NEW USB Host Controller via ACSI

[itaboy]

I am certainly interested... and being a Falcon owner as well, it would be nice to have a Falcon version.

[alanh]

USB4TOS drivers will be automatically updated daily as the code comes from the FreeMiNT repository.

They can be downloaded from....

http://www.freemint.org

And click the "USB4TOS" link.

Enjoy !

[Jungsi]

USB4TOS drivers will be automatically updated daily as the code comes from the FreeMiNT repository.

They can be downloaded from....

http://www.freemint.org

And click the "USB4TOS" link.

Enjoy !

Thats great - yesterday I thought by myself, when there will be an update for the TOS-Drivers - is there a chance to see somewhere a history what was changed?

[alanh]

I suppose the easiest thing is to either subscribe to the mint-cvs list to see what's changing or view the cvs online to look at the changes.

But it was mainly bug fixes to do with partition detection and SCSIDRV fixes between the beta and these new daily releases.

[NikiforosST]

USB4TOS drivers will be automatically updated daily as the code comes from the FreeMiNT repository.

They can be downloaded from....

http://www.freemint.org

And click the "USB4TOS" link.

Enjoy !

These drivers support Netusbee card?

[alanh]

Not at this time. Someone who has a device could spend some time on them.

[NikiforosST]

ok thank you for the answer

[arf]

Hi dbsys, it's a limited audience. I have sold less than 20 for the ST/STE/TT and I did it because I had a need for it for my T40 with ACSI. So I suspect it's highly unlikely I'll tackle such a device.

Please don’t take this as criticism, but no wonder many projects sell poorly -- too often these are projects, not products. But people want to buy products, not projects. For a product you need a website that clearly states what is is, what it can do, what not, some nice photos and (especially!) an easy, transparent way to order.

Some stuff buried in a webforum like this is not a product page that will sell stuff to anyone who’s not a regular here in the forums.

As I’m somehow physically incompatible with web forums like PHPbb and similar things I also didn’t hear about that project at all - since now. And I would like to order one. But I can’t find anything in the web besides a youtube video (that has no URL given on where to find more about this) and a software driver download link, that doesn’t explain what the hardware can do or not.

I hope that you don’t feel insulted by my words. I really appreciate that you and many others create good stuff for our beloved machines. And of course you don’t want to create a fully blown webshop for every project. But something like http://www.vesalia.de would be great to have - a place where you can browse the different hardware options and buy stuff.

[arf]

Hi Frank, yes, I think I'm going to have to do that next as the 8MB boards haven't really gone at all to get some money back.

Which 8 MB boards?

[alanh]

Hi dbsys, it's a limited audience. I have sold less than 20 for the ST/STE/TT and I did it because I had a need for it for my T40 with ACSI. So I suspect it's highly unlikely I'll tackle such a device.

Please don’t take this as criticism, but no wonder many projects sell poorly -- too often these are projects, not products. But people want to buy products, not projects. For a product you need a website that clearly states what is is, what it can do, what not, some nice photos and (especially!) an easy, transparent way to order.

Some stuff buried in a webforum like this is not a product page that will sell stuff to anyone who’s not a regular here in the forums.

As I’m somehow physically incompatible with web forums like PHPbb and similar things I also didn’t hear about that project at all - since now. And I would like to order one. But I can’t find anything in the web besides a youtube video (that has no URL given on where to find more about this) and a software driver download link, that doesn’t explain what the hardware can do or not.

I hope that you don’t feel insulted by my words. I really appreciate that you and many others create good stuff for our beloved machines. And of course you don’t want to create a fully blown webshop for every project. But something like http://www.vesalia.de would be great to have - a place where you can browse the different hardware options and buy stuff.

Hi Arf,

No insult or criticism taken. I take on board all your words and can agree with them.

I do have this...

http://www.freemint.org/unicorn/unicorn.html

but no order page at this time because quantities are low. So there's no point holding stock either as money would get invested with little sales. Bit of chicken/egg really.

As for an order. I'm now taking pre-orders again as my last Unicorn devices sold at the weekend.

[alanh]

Hi Frank, yes, I think I'm going to have to do that next as the 8MB boards haven't really gone at all to get some money back.

Which 8 MB boards?

http://www.freemint.org/8mb/8mb.html

[arf]

http://www.freemint.org/8mb/8mb.html

Interesting, thanks. Is this additional memory detected when running MagiC? I’ve got a few machines with TOS 1.02 or TOS 1.04 where I boot MagiC (which gets rid of all the base TOS). Adding TOS 2.06 is additional work on these machines (ST, no STEs) so I would like to avoid this.

[alanh]

The function required for ALT RAM is called "Maddalt". I know TOS 2.06 provides this, but older TOS 1.x don't. But on the bright side I've seen mention that MagiC does support this call, so it should work with TOS 1.x w/MagiC.

