Prometheus - Best Practices?

[trixster]

Yeah, I’d forgotten about that!

i seem to recall the issue was 3dfxvoodoo.chip v7.15 and prometheus.card v7.600 would somehow break WHDLoad. Some games just show a black screen, some switch successfully but then the screen and / or keyboard input would lock up.

reverting to 3dfxvoodoo.chip v7.11 and prometheus.card v7.530 resolved the problem. I can’t remember if I tried other versions of the libraries.

[Hedeon]

I guess it is some interrupt handling problem. As soon as I find the motivation, i'll have a look.

[spudje]

Mmm, no idea which I installed on my AA3000+. Guess the latest. Latest I could find I have downloaded are 3dfxvoodoo.chip v7.16 & prometheus.card v7.600.

If I find some time I'll check whether I have the same issues.

[Timtheloon]

Before I send these Firebirds off to hese if he will let me, I thought I would try here first.

I have 2 of these cards and both made by the same person and both do exactly the same thing. now the builder wasn't able to test these so I'm the initial tester.

@trixster has help my out a great deal via PM but we still cant get it to see PCI cards Correctly. the Prometheus shows up on WhichAmiga with the new firmware id.

Now I've even tried to flash the firmware again (Only on one of them) with a USB Blaster which seemed to go ok and it still shows up correctly on WhichAmiga. however I see an extra IC on the Programmer unlike @Wanglers Video on page 3 of this thread, now I don't know if that's correct due to this being a A4000 version of the firestorm. I believe it to be the Xilinx IC which I also believe can be programmed via the JTAG but with a different type of programmer.

I can get OpenPCIinfo to give me a read out but all PCI Id's are empty

My Open PCI Library is the 2.1 beta Version
and I'm using Prometheus libraries which @hedeon uploaded I've even tried @trixsters files the way he has them setup but still the same issue

PRMscan is always Blank or crashes with a ramlib error 80000004

has soon as the Prometheus Monitor driver is introduced I get ramlib 80000004 on start-up

I'm starting to think it the Xilina Flash which may be my issue but I don't have the correct programmer for that at the mo, or the file it requires to be flashed to it.

One thing which I've not tried yet is I'm using this with a BFG9060 so I may try a different accelerator just to rule it out.

[Hedeon]

You tried the 3.1 libraries?

The output is very weird on that second card and that is probably the reason for crashing.

the first card's output is also not correct.

It looks like that the Prometheus is not really there as it seems to read random stuff.

[Timtheloon]

Originally Posted by Hedeon

You tried the 3.1 libraries?

The output is very weird on that second card and that is probably the reason for crashing.

the first card's output is also not correct.

It looks like that the Prometheus is not really there as it seems to read random stuff.

Hi Hedeon,

Yes tried the 3.1 libraries too they where the first ones I tried until @trixster pointed me to yours. forgot to add the number you see on the so called PCI card changes ever time I restart the computer.

I tried both firebirds with an Apollo 4060 too, but the same thing was seen. I have to wait for my Xilinx programmer before I can try a reprogram on that, found its file in Hese's build files.

The next thing I will try is another motherboard just in case that may be the issue. but I will say this motherboard that I'm trying these firebird with, works fine with a Mediator MKII, The reason I want the firebird though is it seems to run a lot cooler than the mediator, but then again this is probably due to mine not working .

[Timtheloon]

Wow no updates on here since my last message

so I sent my cards to hese and he found the issue this was his reply to me (just want to point out hese is really busy and I had something he wanted so I exchange it for his repair service on these cards.)

I've added this information here because it may help someone else in the future

When I received the cards, I could confirm the same that they weren't working and even after reprogramming the Altera and Xilinx chips, the cards still didn't work.

It turned out the problem was not with the Altera chips but with the 33MHz oscillators.
Visually all looked fine with naked eyes. Only after de-soldering the connectors around the chips, I could inspect the solder joints with a magnifier and noticed that the oscillator on card #1 had a solder bridge which caused the oscillator not to work correctly.
And after removing the connectors from the second card, there was a similar problem. The oscillator on card #2 also had a solder bridge.
See the attached pictures. Solder bridges the pad on the PCB and the "metal recess" at the middle of the oscillator. Easier to see on the second picture.

