chevymad Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 I thought it was a fluke, but now 2 different files will load then reboot and reload. First was Zaxxon then Galaxian. Both files i've had for years, then d/l'd off the web again for the same thing to happen. This is with 2 different computers and 2 different fujinets. One is a ntsc 800xl with u1mb, sophia and stereo pokey, fujinet from brewing academy a couple years old. Firmware from may of last year. The other is my pal 1088xel with vbxe. Fujinet is a new Lotharek pro. TNFS server is the same for both. The same file for both games works fine on side3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 try copying from tnfs server to SD card then mount from the sd card instead of tnfs.. try selecting read and write mode instead of read only mode as well ... post your atx/atr/ etc for both include the debug logs of you booting efforts all other binary and basic things are loading fine yes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chevymad Posted February 27 Author Share Posted February 27 Ok.. a bit of experimenting. Copied the galaxian file I d/l'd from fandal's site to the sd card. No change still continuously loads/boots/reloads. So then I used fujinet to copy the file from Mr Robots server over to my sd card. This works fine. Also when copied to my tnfs server it then will load fine as well. So it's something different about the files from fandal's site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 is one set .atr's and the other .xex? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chevymad Posted February 27 Author Share Posted February 27 No they're both .xex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 comes down to differences in the memory used by Loader/IO differences then, not hardware, but firmware software. This is why some loaders allow more then one memory configuration to be set before loading. Some handle these automagically, some are self relocating etc. There are workarounds people have used including compression etc. Maybe some work on the FujiNet loader could be done, but you've got working versions atm, I'd guess it wouldn't be priority Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twh/f2 Posted March 9 Share Posted March 9 (edited) This is btw the same issue that I reported in 2021. I also acquired a new Lotharek Fujinet device and I'm surprised it's still in the firmware in 2024. The issue is with a lot games in Fandal's cataloge. I think a lot of files in Fandals XEX's are CAS conversions and do some kind of warm-reset after loading to actually start the game. The SDrive bootloader has no issues with this. The Fujinet one however does not behave nicely with most of Fandals XEXs. \twh Edited March 9 by twh/f2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted March 9 Share Posted March 9 Update your firmware to the latest blah blah blah, make sure to include debug logs etc etc. and include the failed xex with the log etc etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
16kRAM Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 (edited) Using the FujiNet, I'm able to reproduce the error mounting this Galaxian XEX to a device slot and booting. https://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=1942 My understanding is that for loading XEX files via CONFIG, the FujiNet concocts a blank MyPicoDos ATR image and injects the XEX file onto it. From Linux, creating a MyPicoDos ATR file using dir2atr for this Galaxian binary results in similar behavior (constantly resetting). dir2atr -b PicoBoot406 galaxian.atr galaxian (where "galaxian" is a directory containing "galaxian.xex") However, grabbing a random joust.xex from my folder, I was able to create an ATR that boots successfully. dir2atr -b PicoBoot406 joust.atr joust (where "joust" is a directory containing "joust.xex") Perhaps some incompatibility exists between this galaxian.xex binary file and the MyPicoDos's binary loader. The binary file blocks for galaxian.xex are straight-forward enough. ataricom 0.30-200502 (c) 2008-2020 Matthias Reichl <hias@horus.com> block 1: 5500-75ff (bytes: 2100, offset: 6) block 2: 02e0-02e1 (bytes: 2, offset: 210a) RUN: 5580 So it will take some tracing to better understand where things go awry. Edit: corrected "using this Galaxian XEX" to "mounting this Galaxian XEX". Edited March 11 by 16kRAM 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twh/f2 Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 Hi there, I had a chat with Fandal in 2021 and he commented this: >>> I found 400+ games in my archive with jump to the >>> warm start address $e474 in the code. For example H.E.R.O., Airstrike, >>> Screaming Wings... So all these games don't work for you? and: >>> Unfortunately I have no idea why "warm start" version doesn't work with >>> your Atari setup. Many programs actually do this to initialize the >>> computer. Typically