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Author Topic: System Error 10738  (Read 1206 times)

sigma7

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System Error 10738
« on: July 20, 2025, 12:46:19 am »

I have sometimes encountered System Error 10738 trying to load Alex's combined Workshop/LOS image from his "LisaSourceCompilation" github repository.

Shortly after selecting the hard disk from the Startup From menu, it dropped into LisaBug showing:

Code: [Select]
Level 7 Interrupt
002E2E5C   6000 0150  BRA *+$0152
...
*** System Error  10738 ***
According to page D-13 (182 of 399) of

https://bitsavers.org/pdf/apple/lisa/workshop_3.0/Lisa_Pascal_3.0_System_Software_1984.pdf

System Error 10738 = "Can't find a required driver for the boot device."

An odd error given that the image has already worked for me, and the boot device is the expected one (a ProFile on the built-in port).

I initially suspected some kind of hardware fault or image corruption, but found that after booting a different image then coming back to boot this one, it boots fine.

My new suspicion is that the problem is a power-up parameter memory (PRAM) state that isn't recognized as invalid due to a fortuitous checksum match, so it is not re-initialized with valid values. The retained "invalid boot device" value then causes the error.

To test this theory, I tried changing a couple of bytes in PRAM to invalidate the checksum, and after restarting it booted successfully.

I made the change in LisaBug (ie. immediately when the system error appeared, no need to restart and enter service mode although that would work too), then pressed the reset button.

The command I used was

Code: [Select]
sm fcc180 00ff 0055 00aa
It could be specific to my setup/hardware, and/or that there is an oddity in this image's (or perhaps a variety of images') boot code, or it may be a chronic Workshop bug... if I figure that out I'll append.

Quote
The Lisa's PRAM is a reserved portion of the static RAM on the I/O Board that is shared with the Floppy Disk Controller.

The 68000 accesses the PRAM as odd bytes in the range of FCC181 to FCC1FF.
The even bytes in this address range are not connected to anything, so writes don't go anywhere and reads will read an undriven buss (which may give random data).

Since the 68000 cannot perform a word read or write to an odd address, it is easier (less typing in LisaBug/MacsBug) to write a sequence of words to an even address rather than individual single bytes to multiple odd addresses.
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AlexTheCat123

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Re: System Error 10738
« Reply #1 on: July 20, 2025, 10:43:17 am »

Hmm, that's really weird. The Workshop/LOS installation in that image is completely fresh; I did a clean install right before copying over the other files that are in the image. So it would be strange for the the system to have gotten corrupted given that I only booted it once or twice to create the image. I've never gotten that error with this particular image, but I can try repeatedly booting up and shutting down to see if I can reproduce it. If so, I'll report back here!
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sigma7

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Re: System Error 10738
« Reply #2 on: July 20, 2025, 02:12:45 pm »

it would be strange for the the system to have gotten corrupted

Sorry I didn't make it clear... I've concluded the image is not corrupted; I don't think you should spend any time on it.

The workaround I did to invalidate the PRAM checksum seems to have mitigated the error issue, so I don't think it could be the image per-se.

The remaining question is "Is there something about the Workshop or perhaps more specifically the environments switcher that makes it vulnerable to accepting an incorrect PRAM checksum?".

I suppose it is possible that the recompiled boot/environments code in this particular image is missing some kind of patch, or it may be that this problem is specific to my machine, or perhaps it has been there all along but the 'random' powerup values in the SRAM chips that were used were consistently outside the problem values.

This particular I/O Board has non-original SRAM chips "TMM314APL-1"
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TorZidan

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Re: System Error 10738
« Reply #3 on: July 20, 2025, 03:45:02 pm »

For those who wish to try Alex's Profile image  https://github.com/alexthecat123/LisaSourceCompilation/blob/main/LOS%20Compilation%20Base.image.zip in LisaEm: I faced the same  error.
Zapping the Pram (in File->Preferences) did not help.
After some trail and error , I found out that if I switch the I/O Rom version to "88" (in File->Preferences) , it boots fine to the "Environments" screen, and from there it boots successfully to LOS and Workshop (based on your choice); any other i/o rom version boots into "System Error  10738" .
I am using CPU Roms version "H".

What is different between these I/O Roms? In I/O Rom version "88" the hard drive is at the very top on the lisa boot screen.
And when we boot from it into Workshop, it identifies the Profile as "UPPER", which normally means "the upper floppy drive" (see the screenshot).
I can still use floppy disks (from File -> Insert Diskette), by using "LOWER" for the floppy drive.

Note: I converted Alex's profile image to a dc42 image using the raw-to-dc42 tool that is part of LisaEm.
« Last Edit: July 20, 2025, 03:52:31 pm by TorZidan »
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sigma7

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Re: System Error 10738
« Reply #4 on: July 20, 2025, 05:23:33 pm »

What is different between these I/O Roms?

... LisaEM

A difference between I/O ROM versions '88' and 'A8' is that 88 is used on the 2/10 I/O Board and A8 is used on the 2/5 I/O Board.

The 'H' CPU ROMs use this to distinguish whether to draw the Startup From menu with a drive cage Widget icon as #1, or an external ProFile as #3.

IIRC, in both cases, using either Apple-1 or Apple-3 will boot the hard drive from the built-in port (while Apple-2 is for the floppy). I don't recall which is used as the default for "auto start" if one doesn't interrupt the process to stop at the Startup From menu.

The boot ROM saves which one was selected in case the booting environment wants it, so this may be relevant to when the error appears.

In LisaEM, you may find selecting one of those works and the other doesn't, I don't know.

In my tests (H & A8, IRL), I was letting it auto-select the startup drive, both when observing the problem and after applying the command in LisaBug and resetting.
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AlexTheCat123

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Re: System Error 10738
« Reply #5 on: July 21, 2025, 12:23:50 pm »

I suppose it is possible that the recompiled boot/environments code in this particular image is missing some kind of patch, or it may be that this problem is specific to my machine, or perhaps it has been there all along but the 'random' powerup values in the SRAM chips that were used were consistently outside the problem values.

Just to be clear, there isn't any recompiled code in this image since I'm trying to be very careful not to violate any of Apple's licensing terms. All the LOS/Workshop files in the image came straight from the original install disks. So assuming there's no corruption, any problems that appear are problems that would show up in any standard install of LOS.

After some trail and error , I found out that if I switch the I/O Rom version to "88" (in File->Preferences) , it boots fine to the "Environments" screen, and from there it boots successfully to LOS and Workshop (based on your choice); any other i/o rom version boots into "System Error  10738" .

Ahh, I think that could explain it! I created this image on a 2/10 (so I/O ROM 88), and I guess there's some incompatibility with booting the image on a 2/5.

IIRC, in both cases, using either Apple-1 or Apple-3 will boot the hard drive from the built-in port (while Apple-2 is for the floppy). I don't recall which is used as the default for "auto start" if one doesn't interrupt the process to stop at the Startup From menu.

The boot ROM saves which one was selected in case the booting environment wants it, so this may be relevant to when the error appears.

I don't have my Lisa out right now to confirm this, but I'm guessing that the ROM is saving the boot ID as 3 on your 2/5 systems, whereas LOS is expecting it to be saved as ID 1 since it was installed on a 2/10, and then it gets confused when the numbers don't line up. Just a guess though!
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