Home » RBC Forums » General Discussion » Finished the ECB Disk I/O V3
| Finished the ECB Disk I/O V3 [message #3875] |
Thu, 30 November 2017 14:12  |
woody1000
Messages: 86
Registered: October 2017
Location: Pickering Ontario Canada
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Hello Everyone,
Just finished the ECB Disk I/O V3.
Attached is a couple of pictures.
The Floppy interface works with many different drives.
The IDE interface displays the drives on bootup whether or not there is a drive attached or not.
I may not have setup the config files right for support.
When trying to use CLRDIR e: says IDE0 No Media and no lit LED.
Iv'e carefully gone over the soldering, parts and placement, and tried swapping the 82c55 and 74ls14. No change.
Also metered out all the connections from the 82c55 and the IDE connector and all is gool.
I'll have to make sure iv'e setup the support configuration and compiled it correctly before i look further into the hardware.
Any thoughts gentleman
Doug
[Updated on: Thu, 30 November 2017 15:11] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: Finished the ECB Disk I/O V3 [message #3885 is a reply to message #3884] |
Thu, 30 November 2017 22:47  |
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Wayne W
Messages: 385
Registered: October 2015
Location: Fallbrook, California, US...
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Senior Member |
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woody1000 wrote on Thu, 30 November 2017 19:05The only thing that was wrong is the system created 4 PPIDE drives but only the first 2 worked
E: and F: worked but G and H did not. No Media i believe.Not sure what to do about it.
E: and F: both reference the PPIDE0 device implying that the first (master) device on the DiskIO 3 primary IDE connector is working. G: and H: reference the PPIDE1 device (slave) on the DiskIO 3 primary IDE connector. Do you have a second (slave) device on the DiskIO 3 primary IDE connector? If not, then you would see NO MEDIA displayed at boot for PPIDE1 and G: and H: would not be functional. This is all appropriate if there is no slave device on the connector. If there is a slave device connected, we can work on diagnosing that.
woody1000 wrote on Thu, 30 November 2017 19:05I would like to use more of the 128MB DOM.
I assume you are saying that you want more drive letters. The only way to do that is to reduce the number of disk devices the BIOS is supporting. At present you have 4 disk devices being supported (PPIDE0, PPIDE1, SD0, and SD1). You could disable the SD driver and get 4 drives (slices) on each of the PPIDE devices.
However, I would not recommend doing that. Instead, you can use the ASSIGN command to reassign drive letters to devices on the fly. For example, after bootup, you could reassign E: thru L: to different slices on PPIDE0 and get 8 drive letters all referencing the first 8 slices of PPIDE0. Using ASSIGN, you can have up to 256 slices on a disk device, but you need to allocate a drive letter to any slice(s) you are trying to access at any point. This allows you to use 8MB * 256 slices per disk device which is 2GB usable storage per disk device.
Thanks,
Wayne
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| Re: Finished the ECB Disk I/O V3 [message #3888 is a reply to message #3887] |
Fri, 01 December 2017 17:39 |
woody1000
Messages: 86
Registered: October 2017
Location: Pickering Ontario Canada
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Member |
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Hi Wayne.
regarding the submit command, Can you create the .sub file on a pc using notepad rather than using ED.
I would use ED now but it seem awkward to use.
I created a Start.sub file on E: executing about 5 commands
E: log onto the sub file
green Change the color to green
assign g:=ppide0:2 reassign drive G to PPIDE0
assign h:=ppide0:3 reassign drive H to PPIDE0
assign list all drive assignments
when i execute "submit start" - no errors and returns dos prompt in less than 5 seconds
I see that these commands are only executed immediately if done on drive A:
or else saved till the next warm boot for processing. (from any other drive than a:.
it will be interesting to see how the submit command is started booting from Rom.
Doug
[Updated on: Fri, 01 December 2017 17:41] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: Finished the ECB Disk I/O V3 [message #3889 is a reply to message #3888] |
Sat, 02 December 2017 07:44 |
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Wayne W
Messages: 385
Registered: October 2015
Location: Fallbrook, California, US...
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Senior Member |
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Hi Doug,
Regarding the editing of files, try the ZDE application. It is a full screen text editor that is roughly compatible with WordStar. ZDE is included in the RomWBW distribution on your ROM Drive (B:). To get started, just know that ^K (ctrl-K) introduces all command key sequences in ZDE. The sequence ^KH (ctrl-K followed by letter H) will give you a help panel. With all that said, yes, you could certainly create the file on your PC and transfer to your CP/M system with XModem or any other file transfer tool.