I removed the oscillators and re-soldered them properly. I also installed the missing resistor network on the second card.
The cards weren't cleaned well when I received them, there was still flux residue left so I washed the cards.
I have tested the PCI part with a Voodoo 3 card and Picasso96 and both cards work now.
The Zorro part I tested with BigRam+ and Buddha IDE.

I've got the cards back and tested the first one and my Voodoo and Apocalypse both work

I'm gonna set it up with a prelude sound card and a triton USB card

I will do a fresh install because I am experiencing the odd random crash but I think its my OS because it originally had a mediator installed

Is there a place where to get Prometheus drivers for other PCI cards?

This firebird runs a lot cooler than the mediator

[Prosonic]

@Wrangler do you still have the key file for ArakAttack?

anyone have DMAlist i cant seem to locate it as well

[Hedeon]

@Timtheloon:

Great you got it working.

Drivers are not my focal point. But I heard something about (and not sure if they already existed before) a voodoo banshee driver, a FM801 driver (which seemed to work).

The standard drivers are on Aminet and in the first post of the sonnet thread (NE2000, Voodoo, Permedia, S3 virge)

[Doc Leisure]

Hello,

I stumbled over this tread looking for someone who could shed some light on the prometheus & soundcards issue...

I know about the OpenPCI Driver set "OP-FM801v0.9b-68k210503.lha" from "http://bvernoux.free.fr/DevPCI.php" but they seem not to work correctly with my "Terratec512i" soundcard...

...and than I found a promising hint here: "a FM801 driver (which seemed to work)" - is there more information available or a even better a download link?

Would be very happy to get my PCI soundcard up and running with my prometheus board.

Thanks and best regards

Doc Leisure

[Hedeon]

You need a DMA capable prometheus.

Manufacturer ID: 0x0e3b (3643)
Product ID : 0xc8 (200)

[Hedeon]

Updated library to 4.5. See:

https://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=997765&postcount=1

and

https://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p...postcount=5463

[grelbfarlk]

Has anyone tried the SBLive driver with the Prometheus included in AHI6?

[pipper]

Yes. It worked for me after tweaking Prometheus.libraray to dole out 4kb aligned DMA memory. I _think_ hedeon included these patches in his build of the library (and Prometheus.card) already.

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by pipper

Yes. It worked for me after tweaking Prometheus.libraray to dole out 4kb aligned DMA memory. I _think_ hedeon included these patches in his build of the library (and Prometheus.card) already.

Wait, seriously it actually works? The SoundBLaster Live, not the 128?

[Hedeon]

The alignment stuff is in prometheus.card only as the DMA buffers are allocated in there. The library just calls the function in the .card. It was added 8 months ago so it should be in there. You need the correct latest combination of the library and card as stuff got moved from one to the other.

I just tested it with hippoplayer and it works. After i used deoxit on the live! card. The latter being a tip as i had much problems getting anything to work after all these months including the Firebird itself...

[pipper]

FWIW in order to debug the AHI issue, I transferred the AHI sources from SourceForge to GitHub and made them cross-compile with Bebbo's toolchain:

https://github.com/mheyer32/AHI

(use branch "BRANCH6")
PR's are welcome!

It would be nice if the Emu10kx driver could be made to support more cards. For instance, this driver works well with the CT4780 type SbLive! cards, but not with the SB0200 type SbLive! ("Dell OEM"?) ones.
I also had NO success with the SoundBlaster Audigy (SB0570) card even though the AHI driver seems to have some code promising to support Audigy.

[grelbfarlk]

Is it possible to backport the AHI6 EMU10K driver to AHI 4.18 (the gooder one)?

[Hedeon]

For people wondering. If your Radeon has 2x128MB (and not 1x256MB) the second 128MB (which is part of a multifunctional device) is dropped by the prometheus.library as no drivers use it (as far as I know) and it leaves more room for other PCI cards.

Also, there is no official Radeon driver for the Prometheus/Firestorm/Firebird.

[grelbfarlk]

But the Ratte driver still works without Warp3d?