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SymbOS CPC updates and infos

Started by Prodatron, 22:18, 10 October 16

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Prodatron

Would like to bundle all SymbOS activities now in this new thread. SymbOS 3.0 is still on its way, and during the last weeks there was a lot of activity especially regarding new CPC hardware support.


The actual preview package can be downloaded here:
http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/applications/symbos-cpc-updates-and-infos/msg137192/#msg137192


Thanks to Dukes M4 Wifi/SD/Rom Board I got a lot of new motivations for SymbOS CPC since august, and Pulkomandys Albireo USB/SD/Serial board completed this in a great way as well.

[attach=2]

So here is a w.i.p. preview package of SymbOS 3.0:
http://www.symbos.org/download/preview-cpc161010.zip

This version is not really 100% stable or designated as an R.C., but it's at least something you could try to see some progress and new hardware support. Especially when you want to try network on the Amstrad CPC in a multitasking environment, which is really a cool experience.
i will just paste the #readme.txt into this post as well, as you should carefully read it before installing and trying it on your CPC:


SYMBOS 3.0 CPC - PREVIEW 16/10/10 (WORK IN PROGRESS)
===============================================================================
This package contains another preview of SymbOS 3.0 - CPC edition.

It includes:
- M4Board SD card driver
- Network daemon with M4Board driver (w.i.p.)
- Albireo mouse driver (w.i.p.)
- advanced desktop (w.i.p., major 3.0 feature beside network and more)
- software package including UNZIP etc.

You will find two versions of SymbOS:

- M4BOARD version with SD card driver. If you have a Spinpoint.org M4Board
  (created by Duke) connected to your CPC you can just copy the whole package
  into the root directory of your SD drive and start SymbOS by typing
  RUN"SYM
  Your SD card should be unpartitioned. If you have a partitioned SD card
  please rename SYMBOS1.INI into SYMBOS.INI first (overwrite the existing one).
  Even SD cards with only one partition maybe partitioned (include an MBR),
  this depends on the format tool.

- IDE version (for SYMBiFACE II, X-MASS [http://www.centpourcent.net] and
  compatible). If you want to use the version with IDE driver please copy the
  content of the #IDE directory first into the root (overwrite the existing
  SYM*.* files). Regarding the SYMBOS.INI please read the previous section.

System requirements:
- The prepared package requires a system with 256K RAM or more.
  If you have a standard 128K system you should first delete the SYMBOS.INI
  so that SymbOS boots with minimal requirements. Then you can start the
  control panel (copy it from /SYMBOS/CP.EXE) from floppy disc and complete
  your configuration.

M4Board Wifi based Network daemon:
- the Network Daemon with M4Board driver is included in the package and will be
  autostarted during booting. If you don't have an M4Board you can remove it
  from the autostart menu. M4Board users currently have to configure the
  network settings in CPC-OS using the RSX command |NETSET (see M4Board
  documentation). I will add M4Board network configuration later to the network
  daemon.
- there are seveeral network tools and applications available. First there are
  several SymShell (command line) based available in the /SYMBOS/CMD directory.
  Second you will find GUI apps in the Startmenu -> Programs -> Network. The
  most important one currently is probably the IRC clinet called "syMIRC" by
  EdoZ developed in Quigs by Trebmint.
- currently there are stability issues. E.g. when you use WGET for downloading
  large files from websites you may get corrupt data or even filesystem errors.
  Usually this happend for files > 1MB but it can happen at any time as well.
  Please make a backup of your SD card before trying to do larger network
  tests. Duke and I are still working on finding and fixing the last issues.
  Please update your M4Board with the last firmware anyway, as regarding low
  leve access it runs much more stable now compared to the previouse versions.

Albireo USB mouse support:
- this is still beta. Mouse movement and wheel should work. But you will
  probably need a simple mouse. Usually the buttons are only working, if the
  mouse is moving. So it's a little bit tricky to use the mouse currently.
  PulkoMandy is helping me a lot to fix this issues. Additional bug reports are
  welcome of course!