Indeed, there is a quirk in the SUBMIT command. When you run it from a drive other than A:, it will just create a file called "$$$.SUB" on the current drive, but will not run the commands. The "$$$.SUB" file must be copied to the A: drive to make the commands execute. Early documentation from DRI seemed to indicate this was intended. The idea was to set up a submit file on a disk other than A:, then take the disk and put it in the A: drive to make it execute. However, later on, DRI refers to it as a bug and issued a patch for it. The patch causes the SUBMIT command to always place the "$$$.SUB" file on A: for immediate execution. It is a trivial patch, so I will apply it and post the update on GitHub.
I will also provide more instructions for automatically executing a .SUB file at startup later today.
-Wayne
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| Re: Finished the ECB Disk I/O V3 [message #3890 is a reply to message #3889] |
Sat, 02 December 2017 15:27 |
woody1000
Messages: 86
Registered: October 2017
Location: Pickering Ontario Canada
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Member |
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Hi Wayne,
XM and FDU both wont run UNDER cp/M OR ZSdos. when i try they both say "Unknown Bios" and return to dos prompt.
That has happened a few times before but now its all the time.
Don't rush to answer> if you have time later to give me the info on automatically executing a .SUB file
you could let me know what you think then.
Thanks
Doug
[Updated on: Sat, 02 December 2017 16:45] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: Finished the ECB Disk I/O V3 [message #3891 is a reply to message #3890] |
Sat, 02 December 2017 19:34 |
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Wayne W
Messages: 385
Registered: October 2015
Location: Fallbrook, California, US...
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Senior Member |
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woody1000 wrote on Sat, 02 December 2017 15:27XM and FDU both wont run UNDER cp/M OR ZSdos. when i try they both say "Unknown Bios" and return to dos prompt.
This is indicative of a hardware problem. Basically, those applications (XM and FDU) are just checking a few bytes in RAM that are set when the OS loads. The "Unknown BIOS" message means that the bytes have been corrupted.
Every time someone has encountered this before, it was tracked back to marginal RAM chip(s). What speed is the CPU oscillator in your system? I would try a slow (maybe 4MHz) oscillator as a way to see if the system stabilizes. It is also possible that the ROM programming itself has degraded. You can try reprogramming the ROM or verifying it.
I have been really busy today, so will probably be tomorrow before I can respond to the .SUB file question.
Thanks,
Wayne
[Updated on: Sat, 02 December 2017 20:02] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: Finished the ECB Disk I/O V3 [message #3893 is a reply to message #3892] |
Sun, 03 December 2017 15:30 |
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Wayne W
Messages: 385
Registered: October 2015
Location: Fallbrook, California, US...
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Senior Member |
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Hi Doug,
Well, I guess it's progress that you have a stable configuration for now.
Note that the CPUOSC frequency in the configuration file is not terribly relevant. It has no control over the actual speed your system is running (that is solely determined by the hardware oscillator). The setting was originally created as a way to tune delay loops in the code. However, the BIOS now determines the CPU speed dynamically and generally ignores the CPUOSC setting unless the dynamic speed determination fails.
I have never used Winbond 29C040 chips before. However, I have definitely encountered ROM chips that had a tendency to become corrupt over time. I found this by programming the chip (verification succeeded), then used the chip in the system until I noticed an issue, then I stuck the chip back in the programmer and performed just the verification process and found that the verification failed. I will also note that I have never had an issue with SST 39SF040's. They are my preferred ROM devices.
In the end, it would not surprise me if the Winbond chips were the source of your recent instability.
Thanks,
Wayne
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| Re: Finished the ECB Disk I/O V3 [message #3894 is a reply to message #3893] |
Sun, 03 December 2017 15:52 |
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Wayne W
Messages: 385
Registered: October 2015
Location: Fallbrook, California, US...
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Senior Member |
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Hi Doug,
Finally getting back to you on what I call "Auto Submit". By this, I mean the mechanism that will cause a CP/M .SUB file to be executed automatically at cold boot. Said another way, this is roughly equivalent to the DOS AUTOEXEC.BAT mechanism.
I started writing this earlier, but quickly realized that a few small code changes would make the process much easier to use. Prior to these code changes, you would need to update other config files to achieve the Auto Submit functionality. Additionally, the code changes solve a few edge cases where the functionality would result in cryptic error messages that were hard to understand. I have completed the code changes and it works very nicely.
