Raven. A homemade Atari-like computer

[luciodra]

The problem is caused by the rvbios, which I can't update. I mean, I was supposed to update rvbios before reprogramming the rom, etc. Right now I can't get rvbios onto the Atari filesystem. In fact, with the other FAT adapter, I was able to rewrite everything from the PC and it works fine.
I have a few doubts:
- Is there a way to read a real Atari hard drive (not FAT) from PC, Mac, Linux, Amiga? I don't think so...
- At the moment, I removed OPLMIDI from AUTO, but I no longer get audio from Picogus;
- To get peak performance, do I always need to have CACHEON in AUTO, or can I launch it after boot?

[LarryL]

You could use the serial connection and then Zmodem to sent files from a PC/Mac to the Raven

[agranlund]

- At the moment, I removed OPLMIDI from AUTO, but I no longer get audio from Picogus;

Did you do these steps?
- put rvsnd.prg in c:\auto
- put rvsnd.inf in c:\
- you'll then want to edit rvsnd.inf, and under the [midi] section, replace

Code: Select all

out = Raven

with

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out = opl

- if you need to run pgusinit every time for it to 'start' then it should run before rvsnd.prg
(sorry, not sure off the top of my head if it's a one-time configuration tool or if it needs to run at every boot. I suspect it is the former)

- and you'll want isabios to run before those above programs which is using the isa bus.

If you enter the EmuTOS commandline, then go to c:\rvsnd and run 'rvsctrl devs', do you see opl under the list of chips as well as midi?

- To get peak performance, do I always need to have CACHEON in AUTO, or can I launch it after boot?

You can get rid of it completely.
If you have the 'cache' option turned on in the EmuTOS menu then EmuTOS will enable caches for you automatically.
The on/off programs are mostly there in case you need manual control for some particular reason.

[agranlund]

You could use the serial connection and then Zmodem to sent files from a PC/Mac to the Raven

Yep, there should be a serial transfer program included on the romdisk which should be your last drive letter.
With that you can send files over using CoolTerm.


If you already have UIP installed and a network card then that's another and faster option to transfer files.
I am not having very much luck with Filezilla against the UIP ftp server but that's probably on me not configuring something correctly..

I've mostly been using standard ftp on the commandline, as well as ncftp.
But then I only just recently realized that my favourite file manager Midnight Commander has FTP support built-in so that's what I'm using now :)

[luciodra]

Thanks, and almost everything is clear. The problem is that I should have updated the software before updating the ROM, because at the moment uiptool and serial return TOS error 35.
With the CF on FAT, everything works fine...

[agranlund]

Thanks, and almost everything is clear. The problem is that I should have updated the software before updating the ROM, because at the moment uiptool and serial return TOS error 35.
With the CF on FAT, everything works fine...

Oh, even if you run with nothing in the auto folder (not even rvbios.prg) ?
And just to clarify 100%, you get tos error 35 even when running ymodem.tos from the romdisk too?


There should be a readme file that comes along with the ymodem program but going off memory I think you just do this from the EmuTOS commandline:

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ymodem.tos c:\mystuff

Assuming you want c:\mystuff to be the download folder, and that the folder actually exists already.
When running the program from romdisk you will need to give it some path to a writable folder.
Without arguments it should write the files to <currrent folder> but the romdisk itself is read-only so that won't work.

Then use CoolTerm to send one or multiple files. Make sure to pick YModem as the transfer protocol.
Those files should end up in c:\mystuff for the example above.

[luciodra]

When there is no CF connected everything works fine.

[agranlund]

I'm sorry if I'm having a hard time pinpointing exactly the issues, and results of your test scenarios.

The problem is caused by the rvbios, which I can't update. I mean, I was supposed to update rvbios before reprogramming the rom, etc. Right now I can't get rvbios onto the Atari filesystem.
In fact, with the other FAT adapter, I was able to rewrite everything from the PC and it works fine.

