Carnivore 2: c2man does not find cartridge

Resident (58)

10-01-2020, 09:35

I received my Carnivore 2 a couple of days ago, and played with it for a couple of hours. I had already successfully added a few games to the flash-ROM, but when I tried to add another game (Alien8 32K ROM) last night c2man complained about a "locked" ROM or damaged cart and suggested to reboot while holding F5. I did that, and now c2man seemed to find the cart. However, the write-process failed - no progress bar appeared and nothing happened for several minutes. After a reboot c2man now doesn't find the Carnivore. The cart appears to work correctly except for this, it boots NextorDOS as usual and I can run the games I previously flashed.

Any suggestions for what to look for/test/fix before I send it back to 8bits4ever?

Por Wierzbowsky

Guardian (3649)

11-01-2020, 13:26

What exactly is the error message? Please provide a photo. The cartridge is quite complex and you can't repair it yourself. So it's better to send it to 8bits4ever for replacement.

Por sdsnatcher73

Enlighted (4304)

11-01-2020, 18:18

Maybe erase everything on the C2 and re-flash boot-block, ide bios and fm-pac bios? But you will need to be able to boot into DOS by some other means (another flash cart or just floppy disk will do), add the c2man and bios files from the github repository on the alternative storage. If it works it saves you some shipping, if it does not work you will not have done any harm.

Por skumlerud

Resident (58)

11-01-2020, 18:39

I figured it out, but I'm not sure if there's still something wrong.

The first times I used c2man to write some game-ROMs to the flash it would automatically find the cartridge.

Found Carnivore2 cartridge in slot(s): 20

Now it only says...

Found Carnivore2 cartridge in slot(s):

However, if I enter "20" here everything seems to work correctly. If I quit c2man and run it again it will detect the cartridge automatically until I powercycle the computer.

I think what lead me to believe that the cartridge was broken was that I entered the wrong slotnumber. I did not realise that you had to enter slot+subslot (20) so I just entered "2". c2man would still detect the flash, but then it said..

WARNING!
Uninitialized cartridge or wrong version of Carnivore cartridge found! Using this utility with the wrong cartridge version may damage data on it! Proceed only if you have an uninitialized Carnivore2 cartridge. Continue? (y/n)

Any idea why c2man doesn't find the Carnivore automatically anymore?

Por Wierzbowsky

Guardian (3649)

11-01-2020, 22:05

Use ESC key in the boot block to boot to DOS. Then run c2man utility. Is the cartridge automatically detected in the slot?

Do you use the latest boot block and c2man utility?

Por skumlerud

Resident (58)

12-01-2020, 00:26

Quote:

Use ESC key in the boot block to boot to DOS. Then run c2man utility. Is the cartridge automatically detected in the slot?

It is. If I select "DefConfig" instead it's not.

Quote:

Do you use the latest boot block and c2man utility?

c2man v2.00, bootblock v2.05

Por sdsnatcher73

Enlighted (4304)

12-01-2020, 06:11

I also have to enter slot number always when running c2man with the C2 in default config... I don’t flash games into the C2 a lot though (so not a big deal imho), I mostly use SofaRun which a.o. has great support for the C2.

Por Wierzbowsky

Guardian (3649)

12-01-2020, 14:13

When you select the Defconfig, the computer reboots and the cartridge hides its registers. This could be the reason of non-detecting the slot automatically. When entering the slot number with Defconfig (all devices enabled) you always have to enter zero after the slot number because in this configuration the Carnivore's slot is expanded. This is all written in the documentation:

https://github.com/RBSC/Carnivore2

We are now working on a file manager that will replace c2man in the long run.

Por skumlerud

Resident (58)

12-01-2020, 19:30

Ok, so everything appears to be working normally then Thanks for you assistance.

Por Grauw

Ascended (10821)

12-01-2020, 19:54

If there is a way to detect the Carnivore2 in the default configuration, not only c2man could benefit from it, but also VGMPlay .

Por Wierzbowsky

Guardian (3649)

12-01-2020, 22:59

Grauw wrote:

If there is a way to detect the Carnivore2 in the default configuration, not only c2man could benefit from it, but also VGMPlay .

This is no brainer. Just look for the the boot block's ID "CMFCCFRC" in the non-expanded slot or in the zero's subslot of an expanded slot at 0x4010. To detect whether the slot is expanded or not, read first 2 bytes of each subslot except x.2. The first 2 bytes will be "AB" - those are the boot block, IDE bios or/and FMPAC bios.

However, if the cartridge is configured as IDE only, FMPAC only or RAM only, the ID will not be visible anywhere. So detecting the Carnivore2 in the non-default configuration may be a real challenge. The same happens when Carnivore2 has the game/software ROM with the call-based start launched. You will not see the boot block in this mode either.