Advanced Desktop:
- it includes nearly unlimited startmenu entries and desktop icons and it's
  very similiar to Windows 98 now. Just check the startmenu or do a right click
  on the desktop or on an icon. You can even add Desktop Widgets (have a look
  at the /SYMBOS/WIDGETS/ folder - w.i.p ;) ), but this is currently not stable
  as well.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Any bug reports etc. are very welcome. But please note, that especially the M4Board wifi and the Albireo USB mouse support is not 100% finished/stable yet, so in this case you will see issues in any case. Anyway I hope someone of you will enjoy this update.

GRAPHICAL Z80 MULTITASKING OPERATING SYSTEM

Duke

Big kudos for this amazing work, it is truely impressive.

Btw. dunno if it's only here, but the verne.freenode.net IRC server seems down atm. I use leguin.freenode.net to log on with SymIRC ;)

Prodatron

Duke, you are right, EdoZ reported the same, he is now using irc.freenode.net .

GRAPHICAL Z80 MULTITASKING OPERATING SYSTEM

Joseman

Anyone on #CPC?

there is 16 users, but nobody is talking?


Edoz(MSX)

Good NEWS! Very cool that others now can test it as well.

Yes i also noticed about the verne .. i changed my app to chat.freenode  and that seems to work fine.

I builded a new version.

If you need always the last update please check here! As i fix bugs as well i will upload a new version so now and then.http://members.home.nl/evanzanten/appstore/

Joseman

Quote from: Edoz(MSX) on 15:17, 11 October 16
Good NEWS! Very cool that others now can test it as well.

Yes i also noticed about the verne .. i changed my app to chat.freenode  and that seems to work fine.

I builded a new version.

If you need always the last update please check here! As i fix bugs as well i will upload a new version so now and then.http://members.home.nl/evanzanten/appstore/

how about download it from a cpc?  :P

Edoz(MSX)

#6
Joseman.. yes you can do that as well

use WGET in SymbOS  and unzip it in SymbOS!

You can find WGET.COM and UNZIP.COM in the CMD directory bdw.

Gryzor

wget and unzip... Wow, just wow :D

Edoz(MSX)

Here the proof :D

First get the files:


Than unzip them:


And you are ready :D

HAL6128

#9

Hi,
I'm able to download SymIRC.zip via wget and could unzip it. So, network connection works well.
After starting SymIRC, entering nickname and try to connect then SymbOS crashes.

(somehow I can rotate the image, sorry...)


By the way. The new Desktop is very well done!
...proudly supported Schnapps Demo, Pentomino and NQ-Music-Disc with GFX

Joseman

@Edoz(MSX) , unfortunately unzip gives a "corrupt archive header", but, i think that prodraton said that wget still didn't work on cpc... i don't have any  hurry, things will work when there is time for work on it, and we have a lot of time to wait as this is a hobbie :)

Prodatron

I had some troubles with the combination of WGET and UNZIP on the CPC today as well. Anyway thank you for testing so far! I hope we can fix these issues soon!
@HAL6128, it's probably the network issue or wget download issue. There is an UNZIP option with CRC32 check, please have a look it...
UNZIP H
...maybe the ZIP was already corrupted due to the download.

GRAPHICAL Z80 MULTITASKING OPERATING SYSTEM

roudoudou

what is the required hardware to use TCP/IP with SymbOS ?
My pronouns are RASM and ACE

Edoz(MSX)

You need Duke's hardware:

See here: http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/amstrad-cpc-hardware/amstrad-cpc-wifi/

And if you want to run some applications you need internal memory as well..


Edoz(MSX)

Quote from: HAL 6128 on 21:21, 11 October 16
Hi,
I'm able to download SymIRC.zip via wget and could unzip it. So, network connection works well.
After starting SymIRC, entering nickname and try to connect then SymbOS crashes.

(somehow I can rotate the image, sorry...)


By the way. The new Desktop is very well done!


Ops.. And if you download it with checksum in unzip? or just use a PC ;)  Is it always doing this? Or was it once? As it seems the first step of connection with the IRC server was ok..