These code changes will be part of the next full release of RomWBW. However, for now, you will need to grab the latest source from GitHub (trunk) and perform a ROM build. Since you have done that before, I assume it will not be an issue for you.
Once you are running the latest code, you can simply add a "PROFILE.SUB" file to your boot directory and it will be SUBMITed automatically at startup. Your boot directory will also need a copy of "SUBMIT.COM" it it.
While you could add the PROFILE.SUB file to your ROM disk, that is probably not the ideal way to do it since you would not be able to modify it without building a new ROM. Instead, you would normally configure one of your PPIDE/IDE/SD devices as a boot device and place SUBMIT.COM and PROFILE.SUB on there.
As far as I know, you have not set up a PPIDE/IDE/SD device as a boot device yet. It is not hard and you would just need to do the following:
- Boot from ROM like normal, so that you are now at the B> prompt
- Identify the drive letter of the first slice of a device (for example, your E: seems to be PPIDE0:0)
- Run SYSCOPY E:=ZSYS.SYS or SYSCOPY E:=CPM.SYS to install your preferred OS on drive E:
- Reboot your system, and instead of typing 'R' for ROM boot, type the drive number associated with PPIDE0 (probably '4' in your case)
- Your system will boot from PPIDE0, and your prompt will be E>
Once you have completed these steps, to boot from PPIDE0 in the future, all you need to do is choose the device number at the loader prompt. You do not need to repeat the SYSCOPY unless you want to update the copy of the OS installed on the drive.
At this point, it is easy to add Auto Submit functionality. Just copy SUBMIT.COM to your E: drive and create a new PROFILE.SUB text file on E:. The PROFILE.SUB file should contain the commands you want to run at startup. Reboot your system, select the PPIDE0 device to boot from, and you should see the PROFILE.SUB file being executed.
Thanks,
Wayne
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| Re: Finished the ECB Disk I/O V3 [message #3895 is a reply to message #3894] |
Sun, 03 December 2017 16:34 |
woody1000
Messages: 86
Registered: October 2017
Location: Pickering Ontario Canada
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Member |
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Hi Wayne.
I'll respond to you message's in a few minutes.
downloaded the new code. retained and copied my config files into the new version of ROMwbw.
I got an error message that a file could not be found. It's probably simple but i have not seen it before.
The error file is attached.
Thanks Doug
Edit---
The script was trying to write to a non existent directory.
So i created an empty directory. c:\ROMWBW\source\RomDsk\SBC and the script/compile ended without any errors.
This is getting scary,, I don't actually believe i fixed it !!!
Doug
[Updated on: Sun, 03 December 2017 17:38] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: Finished the ECB Disk I/O V3 [message #3903 is a reply to message #3902] |
Mon, 04 December 2017 11:35 |
woody1000
Messages: 86
Registered: October 2017
Location: Pickering Ontario Canada
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Member |
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Hi Wayne
The version is V2.8.6-pre-1 when waiting for a keypress to boot e:
Once the O.S. boots the version changes to V2.8.6-pre.0
The command and filename is submit profile.sub
Note the program pauses for about 2 seconds as if its processing the commands but nothing happens.
The file $$$.sub is created when the profile.sub is processed by submit.
The $$$.sub is supposed to be run at the next boot but the commands entered by submit are
lacking carriage returns at the end of each line and extra characters inserted. this file can not be processed as intended.
Doug
[Updated on: Mon, 04 December 2017 13:56] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: Finished the ECB Disk I/O V3 [message #3904 is a reply to message #3903] |
Mon, 04 December 2017 16:22 |
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Wayne W
Messages: 385
Registered: October 2015
Location: Fallbrook, California, US...
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Senior Member |
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Hi Doug,
So, it appears that the latest version of the OS is on your ROM, so you did get and build the latest code. However, it appears you have not copied the latest version of the OS over to the E: drive. From the B> prompt, use the command "SYSCOPY E:=ZSYS.SYS" to put the latest copy of the OS on your E: drive. Additionally, it appears that the patched version of SUBMIT.COM is not yet on your E: drive. From the B> prompt, use the command "COPY SUBMIT.COM E:SUBMIT.COM" to put the patched version on E:
The $$$.SUB file created by SUBMIT.COM is encoded. It is normal that it is lacking carriage returns and has extra characters inserted.
Let me know how you do.
Thanks,
Wayne
[Updated on: Mon, 04 December 2017 16:35] Report message to a moderator |
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