Nextor 2.1.0 beta 1 released

Paladin (981)

08-02-2019, 17:42

And now, folks, it's your turn: I really need help to fix the known bugs. I haven't been able to reproduce many of them (I'm especially worried about the freezing Sunrise IDE one). Repro steps, hints, pull requests... anything is welcome.

And in case you haven't noticed it... I've added a link to NextorBuilder in Nextor's README. That's a nifty project that allows to compile Nextor on non-Windows machines, by using Vagrant and a virtual machine. So now everybody can build Nextor at home! :)

By mfeingol

Champion (262)

09-02-2019, 04:25

Konamiman: thanks for what you do! I have a bug report.

I have a MegaFlashROM SCC+SD with a single slot and no additional memory. I'm using it on an ST with stock 256kB. I've been on 2.1.0 alpha for a long time.

When I flash 2.1.0 beta 1, the MSX hangs after printing "SD card slot 1:SDHC". However, 2.0.5 beta 1 works fine.

I'm flashing as follows:
- Make a 1GB FAT partition on an SDHC card. Format the partition using Windows Explorer.
- Copy Nextor-2.1.0-beta1.MegaFlashSDSCC.1-slot.Recovery.ROM to the partition, using Windows Explorer.
- Insert the SDHC card in the MFR SCC+SD
- Boot the MSX pressing cursor Up to enter the recovery menu
- Press F4 to flash the Nextor kernel

By gdx

Prophet (2476)

09-02-2019, 08:54

I tried this new version with the Sunrise driver on the FS-A1ST (1024kB).

- I can boot on FAT16 partition (CF 1GB). So I create a partition of 32MB in FAT12 and add a second in FAT16, CALL FDISK displays bad information when I create the second partition but FAT12 partition works. By cons the FAT16 partition is unuable (same as with one partition: "Error not formated DOS2"). I use COMMAND2.COM v2.44.

- NEXTOR crashes when I insert the line below in AUTOEXEC.BAT.
IF %_MSXVER%==MSX SOFARUN.BAT

Question: How do I copy files from one partition to another on a MSX without floppy disk drive when I have one flash card only? Because now in this case there is only one drive to assign a partition.

konamiman wrote:

I really need help to fix the known bugs. I haven't been able to reproduce many of them (I'm especially worried about the freezing Sunrise IDE one).

I noticed a crash when a CF formatted for the Sunrise interface was insered in slave slot.

By konamiman

Paladin (981)

09-02-2019, 23:59

mfeingol wrote:

When I flash 2.1.0 beta 1, the MSX hangs after printing "SD card slot 1:SDHC". However, 2.0.5 beta 1 works fine.

Damn. I must have messed up something in the last minute. I have updated the kernel files for MFRSD in GitHub, they should work fine (or boot, at least!) now.

By konamiman

Paladin (981)

10-02-2019, 00:19

gdx wrote:

I can boot on FAT16 partition (CF 1GB). So I create a partition of 32MB in FAT12 and add a second in FAT16, CALL FDISK displays bad information when I create the second partition but FAT12 partition works. By cons the FAT16 partition is unuable (same as with one partition: "Error not formated DOS2"). I use COMMAND2.COM v2.44.

I need more details, as I can't see this happening. Pretty please, describe step by step how to reproduce this and tell me what exact "bad information" are you seeing. But preferably as a new issue in GitHub, instead of here (feel free to post here a link to the issue for reference, of course).

By konamiman

Paladin (981)

10-02-2019, 00:08

gdx wrote:

Question: How do I copy files from one partition to another on a MSX without floppy disk drive when I have one flash card only? Because now in this case there is only one drive to assign a partition.

You can assign extra drives for other partitions using MAPDRV.COM (or CALL MAPDRV).

By konamiman

Paladin (981)

10-02-2019, 00:17

gdx wrote:

NEXTOR crashes when I insert the line below in AUTOEXEC.BAT.
IF %_MSXVER%==MSX SOFARUN.BAT

What's your %_MSXVER%? What happens if you run SOFARUN.BAT directly? What about "IF %_MSXVER%==MSX echo foobar"? (or running a different BAT) What if you run that outside AUTOEXEC.BAT? Again, I need more details, please

By Louthrax

Paragon (1921)

10-02-2019, 10:21

Thanks Nestor for that new release.

I was playing with Nextor on my old VG-8235, with only 128KB or RAM yesterday, and was wondering if there's a way to disable the TAB autocompletion ? That should free an extra 16KB segment right ? So having 2 free 16KB segments instead of just 1 on 128KB machines.

That can make a difference for some of my apps here, that could be tweaked a bit to work with 2 segments (but not hope with only 1).

Also, that extra segment could be used for memoy-mapper ROM emulation mode of SofaROM (no need for the TAB completion when running a ROM, and an extra 16KB segment can significantly improve things when emulating all the 8KB ROM pages combinations...).

By gdx

Prophet (2476)

10-02-2019, 10:51

konamiman wrote:

I need more details, as I can't see this happening. Pretty please, describe step by step how to reproduce this and tell me what exact "bad information" are you seeing.

