Made ROM SIMMs, wrote ROMdisk driver, need help debugging

[olePigeon]

It's included with the Netscape Navigator and Communicator installers.

 

[JDW]

There's another one called ADB Reset that I keep on my KVM'd Macs.

Please uploaded that to Macintosh Garden!

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I'll see what I can do. I know it's on the 2300c, but I'm afraid to fire it up again until I recap it, I'll see if I can find it on a backup CD.

 

[ZaneKaminski]

Has 6.0.8 been considered?

Yes, but I think it's better to have 6.0.8 on the 2MB and 7/7.1 on the 8MB. The RAM disk (which of course you don't have to use) requires 7.5MB of RAM on the 8MB SIMM but only 1.5MB on the 2MB, so it's sort of fitting that the 6.0.8 version has a smaller RAM requirement to use the RAM disk. Ooh, but that reminds me, the driver still requires 9.5MB on 6.0.8 because of how the RAM is allocated. (And who has 9.5MB? That basically means 16MB is required.) I've gotta fix this in the driver before shipping.

If indeed you used 1oz copper, and if your 1.20mm thickness measurement was based on that AND measured from the outer edge of the copper pads, then going to 2oz would make a thickness of 1.27mm!  Perfect!

Ooh yes, looks like I made a mistake too... I forgot to add the thickness on both sides. This is perfect as long as they aren't thinning the core of the board. I'm so excited if this solves the problem! I'll try this on the next batch. 

I’m going to throw the freeware CD Sunrise extension into the discussion here because that is small, universal and has been very reliable for me at least. 

Okay, I'll try that instead of the Apple one.

Macsbug! Please please please include Macsbug. 
 

also System Picker. 

Mmm yes, good call on Macsbug. Thanks.

What is an example situation that crops up where [ADB Reset] solves the problem?  

I think the purpose might be to reassign ADB addresses after startup. If you plug in two devices of the same type in and boot the Mac, they initially have the same device address. The start manager reassigns the address of one of the devices and records this change in the ADB Manager's device table. If you unplug and re-plug the device which has had its address reassigned, its address goes back to default, but the ADB manager doesn't know about this, so the Mac keeps trying to talk to that device using its old address. Of course, hot-swapping is not allowed, but some people do it anyway, and there's the KVM use case as well.

Was any version of Expander released for unlicensed use?

I've gotta look into this as well. I wanna choose the software I include carefully. Obviously Apple has demonstrated that they are okay with distributing their abandonware, but I'm weary of companies that currently exist and may become litigious over the inclusion of their abandonware in these kinds of collections. Games are off-limits as well, since they're just as fun as they were back then, so the case for their inclusion being fair use on the basis of low commercial viability is more difficult than for StuffIt, for example.

I also think that it's an embarrassment that there isn't an open-source StuffIt clone! Maybe I will start a StuffIt clone project and we can all contribute.

What about a copy of Disinfectant or some kind of antivirus? This could be very useful to have on the ROM, as it could remove viruses from the main drives without getting infected itself -due to the nature of the ROM.

Ooh yeah, good point about the read-onlyness. Will do.

 

[JDW]

 [ADB] hot-swapping is not allowed, but some people do it anyway...

In the rare few times I've hot-swapped ADB devices by accident, my SE/30 froze.  Not sure if that happens on other ADB Macs, but the freezes certainly keep hot swapping from becoming a habit on the SE/30!  I also had an Apple IIgs keyboard attached to my SE/30 that once had bad caps.  It was hell trying to figure out what was causing my SE/30 to freeze all the time, but I isolated the problem to the keyboard, then changed the 2 keyboard caps for tantalums and the freezing problem vanished.

 

[Crutch]

That’s interesting.  I have been (inadvertently, due to forgetfulness) occasionally hot-swapping ADB devices forever, including with my SE/30s, and have never once seen a problem on any machine, to the point where I’d begun to decide the admonitions against hot-swapping ADB devices were a myth.

I do have one particular Mac Plus, though, where if I plug in one particular made-in-Japan DB9 mouse while the Plus is running, it will reboot itself.  100% of the time.  It doesn’t happen with any other mouse, or any other Mac.  I even tried recapping the mouse — no difference.  

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

That’s interesting.  I have been (inadvertently, due to forgetfulness) occasionally hot-swapping ADB devices forever, including with my SE/30s, and have never once seen a problem on any machine, to the point where I’d begun to decide the admonitions against hot-swapping ADB devices were a myth.

It would be interesting to determine what fries the ADB controller on occasion. I'll hazard a guess that there's a power overload protection/power manager function built in. When finger fumbled hotswap causes power to be supplied to a peripheral without data line/initialization signal the IC shoots itself in both feet. Application of Occam's Razor has me thinking that occasional static discharge events could be the culprit.

