Re: New firmware for PseudoDisk / some problems

["Polymorph" <polymorph69@hotmail.com>]

Alex Freed wrote:
> "David Empson" <dempson@actrix.gen.nz> wrote in message
> 1hp8e80.1cgr5so2j7ydgN%dempson@actrix.gen.nz">news:1hp8e80.1cgr5so2j7ydgN%dempson@actrix.gen.nz...
> > The problem is almost certainly as follows:
> >
> > If you boot your card with PR#n, and the boot block code is trying to
> > print anything with COUT, then as soon as it outputs a character, COUT
> > will JMP indirect to the output vector, which is pointing to $Cn00. This
> > will proceed to boot again, resulting in an infinite loop.
>
>
> Thanks, David. I think you are right. That's what appeared to be happening:
> infinite boot attempts.
>
> >
> > To avoid this, your menu display code must initialize the I/O vectors.
> > There are monitor routines for this (but I don't have my notes handy and
> > I can't remember their addresses offhand). An alternative is to call
> > COUT1 ($FDF0) instead of COUT, to ensure you are outputting to the
> > screen.
>
>
> I was trying to use a line output routine. I guess it's safest to just copy
> chars to screen memory by brute force. The boot code is not size limited:
> at least 64KB are always wasted on a disk/memory card.
>
> -Alex.

Alex,

just a question regarding this new approach for writing the disk images
to a FAT16 partition. You mention that the SD card is *blank* before
creating the partition, but is it possible to create the FAT16
partition on a SD card that has previously been used? (ie. overwrite
the previous contents) Can you guarantee that the newly created
partition will be contiguous on a card that has been pre-used? I have
no idea if this is a stupid question, but it just appeared that you
were highlighting the fact that the card was blank prior to creating
the partition. It would seem that if the SD card *had* to be blank
prior to creating the FAT16 partition that this would be a nasty
limitation as it wouldn't allow re-use of existing cards.

How are the sales going? I'm still very close to putting in an order
(if I'm not too late)...

cheers,
-p