CTPCI and USB card

[Kroll]

Hi,

I have forgotten and now I have some problwem to install the newest freemint I downloaded freemint...3ef, unpack and copied to mint, folder 1-19-3ef. In Auto folder I have only mint-3ef.prg and replace mint060.prg from archive mint060_pcibios_2.zip in folder c:\mint\1-19-3ef\.
But i have some problem.What do you think ?
Is this good, or am I making a mistake?

[wongck]

and replace mint060.prg from archive mint060_pcibios_2.zip in folder c:\mint\1-19-3ef\.

I don't think you need to replace the mint060.prg from archive mint060_pcibios_2.zip in folder c:\mint\1-19-3ef\ as the latest build already have the fix in it.

OF course unless you want to test out the mint060.prg from archive mint060_pcibios_2.zip.

[Kroll]

OK, I understand, because this is the same lenght in bytes.
On the beginning I would like test network card Realtek 8139, in MiNT folder I have rtl8139.xif (66221 bytes lenght - is it last version ?)
The second questionl only manual configuration, DHCP still is not working ?

[wongck]

On the beginning I would like test network card Realtek 8139, in MiNT folder I have rtl8139.xif (66221 bytes lenght - is it last version ?)
The second questionl only manual configuration, DHCP still is not working ?

The rtl8139.xif does is not found in the GitHub mint snapshot download. I think it will be once Mikro & others settle some discussion.
In the mean while, I used the rtl8139.xif from the thread viewtopic.php?f=97&t=31641&start=25#p328291
I think this is the latest and greatest so far.

I only ran dhclient from the command line as a test. It has the same behaviour as before i.e. looping and cannot get an address.

May the force be with you.

[Kroll]

Hi Kroll, great to read about your Falcon working again.

Over the latest FreeMiNT official snapshot install the kernel in mint060_pcibios_2.zip. Then let's try first only the network card function, without and with memory protection so we can see if Wongck's crash can be replicated.

Hi

I have just tested the last Freemint 1-19-3ef with network card with or without memory protection, and it is working both, the desktop Thing start without problem. What do you thing ?
What should I test if memory protection on ?
I see there is a problem with OLGA (Process OLGA killed) when I run some application Papyrus, Texel and etc.

[Galvez]

Hi Kroll, great to read about your Falcon working again.

Over the latest FreeMiNT official snapshot install the kernel in mint060_pcibios_2.zip. Then let's try first only the network card function, without and with memory protection so we can see if Wongck's crash can be replicated.

Hi

I have just tested the last Freemint 1-19-3ef with network card with or without memory protection, and it is working both, the desktop Thing start without problem. What do you thing ?
What should I test if memory protection on ?
I see there is a problem with OLGA (Process OLGA killed) when I run some application Papyrus, Texel and etc.

The memory protection test was to replicate a crash suffered by Wongck that finally was due to corruption in one of his partitions, so I don't need any special test with memory protection anymore. What about USB mouse and keyboard? Are they working ok?

[Kroll]

The memory protection test was to replicate a crash suffered by Wongck that finally was due to corruption in one of his partitions, so I don't need any special test with memory protection anymore. What about USB mouse and keyboard? Are they working ok?

I have just tested USB mouse (working perffectly) and keyboard, and it is wotking. Because I have still TOS 2.02 from 05/06/12 and issue with LSHIFT and RALT (print sign 3). I have read above that this issue has been resolved with newest version from December 12, 2012. Where can I find this ?

[Galvez]

I have just tested USB mouse (working perffectly) and keyboard, and it is wotking. Because I have still TOS 2.02 from 05/06/12 and issue with LSHIFT and RALT (print sign 3). I have read above that this issue has been resolved with newest version from December 12, 2012. Where can I find this ?

As far as I know this beta version or newer have never been released for the CT60, only FireBee.

[Kroll]

Today, I also test USB mass storage, not all work properly, but Kingstom 8 GB and PQI 2GB is visible at the time of booting the computer eg as drive Q. When copying 2.5MB file from mass storage to disk partitions, it took about 28 sec. Do you have similar times?

[Latz]

Hi,

WHAT A MESS!!
I ordered two NEC USB cards with the correct chip via EBay and after a huge "delivery desaster" they
finally arrived.
First the parcel was sent to France caused by a faulty EBay ordering form, second attempt ended that
the parcel carrier didn´t find my door+letterbox (aargh, i live here since 8 years now) and sent the
parcel back to sender. Ok, the third time everything went good, happy Latz!

