Unable to flash new firmware

[Eric Christopherson]

I seem to have gotten my device into a state where I can't flash any new firmware. Right now my version string (disk status) is "73,sd2iec v1.0.0.1ALPHA0,00,00"; I believe this version resulted from me flashing something identical to commit aa8395c in sd2iec, except that I bumped the fix number to 1.

I've tried flashing several other firmwares:

1. additional small modifications to aa8395c

2. official release sd2iec-0.10.3-uIEC3-m1281.bin

3. official alpha sd2iec-1.0.0alpha0-98-gaa8395c-uIEC3-m1281.bin

4. h2obsession's old fast-serial version uIEC-firmware-0.8.291.bin

Any idea how I can get it working again?

--

        Eric Christopherson

[RETRO Innovations]

On 7/8/2016 9:08 AM, Eric Christopherson wrote:

I seem to have gotten my device into a state where I can't flash any new firmware. Right now my version string (disk status) is "73,sd2iec v1.0.0.1ALPHA0,00,00"; I believe this version resulted from me flashing something identical to commit aa8395c in sd2iec, except that I bumped the fix number to 1.

Try bumping to .2 fix level and try again.

It should not matter, but if it works, then we will have another data point to consider.

THe bootloader should flash the first file it finds that is either a dev version (all 0s for version number) or a higher version than the current one.   So, no matter what, the bootloader should take alpha firmware at all times.

Jim

I've tried flashing several other firmwares:

1. additional small modifications to aa8395c

2. official release sd2iec-0.10.3-uIEC3-m1281.bin

3. official alpha sd2iec-1.0.0alpha0-98-gaa8395c-uIEC3-m1281.bin

4. h2obsession's old fast-serial version uIEC-firmware-0.8.291.bin

Any idea how I can get it working again?

--

        Eric Christopherson

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[Eric Christopherson]

On Fri, Jul 8, 2016 at 12:15 PM, RETRO Innovations <go4r...@go4retro.com> wrote:

On 7/8/2016 9:08 AM, Eric Christopherson wrote:

I seem to have gotten my device into a state where I can't flash any new firmware. Right now my version string (disk status) is "73,sd2iec v1.0.0.1ALPHA0,00,00"; I believe this version resulted from me flashing something identical to commit aa8395c in sd2iec, except that I bumped the fix number to 1.

Try bumping to .2 fix level and try again.

It should not matter, but if it works, then we will have another data point to consider.

THe bootloader should flash the first file it finds that is either a dev version (all 0s for version number) or a higher version than the current one.   So, no matter what, the bootloader should take alpha firmware at all times.

I've already changed the FIX variable from 1 to 2, 3, and now 4. I have:

    # Define version number

    MAJOR = 1

    MINOR = 0

    PATCHLEVEL = 0

    FIX = 4

    

    # Forces bootloader version to 0, comment out or leave empty for release

    PRERELEASE = alpha0

I was under the understanding that the PRERELEASE variable here actually worked to make the version "act like" it was 0.0.0.0; but, just in case, I decided to hard code all the version numbers to 0. That didn't result in success either (with PRERELEASE commented out or not).

I've been using usb_modeswitch (Linux command) to power-cycle the hub the uIEC is hooked up to, after writing the firmware. I'm writing the firmware onto a FlashAir card I just got, via wifi. Probably something isn't behaving correctly with one of those steps in the chain; I will have to really investigate once I get home.

Slightly off the subject: what would cause the "alpha0" in the Makefile.main to get converted to all-caps (=all graphics chars when viewing files from a Commodore)? I seem to remember that the first time I flashed an alpha version, its version designation had "alpha" in lower case. Also, I wonder how one would make the version number show the Git commit, the way the current download from sd2iec.de does.

 

Jim

I've tried flashing several other firmwares:

1. additional small modifications to aa8395c

2. official release sd2iec-0.10.3-uIEC3-m1281.bin

3. official alpha sd2iec-1.0.0alpha0-98-gaa8395c-uIEC3-m1281.bin

4. h2obsession's old fast-serial version uIEC-firmware-0.8.291.bin

Any idea how I can get it working again?

