Netusbee: no USB and LAN at the same time

[guibrush]

I just realised that the Netusbee used with Sting or Magxnet can't use the USB when the LAN connection is active. With Mintnet everything work. I realised that when I managed to install Magxnet yesterday on my MagiC installation, when I could'n access the USB stick anymore where it was possible before the installation of Magxnet. And then I saw that in the readme, confirming my finding:



I muss say that I'm a bit disappointed, what's the point of creating an inferface with both USB and LAN if both can't be used at the same time on two third of the OS...
I searched a workaround, one is given in the readme with the use of a usb to wlan adapter. I'm asking me what speed can be reached with this solution? Did anyone tried?

Another solution is the Daynaport emulation with the Bluescsi, but reading the files tell me that the floppy drive is deactivated when the network is running, and I think that there are no driver for Magic.

The last solution I see is maybe to use another TCP/IP stack for Magic, I see that something like Stik2 and iconnect exist, but I don't know if the netsubee is supported by those.

Maybe anyone has a hint or an input, of better, maybe anyone has a real good network card on sale (I know, I can dream) ?

Thanks

[higashijun]

That's why I got an USBee.

Of course, you have to plug an USB to Ethernet adapter to acces LAN, but at least you don't have a worthless LAN connector...

[Bengy]

I haven’t tested the speed in awhile but I use the WiFi adapter since it’s more convenient anyway. It’s cheap and speed didn’t appear to be an issue..

[mikro]

I muss say that I'm a bit disappointed, what's the point of creating an inferface with both USB and LAN if both can't be used at the same time on two third of the OS...

There's some history. First, only the EtherNEC project existed. That was a pure network solution based on a very ugly-looking job of soldering an ISA card on the cartridge port. Then the USB revolution came (IIRC with the EtherNAT being the first to use the ISP116x chip) and only after that somebody came up with the idea to merge these two projects / chips together.

So the USB is just an afterthought in this project, it's even miracle that you have USB TOS drivers available at all.

Btw cool that you got Magxnet working with NetUSBee networking, always wanted to try that! (especially now it really hurts when testing the MagiC-specific bug in ScummVM...)

[czietz]

I searched a workaround, one is given in the readme with the use of a usb to wlan adapter. I'm asking me what speed can be reached with this solution? Did anyone tried?

I tried.

It is impossible to give you a universal answer to "what speed can be reached". It depends on the machine, the USB adapter, the network stack, the client software, among other things. But to give you an example: The PicoWifi with a TT, a Lightning VME, under TOS with STinG, and with PFTP gives me download speeds of roughly 200 kByte/s.

[simonsunnyboy]

I suspect it would be possible to have a compatible driver that has both USB and Sting support simultaneously.

However one needs to find an able person with free time to develop this.

[guibrush]

That's why I got an USBee.

Of course, you have to plug an USB to Ethernet adapter to acces LAN, but at least you don't have a worthless LAN connector...

Good move. I’m slowly asking me if I don’t go the same route.

I haven’t tested the speed in awhile but I use the WiFi adapter since it’s more convenient anyway. It’s cheap and speed didn’t appear to be an issue..

Thanks for the hint

[guibrush]

=mikro post_id=457615 time=1706447210 user_id=2009]

I muss say that I'm a bit disappointed, what's the point of creating an inferface with both USB and LAN if both can't be used at the same time on two third of the OS...

There's some history. First, only the EtherNEC project existed. That was a pure network solution based on a very ugly-looking job of soldering an ISA card on the cartridge port. Then the USB revolution came (IIRC with the EtherNAT being the first to use the ISP116x chip) and only after that somebody came up with the idea to merge these two projects / chips together.

So the USB is just an afterthought in this project, it's even miracle that you have USB TOS drivers available at all.

Btw cool that you got Magxnet working with NetUSBee networking, always wanted to try that! (especially now it really hurts when testing the MagiC-specific bug in ScummVM...)

Ok, this make sense. Magxnet was not so hard to install, to my surprise. The biggest challenge was to get the right files. I first wrongly assumed that because it’s a port of the MINT up stack, the driver will be compatible. Wrong

[guibrush]

I searched a workaround, one is given in the readme with the use of a usb to wlan adapter. I'm asking me what speed can be reached with this solution? Did anyone tried?

I tried.

It is impossible to give you a universal answer to "what speed can be reached". It depends on the machine, the USB adapter, the network stack, the client software, among other things. But to give you an example: The PicoWifi with a TT, a Lightning VME, under TOS with STinG, and with PFTP gives me download speeds of roughly 200 kByte/s.

Very good info, thanks! I will give a try, I ordered a usb to lan adapter.

[higashijun]

Very good info, thanks! I will give a try, I ordered a usb to lan adapter.

Just choose the right one, as not all chips are compatible.

[guibrush]

I saw in the GitHub that it require a Asix AX88772 chipset. I found this one:
https://direkt.jacob.de/produkte/I-Tec- ... 26812.html

that got a Asix AX88772B, I hope it's good. I didn't find an adapter with the AX88772 only without extension.