[troed]

This evening I had a big grin on my face when I used a USB wireless mouse on my STE. The computer was built in 1989, USB v1.0 was released in 1996

However, I'm apparently not clever enough to figure out how to create an Atari partition on a USB flash drive. I'd appreciate help

I've installed the demo version of HDDriver 9. If I run hddriver.prg before hddrutil.app the latter will crash (three bombs). I can however run hddrutil.app without having loaded hddriver - and it will find my USB flash drive at "bus 3" (and it will list seven devices on that bus). I'm then completely at a loss as to what to do in Devices & Partitions - it seems selecting "3.0" is what will configure hddriver.prg into something that, when I then run it, will cause it to detect that there's a device at least.

However, even with hddriver.prg seeing the device I still cannot run hddrutil.app afterwards - although now it'll crash with 2 bombs instead of three.

All this on an 4MB 1040STE with TOS 2.06.

Is there any other way I can get a partition onto my flash drive that will be able to be used as C: by the Atari?

(I'm positive the crashes aren't due to using a demo version. Really positive)

/Troed

[alanh]

No crashes should happen, so either way they're most likely bugs with the USB code.

It shouldn't matter whether HDDRIVER is loaded before the USB code or after, but you may want to try loading HDDRIVER from floppy first, before loading the USB drivers to see if that helps at all.

Also, is it listing the same device on bus 3 in all 7 SCSI locations ? A picture would speak volumes here.

As for "Devices & Partitions" if you load USB before HDDRIVER, then this would take effect, but if it's the other way around, then HDDRIVER has no control and it won't change anything on what gets scanned.

You also don't need HDDRIVER at all to partition USB devices. Just click on the device in HDDRUTIL and go straight to partitioning.

But remember, you can't boot from this drive, even with TOS 2.06.

[troed]

It shouldn't matter whether HDDRIVER is loaded before the USB code or after, but you may want to try loading HDDRIVER from floppy first, before loading the USB drivers to see if that helps at all.

Thanks, will try.

Also, is it listing the same device on bus 3 in all 7 SCSI locations ? A picture would speak volumes here.

Picture coming up:

hddrutil_scan.JPG

You also don't need HDDRIVER at all to partition USB devices. Just click on the device in HDDRUTIL and go straight to partitioning.

See - that's what the "I'm not clever enough" part was about. I believe a simple FAQ of the type "I just got my Unicorn, now how do I create a compatible partition on my USB flash drive?" is what I'm looking for

I had to run off to work just now, but I tried clicking on the first on the eight devices (see picture) and hey, now "partition" was suddenly not greyed out anymore. Using a demo version of HDDriver means no manual ...

(Then I got stuck on whatever I selected the only response was "This partition scheme is only valid for MAGiC / MiNT" and I could - seemingly - not continue. However, I spent very little time messing about with the options)

But remember, you can't boot from this drive, even with TOS 2.06.

I know But I am looking to boot off a virtual disk on the HxC with Unicorn drivers and then use a USB flash drive as C: - or at least explore whether that's viable for "daily use".

Thanks for all your help,

/Troed

[alanh]

Picture coming up:

hddrutil_scan.JPG

O.k. thats a bug. I'll need to fix that.

See - that's what the "I'm not clever enough" part was about. I believe a simple FAQ of the type "I just got my Unicorn, now how do I create a compatible partition on my USB flash drive?" is what I'm looking for

Yeah, but unfortunately you are in HDDRIVER land here and that's where HDDRIVER manuals help a lot

But it's no different from partitioning any other device, and I think there's plenty of info about that.

(Then I got stuck on whatever I selected the only response was "This partition scheme is only valid for MAGiC / MiNT" and I could - seemingly - not continue. However, I spent very little time messing about with the options)

That's because with TOS 2.06 you are limited to a maximum partition size of 512MB and I guess you are creating one much larger.

Good luck

Alan.

[troed]

It shouldn't matter whether HDDRIVER is loaded before the USB code or after, but you may want to try loading HDDRIVER from floppy first, before loading the USB drivers to see if that helps at all.

Right so this made a huge difference! Loading hddriver before any USB code means I can now start hddrutil without it crashing - and now I'm also able to (at least according to hddrutil) partition my USB flash stick. Without hddriver loaded all I got was the "Only valid for Magic and MiNT" warning and then nothing (silent fail I guess). With hddriver loaded it then goes through the steps of actually partitioning the drive (but I _always_ get the "only valid for ... " warning no matter what possible partition sizes, numbers of or compatibility switches I select).

However, still no luck in actually being able to access it. While I can plug the USB flash drive into my Mac and see that it indeed has an (unformatted) FAT12 partition - both it and hddrutil shows it to be 0.5MB in size, no matter which size (100MB, 512MB) I actually partitioned with. The demo version of hddrutil is also unable to format so I did that on my Mac as well - but neither storage.prg nor hddriver.prg finds anything mountable as C:.