Inserted the card, pressed power button...Falcon does not power up, nothing exept CT60 power LED lights.
My heart stopped beating, sweat, removed the card...Falcon boots up and works normal, ouf, no damage.

Tested the second card, same behaviour. So i checked the PCI connectors of the cards and compared it to
my previous USB card (the one which was found at boot but didn´t work). I found that on the new cards
pin A10 (+V I/O) is bridged to the +5V supply voltage rails. Cutted the bridge and ...tadaa, Falcon starts
normal, card is detected correct at boot.

So it seems that on CTPCI/PCI slots pin A10 (+V I/O) is GROUND(?) and so the PSU detected a short circuit
and shut the power off - i´ve been very lucky that the PSU is protected!!

Keyboard and mouse are working perfect, incl. german key layout. Didn´t test thumbdrive yet.
But my "upload problem" is back...if an USB card is connected (even without connected devices), uploads
fail.

A not so happy
Latz

Edit: on CTPCI/PCI slots pin A10 (+V I/O) is GROUND(?) or 3.3V

[Latz]

Hi,

i tested a 16GB thumbdrive with one FAT-16 partition 900 MB, created with gparted on LinuxPC.
Device and partition is detected correct at boot, i can access the drive and copy small
files to and from thumb drive with TOS and MinT.
But -similar to my upload problem- copying bigger files stops after a short time and i get an
errormessage "Device not ready. Request sense returned 00 00 00" 3 or 4 times.
After that, "connection" to thumbdrive is completely broken, same error even when trying to open
the drive. Much more: Network is also broken then, when i try to ping/upload/download i get some
messages "RTL8139: Setting 100mbps full-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 45E1.".

So, this sure is a hardware issue here.
Can this all be an indicator for a kind of "PCI bus overload" if 3 cards are connected?
Means
- Radeon+Network = no problem
- Radeon+Network+USB = network upload and usb file copying stops with big files
I´ll test Radeon+USB next (without network card).

One more question: What type of ribbon cables do you use (CTPCI <--> PCI slot board)?
I use short 40 wires cables (~15 cm), not 80 wires. Could this cause my problems?

Latz

[mikro]

One more question: What type of ribbon cables do you use (CTPCI <--> PCI slot board)?
I use short 40 wires cables (~15 cm), not 80 wires. Could this cause my problems?

Perhaps a very valid one. As you can read here: http://powerphenix.com/ctpci/english/overview.htm ...

Use of 2 standard IDE UDMA 100/133 flat cable (80 wires) to connect PCI board with CTPCI.

and here: http://phoenix.inf.upol.cz/~opichals/li ... yp&index=7 ...

The CTPCI comes with two cards: One that is plugged on the CT60/63 and that is connected to standard IDE UDMA ribbon cables (80 wires) to the second card that holds four PCI slots.

[Latz]

Hi mikro,

sure, i know, but it´s only a difference in shielding, not in connections. The standard length of the IDE UDMA cables is 45cm
(incl. a slave connector) and they can´t be shortened (in an easy way). So i thought that 2x15 cm unshielded is better than
2x45cm UDMA + open slave connectors which fills half of the case.
Other people who have mounted CT60/CTPCI+Radeon in the original Falcon case use 40 wire cables, too.
This is why i asked what cables you use

Latz

[wongck]

Hey, so you are having fun while I was back in my hometown couple of days for Chinese New Year.

WHAT A MESS!!
I ordered two NEC USB cards with the correct chip via EBay and after a huge "delivery desaster" they
finally arrived.

Glad it finally arrived for you.
I would not have ordered anything from China (or Asia) around 1 month before CNY as there are huge shipment of stuff for the celebration not just the well-known huge human traffic. So postage will be delayed and delivery goes insane.

Keyboard and mouse are working perfect, incl. german key layout.

Your mouse did not go funky? What is the brand & model.
Your Keyboard SHIFT key works? I cannot type any uppercase.

But my "upload problem" is back...if an USB card is connected (even without connected devices), uploads fail.

What did you do to make it able to upload ?
I thought it was not resolved yet.

But -similar to my upload problem- copying bigger files stops after a short time and i get an
errormessage "Device not ready. Request sense returned 00 00 00" 3 or 4 times.

I will test again with that 50MB ZIP test file.
From what I remembered, they was some issue transferring big files. They have errors in them. But I have not determined the triggering size.
Small files, as you tested seems OK.