I read this as you have tried two scenarios, both with the new ROM flashed to the machine?
1) with your existing cf-card that is TOS formatted, using the bs adapter
2) with a cf-card that is FAT formatted and with all the latest software

In (1) the system "has gone crazy", but that says almost nothing :)

You mention TOS error 35 when trying to run two different programs. Just those two, or any program?
Since you suspect it's because of the old version of rvbios.prg; did you try with nothing in the AUTO folder of your cf-card (not even rvbios.prg), and with that super-clean boot using ymodem.tos (from the rom-disk) so that you can transfer the new files over?
Or did you actually get TOS error 35 even when running things from the rom-disk too?

In (2) everything is working as expected. And this is with the ROM + Software from the latest release package?

[luciodra]

It's hard to explain in words...
Scenario 1: CF without BS and everything updated (ROM, software, etc.) everything works as usual.
Scenario 2: SD formatted with TOS, with BS and everything updated but not the software, nothing works, it opens directories with altered names, etc. I tried renaming AUTO to AUTO.OLD but everything stays the same.
I already know that the next step is to start from scratch. Format and partition the SD and put everything back as it was... If only there was something that could read the TOS partitions from a PC, because I would like to write the updated software without reformatting everything.

[agranlund]

It's hard to explain in words...
Scenario 1: CF without BS and everything updated (ROM, software, etc.) everything works as usual.
Scenario 2: SD formatted with TOS, with BS and everything updated but not the software, nothing works, it opens directories with altered names, etc. I tried renaming AUTO to AUTO.OLD but everything stays the same.
I already know that the next step is to start from scratch. Format and partition the SD and put everything back as it was... If only there was something that could read the TOS partitions from a PC, because I would like to write the updated software without reformatting everything.

Thanks, I still think there's missing some details that are probably obvious to you but I can't really know.

I tried renaming AUTO to AUTO.OLD but everything stays the same.

I'm not sure I can know what 'everything' means here?
a) you renamed it to AUTO.OLD but rename is not working so the folder is kept being called AUTO ?
b) it was renamed to AUTO.OLD, but somehow TOS is running the programs from the renamed auto folder at startup.
c) it was renamed to AUTO.OLD, nothing runs at startup and you end up with black and white desktop you'd get with a super-clean boot etc.
- If even in this (c) scenario, when _nothing_ ran from an auto folder. Things are still broken related to cf-card operations?
If so, updated software isn't going to help at all I don't think, and most likely something on the cf has gone corrupt (fat table perhaps?)
Alternatively, maybe related to adapters(s) etc, in case that setup is different from when you were using the other card.
If you skip the byteswap adapter and use this same CF card without, does it work then (i suspect not) ?
Is even running programs from the rom-disk is broken here?


And when it runs your programs from the auto folder. Is <anything> out of the ordinary happening or that part is working as it should?
ie; you see the splash screen, your usual boot text scrolling, nova initialises your screen mode properly etc?
(since you never mentioned anything about this I am assuming this is working as you expect?)

Tos error 35 can mean corrupt file.
It could also just mean that the file isn't actually corrupt on disk, but something goes wrong and the data loaded in memory becomes corrupt for whatever reason, or it can mean other things too probably.
My hunch is on something on the card is corrupt, requiring you to reformat it, but the best would be if it's something else.

This is partly why I keep asking about what happens when you run program from the rom-disk (not cf-card)
To see if it's only related to stuff on the CF or if tos error 35 happen even if you run something like ymodem.tos from ROM

If only there was something that could read the TOS partitions from a PC, because I would like to write the updated software without reformatting everything.

Yeah that would be nice.
Probably it is possible to image the card, use image with Hatari, and then re-write the image back on the card, but I never tried.

But still. If the rom-disk works (?) then you should be able to run ymodem.tos from it and send files over to the cf-card in Raven.

Assuming it's going to be able to actually write those files to the cf card but from the new info I'm suspecting that's not going to work either -- but it's still something I would have tried before formatting and starting over.