Author
| SymbOS MSX multitasking operating system - help needed!
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Patsie
msx freak
Posts: 191 |  Posted: July 25 2006, 07:08 |
Quote:
| I'm one important step further. I noticed the 'run...' option in the start menu and then with the browse option in the run window, I realized that the IDE interface is linked to drive C: and that I can start the applications from it :-)
Now I have to figure out how to convince SymbOS that the icons reference applications on the C: drive and not on the A: drive but that is not anymore for today. I remember having seen several messages regarding this topic somewhere in this thread so I will try to find those back.
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Hey Alex. If you do the 'Run...' thing, you can browse to your partition with SymbOS on it and start the app 'appcp.exe' (Control Panel) In there you can click on 'System' and set your system path (default it points to A:\) and change it to C:\apps\ or something where you have your apps installed. (don't forget to include the last '\' character in this path) Also you can change/add/remove any driveletters under 'mass storage' (say... remove drive a: which doesn't work anyway under your Tr) |
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Prodatron
msx master
Posts: 1110 | Posted: July 25 2006, 19:14 |
Hi Alex, currently it's a little bit tricky to set the device, where SymbOS loads/saves the config file (symbos.ini).
Here is the current rule:
- first SymbOS tries to load the config from the root directory of the 4.partition (=1 for MSX) of the primary IDE device.
- if this device does not exist, or if there is no SYMBOS.INI in the root directory, it stores the config on the device, where SymbOS has been started from. Unfortunately the standard config in SymbOS is like the Windows one, A=Floppy1, B=Floppy2, C=Harddisc1/Partition1 etc, while MSX has the harddisc at first.
So you should copy the SYMBOS.INI on the 1.partition of your IDE device before you boot SymbOS. Then you can load/save it later from IDE and can change your configuration.
Please tell me, if you need a SYMBOS.INI.
I wonder, if the MegaSCSI is also a very important extension. I saw it on the Euskal at Konamimans machine, maybe I should support it, too?
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Prodatron
msx master
Posts: 1110 | Posted: July 25 2006, 19:29 |
Sounds a little bit strange, but currently I am not able to get a picture in Screen 0/80 (I was in screen 6 and switched to 0/80).
Currently I am loading the following values in VDP registers 00-13:
#04,#70,#03,#27,#02,#36,#07,#f4,#08,#02,0,0,#f4,#42
Text starts at #0000, font at #1000 and "blink" bits at #800. But the only thing I get is a black screen if it would be switched off.
When I am in MSX DOS and type "mode 80" I have exactly the same register values and VRAM memory usage with the exception of the blink-data/registers.
Does anyone have an idea, what could be wrong?
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Patsie
msx freak
Posts: 191 | Posted: July 25 2006, 22:37 |
What's the status of the development environment of SymbOS? The OS is taking shape, but it will stand or fall with the use of it. And making applicaties is the way to make it useful. I'd love to make something for this wonderful OS, but I need some documentation, tooling and a programming language.
ps: only Linux and OSX here
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manuel
msx guru
Posts: 3552 | Posted: July 25 2006, 23:40 |
How about Novaxis SCSI? 
That's what I use. Quite good stuff. And Marcel Delorme (msd) has all docs you need. |
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diederick76
msx user
Posts: 63 | Posted: July 26 2006, 00:27 |
Yeah, I'm also dying to do a hello world in SymbOS. BTW I'm on Linux.
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Sonic_aka_T
msx guru
Posts: 2269 | Posted: July 26 2006, 01:47 |
Quote:
| Sounds a little bit strange, but currently I am not able to get a picture in Screen 0/80 (I was in screen 6 and switched to 0/80).
Currently I am loading the following values in VDP registers 00-13:
#04,#70,#03,#27,#02,#36,#07,#f4,#08,#02,0,0,#f4,#42
Text starts at #0000, font at #1000 and "blink" bits at #800. But the only thing I get is a black screen if it would be switched off.
