SxSI-SCSI HDD Image v3.02

[incrediblehark]

@aotta thank you for your assistance! I'll see if I can have a log file uploaded when I get home from work. I'm not sure if I have verbose output
enabled (probably not) but I did think it was interesting that my log file did not reference certain switches enabled in my ini, such as

SectorsPerTrack=33
HeadsPerCylinder=12

[kamiboy]

I tested many different configurations on my ACE machine, and no dice. I have attached the log file from one of the many tests where I would remove or change options. None worked.

I also tried to just have the HD00.hda image on the SD, removing the other images and still no dice.

The options the log is from are as follows:

[SCSI]
System=X68000
SelectionDelay=255 ; set to 255 for automatic selection
EnableParity=0 ; Disabled
Quirks=16
MaxSyncSpeed = 0 ; set to 0 for max compatibily
Debug=1
DisableROMDrive=1
EnableSCSI2=0 ; Disabled

[SCSI0]
EnableUnitAttention=0 ; Disabled
MapLunsToIDs=0 ; Disabled
Type=0 ; Fixed
SectorsPerTrack=33
HeadsPerCylinder=12
;BlockSize=256
;DisableMacSanityCheck=1

[kamiboy]

On another note, my ACE has an official SCSI extension card but for the life of me I cannot get BlueSCSI to boot off of it. The machine does not have SXSI drivers loaded, but do I need that if I am using a SCSI extension card? I suppose it might be a bit too much to expect to just work without some configuration or driver of some sort.

Anyone knows how to get the official SCSI board to work in a SASI machine?

[X-Col]

I have just tried the ZuluSCSI image on my ACE and I was able to install the SxSI drivers from it without any issues.

I obviously cleared my SRAM before trying it out.

[incrediblehark]

On another note, my ACE has an official SCSI extension card but for the life of me I cannot get BlueSCSI to boot off of it. The machine does not have SXSI drivers loaded, but do I need that if I am using a SCSI extension card? I suppose it might be a bit too much to expect to just work without some configuration or driver of some sort.

Anyone knows how to get the official SCSI board to work in a SASI machine?

This will be my next test, I also have an official SCSI card, I'll install it and see if I can get the bluescsi to boot from it automatically.


@X-Col thanks for testing and confirming the image works! I'll probably do another quick revision adding an option to run SWITCH.X in my batch script after installing the SxSI drivers.

[aotta]

Could you @incrediblehark or @X-Col add "debug=1" parameter to zuluscsi.ini [SCSI] section, and post the log.txt file after booted with your sasi drive?
I'd like to check which command is not executed in bluescsi2 (from my test, SASI drive it's not initialized at all)

[X-Col]

Could you @incrediblehark or @X-Col add "debug=1" parameter to zuluscsi.ini [SCSI] section, and post the log.txt file after booted with your sasi drive?
I'd like to check which command is not executed in bluescsi2 (from my test, SASI drive it's not initialized at all)

done, here is the log file https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aXk1mvWMwuWqN0dM48LCa1vMr6Yxy9Sj/view?usp=sharing

[aotta]

Could you @incrediblehark or @X-Col add "debug=1" parameter to zuluscsi.ini [SCSI] section, and post the log.txt file after booted with your sasi drive?
I'd like to check which command is not executed in bluescsi2 (from my test, SASI drive it's not initialized at all)

done, here is the log file https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aXk1mvWMwuWqN0dM48LCa1vMr6Yxy9Sj/view?usp=sharing

Thank you @X-Col , it's definitely different, it seems the init command doesn't work in BlueSCSI2, i'll do some checks!

[incrediblehark]

On another note, my ACE has an official SCSI extension card but for the life of me I cannot get BlueSCSI to boot off of it. The machine does not have SXSI drivers loaded, but do I need that if I am using a SCSI extension card? I suppose it might be a bit too much to expect to just work without some configuration or driver of some sort.

Anyone knows how to get the official SCSI board to work in a SASI machine?

This will be my next test, I also have an official SCSI card, I'll install it and see if I can get the bluescsi to boot from it automatically.

Ok, here is the problem with SCSI card installed in a SASI machine - You can boot from it but you still need to access SWITCH.X to change boot priority to SCSI1. Unfortunately that means loading up Human 68k by some means prior to using the SCSI hard drive.

The card ends up being LUN 1, so in bluescsi you need the following naming format:

HD11_512.hda
HD21_512.hda
HD31_512.hda
HD41_512.hda

no need to install any drivers, just access switch to change the boot priority.

If there's a key you can hold at startup to force boot from a SCSI device (maybe in the SCSI ROM?) that could be the best shot at getting it to work without another hardware method.

