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Post by crispin on Jan 20, 2019 4:00:31 GMT
I made UART mod and for some reason I don't feel like I need FEL. Am I missing something?
I made 2,5mm audio jack at housing and it is rather easy to connect it to PC. I am not interested too much for ftp/wirelless connection with Mini, nor to buy special adapters (USB OTG could be the top of my investments here).
Beside, is it something changed at Mini with FEL?
I don't like idea that I could not update official firmware anymore.
Last thing: is it possible to compile / install MC (Midnight Commander) at Mini?
I am at Linux 24/7 but I am too lazy for CLI all the time.
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Post by streuti on Jan 20, 2019 9:47:45 GMT
I made UART mod and for some reason I don't feel like I need FEL. Am I missing something? I made 2,5mm audio jack at housing and it is rather easy to connect it to PC. I am not interested too much for ftp/wirelless connection with Mini, nor to buy special adapters (USB OTG could be the top of my investments here). Beside, is it something changed at Mini with FEL? I don't like idea that I could not update official firmware anymore. Last thing: is it possible to compile / install MC (Midnight Commander) at Mini? I am at Linux 24/7 but I am too lazy for CLI all the time. Hello crispin! This are the reasons I also don't do it. I invested too much time in the UART version. But may be one times it would be possible, to play against someone via network with the FEL method - that would be my dream. And a question: I would like to have an audio output. It seems to be possible, when I read your comment. Where are the soldering points at the board for the audio jack? Best Greetings |
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Post by jj0 on Jan 20, 2019 13:09:06 GMT
I made UART mod and for some reason I don't feel like I need FEL. Am I missing something? I made 2,5mm audio jack at housing and it is rather easy to connect it to PC. I am not interested too much for ftp/wirelless connection with Mini, nor to buy special adapters (USB OTG could be the top of my investments here). Beside, is it something changed at Mini with FEL? I don't like idea that I could not update official firmware anymore. Last thing: is it possible to compile / install MC (Midnight Commander) at Mini? I am at Linux 24/7 but I am too lazy for CLI all the time. If you have an UART mod (especially one with such a nice 2.5mm audio jack) then you are not missing anything. The FEL mode method is just a different way to get to a command prompt (on your TV or on SSH or on USB2Serial), that does not involve soldering and also for those C64 Mini's that have the FEL mode button avoids having to open to Mini. Nothing is changed at the Mini without the user being aware of it, they either do things manually or purposely use some of the example scripts. So the risks of firmware updates working or not are the same. And yes, you can run Midnight Commander, I compiled it just now, see this zip. You need to make your root rw otherwise mc complains about not being able to write in /root. Btw, can anybody explain how I add attachments using Cloudinary? I have the account set up, details entered in my account, I just don't get the Cloudionary widget when I click 'Add Attachment' (Copied to new "Adding attachments using Cloudinary" thread - Crispin) |
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Post by jj0 on Jan 20, 2019 13:13:08 GMT
I made UART mod and for some reason I don't feel like I need FEL. Am I missing something? I made 2,5mm audio jack at housing and it is rather easy to connect it to PC. I am not interested too much for ftp/wirelless connection with Mini, nor to buy special adapters (USB OTG could be the top of my investments here). Beside, is it something changed at Mini with FEL? I don't like idea that I could not update official firmware anymore. Last thing: is it possible to compile / install MC (Midnight Commander) at Mini? I am at Linux 24/7 but I am too lazy for CLI all the time. Hello crispin! This are the reasons I also don't do it. I invested too much time in the UART version. But may be one times it would be possible, to play against someone via network with the FEL method - that would be my dream. And a question: I would like to have an audio output. It seems to be possible, when I read your comment. Where are the soldering points at the board for the audio jack? Best Greetings See my previous post  Anything that you can do with the FEL hack you can do manually with the UART hack too. For netwrok play you would need to copy the appropriate network modules etc but more importantly it would need to be supported by the vice/'the64' emulator. Oh, and sorry to disappoint you, but Crispins 2.5mm audio jack is for the rx/tx/gnd of his UART. |
