atari-bootstrap changes finished
Hi,
I have just finished the planned changes to atari-bootstrap. I may write
a more detailed description later if you wish but here is a short
summary:
- new bootstrap loads ramdisk into TT/FastRAM by default which fixes all
sorts of problems with ST-RAM swap, with videoram full of garbage and
failed ramdisk unpacking and also with small memory (to the extent that
the d-i installation manual might be correct again with the "2 MB of
ST-RAM is enough for installation" - if you add that you need another 12
or more MB of TT-RAM :)
- new bootstrap works with FastRAM on Centurbo2 and Afterburner040 cards
properly. It doesn't force user to fiddle with GEMDOS
Allocate-from-TTRAM flag and allows easy bootstrapping with small ST-RAM
thanks to storing both loaded stuff and ramdisk destination in the
FastRAM. The new bootstrap is also coming with the other two GEMDOS
header bits cleared so the bootstrap is ready to boot even on machines
with MMU mapped FastRAM. That was one of big concerns and I wrote two
longish mails to this list so I won't repeat myself. Enough said that
it's working OK now.
- a couple of smaller bugs were fixed, mainly regarding user input or
debug/info output. I also added two new options (-R and -V) but they are
needed only if you want to play with the ramdisk position in memory
(could help debugging the ST-RAM issues in kernel 2.4)
The source code is in CVS (if Roman has already commited the second
batch of patches) and the binary has been sent to Stephen-the-d-i-man. I
may also put it on a www site for download for anybody interested. After
all, I have been offering AB40-friendly ataboot3.1 since April 1998 on
my pages so I can continue offering the bleeding edge of bootstrapping
on Atari :)
This bootstrap has been tested on Afterburner040, TT030 and ARAnyM. I
hope it will make all Atari users happy.
Petr
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