That's a tangent for another thread so I'll end my part with this: using a mechanical KVM switch isn't a problem, lest they'd have not been on the market for years. So if you've got two or more Macs in close vicinity and a shortage of input devices, get a KVM Switch.

edit: I wonder if S-Video switches are still available? That'd suffice for an assemblage of Compact Macs a/o other AIOs quite neatly.

 

[uyjulian]

I also think that it's an embarrassment that there isn't an open-source StuffIt clone! Maybe I will start a StuffIt clone project and we can all contribute.

The Unarchiver already exists.

For something written in C, this project was made to extract System 6 disk images, based on The Unarchiver sources: https://www.gryphel.com/c/minivmac/extras/ua608d/index.html

 

[CC_333]

The Unarchiver already exists.

True, but that's for modern Macs, yes?  Couldn't something similar be made that can run on 68k/early PPC Macs?

c

 

[JDW]

@ZaneKaminski

I've sent you two PMs about your ROM over the past few days but haven't heard back from you.  Not sure if the forum notifications are down again, but neither of the YouTube videos I made for you have any views other than my own, which indicates you did not receive my PMs.  I don't know your email address, so I cannot contact you that way.  Hopefully you will spot this post.

Thanks.

 

[tt]

@ZaneKaminski Are the SIMMs programmable from the host machine? If not, can we use our programmers that were designed by @dougg3? I saw the screenshot of the utility to adjust the options, how does that work? Your comments on updating the way drivers work in ROM are very interesting.

Is it possible to fit networking in the 7.1 boot image to allow for connecting to AppleShare servers? This is something I've wanted to do with my 8MB SIMM but I don't remember if it wasn't feasible or if it requires too much space.

Also definitely interested in buying one. If you need help testing the new 8MB board I'm interested in checking it out.

 

[JDW]

Since Zane is not replying, I will ask you folks.  I have a ROM sealed inside its anti-static bag.  I get only vertical lines on cold boot when used in my fully recapped SE/30 (no PDS card or accelerators attached), even after 3 minutes of waiting.  I reseated the ROM, and I even used the metal support bar the ROM-inator II documentation recommends.  Nothing works.

QUESTION 1: Do these ROMs come programmed or not?  It might be blank.

QUESTION 2:  If the ROM is blank, can I use my ROM-inator II programmer to program Zane's ROM?  If so, where is the *.bin file?

Thanks.

 

[Crutch]

Mine came programmed (and works great out of the box, nicely done @ZaneKaminski)

 

[JDW]

Mine came programmed (and works great out of the box, nicely done @ZaneKaminski)

In what Mac?

I am trying unsuccessfully to use it in my fully recapped and properly functioning (otherwise) SE/30.

 

[reukiodo]

I've had a lot of time to think about what to include in a 'recover' image on the thread https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?app=forums&module=forums&controller=topic&id=56932

I'm curious if we could fit all of these utilities in the 8MB SIMM with System 8.1, I would definitely order one. Since it has a switch for 2 different 8MB ROMs, maybe one with the popular 7.1 option, and the other with 8.1 for HFS+ support?

 

[cheesestraws]

Trying to get what everyone wants from their recovery partition into 8mb, especially a read-only 8mb, sounds like an impossibility.  A better option is probably where things were going to start with; provide enough of a basis to get other things on safely.  So, disk utilities, CD-ROM drivers, maybe Zip disk drivers (?), Ethernet drivers, Disinfectant, AppleShare.  It's probably better to think about this as a Disk Tools replacement, rather than as a full Recovery Partition.

 

[jammi]

I also think that it's an embarrassment that there isn't an open-source StuffIt clone! Maybe I will start a StuffIt clone project and we can all contribute.

Stuffit Expander does have an alternative: MindExpander. It's not open source, but it is Freeware IIRC. I used to use that in the late era Mac OS before moving on to Mac OS X. Seemed compatible enough and was less bloated than Stuffit Expander, and I can't remember having any issues with it either.

 

[Crutch]

In what Mac?

I am trying unsuccessfully to use it in my fully recapped and properly functioning (otherwise) SE/30.

Also an SE/30. 

 

[jammi]

Disinfectant

Have you ever encountered any of the viruses it's supposed to protect against? Nevertheless any of them for the past 30 years or so.

Also, I'd vote BBEdit Lite (freeware) to be included. TeachText is severly limited in text editing. For instance, it doesn't support a text file over 32kB in size, since that's a resource limitation or something like that.

 

[cheesestraws]

Have you ever encountered any of the viruses it's supposed to protect against? Nevertheless any of them for the past 30 years or so. 

A couple of them pop up often enough in older downloads in my experience that it's probably better to be safe, especially given that Disinfectant is really light and small.