Help needed Gui4cbm4win and Vista

Vic20-Ian · Post by **Vic20-Ian** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 3:01 pm

I felt the need for some disks on the Vic.

I converted my X1541 cable to XE with 4 wire swaps and diodes and then to XM by swapping 2 wires and fired up CBM4Win.

The Gui is quite nice but I am getting lots of illegal files and flaky performance.

I have to reset the whole PC, cbminst -r from command and then cbminst from windows to get the drive light to go off and stop spinning.

I have copied 2 disk images successfully but most of the time it just has read errors when formatting disks.

Is this due to Vista?

Has anyone had any success with Vista and Gui4CBM4win?

Am I doing something else wrong?

Thanks for any help.

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 4:16 pm

I suggest you StarCommander in pure DOS, or if you have a 1581 drive 1581copy in DOS too, it does not requires any cable, just your pc floppy drive.

If you have a C64 then you may buy an MMC64 or similar to copy d64 files to an SD card and using the MMC64 on the C64 reverse it to a real drive that after you read on a vic.

If you have just a vic you may use a 1541-III or similar things too but much more expensive i think.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 1:10 am

You're on the right way with cbminst. Perhaps you should try the -i flag to permanently install the driver to control the parallel port. I think cbm4win works better that way, but any other applications using the parallel port will screw up. I don't have any experience with Vista, but on XP it works well once the driver has been installed.

It may also matter which motherboard and chipset you have. While most should work, you may have one of the few ones not compatible with the XE/XM cables. Since you run Vista, it got to be a rather recent computer but still old enough to have a legacy parallel port unless you installed some extra hardware or .. *cough* parallel port adapters?

Vic20-Ian · Post by **Vic20-Ian** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 5:24 am

Hi all,

The following is a dump of driver status and operation is discussed inbetween Asterisks and at the end. Comments and help appreciated.

Ian

C:\Users\Ian\Desktop\VIC20 Stuff\open cbm>instcbm -i
instcbm: invalid option -- i
Try `instcbm' --help for more information.

C:\Users\Ian\Desktop\VIC20 Stuff\open cbm>instcbm
Installing driver...
Using driver 'C:\Users\Ian\Desktop\VIC20 Stuff\open cbm\'
Copying 'C:\Users\Ian\Desktop\VIC20 Stuff\open cbm\cbm4wdm.sys' to 'C:\Windows\
ystem32\DRIVERS\cbm4wdm.sys'
Copying 'C:\Users\Ian\Desktop\VIC20 Stuff\open cbm\opencbm.dll' to 'C:\Windows\
ystem32\opencbm.dll'
Copying 'C:\Users\Ian\Desktop\VIC20 Stuff\open cbm\opencbmvdd.dll' to 'C:\Windo
s\system32\opencbmvdd.dll'

Checking configuration for cbm4win

The following configuration is used:

INSTCBM version: 0.4.2
Driver version: 0.4.2
Driver path: C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\cbm4wdm.sys
DLL version: 0.4.2
DLL path: C:\Users\Ian\Desktop\VIC20 Stuff\open cbm\OPENCBM.DLL

Driver configuration:
Default port: ........ LPT1
Driver start mode: ... auto (2)
LPT port locking: .... yes
Cable type: .......... auto (-1)

No problems found in current configuration

****************************************************
*** At this point I tried copying a working disk to the PC, all seemed to be going well but the drive kept spinning at the end forever. The image is now on the PC and works fine with Vice but gui4cbm4win is now locked up. Exiting and restarting does not make it work, neither does switching the drive on and off.

I checked the instcbm status as administrator again below:

It seems the first operation works then serial transfer hangs up

*********************************************************

C:\Users\Ian\Desktop\VIC20 Stuff\open cbm>instcbm -c
Checking configuration for cbm4win
Driver problem: Could not check install.

The following configuration is used:

INSTCBM version: 0.4.2
Driver version: COULD NOT DETERMINE VERSION
Driver path: C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\cbm4wdm.sys
DLL version: 0.4.2
DLL path: C:\Users\Ian\Desktop\VIC20 Stuff\open cbm\OPENCBM.DLL

There are mixed versions, THIS IS NOT RECOMMENDED!

Driver configuration:
Default port: ........ LPT1
Driver start mode: ... auto (2)
LPT port locking: .... yes
Cable type: .......... auto (-1)

*** There were errors in the current configuration.
*** Please fix them before trying to use the driver!
C:\Users\Ian\Desktop\VIC20 Stuff\open cbm>

*****************************************************
The driver seems to have packed up or got confused (I have also tried LOCK mode)

Any ideas as to what I can try next without DOS and only Vista on the PC to hand?

Can it be related to the bios multi io settings? IRQ 7 LPT1, EPP or ECP port mode? EP v 1.7 or 1.9 ECP DMA 3 options

The only fix so far is to reset the pc and reinstall then do one operation on the drive.

I can limp along like this till i get my win98 disk and multiboot i guess or go back to ds and starcommander but native under Vsta would be less fuss and Open CBM is supposed to support.

Cheers Ian

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:32 am

Hm, maybe I referred to -p for permanent? I can't recall the exact config but perhaps I can have a quick check very late tonight.

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 3:27 pm

nbla000 wrote:I suggest you StarCommander in pure DOS, or if you have a 1581 drive 1581copy in DOS too, it does not requires any cable, just your pc floppy drive.

In addition, to read/copy 1581 disk images from/to a 1581 floppy disk on Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista and without any cable, i've recently found and successfully tested 1581Disk that use the free Fdrawcmd.sys driver.

Make the d81 floppy image with your favorite tool, i suggest DirMaster and write it using the PC floppy drive, i've tested it with an internal floppy drive, i don't know if it works with USB floppy drives.

Command lines examples:

Code: Select all

FORMAT, COPY AND VERIFY FILE IMAGE TO DRIVE A:
1581Disk.exe fileimage.d81 a: /v

COPY AND VERIFY FILE IMAGE TO DRIVE A: [NO FORMAT]
1581Disk.exe fileimage.d81 a: /n /v

COPY FILE IMAGE TO DRIVE A: [NO FORMAT] [NO VERIFY] 
1581Disk.exe fileimage.d81 a: /n

WRITE FILE IMAGE FROM DRIVE A: 
(Warning, it overwrites existing files without prompting) 
1581Disk.exe a: fileimage.d81

VERIFY DISK ON DRIVE A: 
1581Disk.exe /verify a:

I'm really planning to write a windows front-end for this program to avoid command lines using a comfortable GUI.

Vic20-Ian · Post by **Vic20-Ian** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 2:26 am

Sorted out the problem it was the GUI4CBM4WIN causing lockups.
Command line mode seems to work perfectly.

Schema · Post by **Schema** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 8:57 am

What was the issue exactly? Which version of the GUI are you using? Several people have worked on it after me, but I might have an idea if I knew the symptoms better. I don't have Vista though so I don't know what I'll be able to test.

Vic20-Ian · Post by **Vic20-Ian** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 7:35 am

If using the gui 0.4.0 in Vista the serial transfer seems to lock up at the end of a format command for example.

Running the command direct works great in a command window