The standard length of the IDE UDMA cables is 45cm
(incl. a slave connector) and they can´t be shortened (in an easy way). So i thought that 2x15 cm unshielded is better than
2x45cm UDMA + open slave connectors which fills half of the case.

Mine are 80 wires UDMA cables. I do not know how long are they. Will measure later.

[wongck]

double post

[Latz]

Hi,

Hey, so you are having fun while I was back in my hometown couple of days for Chinese New Year.

Hmm, somehow i think you had more fun than i had

I would not have ordered anything from China (or Asia) around 1 month before CNY...

In fact is was ordered from France (and was sent inside France the first time) but it took longer than the network cards from
China before

Your mouse did not go funky? What is the brand & model.
Your Keyboard SHIFT key works? I cannot type any uppercase.

Mouse works precise, no strange movements like you described. It´s an optical Logitech B100 wired mouse.
Keyboard works perfect, SHIFT keys too. Logitech K120 german layout. Somewhere on http://ctpci.atari.org/
i read that there was a bug with SHIFT keys on US keyboards...can´t find it now.

But my "upload problem" is back...if an USB card is connected (even without connected devices), uploads fail.

What did you do to make it able to upload ?

I simply removed the USB card (see RTL8139 thread). But this is only with my No.1 Falcon, the upload problem of my second Falcon
is not solved yet.

Mine are 80 wires UDMA cables. I do not know how long are they. Will measure later.

Thank you for the information. Like mikro suggested, i think it may be worth a try to test 80 wires cables.

I tested only Radeon+USB card now (no network card): Copy problem stays the same.

I wish you a happy new year, too!!!
Latz

[wongck]

Ha ha Didn't know so many Chinese in France.... not.

I need to try with some more mouse....

And my 80 wire IDE cable is the 45 cm long version.
I was thinking of those rounded IDE cables, but the headers looked very big, so I did not get any.

[Kroll]

Today I have tested USB mass storage in my system. It was Pendrive Kingstom 8GB, One partition FAT 32 (windows compatibility). My system is: three cards radeon (2 second slot), Third is Realtek and last is USB card.
I use 80 wire IDE cable 45 cm long too. I copied from or to mass storage from SD card, two files 14 MB zip file and second 27 MB without any problem.
The averege speed is about 160 KB/s. The first file 14 MB copied oabout 90 sec.

[Latz]

Thank you for the info, Kroll!
I search for short 80 wires cables now and i hope that it works then.

Latz

[JoeAtari]

I'm wondering if this is all sorted out now in the current Mint builds? My USB card and network card are visible with the TOS beta 2.02. With some flash drives I can get a drive letter, but file copy operations fail both on TOS and Mint. I'm just asking if I should follow the fixes in this thread or try the current Mint 19 build (I'm currently on 18). It would be wonderful to know what works and what doesn't and have everything in one place instead of searching and searching for answers If I get this figured out, I will certainly place a guide with the most current info on my website.

[JoeAtari]

My USB problem was fixed by moving the cards to this order: Slot 1 - Radeon, Slot 2 - USB, Slot 3 - Network. Now on to trying to get the network card operating!

[wongck]

So it is slot position sensitive ?
I have mine like so....
slot1 - Radeon
slot2 - Realtex
slot3 - USB

I have it so happens as what I found to work... Radeon 1st then I had networking running, then lastly USB.

[Latz]

Sorry, i really forgot to report:
Even with 80 wire ribbon cables it´s the same problem here (like described above).
@JoeAtari: I don´t think that this is a problem with the slot order, i tried several orders without a difference.
But you definetly should update FreeMinT!

Edit: Same order like wongck here, 4th slot cutted.

Latz

[Kroll]

Hi,
@latz I know that it is very sensitive for ribbon cables. My friend use 40 wire, me better is 80 wire. I have the same order like Wongck but first slot is emty (by molex connector). In my system works all three cards. Additionally, In the case of USB card,I know that some require modification.
I can send a picture of myself that works with me without problems, how to connect a mouse or mass storage.

Kroll

[JoeAtari]

So far I get no indication of the RTL8139 driver loading at all. Do you see it load when Mint is booting?

I have tried both driver versions that I found here on the forum. I tried the prepcibios freemint and freemint 18 release version. I'll probably try changing the order of the cards in the slots again, then try freemint build 1-19-121-020.

I also tested a NetUSBee just to see if something was wrong in my network setup, and that works just fine.