Minimig (Amiga) core discussion

[Sorgelig]

New MiSTer binary release must solve recent problems.

There is updated rule for HDD images handling. Only if disk has HDF extension, first 16 sectors have some data, but no RDB header, then virtual RDB will be added.
In other conditions disk will be used as-is without adding virtual RDB.

So, do not use HDF extension if it's non-Amiga disk.

[kolla]

So, do not use HDF extension if it's non-Amiga disk.

Hm, but hdf extension is needed for files to even show up in the Select disk image menu, no?

I once requested that this menu should also show .iso files, but it never happened, so my ISOs are named .iso.hdf currently

EDIT: Oh, I see now...

- Minimig: support for IMG, DSK and VHD extensions for HDD to load non-Amiga disks

Got it - I guess .iso.img it is then.. maybe .ISO could be added?

[Sorgelig]

Only up to 4 extensions can be used. .iso.img looks good to me

[kolla]

[BBond007]

After playing more with release 20180509 I'm noticing serious blitter drawing problems like with brushes in DPaintV (640x512 258 colors PAL) and similar corruption in the game Dream of Rowan.

Anyone else having similar issues or is my hardware flaky?

Thanks

[Doozer]

After playing more with release 20180509 I'm noticing serious blitter drawing problems like with brushes in DPaintV (640x512 258 colors PAL) and similar corruption in the game Dream of Rowan.

Anyone else having similar issues or is my hardware flaky?

Thanks

I can confirm that release 20180509 have drawing issue. For example, on the kick start screen 40.x top left hand corner you can see pixel changing color in sync with the floppy animation.

[NegSol]

The pixel was always there. It was also present on MiST minimig core. So not really related to the new built.

[NML32]

How does the iso.img work? I renamed a iso file to iso.img and mounted it, but I don't know how to access it.

[Sorgelig]

How does the iso.img work? I renamed a iso file to iso.img and mounted it, but I don't know how to access it.

You need some driver in Workbench. Similarly if you want to use PC HDD you need fat95 driver which includes both MBR and FAT drivers.

[NML32]

Thanks

[Sorgelig]

I never used ISO images in Amiga. I believe you need to look into CD32 emulation on A1200 - probably they have some drivers to handle ISO images.

[BBond007]

How does the iso.img work? I renamed a iso file to iso.img and mounted it, but I don't know how to access it.

You need a CD ROM file system...

If you have Workbench 3.1 installed then you should have everything you need... meaning you should have "SYS:l/CDFileSystem" already. If not then you'll need something like http://aminet.net/package/disk/cdrom/amicdfs240

Using Workbench, copy the icon called "cd0" from SYS:storage/DosDrivers to SYS:Devs/DosDrivers. Once the file is in place you need to select "info" then "Tool Type" and make sure "UNIT=1" for secondary IDE or "UNIT=0" for Primary. Double-click the cd0 icon or reboot, and it should start working.

I believe workbench 3.9 uses CacheCDFS which might be a slightly different procedure.

If you are still not having any luck, I tested it with this ISO from here:
[url]
https://www.emuparadise.me/Amiga_CD32_I ... v1.1_(1994)(Cyberdreams)[!]/57592
[/url]

I now have CD icon called "CD32_TEST" on the Workbench backdrop.

To actually run a CD32 game you may need to use a CD32 emulator which I believe AmiCDFS, CashCDFS as well as IdeFIX include but I've not tried as of yet.

Hope that helps...

[Sorgelig]

I will add ISO extension support - will add exception for Amiga to support more than 4 extensions.

By the way, even if image has other than HDF extension, it still can be a RDB disk. It even can be a dual mode RDB+MBR disk as RDB header can be in any of first 16 sectors.

[NML32]

Thank you BBond007, your instructions worked.

Edit: I created a YouTube video for anyone (like me) that may find it useful.
https://youtu.be/kTxMQ3OPsiU

[BBond007]

Thank you BBond007, your instructions worked.

Edit: I created a YouTube video for anyone (like me) that may find it useful.
https://youtu.be/kTxMQ3OPsiU

I wonder why I don't get the boing ball animation with the core boots?

[Sorgelig]

I wonder why I don't get the boing ball animation with the core boots?

you need to put animation file into Amiga folder.

