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Author Topic: UniPlus Installation Issues  (Read 954 times)

warmech

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UniPlus Installation Issues
« on: May 23, 2024, 01:26:16 pm »

So, I've been working with Xenix for the last little bit trying to get some things going to port Infocom's "Dungeon" over to it, but it's being an absolute pain to deal with and I keep running into snags. Also, the C compiler Xenix uses is... interesting, to say the least. It's K&R C, which isn't the end of the world (definitely taking some getting used to), but it's throwing errors for things that run completely contradictory to how my contemporary "C Programming Language" manual describes should be done. I'm getting weird syntax errors for things like for loops that are formatted exactly how my old-as-dirt C manual describes, or const declarations that are otherwise perfectly acceptable in just about any other compiler. All that to say, I've found that UniPlus has a Fortran compiler and have wanted to give that a try instead of trying to port the available C code for Dungeon (Fortran Dungeon source is also available and the C code that's out there was converted using f2c back in the early 90s). Additionally, UniPlus treats the serial ports a little different (better) than Xenix and the cu command appears to work differently as well; this version looks like it was made for serial-based communications and isn't telephone-based like Xenix's cu is. Getting UniPlus running has been a complicated journey of its own, though...

I can get the deserialized boot disk to copy the bootloader to my ArduinoFile and can boot into the sunix kernal on the root filesystem disk, but that's when I run into problems. It prompts me for whether I'm using a ProFile or Corvus and what port it's on (0 for built-in parallel), but then it prints out that two serial ports are available and locks up. The only key that produces a response of any kind is the backslash/pipe key (and it throws an invalid key error); pressing anything else does nothing. There's no activity on the ArduioFile/ProFile or the floppy (via my FloppyEmu) and it just kind of... sits there. I've swapped out memory boards to no avail and deleted my ProFile image and started fresh, but I keep hitting the same wall. I've also been trying to get UniPlus running in LisaEm to try to build a bootable hard disk image, but I can't even get the boot disk to load without LisaEm just crashing. Also, I'm running this with an I/O card whose ROM I patched to have system ID 88 instead of A8 so I could use a 10MB ProFile image with it (Xenix); I doubt that's causing an issue but I might try to swap those ROMs out and try again.

Has anyone got UniPlus running on, well, anything recently that might have some advice (or has run into the same or similar issue that figured out how to clear it up)? Alternatively, does someone have a stock full installation of UniPlus on a ProFile image they'd be willing to send me to try out? I'm going to keep plugging away at this thing but, dang if this isn't a head scratcher.

Edit: Also, if anyone has any advice for getting LisaEm running with anything not LOS, I'd be very grateful for whatever you can tell me. I feel like I'm just dumb and not doing things right, but I do know the more "recent" RC releases for it had some issues with stability.
« Last Edit: May 23, 2024, 02:19:28 pm by warmech »
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blusnowkitty

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Re: UniPlus Installation Issues
« Reply #1 on: May 23, 2024, 02:36:30 pm »

I seem to remember running into the same issues when I was trying to get UniPlus up on my 2/5. First question, are you running a 5MB image or a 10MB image? I was trying to install UniPlus on a real 5MB profile and one thing I noticed is that UniPlus always tried to shoot the heads out way past end of disk, which lead me to assume that UniPlus's installer only works with 10MB disks and so I gave up on it. I think the only image we have of an installed UniPlus came off a 10MB ProFile, too. Maybe UniPlus is doing something that ArduFile can't handle, too?

I also believe that Ray only got experimental XENIX support working in LisaEm before he passed, nothing too terribly stable.
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sigma7

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Re: UniPlus Installation Issues
« Reply #2 on: May 23, 2024, 02:39:00 pm »

Alternatively, does someone have a stock full installation of UniPlus on a ProFile image they'd be willing to send me to try out?

I have a folder named "10MB ProFile Uniplus Image by Gilles" containing a 9.9 MB file named "profile_uniplus.raw" that I will be happy to zip and email to you if you'd like it, but I don't know what it contains.

It corresponds to the link Ray posted here: Re: Copy II Mac

Gilles is the author of the IDLE emulator; he had worked on supporting UniPlus, eg. IDLE 0.10 now running Uniplus
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AlexTheCat123

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Re: UniPlus Installation Issues
« Reply #3 on: May 23, 2024, 03:16:35 pm »

I just sent you a 10MB UniPlus image that I use on my ArduinoFile. So that should hopefully work! I would attach it here, but I know that LisaList2 has limited storage space for attachments, so I don't want to do that unless I get the go-ahead from an admin!
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compu_85

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Re: UniPlus Installation Issues
« Reply #4 on: May 23, 2024, 05:24:43 pm »

In the files section of this forums is the 10mb profile image from UniPlus that came from my 2/5.

https://lisalist2.com/index.php/topic,306.0.html

-J
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jamesdenton

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Re: UniPlus Installation Issues
« Reply #5 on: May 24, 2024, 03:09:14 pm »

Sadly, LisaEm does not support Uniplus at this time and might never will. The ProFile emulation is part of the issue, and Ray never really got things working there before he passed.

I know for sure I have a working image for Uniplus running on the PocketBeagle-based emulator, but haven't tested it on the ArduinoFile. Happy to share it if it might help.
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sigma7

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Re: UniPlus Installation Issues
« Reply #6 on: May 24, 2024, 04:36:50 pm »

ProFile emulation is part of the issue

Now that there are numerous (developers of) ProFile emulators, there may be someone who can help fix that part of LisaEm. Is the problem well defined or easily described?
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warmech

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Re: UniPlus Installation Issues
« Reply #7 on: June 05, 2024, 02:49:27 pm »

Wanted to provide an update (and thanks!) on this. Alex sent me an image that has worked swimmingly on my ArduinoFile and, boy oh boy, UniPlus is an infinitely less sensitive OS than Xenix (and a much more pleasurable experience overall - for a Unix OS, anyway). I need to take a look at the image compu_85 posted as well and compare the two at some point.

I'll be posting another thread about Zork/Dungeon, but working with UniPlus has been a fairly frustration-free endeavor. I can connect over serial without issue and format floppies just fine, unlike Xenix; I plan on imaging some test floppies in the near future and seeing if a modern Linux distro that still has SYSV filesystem support can peer into them. If so, that will make future development tasks a bit easier. One of the issues I did run into (that also appears to be the case with Xenix) is a lack of uuencode/uudecode support. As a result, I ended up writing a quick and dirty implementation of both for UniPlus that have so far worked without issue. I'll post a link in the Zork thread.

Thank you to everyone for your help on this!
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