Releases: androda/F4_BlueSCSI
1.1-2022-12-20
What's New?
- This release should fix an issue with CD emulation in Mac OS 8 specifically
- Added support for MegaSTE which can now map ID's to LUNs when the MSTE_MODE file is present on the root of the SD card.
- Warn and direct user to help if their image file is fragmented on the SD card, which could cause performance issues.
The above links point to the parent BlueSCSI repository intentionally, as this F4 fork maintains feature parity in these cases.
Flashing the Update
See the instructions here on how to install the firmware update via ST-Link and USB
These firmware versions are compatible with all currently-existing versions of F4 and F4Lite BlueSCSI, including the XCVR styles. Please flash the appropriate firmware to your device, based on the tag at the end of the firmware file name.
Full Changelog: 1.1-2022-09-20...1.1-2022-12-20
1.1-2022-09-20
What's New?
- CD / DVD image support has been added by @mynameistroy ! Filename prefix for these is
CD, e.g.CD4_StarWarsXWing.iso - Changes to improve Atari and SCSI-2 system support
- Image file names can now be 64 characters in length (thanks @erichelgeson)
- Better grammar in logging (thanks @barbeque)
Flashing the Update
See the instructions here on how to install the firmware update via ST-Link and USB
These firmware versions are compatible with all currently-existing versions of F4 and F4Lite BlueSCSI, including the XCVR styles. Please flash the appropriate firmware to your device, based on the tag at the end of the firmware file name.
Full Changelog: 1.1-OPTICAL-BETA-2022-07-27...1.1-2022-09-20
Optical Drive Support BETA
This is a BETA release of optical drive image support for BlueSCSI, based on Troy's Optical Branch. This branch has a PR open for merging into upstream BlueSCSI.
Optical drive images are usually given the file extensions .iso, .img, and .toast. These file extensions are not required for their functionality when used with BlueSCSI, and any raw optical data format could work. Try it out and let us know. :)
Where to send Feedback
Please report both failures and success in using this BETA release in the GitHub Discussion Here.
Usage
File naming is almost the same as for hard drive images. Simply replace HD at the front of your filename with CD, e.g:
CD10_2048_OS8.iso SCSI ID 1, LUN 0, sector size 2048 (normal for CD images)
Image Bootability
Not all images of boot discs have the proper bits set to allow Macs to boot from them. Known-bootable images are posted here: https://github.com/erichelgeson/BlueSCSI/wiki/CD-Image-Support
Known Issues
Trying to eject a CD image currently does nothing, but there are interesting possibilities around CD changing.
Images which have the "read only" attribute set are skipped (apparently some CD images have this bit set).
Flashing The Firmware
See the instructions here on how to install the firmware via USB. These firmware versions are compatible with all currently-existing versions of F4 and F4Lite BlueSCSI, including the XCVR styles. Please flash the appropriate firmware to your device, based on the tag at the end of the firmware file name.
1.1-2022-07-27
Most changes around Formatting Compatibility
After testing around with the previous release candidate, it was noted that formatting in Drive Setup no longer worked. Changes were made in upstream to fix this issue, and are pulled in as part of this release.
F4 BlueSCSI no longer reports itself as a QUANTUM FIREBALL1, due to issues this can cause with vendor-specific commands. Instead, it reports as a QUANTUM F4 BLUESCSI. Seems that the Apple original format utilities don't care about anything past QUANTUM, so you may not need to use a patched version of drive setup.
If you need to change the vendor information, use the scsi-info.txt file.
Contributors
Many thanks to @mactcp, @mynameistroy, moof(Discord), @erichelgeson, and @OneGeekArmy for their help in finding these issues and testing in upstream BlueSCSI.
Flashing The Update
See the instructions here on how to install the firmware update via USB. These firmware versions are compatible with all currently-existing versions of F4 and F4Lite BlueSCSI, including the XCVR styles. Please flash the appropriate firmware to your device, based on the tag at the end of the firmware file name.
Note For Developers
You will need to run through the setup steps again. Updates were made to the underlying framework which are required for this release. Also of note is that you will now have a board selector menu item for the F411 and F401, so there's no longer a need to tweak a file in the framework to change clock speeds. Further improvements to the build system are in the works.
