Minerva4Q68 SD Card Setup

[dilwyn]

Hi Dilwyn,

I am just trying to support software writers.

The feature of running Minerva from SMSQ/E is a good idea. Minerva is a good operating system, where the Extended Environment can be loaded or left out, which is a possible weakness of SMSQ/E. That said, I use SMSQ/E where possible.

Maybe the Q68 could be used to 3D graphics, but without the opersting system...

I agree every bit with what you say Derek. Your efforts with the Q68 and the time (and money) you've spent on poduction are greatly appreciated.

[dilwyn]

Okay... Here is another interim build of Min4Q68. I have disabled the old serial and IPC interrupt routines as they are useless on the Q68 anyway and might have contributed to the crashing on some hardware versions. Also added code to make sure serial interrupts are disabled.

The current code still contains a lot of low level routines for BBQL specific hardware but these should be disabled by now. In a later stage they might be removed to make room for Q68 hardware support (e.g. serial port and extended graphics) but porting from SMSQ/E is not easy because the driver framework is totally different.

One thing I'm curious about is what values PEEK($18020) and PEEK($18021) come up with on your Q68. On mine they are 56 and 68 respectively ($38 and $44, the latter will be $4C during a frame interrupt). These locations are meant to emulate the BBQL IPC and interrupt registers to a certain extent which affects compatibility with Minerva.

The interim build can be downloaded using this link: https://files.bredenbeek.net/s/D8EC6PZ8PABnuR8c
The sources are available here: https://github.com/janbredenbeek/Minerv ... ee/working

Happy testing,
Jan

Thank you Jan.

PEEK($18020) = 56
PEEK($18021) = 64

Here is how my Q68+Minerva4Q68 now boots up:

Min4Q68

It can now get to the Minerva command line by itself if I leave it for a few seconds, but the cursor is steady, not flashing, and keyboard does not work. I have tried both with and without the mouse connected.
Looks like some progress.

[Derek_Stewart]

Okay... Here is another interim build of Min4Q68. I have disabled the old serial and IPC interrupt routines as they are useless on the Q68 anyway and might have contributed to the crashing on some hardware versions. Also added code to make sure serial interrupts are disabled.

The current code still contains a lot of low level routines for BBQL specific hardware but these should be disabled by now. In a later stage they might be removed to make room for Q68 hardware support (e.g. serial port and extended graphics) but porting from SMSQ/E is not easy because the driver framework is totally different.

One thing I'm curious about is what values PEEK($18020) and PEEK($18021) come up with on your Q68. On mine they are 56 and 68 respectively ($38 and $44, the latter will be $4C during a frame interrupt). These locations are meant to emulate the BBQL IPC and interrupt registers to a certain extent which affects compatibility with Minerva.

The interim build can be downloaded using this link: https://files.bredenbeek.net/s/D8EC6PZ8PABnuR8c
The sources are available here: https://github.com/janbredenbeek/Minerv ... ee/working

Happy testing,
Jan

Thank you Jan.

PEEK($18020) = 56
PEEK($18021) = 64

Here is how my Q68+Minerva4Q68 now boots up:

Q68_jan4.jpg

It can now get to the Minerva command line by itself if I leave it for a few seconds, but the cursor is steady, not flashing, and keyboard does not work. I have tried both with and without the mouse connected.
Looks like some progress.

Can these values be inserted into the QL_ROM.SYS file?

[janbredenbeek]

Can these values be inserted into the QL_ROM.SYS file?

These are not ROM locations but I/O ports, hence they are set by the firmware.

The difference between my 68 and Dilwyn's 64 at $18021 is the transmit interrupt bit, this shouldn't make any difference now as it is ignored by the new builds.
From the mail conversation I got from you and Peter Graf I gather that v1.05 now sets the external interrupt bit in PC.INTR, this would have made a difference in the original Minerva ROM but I have changed the code such that it executes the handler anyway unless bit 3 in PC.INTR indicates a frame interrupt (which is correctly implemented at least in my v1.00).

The SMSQ/E v3.38 source contains a test upon initialisation for the keyboard interface interrupt which I haven't backported yet. I'm not sure whether this affects particular keyboards or firmware versions but it might explain why Dilwyn's keyboard still doesn't work. As these are only a few instructions to be ported you may expect a new build tonight or tomorrow .

(@Dilwyn: you might try POKEing 0 into location 1057 (1089 for the LRESPR'ed version) which enables the full RAM test, this will slow down the startup but will detect any RAM failure just in case...)

[dilwyn]

Yes, that took it through the ram test OK until it got to the point it needed a key press.

That felt quite authentic actually, having a Q68 go through the reset pattern just like a QL!

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi Jan,

I havd been trying to build Minerva4Q68, the build process fails due, no Ruby, uqlx installed.

I installed Ruby, but I do not have uqlx, would sqlux work?

Why do you use Ruby and uqlx?

[janbredenbeek]

It can now get to the Minerva command line by itself if I leave it for a few seconds, but the cursor is steady, not flashing, and keyboard does not work. I have tried both with and without the mouse connected.
Looks like some progress.

Here's the latest build, hope to finally have fixed the keyboard interrupt now.
This also prints a message when using the keyboard interrupt, else it uses only the polled task as usual.

https://files.bredenbeek.net/s/D8EC6PZ8PABnuR8c

Jan

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi Jan,

Boots up okay to Superbasic.

I see if the standard applications work.

Would the QL NET driver work?

[janbredenbeek]

Hi Jan,I havd been trying to build Minerva4Q68, tge build process fails due, no Ruby, uqlx installed.
I installed Ruby, but I do not have uqlx, would sqlux work?
Why do you use Ruby and uqlx?

I actually got these sources from Richard Zidlicky, he has written most of the keyboard driver for the Q68 including the scripts to build Minerva. He used Linux tools to build the binaries, which invoke uqlx to assemble and link the sources (I can imagine this could be done in an SMSQ/E environment too, but the tools have to be built and the current setup at least works under my Windows subsystem for Linux).

You have to create a directory ccx too containing the C68 runtime environment and qmac and qlink for the assembler and linker.

I use uqlx because sqlux wasn't yet mature when I built this enviroment in 2018, sqlux would probably work too but it's only used in scripted mode, no graphics display needed. The make scripts calls it using 'qm', if this is in your path and linked to sqlux you can have a try.

[janbredenbeek]

Hi Jan,
Boots up okay to Superbasic.

That's good news! Did you get the keyboard interrupts message or not? I'm a bit curious, I don't get it (probably because my Q68 doesn't support it?)

Would the QL NET driver work?

IIRC it would work on Minerva too, haven't tested though.