x86 Bridgeboard update (PCem core)

[Zilog]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

Does it work now? (Local file is fine, it seems it got broken during uploading)

Confirm, still broken.
I try with 7-zip 16.x and 18.05 (ultimate version).

[Toni Wilen]

I deleted it and then reuploaded. Downloaded and it unpacked fine here.

[Zilog]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

I deleted it and then reuploaded. Downloaded and it unpacked fine here.

Thanks Tony, now is ok.


In the x86 expanction board i'dont find the NetWork card.
Possibile?


Thanks a lot. by.

[amiga_amigo]

Hi Toni,

here's my testing result with the latest beta you uploaded:

- scanline issue is fine now.

Unfortunately the rest of my testing wasn't very successfull:

- The mouse driver is still not loading after a PCReset or bbsetup.
I've modified the dos bootdisk (attached) to include the Dos6.22 mouse driver.
At first boot from this disk, the driver loads fine. Status is printed on screen and mouse can be tested e.g. by typing "edit"+<enter> to open the dos editor. Cursor is movable with mouse.
Reboot via PCReset and voila: mouse driver fails to install with error message "Driver not installed -- Microsoft Mouse not found".
I also tested with 2 other mouse drivers - same behavior.

- I'm not getting emm.sys to work. It doesn't give error message as before, but i'm really confused by the stats i get from "mem /c/p".
My expertise in Dos is poor at best (my first pc was win95), hopefully someone else might have a clue.
I played a bit with the "extended="-parameter of emm.sys but still couldn't get it to work.
The two games i have that are rather picky with respect to (expanded) memory refuse to work.
Strike commander complains "Protected mode driver is not reponding to EMS function calls ...".
Wing commander states " ... Expanded Memory detected.". Usually the next message should be "Expanded memory fully used" but instead the pc-emulation seems to freeze.
After reboot with PCReset i get billions of error messages from emm.sys doing its memory check:
"Testing memory: 0k RAM data error detected" <BEEP>,
"Testing memory: 16k RAM data error detected" <BEEP>,
"Testing memory: 32k RAM data error detected" <BEEP>,
...
Beeping like crazy.

I'll check a few more things and post here, but currently i have no good idea what to try next.

Michael

[AnnaWu]

Originally Posted by Zilog

Thanks Tony, now is ok.


In the x86 expanction board i'dont find the NetWork card.
Possibile?


Thanks a lot. by.

It's ok too.

[Toni Wilen]

EMS should work better now (still no idea if it works right but at least now EMS bank accesses goes to correct mapped bank..)

Mouse after reset also works but this also can't be fully correct yet because it is unknown what gets resets when Amiga side resets the bridgeboard CPU. I thought it only reset the CPU but obviously at least some hardware also gets reset. (Possibly only expansion hardware?)

[Zilog]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

I deleted it and then reuploaded. Downloaded and it unpacked fine here.

Originally Posted by AnnaWu

It's ok too.

Hy Guys,
but with ultimate beta version i dont' found a network card.
In Attach Files the screenshoot.
******************************************************
With beta of today is ok!!!

Thanks Tony.
******************************************************

[Zilog]

Hy Tony,
i have the problem:
_with beta 6 the winuae (normal gui) dont' start immediatly, but after 10 -20 second after i have lanch a program in windows.


_how all beta x86pcem , when use winaue reset, the system reboot slowy; the test of ram of x86 brigboard run and block , run and block.....
I must close and reopen winaue and x86 function correctly or if i use pcreset.



I attach file the conf.

[amiga_amigo]

Hello Toni,

wanted to give feedback on the last beta6 and your changes to the brigdeboard reset and memory management.

Mouse driver works fine after PCReset now - Thanks!

I also found out what was causing my problem with bbsetup where i couldn't exit bios when entering via bbsetup.
Initially, i thought it was the keyboard driver, but it wasn't - it's the memory manager (see below).

EMM memory is still giving mixed results - i think there's still an issue. Here are the symptoms that make me believe so:

I've tested three different memory managers with the latest beta6 WinUAE and i get variable results.

• EMM.sys from Janus disk
• Himem.sys + EMM386.exe from MS-Dos
• Jemmex.exe from FreeDos(?)

