MiSTer FPGA Forum

kitune-san wrote: ↑Tue Aug 23, 2022 2:28 pm I noticed during the process of working on it that it needs some more improvement for stable operation.
Freeze occurs during disk read.

The image is when trying to read FreeDOS x86BOOT.img.

2022-08-23 232256.png

I will create a temporary branch.
Please help!

kitune-san wrote: ↑Tue Aug 23, 2022 2:55 pm

kitune-san wrote: ↑Tue Aug 23, 2022 2:28 pm I noticed during the process of working on it that it needs some more improvement for stable operation.
Freeze occurs during disk read.

The image is when trying to read FreeDOS x86BOOT.img.

2022-08-23 232256.png

I will create a temporary branch.
Please help!

The code before the rebase was saved in the following branch

Notes.
Please set the FDD disk every time after reset. If not, the drive does not seem to recognize it.

https://github.com/kitune-san/PCXT_MiSTer/tree/fdd-work

MicroCoreLabs wrote: ↑Wed Aug 24, 2022 6:07 am I believe you that the UART flow control signals are connected, but I wonder if they are enabled on the host side. They may default to disabled. One easy check is to see if they toggle using SignalTap.

kitune-san wrote: ↑Tue Aug 23, 2022 3:17 pm I noticed a large number of timing constraint violations with the floppy drive.
Tomorrow I will focus on this.

2022-08-24 001505.png

pgimeno wrote: ↑Fri Aug 19, 2022 4:24 pm That's weird. Has this core implemented something like an A20 gate or an HMA area?

NightShadowPT wrote: ↑Wed Aug 24, 2022 6:49 pm Is there any equivalent to the eXo/Flynn Top 300 DOS Pack for this core? (focusing on 8086 games)

kitune-san wrote: ↑Tue Aug 23, 2022 2:55 pm The code before the rebase was saved in the following branch

Notes.
Please set the FDD disk every time after reset. If not, the drive does not seem to recognize it.

https://github.com/kitune-san/PCXT_MiSTer/tree/fdd-work

MicroCoreLabs wrote: ↑Wed Aug 24, 2022 6:07 am I believe you that the UART flow control signals are connected, but I wonder if they are enabled on the host side. They may default to disabled. One easy check is to see if they toggle using SignalTap.

	char ComPortBuff[20];
	sprintf(ComPortBuff, "/dev/ttyS1");
	const char* ComPort = NULL;
	ComPort = &ComPortBuff[0];
	...
	serial.Connect(ComPort, baudRate);	
	processRequests(&serial, images[0], images[1], timeoutEnabled, verbose);

class SerialAccess
{
public:
	void Connect( const char *name, struct baudRate *p_baudRate )
	{
//		char buff1[20], buff2[1024];

		baudRate = p_baudRate;

		pipe = -1;

		if( !access(name, R_OK | W_OK) )
		{
			struct termios state;
			  
			log( 0, "Opening %s (%s baud)", name, baudRate->display );

			pipe = open(name, O_RDWR);
			if( pipe < 0 )
				log( -1, "Could not Open \"%s\"", name );

			tcgetattr(pipe, &state);
			cfmakeraw(&state);
			state.c_cflag |= CRTSCTS | CLOCAL;
			state.c_lflag &= ~ECHO;
			cfsetispeed(&state, baudRate->speed);
			cfsetospeed(&state, baudRate->speed);
			tcsetattr(pipe, TCSAFLUSH, &state);
		}
		else
			log( -1, "Serial port '%s' not found", name );
	}

	void Disconnect()
	{
		if( pipe )
		{
			close( pipe );
			pipe = -1;
		}
	}

	unsigned long readCharacters( void *buff, unsigned long len )
	{
		long readLen;
//		int ret;

		readLen = read(pipe, buff, len);

		if( readLen < 0 )
			log( -1, "read serial failed (error code %i)", errno );

		return( readLen );
	}

	int writeCharacters( void *buff, unsigned long len )
	{
		long writeLen;
//		int ret;

		writeLen = write(pipe, buff, len);

		if( writeLen < 0 )
			log( -1, "write serial failed (error code %i)", errno );

		return( 1 );
	}

	SerialAccess()
	{
		pipe = 0;
		speedEmulation = 0;
		resetConnection = 0;
		baudRate = NULL;
	}

	~SerialAccess()
	{
		Disconnect();
	}

	int speedEmulation;
	int resetConnection;

	struct baudRate *baudRate;

private:
	int pipe;
};

MicroCoreLabs wrote: ↑Thu Aug 25, 2022 5:57 pm I believe the UART flow control needs to be enabled in the Cyclone-V SOC configuration inside of the HPS. I recall reading that it is disabled by default, and they seems to be what you see.

