exxos blog - random goings on

[exxos]

Just got home and TOS104 has deleted all my test files fine.

I do notice that the floppy light on the keyboard is permanently lite like with TOS1.62. Interesting that putting a floppy and then makes the light flicker as normal.

There is a lot of switches in the floppy code for TOS versions over 200.

For example..

Code: Select all

#if TOSVERSION >= 0x200
        move.w    #$0090,(a6)                   /* toggle DMA chip to clear status */
        tst.b     ABSW(MFP_GPIP)
        tst.b     ABSW(MFP_GPIP)                /* delay for 1 microsec */
        tst.b     ABSW(MFP_GPIP)                /* this amounts to 16 16Mhz clocks */
        tst.b     ABSW(MFP_GPIP)
        move.w    #$0190,(a6)                   /* leave in WRITE mode */
        tst.b     ABSW(MFP_GPIP)
        tst.b     ABSW(MFP_GPIP)                /* delay for 1 microsec */
        tst.b     ABSW(MFP_GPIP)                /* this amounts to 16 16Mhz clocks */
        tst.b     ABSW(MFP_GPIP)
#else
        move.w    #$0190,(a6)                   /* toggle DMA chip to clear status */
        move.w    #$0090,(a6)                   /* toggle DMA chip to clear status */
        move.w    #$0190,(a6)                   /* leave in WRITE mode */
#endif
        move.w    #1,d7                         /* load sector-count register */
        bsr       wrfdcd7
        move.w    #$0180,(a6)                   /* load "WRITE SECTOR" command */
        move.w    #$00A0,d7                     /* into 1770 cmdreg */
        bsr       wrfdcd7
#if TOSVERSION >= 0x200
        move.l    ABSW(_hz_200),d7
        add.l     #300,d7                       /* d7 = timeout timer */
#else
        move.l    #$00040000,d7
#endif

Code: Select all

#if TOSVERSION >= 0x200
        move.l    ABSW(_hz_200),d7
        add.l     #300,d7                       /* set timeout timer */
#else
        move.l    #$00040000,d7
#endif

The only thing I could really do is compile a test TOS206, but fiddle all the floppy routines so it uses from TOS104 etc and see if it behaves or not then.

[exxos]

For the hell of it, I tried TERADESK and amazingly it didn't crash!

This was still with TOS206.

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So some memory leak in the GEM desktop / AES / VDI, who knows ?!

As NVDI replaces a lot of stuff as well.. not sure what's even left to go wrong.

[stephen_usher]

Not surprising tgat 1.62 acted the same as 1.04 as they are almost the same, 1.62 merely being the version to support the STE.

Remember that back in the day 1.04 was called 1.4 before it was retconned. No idea where 1.5 went, but then again each release did seem to jump odd numbers.

[Rustynutt]

I guess you've played with blitter transfer enhancement setting in HD Driver? I can't remember whether it's IDE or ACSI only.

Thanks, that was on my mind as well. Working only with the Falcon, and BliTTer always disabled, never tested the HD Driver option.

[exxos]

Been trying to get HD11 working in steem but it's not having it Created a ACSI drive in steem, but HD11 doesn't find it. Was thinking steem debugger might have caught the crash and at least let me diagnose where the crash was.

I don't really have the time or skillset to diagnose OS faults like this. So someone else can deal with that nightmare.

[rubber_jonnie]

Ok, so I can't currently test 1.62 as my STE crashes with 2 bombs when I try to boot. I could likely build a new SD card from scratch but I can't do that at the moment as a bit busy with work.

I did test TOS 2.06 at 32 Mhz on my 4160 STE though. I saw folder name corruption which seemed to be the same each time it showed a bad folder name:

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It did however complete successfully.

[JezC]

I'm not totally sure about the following details (and old age is quite possibly messing things up in the old grey matter) but I thought that TOS 2.0x already had fixes for the folder limit bugs, so no need to use fldrxxx at all?

I've seen conflicting information about v1.04/1.62 (some reckon it's partially fixed but might generate an error & require a reboot rather than messing up the hard drive like the very early versions could).

Does anybody have definitive information about this? Such as what fixes are present in which versions?

[exxos]

@JezC There are a lot of patches for TOS. TOS104 has a lot fixed. Then TOS206 seems to have had several packages as well. I went through the floppy shop catalogue looking for all the patches and fixes. though everyone I found and run reported it was already patched. So basically TOS206 is the latest with all the known patches AFAIK.

I mean it mostly seems to be the filenames which are corrupted , but the files still delete. I don't know much about FAT, but maybe filenames and sector number counts are stored in different buffers in RAM and the filenames are getting corrupted in their own buffer. But I really have no idea. That does not really make sense either because why does 8,000+ folders delete fine if it was a buffer type issue.

But of course it still begs the question why PP driver works with TOS206 and HD11 works with TOS1.62, but not TOS206, unless using TERADESK. Its all rather confusing.

I wonder if anyone can test TOS306 to see if the same problems happen ?

[stephen_usher]

TOS 2.06 was a major upgrade and re-write of TOS to make a common codebase for the MegaSTE and TT (3.06) so it's very different from TOS 1.04/1.6x code.

TOS 1.6x was merely a modification of the TOS 1.0x codebase to change the base address of the ROM and add support for the extra STE hardware.

I'll see if I can set something up on my TT, but it won't be for a while as I have life things getting in the way.

[exxos]

Busy today trying to get stuff done for the store again. Basically the ST to VGA adapters. Takes longer than you think to un-pack them, test them, and pack them up again

I think these are the ones I had to send back to China because they make them incorrectly and with the wrong parts . Looks like they fixed them but did not bother to clean them afterwards I did try on a lot of them to wipe off the flux residues , which is noticeable on some of the DIN connectors. But it was like superglue and even pressing down with IPA did not seem to remove it. I would end up risking scratching the board and damaging it If I continued.

With it been a low-cost item it would take more time than they are worth to clean them all again. Aside from the lack of time and I cannot even get to my ultrasonic cleaner currently, it would end up being next year before I would get around to cleaning them anyway. So unfortunately there is nothing I can do about this, sorry! I have however stopped using that PCB company some time ago. So such things should not happen again in the future.

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