[NML32]

I wonder why I don't get the boing ball animation with the core boots?

you need to put animation file into Amiga folder.

My capture card picks it up but it doesn't stay on the screen long enough for my TV to catch sync and display it.

[mattsoft]

The HDF (RDB) files I made in Win-UAE and used on the previous minimig core are now showing up as NDOS with the 5/13/2018 core ... and I can't format them. Looks like I have to change drive type in hdtoolbox which destroys them. Creating new, empty HDFs in Win-UAE (no RDB) and those work OK. Have to copy all my stuff again. Bummer!

...and the Secondary Master/Slave IDE do not seem to work. HDFs that I can get to work un the Primary Master/Slave do not show in hdtoolbox when attached as Secondary drives. Should these work in KS 3.1?

[Sorgelig]

1) can you give me one of those non-working HDF to analyze?
2) secondary IDE requires IDEFix'97 driver.

[mattsoft]

1) can you give me one of those non-working HDF to analyze?
2) secondary IDE requires IDEFix'97 driver.

Thanks Sorgelig! I was wondering if the secondary IDE needed drivers.

As for the non-working HDFs, they are 4GB each (with < 2GB partitions) -- so a little big for me to upload. I was successful just creating new HDFs in WinUAE, partitioning and formatting in MiSTer, then moving back to WinUAE and copying my files over. Back in business again.

[Sorgelig]

As for the non-working HDFs, they are 4GB each (with < 2GB partitions) -- so a little big for me to upload. I was successful just creating new HDFs in WinUAE, partitioning and formatting in MiSTer, then moving back to WinUAE and copying my files over. Back in business again.

Getting non-working HDF files (worked in previous version) is some kind important to understand if there is a bug in new version, or these HDFs have really strange parameters. Try to RAR it to see if size will be reduced greatly or not.

Can you at least give me the log from console when you start Minimig with non-working HDF? There should be messages from HDF detecting procedure.

as i've mentioned earlier: When you do HDD initialization procedure in HDToolBox, you need to watch how many sectors per track (blocks per track) are set! For me HDToolBox tends to set 256 sectors which is wrong! CHS cannot have 256 sectors per track. The maximum value is 255. So, incompatible HDF may have this issue.

[mattsoft]

As for the non-working HDFs, they are 4GB each (with < 2GB partitions) -- so a little big for me to upload. I was successful just creating new HDFs in WinUAE, partitioning and formatting in MiSTer, then moving back to WinUAE and copying my files over. Back in business again.

Getting non-working HDF files (worked in previous version) is some kind important to understand if there is a bug in new version, or these HDFs have really strange parameters. Try to RAR it to see if size will be reduced greatly or not.

Can you at least give me the log from console when you start Minimig with non-working HDF? There should be messages from HDF detecting procedure.

as i've mentioned earlier: When you do HDD initialization procedure in HDToolBox, you need to watch how many sectors per track (blocks per track) are set! For me HDToolBox tends to set 256 sectors which is wrong! CHS cannot have 256 sectors per track. The maximum value is 255. So, incompatible HDF may have this issue.

OK, i'll see what I can do when I get home from work tonight.

[uigiflip]

Maybe hdf have to have rdb tables like replay used to?

[BBond007]

I'm concerned something is wrong with my MiSTer because the latest cores are not working well at all.

My SDRAM seems to work reliably up to 160mhz according to the memtest, so I have no idea what to try next

Minimig_20180304 was the last core that really worked well for me.

Starting with Minimig_20180407 was seeing visual artifacts in games like Dream Of Rowan and Super Stardust and some similar issues with brushes in DPaintV.

Minimig_20180513 gave me the same artifacts as well as a momentary glitch in the 640x512x4bit PAL/LACED Workbench screen about every 5 seconds. I'd have to make a video to show that. It's a portion of the screen shifts a few pixels to the right every 5 secs or so. It makes the core pretty annoying to use although I do like having use of 4 drives

The issues also occur with the CD32 Demo version of Super Stardust. I can upload that if would help....

DreamOfRowan.jpg

SuperStardust.jpg

CD32SuperStardustDemo.jpg

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks

[Sorgelig]

Minimig is one of few cores with metastability issues which i'm not able to fix yet.
Nothing wrong with your SDRAM.
Situation may improve if you use heatsink with fan.