Minimig on v2

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Don't Panic. Please wash hands.
    Quote from redrumloa

    I really appreciate your ports to v2 and recent bug fixes. Any chance updating the core to a later Minimig build? It seems you are the only one that understands the Minimig core. I'd chip into a bounty if that helped.

    Otherwise, one major request would be to map the C64 keyboard to the Minimig core. I'd absolutely love to be able to use the 64 keyboard and not a ps/2 one on the breakout cable.

    Unfortunately it's not just a case of stripping out the old Minimig logic and replacing it with the updated version. The original Minimig and other FPGA platforms have a dedicated microcontroller to deal with the SD card, menus, etc. On the TC64 the core needs to implement these functions using a second CPU instance, replacing the microcontroller. The existing core uses a second instance of the TG68 CPU for this, but it almost certainly won't fit alongside the newer, larger Minimig logic - so I need to find a much smaller CPU that will either run reliably at 113MHz, or has fast enough throughput at 28MHz, or add another clock to the design - and then port the firmware and bootloader to the new CPU, then update the firmware to be in sync with the new core - then add an extra port to the new SDRAM controller to serve the new CPU - and hope that it all still fits! It's still part of my long-term plan, but it's competing for my time with other less daunting projects! I'm also aware that if I'm going to do it, I should do it in a clean enough manner that the work can be leveraged to port other cores in future.


    Adding C64 keyboard support is certainly something I'd like to do in future. I'm still considering the best way to achieve it.

    Hi,


    I have installed Minimig Core to my TC64v2, and added kick.rom and SYS files to SD Root directory. Everything works fine.


    Is there a How to or Manual to learn how to us it? I want to start testing Workbench and loading some games.


    Thanks and regards


    David

    That's basically "how to use Amiga" then :) You might be able to find some scanned manuals on the web?


    As for games, which come on "disk" (.adf files), you just "insert" them into the drive, then reset the emualted amiga - and it will run.


    Workbench has to be installed on a harddrive image... the general recommendation for that is to use WinUAE to create the image and do the install, and then move over the result to your sd card to use in minimig.

    YES...networking thru RRNET ...thank you....me too :) It would be SO COOL!!

    Quote from robinsonb5

    Christian Vogelgsang did create a fork of the core (for V1 hardware) some time ago which makes the clock port visible to the Minimig, so it's definitely possible - however it can't work while the TC64's connected to a real C64 - and might even be hazardous to a C64, since (if I understand his blog post correctly) the address and data lines are shared between the cartridge connector and the clockport. http://lallafa.de/blog/2013/09…for-chameleon64s-minimig/


    I don't know how difficult it would be to solve that issue - or if it's even possible, but I don't currently have any clockport peripherals for testing, so I'll add that one to the "Maybe one day" list.


    As for P96/RTG support - it would be great to have this, but it's a tremendous amount of work and the result is likely to be pretty slow since we have just a single 16-bit-wide SDRAM chip to work with.

    I would send you and lend my RRNETMK3 for you to develop on as for me it is useless now until the v2_core supports it :) I am sorry can't give it to you for free, but I would send&lend if you want to give it a go. It would, as you said, be most useful for us who use the TC in standalone mode, though. But for me -- that is exactly what I need :D

    Quote from espskog

    I would send you and lend my RRNETMK3 for you to develop on as for me it is useless now until the v2_core supports it :) I am sorry can't give it to you for free, but I would send&lend if you want to give it a go. It would, as you said, be most useful for us who use the TC in standalone mode, though. But for me -- that is exactly what I need :D

    That's a really nice thought, so thank you for that - but unfortunately there are a number of problems.

    Jens explained on the previous page that there are no Amiga drivers for the RRNet's networking chip. So even if I add clockport support to the core, you still wouldn't be able to use it unless someone wrote a driver.

    (For what it's worth, I have no idea how to write an Amiga networking driver!)


    Also, as Jens explained, even if someone wrote a driver, it would disappointingly slow because the chip on the RRNET doesn't support interrupts in 8-bit mode, so the emulated Amiga would spend most of its time polling the chip.


    Another problem is that I've soldered the optional JTAG headers to both my Chameleons, so that while developing I can upload cores directlyinto the FPGA - but there isn't room to connect a clock-port device once the JTAG header's been added.

    Gotcha. Thank for the detailed reply. I will now cry a little an get back in the boat :-D

    Quote from Darthcustom

    I understand that Minimig needs a PS2 Keyboard and Mouse to use it. IS that right? Also, in this case, can Joysticks connected to the C64 be used within games?

    Currently a PS/2 keyboard is required - though you can do a fair bit without one.


    A PS/2 mouse is required (I can't remember without checking whether a real Amiga mouse works with the docking station - I think it does.)


    Joysticks connected to the C64 do work, as does a CDTV controller if you have one. (The CDTV controller is far from perfect, but it's a much better controller than you might expect it to be.)