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Post by jj0 on Jan 20, 2019 15:50:17 GMT
I did stty rows 45 cols 75 ; resetand opened a few pages long program in the nano editor and scrolled down and up, and it became a mess on the screen. echo $TERM gives xterm-256color. The program I opened in nano was this Snake-game: wp.subnetzero.org/?p=269This program doesn't work with this FEL mode Linux in THEC64 MINI. Bash is probably not the real one. At least one should be able to edit it in Nano. Maybe I have forgotten to configure something. It could also be that the terminal emulation is not exactly xterm-256color. The file snake works in Raspbian Stretch and Lubuntu 16.04 on Raspberry Pi 3 and 2. Also this AWK-program does not work: hackaday.com/2016/01/15/wolfenstein-in-600-lines-of-code/This is probably because the AWK in Busybox is not Gawk. I thought it would be nice to show that you can develop games with Bash/Ash and Awk on THEC64 MINI. Of course you still need a PC to boot. If someone knows games that can be developed in Linux on THEC64 MINI, please give a hint where I can find them. The Linux environment I put together is really limited as to not take up too much room in memory. So a lot of 'normal' linux stuff will not work well. However you can use a more elaborate Linux version, it's just a matter of preparing a kernel and putting a rootfs on and USB drive and booting from that. For example (from memory): - Follow the instructions you can find on the OlinuXino LIME page on building the kernel and getting a rootfs
- Build that kernel (3.4.104) and put the uImage in the ./boot directory instead of the uImage I provided
- Put their rootfs on an USB drive (in partition sda1) instead of an SD-card
- Change in ./boot/uEnv 'ramfs=ramfs' to 'ramfs=root=/dev/sda1 rootdelay=2' to make it use the USB drive as rootfs
Alternatively, instead of using the OlinuXino kernel and rootfs, stick with 'my' 3.4.39 kernel: - Or you can download buildroot and generate a rootfs that has everything you want
- Put that on the USB drive (in partition sda1)
- Change in ./boot/uEnv 'ramfs=ramfs' to 'ramfs=root=/dev/sda1 rootdelay=2' to make it use the USB drive as rootfs
And then you can boot your Mini into full-blown Linux  . You won't be able to access the nand though, but that keeps is safe as well. You can connect a keyboard and mouse and a USB2Ethernet adapter and you're good to go. |
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Post by streuti on Jan 20, 2019 16:42:22 GMT
Hello crispin! This are the reasons I also don't do it. I invested too much time in the UART version. But may be one times it would be possible, to play against someone via network with the FEL method - that would be my dream. And a question: I would like to have an audio output. It seems to be possible, when I read your comment. Where are the soldering points at the board for the audio jack? Best Greetings See my previous post Anything that you can do with the FEL hack you can do manually with the UART hack too. For netwrok play you would need to copy the appropriate network modules etc but more importantly it would need to be supported by the vice/'the64' emulator. Oh, and sorry to disappoint you, but Crispins 2.5mm audio jack is for the rx/tx/gnd of his UART. Thx, I understand, the audio jack helps uarting the mini without opening the case. |
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Post by crispin on Jan 20, 2019 18:33:40 GMT
Thanks for info, especially for MC. Ummm... I am bit confused, what should I do with it? Just copy it to Mini I suppose (all folders). Something like cp -f /mnt/MC/* /(MC should be folder at USB stick where I extracted content of midnight commander.zip) "root rw" - you mean "mount -o remount, rw /"? - I need to do it (as a root) anyway, no? I mean if I want to change / copy anything. And "mount -o remount, ro /" and "umount /mnt" at the end of session, before poweroff. I've become a little bit rusty with bash / cli  |
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Post by jj0 on Jan 20, 2019 19:31:33 GMT
