11 replies to this topic

[drac030]

The last time http://www.atariage....partados-x-443/ it was promised that SpartaDOS X releases would appear more often, and so here it is:

SpartaDOS X 4.44

http://sdx.atari8.info/

Here is a list of changes: http://sdx.atari8.in...44/whatsnew.txt

There is no new manual, but there are also no changes which would require one. Besides, GoodByteXL is on vacations

Because the last release was less than two months ago, there are not so much changes as in 4.43, but we recommend upgrade anyways.

Many thanks to everyone who helps us to continue this project.

Have fun!

Edited by drac030, Fri Jun 3, 2011 11:24 AM.

[a8isa1]

drac030, on Fri Jun 3, 2011 10:49 AM, said:

The last time http://www.atariage....partados-x-443/ it was promised that SpartaDOS X releases would appear more often, and so here it is:

SpartaDOS X 4.44

http://sdx.atari8.info/

Here is a list of changes: http://sdx.atari8.in...44/whatsnew.txt

There is no new manual, but there are also no changes which would require one. Besides, GoodByteXL is on vacations

Because the last release was less than two months ago, there are not so much changes as in 4.43, but we recommend upgrade anyways.

Many thanks to everyone who helps us to continue this project.

Have fun!

Has the Atrax cartridge format been dropped? I don't see it in the contents of the archive.

[trub]

To create Atrax image download the Atrax converter (available in Add-ons tab). Then use the following syntax:

sdx2atrax c SDX444_sdx128.rom SDX444_atrax.rom

[a8isa1]

trub, on Fri Jun 3, 2011 12:22 PM, said:

To create Atrax image download the Atrax converter (available in Add-ons tab). Then use the following syntax:

sdx2atrax c SDX444_sdx128.rom SDX444_atrax.rom

Thanks you. Unfortunately, the resultant image does not seem to work in Atari800 2.2.1 or Altirra 1.9.

Perhaps something went wrong running sdx2atrax under wine. I don't own a Windows box. Although I could not get the earlier SDX 4.43 Atrax image to run either.

-Steve Sheppard

[trub]

I don't understand what you are doing. The emulators do not support Atrax. Use SDX128 or Maxflash .ROM images (no need to convert).

[a8isa1]

trub, on Fri Jun 3, 2011 2:27 PM, said:

I don't understand what you are doing. The emulators do not support Atrax. Use SDX128 or Maxflash .ROM images (no need to convert).

a) I am in the process of soldering a cart with Atrax banking scheme just for use with SDX. I wanted to try out the images beforehand
.
b) Both Atari800 and Altirra have options for Atrax carts. Are these (see below) the wrong type of cart?

[trub]

There seems to be some misunderstanding. Atrax is a name of a Polish manufacturer of different cartridges for Atari (and C64). SpartaDOS X was just one of them, so referencing a cartridge by the name "Atrax" may be ambiguous.
SDX version by Atrax used the same banking scheme as the original ICD cart, but it was built using different electronics. The main problem is it is not flashable, because data and address lines were crossed to "encrypt" eprom contents.

Nowadays, when new SpartaDOS X versions are released quite often, I would suggest building a flashable cartridge instead, like this one.

Edited by trub, Sat Jun 4, 2011 12:37 AM.

[trub]

Please note that SDX 4.44 should be customized with the new SDX Imager version 2.0.5 published yesterday.

[trub]

Important for IDEPlus 2.0 interface users: There is now an update to SDX 4.44 flashing utility which properly handles XL series.

If you are experiencing the endless "Waiting for SDX cartridge", just download once more SDX 4.44 images (make sure you don't use a browser cached file), toggle SDX switch on and boot from SDX444_ideplus.atr.

Edited by trub, Sat Jun 4, 2011 3:43 AM.

[a8isa1]

trub, on Sat Jun 4, 2011 12:35 AM, said:

There seems to be some misunderstanding. Atrax is a name of a Polish manufacturer of different cartridges for Atari (and C64). SpartaDOS X was just one of them, so referencing a cartridge by the name "Atrax" may be ambiguous.
SDX version by Atrax used the same banking scheme as the original ICD cart, but it was built using different electronics. The main problem is it is not flashable, because data and address lines were crossed to "encrypt" eprom contents.

Nowadays, when new SpartaDOS X versions are released quite often, I would suggest building a flashable cartridge instead, like this one.

Ah. That's disappointing but thanks for the clarification.

I'll pass on the flashable cartridge. I only started building the "Atrax" cart (emulated as cart type 17) because it seemed to be one of the easiest banking carts to make. Has 8K address space. Data bits 0-3 select the bank. Bit 7 disables.

[drac030]

SpartaDOS Construction Set contains a program named "tree.com", which lists recursively all the directories found on a disk and also optionally lists files contained in them in alphabetical order.

This program does not work correctly with SpartaDOS X (and disks accessed by SpartaDOS X). The reason is that it checks the file/dir entry status bits in wrong order, and if the SUBDIR bit is set, it assumes that the entry belongs to a valid directory. Which is correct, the only exception being a deleted directory... Having such an entry encountered, the original tree.com thinks it is a valid directory, tries to enter it, and fails ("error #96", i.e. "150 Path not found").

The reason why it works on earlier SpartaDOS versions is that these aparently clear the SUBDIR bit in a directory being deleted. This is the reason why a directory could only be UNERASEd as a file. SpartaDOS X now preserves this bit (so UNERASE.COM undeletes directories as directories), but there is some side-effect in such tree.coms not working correctly.

The program was buggy anyways, because it also interpreted invalid file entries (files opened but never closed) as valid files. It also seems to require the switch ( "/F" ) to be given in uppercase.

Here is a fixed version, SpartaDOS-X-compatible. It will also work with older SpartaDOS versions, because the only thing done here was to fix the bug. SpartaDOS X-only version (with much enlarged sorting buffer etc.) will be released on Toolkit disk.

Attached Files

•  tree.zip   925bytes   24 downloads

Edited by drac030, Mon Jul 18, 2011 4:37 AM.

[flashjazzcat]

Interesting information, and thanks for the utility.