    EDIT: just to confirm, a real Amiga mouse does work with the docking station.

    Hi again,


    Thanks for the answer. I plugged an USB mouse to the PS2 mouse port with an adaptor, and mouse is working fine. I'm loading workbench 1.3 disk but I'm getting an MINIMIG Error: error WriteTrack Code: #27


    Does it have to do with Disk being write protected? How can I remove protection?


    I'm planning to connect an USM keyboard with similar adaptor, hope it works fine.


    As for the Hardisk, I have created a Hardisk with command

    mkfile 512m Hardfile.hdf


    Then moved the file to the SD at \AMIGA\Hardfile.hdf, but when I activate the hardisk support in Minimmig options menu, it does not recognize the file. Does it have to be in the root directory? Any special name?


    Thanks

    Quote from Dr.OG

    I followed this detailed tutorial to create a working, minimig core compatible hdf file:

    http://amiga.amedia-computer.c…ation_Minimig_English.pdf

    This is what I'm following. But once I create the Harddisk file, I copy it to the SD, boot Minimig on Chamaleon V2, hit Run/STOP to display MINIMIG menu, activate Harddisk but when I select FILE, the MINIMIG says there are no files. I can manage to start Workbench 1.3 adf file, but no luck with hdf. Any ideas?


    Thanks

    OK, some progress. I moved the HDF file to the root directory of the SD and now minimig finds it. I have not read in any place that HDF file needs to be in the root directory. Now I need to initialise the disk.


    Problem now is that I'm only able to boot using Workbench 1.3.3 ADF disk. I'm trying to boot with Workbench 2.1 and workbench 3.0 or 3.1.. I´using ADF files from AMIGA TOSEC.


    When I select the Install (1/6) or Workbench (2/6) image files in the firs disk unit, the system does not boot and ask for Workbench 1.3 disk.


    When I boot with Workbench 1.3 and select other disks in the second drive, I get an icon of the disk, but cannot open the unit.


    Any ideas? Suggestions of Workbench distributions that I need to use?


    Thanks

    It sounds like you're using a Kickstart 1.3 ROM (white boot screen with a line drawing of a hand and a disk - rather than a purple screen with an animation of a disk being inserted into a disk drive?) If so, you won't be able to boot a Workbench 2 or 3 disk - you'll need a newer kickstart ROM for that. You'll also need a newer kickstart ROM to use the emulated hard disk.


    (The Error 27 you mentioned earlier probably means there's a problem with the communication between the emulated Amiga and the menu / disk controller firmware. Normally I'd ask for more details, but there will be a new version of the core in the fairly near future, so when I come to release that I'll ask for more details then if the problem persists. Write protection would be indicated by error 30 - if you set the ADF file's "read only" attribute using Windows, that write protects the disk.)

    Hi Alastair,


    You are certainly right. I changed Kickstart 1.3 ROM to newer version and now I've been able to set up the Harddisk and install Workbench 3. With this new ROM, error 27 is less frequent, but I got it a couple of times. I´ll stay tuned for the new release.


    As a former Commodore 64 owner as teenager I always wanted to have an Amiga. Now I have it!!!! Thanks to Chameleon and Minimig!!!


    Thanks Alastair for your great work and support


    David

    Quote from Darthcustom

    I changed Kickstart 1.3 ROM to newer version and now I've been able to set up the Harddisk and install Workbench 3. With this new ROM, error 27 is less frequent, but I got it a couple of times. I´ll stay tuned for the new release.


    As a former Commodore 64 owner as teenager I always wanted to have an Amiga. Now I have it!!!! Thanks to Chameleon and Minimig!!!

    Glad to hear it's working better now. This is actually the first time I've heard of someone having the Error 27 problem - but I must admit writing to ADF files isn't something I've done very much - so I'll add that to the "smoke tests" I do before making a release.


    I've thought for a number of years that some kind of "Retro Orientation" resource would be useful - to help people get up to speed with retro platforms that they're not familiar with. A series of "Things To See and Do in <insert retro platform> Land" style articles, maybe.

    Hi there,


    I'm still learning about Minimig on my TC64v2. I.´ve found some Amiga apps, like Sysinfo, and DOpus Plus.


    Sysinfo works just fine. It reports 68010 CPU and Speed si 110% compared to Amiga 600.


    I have downloaded DOpus Plus file manager, but it is in ISO format. Is there a way to "insert" ISO files in MINIMIG?


    Thanks and regards


    David

    In the onscreen menus you should be able to set the CPU to 68020, and enable some Fast RAM - this will make the SysInfo reported speed much higher - but will make the Minimig somewhat less compatible with older games.


    I don't know whether it's currently possible to coerce the HDF system into mounting a .iso - but it won't be straightforward. If it's possible, it will involve fiddling with mountfiles and filesystems. Exploring that is something I will add to my "To Do" list.