I guess I'm still looking for someone who's already gone through this (preferably with the Unicorn since I'm unsure where the USB drivers are involved in all this) to let me know what simple steps to take. I'm assuming from the beta-driver README that I should just be able to do "Install devices" from GEM and see C: pop up?

(In the meantime I'll go try to create a small formatted FAT12 partition using just the Mac)

regards,
Troed

[alanh]

Are you using the BETA drivers or the ones from http://www.freemint.org/builds/usb4tos/

There's also the youtube videos which show you how to partition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMlW5wCZYwI

[alanh]

Oh, and I think with the demo HDDRIVER you are limited to a partition size of 512KB, yes that's KB !

See here....

http://hddriver.seimet.de/en/downloads.html

[alanh]

Also, if you go ahead with 512KB, you have to enter it as "0.5"

Also, choose "Compatibility" and select the TOS & Windows check boxes to make it compatible with both.

[troed]

Are you using the BETA drivers or the ones from http://www.freemint.org/builds/usb4tos/

The latter (build of 21st July) However, there's an informative readme in the BETA-release that I don't think I've seen in any other places.

There's also the youtube videos which show you how to partition.

The major difference is of course that I get eight devices listed everywhere but it seems to not be relevant. I did spot one thing in the video though - "type".

Oh, and I think with the demo HDDRIVER you are limited to a partition size of 512KB, yes that's KB !

Yeah I had read that as 512MB the whole time ... thanks for pointing it out But in any case, all I want to see is a working C: and I'm happy.

Also, choose "Compatibility" and select the TOS & Windows check boxes to make it compatible with both.

I've now managed to make a working partition that's automatically picked up by the USB drivers I've copied files to it (although one transfer hung, reset and worked the next time) and launched them etc. Really cool! There's no interoperability with my Mac though (garbled filenames, if showing up at all) but I'll spend some time with understanding that later.

So, here's the step-by-step:

1) Acquire Unicorn. You'll want to be on TOS 2.06 as well, and download the demo version of HDDRIVER 9.02
2) Put the USB drivers and HDDRIVER in the proper order in the AUTO folder on a disk:
first: hddriver.prg
second: usb.prg
third: storage.prg
fourth: unicorn.prg
2) Launch hddrutil.app
2.1 Go to Tools and then Auto Configuring
2.2 Now do Partitioning. Enter size (0.5 in the demo version) but most importantly remove ANYTHING from the "type" field just before size.
3) After partitioning being done and HDDRutil asks to reboot - do so.
4) This boot the USB drivers should pick up your new partition and automatically install a Disk icon on the GEM Desktop named "USB".

Done!

Now I'll look into the apparent lack of interoperability - but I'm reached my goal of getting a C: up from my USB Flash drive. Many thanks for all your help Alan In the end it seems to have been HDDRutil always having put a random value in the "type" field, which I thought was something important, that kept my partitions from being recognized.

/Troed

[alanh]

The latter (build of 21st July) However, there's an informative readme in the BETA-release that I don't think I've seen in any other places.

O.k. You should try tomorrows build.

The major difference is of course that I get eight devices listed everywhere but it seems to not be relevant. I did spot one thing in the video though - "type".

This should be fixed with tomorrows build.

2.1 Go to Tools and then Auto Configuring

This step isn't required.

2.2 Now do Partitioning. Enter size (0.5 in the demo version) but most importantly remove ANYTHING from the "type" field just before size.

The type field should be left blank for TOS partitions. You may see $06 for pure Windows partitions etc.

3) After partitioning being done and HDDRutil asks to reboot - do so.

Not strictly necessary. An unplug/replug operation should suffice too.

4) This boot the USB drivers should pick up your new partition and automatically install a Disk icon on the GEM Desktop named "USB".

This is probably installing a "C:" drive because TOS installs this one by default when it sees a C: drive, other drives wouldn't be installed automatically. I don't think it will be called "USB" though too. You'd need to "Install" the rest if you had more drives.

Now I'll look into the apparent lack of interoperability - but I'm reached my goal of getting a C: up from my USB Flash drive. Many thanks for all your help Alan In the end it seems to have been HDDRutil always having put a random value in the "type" field, which I thought was something important, that kept my partitions from being recognized.

Maybe the Mac doesn't like such small partitions?

Anyway, well done!

[arf]

Hi Frank, yes, I think I'm going to have to do that next as the 8MB boards haven't really gone at all to get some money back.

Which 8 MB boards?

http://www.freemint.org/8mb/8mb.html

Can it be access with 16 MHz in the MegaSTE, or is it at bus level at 8 MHz? I know that most memory additions for the MegaSTE go for 8 MHz, but 16 MHz are attracting

[alanh]

It should work at 16MHz but I can try in my MegaSTE.