Thanks for info, especially for MC. Ummm... I am bit confused, what should I do with it? Just copy it to Mini I suppose (all folders). Something like cp -f /mnt/MC/* /(MC should be folder at USB stick where I extracted content of midnight commander.zip) "root rw" - you mean "mount -o remount, rw /"? - I need to do it (as a root) anyway, no? I mean if I want to change / copy anything. And "mount -o remount, ro /" and "umount /mnt" at the end of session, before poweroff. I've become a little bit rusty with bash / cli Try this version, it's better suited for unpacking correctly. To unpack, assuming you're in 'Mini' mode and not FEL mode and have the 'midnight commander.cpio.gz' on the root of an inserted USB drive, FIRST BACKUP YOUR NANDB if you didn't do so alreadyAnd then: mount /tmp/usbdrive/sda1 /mnt
mount -o remount,rw /
zcat /tmp/ramfs/midnight\ commander.cpio.gz | cpio -i
mc
Left File Command Options Right
┌<─ ~ ────────────────────────────.[^]>┐┌<─ ~ ────────────────────────────.[^]>┐
│.n Name │ Size │Modify time ││.n Name │ Size │Modify time │
│/.. │UP--DIR│Jan 1 00:07││/.. │UP--DIR│Jan 1 00:07│
│/.cache │ 4096│Jan 1 00:09││/.cache │ 4096│Jan 1 00:09│
│/.config │ 4096│Jan 1 00:09││/.config │ 4096│Jan 1 00:09│
│/.local │ 4096│Jan 1 00:09││/.local │ 4096│Jan 1 00:09│
│ .ash_history │ 4922│Jan 1 00:03││ .ash_history │ 4922│Jan 1 00:03│
│ vicerc │ 136│Jan 1 00:10││ vicerc │ 136│Jan 1 00:10│
│ │ │ ││ │ │ │
│ │ │ ││ │ │ │
│ │ │ ││ │ │ │
│ │ │ ││ │ │ │
│ │ │ ││ │ │ │
│ │ │ ││ │ │ │
│ │ │ ││ │ │ │
│ │ │ ││ │ │ │
│ │ │ ││ │ │ │
├──────────────────────────────────────┤├──────────────────────────────────────┤
│UP--DIR ││UP--DIR │
└────────────────────── 24M/69M (34%) ─┘└────────────────────── 24M/69M (34%) ─┘
Hint: Want your plain shell? Press C-o, and get back to MC with C-o again.
root@redquarkone:~$
1Help 2Menu 3View 4Edit 5Copy 6RenMov 7Mkdir 8Delete 9PullDn10Quit
This will create the files, symlinks etc OK. Some of the function keys might also be used by your OS though, in my case e.g. F9 and F10 don't work from a terminal window. And in FEL mode the terminal doesn't recognise a lot of keys. |
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Post by mobluse on Jan 20, 2019 19:49:13 GMT
I've made a video that demonstrates a bug or a misconfiguration that affects the nano editor: The complete video about booting Linux on THEC64 MINI using FEL mode is here: Edit after I saw your answer above: Do you mean one can boot using only a USB flash drive? Does this need e.g. EXT4 or is FAT16/FAT32 OK? Would it be possible to put your system on a USB flash drive and skip the PC? This would probably be easier than running boot.cmd from a DOS prompt. One could burn an image to a USB flash drive using e.g. balenaEtcher if one needs EXT4. I know Ash since it's used in BasicLinux, but what is this Bash you are using, that is not compatible with ordinary Bash? distro.ibiblio.org/baslinux/ |
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Post by jj0 on Jan 20, 2019 22:10:09 GMT
Edit after I saw your answer above: Do you mean one can boot using only a USB flash drive? Does this need e.g. EXT4 or is FAT16/FAT32 OK? Would it be possible to put your system on a USB flash drive and skip the PC? The SoC (Allwinner A20) in the Mini primarily boots from NAND or SD card. I've read that it can als boot from USB if there is no NAND nor SD card. So it might boot from USB if you (temporarily) disable the NAND if you pull the CS pin of the NAND to GND. You still need the USB drive to be prepared as described in the OlinuXino link I gave earlier. The other way is to change the ramdisk section that's part of the kernel image in nanda, you can unpack this, change the init script to boot from USB if it is available and from NAND if there is no suitable USB drive. I have something like this working but it does mean you have to change nanda. On the weird on-screen behaviour, I don't know what's causing this, it might be a bug in the on-screen terminal emulator. |
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Post by mobluse on Jan 21, 2019 18:22:25 GMT