EMM.sys:

• mem /c/p always shows Extended (XMS) memory as being fully used? (7.340.032 total, 7.340.032 used, 0 free) - the extended= parameter makes no difference.
• still doesn't work with my games i use for testing:
  Strike Commander (CD-edition) still says "Protected mode driver is not reponding to EMS function calls ...".
  Wing Commander prints out " ... Expanded Memory detected.". Instead of the next message "Expanded Memory fully used" the pc-emulation seems to freeze.
  After reboot with PCReset i get lots of error messages from emm.sys doing its memory check and system beeps almost continuously.
• i can exit bbsetup with esc- or end-key and system reboots fine afterwards.

Himem.sys + EMM386.exe:

• mem /c/p shows resonable values for Extended (XMS) memory (e.g. 7.340.032 total, 491.520 used, 6.848.512 free).
• both games work (but so they did with the previous betas 2-5).
  There's just one issue with strike commander: After a clean reboot, the game runs fine.
  But if i run any dos command (e.g. mem /c/p), the game starts fine at first displaying the first intro animation.
  Just before the second intro (CD-edition has 2 intros), the game aborts with error message about soundblaster not being configured correctly (the first intro was running fine including sound though).
  This only happens if i had run any program or dos-command (apart from change directory) prior to launching the game.
• bbsetup can't be exited with esc- or end-keys. System just beeps but bios screen keeps being displayed.
  Amiga mouse is still movable, clicking in top-left corner brings back amiga workbench screen, so i can use pcreset.

Jemmex.exe:

• mem /c/p shows resonable values for Extended (XMS) memory.
• both games work: same issues as with Himem.sys + EMM386.exe
• bbsetup diplays error message when trying to exit bios - jemmex throws exception. x86-CPU registers are printed ontop of the bios screen.
  Amiga mouse is still movable, clicking in top-left corner brings back amiga workbench screen, so i can use pcreset.

So - what?
EMM.sys came with the bridgeboard but it doesn't work and it gives strange stats.
The other two managers work (with some minor issues) but they are supposedly written to be more generic and to support different system configurations.
=> i think there's still an issue with bridgeboard memory emulation.

Hope this helps.
Please let me know if i should upload screenshots of memory statistics from "mem /c/p" or a bootdisk with the different memory managers in config.sys

Bye, Michael

[amiga_amigo]

Hello Toni

- yet another issue in beta6:

Mouse driver fails to load when resetting PC-bridgeboard with ALT_GR+DEL or CTRL+ALT+DEL (driver loads fine if reset via PCReset - thanks to your fix recently).
Also my currently used keyboard driver fails after ALT_GR+DEL but (surprise) loads fine after CTRL+ALT+DEL or PCReset.

Michael

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by amiga_amigo

EMM memory is still giving mixed results - i think there's still an issue.

This could be normal.. It looks like there are 2 kinds of EMS implementations, hardware and software. Hardware uses chipset hardware EMS banking (=page mapping is practically instant) and software simply uses CPU to copy data between EMS banks in high RAM and XMS memory.

Bridgeboard install disk driver uses hardware, others use software (=no accesses to chipset EMS registers). Possibly hardware driver is old and basic and simply allocates all XMS memory and also does not support all newer features. Perhaps never version exists? Driver appears to be generic chipset driver from chipset manufacturer.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by amiga_amigo

Mouse driver fails to load when resetting PC-bridgeboard with ALT_GR+DEL or CTRL+ALT+DEL (driver loads fine if reset via PCReset - thanks to your fix recently).
Also my currently used keyboard driver fails after ALT_GR+DEL but (surprise) loads fine after CTRL+ALT+DEL or PCReset.

ALT+DEL does not seem to do any kind of hardware reset. Unless keyboard mcu does it but at least PCem keyboard emulation does not do it. Of course it is always possible bridgeboard keyboard mcu code does something different than most normal AT keyboard mcus..

[amiga_amigo]

Hello,

This could be normal.. It looks like there are 2 kinds of EMS implementations, hardware and software. Hardware uses chipset hardware EMS banking (=page mapping is practically instant) and software simply uses CPU to copy data between EMS banks in high RAM and XMS memory.

Sounds reasonable - guess you're right.
I checked available options for the jemmex memory manager yesterday. There's an option to enable/disable VCPI (whatever this is).
Disabling it makes jemmex behave exactly like emm.sys - same error message with strike commander, system hang with wing commander, "strange" memory stats with mem /c/p.
So emm.sys might just be "incomplete" and not working the way i had expected.

ALT+DEL does not seem to do any kind of hardware reset...

Not ALT+DEL but ALT_GR(!)+DEL.