CraigsBar

I a gonna try this tonight. Last night got away from me as I was playing RGB, H.E.R.O. and battlezone on my 'new' Atari 130xe ;) tonight is symbos and mahjong time!
IRC:  #Retro4All on Freenode

HAL6128

I just did it like you described before in the picture above. I downloaded the file via CPC from SymbOS shell with wget and unzipped it. But I didn't check the checksum.

What I actually did was downloading the file (SymIRC.zip) and started unzipping. The first time unzip was frozen (it did nothing but printing the first two information lines and then stopped). I killed the shell, restarted it and tried to unzip the file again (just with unzip -e ...) and it seems to work. But the application crashes after trying to connect the server.

I will try later with a checksum performance.
If it doesn't work then I will try PC data transfer.

(It's pretty funny to have an "appstore" for the CPC. Would be cool to have an application on SymbOS for this. ...and QUIGS for programming. Just an idea :) )
...proudly supported Schnapps Demo, Pentomino and NQ-Music-Disc with GFX

HAL6128


I tested unzipping ("unzip e SYMIRC.ZIP %r") the file with following results:


Extracting symirc.exe [SIZE MISMATCH]
Extracting symirc.GSH [OK, OK]
Extracting symirc.ico [OK OK]


Extracted: 2 (Size: 386, Compressed: 168)
Skipped: 0
Corrupt: 1


What do think?
...proudly supported Schnapps Demo, Pentomino and NQ-Music-Disc with GFX

Edoz(MSX)

Quote from: HAL 6128 on 10:28, 12 October 16
I tested unzipping ("unzip e SYMIRC.ZIP %r") the file with following results:


Extracting symirc.exe [SIZE MISMATCH]
Extracting symirc.GSH [OK, OK]
Extracting symirc.ico [OK OK]


Extracted: 2 (Size: 386, Compressed: 168)
Skipped: 0
Corrupt: 1


What do think?

You can do unzip t SYMIRC.ZIP to test the zip file. But what i see is that probably the archive was damaged during download with wget.
That is probably the reason.

CraigsBar

OK, For me the M4 Mass Storage is not working.

I have tried multiple SD cards... on all of them the symbos folder is inaccessible so nothing works.

Error 33

I guess I am just outta luck :(

I so wanted to get the CPC online.
IRC:  #Retro4All on Freenode

Edoz(MSX)

#20
Quote from: CraigsBar on 20:16, 12 October 16
OK, For me the M4 Mass Storage is not working.

I have tried multiple SD cards... on all of them the symbos folder is inaccessible so nothing works.

Error 33

I guess I am just outta luck :(

I so wanted to get the CPC online.

Is this the ERROR in SymbOS? Error 33 means "Destination is no Directory"

Can you do START, RUN, BROWSE?

If so! .. can you check if the SYMBOS path is correct? See page 21. of the manual.

http://members.home.nl/evanzanten/msxorg/SymbOS%203%20install%20user%20and%20install%20guide.pdf

Duke

Quote from: CraigsBar on 20:16, 12 October 16
OK, For me the M4 Mass Storage is not working.

I have tried multiple SD cards... on all of them the symbos folder is inaccessible so nothing works.

Error 33

I guess I am just outta luck :(

I so wanted to get the CPC online.
Also did you try to rename  SYMBOS1.INI into SYMBOS.INI?

CraigsBar

Yes, with symbos.INI the wallpaper does not load. With symbos1.INI it all works, except annoyingly the symbos folder so none of the desktop shortcuts work. This is on the plus. Will check on the justcpc128k later
IRC:  #Retro4All on Freenode

CraigsBar

Start run browse works fine and opens all folders... Except symbos (error 33).
All folders are perfectly accessible from basic with no issue.
IRC:  #Retro4All on Freenode

Prodatron

Strange issue :/ In SymbOS you can access all folders with the expection of /SYMBOS/ itself? And it is still loading the wallpaper (it's placed in the SYMBOS folder, so at least during booting this folder seems to be accessible). Maybe you can rename/remove the /SYMBOS/NETD-M4C.EXE (network daemon) so it will not autostart it at the beginning? Maybe this is causing issues after booting. You should also check the filesystem integrity again.

GRAPHICAL Z80 MULTITASKING OPERATING SYSTEM

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