Bootstrap and boot blocks

Everything about programming, including VDP and Sound programming.
EtchedPixels
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Joined: 07 Feb 2019 01:12

Re: Bootstrap and boot blocks

Post by EtchedPixels »

My CFX-II fails with InnoDisk iCF-2000

I've had fun with this card with my own boot ROMs and it seems to take longer than many to initialize and respond post reset.


For the CFX-I I will add theoretical support and loader as I go but it'll need someone else to test everything but the video fallbacks.

Alan
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Dave
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Re: Bootstrap and boot blocks

Post by Dave »

Ah, OK, hopefully, it's just that one card.

Only Martin and I have both CFX's (for obvious reasons), one of us can test when required

regards
Dave
Martin A
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Re: Bootstrap and boot blocks

Post by Martin A »

EtchedPixels wrote: 23 Jun 2019 18:54 I've had fun with this card with my own boot ROMs and it seems to take longer than many to initialize and respond post reset.
The propeller boot time adds about a half second extra to the start up time with the CFX-II. It doesn't sound a lot, but because the MTX does almost no boot checks, it notices.

Dave issues early on with the CFX-II but they went away when he swapped the original NMOS CPU for a CMOS version. The likely cause seemed to be the CF card being sensitive to output levels. Inside the MTX, the address bus isn't buffered, so NMOS might not drive high enough for the CF to register a high.
EtchedPixels
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Joined: 07 Feb 2019 01:12

Re: Bootstrap and boot blocks

Post by EtchedPixels »

(I meant the card not the MTX)
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1024MAK
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Location: Looking forward to summer, in Somerset, UK

Re: Bootstrap and boot blocks

Post by 1024MAK »

I’m watching this with great interest :mrgreen:

Mark
:!: Standby alert :!:
“There are four lights!”
Step up to red alert. Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb :!:
Looking forward to summer in Somerset later in the year :D

Not as many MTXs as Dave! :lol:
EtchedPixels
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Joined: 07 Feb 2019 01:12

Re: Bootstrap and boot blocks

Post by EtchedPixels »

Two more questions
1. Is there a safe reliable way to detect rememorizer so I know whether to do an SD card probe ?
2. Is it just B800-BFFF I need to avoid during BIOS loads ?

Otherwise I think I have CFX, CFX2 and SD card support folded into one kernel now.

Alan
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Dave
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Re: Bootstrap and boot blocks

Post by Dave »

1. Martin will know better than me, but, how about inspecting the CP/M Boot PROM message?
CFX1 has something like "#@CFX-01-V03"
CFX-II has something like #@CFX-02-V03"
REMEMORizer is different, but I can't recall the string at the moment.

Martin, what do you think?
Is there a better way?
Martin A
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Re: Bootstrap and boot blocks

Post by Martin A »

These are the boot stings at FFC0 for the various bits of hardware in my collection.

Andy's SD card based hardware
Rememotech - @REM03
Rememorizor - @REZ03

80C55 based 16 bit IDE
CFX - @CFX01
MTXplus - @CFX01

Direct connected 8 bit IDE
CFX-II - @CFX02
CFX3 Prototype - @CFX03

All the various CPM systems use the same memory layout from the original FDX system for the block from FFC0 to FFFF to avoid the need to patch the BDOS. So the location of the ID string is consistent across all versions.

Looking at the equates in the SDX build for high memory, that has the BDOS address as D700 and the BIOS at E500. The SDX expects to find the "59K" version of CPM which suggests that the area above D700 needs to be avoided. I haven't got a copy of the CBIOS file to hand to check where the CCP etc goes. As the SDX doesn't use the CCP there's no help there.
EtchedPixels
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Joined: 07 Feb 2019 01:12

Re: Bootstrap and boot blocks

Post by EtchedPixels »

Ok give this a go

http://www.fuzix.org/tmp/mtx.raw.gz

It's a gzip compressed raw CF card image. It uses the bios hooks to boot so hopefully boots on anything.

For sources the matching github tag is: 22aa87f35fc6bc8bfe7fd25d053bf10ee276669b
For copyright/credit information on contained packages: https://github.com/EtchedPixels/FUZIX/b ... er/CREDITS

It should (!) identify and look for CFX-I or CFX-II CF and Rememorizer SD cards and is set up with a single console (which will be on the 80 column card when possible). You need at least 3 banks of 48K plus common.

Boot off the card
at the boot prompt answer hda1

the root login has no password set (retro security :roll: )

To finish "shutdown"

It works on my test cases. If it crashes, eats your CF card or transmogrifies your cat into a hamster don't blame me.

Alan
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Dave
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Re: Bootstrap and boot blocks

Post by Dave »

Hi Alan,

doesn't work for me on CFX-II.

The CFX-II ROM either boots to the startup menu, or boots the system depending on a keypress at boot time.

With no key pressed, the ROM Detects a card ("CPM Boot Drive Found") and the activity light on the CF drive flicks on/off

Trying to Boot with the CPM mode key (C) pressed tries to boot off the B drive as a type 18 (8MB CF) as specified by the ROM code

Same with CFX-I, though with no VGA obviously

The ROMs are expecting to Boot CPM and not seeing a valid system

What do you mean by 3 banks of 48K? Are you using the RAM Disk? Or did you mean 3 banks of 16k totalling 48K + common, i.e., a MTX512 with 64k?

How is the card partitioned? Do you have an 8MB partition at the start that the CPM BIOS DPB expects?

regards
Dave
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