ROM-able KingCON for 68000
 

OK, I'm on a quest here :)

On Aminet there's KingCON_1.3 and a patch for it.

With RemAPollo comes an updated version 1.6 that is ROM-able, and the very same Mikolaj Calusinski also updated it further to 1.8 that comes with AmiKit.

The problem for me is that the above updates, including the ROM-able bit, only applies to the 020 version of KingCON, and not the 68000 version. Another problem ofcourse, is that the sources for the changes is not available, Mikolaj decided to leave amiga, and did so quite thoroughly from what I understand.

Is there anyone out there with the knowledge, tools and interest to make a ROM-able variant of 68000 KingCON? I dont know what's easiest, disassemble the 1.8 binary and replace 020 instructions with 68000 ones, or disassemble the 1.3 binary and make it ROM-able. All I know is that my MiniMig craves for a kickstart file with KingCON-handler in it :)

IIRC, neither 1.6 nor 1.8 are 'ROMable'.
Spot reported problems with a ROM he built, and it turned out 1.8 was the cause of the problems. (UAE got stuck in a lovely crash-reboot-crash-reboot-crash..)
I did a simple wrapper that copied it into memory and initialised it from there, and the problems went away.

As for the other question, IMHO it'd be better to make a 68000 version of 1.8, as MC also fixed a few bugs as he went along.

I use 1.8 with e-UAE, and at least it loads as a kickstart module using LoadModule. I assumed that also means it's RAM-able? The image below shows first CLI after boot without startup-sequence, with LoadModule listing out loaded modules.

http://amiga.nvg.org/moro/kingcon.png

But as you said, LoadModule puts the code/data in memory, so it's writeable.
In a real ROM it isn't, so any code that tries to save data inside itself will fail at some point.

Things like library bases from an OpenLibrary() call are normally the culprit, as the code then tries to call a function with 0 as the lib base..:guru

>is that the sources for the changes is not available, Mikolaj decided to leave amiga

Maybe he have the sources somewhere on a HD

Ask him...








... and pray !

Hum...

Pray...

... and ask him !

No, no, we are on Amiga...


So :

Pray...

Ask him...

and pray again...

... and light a LOT of candles in a church...

Ah, now I understand what you mean - it is ROMable as such, but it will fail due its behaviour (writing to its own memory). The wrapper you made makes it possible to store KingCON in kickstart, but it will be copied out to RAM before initialization. Well, that sounds plenty good enough for me, I just want tab-completition and scrollback buffer on first CLI :)

Do you still have the wrapper around?

He is unreachable, and does not wish to be contacted about amiga related things, from what I understood. So I assume the solution is disassembling of KingCON 1.8 is the way to go for this... unfortunatly that's way out of my league :)

Doobrey could you share your KingCon 1.8 rom wrapper. I am in the process of building a new custom kickstart for my A1200, and that could be a great addition!:bowdown

Yeah, let me add to that... :bowdown:bowdown:bowdown

Sorry about the delay in sorting this out, took me a while to remember where abouts I'd saved the damn thing ! (too many HD's, not enough brains)
http://www.doobreynet.co.uk/temp/KingConROM_1.8.pch

It's patched against KingCon 1.8.
Nothing has changed compared to the normal 1.8(020+), it's just wrapped in a bit of code that'll load it into memory,relocate it and init it.
Any probs, gimme a shout.

The link points to:

BAH.. Dunno what you wanted to see, but it's not here !

So that brings me to the question: Where is it?:bash

I knew I should have stayed in bed today..:banghead
Link fixed.

Okay, now it works :)

Thanks Doobrey:great

If i find any bugs i will report them!

Tested with WinUAE :

Work with AGA no DOpus 5.82 :spin

but

Not work with RTG + DOpus 5.82 :banghead

Is it anything to do with my patch though ?
ie. Does the same problem with DOpus5 happen if you just make the unpatched KingCon resident with LoadModule/LoadResident and reboot ? (with normal C= con-handler in ROM of course)

>Does the same problem with DOpus5 happen if you just make the unpatched KingCon resident with LoadModule

Yes :banghead

It is working for me! AGA and RTG, i havent tested with Magellan though!

The only really small anoyance is that the appicon is outdated. There are resident programs that hack appicons, but is there a way to actually replace the appicon itself, in the executable?