MiSTer FPGA Forum

With the micro8088 BIOS:
When in caps lock
The / key gives ? which is very annoying.
The / and * keys on the numeric keypad do not work.
When not in caps lock
The / key on the numeric keypad does not work.

With the Tandy BIOS:
The * key on the numeric keypad does not work but worse than that any keypress following gives
Write fault error writing device PRN
Abort, Retry?

Pressing any key after that repeats the error message and PCXT has to be rebooted.

jca wrote: ↑Thu Dec 08, 2022 4:57 pm

With the micro8088 BIOS:
When in caps lock
The / key gives ? which is very annoying.
The / and * keys on the numeric keypad do not work.
When not in caps lock
The / key on the numeric keypad does not work.

With the Tandy BIOS:
The * key on the numeric keypad does not work but worse than that any keypress following gives
Write fault error writing device PRN
Abort, Retry?

Pressing any key after that repeats the error message and PCXT has to be rebooted.

I don't know about others, but I don't experience any of the problems you describe. You also don't give details of your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT configuration, in case there is something to deduce from that behaviour.

I guess you load the Tandy BIOS as Tandy ROM in the "System & BIOS" section, and the micro8088 as PCXT ROM. In my case I also use KEYB SP, and MS-Dos 6.22.

As I say, no problem. It's strange that nobody else has noticed this, isn't it?

Here are my Config.sys and Autoexec.bat.
In Autoexec.bat the loadhigh MOUSE.COM does not load it in UMB but conventional memory without saying anything.
I had no luck with CTMOUSE which crashes PCXT as soon as I type EDIT.
I am using MS-DOS 6.22.
The micro8088 BIOS is from the repo.
The Tandy BIOS has been built with the tools from the repo.

• FILES=40
  BUFFERS=30
  SWITCHES=/F
  DOS=HIGH,UMB
  BREAK=ON
  DEVICE=C:\TOOLS\USE!UMBS.SYS D000-EC00
  DEVICE=C:\TOOLS\DOSMAX\DOSMAX.EXE /R+ /N+ /P-
  DEVICEHIGH=C:\TOOLS\LTEMM-R1\LTEMM.EXE /P:C000 /X /N
  SHELL=C:\TOOLS\DOSMAX\SHELLMAX.COM C:\COMMAND.COM C:\ /E:256 /P

• @ECHO OFF
  PROMPT $p$g
  SET TEMP=C:\TEMP
  SET DIRCMD=/O:GNE
  C:\TOOLS\GET_RTC
  LOADHIGH /S C:\TOOLS\MOUSE.COM
  :ASK
  ECHO.
  ECHO 3. TURBO PASCAL V3
  ECHO 5. TURBO PASCAL V5.5
  ECHO 7. TURBO PASCAL V7
  ECHO.
  CHOICE /C:357 /N "Enter your choice: "
  IF ERRORLEVEL 3 GOTO TP7
  IF ERRORLEVEL 2 GOTO TP5
  IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO TP3
  GOTO ASK
  :TP3
  PATH C:\DOS;C:\TURBO
  GOTO END
  :TP5
  PATH C:\DOS;C:\TP
  GOTO END
  :TP7
  PATH C:\DOS;C:\TP7\BIN
  :END

I do not have these keyboard problems with IBM-5160 and JukoST built from the repo.

You do not make use of KEYB and it is necessary...

If you use an English keyboard:

KEYB UK /E
KEYB US /E

You choose.

Thanks a lot, that did it.
I don't remember having used it on a PC XT.

jca wrote: ↑Thu Dec 08, 2022 6:49 pm

Thanks a lot, that did it.
I don't remember having used it on a PC XT.

Possibly because that original PCXT, used the original BIOS... like the IBM5160 you say works for you... perhaps.

It is still not perfect with the micro8088 and Tandy BIOS:
Between the regular KB and the keypad I have cursor keys (inverted T) and Pg-UP, ...
These cursor keys print characters / - + ' and the keys above are a little strange. They work properly on the keypad.

jca wrote: ↑Thu Dec 08, 2022 7:08 pm

It is still not perfect with the micro8088 and Tandy BIOS:
Between the regular KB and the keypad I have cursor keys (inverted T) and Pg-UP, ...
These cursor keys print characters / - + ' and the keys above are a little strange. They work properly on the keypad.

This happens with the Tandy BIOS, and it is a normal behaviour according to this particular BIOS.

With micro8088, cursor keys (inverted T) and Pg-UP, ... work correctly, verified.

In short, it is not a core issue.

I ditched the KB command, see my post on the 1.44M floppy problem.

I had a better look at the KEYB command using HELP. It must be in the CONFIG.SYS using INSTALL, I had it in AUTOEXEC.BAT. I will test it tomorrow or more exactly later on today.

jca wrote: ↑Fri Dec 09, 2022 5:27 am

I ditched the KB command, see my post on the 1.44M floppy problem.