Edit after I saw your answer above: Do you mean one can boot using only a USB flash drive? Does this need e.g. EXT4 or is FAT16/FAT32 OK? Would it be possible to put your system on a USB flash drive and skip the PC? The SoC (Allwinner A20) in the Mini primarily boots from NAND or SD card. I've read that it can als boot from USB if there is no NAND nor SD card. So it might boot from USB if you (temporarily) disable the NAND if you pull the CS pin of the NAND to GND. You still need the USB drive to be prepared as described in the OlinuXino link I gave earlier. The other way is to change the ramdisk section that's part of the kernel image in nanda, you can unpack this, change the init script to boot from USB if it is available and from NAND if there is no suitable USB drive. I have something like this working but it does mean you have to change nanda. On the weird on-screen behaviour, I don't know what's causing this, it might be a bug in the on-screen terminal emulator. Are there two nand chips in THEC64 MINI or are nanda and nandb different partitions? How do you access nanda? If you change the contents of nanda or nandb, do you risk not being able to update the firmware to the latest official? In Raspbian console echo $TERM prints linux. I think this is so for most Linuces. |
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Post by jj0 on Jan 21, 2019 22:06:13 GMT
The SoC (Allwinner A20) in the Mini primarily boots from NAND or SD card. I've read that it can als boot from USB if there is no NAND nor SD card. So it might boot from USB if you (temporarily) disable the NAND if you pull the CS pin of the NAND to GND. You still need the USB drive to be prepared as described in the OlinuXino link I gave earlier. The other way is to change the ramdisk section that's part of the kernel image in nanda, you can unpack this, change the init script to boot from USB if it is available and from NAND if there is no suitable USB drive. I have something like this working but it does mean you have to change nanda. On the weird on-screen behaviour, I don't know what's causing this, it might be a bug in the on-screen terminal emulator. Are there two nand chips in THEC64 MINI or are nanda and nandb different partitions? How do you access nanda? If you change the contents of nanda or nandb, do you risk not being able to update the firmware to the latest official? In Raspbian console echo $TERM prints linux. I think this is so for most Linuces. Both nand partitions can be found in /dev. /dev/nanda contains the kernel+ramdisk image that is loaded and started by u-boot during normal startup. Under linux it can only directly be accessed with for example 'dd'. /dev/nandb is formatted as ext4 and can therefore be mounted just like e.g. a USB drive. If you change them then there might be issues with firmware upgrades but I believe the risk is low. Firstly because before changing anything you of course make a backup of both nanda and nandb either manually or with the example script I've provided. You will almost always be able to use that to restore nanda and/or nandb. Secondly because it is unlikely that Retro Games LTD will risk updating nanda. Thirdly, where's the fun if there's no risk? 😉 Firmware upgrades have been known to put back .tsg files of the official games. This causes those games to reappear in the Carousel as 'blacked out' games as the actual game files won't be restored. |
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Post by ggkoul on Jan 25, 2019 18:04:24 GMT
This is great news and I'm going to try it right away. I have a US release, so no button but the header is there, I just have to figure out a way to route it as I was hoping not to make any physical modifications to the box. Thanks! Open TheC64 Mini and use the red LED and connect it to the FEL connector and then connect the USB from PC and it will be in FEL Mode then click on boot.cmd if on Windows 10 or run boot.sh on Linux .. jjo maybe add this to first post so it helps the ones that don't have a FEL switch. Hey - did you ever get around to posting the video of you non-UART - FEL Connector setup and booting? As I can't seem to get the FEL mode to boot. Thanks! |
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Post by jj0 on Jan 25, 2019 18:49:20 GMT
Open TheC64 Mini and use the red LED and connect it to the FEL connector and then connect the USB from PC and it will be in FEL Mode then click on boot.cmd if on Windows 10 or run boot.sh on Linux .. jjo maybe add this to first post so it helps the ones that don't have a FEL switch. Hey - did you ever get around to posting the video of you non-UART - FEL Connector setup and booting? As I can't seem to get the FEL mode to boot. Thanks! There's a video here, it's not very sharp but does show what should happen. Other than that, can you tell what is/in't happening?: - Are you in Windows or on Linux?
