carnivore 2 - understanding beyond the manual

Rookie (19)

09-12-2022, 18:28

Hello,

now that Im tinkering around with my new c2 cart, theres some questions that remain
unanswered in hte official manual.
- how can I get past the boot menu (showing "carnicore 2" and "firmware 2.50"), do I always haveto reset manually at this point?
EDIT: found out that the reason for this is, the c2 cannot reset my Philips VG8235. Is this normal?

- I partitioned a 8GB CF into 4GB x2. After copying the "tools files" to the root of the first partition, I can browse it in DOS (A, but why cant I see my 2nd partition? B gives me "device not ready"
- in what relation does the main menu to the CF card stand, I mean, am I able to browse the CF card and add ROMS within the menu?
- if not, where do those entries come from, that are kinda "built in"?
- if not, how can I make a useful interface for my games? sofarun? if yes: does this work in DOS?

Please help
Thanks
plx

Por Briqunullus

Hero (665)

09-12-2022, 19:36

You can leave the bootmenu by pressing the escape key. After that it will try and boot from the CF card. Be sure to have to have NEXTOR.SYS and COMMAND2.COM in the root of the CF card.

To make changes to the menu you can use the C2MAN utility. But I never use the menu, I prefer using Sofarun. Sofarun supports zip files with long file names, so you can easily identify your games. If you turn off compression on the zip file, unzipping will even be faster. Have fun!

Por plxbollo

Rookie (19)

09-12-2022, 20:37

Hi,
I have those files in the root of the 1st and active partition. However, I dont know how to access the 2nd partition.
The first partitiojn is working, incl. sofarun

Ill try the cman utility next...
cheers
plx

Por Manuel

Ascended (19465)

09-12-2022, 21:04

For the 2nd partition you need to check out the Nextor manual regarding partition mapping.

Por Manuel

Ascended (19465)

09-12-2022, 23:55

See for instance: https://www.msx.org/forum/msx-talk/general-discussion/nextor...
https://github.com/Konamiman/Nextor/blob/v2.1/docs/Nextor%20...

Por plxbollo

Rookie (19)

10-12-2022, 02:25

Looking at the wiki from NEXTOR, I got stuck at the "MAPDRV..." point. I get an "invalid disk driver" message.
What do I have to do with the Nextor-2.1.1.SunriseIDE.ROM ?

EDIT: I wrote it into flash and assigned itz to slot 01.
But it seems that resetting from the c2 menu doesnt work, it always hangs on the "rebooting.." screen... :/

Por mcolom

Champion (316)

10-12-2022, 09:57

plxbollo wrote:

Looking at the wiki from NEXTOR, I got stuck at the "MAPDRV..." point. I get an "invalid disk driver" message

I can copy here my C2 config in autoexec.bat, perhaps it's useful.
I'm using a CF card with 4 partitions and I use it in an MSX with a physical disk drive. My autoexec.bat contains this:
mapdrv c: 2 1 1-1
mapdrv d: 3 1 1-1
mapdrv e: 4 1 1-1

With this setup I have in A: the first partition in the CF, in B: the physical drive, and in C:, D:, E: the rest of the partitions of the CF.

Por Manuel

Ascended (19465)

10-12-2022, 10:13

Why did you flash?

Por Wierzbowsky

Guardian (3602)

10-12-2022, 12:05

The firmware and boot menu versions are shown only on cold boot. This is a feature. You should not reset manually. Does it get stuck? Show a video of booting. Carnivore works fine with 8235.

To speed up booting you can disable dual reset and directory sorting in the configuration menu.

You should not use the Nextor's ROM file that way. It won't work. Nextor's BIOS is named BIDECMFC.BIN in the repository and it is flashed into Carnivore with c2man utility only.

Por BadWolf359

Resident (33)

10-12-2022, 14:36

I would like to by a Carnivore 2 but it seems that at 8bits4ever.net they're all sold-out. Anybody know of another way to purchase this?

Por plxbollo

Rookie (19)

10-12-2022, 16:50

I got two VG8235 - with the 1st one, it gets stuck at the fw message.
With the other VG8235 it works. Any idea why?

As far as nextor is converned, I definitely mustbe missing a step.
Thereforew I asked
what to do with the nextor sunriseIDE.rom..

@mcolom: autoexec wotn help at this point because I cannot even map it manually
(see above)

Thanks
plx