Wanted: feedback from Mac OS X users

Scribe (1743)

24-10-2013, 17:36

We are looking for Mac OS X users to test our latest builds of openMSX for Mac.

Are you on 10.7 or higher (perhaps you already upgraded to the free #Mavericks?) and want to use your favourite MSX emulator again? Then please try out mth's latest build: http://openmsx.fixato.net/builds/mac/x86_64/openmsx-0.9.1-61...

Are you still on 10.5 Leopard or 10.6 Snow Leopard and don't feel like upgrading? Then please try out FiXato's latest x86 build: http://openmsx.fixato.net/builds/mac/openmsx-0.9.1-619-ge97f...

Any and all feedback is welcome. Bugs, crashes, suggestions; everything is appreciated.

If you are still on a Mac OS X version earlier than 10.7, we'd also like to know, so we can get an idea of how necessary trying to keep openMSX compatible with 10.6 and lower still is.

By sd_snatcher

Prophet (3659)

27-10-2013, 19:43

Here are some feedback from my tests. I hope it helps. Some problems seem to be OS-X related, while others seem related to all platforms:

- File associations aren’t working properly. Clicking in a ROM/DSK files indeed runs openMSX, but the ROM/DSK will not executed inside the emulator automatically as one would expect.

- save_msx_screen should save its files inside the ~/.openMSX/screenshots folder. On 0.8.1 it saved inside ~/.openMSX. In 0.9.1-619-ge97f702 it results in error: couldn’t open “kv22.SC5”: permission denied.

- Error on Kings Valley 2 to load/save tapes
Steps to reproduce the error:
1) Machine: Panasonic FS-A1WX or Sony HB-F1XD
2) Cartridge: King’s Valley 2 (either MSX1 or MSX2 version)
3) Create a new stage containing just the player, a soul stone, the exit door and enough floor to hold the action
4) Create a new cassete file: cassetteplayer insert /tmp/kv2tapetest.wav
5) Save this stage on TAPE
6) Eject the tape: cassetteplayer eject
7) Reset the MSX
8) Insert the tape again: cassetteplayer insert /tmp/kv2tapetest.wav
9) Try to play that stage loading from the TAPE: it will result in “LOAD ERROR”

- Built-in On-Screen-Display menu: Insert disk doesn’t support dir-as-disk

- There's still no way to produce the MSX [INSERT] key on the Apple keyboards without numpad, which are shipped as the standard for the majority of Macs today.

By Manuel

Ascended (19469)

27-10-2013, 22:18

Thanks for this feedback, it's greatly appreciated!

Quick reply on the KV2 issue: cassetteplayer insert does not create a new wav file and will give an error if the file does not exist. Use "cassetteplayer new" to insert a new cassette image. However, I guess you already did that, because even then I can reproduce the problem. So, we'll take a look what's going on. Can someone confirm that this works on a real FS-A1WX? (It works fine on a Philips NMS 8250, if I save it on that machine as well. I can't load the file saved on the Panasonic either...)
Also tried on a Panasonic FS-A1 (MSX2), same issue. Tried a National CF-2000 (MSX1), works fine...

By sd_snatcher

Prophet (3659)

27-10-2013, 22:31

ops! I correctly used "casseteplayer create" on the emulator, but typed it wrong here on the report.

I did the same test on Sony HB-F1XD (MSX2) and Sanyo PHC-70FD (MSX2+), and both failed too.

By Manuel

Ascended (19469)

28-10-2013, 08:51

Can you try on a real machine of these types?

By sd_snatcher

Prophet (3659)

28-10-2013, 22:50

I have a Sony HB-F1XDJ (MSX2+), which wasn't tested o openMSX yet.

It will take some days before I can assemble a tape recorder cable, so if anyone has any of the real machines listed here (with the cassette cable) and wants to help, it will be welcome.

To be sure that the problem would also happen in the emulated Sony HB-F1XDJ, I just tested it in openMSX and the same problem indeed happens.

I just hope that the Sony HB-F1XDJ (MSX2+) has the same cassete port pinout as the HB-F1XD (MSX2), because I only have the service manual for this one.

By gdx

Enlighted (6219)

29-10-2013, 10:20

10.6 Snow Leopard :

Don't work with Nekolauncher.

By Manuel

Ascended (19469)

29-10-2013, 12:03

gdx: can you elaborate? What happens exactly? What did you try exactly? Which versions? Does it work without NekoLauncher?

By anonymous

incognito ergo sum (116)

29-10-2013, 13:26

I think gdx is using Nekolauncher with 'built-in' openMSX support, which will just copy the executable inside the NekoLauncher folder. Since my build of openMSX for Snow Leopard relies on two C++ dylib files relative to the executable (../libs/libc++.1.dylib and ../libs/libc++abi.dylib), this method will fail unless you manually copy the libs folder into NekoLauncher openMSX.app/Contents as well.

I've tried this myself, as well as just pointing Nekolauncher to an external openMSX folder (and ensuring the 'built-in' checkbox in the preferences isn't checked), and it should work that way.

Oddly enough I can't make Nekolauncher find the system roms. I've tried putting them in my ~/.openMSX/share/systemroms folder, and I've even tried including them in the openMSX.app/share/systemroms folder, but no luck to get Nekolauncher to display the list of installed machines. I can change the actual hardware from inside openMSX using the CMD+O Hardware... menu once Nekolauncher has launched openMSX though, so openMSX at least recognises the roms.
I have a feeling Nekolauncher relies on the old system of each rom being in the appropriate machine's folder, and doesn't use the systemroms pool directory.

By gdx

Enlighted (6219)

29-10-2013, 13:52

FiXato wrote:

Bingo! It works.Now I can try ...

By FiXato

Scribe (1743)

29-10-2013, 14:50

I now also have a universal (x86/x86_64) build available from http://openmsx.fixato.net/builds/mac/openmsx-0.9.1-619-ge97f...
I still have to clean up some of my changes to the main.mk and platform-darwin.mk build scripts, and then I hopefully can resume scheduled development builds for Mac again.