- If Windows did you install the required driver?
- Does your Mini have the FEL button that you can reach through the silver label?
- When you run the boot.sh / boot.cmd what is the output?
- etc etc
P.S. I've edited the first post to add that the content of the zipfile need to be on a PC. |
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Post by crispin on Jan 25, 2019 23:17:40 GMT
I installed Midnight Commander at Mini. GREAT! (edit: UART, not FEL) I renamed archive to "mcommander.cpio.gz". Correct procedure (that works for me, at least) is: mount /tmp/usbdrive/sda1 /mnt
mount -o remount,rw /
zcat /mnt/mcommander.cpio.gz | cpio -imc to start, exit to exit (or alt+0). * = select/deselect all (actually,invert already de/selected), inst = select/deselect actual line. + = select files (dialog), \ = deselect. (* in both dialogs to select all) shift+T select/unselect file. Tab left/right panel. Alt+9 for Menu. You can (re)define (missing) keys at Options->Learn Keys. Instead e.g. F10 (exit) you can also use alt+0 or ESC+10 (first press escape key, then quick enter "10") MC docs are here: github.com/MidnightCommander/mc <- see "Mini-documentation" midnight-commander.org/wiki/docmidnight-commander.org/wiki/doc/common/actions(^ not all keys / combinations are working, common known issue for mc) This didn't work: zcat /tmp/ramfs/mcommander.cpio.gz | cpio -i
zcat: /tmp/ramfs/mcommander.cpio.gz: No such file or directorynor: zcat /tmp/usbdrive/sda1/mcommander.cpio.gz | cpio -i
zcat: /tmp/usbdrive/sda1/mcommander.cpio.gz: Not a directoryjj0 Why did you use cpio instead tar? tar is in more common use then cpio afaik. Same for zcat: Why did you use zcat instead gunzip (gunzip -c, gzip -d)? Or just plain zip? Then there is no need for cpio/tar. Do I miss something? I could be a little bit rusty, but what is for sure, I don't like *X "black magic" when it does not need to be any. edit: ❤️❤️❤️❤️ jj thank you very much! ❤️❤️❤️❤️ I set almost all keys at MC, it works lovely! |
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Post by jj0 on Jan 26, 2019 11:50:30 GMT
I installed Midnight Commander at Mini. GREAT! (edit: UART, not FEL) I renamed archive to "mcommander.cpio.gz". Correct procedure (that works for me, at least) is: mount /tmp/usbdrive/sda1 /mnt
mount -o remount,rw /
zcat /mnt/mcommander.cpio.gz | cpio -imc to start, exit to exit (or alt+0). * = select/deselect all (actually,invert already de/selected), inst = select/deselect actual line. + = select files (dialog), \ = deselect. (* in both dialogs to select all) shift+T select/unselect file. Tab left/right panel. Alt+9 for Menu. You can (re)define (missing) keys at Options->Learn Keys. Instead e.g. F10 (exit) you can also use alt+0 or ESC+10 (first press escape key, then quick enter "10") MC docs are here: github.com/MidnightCommander/mc <- see "Mini-documentation" midnight-commander.org/wiki/docmidnight-commander.org/wiki/doc/common/actions(^ not all keys / combinations are working, common known issue for mc) This didn't work: zcat /tmp/ramfs/mcommander.cpio.gz | cpio -i
zcat: /tmp/ramfs/mcommander.cpio.gz: No such file or directorynor: zcat /tmp/usbdrive/sda1/mcommander.cpio.gz | cpio -i
zcat: /tmp/usbdrive/sda1/mcommander.cpio.gz: Not a directoryjj0 Why did you use cpio instead tar? tar is in more common use then cpio afaik. Same for zcat: Why did you use zcat instead gunzip (gunzip -c, gzip -d)? Or just plain zip? Then there is no need for cpio/tar. Do I miss something? I could be a little bit rusty, but what is for sure, I don't like *X "black magic" when it does not need to be any. edit: ❤️❤️❤️❤️ jj thank you very much! ❤️❤️❤️❤️ I set almost all keys at MC, it works lovely! Thanks! Also for reminding me how to set keys etc, I haven't used mc in ages. As for the installation procedure, I'm glad you found it out by yourself and I'll edit my original post and add the stuff on mounting the USB drive. On using zcat and cpio, at first when I created the zipfile on my linux PC via right-click in the filemanager unzipping it on the Mini dodn't work correctly, not setting access rights and ownership. So then instead I used the same process as creating a ramdisk for kernel booting which I was already familiar with. This happens to use cpio (and gzip), and for extracting zcat. Now zcat is quite often just a symbolic link to gunzip so using gunzip might work as well. |
