SofaRun v5.0 released

Prophet (2465)

13-05-2019, 22:19

First, sorry guys for the inconvenience on this release.

Your problems are very probably related to the file "pre-allocation" mode that is now always enabled by default. It works here on my various MSX setups, but I wanted to be sure this is fixed everywhere (does not seem to be the case). This feature really boosts file unzipping and creation, enabling it by default was also a way for me to see if that's reliable or not...

So, here's my plan: I'll release another unofficial version of SofaRun with the "pre-allocation" disabled (this week or this week-end), but it won't be the official one.

Waiting for that, it would be nice if you could:

First, reset your SofaRun and per-game settings to "default".
Clean you temporary files (using the "Clean temporary files" menu entry).

If things still do not work, please send me those details about your configuration:

Nextor version used (type "ver" in the MSX-DOS command line).
Which SD-Card / IDE device you use.
How much RAM you have and in which slot (if different from your SD Card / IDE device).

I'd really like to have this fixed, I think this is related to Nextor (not completely sure though...), and the more hints I can give to Konamiman the better.

Por gdx

Enlighted (6221)

14-05-2019, 02:13

Hi Louthrax,

Have you seen my feedback about SofaUnZip?
https://www.msx.org/forum/msx-talk/software/sofaunzip-bug-re...

Por journey

Hero (575)

14-05-2019, 08:39

Louthrax wrote:

First, sorry guys for the inconvenience on this release.

Louthrax,

You don't have to apologize, you do a wonderful job and we can only thank you.

Por Wolverine_nl

Paragon (1160)

14-05-2019, 09:12

Thank you Louthrax!

Por Sylvester

Hero (589)

14-05-2019, 19:06

ok, changed the per-game setting to default and cleared the temp files, but it's still the same problem. After I start a disk image and press space, the screen gets cleared and caps is turned on. (version 1.7 of SRI works)
So here are the details of my setup:

MSX Turbo-R ST
Nextor kernel 2.0.5.beta 1
Nextor.sys 2.0.1
Command.com 2.44
GR8NET (firmware build 20190117) with a sandisk 16GB micro sd
1MB internal memory in slot 3-0
512kb memory from GR8NET in slot 2-1

Por Louthrax

Prophet (2465)

31-05-2019, 11:51

Thanks Sylvester for the details. I think I identified a bit better the problem. It looks like some special disk operations are causing Nextor to crash or block after a while. These operations are related to reading or writing 1 byte after the end of the file (I'm using that to pre-allocate file space or computing the number of disks in concatenated disk images).

I was using a workaround for that in SofaRun 5.0 by flushing all disk buffers after the 1 byte read or write, but this is not reliable. I just changed it by doing a "fensure" operation on the file instead of flushing everything. I tested that here on several MSX machines and it seems to be OK so far.

I've released that fix in SofaRun 5.1 (that is available for download on my website). Let me know if that works!

Meanwhile, I'll create a simple program to reproduce the problem and see with Konamiman if that can be fixed in Nextor (well, if the problem really comes from Nextor, SRI.COM is doing several special stuff which might interfere with the OS).

Por Sylvester

Hero (589)

31-05-2019, 12:56

Thanks Louthrax for the new version, just updated it and everything seems to work again If you need me to do some tests to find the problem, just let me know!

Por _EF_

Supporter (15)

02-06-2019, 12:07

Dear Louthrax, i have a problem with SofaRun v 5.1 just downloaded today.
Here is my SD card content
My Hardware: Yamaha YIS503III, Mapper/Megaram 512K, 4GB SD card one partiton formatted FAT16
My soft (on SD card attached): Nextor 2.01 with patched by Nextor MSX-DOS-2.31 -> 2.44
The problem - SofaROM freezes and never launches neither .rom, nor .dsk files (tried different).
It freezes on screen

SofaROM 2.9 by Louthrax
 A.I. code by NYYRIKKI

ROM type: Linear
ROM boot address: 4011
Device: Memory mapper
Device slot: 1-3
Device capacity: 448KB

Press button (A), [Ret] or
[Space] to launch ROM,
button (B) or [Esc] to exit

It freezes and no buttons work - Ret, Space, Esc - no luck. Tried all positions of switches - 512K[On/Off], Mapper/Megaram.

Could you please advise/help/fix or provide a version of SD card content that would work?
Also, maybe you can share links to older versions of SofaRun? On your site there is a link only to the latest one...

Appreciate your help.

Por Louthrax

Prophet (2465)

02-06-2019, 22:36

Hi _EF_,

I tried your SD card image here in openMSX and it works when used on turboR or Philips emulated machines (Pashka ROM and other disk images are starting correctly).

Could you open the "Memory" menu in SofaRun and report what is displayed (TPA memory and Segments) ?

Another thing I'd be curious: put a ZIP file on your SD card with a .DSK or ROM inside and try to open that ZIP file with SofaRun. Is the file extracted to TMP directory ?

Por _EF_

Supporter (15)

02-06-2019, 23:03

Louthrax wrote:

Could you open the "Memory" menu in SofaRun and report what is displayed (TPA memory and Segments) ?

Depending on switch "Mapper/Megaram" position it shows 2 different numbers:

TPA memory: 20496
Segments: 1

TPA memory: 20496
Segments: 25

Louthrax wrote:

Another thing I'd be curious: put a ZIP file on your SD card with a .DSK or ROM inside and try to open that ZIP file with SofaRun. Is the file extracted to TMP directory ?

Yes, it writes "Inflating" to "A:\tmp" up to 100%, then shows SofaROM 2.9 screen like above, and freezes on "Press button (A), [Ret] or [Space] to launch ROM, button (B) or [Esc] to exit"