Ok - i see... ALT_GR seems not to be on a standard english qwerty keyboard layout. Just google images for "qwertz keyboard" and you'll see it's a key on the right hand side of spacebar.
It's used to access characters on keys with 3 functions (shift is used to access second).
Most of the time it does the same as pressing CTRL+ALT simultaniously - So ALT_GR+DEL is like CTRL+ALT+DEL.
The difference is CTRL+ALT+DEL brings up the windows screen where you can lock the computer, change account, access taskmanager, shutdown computer, etc. (or reboot an old dos-PC).
ALT_GR+DEL doesn't bring up the windows screen but just reboots the bridgeboard emulation.
Handy little shortcut.

p.s.
forgot to say: DEL is NUMPAD<,> for bridgeboard (or NUMPAD<.> on english keyboard).
Also - found today that keyboard actually works after resets (no matter if done via PCReset or CTRL+ALT+DEL or ALT_GR+DEL).
But if i use ALT_GR+DEL for reset, i have to press ALT_GR after reboot once again to get keyboard input working. It behaves as if it's capslock'ed although ALT_GR doesn't lock normally...

Michael

[Toni Wilen]

I meant ALT GR + DEL. It does reset the PC but it does not do any hardware level resets.

[amiga_amigo]

Ok - thanks Toni for clarifying.

If i understand correctly, the only way to fully reset the bridgeboard including bridgeboard expansions is to actually quit WinUAE then.
This makes testing configuration options or drivers for expansions slightly more time-consuming (speaking of DOS environment).

The reset/reboot possibilities i know are:

• PCReset: doesn't reset bridgeboard expansions at hardware level (or does it?)
  
  
• CTRL+ALT+DEL: doesn't reset at hardware level
• ALT_GR+DEL: doesn't reset at hardware level
• bbsetup (and ESC or END): crashes pc-emulation when using ems memory managers other than the (unusable - for me at least) emm.sys
  
  
• F12->reset: makes bridgeboard and soundblaster emulation stutter
• F12->restart: makes bridgeboard and soundblaster emulation stutter

PCReset seems to be the best alternative to quitting WinUAE currently. Even if it doesn't/didn't reset expansions, i haven't had side-effects except the mouse issue (which you fixed).
If a driver or configuration option works after PCReset then ok, if not, quitting and restarting WinUAE is mandatory to verify it's not a side-effect after PCReset.

Bye, Michael

[Tomislav]

Originally Posted by amiga_amigo

There's an option to enable/disable VCPI (whatever this is).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtua...gram_Interface

[ScottJ85]

While I don't think I'll ever have a reason to emulate a PC within an emulated Amiga, this is really, really cool.

[superfrog]

Hi Toni,

I don't know if it's better by now to post this question here or in a new thread but, it's a short question.

There was an "Emulator config" text box added to all x86 Bridgeboard option panels after BB emulation was converted to PCem core. I know you said in a post long ago that this could be used to set CPU speed for A2386SX, but also you said it was likely to change in the future.

I haven't found any other info about it, and wanted to ask if this still works, and if anything else has been added or changed more recently.

What are all the parameters that "Emulator config" field currently accepts?

Thanks as always!

[Toni Wilen]

http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=...9&postcount=69 is still valid.

Expansion menu is not designed to be dynamic (different contents depending on some other setting). No update plans so far.

[superfrog]

Originally Posted by superfrog

The main thing I wanted to see if you could address is the ticking noise that accompanies every keystroke.

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

It really does look like it is BIOS really does have key click code, it does very clear speaker data and enable bit changes.

I am posting a solution in response to this very old post I wrote a while back, since I recently figured out what was going on.

I was finding that with the A2088 Bridgeboard with PC speaker enabled, and older (pre-4.0) versions of DOS, that whenever I pressed a key, I heard an annoying "tick" or "click" sound through the emulated PC speaker. I also found that I could not type a backslash (\) character, which made typing path names impossible.

The solution to this is to use the KEYB.COM program to set the US (or possibly other) keymap. Newer versions of DOS boot/install disks do this for you on boot, which is why I didn't have this issue with them.

So, if you can't type backslash in your PC Window, or keystrokes are making noise through the PC speaker, just add "KEYB.COM US" to your AUTOEXEC.BAT and you will be able to type backslash, and the annoying tick sound goes away as well.

No response needed here, I'm just sharing this for the benefit of anyone else who has this problem and goes searching for a solution.