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Post by gurce on Jan 27, 2019 3:46:08 GMT
Gosh, I'm really tempted to try this FEL-mode with a network-usb adapter thingie. One thing that might tip me over the edge, any chance of compiling the elinks text-based web-browser for it? This latest 0.12pre6 seems the most functional to me (they mark it as an unstable release, but I found it better than the latest stable release  . elinks.or.cz/download/elinks-0.12pre6.tar.gzWould be awesome to be able to download games via elinks directly onto the mini |
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Post by crispin on Jan 27, 2019 10:10:19 GMT
Midnight Commander - reminder, useful tips
* key is for switching (invert) selection. It is essential for keyboard-oriented orthodox file managers. It means that if nothing is selected (that is primary state when you enter some folder), when you press "*" it becomes "select all" - like usual boolean usage of "*". It is also the fastest way to select "all but one or few things": you select that few files one by one, then just invert selection.
Insert is other essential key for using MC - for selecting just one file (under cursor). Substitute is Ctrl-t. (also solution for some Mac keyboards).
+,-, tab are other common needed keys (select, deselect, switch panel).
For standard keyboard (with numpad), insert/delete, home/end, page up/dn as *,+,- keys at numpad should work at MC as usual. But for mini-keyboard as I am using (e.g. w/o numpad, as it is often the case wtih Mini), some keys needs to be reassigned, obviously. So I assigned " *" command (invert selection) to other key. ( I choose " ]ˇ, key that is 2nd right from "P", because it was unused and this is where I put C64 " *" key-sticker) Then I assigned "select one file" command to shift+* (actually shift+] in my case). That way I can use 2 most used commands by using only one key, just depending is it shifted or not - all without looking at keys. Assigning commands to other keys is done by F9 ("PullDn" Menu), then Options->Learn Keys.
However, some keys does not work in terminal, nor MC. F1, F9, F10 is the common case. Some does not work, but just needs to be confirmed and reassigned via "Learn Keys" (simple process - testing of working keys is implemented there). Problem is how to reach Menu, when F9 does not work? Alter commands for all Function Keys: Alt+number or Esc+number. example: F9 == Alt+9 == Esc+9 (F10 > Alt+0, Esc+0)Luckily, most important F-keys just needs to be confirmed at their default position (F2-F8) and then should work as it is supposed to be. It means that most common operations with files (those described at bottom line of MC, as a memento) require just press of one F-key. F2-F8: User Menu, View file, Edit file, Copy file(s), Rename/Move file(s), Make Dir, Create a new Dir, Delete file(s)
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Post by jj0 on Jan 27, 2019 14:00:19 GMT
Gosh, I'm really tempted to try this FEL-mode with a network-usb adapter thingie. One thing that might tip me over the edge, any chance of compiling the elinks text-based web-browser for it? This latest 0.12pre6 seems the most functional to me (they mark it as an unstable release, but I found it better than the latest stable release . elinks.or.cz/download/elinks-0.12pre6.tar.gzWould be awesome to be able to download games via elinks directly onto the mini Oh well. Just this once then Take the attached elinks.cpio.gz file, put in on the root of an USB stick and put that in the Mini. I assume you're booting in FEL mode as that's where you have network support. So you don't want to add this to the Mini nandb rootfs as in 'Mini mode' it doesn't serve any purpose cd /
mount /tmp/usbdrive/sda1 /mnt
mount -o remount,rw /
zcat /mnt/elinks.cpio.gz | cpio -i
elinksIf it works I can add this to the programs included in the next version, whenever that is... Btw crispin , this time I did get the 'Upload File' button. Apparently it doesn't appear if I reply on a post by using 'Quote' but it does when I just do a generic 'Reply' on the end of thread. |
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Post by kugelblitz on Jan 27, 2019 17:52:26 GMT
This is just a very big DANKE SCHÖN (Thank you) from Germany. Just used your EXCELLENT scripts to copy 40 games I selected from the UART collections here onto my C64 Mini carousel.
