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Newbe Needs Help - Loading any RFB file hangs

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2022 3:43 am
by dczaretsky

Hoping someone can help me.

I recently bought some daughter cards from https://misterfpga.co.uk:

  • MiSTer IO Board v6.1 with Fan
  • USB Hub v2.1 For MiSTer
  • MiSTer SDRAM XS-DS v2.9 128MB Module

Being a Mac user, I followed these directions to load mister on the flash card:
https://github.com/michaelshmitty/SD-In ... cos_MiSTer
(I've also used the MR Fusion to do the same.)

I can properly startup the device and scroll through the menus and can iterate the RFB cores. I have the device connected to an HD monitor via HDMI which seems to work okay. However, as soon as I select a core the entire system freezes. The screen goes blank, the HDMI connection dies, and the red light seems to stay on. I cannot reset the board and no other buttons or keypresses work. The only option is to cycle the power.

I've tried multiple cores, including the memtest utility, NES, various arcades, etc. No RFB file will load. I'm pretty advanced FPGA board user, so my hunch is that the memory and everything is properly intact. I've also tried removing the boards and SDRAM but no effect.

Can anyone help me figure out what's going on -- why none of the RFB files are loading? Is it some configuration issue?


Re: Newbe Needs Help - Loading any RFB file hangs

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2022 9:47 am
by FPGA64
Use Mr Fusion on a brand new SD card not the one that comes with the DE10 and try again. You can tell if the memory is working by the Icon displayed on the Main menu. If the Ram chip icon is filled in solid black then you have 128 mb of ram.

Re: Newbe Needs Help - Loading any RFB file hangs

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2022 12:09 pm
by akeley
Check there actually is a mister.ini on your SD card.

Some cores
will work without the external RAM, so you can test with these on just the "naked" DE10, to make sure it's ok.

Re: Newbe Needs Help - Loading any RFB file hangs

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2022 11:03 am
by annette
Check de10-nano switches are correct.

https://misterfpga.co.uk/mister-de10-na ... iguration/

Re: Newbe Needs Help - Loading any RFB file hangs

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2022 11:37 pm
by dczaretsky
Thank you everyone for your responses, but still not fixed.

The menu.rfb file loads and I can see the fuzzy background and access the menu, so I know the SD Card works.
I've tried arcade games that don't require the SDRAM, and they do not load.
I tried a different DE10-Nano board, and that also didn't work (menu loads, but games do not).
MiSTer.ini file exists on the SD Card. Below I've posted my ini setup.

Is there a reason the menu.rfb would load but not the memtest.rfb or any other games? It seems like the whole system locks up (lights go dim, can't reset, etc). Could it be the power supply?

Code: Select all

[MiSTer]
key_menu_as_rgui=0     ; set to 1 to make the MENU key map to RGUI in Minimig (e.g. for Right Amiga)
forced_scandoubler=0   ; set to 1 to run scandoubler on VGA output always (depends on core).
ypbpr=0                ; set to 1 for YPbPr on VGA output.
composite_sync=0       ; set to 1 for composite sync on HSync signal of VGA output.
vga_scaler=0           ; set to 1 to connect VGA to scaler output.
hdmi_audio_96k=0       ; set to 1 for 96khz/16bit HDMI audio (48khz/16bit otherwise)
keyrah_mode=0x18d80002 ; VIDPID of keyrah for special code translation (0x23418037 for Arduino Micro)
vscale_mode=0          ; 0 - scale to fit the screen height.
                       ; 1 - use integer scale only.
                       ; 2 - use 0.5 steps of scale.
                       ; 3 - use 0.25 steps of scale.
vscale_border=0        ; set vertical border for TVs cutting the upper/bottom parts of screen (1-399)
;bootscreen=0          ; uncomment to disable boot screen of some cores like Minimig. 
;mouse_throttle=10     ; 1-100 mouse speed divider. Useful for very sensitive mice
rbf_hide_datecode=0    ; 1 - hides datecodes from rbf file names. Press F2 for quick temporary toggle
menu_pal=0             ; 1 - PAL mode for menu core
hdmi_limited=0         ; 1 - use limited (16..235) color range over HDMI
                       ; 2 - use limited (16..255) color range over HDMI, for VGA converters.
direct_video=0         ; 1 - enable core video timing over HDMI, use only with VGA converters.
fb_size=0              ; 0 - automatic, 1 - full size, 2 - 1/2 of resolution, 4 - 1/4 of resolution.
fb_terminal=1          ; 1 - enabled (default), 0 - disabled
osd_timeout=30         ; 5-3600 timeout (in seconds) for OSD to disappear in Menu core. 30 seconds if not set.
                       ; Background picture will get darker after double timeout
osd_rotate=0           ; Display OSD menu rotated,  0 - no rotation, 1 - rotate right (+90°), 2 - rotate left (-90°)                  

; 1 - enables the recent file loaded/mounted.
; WARNING: This option will enable write to SD card on every load/mount which may wear the SD card after many writes to the same place
;          There is also higher chance to corrupt the File System if MiSTer will be reset or powered off while writing.
recents=0

; lastcore - Autoboot the last loaded core (corename autosaved in CONFIG/lastcore.dat) first found on the SD/USB
; lastexactcore - Autoboot the last loaded exact core (corename_yyyymmdd.rbf autosaved in CONFIG/lastcore.dat) first found on the SD/USB
; corename - Autoboot first corename_*.rbf found on the SD/USB
; corename_yyyymmdd.rbf - Autoboot first corename_yyyymmdd.rbf found on the SD/USB
;bootcore=lastcore    ; uncomment to autoboot a core, as the last loaded core.
bootcore_timeout=10  ; 10-30 timeout before autoboot, comment for autoboot without timeout.