Actually, is there no activity in either direction? Maybe your core is also not using flow control on your UART.

Once you fix this, you should able to run at megabit speeds on the UART.

NightShadowPT wrote: ↑Wed Aug 24, 2022 6:49 pm Good to see this core released!

Great job!

Is there any equivalent to the eXo/Flynn Top 300 DOS Pack for this core? (focusing on 8086 games)

spark2k06 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 25, 2022 6:02 pm

MicroCoreLabs wrote: ↑Thu Aug 25, 2022 5:57 pm I believe the UART flow control needs to be enabled in the Cyclone-V SOC configuration inside of the HPS. I recall reading that it is disabled by default, and they seems to be what you see.

Actually, is there no activity in either direction? Maybe your core is also not using flow control on your UART.

Once you fix this, you should able to run at megabit speeds on the UART.

I set a trigger on all signals... and if I did it right, it only detected the level change on RX/TX.

Thanks for the heads up, now it's time to pull the thread and find out how to enable it.

Thanks for the heads up, now it's time to pull the thread and find out how to enable it.

Mills wrote: ↑Thu Aug 25, 2022 11:01 pm I don't know if that's a good idea for 8088, I am testing some file managers and they all use ram or install TSR programs that stay in ram and make things slow and glitchy, but maybe it is possible to do it.

MicroCoreLabs wrote: ↑Fri Aug 26, 2022 1:26 am If you are not able to enable the hardware flow control then perhaps you could use XON/XOFF which requires no additional flow control signals like CTS/RTS. Each side simply adds a byte to the UART stream to tell the other side to stop and start. Software needs to be aware of these bytes though while it does not need to be aware of the RTS/CTS signals.

GreyRogue wrote: ↑Fri Aug 26, 2022 12:08 am
Haven't read back to figure out what you're trying to do with UART, but if you're having troubles you may not have added it to the config string yet:
https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_Mi ... ion-string
For example:
https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/ao486_M ... 86.sv#L199

Mills wrote: ↑Thu Aug 25, 2022 11:01 pm

NightShadowPT wrote: ↑Wed Aug 24, 2022 6:49 pm Good to see this core released!

Great job!

Is there any equivalent to the eXo/Flynn Top 300 DOS Pack for this core? (focusing on 8086 games)

I don't know if that's a good idea for 8088, I am testing some file managers and they all use ram or install TSR programs that stay in ram and make things slow and glitchy, but maybe it is possible to do it.

Mills wrote: ↑Thu Aug 25, 2022 11:01 pm I don't know if that's a good idea for 8088, I am testing some file managers and they all use ram or install TSR programs that stay in ram and make things slow and glitchy, but maybe it is possible to do it.

akeley wrote: ↑Fri Aug 26, 2022 10:54 am

Mills wrote: ↑Thu Aug 25, 2022 11:01 pm I don't know if that's a good idea for 8088, I am testing some file managers and they all use ram or install TSR programs that stay in ram and make things slow and glitchy, but maybe it is possible to do it.

I've used an early version of Norton Commander in my collection, it works rather well. Possibly could be tweaked to be even better. Also flynn/bbond's MyMenu is working. Total DOS Launcher is working too, though its does throw unpacking errors occasionally - but I guess it's not its fault and to be resolved in the future on the packer side (might be related to the problem mentioned in this thread already not long ago).

darkavengerbr wrote: ↑Fri Aug 26, 2022 1:23 pm the question is ( sorry if already answered , but couldnt find) how can I easily tranfer files from my windows pc to an hd img file?

akeley wrote: ↑Fri Aug 26, 2022 1:57 pm

darkavengerbr wrote: ↑Fri Aug 26, 2022 1:23 pm the question is ( sorry if already answered , but couldnt find) how can I easily tranfer files from my windows pc to an hd img file?

It's not that straightforward, though I might be missing something. You can use ao486 core on MiSTer plus Dos Navigator or other file manager, and copy from your "normal" vhds (those made for ao486 and mountable in Windows).

Or use PCem emulator on your PC. The PCXT images will work in that. Problem is then you have to make iso CD images with your files from Windows directories, because you can't mount them directly in that emu. Still, that's what I did when moving large amount of files:
-create a Pentium instance in PCem
-use Win98 SE hdd install as C: (there is one ready made on archive.org)
-use the PCXT hdd image as secondary
-mount a premade iso with my files as CDROM
-copy from iso to PCXT hdd using Total Commander

If there's an easier method I'm all ears, as it is a bit of faffing about.