The Sinclair QL Forum

Over at the Atari-Forum Sorgelig is looking for infos about QL-SD for the MIST
http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.ph ... 8f8251efb0
Maybe he can improve the QL-MIST Core a little bit. Maybe a forum-member with more knowledge could help him.

I'm not on that forum and I don't intend to join there.

If you want to confirm to him the QL-SD ROM that comes with the MiST core is the original one, please do so - it is, the very same thing that is built into the original.

You might also want to point him to the manual - It has all the steps in there on how to prepare a card.
http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/qlsd/QL-SD_User_Manual.pdf

Tobias

Hi all,

Just noticed this thread. I have had a Mist for a couple of weeks and got the QL core running.

It feels like a very realistic reconstruction of a real QL - you can practically hear the microdrives whirring.

I didn't realise that QLE was available in the QL-SD format. I will definitely be trying it soon.


D.

Hi,

I have managed to set my Mist up as a very realistic QL, running Minerva and using a QL-SD card for storage.

My problem is that it appears that my only option for transferring files from my laptop, which has both QPC2 and Q-Emulator, is to laboriously copy files to Microdrive images, 100K at a time.

I understand that it should be possible to read a QL-SD file with Q-Emulator, however I see that the small print says that this only works with 32-bit Windows. Short of installing a virtual machine on my laptop running 32-bit Windows, are there any other file transfer options?

Tks,

D.

Hi Daniel!

A couple of things I've discovered with SD image management:

a) Even on my 64-bit Win7 laptop, QEmulator + the BDI extension runs just fine... I still found that approach to be a chore, however, so
b) These days, I use Wolfgang's QXLWinReader to copy files back and forth between my QXL WIN file (used in QPC) and the SD-Card itself, which I then mount on a real QL.

I'm still working on a longer-term project to build QLAN capability in to QPC (see another thread) to allow 'online' file copying instead between my laptop/QPC and a real QL - but that wouldn't be relevant to you here as I don't believe Mist supports the simple QLAN hardware (if you can cal it that...)

Good luck! And just think, if it was all just 'plug-and-play' as we're so used to these days, it'd be far less satisfying!

Hi Martyn,

Thanks for the excellent tip. The QXL.WIN reader works very well and allowed me to easily transfer lots of files to my Mist.

I only had two small issues with it: it doesn't appear to deal all that well with copying whole subdirectories to the SD, and it is absolutely not suited to a 4K monitor; it looks like a tiny postage stamp in the corner of the screen and I had to reduce the resolution of my monitor to use it. I had similar problems with programs that I wrote at work using WinForms, and had to rewrite their GUIs using WPF. I assume Java has something similarly scalable but I don't know.

As for using the BDI file with Q-Emulator, I have had no luck with this at all. From the Q-Emulator log I can see that it is loading the dll, but the QL driver never finds the file. Either I am not setting it up right, or possibly it is getting fragmented on my Windows disk, or maybe it won't work on an SSD, or maybe it won't work on Windows 10, or whatever.

D.

Hi Daniel!

Glad that was useful.

I actually found copying whole sub-directories works quite well - esp. since Wolfgang fixed the issue where resultant sub-directories were only 'half' tagged as directories (more on another thread.)

As for taming the BDI driver in QEm... I was stumped for a while with the following and you might have hit the same issue, so...

Unlike QXLWinReader, the QL-BDI image file must be placed in to a specific folder within the QEm install directory to be found by the BDI driver - I.e. the driver won't go looking on the SD-Card itself, so it will need to be copied back and forth.

On my system, the working folder structure looks like this:

<windows32-bit_ProgramFolder>\Q-emuLator\Extensions\SD_Card.dll
<windows32-bit_ProgramFolder>\Q-emuLator\Extensions\QL_BDI.bin <- copied off your SD-Card.

The QL-side of the BDI driver can go anywhere - you mount that (DOS) directory interactively (or via a saved Q-Em config), say as 'MDV1_' and simply LRESPR 'MDV1_BDI_bin'

Don't forget to copy back the file once you've closed down Q-Em - AND - ensure that it is the only file stored on the SD-Card to avoid it getting fragmented on the way back (there are other ways, but that's the simplest to describe.)

M.

Hi Martyn,

I managed to hose the directory structure of my SC Card file, resulting in a very unstable system, and seem to have repaired it by copying the contents to an empty file using Wolfgang's program, so thanks Wolfgang:)

I still have no luck mounting the file in Q-Emulator. No idea why.

Also, does anyone know if it is possible to set the clock Mist QL? I have not been able to.

Tks,

Daniel

In Oktober 2021 someone (retrofun) has amended the QL Core to allow the following RAM configurations:
128K, 640K, 896K, 1920K, 3968K

See:
https://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.p ... d4#p425461
https://github.com/retrofun/ql/tree/ram ... 920k-3968k

First shout was a big hurra! but...

While this core runs well at Markus (Desin) on his MIST, I have huge problems at startup on my MIST in about 9 of 10 tries. My "QL" hangs at the red Minerva logo and does not show the expected F1/F2 window! In case it's hanging the screen looks like this: In case it's not hanging, the screen looks like this:
I have prepared a ZIP file https://sinclairql.net/downloads/ql_xra ... JAGUAR.zip with the minimal set of files: Can you folks try this setup and report back, if and how stable it runs on your MIST.

Greets & Thanks,
Urs

QLvsJAGUAR wrote: ↑Sun Feb 11, 2024 5:39 pm Can you folks try this setup and report back, if and how stable it runs on your MIST.

Tested today on MISTICA. With no QXL.WIN or a modified SD it boots 9 of 10 times I tried with different ROMs and RAM configs but with a correct prepared SD with a QXL.WIN it hangs 9 of 10 times with the Minerva logo... and if it not hangs at the start it can't load the .WIN and goes to the prompt or hangs loading something: