The Sinclair QL Forum

janbredenbeek wrote: ↑Mon Jun 19, 2023 8:02 pm

dilwyn wrote: ↑Sun Jun 18, 2023 9:21 am I can confirm that even without a mouse connected (keyboard connected direct to Q68 without splitter cable) mine never even gets as far as being able to press F1 or F2 to start Minerva.

* UPDATE *: I have uploaded a patched version of Minerva4Q68 which should fix the interrupt problems; the mouse and Ethernet interrupt is now disabled on startup and an external interrupt handler added for the keyboard. Can you please try out this one?

This is a US keyboard version with TKII included so 96K. You may have to rename the unzipped file to Q68_ROM.SYS as zip/unzip seems to have its own opinion about how file extensions should be written. Alternatively, you can use Min4Q68ldr to load it from SMSQ/E.

Link to the ZIP file: https://files.bredenbeek.net/s/D8EC6PZ8PABnuR8c

As Q68_ROM.SYS it gets as far as the Minerva text in the picture below.

As a ldr/rext file LRESPRed from SMSQ/E it only gets as far as drawing the Minerva logo, no other text (in case the relative timings give you a clue).

In both cases, as before, after about 30 seconds (varies) it disappears off into a random technicolour crash screen.

Looks like I'm running out of options . With this ROM my Q68 didn't crash when moving the mouse.
I haven't considered the serial interrupts yet, but I can hardly imagine that not doing anything with the serial port can leave these interrupts enabled.
I'm curious about experiences from other Q68 users...

janbredenbeek wrote: ↑Mon Jun 19, 2023 10:37 pm Looks like I'm running out of options . With this ROM my Q68 didn't crash when moving the mouse.
I haven't considered the serial interrupts yet, but I can hardly imagine that not doing anything with the serial port can leave these interrupts enabled.
I'm curious about experiences from other Q68 users...

Indeed!

I'll see if I can venture back into that horrible dark cave known as my attic to find an alternative mouse and keyboard just in case that has anything to do with it.

dilwyn wrote: ↑Tue Jun 20, 2023 9:52 am

janbredenbeek wrote: ↑Mon Jun 19, 2023 10:37 pm Looks like I'm running out of options . With this ROM my Q68 didn't crash when moving the mouse.
I haven't considered the serial interrupts yet, but I can hardly imagine that not doing anything with the serial port can leave these interrupts enabled.
I'm curious about experiences from other Q68 users...

Indeed!

I'll see if I can venture back into that horrible dark cave known as my attic to find an alternative mouse and keyboard just in case that has anything to do with it.

My older Q68 Boot Loader v1.00 had no problems getting the 96KB Q68_ROM.SYS started.
After making a new boot file to load TK2 and the PE I had a workable machine.
My Cherry original PS/2 keyboard worked, the HP PS/2 ball mouse did not but gave no crashes either.
A version of M. Kilgus's SD_utils_bin would be welcome as Minerva seems to miss most SD keywords.
And of course a mouse driver would help this Minerva.

BSJR

Just to close this conversation down for now, I got several mice and keyboards out, and tried all combinations, along with three different brands of SDHC cards. With and without mouse attached. With and without the keyboard/mouse adaptor.

It took ages to work through them all!

All combinations worked if I used Q68 SMSQE. Not a single combination worked with either the original or intermediate Minerva4Q68.

Like I said in another thread, starting to look like I have the only Q68 in the entire universe which can't use Minerva4Q68

Not that it matters too much. I'm very happy with it using SMSQ/E.

Hi,

I have tried 3 Q68 PCBs programmed with FPGA code v1.05 and Minerva4Q68 sometimes works, but invariably it crashes on the Minerva loading screen.

The only valid Q68 FPGA versions are v1.00 - 1.02 or 1.05

I will try our v1.00, v1.01 and v1.02

Dilwyn, if you require your Q68 downgraded to a lesser FPGA version, then senf it back to me and I will reprogram the FPGA and sup[ply a working Minerva4Q68 SD Card.

But this course of action is not solving the problem. Why can not the Minerva operating system to changed to suit the Q68.

What applicaation does not run on SMSQ/E that requires Minerva?

Hi,

I built 4 Q68 PCBs today, all working perfectly, which is due to the perfect hardware design of Peter Graf.

I programmed a one of the Q68 FPGA with v1.02 FPGA code and Minerva4Q68 booted up perfectly.

I make a custom Q68_ROM.SYS with TK232 included, which booted the Q68 with Toolkit 2 loaded on the Minerva screen. ( I do not like people's names on the Rom Banner) booted okay and Toolkit 2 installed perfectly.

I then made a Minerva loader to boot from SMSQ/E, as detailed in the Minerva4Q68 README.MD file

Once the Resident extension was built, LRESPRing the the file also booted into Minerva.

So all working on Q68 FPGA Code v1.02, I will try and find out what the changes to v1.05 are.

If anyone requires their Q68 FPGA code changed to v1.02, return the Q68 to me.

Derek_Stewart wrote: ↑Wed Jun 21, 2023 11:46 am Hi,

I have tried 3 Q68 PCBs programmed with FPGA code v1.05 and MInerva4Q68 sometimes works, but invariably it crashes on the Minerva loading screen.

The only valid Q68 FPGA versions are v1.00 - 1.02 or 1.05

I will try our v1.00, v1.01 and v1.02

Dilwyn, if you require your Q68 downgraded to a lesser FPGA version, then senf it back to me and I will reprogram the FPGA and sup[ply a working Minerva4Q68 SD Card.

But this course of action is not solving the problem. Why can not the Minerva operating system to changed to suit the Q68.

What applicaation does not run on SMSQ/E that requires Minerva?

Thank you for offering to do this Derek. But it is not important enough an issue for me to impose this on you. I will simply monitor what you guys come up with. Maybe there will be a lightbulb moment.
The only reason for wanting to use Minerva was for quick tests of software I wrote on SMSQE onto QDOS without setting up a BBQL to check if the software works on QDOS. But I can do this easily enough on QemuLator of course.
Thank you everyone for your efforts.

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...

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