Awesome work, didn't have to do anything on the Mini itself, the Scripts did all the magic once I configured the USB stick.
(Yeah, I have a first-gen C64Mini with FEL button and had Hakchi drives on my PC as well, so it was VERY simple).
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Post by kugelblitz on Jan 27, 2019 18:43:39 GMT
So I have a wish for an extended script. The current "Copygames" Script is really really really really good. But for Powerusers I would like to have two more scripts:
CopyGamesToUSB - Copies the games from the Mini to a USB drive
Replace Games - DELETES THE GAMES FROM THE MINI and then copies the Games from the USB drive.
By this I could a) save the games to a USB drive, then delete the once I really don't want and make room on the carousel. b) Comes another Firmware update, easily replace the game selection with my preferred game selection.
Yes I could do this with other tools, but in theory these scripts should be easy to write (might try my hand at these tonight actually). And then I have a solution where I can use trusted tools on my PC to edit/add/delete the Games and refresh the Mini WITHOUT needing a screen really. FEL Boot it with the stick and wait for ten minutes...
Cheers, Boris
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Post by jj0 on Jan 27, 2019 18:44:57 GMT
This is just a very big DANKE SCHÖN (Thank you) from Germany. Just used your EXCELLENT scripts to copy 40 games I selected from the UART collections here onto my C64 Mini carousel. Awesome work, didn't have to do anything on the Mini itself, the Scripts did all the magic once I configured the USB stick. (Yeah, I have a first-gen C64Mini with FEL button and had Hakchi drives on my PC as well, so it was VERY simple). Keine Dank, es war mir ein Vergnügen! |
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Post by jj0 on Jan 27, 2019 18:51:00 GMT
So I have a wish for an extended script. The current "Copygames" Script is really really really really good. But for Powerusers I would like to have two more scripts: CopyGamesToUSB - Copies the games from the Mini to a USB drive Replace Games - DELETES THE GAMES FROM THE MINI and then copies the Games from the USB drive. By this I could a) save the games to a USB drive, then delete the once I really don't want and make room on the carousel. b) Comes another Firmware update, easily replace the game selection with my preferred game selection. Yes I could do this with other tools, but in theory these scripts should be easy to write (might try my hand at these tonight actually). And then I have a solution where I can use trusted tools on my PC to edit/add/delete the Games and refresh the Mini WITHOUT needing a screen really. FEL Boot it with the stick and wait for ten minutes... Cheers, Boris I encourage you to try to write them yourself . CopyGamesToUSB you should be able to create easily from 'S03copy-game-to-carousel'. ReplaceGames could instead be DeleteGames, deleting all games from the Mini. Then when you execute them in the right order you first make a copy/backup of all games on the Mini, then delete all games from the Mini, then 'S03copy-game-to-carousel' the games that you want. |
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Post by kugelblitz on Jan 27, 2019 18:54:57 GMT
So I have a wish for an extended script. The current "Copygames" Script is really really really really good. But for Powerusers I would like to have two more scripts: CopyGamesToUSB - Copies the games from the Mini to a USB drive Replace Games - DELETES THE GAMES FROM THE MINI and then copies the Games from the USB drive. By this I could a) save the games to a USB drive, then delete the once I really don't want and make room on the carousel. b) Comes another Firmware update, easily replace the game selection with my preferred game selection. Yes I could do this with other tools, but in theory these scripts should be easy to write (might try my hand at these tonight actually). And then I have a solution where I