Trouble booting full TAQOZ distro from sd
bartgrantham
Posts: 83
in Propeller 2
(originally a private thread with Peter Jakacki, moved to the forum in case it helps others)
I was unable to boot the full TAQOZ based on the instructions on the sourceforge page:
> Download the _BOOT_P2.BIX binary and copy this onto the root directory of a FAT32 SD card.
> Insert this into your P2 system and it will automatically boot TAQOZ at 115200,8N1.
> The baud rate may be changed and locked in after booting.
Is there a limit to the FAT32 volume size that the ROM booter will recognize? Is there any way to load the full set of TAQOZ words from the sd card, since the built-in version works?
I was unable to boot the full TAQOZ based on the instructions on the sourceforge page:
> Download the _BOOT_P2.BIX binary and copy this onto the root directory of a FAT32 SD card.
> Insert this into your P2 system and it will automatically boot TAQOZ at 115200,8N1.
> The baud rate may be changed and locked in after booting.
Is there a limit to the FAT32 volume size that the ROM booter will recognize? Is there any way to load the full set of TAQOZ words from the sd card, since the built-in version works?
Comments
I noticed that the main page summary mentions 921,600 baud default. Remember too that if you have any hardware problems with the P2, even booting, that you can drop back into TAQOZ in ROM after reset by using the three key auto-bauding sequence "> space escape". From there you can MOUNT the SD card and check it etc. Make sure your DIP switches are off (for now).
I might change the default download to a zip of the boot file plus a readme.
Here is what I got from my P2 EVAL and that boot file.
and this is the status line in minicom:
Here is my listing:
I'm runing TeraTerm at 921600.
If all is well you can backup to the same bix file using this shortform version: Do this anytime you want to save settings and code between powerups.
Alternatively, you could try minicom which I believe can run on Macs. It looks basic since it doesn't have a GUI but it works a lot better than most nice looking terminal emulators I have running in Linux. I have a shell command in Linux called "usb" to connect to my serial usb devices easily.
I've found a 64-bit version of CoolTerm for Linux that I am checking out now but notice it says that it is not a Terminal Emulator, but a terminal application, although I don't use any ANSI codes at startup.
edit: I don't know if this 64-bit build for Linux is the same, but it's a terrible terminal! Anyway, besides this weird screen rescrolling thing, the settings are defaulted to 100ms refresh which seems to be a problem with the program's implementation. It shouldn't need this, but lowering doesn't help and it seems it is interpreting a CR, not as a return to the left, but as a new-line, and I can't find anywhere to change that. There doesn't seem to be any ASCII code that can clear the screen either, that's a huge oversight. Normally $0C as FF does the trick.
TeraTerm etc can do newline on CR if need be, but only as an option because terminal emulators normally only return to the left column.
BTW - how I got that magic number:
TAQOZ# SEE CRLF 1F909: pub CRLF 020AC: 20BE CR 020AE: 180A 10 020B0: 2002 EMIT 020B2: 1E10 REG $10 020B4: 00EC W@ 020B6: 005F ?EXIT 020B8: 1801 1 020BA: 0F24 ms 020BC: 005D ; 18 bytes --- ok TAQOZ# 20 $20B8 C! --- okYou can do another SEE CRLF to see the change.@peter, is there a serial terminal emulation in Visual Studio? Or can you please explain your workflow in Visual Studio.
So if you also install the free VSC you can open a terminal shell in there and invoke minicom.
I have been consistently unable to boot TAQOZ from SD on my P2ES rev B.
I have SanDisk 16GB loaded with _BOOT_P2.BIX. Do i need to set any boot switches?
I can boot the firmware TAQOZ. Mount works. How do I boot to SD from there? (Hopefully I am just missing something simple...)
https://sourceforge.net/projects/tachyon-forth/
to a 8Gb uSD card, and it worked fine on my Rev B.
All switches in OFF position. Try cycling the switch from OFF to ON to OFF.
