CD32Load

[jotd]

Anyone tested CD32load on a compact flash running on Terrible Fire 32 (IDEHD mode)?

Anyone knows if a CF card mounted in Winuae is IDE? because CD32load fails on such a card (mounting as IDE:0)

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by jotd

Anyone knows if a CF card mounted in Winuae is IDE? because CD32load fails on such a card (mounting as IDE:0)

Yes. If you also configured correct hardware (A600/A1200 IDE is ticked in advanced chipset)

Also: Not enough information.

[jotd]

yes, A600/A1200 IDE is ticked, or the card won't boot/be recognized. The issue is when starting CD32load (which uses custom HDD IO which work on a real HDD): it doesn't seem to be able to read the data from the card, even if it's IDE.

[Amiga1992]

you have the same one I do and probably the same RAM chips in it, there is a slight chance it might have issues, been experimenting with it but nothing conclusive yet.
I meant to test CD32Load with it but haven't gotten to it yet because of these issues I am encountering.

By the way does anyone have the latest CD32Load test ISO? I want to update it to 0.33 and do tests.

[Amiga1992]

OK I am trying this setup out in WinUAE before I get to the CD32 but I am failing to run CD32Load off the HD.

I have a hard drive with 4 partitions:
HD0 - PFS3
HD1 - FFS
HD2 - FFS
HD3 - FFS


CD32Load is version 0.33

I put my CD32Load game (Turrican 3) in HD3, and I am trying to invoke it like this:

cd32load Turrican3.slave FILECACHE JOYPAD=0 IDEHD DISKUNIT=4

This is what I get after some seconds:



I tried DISKUNIT=3, same shit.

Any clues?

[jotd]

partitions, that's not going to cut it. DISKUNIT is for _disks_. I made that work on WinUAE by creating an FFS harddisk image and mount that using A600/A1200 IDE.

[Amiga1992]

So I can't use it for partitions in scsi.device? No way at all to implement this?
I can't have just one partition (large drive), and I wanted to keep my system partition stable (hence I don't use FFS).

I need to understand what i need to do here to make tests. Would prefer not having to get another CF card that I will have with FFS only, but if that's what it's gotta be, so be it.

I am puzzled though because spudje has 3 partitions with xbench and he was managing to use CD32Load with his games in partition 3. How did you do it, spudje?
Should I just put diskunit=1? The docs don't really explain what diskunit does this is why I thought it was also for partitions.

[jotd]

the hd read code is borrowed from Rob Northen CD read code. It's probably test purposes only, to be able to run games on HD first. It's IDE only. SCSI won't work. UNIT seems to be the physical unit, not logical, but I may be wrong.

[spudje]

I'm currently on holiday, will take a closer look to this thread again when I'm back home.

[Amiga1992]

OK thanks spudje!

I couldn't even get this to run in WinUAE, I set diskunit = 0 and it hang with a white screen, reading/doing nothing.

If it just works on one partition only,I 'll have to get another CF exclusively for CD32Load. I just want to know what kind of scenario I am supposed to have to be able to run it and do tests to help you out.

Gonna wait for spudje to come round and explain how he got it working!

[Amiga1992]

By the way JOTD, did you use supaduper's card as it was to test this? He formats them in PFS3.

[jotd]

no I'm not using his card, I've bought another one formatted in FFS. But one card reader I had destroyed his first CF card. He sent another one and it works.

Still no luck starting a CD32load game from winuae or the CF card on real HW.

[jotd]

No luck with WinUAE, as I said. I mounted the card like this:



formatted FFS international, 512 blocks. no luck mounting with A600/A1200 IDE. Rob Northen IDE loader doesn't work, HRTmon detects no IDE either. Strange. Same thing works fine with hard disk image mounted with WinUAE, CF or HD

[Amiga1992]

Where it says IDE(auto) it must say A600/1200 IDE

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by Akira

Where it says IDE(auto) it must say A600/1200 IDE

Thats not important, it is important that A600/A1200 IDE is listed. (=it is enabled in advanced chipset)

[jotd]

I confirm that auto or A600 works with HD image. but not with the actual CF (and not with the real hardware, which is supposed to emulate IDE)

CD32Load seems inadapted for this problem. I'm thinking about back-merging the changes made to CD32load to JST and focus on JST for those low-spec / with RAM machines.

Terrible Fire could benefit from RAM-loaded games from JST emulating whdload, and the joypad redirection, using the same options as CD32load.

[Amigajay]

Hey JOTD just to let you know Global Gladiators still isnt working on real CD32 hardware, even with the latest slave, tried with and without filecache with cd32load first of all, then thought ok just in case ill try whdload to make sure and still doesnt work, just goes black screen, still something wrong with an interupt or whatever is stopping it, any chance you could look at this again for me?

btw Cool Spot works now on real HW, in case these Virgin games are linked closely, cheers

[jotd]

strange as I tested it myself. Anyone confirms that it doesn't work / works?

[Amigajay]

Perhaps my disks are a different version to yours, if you upload yours to the zone I’ll burn another disc to test

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by jotd

I confirm that auto or A600 works with HD image. but not with the actual CF (and not with the real hardware, which is supposed to emulate IDE)

I would love to test this for you, but I still don't understand how my hard drive should be configured to run CD32Load. You said partitions won't work? Should it just be one partition? That means I can't use a large drive.

I want to buy a CF just to test this.


If your TF328 is not reading the CF at all, there might be an issue. Mine works fine, so I dunno exactly what you are facing to help you out. I can send you an HDF to plonk on a card that should work (just maybe not with CD32Load). Maybe you can also send an HDF of your card to me to test.