[czietz]

Very good info, thanks! I will give a try, I ordered a usb to lan adapter.

Note that I was talking about the PicoWifi adapter, though.

[mikro]

Ok, this make sense. Magxnet was not so hard to install, to my surprise. The biggest challenge was to get the right files. I first wrongly assumed that because it’s a port of the MINT up stack, the driver will be compatible. Wrong

Feel free to share your experience for us, Magixnet novices. :D

[higashijun]

I saw in the GitHub that it require a Asix AX88772 chipset. I found this one:
https://direkt.jacob.de/produkte/I-Tec- ... 26812.html

that got a Asix AX88772B, I hope it's good. I didn't find an adapter with the AX88772 only without extension.

I have this one:

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/20254/dp/B00 ... r=8-4&th=1

Works great.

[guibrush]

Thanks! Ordered.

[higashijun]

[guibrush]

So, I got both USB adapter and Pi pico W today, but I need a little bit help. First, I could confirm that both USB adapter and Pico Pi work good with UIPtool under TOS. First I didn't understood why it doesn't work, but then I realised that I still have to launch the USB stack before UIPtools is launched. With both dedicated UIPtool version I can have a connection with both LAN adapter and Pico W.

But I'm stuck with the configuration under MINT. I'm using the config tool that come with VanillaMINT and did the whole configuration: asix.xix renamed to asix.xif in mint/1-19-bc6 drawer, ne2kect2.xif renamed to .xix to avoir 2 drivers loaded at the same time, eth.udd in place in the USB drawer in Mint, ip address assigned, asx0 interface selectionned (for the wired USB connector) in the tool, checking the file network.chf let me think that everything is ok. But I have no connection. Then I realised while watching the booting sequence that the USB stack is launched with the line
exec c:/c/mint/1-19-bc6/usb/loader.prg.
is launched after the TCP stack. I think that it muss be launched before, right?

But here is the culprit: everytime I try to move this line up in the config file, some hidden process take it back after the loading of the ipconfig tool. First I thought thatI forgot to save, but no, it's really each time putted back at the end of the file.

So, what did I miss here?

Thanks

[mikro]

Oof. :) That sound very odd. I'm not aware of any tool which would do something like that. Especially without you know about it? Isn't possible that you opened the VanillaMiNT's configurator afterwards and that did it for you?

[guibrush]

geeeeee, now I get it....
You can slap me virtually behind the head.
The answer is this:


I MYSELF created a rule that overwrite the mint.cnf to be able to boot into MyAES or into XaAES....

[mikro]

You should get familiar with mint.cnf's / xaaes.cnf's include directive. :) That way you can change only the important parts (network setup, video setup, aes setup etc) and keep the rest untouched.

[joska]

Or use this:

Boot-time AES selector for MiNT

[joska]

Isn't possible that you opened the VanillaMiNT's configurator afterwards and that did it for you?

No, it doesn't touch mint.cnf at all, it just creates a config-file that you include in mint.cnf.

[Perdrix24]

Although I have a NetUSBee, I use the USB PICOWIFI on it instead of my old configuration, a WIFI bridge connected to the NetUSBee's Ethernet port. I found the transfer rate are twice as fast with the PICOWIFI, plus I can use Sting.

[guibrush]

Feel free to share your experience for us, Magixnet novices.

Well, I just followed this tutorial:

https://hardware.atari.org/manuals/netmagx.htm

and I found the files here (because the link in the tutorial don't point to the right files):
MagxNet via NetUSB on Falcon

What I did:

1. copy all files in the right place (the three files in the xtension folder)
2. configured a non used partition to be able to recognise the long files name with the option drives=f in magx,inf
3. copy on this portion the ETC drawer
4. copy enec3.mif in C:\GEMSYS\MAGIC\XTENSION
5. Copy the contents of NET_CONF into your C:\GEMSYS\MAGIC\START folder
6. Edit C:\GEMSYS\MAGIC\START\MAGX_RC.NET to put the right IP address for my Falcon
done

You should get familiar with mint.cnf's / xaaes.cnf's include directive. That way you can change only the important parts (network setup, video setup, aes setup etc) and keep the rest untouched.

totally. I really messed my brain here, all my fault.

Or use this:

Boot-time AES selector for MiNT

I tried it, it works, but I prefer to have the different AES listed in the boot menu.

[guibrush]

Although I have a NetUSBee, I use the USB PICOWIFI on it instead of my old configuration, a WIFI bridge connected to the NetUSBee's Ethernet port. I found the transfer rate are twice as fast with the PICOWIFI, plus I can use Sting.

Now, this puzzle me: I finished to install both pico wifi and usb to lan dongle, both work under Mint, but it's slow has a one legged donkey. I reach 50 K/s with the wired adapter and barely 25 K/s with the Picowifi. What machine do you have? Is this on a Falcon too?

About the installation: my problem was that the USB stack started after the network in the mint.cfg. It's logical, but I took some time to figure it out.

I think that I will try the daynaport emulation with a bluescsi. For now, the fastest speed that I can reach is about 150K/s with the netusbee, I wonder if I can do more with the Daynaport.