I tested quickly, I do not remember exactly. It was something like "32M partition added".

konamiman wrote:

You can assign extra drives for other partitions using MAPDRV.COM (or CALL MAPDRV).

Thanks. It works.

konamiman wrote:

What's your %_MSXVER%?

It indicate the MSX generation. This condition is to launch Sofarun on my MSX1 otherwise Multi-mente.

konamiman wrote:

What happens if you run SOFARUN.BAT directly?

Sofarun is executed and works.

konamiman wrote:

What if you run that outside AUTOEXEC.BAT?

I define some pathes before the condition to execute MM or sofarun according the MSX generation.

Please help me ! I would like back to the original firmware because finally I noticed that the FAT12 does not work perfectly. The FAT is corrupt no matter how I copy the files, but I can't!

When I use IDEFLLOAD I get the following message: "This ROM is currently used by the system! Erasing aborded. (Try again in DOS1 mode; boot with [ins] pressed)"

However I boot in DOS1 and [ins] has no effect.

By Louthrax

Paragon (1921)

10-02-2019, 11:20

Louthrax wrote:

I was playing with Nextor on my old VG-8235, with only 128KB or RAM yesterday, and was wondering if there's a way to disable the TAB autocompletion ? That should free an extra 16KB segment right ? So having 2 free 16KB segments instead of just 1 on 128KB machines.

Seems more related to the version of COMMAND2.COM (2.40 uses 1 more extra segment compared to 2.31).

By Alexey

Guardian (1877)

10-02-2019, 21:47

Here's my bug report, it affects earlier Nextor (Alpha), also probably applicable to the Beta. On KYBT and KYBT2 systems (Russian versions of YIS503II and YIS503III) the keyboard behaves differently than on other machines - the number keys are shifted to the right. For example if you press '9' at Nextor's bootup screen, it acts as if '0' is pressed on other machines to stop using the previously assigned bootable image. This makes switching disk images and ignoring booting of the assigned DSK image a bit difficult.

Just tried Nextor Beta1 on my Carnivore2. Flashed the "Nextor-2.1.0-beta1.SunriseIDE.ROM" file into the cartridge, copied the "Nextor.sys" and tools into the root folder. As a result the cartridge no longer boots to MSX-DOS2. The system just hangs after Nextor's copyright message.

WARNING! Do not try this Beta1 on Carnivore2 unless you have the second C2 cartridge or something else to boot to MSX-DOS! If your C2 gets unbootable with this Beta1 Nextor BIOS, the only way to restore it would be booting from another IDE-capable device, running the C2MAN utility and flashing the old Nextor IDE BIOS into the C2 cartridge.

@Konamiman, do you have Carnivore2 to test your software? There's a lot of people with C2 these days, so making the next version of Nextor C2-compatible would be really nice. I created reports for both issues on Github.

By edoz

Prophet (2115)

10-02-2019, 19:20

Wow! Cool! I will do some tests on the Sunrise IDE. (But last time i was not able to re-flash it again..) So not sure if it would be possible to test on that device Seems some hardware issue. Nextor is my favorite software! Thank you so so much for your hard work on this piece of software! Without a proper OS we can't use MSX

By mfeingol

Champion (262)

10-02-2019, 21:17

konamiman wrote:

I must have messed up something in the last minute. I have updated the kernel files for MFRSD in GitHub, they should work fine (or boot, at least!) now.

I redownloaded and flashed 2.1.0 Beta 1. The ST now boots fine. Thanks for the fix.

By gdx

Prophet (2476)

11-02-2019, 08:29

I flashed again the "Nextor-2.1.0-beta1.SunriseIDE.ROM" without using floppy disk drive,
I used a Mega-sram. Luckily I had already made a image file containing the necessary to flash the firmware. I had to make a hardware remaniement so that the cartridge did not start.

Good new Nextor works much better! Even the condition with %_MSXVER% works. So forget all that I said above. Everything seems more stable than with previous versions. I will surely keep Nextor from now on.

I noticed only following problems.

- I still can not use my SD to CF adapters.
- The system freezes when I do not insert the second CF card.
- Would not it be better to keep the [INS] key to disable the cartridge as with the Sunrise firmware? I added it myself for next time just in case.

I hope you can secure the flashing, it will avoid problems. Anyway, thanks to Nestor and P. Punk for your efforts.

By Eugeny_Brychkov

Paragon (1050)

11-02-2019, 08:33

CTRL-STOP issue in PING.COM (and other software using TCP/IP UNAPI switching slots) I reported earlier?
What is the last stable release?

By gdx

Prophet (2476)

11-02-2019, 09:32

There are still some FAT corruption issues.

By konamiman

Paladin (981)

11-02-2019, 10:24

Eugeny_Brychkov wrote:

CTRL-STOP issue in PING.COM (and other software using TCP/IP UNAPI switching slots) I reported earlier?

I've been able to reproduce it, but my attempts to get to the root cause of the problem have been unsuccessful so far. It would be great if I could get some more eyes to look at the code.

gdx wrote:

There are still some FAT corruption issues.

