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UniDOS, the new multi-device AMSDOS replacement

Started by OffseT, 15:51, 24 January 21

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xesrjb

I think, I must check this UniDos...


xesrjb
,,The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true."

zhulien

If you have more than 1 mass storage, UniDOS is a must have, if you only have 1 mass storage, UniDOS still provides some useful features.  Eg: M4 vs UniDOS behaviour with RSXs vs changing the existing load, run etc... I like both ways, neither is wrong, UniDOS seems to be more compatible which I guess is why it is like that and if too many RSXs are added, it isn't always a good thing too for BASIC HIMEM.


As much as I'd like some additional features of UniDOS, even as it is, I wouldn't go back - because I am using multiple mass-storages at the same time.


Desperately want: more drive letters


a, b, c, d, f, g, h, i, m, r, s, t, u, x


a  & b - floppy drives & especially a for high compatibility for legacy software on any device
c - for compact flash
f - ftp mounted drive
g - gr8net mounted drive
h - harddisks
i - internet mounted drive

d - for mounted dsk
m & r - for ram drives
s - for sdcards
t - for a tape drive
u - native HxC USB

x - for x-mass


but of course we can assign any physical device to any letters we like from those which is awesome.

Prodatron

Quote from: zhulien on 02:54, 26 October 21As soon as I add a PlayCity, it can take a while.

What would cause that?
If the PlayCity is attached, you read 0-bytes on a very large range of I/O ports (at least between #f800 and #ffff).

Maybe this is confusing some hardware detection routines?

GRAPHICAL Z80 MULTITASKING OPERATING SYSTEM

OffseT

Quote from: zhulien on 02:54, 26 October 21
UniDOS Scanning.
In a simple install, M4+XMem+YMem+X-Mass, it scans very fast.  As soon as I add a PlayCity, it can take a while.
Each DOS node is scanning for its supported hardware. So, what Prodatron said sounds very possible.

You may want to check which DOS node stalls with the PlayCity (M4 or X-Mass) and then determine if the detection code can be improved (I can't check on my own I don't have these hardware).

OffseT

Quote from: zhulien on 11:27, 26 October 21
Desperately want: more drive letters
With a proper shell management you won't need any single drive letter apart for AMSDOS backward compatibility. 8)

GUNHED

Great! Where can we take a look at this shell? Download?
http://futureos.de --> Get the revolutionary FutureOS (Update: 2023.11.30)
http://futureos.cpc-live.com/files/LambdaSpeak_RSX_by_TFM.zip --> Get the RSX-ROM for LambdaSpeak :-) (Updated: 2021.12.26)

HAL6128

#206
Hi Offset,


I've installed today UniDOS for a trial at ROM7. Attached boards are M4 and Nova NVRAM. Unidos says "warning: no NVRAM found".
The only other ROMs are the patched ParaDOS at ROM15.
What could be the issue why the NVRAM isn't detected?


(The Nova board works fine by poking value into it via BASIC).



...got it working
...proudly supported Schnapps Demo, Pentomino and NQ-Music-Disc with GFX

OffseT

UniDOS 1.37 is available.


It is just a small fix improving AMSDOS compatibility in a very special use case triggered by Orgams with files smaller than 2K.

OffseT

#208
Since I do not know when further fixes will occur, I decided to release the long standing M4 DOS node 1.22 which has the FTP drive activated (it is more than 6 months old actually).

M4 Board firmware v2.0.8 or better is required to make it work, but as explained in the documentation of UniDOS website it won't be fully functionnal yet.
Some additional fixes might be required in M4 Board firmware to make if work at 100% but Duke do not have time to investigate on his side for now... and on my side I do not have access to a M4 Board anymore.

BTW, you can at least have a try, and maybe someone will find a workaround to get it work 100% with the current M4 firmware. 8)

Here is a small video of the FTP network drive feature:
http://amsnet.chez.com

More information at:
https://unidos.cpcscene.net

norecess464

this looks surreal @OffseT ! The integration with amsdos is perfect !
My personal website: https://norecess.cpcscene.net
My current project is Sonic GX, a remake of Sonic the Hedgehog for the awesome Amstrad GX-4000 game console!

XeNoMoRPH

Quote from: OffseT on 19:10, 03 February 22
Since I do not know when further fixes will occur, I decided to release the long standing M4 DOS node 1.22 which has the FTP drive activated (it is more than 6 months old actually).

