exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

I've decided to have a go at installing FreeMint on my MSTE but run into a problem, so wondering if anybody here had any experience and advice to offer.

I've followed the guide here all the way through: https://sites.google.com/site/probehous ... lling-mint only for the latest version found here: https://bintray.com/freemint/freemint/s ... 9-d4a92b4b

Whilst mint.cnf and xaaes.cnf for the later version have some minor differences, they're really not that far apart that I can't apply the instructions shown above.

What the problem I seem to have is this. It tries to boot from a: each and every time like so:


As you can see, it says Booting from 'a'.

Of course that then leads to this:


Where it can't read the config files from a:, and then goes into a system halted state.

I've edited the mint.cnf and xaaes.cnf only under TOS using the suggested editor, QED, so that the UNIX newline characters are preserved, but whether I run on Hatari or real hardware, I run into the same problem, trying to boot from a:

I've also searched both config files for u:/a/ references (I believe it should be u:/c/) but there is no reference at all to it, so I'm wondering is there is something hardcoded I need to work around in one of the cnf files, or if there is a cnf file I don't know about that I need to also modify.

Any help gratefully received.

Try to use the CPU typ -> https://bintray.com/freemint/freemint/snapshots-cpu

Edit: I try it and the problem was there is no mint.cnf ...

-> https://forum.atari-home.de/index.php?topic=15871.0

frank.lukas wrote: 21 Jun 2020 15:01 Try to use the CPU typ -> https://bintray.com/freemint/freemint/snapshots-cpu

I try it and the problem was there is no mint.cnf ...

That's the one I used Frank, very strange I don't know where it's getting the reference to a: from, but it does the same emulated or not. I'm using mint000.prg in AUTO from the downloaded archive.

mint.cnf + xaaes.cnf

-> https://forum.atari-home.de/index.php?topic=15871.0

Several things to note here:

- Under Hatari, the emulated GEMDOS drive C: is not supported. You have to create a harddisk (ACSI or IDE) image to run FreeMiNT.
- You're generally not supposed to copy mint000.prg to the AUTO folder. Just let the provided mint-???.prg (in your case: mint-d4a.prg) do its job.
- In fact, the snapshot (in your case: freemint-1-19-d4a-000-st_ste.zip) is meant to simply be extracted to C:\. You do not have to follow any guides or edit any config files.
- I just tested that this is the case on my MegaSTE.
- What HD & driver are you using on the (real) MegaSTE?
- If it does not run if simply extracted (i.e. without(!) editing any config files) please post photos from the real MegaSTE.

@czietz thanks for all that info, I will test with the latest version simply unzipped on the real MSTE, I hadn't seen about the GEMDOS thing, I'll bear it in mind if I try it again on Hatari.

I hope I can retest within the hour!

I'm using HDDRIVER 11 by the way.

czietz wrote: 21 Jun 2020 15:32 Several things to note here:

- Under Hatari, the emulated GEMDOS drive C: is not supported. You have to create a harddisk (ACSI or IDE) image to run FreeMiNT.
- You're generally not supposed to copy mint000.prg to the AUTO folder. Just let the provided mint-???.prg (in your case: mint-d4a.prg) do its job.
- In fact, the snapshot (in your case: freemint-1-19-d4a-000-st_ste.zip) is meant to simply be extracted to C:\. You do not have to follow any guides or edit any config files.
- I just tested that this is the case on my MegaSTE.
- What HD & driver are you using on the (real) MegaSTE?
- If it does not run if simply extracted (i.e. without(!) editing any config files) please post photos from the real MegaSTE.

Ok, I just extracted it right to the SD card and it boots right into Freemint now. I get errors at the moment loading XAAES.inf and teradesk.inf, but since that second one doesn't exist I get that.

rubber_jonnie wrote: 21 Jun 2020 17:34 I get errors at the moment loading XAAES.inf and teradesk.inf, but since that second one doesn't exist I get that.

Yes, that are known quirks, which Vincent also mentions in his video. Just saving the configuration once should fix that.

thorsten.otto wrote: 21 Jun 2020 18:15

rubber_jonnie wrote: 21 Jun 2020 17:34 I get errors at the moment loading XAAES.inf and teradesk.inf, but since that second one doesn't exist I get that.

Yes, that are known quirks, which Vincent also mentions in his video. Just saving the configuration once should fix that.

Thanks, I will look into that.

Ok, so all booting now on real hardware, thanks for the help everybody!

Here at Lo-Res:


And Med-Res:


I no longer have the teradesk.inf problem since I saved the settings, though the xaaes.inf problem still remains, so I'll look at the video and have a dig elsewhere too.

I did have one problem though, the MSTE was starting up in 8Mhz, no cache and Blitter off, but have that cracked with a basic control panel that allows for control of these, and everything is much nippier now.

It still feels slower than TOS on this machine (Not really surprised!), but not by very much, so it won't be a daily driver so to speak, but I do like whats on offer here, and if I ever happen to get a TT or Falcon I would certainly be thinking about using it.