can use trusted tools on my PC to edit/add/delete the Games and refresh the Mini WITHOUT needing a screen really. FEL Boot it with the stick and wait for ten minutes... Cheers, Boris I encourage you to try to write them yourself . CopyGamesToUSB you should be able to create easily from 'S03copy-game-to-carousel'. ReplaceGames could instead be DeleteGames, deleting all games from the Mini. Then when you execute them in the right order you first make a copy/backup of all games on the Mini, then delete all games from the Mini, then 'S03copy-game-to-carousel' the games that you want. If you would be so kind to give me a hint on the correct syntax to DELETE all the games in the NAND (just the delete commando/line) I will do that and post the scripts for others here later tonight. |
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Post by kugelblitz on Jan 27, 2019 20:36:06 GMT
Enclosed are the two scripts: S04 - Backups all the games in the carousel into a Directory BACKGAME on the USB stick. The Directory HAS TO EXIST. You now have a copy of all the games on the Mini. S05 - DELETES ALL THE GAMES IN THE CAROUSEL then copies the games from COPYGAME on the USB stick. Suggested workflow: Copy ONLY S01, S99 and S04 into the SCRIPT Folder and create a "backgame" Directory on the root of the USB stick. FEL Boot with Stick included and wait for the prompt. Take USB Stick to PC and confirm that all games, screens, et.al. have been copied over. Copy ONLY the games you want (plus your additional games) in UART Format (i.e. TSG files) in the copygame Folder. Remove S04 in the Script Folder and put S05 in there. |
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Post by johno75 on Jan 27, 2019 22:43:11 GMT
how much space do you need on the USB stick to backup all games in the carousel?
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Post by kugelblitz on Jan 27, 2019 23:03:08 GMT
how much space do you need on the USB stick to backup all games in the carousel? Not a lot at all. My backup that already had some Addition games is 22 MBytes. |
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Post by gurce on Jan 28, 2019 7:15:38 GMT
Just made a quick video showing FEL MODE booting,got to edit it and I upload later today on Youtube. Hiya Nick, just wondering, did you get around to uploading your video on FEL mode?
I wanted to gather any handy-links related to FEL-mode and drop them into this wiki-page, so happy to add your FEL-mode vid too if you've got a link:
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Post by gurce on Jan 28, 2019 7:39:29 GMT
Hmm, not having much luck with FEL-mode just yet. I made use of my existing UART-hack's USB2serial adapter, pressing '2' while powering up. I saw this output in putty: set next system status
reset cpu
HELLO! BOOT0 is starting!
boot0 version : 3.0.0
eraly jump felSo I guess that "eraly(sic) jump fel" is indication that it is in FEL-mode now?
But when I run boot.cmd in windows, I get:
ERROR: Allwinner USB FEL device not found!
I'm using the following usb2serial adapter:
I'll have another stab at this later, gotta have dinner |
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Post by gurce on Jan 28, 2019 8:52:25 GMT
Aah, I think I understand my mistake. I thought my UART hack's usb2serial adapter thingie was the one that would become the "USB FEL device", but it's actually the Micro-USB to USB cable that powers the c64mini that becomes the "USB FEL device".
Ok, it's showing up in Windows as an "Unknown device", but they mention some Zadig tool can fix this, looking into now...
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Anything that you can do with the FEL hack you can do manually with the UART hack too. For netwrok play you would need to copy the appropriate network modules etc but more importantly it would need to be supported by the vice/'the64' emulator.
. You won't be able to access the nand though, but that keeps is safe as well.
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