When I am in MSX DOS and type "mode 80" I have exactly the same register values and VRAM memory usage with the exception of the blink-data/registers.
Does anyone have an idea, what could be wrong?
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Hard to say, but make sure that the blink table is either 'empty', or has the blink colors set to the same colors as the 'normal' colors. Also make sure the blink-timing register contains a valid value, perhaps a value of $00 is causing the undesired results you're seeing. |
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Prodatron
msx master
Posts: 1110 | Posted: July 26 2006, 17:24 |
Hope Trebmint can say something about the SymStudio status.
The developer documentations are more or less complete, but I will release some additional example source codes, soon, as without them it shouldn't be so easy to start.
I still couldn't fix the problem with the black screen in Screen 0/80 chars. It seems, that not only the VDP registers could cause the black screen. Tables and blink registers are all ok.
I used my screen0/80 initialisation routine directly in MSX-DOS and there it works. Will have to try out more things...
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jltursan
msx professional
Posts: 887 | Posted: July 26 2006, 17:41 |
Have you tried to test your routine from a previous graphic mode (like the SymbOS one)?. If you test it only from MSX-DOS. being already running in a text mode, maybe you're still missing something. Just an idea...
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Trebmint
msx addict
Posts: 284 | Posted: July 26 2006, 20:10 |
Quote:
| Hope Trebmint can say something about the SymStudio status.
The developer documentations are more or less complete, but I will release some additional example source codes, soon, as without them it shouldn't be so easy to start.
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Symstudio is still very much ongoing, but unfortunately I'm under pressure to finish some work at the moment as I was forced to take off nearly a month to do jury service. Have a whole two week slot in august pencilled in for completing symbasic though You'll know when that is Prodatron as I'll start bugging you about the graphics link library thing The movie suite too is about 30% complete, and the text editor too is 50%.
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NYYRIKKI
msx master
Posts: 1528 | Posted: July 26 2006, 22:36 |
@Prodatron: How about pallette? (It works also in text mode)
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Prodatron
msx master
Posts: 1110 | Posted: July 27 2006, 02:33 |
Quote:
| @Prodatron: How about pallette? (It works also in text mode)
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Well, I thought text modes don't use the palette but only register 7 (and C+D for the blinkink stuff).
Isn't this true? |
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Prodatron
msx master
Posts: 1110 | Posted: July 27 2006, 03:02 |
@NYYRIKKI: Thanx a lot for the hint!! Now it works.
I thought it would work like this...
Register 7: colour register.
Bit Name Expl.
0-3 TC0-3 Background colour in SCREEN 0 (also border colour in SCREEN 1-3)
4-7 BD0-3 Foreground colour in SCREEN 0
The bits 0-3 and 4-7 can hold a number in the range of 0-15.
The corresponding colours are:
0 = Transparent 8 = Medium red
1 = Black 9 = Light red
2 = Medium green 10= Dark yellow
3 = Light green 11= Light yellow
4 = Dark blue 12= Dark green
5 = Light blue 13= Magenta
6 = Dark red 14= Gray
7 = Cyan 15= White
But now I see in 80 char mode the two nibbles contain just the palette indizies, right?
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NYYRIKKI
msx master
Posts: 1528 | Posted: July 27 2006, 15:29 |
Yes that palette you described is MSX default palette for all screen modes exept for SCREEN 6 (That you happen to be using with SymbOS.) As this is handled by MSX-BIOS you need to set the palette manually when you are not using BIOS-routines.
Palette is working in all screen modes exept in 256 color SCREEN 8 that has fixed colors. In other fixed color modes (MSX2+ & MSX tR) palette is used only by sprites.
Palette is used by default as you described to maintain compatibility with MSX1.
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Prodatron
msx master
Posts: 1110 | Posted: July 27 2006, 16:59 |
Maybe it could be an idea to use this MSX1 palette as the fixed palette in SymbOS for the 16 colour mode?
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