Please write a report for this but with excruciating detail. Write down all the steps including how you generate the partitions with FDISK, how you copy files to it, and how you detect the corruption issues. If possible also provide a link to a DSK file containing some of the files you are copying.

Please bear in mind that I don't own any Sunrise IDE (or compatible) device, so all I can do is testing with emulators.

By Eugeny_Brychkov

Paragon (1050)

11-02-2019, 12:27

konamiman wrote:

I've been able to reproduce it, but my attempts to get to the root cause of the problem have been unsuccessful so far. It would be great if I could get some more eyes to look at the code.

Emegrency exit routine (there's an address being jumped to when CTRL-STOP is pressed) must explicitly restore slots in CPU banks 1 and 2.

I do not remember exactly, sound like this one

F302h 2 Pointer to abort handler. (MSX-DOS)

By sd_snatcher

Prophet (2902)

11-02-2019, 12:43

@konamiman

Congrats on the new version!

I really would like to help with the issues I opened on GitHub and with more testing, but right now I'm out of free time even for myself. I hope you understand.

By konamiman

Paladin (981)

11-02-2019, 13:06

sd_snatcher wrote:

I really would like to help with the issues I opened on GitHub and with more testing, but right now I'm out of free time even for myself. I hope you understand.

Don't worry, we are all on the same boat But I'm really concerned about all those bugs I'm not able to squash by myself.

By gdx

Prophet (2476)

11-02-2019, 14:09

konamiman wrote:

gdx wrote:

There are still some FAT corruption issues.

Please write a report for this but with excruciating detail. Write down all the steps including how you generate the partitions with FDISK, how you copy files to it, and how you detect the corruption issues. If possible also provide a link to a DSK file containing some of the files you are copying.

Please bear in mind that I don't own any Sunrise IDE (or compatible) device, so all I can do is testing with emulators.

All I can say is that I copy some of my files and directories (the same ones I use for a long time) to the partitions from the Mac. At first it seems to work but after several modifications and additions, some directories and files disappear. Yet when I insert the CF card into the Mac, everything looks ok. And the more I persist, the worse it is. I try with xopy, multimente or Mac only. Result is about same. I have not tried it yet without Multi-Mente.

By konamiman

Paladin (981)

11-02-2019, 16:12

gdx wrote:

All I can say is that I copy some of my files and directories (the same ones I use for a long time) to the partitions from the Mac. At first it seems to work but after several modifications and additions, some directories and files disappear. Yet when I insert the CF card into the Mac, everything looks ok. And the more I persist, the worse it is. I try with xopy, multimente or Mac only. Result is about same. I have not tried it yet without Multi-Mente.

Could you please convert that CF card into a disk image file and send it to me?

By gdx

Prophet (2476)

12-02-2019, 00:46

OK, I send it right away.

By OeiOeiVogeltje

Paragon (1229)

15-02-2019, 14:57

i just flashed the recoveryversion and now ANY sound is on an extremely low volume
i have to crank up the monitor speak to msx to hear just a little bit

other carts work fine

By KdL

Paragon (1135)

16-02-2019, 20:56

Hi Konamiman.

I've tested these kernels with 1chipMSX:
Nextor-2.1.0-beta1.MegaFlashSDSCC.1-slot.ROM
Nextor-2.1.0-beta1.MegaFlashSDSCC.2-slots.ROM

My report:
- The single slot version do not load COMMAND2.COM, sometimes the LED blinks endlessly, sometimes it hangs the system.
- The double slot version is simply okay and also enabling more of two drives the COMMAND2.COM is loaded.
- The single slot version of driver v1.3 by M. Pazos works fine with the base rom of Nextor Kernel v2.1.0-alpha2. So I think there is an issue inside beta1.

By konamiman

Paladin (981)

17-02-2019, 18:21

Regarding the Sunrise IDE version: Piter Punk just sent me an email noting that I'm distributing these versions with an outdated driver, and including a newer one. So I have added a new file to the release in GitHub, the file name is Nextor-2.1.0-beta1.SunriseIDE.driverv017.ROM. Could you all having a Sunrise IDE try this new version please?

By Aquijacks

Master (254)

19-02-2019, 07:41

Flashjacks uses adapted sunrise Ide driver. I try it.
Altrought I suspect that it will have the same bug that I have compiled.
It does not work on MSX without a disk drive.
Regards.

By gdx

Prophet (2476)

19-02-2019, 12:43

konamiman wrote:

Regarding the Sunrise IDE version: Piter Punk just sent me an email noting that I'm distributing these versions with an outdated driver, and including a newer one. So I have added a new file to the release in GitHub, the file name is Nextor-2.1.0-beta1.SunriseIDE.driverv017.ROM. Could you all having a Sunrise IDE try this new version please?

Thanks, it works much better! All the bugs I met before seem to have disappeared.
Even my SD card to CF adapters is recognized now and I can create partions, but when insered in master slot only and in this case the slave slot is ignored. This is the only (little) problem that seems to remain.

PS: I'm surprised that even with this driver (as original firmware), the Sunrise CF interface does not like some cards when there are two inserted.

Aquijacks wrote:

It does not work on MSX without a disk drive.

Sunrise CF interface do not have this problem.

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