Make sure uSD is formatted FAT32.
Also see above where I installed on 64 Gb and had good install. TeraTerm worked at high baud rates.
On the boot screen system told me my sandisk must be 64gb.
Think there is a bug in disk size calculation
Ps reformatted my sandisk with fat32 on windows. Was exfat.
I have done all that.
Still no boot on reset.
Windows 10
TerraTerm 921600 8 n 1
16GB SanDisk
FAT formatted
Latest _BOOT_P2.BIX copied to the blank card.
The firmware version allows me to Mount the card successfully.
TAQOZ# MOUNT --- .SDSC16G 73FD_23AD TAQOZ 32k 15,189M ok
It allows me to DIR the card successfully.
Are there any TAQOZ words I can use to debug this?
Do I have a bad P2ES rev B board?
I am getting frustrated....
I've double checked and double checked the download from my SourceForge link, and it works. I had someone else download an older version from somewhere and it didn't work.
Don't use old 2GB SD cards, use SDHC formatted to FAT32. Windows will not format a 64GB card to FAT32, it formats to exFAT even though it says "FAT".
I will see if I can use the p2 loader to load the whole 128k image because once you have TAQOZ up and running it is very easy for TAQOZ to format a 64GB card to FAT32.
I found I needed to rename _BOOT_P2.BIX to a .bin file and it worked. Once you have any kind of SDHC card in there the easiest way to back it up to the MBR area by hitting ^B (control
08:01 TAQOZ$ python3 loadp2.py _BOOT_P2
�����C` --- ok TAQOZ# ?? --- KERNEL Parallax P2 *TAQOZ* Extensible Firmware V2.5 'CHIP' 300MHz 200504-1430 MODULES: *C2* 1518 C2 Debug Interface for Silabs Microcontrollers - 200424.0000 *SPLAT* 2324 SPLAT - Serial Propeller Logic Analyzer Terminal 200417-0000 *SIM65* 2880 A SIMULATOR FOR THE 65C02 - 200217.0000 *PLEXLED* 350 CharliePlexing LED device driver 190714.0000 *MORSE* 444 Morse code keyer 200126-0000 *LIFE* 1172 Conway's Game of Life for TAQOZ in the P2 ROM V1.0 190226.0000 *BREAKOUT* 1506 BREAKOUT FOR THE P2 - 190606 *MANDELBROT* 518 MANDELBROT VGA DEMO 190800-0000 *CLKGEN* 654 Si5351 Clock generator 190800-0000 *EASYNET* 3736 WIZnet NETWORK SERVERS 160707.1500 *W5500* 2292 WIZNET W5500 driver for TAQOZ V1.0 191007 *PS2* 654 PS/2 KEYBOARD *TEXT* 1508 VGA BMP TEXT 190800-0000 *BMV* 1260 BMV VIDEO PLAYER 190800-0000 *WAVE* 772 WAVE AUDIO FILE PLAYER 190800-0000 *BMP* 430 BMP FILE VIEWER 190800-0000 *TIM* 1942 TAQOZ INTERACTIVE MEDIA - AUDIO, TEXT, IMAGE & VIDEO DRIVERS 200403-1200 *TIA* 4866 TAQOZ INTERACTIVE ASSEMBLER for the PARALLAX P2 - 200327-2300 *SPIRAM* 1248 LY68L6400 8MB SPI RAM ACCESS 191020-0000 *DECOMPILER* 1762 A decompiler for TAQOZ 190825-0000 *RTC* 434 RV-3028 RTC DATE and TIME 190800-0000 *DISK* 2562 SD DISK REPORTING & FORMATTING TOOLS 190800-0000 *EASYFILE* 4658 SD CARD and FAT32 with VIRTUAL MEMORY 190800-0000 *SMARTPINS* 374 SMARTPIN FUNCTIONS and drive modes 190800-0000 *P2CLOCK* 384 P2 CLOCK CONTROL 190800-0000 *ANSI* 2286 ANSI TERMINAL SUPPORT 200410-0000 *EXTEND* 390 Primary kernel extensions 200426-1000 *SPIFLASH* 5746 MEMORY MAP CODE: 0DE78 56,952 bytes WORDS: 1A592 22,984 bytes DATA: 7E2B1 689 bytes ROOM: 50,970 bytes HARDWARE PCB P2 (P2D2) CLOCK IN 20MHZ DEVICES SD CARD 63 GB SANDISK SD SC64G REV$80 #35190404 DATE:2018 /10 SPI FLASH 16MB WINBOND $EF40_1800 #4837448895114529879 I2C DEVICES $36 MCP9808 TEMPERATURE SENSOR $A4 RV-3028 RTC $C4 Si5351A CLOCK GEN 2000/01/01 .." 00:03:49 ok TAQOZ#@DaveJenson : TAQOZ immediately shows a boot prompt if it works. If you're seeing gibberish you have the same mismatched baud rate problem I did.
