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Re: First steps with the ATW800/2
Posted: 08 Jun 2026 14:05
by dml
I have not tried HELBOOT yet but I think it is supposed to be writing out one of those atw_444.map (or .rm) files. Possibly to the wrong or a different place?
For your setup you do want the '444' config, which is effectively 3x T425s in a row.
I should have a look at this later when I get a bit of time and see how it works.
Re: First steps with the ATW800/2
Posted: 08 Jun 2026 14:06
by rubber_jonnie
dml wrote: 08 Jun 2026 14:05
I have not tried HELBOOT yet but I think it is supposed to be writing out one of those atw_444.map (or .rm) files. Possibly to the wrong or a different place?
For your setup you do want the '444' config, which is effectively 3x T425s in a row.
I should have a look at this later when I get a bit of time and see how it works.
Thanks for that, I will give it a try :)
EDIT: I don't have a '444' config unfortunately...
Re: First steps with the ATW800/2
Posted: 08 Jun 2026 14:39
by dml
Thinking about this a bit more - I think it just selects between pre-existing maps and overwrites the default map, like XBOOT does with desktop.inf etc.
So you probably need to generate the map with one of the helios tools. I vaguely remember this but have not been doing much with Helios so its a bit fuzzy. I'm sure Steve or gig92 can help here though.
Re: First steps with the ATW800/2
Posted: 08 Jun 2026 16:12
by rubber_jonnie
dml wrote: 08 Jun 2026 14:39
Thinking about this a bit more - I think it just selects between pre-existing maps and overwrites the default map, like XBOOT does with desktop.inf etc.
So you probably need to generate the map with one of the helios tools. I vaguely remember this but have not been doing much with Helios so its a bit fuzzy. I'm sure Steve or gig92 can help here though.
I've done this with the rmgen tool and then converted the .rm file to a .map file.
If I specify the .map file with startns it does seem to work correctly in that the additional CPUs start, however if I then run startx.net it hangs when X starts.
Unless there is a specific way of running startx.net with a .map file or .rm file that would get me round this. I suppose I might be able to change the files supplied with HELBOOT and use my config instead.
Re: First steps with the ATW800/2
Posted: 08 Jun 2026 17:06
by Steve
rubber_jonnie wrote: 08 Jun 2026 13:51
Any thoughts based on your experience? Thanks for all the help so far.
Sorry but my experience doesn't go much further than loading his program, selecting the mode I want and then startx.net. I honestly don't know the ins-and-outs of Helios and/or network maps. Can I please suggest you join the official ATW user discord, gig92 who made the script is in there, plus there are other enthusiasts who might be able to help:
https://discord.gg/evk45KVRcy
Re: First steps with the ATW800/2
Posted: 08 Jun 2026 19:56
by 1024MAK
rubber_jonnie wrote: 07 Jun 2026 14:06
Well that's annoying, it seems that atari-forum is down at the moment...
Atari-Forum is online.
We are sorry about the disruption.
The problem is that in the fight to keep the site including the forum useable against the overloading caused by unregistered bots and scrapers (some of which are scraping the site to get data for LLM AI systems), it's becoming increasing hard to have a system in place to differentiate between bots and real people.
Fine tuning the system to be better able to allow real people to access the site requires time. Free time is unfortunately a limited thing as the administrators have work and their own lives and maintain this forum and site in their own free time.
I would be grateful if whenever and wherever the subject comes up on other social media or other forums, that you set the record straight please.
Atari-Forum has been in existence for a long time and we don't intend on disappearing anytime soon.
For anyone that is having difficulties accessing the forum, it helps if you can provide (copy and paste) the User Agent details of your browser and find a way of getting these details to the admins at Atari-Forum, as that helps the administrators.
May I also suggest that we don't clutter up this topic any further and if members of this forum want to discuss the issue further, a new topic is opened up for this.
Mark
Moderator on Atari-Forum
Re: First steps with the ATW800/2
Posted: 08 Jun 2026 20:42
by rubber_jonnie
Steve wrote: 08 Jun 2026 17:06
rubber_jonnie wrote: 08 Jun 2026 13:51
Any thoughts based on your experience? Thanks for all the help so far.
Sorry but my experience doesn't go much further than loading his program, selecting the mode I want and then startx.net. I honestly don't know the ins-and-outs of Helios and/or network maps. Can I please suggest you join the official ATW user discord, gig92 who made the script is in there, plus there are other enthusiasts who might be able to help:
https://discord.gg/evk45KVRcy
Sounds like a plan, thank you sir.
Re: First steps with the ATW800/2
Posted: 08 Jun 2026 20:43
by rubber_jonnie
1024MAK wrote: 08 Jun 2026 19:56
rubber_jonnie wrote: 07 Jun 2026 14:06
Well that's annoying, it seems that atari-forum is down at the moment...
Atari-Forum is online.
We are sorry about the disruption.
The problem is that in the fight to keep the site including the forum useable against the overloading caused by unregistered bots and scrapers (some of which are scraping the site to get data for LLM AI systems), it's becoming increasing hard to have a system in place to differentiate between bots and real people.
Fine tuning the system to be better able to allow real people to access the site requires time. Free time is unfortunately a limited thing as the administrators have work and their own lives and maintain this forum and site in their own free time.
I would be grateful if whenever and wherever the subject comes up on other social media or other forums, that you set the record straight please.
Atari-Forum has been in existence for a long time and we don't intend on disappearing anytime soon.
For anyone that is having difficulties accessing the forum, it helps if you can provide (copy and paste) the User Agent details of your browser and find a way of getting these details to the admins at Atari-Forum, as that helps the administrators.
May I also suggest that we don't clutter up this topic any further and if members of this forum want to discuss the issue further, a new topic is opened up for this.
Mark
Moderator on Atari-Forum
That's fine Mark, makes sense to me.
Re: First steps with the ATW800/2
Posted: 14 Jun 2026 09:58
by rubber_jonnie
OK, so just to add here is another link to look at:
Helios And The ATW800/2 For Total Newbies
@Darklord not sure if you posted this already, but I've only been able to have a proper look since Atar-Forum came back online for me. Finding the SHIFT+CTRL+F9 command over there to shut down Helios was great :)
There's also some other interesting stuff here:
Transputer stuff
Re: First steps with the ATW800/2
Posted: 15 Jun 2026 00:37
by Darklord
Oh, absolutely. I was doing the 3-finger reboot just to get out of Helios, which
was tedious, to say the least.
The easy keyboard combo to drop back to TOS is the way to go. :)