, you have the root directory (I use MDOS) set as NATIVE_TEXT_DIRS=MDOS.

 

This will insure the PI treats the PC text files as DIS/VAR 80 files for assembly.

 

As @InsaneMultitasker mentioned, you can not link the OBJect files on the TIPI due to a TIPI PAB limitation that limits file sizes to 64K and we are at 140K for the binary image.  So, copy the files to a HRD, IDE, SCS, or HDS device.  When you copy them over, they will copy/convert over as DIS/VAR 80 files as long as you have the NATIVE_TEXT_DIRS=directory-name properly set.

 

From there, as long as you have the GenPROG tools (ASM, $MAKE, LINK) in a path (they are in the TOOLS directory if you do not have them), you can type MAKE in the directory where you have copied the files too, and you can then assemble the files.  All OBJect files will be saved to an OBJ folder so make sure you have created that subfolder.  The MDOS image will be in the BIN folder called MDOS.

[+InsaneMultitasker]

3 minutes ago, 9640News said:

From there, as long as you have the GenPROG tools (ASM, $MAKE, LINK) in a path (they are in the TOOLS directory if you do not have them),

Reminder that the "!Makefile" underwent changes this time around.  As part of the cleanup/prep, three macros were added to the start of the file to define the location of ASM, LINK, and WIPE.  These would typically live in BIN but maybe they should be moved to TOOLS.  As I mentioned earlier, we are still sorting things out.  In theory, if the files are not in the macro-specified folder, the PATH statement will take effect and the OS will search accordingly. 

[+dhe]

What I did on the prior release was create a dir on tipi called git.

Applied Native_Native_Text_Dirs to it.

git cloned the MDOS Repo.

Built, encountered the large program file problem.

 

On real Geneve, pointed the build to gotek,

On Mame + real tipi - built on emulated HFDC.

 

I see you have updated the github repo. Thanks, I will try the same procedure.

 

On the real Geneve, I now have and IDE controller, I might try just copying the whole thing to it from TIPI.

 

Thanks,

Dan

 

[+9640News]

Yeah, the size of the file is the problem. A number of months, I proposed a possible solution with using an unused byte in the 4A PAB as a possible workaround, but that would require a TIPI update and a subsequent MDOS update.  The issue here is the TI-99/4A PAB is of a different length from the MDOS mode Geneve PAB.  The Geneve MDOS PAB uses 3 bytes to address a memory location (VDP or CPU) and another 3 bytes for filelength while the TI PAB only supports transfers to VDP on two bytes and two bytes for file length.