You mean these?

spark2k06 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 08, 2022 6:33 pm

You do not make use of KEYB and it is necessary...

If you use an English keyboard:

KEYB UK /E
KEYB US /E

You choose.

I have tried both, and the 1.44Mb unit still works fine. I was just surprised that something like this could affect the operation of something else that has nothing to do with this.

jca wrote: ↑Fri Dec 09, 2022 5:39 am

I had a better look at the KEYB command using HELP. It must be in the CONFIG.SYS using INSTALL, I had it in AUTOEXEC.BAT. I will test it tomorrow or more exactly later on today.

It's strange... I've tested it as individual commands (which for all intents and purposes is as if they were in AUTOEXEC.BAT), it works fine... I repeat, I don't see any relation between the two things.

Problem solved after changes in CONFIG.SYS.
I moved the DOS=HIGH,UMB just before the SHELL command. In the CONFIG.SYS example from the repo it is before loading the memory manager. I don't think it was the cause of the problem.
The most probable cause is due to a mouse infestation:
When I first started I used MOUSE.COM at the command prompt; it worked.
Next I tried CTMOUSE, testing the 2 versions known to work, the driver loaded high but crashed PCXT when using EDIT.
Next I tried to load MOUSE.COM in CONFIG.SYS but I made the mistake of using LOADHIGH. I think it was the cause of the problem. I tried INSTALLHIGH but the driver did not load high.
Now I have MOUSE.COM in AUTOXEC.BAT and also KEYB which I made optional as it is not needed with IBM and JukoST BIOSes.
No more problem with the 1.44M floppies under micro8088 BIOS.

I'm curious about why the mouse driver won't load high. I wonder if it has a hidden dependency on EMM386?

I have a similar problem on AO486, in that the Mister's native share driver refuses to load high, just returning an error.

I do not not understand what is going on and for the time being I give up on PCXT.
I had to use KEYB with the IBM BIOS: with NUMLOCK ON the inverted T cursor keys and keys above them type numbers. With KEYB it is OK but EDIT crashes PCXT.
With micro8088 BIOS EDIT works only once and after that crashes PCXT.
This is with MSDOS 6.22.
In case I missed the elephant in the room I post my CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT.

FILES=40
BUFFERS=30
SWITCHES=/F
BREAK=ON
DEVICE=C:\TOOLS\USE!UMBS.SYS D000-EC00
DEVICE=C:\TOOLS\DOSMAX\DOSMAX.EXE /R+ /N+ /P-
DEVICEHIGH=C:\TOOLS\LTEMM-R1\LTEMM.EXE /P:C000 /X /N
DOS=HIGH,UMB
SHELL=C:\TOOLS\DOSMAX\SHELLMAX.COM C:\COMMAND.COM C:\ /E:256 /P
NUMLOCK=ON

@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $p$g
SET TEMP=C:\TEMP
SET DIRCMD=/O:GNE
C:\TOOLS\GET_RTC
C:\TOOLS\MOUSE
:ASK1
ECHO.
CHOICE "LOAD KEYBOARD DEFINITION? "
IF ERRORLEVEL 2 GOTO END1
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO YES
GOTO ASK1
:YES
C:\DOS\KEYB US, , C:\DOS\KEYBOARD.SYS /E
:END1
:ASK2
ECHO.
ECHO 3. TURBO PASCAL V3
ECHO 5. TURBO PASCAL V5.5
ECHO 7. TURBO PASCAL V7
ECHO.
CHOICE /C:357 /N "Enter your choice: "
IF ERRORLEVEL 3 GOTO TP7
IF ERRORLEVEL 2 GOTO TP5
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO TP3
GOTO ASK2
:TP3
PATH C:\DOS;C:\TURBO
GOTO END2
:TP5
PATH C:\DOS;C:\TP
GOTO END2
:TP7
PATH C:\DOS;C:\TP7\BIN
:END2

In looking up what the heck is going on with all those weird utilities I don't recognize from later PC usage, I found this thread:

https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threa ... 000.72529/

That looks pretty relevant. Lots of info and experimentation there.

jca wrote: ↑Sun Dec 11, 2022 7:26 pm

I do not not understand what is going on and for the time being I give up on PCXT.

It's up to you, but you should know that most of the problems you have are actually due to incompatibilities and conflicts between software and/or BIOSes. They also occur in emulators and, possibly, on real hardware.

As for the floppy drive, if you have previously inserted an invalid image for the BIOS in operation, do not rule out that you can destabilize its operation, in such cases it is best to reboot the core or the MiSTer itself ... this is potentially solvable, although I will not investigate the cause.

To begin with, the early PCXT on which this core is based did not even have separate inverted T-shaped cursors: