Hi all,
I finally got around to updating my BOOTI card with the version 2.0 firmware and noticed something is amiss:
Long file names don't show up and it looks like nothing has changed. Corruption is present on the top line of the BOOTi menu.
I redownloaded the firmware and tried updating a few times with no change. I also tried flashing the v2.0 update on another machine with the BOOTi card installed - same result.
Any ideas ? I'm using a Platinum //e
The "corruption" you see at the top is just lower case text. Your platinum //e should be able to display that. Do you have a non-standard Text ROM?
As for the long filenames, I suspect you may be using an old USB stick that is not formatted with FAT32. Can you try reformatting or using a newer stick? That should work. What computer did you transfer those images from and what OS does it use?
Although it might be technically-correct that the inverse/flashing punctuation in the top line corresponds to lower case text, those bytes do not form any sensible words in lower case. There are only two possible encodings of the characters in the picture John L posted: it's either flashing punctuation characters in the $60-7F range, or it's inverse punctuation from the $20-3F range.
If the problem was an incompatible character generator it would show lowercase letters as normal punctuation characters, not as inverse characters. This appears to be some sort of bit rot or bitwise corruption:
Mystery inverse or flashing chars.png
I think there's something more insidious than a simple character generator problem...unless the original copyright string was supposed to be displayed with misspelled names in inverse lowercase letters using the Apple //e's alternate character set.
You are correct and I noticed the issue as well. But did not want to muddy the waters. Yes, the string at top should read "(C)2019-24 Unicorn Software & Jeff Mazur"
But if there was bit rot in the EEPROM or a bad image or some other hardware issue, the config menu would not work at all. So I assumed that he might have some specific Text ROM without lower case or something else corrupted unrelated to the BOOTI.
Are you using A2DVI for video output ? I have a similar issue with fastchip //e config menu.
Hi Jeff,
I'm using an international Platinum //e (NTSC-50) and I don't have a non-standard text ROM.
My BOOTi USB flash drive is formatted for FAT32 and I tried with another flash drive (formatted as FAT32) and still the same problem manifests - this time with different character corruption on the top line of the BOOTi menu. I am using a GNU/Linux system (Xubuntu) for transferring disk images to the flash drives. This setup has worked fine as I have another BOOTi drive in a beige //e that works fine with the new firmware update.
I'm thinking this problem might be a hardware issue related to my system configuration. I do have a ∀2 Analog VGA card in this system as well as an 8MB RAM card (RAM2E II), A Liron card, Super Serial card, A2Pico card flashed as a PCPI Applicard and a 5.25" Disk II Controller card.
A pretty loaded up system. It's probably taxing the power supply.
No. I'm using a ∀2 Analog VGA card
John L wrote:
No. I'm using a ∀2 Analog VGA card
That probably explains the text at the top. Can you check the composite out from the computer?
As for the file display, does anything change when you hit the V key?
I checked the composite output by hooking up a monitor and it gives the following output:
IMG_20260327_110428441_HDR.jpg
Hitting the 'V' key does nothing
That is very interesting! Have you tried your working, updated BOOTI in this machine?
Might also try removing all the other cards and doing a memory test just to rule those out.
I tried my other updated BOOTi card with V2.0 firmware in my Platinum //e and it works properly - I can see the long filenames and no corruption is present at the top of the BOOTI menu. I tried both the composite port and using the VGA output.
I then put the BOOTi card (with firmware issues) from my Platinum //e into my Beige //e (enhanced) and it still has the same problem as stated - no long filenames and corruption in the top line of the BOOTi menu. I used both the composite port and A2DVI connector.
I also ran //e diagnostics on both machines (Apple //e Diagnostic) - no problems found.
I suspect there might be a problem with my BOOTi cards hardware. It runs ok but doesn't appear to work right with the updated firmware.