On which machine did you start it? Did you try Start->Run->Browse? Can you start something from disc?

Hi Prodatron,

I think your Symbos project is one of the greatest things that have happened to MSX in a long time and I am amazed at how fast things are going. The terminal window is a very nice (and fast!) tool that adds major usability to the OS. I do still have a problems configuring things however.

When I start Symbos from the floppy (it has the direcory structure of the zip file) I can't start anything by clicking. Right clicking on te desktop or clicking on the desktop icons tells me: "File not found, please check your input". I can use the run dialog and browse to the applications and start them that way.

The first thing I do then is always start the control panel and select the System icon. Symbos calls the floppy a:\ but after starting it from floppy, the system path defaults to e:\, which is the MSXDOS drive letter that points to the floppy drive. Changing it to a:\apps\ corrects it. Trying to save the config doesn't work however. Clicking on the save option in the control panel menu or start menu has no effect.

When I copy Symbos, using the same directory structure, to A:\SYMBOS\ (on my first IDE partition), and start it then, I get the same File not found errors, and Symbos again defaults to the drive pointed to by the MSXDOS drive letter where it was started from, now a:\. Changing the system path to c:\symbos\apps\ is the solution here too. When I save the config file now, it still saves it on the floppy though. I copied the file to a:\symbos\ but it is loaded from floppy when I start Symbos again. However, after that, when I click on something, I get another error (code 2): "A disc error occured(...)" whenever I try to reach the IDE device.

Other things:

I can also never reach any other partition than the one specified using the p parameter (or the default one when omitting the parameter). Trying to add one using the control panel results in an error.

When I switch my MSX to 7MHz, I get an error 26 when I try to use the floppy drive (I don't know what controller it has, Symbos otherwise usually has no problems with it when I start it without f parameter or with f1. Sometimes it hangs completely after startup though.

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Hi Alex, currently it's a little bit tricky to set the device, where SymbOS loads/saves the config file (symbos.ini). Here is the current rule: - first SymbOS tries to load the config from the root directory of the 4.partition (=1 for MSX) of the primary IDE device. - if this device does not exist, or if there is no SYMBOS.INI in the root directory, it stores the config on the device, where SymbOS has been started from. Unfortunately the standard config in SymbOS is like the Windows one, A=Floppy1, B=Floppy2, C=Harddisc1/Partition1 etc, while MSX has the harddisc at first. So you should copy the SYMBOS.INI on the 1.partition of your IDE device before you boot SymbOS. Then you can load/save it later from IDE and can change your configuration. Please tell me, if you need a SYMBOS.INI. I wonder, if the MegaSCSI is also a very important extension. I saw it on the Euskal at Konamimans machine, maybe I should support it, too?

Hi Prodatron,

Having an example SYMBOS.INI file would indeed be usefull. Can you post one in this forum and as a future enhancement include one in the ZIP download file on your site?

MegaSCSI is used a lot in Japan as SCSI interface. Furthermore, ESE-MSX uses a MegaSCSI compatible interface to access SD-Memory cards as harddrive (not so surprising if you know that MegaSCSI is another product from ESE Artists Factory). So if the OCM (which is based on ESE-MSX) ever becomes a reality then it would be great if symbos could be started directly from the SD-Memory card inserted into the OCM SD-slot.

Kind regards,
Alex

Isn't this the largest thread on mrc????

There's this one.

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On which machine did you start it? Did you try Start->Run->Browse? Can you start something from disc?

Had the same things as Dietrick, file not found errors on all icons and what not. Did not use a .dsk but on HD (as mentioned)

I forgot to mention that I'm only testing Symbos on a real MSX with an IDE CF.

Sorry, guys, I will upload an IDE version (where you can copy everything on the CF card/hard disc) and a floppy version (which you can start from disc), each with a SYMBOS.INI, as soon as possible...
I also see, that it's very important to have an installer - usually I don't like installers, but here it might be useful.

Thanx, prodatron. Well a well documented procedure might do the trick. Installation doesn't have to be tricky, right.

I updated the ZIP with several (example) SYMBOS.INI files:

http://www.symbos.de/files/symbosmsx.zip

Please have a look at the #README.TXT file, here you should get all information about what INI file you should choose.
Please then do copy all files and the correct INI onto the disc/hard disc/CD card, from which you want to start SymbOS then.

If you have still problems, please ask here...

(the screen saver is configured for the TurboR, on normal machines you should choose less starts and a higher speed).

Great! It works! Thanks! (!)

Cool! Now it actually works on MY TurboR as well! (Though only in z80 mode, and it claims to have 576kb ram when it has 1024). In R800 DRAM mode it hangs as soon as I try to open anything. Didn't try ROM mode yet. Congrats on your first release!

Right now SymbOS can't use more than 576Kb due to porting restrictions. Although it seems enough to launch an amazing amount of apps, I'm sure Prodatron will work on it sooner or later...

1MB should be possible in the future, but this is the maximum. The problem is, that because of the CPC origin I didn't think about bigger extensions than 512KB. So at some places I use nibbles to store the number of a 64KB bank (16*64K=1MB).
But as jltursan said, even 576KB seem to be enough for nearly everything

@Algorythms: Strange, that it doesn't run in R800 mode on your machine. Can you test it in R800 mode without the 1MB memory extension, so only with the internal 256KB/512KB? Do you have a ST or GT?

Prod: It's a GT with 1024kb internal ram, so it would be kinda hard to test. I also do not have the original 28MHz xtal, but 32MHz and 40MHz switchable, so that might also have a say. Also the graphic output in shell mode has some bugs in fullscreen. But that's the case in dos too in z80 mode. I do understand that the xtal makes my MSX a bit incompatible, but on all other software - worstcase scenario is off-tune psg compared to fm, and some minor gfx glitches in z80 mode. I can try with my friend's ST with 512kb internal.
I tried mine in R800 ROM mode yesterday, and it didn't hang until I tried browsing for a file. Then it hangs showing A:Floppy (Which I ofcourse turned off with f0). Maybe you could try to have the floppy drives totally disabled when f0 parameter is given?