Disk drive for MSX1 in openmsx

Expert (69)

03-02-2018, 11:40

Greetings..

I'm using openmsx under Raspbian OS on Raspberry pi board, I've loaded the Arabic MSX machine (Al Alamiah AX170) which doesn't have a disk drive built-in, so I opened the openmsx menu and chose "Hardware" then "Extensions" then "Add", from along list of extensions like Expansion RAMs, SCCs, etc.. I chose a Panasonic 3.5" disk drive, reset the machine and added a game disk then resetting it again, BASIC reads the floppy drive extension since it writes "MSX Disk Basic" but when writing "files" to see what files are in the disk, it gives "Disk Offline", and even if files appear, when loading anyone of them, it gives "Disk offline"....the disk file works, since I got another Arabic machine BIOS AX-350FII with a built-in disk drive and it reads the disk and the files in it with no problem..is the problem with extensions, I tried several ROMs for disk drive like Panasonic FS-FD1A and Philips VY-0010 and Sanyo HB-3600 Dual Disk Drive...the ROM BIOS of the disk drive is read correctly since in the openmsx menu I have the choice of adding a disk (it's enabled not disabled like before adding the extension) but the disks won't work...any help??

By eimaster

Master (218)

03-02-2018, 16:51

Hi
I don't know what's the problem!
Try selecting Mitsubishi ML-30DC/ML-30FD. I use it with Sakhr AX-170 and it works fine. It offers 2 Double Sided, Double Density 3.5" disk drives (2 x 720Kb) with controller. Some other disk extensions offers 320Kb or only one 720Kb disk.
Note: I'm using openMSX for Android.
Another note: I'm an Arab from Yemen in case you want some MSX Arab users to discuss something in Arabic. Glad to have some Arab users here with me.

By Shinobi

Expert (69)

03-02-2018, 22:44

Hi ..

I solved the problem by downloading the Panasonic FS-FD1A ROM and rename it to fs-fd1a.rom because the emulator requested this and put the file in extensions folder since I put it previously in systemroms folder.

Welcome (اهلا وسهلا بيك اخوية الورد) , I am Iraqi, but I'm not Arabian, I am Assyrian, but as you may know we speak and write Arabic fluently since it's the language we use in schools because we either live with our Arab brothers (in middle and south of Iraq) or with our Kurdish brothers (in North of Iraq) ..

Best Regards..

By Shinobi

Expert (69)

03-02-2018, 22:55

If you have the ROM file for the Mitsubishi drive you mentioned, can you upload it to me?

By Manuel

Ascended (15110)

03-02-2018, 23:11

Shinobi: you are now overriding the ROM that is specified in the extension with another one, so we don't know if it will work as it should with this ROM.

If openMSX doesn't give an error when selecting the extension, the ROM file you have installed is fine.

If you get disk offline, it can mean either that there is no disk image in the emulated disk drive, or it is a disk image that is not compatible with that diskdrive.
What kind of disk image is it?

EDIT: I just tried this machine with the Panasonic FS-FDA1 extension (using the normal ROM) and it works fine, it seems.

By Shinobi

Expert (69)

04-02-2018, 13:50

Manuel, I found a Panasonic FS-FD1A ROM and put it in extensions folder since these ROMs do not come with openMSX for Raspberry pi. But when selecting it as Machine->extension, openMSX displayed a message that says "this ROM hash code sha1 do not equal to the one in the Panasonic FS-FD1A XML info file that comes with openMSX, but still it worked fine..

can you give me a link to those extension ROMs that are listed in openMSX??

By Manuel

Ascended (15110)

04-02-2018, 14:06

If openMSX didn't give an error when you inserted the Panasonic FS-FD1A extension (before you added that file), you already had the required system ROM for this extension.

http://www.msxarchive.nl/pub/msx/emulator/openMSX has some interesting files.

By Shinobi

Expert (69)

04-02-2018, 14:17

it gave error before adding file, but when adding it, it gave me a warning that this file might not be the file for that specific disk drive, but it worked.

By Manuel

Ascended (15110)

04-02-2018, 14:30

In you original post above, you didn't mention such an error; you even said that openMSX showed the disk drive option in the menu, so I was convinced you had the ROM already installed, as that is impossible if the extension cannot be inserted properly.

If you got an error that the ROM was not found, please look at the URL I gave you and make sure the system ROMs are installed in your systemroms folder.

By Shinobi

Expert (69)

05-02-2018, 13:49

The list of Disk drives and other extensions is already there since there are XML files that describes them, but in the XML file for each extension, there's a reference to a ROM file, that ROM file I download.

The list is there, and when you choose anything that you have no ROM for, it says no ROM found...

By Manuel

Ascended (15110)

05-02-2018, 21:48

Yes, that is fully correct. But you said that you got "Disk offline" message etc... That only works if you succeeded to insert the extension. Or are you saying you only got that working after adding that specific file to that specific location?

Well, I'm confused