M4 Board firmware v2.0.8 or better is required to make it work, but as explained in the documentation of UniDOS website it won't be fully functionnal yet.
Some additional fixes might be required in M4 Board firmware to make if work at 100% but Duke do not have time to investigate on his side for now... and on my side I do not have access to a M4 Board anymore.

BTW, you can at least have a try, and maybe someone will find a workaround to get it work 100% with the current M4 firmware. 8)

Here is a small video of the FTP network drive feature:
http://amsnet.chez.com

More information at:
https://unidos.cpcscene.net
M4 Board firmware v2.0.8 ... where is this version ?
your amstrad news source in spanish language : https://auamstrad.es

OffseT

Quote from: norecess on 19:33, 03 February 22
this looks surreal @OffseT ! The integration with amsdos is perfect !
Only Amiga UniDOS makes it possible! :P

Quote from: XeNoMoRPH on 21:35, 03 February 22M4 Board firmware v2.0.8 ... where is this version ?
I'm afraid it is not officialy released/finalized yet. Duke will dig into it when he has time I guess (on my side, I had access to a 2.0.8beta, but it was just for test purposes).
Anyway, you can have a try with current 2.0.7; apart of the known M4 Board dead lock during reading files from FTP, it should work.

OffseT

#212
Version 1.4 of uniDOS Cartridge Creator was published on https://unidos.cpcscene.net download's section.

No big changes, mainly a Linux  :-\  native version was added which seems to work even if for unknown reasons the window in opened shrinked, which hides the ROM list; just resize it. :)
Also, for some reason, it refuses to display the window with the progress bar during ROM downloading (I guess Linux hates me as much as I hate him)... but downloading works any way.

Native versions for MorphOS 8) , AmigaOS 3.x ;D , AmigaOS 4.x ::) , Windows 64-bit :blank: and Windows 32-bit :-X (which is perfectly working with Wine of Linux) are also still available.

GUNHED

Pretty cool advancements - UniDOS becomes the FutureDOS for the native OS.  :)  It's a great thing to eventually unify everything to a unique DOS. For far too long people did their own things, which didn't allow to have synergy effects. I really like to see how UniDOS evolves. You do a very great job!  :) :) :)
http://futureos.de --> Get the revolutionary FutureOS (Update: 2023.11.30)
http://futureos.cpc-live.com/files/LambdaSpeak_RSX_by_TFM.zip --> Get the RSX-ROM for LambdaSpeak :-) (Updated: 2021.12.26)

Cwiiis

I was just updating unidos on my machine and noticed there's now a patched firmware which would be very handy on the Plus... Has anyone had any success with it? If I flash it, it's clearly corrupt (nonsense rom name and version) and I can't boot from it... I guess the file isn't formatted the same as the other rom files on the site? (which all flash fine) Anyone had any joy with it on the X-MEM?

OffseT

Quote from: Cwiiis on 22:25, 21 February 22I was just updating unidos on my machine and noticed there's now a patched firmware which would be very handy on the Plus... Has anyone had any success with it? If I flash it, it's clearly corrupt (nonsense rom name and version) and I can't boot from it... I guess the file isn't formatted the same as the other rom files on the site? (which all flash fine) Anyone had any joy with it on the X-MEM?

On Plus you have the ability to upgrade ROM 7 without patching the motherboard. Patched firmware is not required for optimal compatibility.

Anyway, the firmware ROM files from UniDOS web site are using the same file format than other ROMs.

About ROM name and ROM version, it is normal, because the firmware ROM (which is a lower ROM) do not matches the other ROMs tags (which are upper ROMs).
Are you sure that you actually flashed the firmware ROM in the lower slot and not in an upper ROM slot?

Cwiiis

Quote from: OffseT on 14:17, 16 March 22
Quote from: Cwiiis on 22:25, 21 February 22I was just updating unidos on my machine and noticed there's now a patched firmware which would be very handy on the Plus... Has anyone had any success with it? If I flash it, it's clearly corrupt (nonsense rom name and version) and I can't boot from it... I guess the file isn't formatted the same as the other rom files on the site? (which all flash fine) Anyone had any joy with it on the X-MEM?

On Plus you have the ability to upgrade ROM 7 without patching the motherboard. Patched firmware is not required for optimal compatibility.

Anyway, the firmware ROM files from UniDOS web site are using the same file format than other ROMs.

About ROM name and ROM version, it is normal, because the firmware ROM (which is a lower ROM) do not matches the other ROMs tags (which are upper ROMs).
Are you sure that you actually flashed the firmware ROM in the lower slot and not in an upper ROM slot?