@"Peter Jakacki" : is there a way to load the TAZOQ words into the dictionary from the .bin (.bix) file on the sd? ie. boot P2 normally, "> ESC" for the ROM TAQOZ, and then a word or two to load the full version? The reason I suggest this is that bootstrapping to SD is at least three things to go wrong: SD/FAT32 access, baud rate support in the term, loading TAQOZ itself. If any of those don't work a user is flying completely blind. If there was a way to load the full version while using the built-in ROM that would help a user triangulate the problem. (it was also the first debugging thing I thought of, but couldn't find a way to do it)
picocom works well on macOS and two flavors of Linux (Mint and Solus): picocom -b 921600 -d 8 -p 1 -y n /dev/$SERIAL
screen works well on Linux (Mint and Solus): screen /dev/$SERIAL 921600
minicom works on Linux Mint*: minicom -b 921600 -D /dev/$SERIAL
* it's not in the Solus repo: rejected by the distro because minicom is no longer being updated
(minicom and picocom were both installed on macOS 10.14.6 via homebrew (screen is built-in) ; all three were installed on Linux Mint via apt ; picocom and screen were installed on Solus via the Software Center)
When I run FlexGui (ver 4.2.1) or Propeller Tool (2.0.0.1 Alpha)
and try to search for a P2 com port it works perfectly
UNTIL I PLUG IN AN SD CARD!
then both programs fail to find the P2 on any port.
I think I need to send it to Parallax to see if I got a bad one....
I was frustrated enough with the non-ability to boot from SD that I sent it to Parallax for repair. Turns out that I wasn't crazy. There is a problem with that board booting from SD!
Parallax sent me a replacement P2ES.
Thank you, Parallax! Now I can play along again!
Just be sure to download from the TAQOZ/binaries folder in my Dropbox. If you grab taqoz.zip then not only does it also have a copy of _BOOT_P2.BIX but also some other boot files. I just realized that I had the baud rate set to 921600 but I'd rather make that the standard. Does anyone have a problem with that?
921600 is fine. Just let us know!
Here's an update on my situation, provided mainly to possibly help someone else later on. I received a replacement P2 Eval board (excellent customer service as advertised!). FYI: It seems that some boards when washed got moisture in the dip switches. I tried electronic cleaner and operating the switches numerous times without apparent results (YMMV).
So new board and now I can boot TAQOZ RELOADED v2.6 from SD card, ditto for Cluso's Propeller 2 Operating System v.228. I cannot, however, boot RELOADED v2.7 from SD card. OTOH, I can boot v2.7 from flash without problem. I actually have two v2.7 files, one bauds @ 115200 and the other @ 921600. No matter, neither boots from SD but both do from flash. Interestingly, I cannot get TAQOZ from the prompt either when they fail to boot. Also, sometimes after one of these trials when I plug the SD card back into my computer Windows flags it as corrupt.
Very strange.