; Option to load the custom font. Format is plain bitmap 8x8.
; Supported sizes of font:
;   768 bytes - chars 32-127 (only alpha + numeric)
;  1024 bytes - chars 0-127
;  1136 bytes - chars 0-141
;  up to 2048 - only chars 0-141 will be used.
; if first 32 chars are empty (for sizes 1024 bytes and more) then they are skipped.
font=font/myfont.pf

; USER button emulation by keybaord. Usually it's reset button.
; 0 - lctrl+lalt+ralt (lctrl+lgui+rgui on keyrah)
; 1 - lctrl+lgui+rgui
; 2 - lctrl+lalt+del
; 3 - same as 0 (lctrl+lalt+ralt on keyrah)
reset_combo=0

dvi_mode=0             ; set to 1 for DVI mode. Audio won't be transmitted through HDMI in DVI mode.

; 0 - 1280x720@60
; 1 - 1024x768@60
; 2 - 720x480@60
; 3 - 720x576@50
; 4 - 1280x1024@60
; 5 - 800x600@60
; 6 - 640x480@60
; 7 - 1280x720@50
; 8 - 1920x1080@60
; 9 - 1920x1080@50
;10 - 1366x768@60
;11 - 1024x600@60
;12 - 1920x1440@60
;13 - 2048x1536@60
;
; custom mode: hact,hfp,hs,hbp,vact,vfp,vs,vbp,Fpix_in_KHz
;   video_mode=1280,110,40,220,720,5,5,20,74250
video_mode=0

; set to 1-10 (seconds) to display video info on startup/change
video_info=5

; Set to 1 for automatic HDMI VSync rate adjust to match original VSync.
; Set to 2 for low latency mode (single buffer).
; This option makes video butter smooth like on original emulated system.
; Adjusting is done by changing pixel clock. Not every display supports variable pixel clock.
; For proper adjusting and to reduce possible out of range pixel clock, use 60Hz HDMI video
; modes as a base even for 50Hz systems. 
vsync_adjust=0

; If you monitor doesn't support either very low (NTSC monitors may not support PAL) or 
; very high (PAL monitors may not support NTSC) then you can set refresh_min and/or refresh_max
; parameters, so vsync_adjust won't be applied for refreshes outside specified.
; These parameters are valid only when vsync_adjust is non-zero.
refresh_min=0
refresh_max=0

; These parameters have the same format as video_mode.
; You need to supply both PAL and NTSC modes if you want vsync_adjust to switch between
; predefined modes as a base. This will reduce the range of pixel clock.
;video_mode_ntsc=0
;video_mode_pal=7

; 1-10 (seconds) to display controller's button map upon first time key press
; 0 - disable
controller_info=6

; JammaSD/J-PAC/I-PAC keys to joysticks translation
; You have to provide correct VID and PID of your input device
; Examples: Legacy J-PAC with Mini-USB or USB capable I-PAC with PS/2 connectors VID=0xD209/PID=0x0301
; USB Capable J-PAC with only PS/2 connectors VID=0x04B4/PID=0x0101
; JammaSD: VID=0x04D8/PID=0xF3AD
jamma_vid=0x04D8
jamma_pid=0xF3AD

; Disable merging input devices. Use if only player 1 works.
; Leave no_merge_pid empty to apply this to all devices with the same VID.
;no_merge_vid=0x045E
;no_merge_pid=0x028E

; Speeds in sniper/non-sniper modes of mouse emulation by joystick 
; 0 - (default) - faster move in non-sniper mode, slower move in sniper mode.
; 1 - movement speeds are swapped.
sniper_mode=0

; Uncomment following option if you don't want to see a second line for long file names in listing.
;browse_expand=0

; 0 - disable MiSTer logo in Menu core
logo=1

; Custom shared folder for core supporting this feature (currently minimig and ao486 only)
; Can be relative to core's home dir or absolute path.
; Path must exist before core start to use it, or it will fail.
; Make sure USB device is mounted before use shared folder on USB!
shared_folder=

Re: Newbe Needs Help - Loading any RFB file hangs

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2022 11:45 pm
by dczaretsky
Also I'm running DE10-Nano board version C. I've seen some posts related to that but not sure if it impacts the application.

Re: Newbe Needs Help - Loading any RFB file hangs

Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2022 1:48 am
by akeley
Your mister.ini is outdated. It should still work, but for the sake of completness try to replace it with this one: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_Mi ... MiSTer.ini

Did you run the update_all script, by the way? If not, do that too.

If you have tried two different DE10 boards and both act like this (with no SDRAM or daughter boards) then it's most certainly something with your config/SD card.