[kamiboy]

Aha, I did vaguely remember I had to change something regarding SCSI in switch.x to get the card to work. Not sure how I figured it out in the past as I am sure I made it work with an external MO drive back in the day. I managed to make a bootable MO drive with games that I used as a makeshift SCSI drive. It was painfully slow, but a a cool piece of kit.

In any regards, if the BlueSCSI SASI issue is ever solved it seems I would ultimately choose to go that route with all my SASI machines and would no longer have any need for that SCSI card. I want to aim for a battery and floppy disk free solution that just works on boot, so I wont return to a machine after years, see the insert floppy screen and wonder what long forgotten steps I have to take to to get the machine to boot. As a bonus I could swap the SCSI card for that FPU card I got, that I never made use of.

My aim is also to make my machines keyboard free, capable of being operated only via joysticks. About 10 years back I wrote my own primitive game selector which works via joypad. It operates on the assumed directory structure of older X68000 images, with games being the folder GAMES1 GAMES2 and GAMES3, but that should be easy enough to remedy.

Do I recall correctly that there actually is a current joypad operated launcher bundled with the current image set? I have to test it out. Too bad the fancy launcher that one guy was working on for the X68000 was abandoned halfway completed.

[incrediblehark]

Ah, I think I included some alternate file managers that you could experiment with, I believe one of them did have joystick support but I haven't played around with it. It's definitely something other people have requested in the past and may be worth exploring more.

[kamiboy]

I think I released my launcher here, with instructions back in the day. It was called Korolev68k or something.

If I remember correctly the way it works is it looks through all folders in GAMES1, GAMES2 and GAMES3 and lists them all in alphabetical order. Then you can scroll up and down to pick one and push one of the joypad buttons to launch the game, or the other button to quit to Human68k.

If a game is chosen for launching the path of the chosen game is, together with its !Start.bat, written to some file, or something, which is then supposed to be called as the last thing in autoexec.bat, after calling Korolev68k.x of course.

I also think it had support for just automatically launching the last game selected, skipping the game selection screen, which could be disabled if one held down one of the joypad buttons on boot.

I was trying to emulate the experience of having a console with a flash cart. It has been working on my Compact XVI for many years now. But I think there is a version out there that has issues with running too fast. Anyway, might be worth a look, it is pretty fast, even in 10mhz mode on my Compact.

It lacks on screen explanations of any kind, so I wouldn't recommend it as a default on any released image. But perhaps people could make use of it for their own custom keyboard free experience.

Alas the new images are spread across several drives and in different folder structures, when I think Korolev just assumes all games on on the C drive, in just the three folders mentioned above, so it is not ideal for the latest images we are rolling with.

I don't think I want to make any changes to it though, I will probably just copy my favourite games to GAMES1, 2, 3 on the C drive limit the launcher selection to those.

I only have one keyboard between my three X68000's, and taking that blasted connector in and out always feels like a gamble, where one of the pins might finally bend or break. A more console flash card experience is thus preferable for me personally. Once the BlueSCSI thing is sorted out I will modify the latest images to work with my launcher.

[aotta]

Starting investigating on BlueSCSIv2 SASI issue, but it seems worste than i supposed.. in log i found errors in DMA RP2040 acceleration routine, and the first 0xC2 command is not executed.
I ordered a ZuluSCSI RP2040 to compare log of both cards, but it will take time.
Do you @X-Col or @incrediblehark used in your positive test a RP2040 based Zulu cards, or a different one?

[incrediblehark]

Yes, mine is RP2040

[X-Col]

Yes, mine is RP2040

As is mine :-)

[aotta]

Here is my link to the updated SxSI_Enable_v2 HDD images on my Google Drive:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iK__LUtNerBvA9Ds_QyKEFPjOGTejMV2?usp=sharing

I currently have working images for both the Henkan Bancho and ZuluSCSI. I'm still getting hung up on BlueSCSI though. I don't think its recognizing the proper heads and cylinders for the image. I tried adapting my settings in the ZuluSCSI.ini file to their equivalent settings on BlueSCSI, but it still will not boot.

@spectreman Thanks for the nudge in the right direction, it allowed me to fix my image and create the Zuluscsi one as well.

@kamiboy If you have a ZuluSCSI, try this one out and let me know if it works for you!

This should hopefully solve the problem of loading SxSI drivers on machines without working floppy drives.

Just to confirm this "SASI" bootloader works fine with ArdSCSIno Plus (and i believe also with "vanilla" ArdSCSIno, i'll test it later), i could install SCSI driver in ROM and had Image v.302 at next boot!