it was called by tape games which displayed custom >>> loading screens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twh/f2 Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 On 3/9/2024 at 4:38 PM, _The Doctor__ said: Update your firmware to the latest blah blah blah, make sure to include debug logs etc etc. and include the failed xex with the log etc etc. my setup is as follows: firmware: v1.2 2023-10-14 18:40:00 hw: 1.6.1 and up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 @HiassofT, Maybe some help for the FujiNet implementation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiassofT Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 Sorry, I have no idea about the FujiNet - I don't own one and am also not planning to get one. so long, Hias Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 (edited) I wonder if they also included this... - Hold select during boot of the XEX. Remember the FujiNet uses Option to enable and disable BASIC during it's slot image boot by how long you hold it. PicoDOS used Select to change it's hi speed on and off- this helped some programs work that otherwise would not. I was not a fan of that since I use add on hardware that uses select during cold or hard starts to enter the hardware config and menu system. Edited March 11 by _The Doctor__ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
16kRAM Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 One (perhaps) unsatisfactory workaround is to find an alternate version of the games that are exhibiting this behavior. I suggest trying the Homesoft collection, either at http://mushca.com/f/atari/ or at tnfs://atari-apps.irata.online/Atari_8-bit/Games/Homesoft. From the Irata TNFS server, it is possible to copy the Homesoft xex files to your personal TNFS server using the Copy feature found in CONFIG. Regarding Galaxian, here is the code at $5580. This is the entry point of the program - defined in the binary file's RUNAD block ($02E0..$02E1) At $5584-$558A, you can see $5500 being loaded into DOSINI (00 --> DOSINI & 55 --> DOSINI+1). DOSINI doubles as the Cassette's Run Address. Presumably, after the warm start, execution should commence at $5500. With that thought, (if one is feeling a bit hacky), it is possible to modify your copy of the Fandal Galaxian.xex so that the binary file's RUNAD is $5500 instead of $5580 and it will skip this warm start code. Though I'm sure the last thing the world needs is another variant of a game image. I've done no more than boot this XEX so something may break during play. So in a modern hex editor, open the Fandal Galaxian.xex, scroll to the bottom of the file and change the last 2 bytes from 80 55 to 00 55 and save. BEFORE AFTER Looking at $5500, it is indeed as @twh/f2 noted, in the Fandal Galaxian, there is code related to a cassette version. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apc Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 The problem with Galaxian and other games from Fandal's site is with warm reset being called when starting the game (similar to pressing Reset button) with COLDST (580/$244) flag still set. With non zero in COLDST the reset goes to cold reset (entering boot loop). Boot loader used in SDrive is handling that (sboot.xa) : Quote ;a=0 sta 580 ;prevent boot after reset (some programs use a jump through the reset vector (Joust)) As pointed out by @xxl in referenced topic, I'm not sure we want to do this (prevent boot after reset) in bootloader for every loaded xex/com file. I'm thinking to make an option for user to load xex/com with an alternate boot loader from FujiNet CONFIG program. By default use picoboot, use SDrive loader or modified picoboot as an alternative (or some other xex loader). Not sure yet how the alternate loader should be selected, maybe Shift+Option or Select+Option to mount and boot with alternate loader. Seems modified picoboot.bin prepared by @Wrathchild was close to work, just 0 must be placed into COLDST, not 1. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twh/f2 Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 (edited) Thanks @apc for your comments. I think this is the way. Choosing a default/alternative bootloader (picboot, sdrive, ..) would be indeed useful and maybe also a nice addition for future topics. Edited March 16 by twh/f2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twh/f2 Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 so is there a recommended way to create some kind of user story in the development backlog for the firmware? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 On 3/16/2024 at 6:57 AM, twh/f2 said: so is there a recommended way to create some kind of user story in the development backlog for the firmware? Yes! https://github.com/FujiNetWIFI/fujinet-firmware/issues -Thom 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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