Z80_V4_FW issue!

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norberto.collado koyado.com

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Jul 24, 2022, 3:16:30 AM7/24/22
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Hello Douglas,

 

My H8 stopped working and I replaced the CPU and that fixed the problem. However this CPU is using FW B30.bin and I was getting the following message when booting Rusty HDOS image from Glenn. I thought that my H67 controller got broken. After replacing the H67 with another board I was still getting same issue. I stripped own the system just to two boards and was still failing. I re-flashed to B27.rom version and that fixed the issue.

 

B30.bin:

 

H8 Monitor v2.0(beta30)                                                        

                                                                                

H8:                                                                            

Error - Operating System not found.                                            

                                                                                

                                                                                

press return to continue... 

 

 

With B27 rom it works fine as shown below.

 

H8 Monitor v2.0(beta27)                                                        

                                                                                

H8:                                                                            

                               HEATH/ZENITH H/Z67                              

                       Software Boot Code (SBC) vers 1.1                       

                                                                                

                              Boot Option(s) Menu                              

                                                                                

Operating systems:     Maximum occurrence number:                              

------------------     --------------------------                              

HDOS0                               00                                         

HDOS1                               00                                         

HDOS2                               00                                         

HDOS3                               00                                         

HDOS4                               00                                          

HDOS5                               00                                         

HDOS6                               00                                         

HDOS7                               00                                          

                                                                                

                                                                                

                                                                                

Boot String?.............> HDOS0                                               

                                                                                

ACTION? <BOOT> BOOT                                                            

                                                                                

SYSTEM HAS 56K OF RAM        

 

Can you check if you can fix such issue?

 

Thanks,

Norberto   

Glenn Roberts

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Jul 24, 2022, 5:51:44 AM7/24/22
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If it is useful for debugging this ROM issue, the software Norberto is booting with is the original boot code developed by Heath for the Z67. My commented disassembly of this code is on Norberto’s site.


I believe any ROM updates we do should remain compatible with this boot method if at all possible…

Sent from my iPad

On Jul 24, 2022, at 3:16 AM, norberto.collado koyado.com <norberto...@koyado.com> wrote:


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Douglas Miller

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Jul 24, 2022, 9:14:53 AM7/24/22
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Norberto,

As Glenn points out, this message is coming from bootstrap code, not the ROM. The changes I made in this area in B30 were to fix a specific bug, and should not have had any impact on the case where there is no boot string entered. Also, we have many different legacy bootstraps we need to support, and so making changes without testing all of them will lead to these sorts of problems. Unless I have a complete set of all possible bootstrap (OS images) here, I can't fully test by myself.

So, I need some clarifications of your scenario:

1) Have you defined any boot string for the H67 in the ROM config data? Your intent is to boot without any string parameter (i.e. default, empty, string), is that correct?

2) I assume you are booting using the keypad (not console), is this correct? Does booting using the console work?

Perhaps there is something about the keypad boot that needs fixing w.r.t. initializing the default (empty) boot string. I will have to look into this. I probably need access to the boot image you are using.

I may not be able to spend time on this immediately.

Thanks,
Doug

norberto.collado koyado.com

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Jul 24, 2022, 6:52:29 PM7/24/22
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Douglas,

 

I got B27 and B30 to fail the same. If I setup the “Primary/Default Boot String <>: H67”. It fails with the error message when booting from the keypad. Booting from the console works fine with such value set.

 

I reloaded B30.rom and left such field empty (“Primary/Default Boot String <>: ),  so that it can boot fine from the keypad or console.

 

I do not understand what is the correct value for such parameter: “Primary/Default Boot String <>: “

Thanks,

Norberto

Douglas Miller

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Jul 24, 2022, 7:15:23 PM7/24/22
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From what I can tell from the code Glenn shared, that bootstrap is expecting the boot string to be the "name of the OS" - which I take to mean the partition name or identifier. For MMS CP/M 3, that string should contain the partition *number* (i.e. 0-8). For VDIP1 booting, that string is the name of the "sys" file to run, with optional parameters after. Same is true for WIZNET booting. For MMS CP/M 3 - at least (I don't know if any other conventions have been made yet) - the CF and SDC bootstraps expect a partition number (0-8) and/or segment ID (A-Z).

The keypad boot provides no method to specify the boot string, so it will be taken from the config data if present. I am guessing that "H67" does not match any partition identifier on your boot image. Is it a QuickStor bootstrap/partition?

In the case of console boot, if you specify the device (e.g. 'E' for H67) then no default values are used unless you enter them explicitly. If you had the ROM/dipswitches configured to *default* boot the H67, then a default boot ('B' RETURN) would use the values in the config data and would use the boot string if set. I suspect that if you manually specified "H67" as the boot string on the console, it would also fail. I.e. "H8: Boot EE-:H67" would fail but "H8: Boot EE-" would not (boot string is empty).

Again, boot string does not select the boot device, it is supplemental data for the bootstrap - which may be ignored in some cases (H17 and H37 ignore it, and some OSes/bootstraps on the H67 ignore it).

Does this explain the behavior you are seeing?

Thanks,
Doug

norberto.collado koyado.com

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Jul 24, 2022, 7:26:26 PM7/24/22
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Douglas,

 

Thanks for the explanation on how this works. This explains well the behavior I’m seeing. Nice to know that I can use this syntax to select which partition to boot: H8: Boot EE-:HDOS0, or H8: Boot EE-:HDOS7 from the console. I tested this and works fine.

 

Thank you,

 

Norberto

Douglas Miller

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Jul 24, 2022, 7:30:37 PM7/24/22
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Glad there's not a bug in this area - or at least we don't know of one yet. I had to make several fixes to try and get it working for all boot images, and hope I finally got it right.

Do look over the monitor ROM documentation and let me know if anything needs to be explained better.

Thanks,
Doug

norberto.collado koyado.com

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Jul 24, 2022, 9:47:39 PM7/24/22
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At least under “Config Setup”, you can provide some examples on how to populate such field properly.

Douglas Miller

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Jul 25, 2022, 3:13:45 PM7/25/22
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I have updated the Monitor ROM document here: https://github.com/durgadas311/MmsCpm3/blob/master/rom/newmon/doc/H8-Monitor-2.pdf

In the Config Setup section I made reference back to prior sections where the boot string is discussed. I also added this use of boot strings to the description for the H67 boot string.

However, this detail of boot string usage does not belong in a Monitor ROM document, as the bootstraps and OSes are the consumers and they alone, independently, dictate how the boot string is used. The ROM just passes an arbitrary string along. A user must understand how their boot images work and choose a boot string value based on that. Trying to keep the ROM document up to date with information specific to OSes is not really practical.

Thanks,
Doug

norberto.collado koyado.com

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Jul 25, 2022, 3:27:02 PM7/25/22
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Thanks, Douglas, for the update!

Norberto

Sent: Monday, July 25, 2022 12:13 PM
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