Ah, I probably wasn't flashing it in the correct position, thanks for the clarification. Regarding upgrading rom 7, I don't seem to have any success trying to flash rom 7 - I can replace it by using a custom cart or the C4CPC, though it seems anything that doesn't have the ACID chip introduced a lot of instability with expansions, so I tend to just use the stock cart. I'd be interested in hearing exactly how someone replaced rom 7 on a Plus without a custom cartridge.

OffseT

Quote from: Cwiiis on 14:29, 16 March 22I'd be interested in hearing exactly how someone replaced rom 7 on a Plus without a custom cartridge.
You can easily acheive this with all existing rom boards... but the X-Mem.
Here I'm using the MegaFlashGordon from PulkoMandy.

TotO

#218
@Cwiiis You can use a D-ROM board or a M4 board to do that. The MegaFlashGordon is a old design clone of the Mega Flash that do not provide extra-features like booting from a different firmware.
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

OffseT

Quote from: TotO on 17:41, 16 March 22@Cwiiis You can use a D-ROM board or a M4 board to do that. The MegaFlashGordon is a old design clone of the Mega Flash that do not provide extra-features like booting from a different firmware.
Well, the (Mega)FlashGordon is just perfect, it is small and efficient and provides manual switch for alls ROMs, ROM 0 (hacker) and ROM 7.
Very little people actually needs to replace the firmware (I never did).

Cwiiis

Quote from: OffseT on 17:18, 16 March 22
Quote from: Cwiiis on 14:29, 16 March 22I'd be interested in hearing exactly how someone replaced rom 7 on a Plus without a custom cartridge.
You can easily acheive this with all existing rom boards... but the X-Mem.
Here I'm using the MegaFlashGordon from PulkoMandy.

I'll test it out on the RSF3 - it has the option, but you have to explicitly enable it... Which felt risky, but sounds like it's not an issue, so I'll try it out :)

TotO

Quote from: OffseT on 18:02, 16 March 22Well, the (Mega)FlashGordon is just perfect, it is small and efficient and provides manual switch for alls ROMs, ROM 0 (hacker) and ROM 7.
Very little people actually needs to replace the firmware (I never did).
I'm not here to say what peoples actually needs, just to let known there is more alternative. If Cwilis own a C4CPC, it is the best to use in fact. No need to add something on the expansion port. If I'm not wrong, it is required to program the DOS on the physical ROM3 to be seen as logical ROM7?
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

OffseT

Quote from: TotO on 20:14, 16 March 22I'm not here to say what peoples actually needs, just to let known there is more alternative. If Cwilis own a C4CPC, it is the best to use in fact. No need to add something on the expansion port. If I'm not wrong, it is required to program the DOS on the physical ROM3 to be seen as logical ROM7?
Sure, but as he said that he preferred not to use the C4CPC and asked how to replace the ROM 7 while using the regular cartridge, the best option is then "any ROM board but the X-Mem".

Quote from: Cwiiis on 18:04, 16 March 22I'll test it out on the RSF3 - it has the option, but you have to explicitly enable it... Which felt risky, but sounds like it's not an issue, so I'll try it out :)
Actually, it should work with RSF3. There is no risk to enable ROM 7 on Plus (ROM 7 from cartridge is automatically disabled when an external one is provided).

TotO

#223
Quote from: OffseT on 00:24, 17 March 22Sure, but as he said that he preferred not to use the C4CPC and asked how to replace the ROM 7 while using the regular cartridge
He said he can replace it by using a custom cart or the C4CPC, but that introduced a lot of instability with expansions and you answered that he can replace the ROM7 by using a romboard while using a regular cartridge.

So, the problem is more to know why he has instability by using the C4CPC on his Plus. Better to ask to @gerald or other unidos users to try to find the real problem a not a workaround.
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

OffseT

Quote from: TotO on 11:38, 17 March 22He said he can replace it by using a custom cart or the C4CPC, but that introduced a lot of instability with expansions and you answered that he can replace the ROM7 by using a romboard while using a regular cartridge.
So, the problem is more to know why he has instability by using the C4CPC on his Plus. Better to ask to @gerald or other unidos users to try to find the real problem a not a workaround.
Let's say it again in a simplier way:

Question: "I'd be interested in hearing exactly how someone replaced rom 7 on a Plus without a custom cartridge."
Answer: "Use any ROM board but the X-Mem."

Sounds crystal clear to me.

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