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NFG Forums => SIG X68000 => Topic started by: costa on August 24, 2014, 01:00:17 PM

Title: HD on ACE
Post by: costa on August 24, 2014, 01:00:17 PM
Hello everyone,

I have one HD connected to a X68000 ACE (not ACE HD).
I am trying to "see" the disk, but after boot there is no sign of the HD.

Which drivers should I load to be able to see the disk?
Title: Re: HD on ACE
Post by: eidis on August 24, 2014, 04:38:39 PM
 Hi Costa !

Please be more specific. Is it a SASI or SCSI hard disk ? In both cases they can be formatted with scsiformat.x which is part of SxSI driver. SASI should work as it is, for SCSI (only 8bit bus width hard drives are compatible, and it is possible that not all of them) you will need to install bootloader to SRAM with bootset.x in order for X68000 to see the drive.

SxSI V5 with DMA patch Translated by Eidis
http://nfggames.com/X68000/Misc/Drivers/SxSI%20V5%20with%20DMA%20patch%20Translated%20by%20Eidis/MasterDisk_V2.zip (http://nfggames.com/X68000/Misc/Drivers/SxSI%20V5%20with%20DMA%20patch%20Translated%20by%20Eidis/MasterDisk_V2.zip)

Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Title: Re: HD on ACE
Post by: costa on August 25, 2014, 02:25:45 AM
Hi Eides,

Sorry, I thought that since the ACE are SASI machines, that would be implicit.
But yes, the disk is SCSI with a SASI cable.

Here is some pics of the boot... I could not translate the drivers messages, but I think the drivers are not loading...

(http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d6/ronivon/nfg/20140824_170913.jpg)
(http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d6/ronivon/nfg/20140824_170857.jpg)
(http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d6/ronivon/nfg/20140824_170846.jpg)

Quote from: eidis on August 24, 2014, 04:38:39 PM
Hi Costa !

Please be more specific. Is it a SASI or SCSI hard disk ? In both cases they can be formatted with scsiformat.x which is part of SxSI driver. SASI should work as it is, for SCSI (only 8bit bus width hard drives are compatible, and it is possible that not all of them) you will need to install bootloader to SRAM with bootset.x in order for X68000 to see the drive.

I might be wrong about the disk? Maybe it is SCSI? Can I tell this looking the drive?

I will try to install the boot loader in SRAM and see what happens...

SxSI V5 with DMA patch Translated by Eidis
http://nfggames.com/X68000/Misc/Drivers/SxSI%20V5%20with%20DMA%20patch%20Translated%20by%20Eidis/MasterDisk_V2.zip (http://nfggames.com/X68000/Misc/Drivers/SxSI%20V5%20with%20DMA%20patch%20Translated%20by%20Eidis/MasterDisk_V2.zip)

Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Title: Re: HD on ACE
Post by: eidis on August 25, 2014, 03:35:41 AM
 Hi Costa !

Use the disk image which I linked to in my previous post. It has fully translated SxSI, including the SRAM driver. The first picture tells that no hard drive is connected. If the SRAM bootloader does not see the drive, it is pointless to boot from floppy disk and hope that something will change. Make sure that your hard drive is old enough. Only SCSI-1 8bit bus wide drives will work and not all of them.

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/scsi/std/scsi1.htm (http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/scsi/std/scsi1.htm)

Quote: The standard did not call for all devices to implement support for the same commands, so there was no guarantee that any given device would work with any other!

Check if the terminator is working and also it could be necessary to build a parity faker circuit.

SxSI parity faker circuit schematics
http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=3088.0;attach=264;image (http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=3088.0;attach=264;image)

Installing an internal hard drive in the X68000
http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=x68000:internal_hard_drive (http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=x68000:internal_hard_drive)

Quote: SASI models will be somewhat limited in terms of what drives can be used. First and foremost you'll need a drive that doesn't require parity (if you don't want to build the parity faker circuit). Even then, you'll run into plenty of drives that just won't work even though they can have their parity disabled.

By the way, why don't you want to use tried and tested SCSI2SD or STRATOS CF AztecMonster ?

Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Title: Re: HD on ACE
Post by: costa on August 25, 2014, 06:28:39 AM
This all seems to complicated to be worth of.

Basically, I have on ACE here, and three HDs, so why not put one inside the ACE and fill it up with software?
If it wall will be complicated, I will just let it go. I really don't need to do this, but I wanted to try and learn a little bit more about about these machines.

I have AztecMonster on my XVI HD.
Actually, I am planing buy another of this kind, but I will try the SCSI2IDE  which I know that will not work with SASI machines, so i will not be helpful for the ACE.

Thanks Eidis for all the info and links.

I have read some of them already, others I will take a look later.
Cheers
Title: Re: HD on ACE
Post by: caius on August 25, 2014, 07:04:06 AM
Quote from: costa on August 25, 2014, 06:28:39 AM


I have AztecMonster on my XVI HD.
Actually, I am planing buy another of this kind, but I will try the SCSI2IDE  which I know that will not work with SASI machines, so i will not be helpful for the ACE.



Who said SCSI2SD is not compatible with SASI X68000?SCSI2SD can emulated some of the signals needed (Device attention (/ATN) and Data parity (/DBP)).
Title: Re: HD on ACE
Post by: eidis on August 25, 2014, 03:52:53 PM
 Hi Guys !

According to the following thread the SCSI2SD was confirmed as working on XVI and SUPER which are SCSI machines.

Question: SCSI2SD Adapter
http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=5241.msg36751#msg36751 (http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=5241.msg36751#msg36751)

Can anyone who owns it confirm that it works or does not work with a SASI machine ?

Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Title: Re: HD on ACE
Post by: BlueBMW on August 25, 2014, 05:02:40 PM
I can confirm that the aztec monster works on a SASI machine.  Have not tried an SCSI2SD though...
Title: Re: HD on ACE
Post by: famiac on August 26, 2014, 12:50:28 AM
I have an scsi2sd i can test when i fix my x68k expert
Title: Re: HD on ACE
Post by: costa on August 26, 2014, 01:10:35 AM
I have one confirmation from a friend to did this test:
SCSI2IDE with ACE: did not work.
SCSI2IDE with Super: worked.

We may have more testing although to truly validate this... I have not ordered my SCSI2IDE yet, so if someone else can test this I will be following the results.