Carnivore2 software update version 2.40

Thank you guys for the great work!

Hey there, I updated my Carnivore2 cartridge (full update using USB blaster to update firmware to 2.40 as well as boot menu and BIOSes to 2.40). While I updated it successfully, I have a problem with CF card- it does not boot to Nextor so I cannot run any .com programs or see any files, it just boots to Nextor-basic. I cannot even run c2man! ! ! Everything worked completely fine before. What am I doing wrong?? Please for help. Thanks in advance

EDIT: I noticed this must be some sort of FPGA firmware issue. Once I downgraded the cart to 2.30, it started to work again and boots to Nextor from CF card. Files on CF card are 100% the same all the time. On a side note I noticed when I boot on 2.30 firmware it shows "Slave devide: Not found" while on 2.40 it showed "Slave device: detecting.Unknown device BF00h". Not sure whether this is relevant or not. Both of them detected CF card, however the difference in 2.40 is that Nextor does not boot at all so I can't do anything, it only boots to Nextor BASIC, so the only difference I noticed in the update is I can hear some annoying music in the background and I cannot do anything else

Definitely not an update for me if the update to 2.40 just disables the cart for me completely while 2.30 and anything under worked 100% fine at all times. Carnivore2 is one of the best devices ever and I can't imagine using MSX without it so I know there must be some bug here along the way. In software 2.40, CF card seems to be detected but it does not boot to Nextor in any possible way, making my Carnivore2 cart completely useless. It is Transcend 4GB by the way. I would definitely recommend to all people to stay at maximum 2.30 software and never update the cart until this bug (and all major ones) are fixed

Is this some sort of FBI investigation?? Just take it easy. Even if I made false accusation then I would not even benefit from this. Your advice of "reading readme file" is kinda vague as every folder has "readme.txt" file but I got this advice in one of the folders now. I downgraded that IDE driver to alpha version and yes, the CF card works now and it boots to Nextor and autostarts to Sofarun as for my set up. This is software 2.40 now, however it is mixed with an old driver but at least I have a choice now. If this is the case then I would just leave the old IDE driver for the official release. This was the one major bug for me as I couldn't access the cartridge so I couldn't even find any more bugs but if I do then I will post them on the forum

...goodness and this is exactly what I did xxxxxxxxxxxxDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

That is because this is a forum, it counts the same way

If you enable the R800 mode yourself in the main menu, some features may not work well. Carnivore2 doesn't disable the R800 mode by itself. So if you decided to run games and configuration entries in the R800 mode, some of them may not work as expected.

Yes it does, but if you disable the RAM extension, you won't be able to use certain software, for example you won't be able to boot to MSX-DOS1/2 or use other software that has minimum memory requirements.

Those warnings are there because Carnivore2 allows a user to flexibly control the cartridge and the system. But some actions may lead to undesired consequences.

Again, in the documentation there's a description of the possible problems if a user disables Carnivore's own RAM or enables R800 mode. In the normal circumstances these failures don't occur. But if a user starts to play around with the configuration and CPU modes, he should be ready that something won't work as expected. It's just as simple as that.

I don't remember the exact details, but when we tested Carnivore2 with Turbo-R machines in the beginning, certain ROMs and device configurations were not working with R800 mode. For example some ROMs failed to start and certain components of Carnivore2 (IDE, sound cards) did not work as expected when R800 mode was enabled.

You are right. Most of the software expects at least 32kb of RAM (which, IMO, is the minimum requirement for MSX), starting from 0x8000 when a machine is booted to MSX Basic. Some other software assumes that there's at least 16kb of RAM at 0xС000 and uses that area for its own needs. However, if there's only 8kb of RAM, the upper available RAM is at address 0xE000. This basically eliminates the possibility to run most of the software that uses RAM for its needs, including any version of DOS. To a user, the failure to boot to DOS with Carnivore2's IDE should not be a surprise if he selects a configuration without RAM. In addition, Carnivore2 itself relies on the presence of at least 16kb of RAM at 0xC000. If for some reason its own RAM is disabled or malfunctioning, the boot menu won't start on 8kb RAM machines. And with the directory sorting the minimum requirements with the disabled internal RAM is 32kb.

Hi there. I have a question.
I am using v2.40 firmware and there is a problem running XANADU rom on cannivore2. When XANADU rom file is written to cannivore2 ram with c2ramldr along with xana_ram.rcp file, the game starts but freezes immediately. Is there any way to fix this?
I don't know English very well, so I used Google Translate. Please excuse me.

I'm not sure if XANADU worked or not when it was v2.30. Because I haven't tried XANADU with v2.30. Will it work normally if I downgrade the firmware to V2.30?

Okay. I'll try it later. When XANADU is written in Carnivore2's rom, the opening screen and music appear normally, but cannot be started.

XANADU worked only when uploaded into Carnivore2's RAM using the C2RAMLDR utility. This cartridge probably has some weird hardware design that includes RAM for saving game's status, so it doesn't work when launched from ROM or protected RAM. We created the special RCP file for the RAM uploading and I remember it worked fine before. But with the latest firmware and boot menu it doesn't.

@lovemsxfan, please create the topic at the forum and ask for help from the community for adapting the game to work with Carnivore2. I will also look into this myself.

Alexey Question, global savestates possible in the Carnivore2 firmware?
(Like RetroArch, for example..) Best regards, MiC

It was a strange question, but I dream about it

I find how to write ide driver 1.05 into carnivore2. Reading the manual in the "troubleshooting" section
However issues is not solved. It recognize the CF card, but in one blue screen after reboot, in another freeze at the booting of nextor. The third and last CF of mine after reboot goes in basic and then file not found.
Where am i wrong?

Is firmware 2.40 still the latest one? And is menu 2.41 the latest one? Should those work together without problems despite different numbers?