Rookie Drive FDD + disk image support

Three years ago Konamiman released a new ROM for Rookie Drive that allowed to use it as a controller for USB floppy disk drives. Now he has just published an updated version that adds support for disk image files as well: if a USB FDD is plugged to the USB port it will act as a simple FDD controller as usual, but if a storage device is connected instead it will automatically switch to disk image mode.

When booting in disk image mode, this new ROM will also display a nice menu that allows to navigate the files and directories in the storage device and select which one you want to be mounted. You can choose not to show this menu, and other boot behaviors like mounting a given file as default, by creating configuration files from within the menu itself.

Add to the mix support for hot-swap of disks (you can change to any other disk image in the same directory with a dedicated key), and a few utility CALL commands. A nice upgrade to your favorite FDD ROM for your Rookie Drive USB host controller for MSX!

relevant link: v2.0 ROM files
relevant link: README for the disk image mode
relevant link: Rookie Drive web site

Comentários (24)

Por sdsnatcher73

Prophet (3846)

02-07-2021, 08:39

This is so cool!

Por x-nen Aivalahostia

Paragon (1530)

02-07-2021, 12:11

Great news!!! I'll upgrade it NOW!!!!!

Por journey

Hero (574)

02-07-2021, 13:35

I downloaded the new rom.
Inside there are several files. Which one should I use for the update?

Thanx!

Por sdsnatcher73

Prophet (3846)

02-07-2021, 15:19

journey wrote:

I downloaded the new rom.
Inside there are several files. Which one should I use for the update?

Thanx!

I guess the normal one should be the one to use. And you probably have to take the original firmware from the Rookie website, replace the disk ROM in that firmware and then flash. I will try...

Por sdsnatcher73

Prophet (3846)

02-07-2021, 16:07

Okay, so incorporating the rom into the existing firmware does not work. If you just flash the rookiefdd2.0_normal.rom with RKFL it does work, you loose the Nextor functionality that way. Maybe Xavirompe will update the firmware variant with this new FDD ROM in it...

Por sdsnatcher73

Prophet (3846)

02-07-2021, 16:46

Some more info, the NORMAL variant acts like any regular external FDD. So it has phantom B: drive and any internal disk drive is still available. EXCLUSIVE variants will disable the internal FDD (if it is not in a lower slot I presume, but on most machines it is not). INVERTED_CTRL variants disable the phantom drive by default (so CTRL during boot will enable phantom drive).

Alternate ports variant is needed if you use multiple rookie drives in one system.

Por sdsnatcher73

Prophet (3846)

02-07-2021, 17:13

One word of warning, this ROM apparently has no disable function (the regular firmware you can skip with ESC). This is important to be able to flash a different ROM later on. If your Rookie has a switch on top to disable the flash chip during boot that is not a problem but newer versions of Rookie Drive NX don't have that. I guess it could be added to this ROM by Konamiman in e.g. a v2.01 release.

Maybe there is some other way to bypass and re-flash but I am not aware of it.

Por konamiman

Paragon (1192)

02-07-2021, 17:16

Quote:

Yep, exactly that. And one more thing: in the "exclusive" variants you can still enable the internal FDD by pressing GRAPH at boot time.

Por konamiman

Paragon (1192)

02-07-2021, 17:17

sdsnatcher73 wrote:

If your Rookie has a switch on top to disable the flash chip during boot that is not a problem but newer versions of Rookie Drive NX don't have that.

I didn't add a mechanism to disable the ROM at boot because of the switch, I wasn't aware that newer Rookies don't have it!

Por journey

Hero (574)

02-07-2021, 18:33

sorry guys,

I'm afraid I don't understand the update procedure

V2.0 ROM file downloaaded and unzipped

rookiefdd2.0_normal.rom renamed RDFIRMWA.ROM

press CTRL+R on boot

Right?

but I have a problem:

The last firmware (2020-01-16) was 192kb
This new file is only 32kb.

maybe it should be implemented in a different way?

Por mars2000you

Enlighted (6430)

02-07-2021, 19:12

I think the 32kB ROM is only a part of the 192kB ROM. So you need to replace the appropriate part.