About BlueSCSIv2, i opened an issue in Github repo but immediately converted to "conversation" and closed by Eric Helgeson.
AFAIK, he have not X68000 to help in troubleshooting but i must admit that closing the issue with no comment irritated me.
Probably he didn't like i mentioned that ZuluSCSI works fine and BlueSCSI don't.

BlueSCSIv2 copied 98% of the code from ZULUscsi (this post is interesting IMHO about the relationship about the two board: https://forums.sgi.sh/index.php?threads/understanding-the-relationship-between-the-zuluscsi-and-bluescsi-codebases.1461/) and i'm afraid we don't have to expect any support from BlueSCSI team.

Anyway, i'll try to find the difference respect ZuluSCSI when the board will arrive, and i'm starting wondering if could be an HW related issue more than a FW difference in BlueSCSI vs ZuluSCSI

[aotta]

Update for BlueSCSIv2, after i wrote to Eric Helgeson, he contacted me and we discussed about the bug and, in few words, after some test he found the bug, it was in a lookup table!
I compiled with correct table, and i had the sasi image by @incrediblehark boot fine in my bluescsiV2.
For who want to test it, I attach the dev version for flashing the Pico1, i don't know if someone need the one for Pico2, let me know!

[leonk]

Update for BlueSCSIv2, after i wrote to Eric Helgeson, he contacted me and we discussed about the bug and, in few words, after some test he found the bug, it was in a lookup table!

I'm confused by what the end goal is. Is it to emulate a SASI hard drive on a SASI computer? Hence bypassing the SCSI bootloader loading into SRAM?

Is there a reason why someone might want to do that if they have a simple way of loading the SCSI driver into SRAM if they ever need to? Or is it purely to help people that have broken floppy drives / no way of loading the driver?

[incrediblehark]

@aotta amazing! Thank you for working through this and coming out with a fix. I will test it again and create an uploaded zip on Google Drive for bluescsi. My v2 came in so I can test that as well.

Edit: does this mean there will be an updated firmware released on GitHub?


@leonk yes, the goal is to have an alternative way to load SxSI drivers on SASI machines - either for systems with broken floppy drives or for users who don't have access to a floppy disk. This would allow someone who already has a hard disk emulator to achieve this without additional hardware.

[aotta]

Eric wrote me that he'll open a new issue and he'll include the fix in next releases.
I'm not a x68000 programmer, but it could be a first step for loading in ram instead of in sram the scsi driver?
With scsi driver loaded, i found the sasi drive mapped at i:.
Edited:
I mean.. what about a masterdisk v4 with scsi driver loaded and mapped for all scsi drives, and a remapped Image v.3.02?

[kamiboy]

Excellent. I will test as soon I am home from work. For my part I think I want to make a 40mb SASI image that contains all Human68K system files, tools as well as autoexec and config.sys, so it will be the dedicated OS drive, which boots, loads SASI drivers, etc. Then SCSI drives 1-X will just contain games and other data.

This way I will forego the SRAM trick entirely and have an image set that boots and works out of the box on any of my SASI X68000 machines. I won't bother re-fitting them with SRAM batteries at all. The only disadvantage would be that the dates won't be right, but who cares.

[aotta]

Did a quick test just changing id:0 to id:1 in @incrediblehark sasi boot drive's config.sys, and had both sasi and scsi mapped at boot, and launched sxwindow from image 3.02!
So, it's just a matter of mapping drive and rearrange boot sys & bat files

[leonk]

This way I will forego the SRAM trick entirely and have an image set that boots and works out of the box on any of my SASI X68000 machines. I won't bother re-fitting them with SRAM batteries at all. The only disadvantage would be that the dates won't be right, but who cares.

Isn't the battery still needed for RTC to work which in turn is needed for properly functioning power switch? Lack of battery will also mean you'll need to setup memory sizes on every boot.

[kamiboy]

Can confirm that the power switch on my ACE functions perfectly fine without a battery.

I don't suppose there is a way to set the memory size switch on boot every time. Should be possible to dump the SRAM once after setting the memory switch to the correct amount then write back to the correct memory space every time on boot, that should take care of that.

[aotta]

I have a lir2032 as battery, and a good SRAM, and also rom with ipl1.6 that automatically detect the ram onboard and adjust the system 😁

P.s.: my above tests with bluescsiv2 and sasi images were based on my ace hd, planned testing on c600z for next days

edited: @kamiboy ,  if you want to configure ram without changing the rom, you could simpli add to autoexec.bat a line like:
switch memory=10240