--

        Eric Christopherson

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www.go4retro.com
store.go4retro.com

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        Eric Christopherson

[Eric Christopherson]

I've been using usb_modeswitch (Linux command) to power-cycle the hub the uIEC is hooked up to, after writing the firmware. I'm writing the firmware onto a FlashAir card I just got, via wifi. Probably something isn't behaving correctly with one of those steps in the chain; I will have to really investigate once I get home.

Yeah, it was the routine I was using to upload firmware; it was including some extra HTTP request nonsense in the file itself. Sorry to ask before checking that first.

--

        Eric Christopherson

[Ingo Korb]

Eric Christopherson <echrist...@gmail.com> writes:

> Slightly off the subject: what would cause the "alpha0" in the
> Makefile.main to get converted to all-caps (=all graphics chars when
> viewing files from a Commodore)?

The C64's character set (usually called PETSCII) differs from ASCII, to
a first-order approximation the upper and lower case characters are
swapped. It's annoying to correct that at compile-time with either make or
the C preprocessor, so the string is just passed along as-is.

> Also, I wonder how one would make the version number show the Git
> commit, the way the current download from sd2iec.de does.

That happens in the auto-builder script that I run on my server, it uses
"git describe" to get the number and overrides some make variables on
the command line to make sure they are compiled into the binary.

-ik

[Eric Christopherson]

On Sat, Jul 09, 2016, Ingo Korb wrote:
> Eric Christopherson <echrist...@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > Slightly off the subject: what would cause the "alpha0" in the
> > Makefile.main to get converted to all-caps (=all graphics chars when
> > viewing files from a Commodore)?
>
> The C64's character set (usually called PETSCII) differs from ASCII, to
> a first-order approximation the upper and lower case characters are
> swapped. It's annoying to correct that at compile-time with either make or
> the C preprocessor, so the string is just passed along as-is.

Yes, I understand that. But I could have sworn the first time I
installed an alpha firmware, the word alpha was in lower case; that is
no longer true, so I wondered what made the difference.

>
> > Also, I wonder how one would make the version number show the Git
> > commit, the way the current download from sd2iec.de does.
>
> That happens in the auto-builder script that I run on my server, it uses
> "git describe" to get the number and overrides some make variables on
> the command line to make sure they are compiled into the binary.

Oh, that script isn't part of the repository. OK.

--
Eric Christopherson

[Greg King]

On Saturday, July 9, 2016 at 9:24:16 PM UTC-4, Eric Christopherson wrote:

On Sat, Jul 09, 2016, Ingo Korb wrote:

> Eric Christopherson writes:

>
> > Slightly off the subject: what would cause the "alpha0" in the

> > Makefile.main to get converted to all-caps (= all graphics chars when

> > viewing files from a Commodore)?
>

> The C64's character set (usually called PETSCII) differs from ASCII; to
> a first-order approximation, the upper- and lower-case characters are

> swapped. It's annoying to correct that at compile-time with either make or

> the C preprocessor; so, the string just is passed along as-is.

Yes, I understand that. But, I could have sworn the first time I

installed an alpha firmware, the word alpha was in lower case; that is

no longer true; so, I wondered what made the difference.

That string might have been converted from upper-case ASCII to lower-case ASCII.

[Eric Christopherson]

Yes, clearly. I just wasn't sure if that was done automatically as part of the make process, or if Ingo (or whoever uploaded the binary I installed) converted it outside of the process that's in the official repository.

--

        Eric Christopherson

[Daniel V. Mackey]

At 04:59 PM 7/12/2016, you wrote:

Try HEX editing that string if you can find it in the file and you will get your answer.

 
> That string might have been converted from upper-case ASCII to lower-case
> ASCII.
 
Yes, clearly. I just wasn't sure if that was done automatically as part of
the make process, or if Ingo (or whoever uploaded the binary I installed)
converted it outside of the process that's in the official repository.
 
--
Eric Christopherson

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