Probably F2 option in this menu can be used with an updated RDDISK.DSK file:

Por sdsnatcher73

Prophet (3846)

02-07-2021, 19:46

The RDDISK.DSK is to flash a bootable disk image (with Nextor on it). You cannot flash the new FDD ROM that way. For now it is a stand alone ROM, I flashed it using RKFLASH.COM whilst disabling the ROM and booting from another media (floppy/Carnivore2/MMCSD/MFR)

Por mars2000you

Enlighted (6430)

02-07-2021, 20:14

Can you precise since which version the switch to disable the ROM has been removed?

Por sdsnatcher73

Prophet (3846)

02-07-2021, 20:44

mars2000you wrote:

Can you precise since which version the switch to disable the ROM has been removed?

I don’t know, I have a 1.2.1 that has the switch. 2 newer versions don’t have it (but there is no version number on the label anymore).

Por mars2000you

Enlighted (6430)

02-07-2021, 20:47

Well, i have added "(no more available on versions released since ?2021)".

Maybe the developer can give a more accurate info.

Por xavirompe

Resident (57)

02-07-2021, 20:55

Hi.

I am working to integrate this ROM into the Rookie drive's firmware, this new ROM may be replace the old Floppy disk emulator ROM.

The newer version of the cartridge doesn't have the switch, the switch was replaced with a jumper inside the cartridge.
Another way to restore the firmware is by loading RDRECO.BIN and then flashing the Rookie drive's firmware again.

I will integrate this new ROM as soon as posible.

Thank you for your patience.

Por gdx

Enlighted (6102)

03-07-2021, 09:52

This update is for what Rookie Drive? 720, NX or both?

https://www.msx.org/wiki/Rookie_Drive_NX
https://www.msx.org/wiki/Rookie_Drive_720

Por xavirompe

Resident (57)

03-07-2021, 21:09

Rookie drive 720 was the "concept" of emulating floppy disks, Rookie drive 720 was never sold, because Rookie drive NX integrates the floppy disk emulator and the Nextor driver.

So I think the wiki about Rookie drive 720 can be merged with Rookie drive NX's page (720 hardware was only prototype hardware)

Por mars2000you

Enlighted (6430)

03-07-2021, 21:21

xavirompe wrote:

Rookie drive 720 was the "concept" of emulating floppy disks, Rookie drive 720 was never sold, because Rookie drive NX integrates the floppy disk emulator and the Nextor driver.

So I think the wiki about Rookie drive 720 can be merged with Rookie drive NX's page (720 hardware was only prototype hardware)

I prefer !o keep 2 separate pages to avoid confusion between both products, especially in the pictures part. However, I've updated the Rookie Drive 720 page with your precisions.

Por philgood1351fr

Rookie (23)

04-07-2021, 14:36

Hi @xavirompe,
just purchased one on your website. Do I have to download the new firmware now to update when received ?
Thanks

Por erpirao

Paragon (1313)

04-07-2021, 19:17

Could we have a video of the new menu and how it works?

Por sdsnatcher73

Prophet (3846)

14-07-2021, 10:52

For those who have a Rookie Drive NX without switch (there is a jumper inside the cartridge but I was unable to use it as my MSX always hangs when trying to change the jumper from OFF to ON to be able to flash). Here is a version of the ROM (alternate ports, exclusive variant) that can be disabled during boot by pressing DEL key, that way you can re-flash any different ROM with RDRECO.BIN or RKFL.COM.

rookiefdd2.0_alt_ports_exclusive_del_skip.rom

Por st1mpy

Paladin (901)

22-07-2021, 23:33

Just received a Rookie Drive NX. I think it didn't come with the disk image support update, so I'll have to do that once it is clear what to do.
Anyway, I have a question regarding multi-disk support. In rookiedrive.com/en/features page, at the bottom it says multi disk support, naming disk files .ds1, .ds2 (or concatenate). Does this disk swap work without the update? Pressing the disk number and pressing return (ys2) did not work for me.

Por st1mpy

Paladin (901)

23-07-2021, 18:04

I have the multi disk support working now. Not sure why. The difference today is that I have the nextor files copied to root of the USB stick (it's actually a micro sd to USB converter).
Does this mean to use the 720 disk mode, you still need the nextor files?
The disk image mode sounds cool, but I'll wait for more people to try and write/video about it.

Rookie Drive FDD + disk image support

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