Full Changelog: 1.1-SNAPSHOT-2022-06-27...1.1-2022-06-27
Contributors
Assets 6
Release Candidate: 1.1-SNAPSHOT-2022-06-27
This is a SNAPSHOT firmware, intended to be used by early adopters.
If you discover issues, please post them:
- In Discussions on this repo (discussion will be created automatically for this pre-release)
- On the TinkerDifferent forum here: https://tinkerdifferent.com/threads/f4-bluescsi-a-bluescsi-fork-by-androda.1336/
I have encountered no issues during testing. Tests were run against Beige G3 333, and Mac IIci.
Most changes around Formatting Compatibility
After testing around with the previous release candidate, it was noted that formatting in Drive Setup no longer worked. Changes were made in upstream to fix this issue, and are pulled in as part of this snapshot release.
F4 BlueSCSI no longer reports itself as a QUANTUM FIREBALL1, due to issues this can cause with vendor-specific commands. Instead, it reports as a QUANTUM F4 BLUESCSI. Seems that the Apple original format utilities don't care about anything past QUANTUM, so you may not need to use a patched version of drive setup.
Contributors
Many thanks to @mactcp, @mynameistroy, moof(Discord), @erichelgeson, and @OneGeekArmy for their help in finding these issues and testing in upstream BlueSCSI.
Flashing The Update
See the instructions here on how to install the firmware update via USB. These firmware versions are compatible with all currently-existing versions of F4 and F4Lite BlueSCSI, including the XCVR styles. Please flash the appropriate firmware to your device, based on the tag at the end of the firmware file name.
Note For Developers
You will need to run through the setup steps again. Updates were made to the underlying framework which are required for this release. Also of note is that you will now have a board selector menu item for the F411 and F401, so there's no longer a need to tweak a file in the framework to change clock speeds. Further improvements to the build system are in the works.
Full Changelog: 1.1-SNAPSHOT-2022-05-13-F4...1.1-SNAPSHOT-2022-06-27
Contributors
Assets 6
Release Candidate : 1.1-SNAPSHOT-2022-06-21
This is a SNAPSHOT firmware, intended to be used by early adopters. Please back up your images before testing (note that none of my drive images were corrupted in testing this version).
If you discover issues, please post them:
- In Discussions on this repo
- On the TinkerDifferent forum here: https://tinkerdifferent.com/threads/f4-bluescsi-a-bluescsi-fork-by-androda.1336/
I have encountered no issues during testing. Tests were run against Beige G3 333, and Mac IIci.
Expanded SCSI support
- This release added support for the following new commands
- Test Unit Ready
- Read Defect Data
- Lock/Unlock Cache
- PreFetch
- Prevent Allow Removal
- Fixed a bug that reported multiple LUNs when none present.
- Added additional Sense responses.
These changes should improve and fix many issues users had on non-mac systems.
Contributors
@mactcp, @erichelgeson, @mynameistroy
Thank you for your work making BlueSCSI better!
Not all changes were merged from the upstream BlueSCSI repo, because some of them were only relevant to that hardware style.
This pre-release brings F4 BlueSCSI up to date with upstream BlueSCSI's pre-release here: https://github.com/erichelgeson/BlueSCSI/releases/tag/v1.1-SNAPSHOT-20220617
Note For Developers
You will need to run through the setup steps again. Updates were made to the underlying framework which are required for this release. Also of note is that you will now have a board selector menu item for the F411 and F401, so there's no longer a need to tweak a file in the framework to change clock speeds. Further improvements to the build system are in the works.
Full Changelog: 1.1-SNAPSHOT-2022-05-13-F4...1.1-SNAPSHOT-2022-06-21
Contributors
Assets 6
1.1-SNAPSHOT-2022-05-13
This is a SNAPSHOT firmware, intended to be used by early adopters. Please back up your images before testing (note that none of my drive images have been corrupted in testing this version).
If you discover issues, please post them in Discussions on this repo. I have encountered no issues during testing.
CHANGES:
From mactcp:
- SCSI Phase Change Code Cleanup
- Support for images > 4GB in sizing (requires exFAT formatted SD card)
From Jokker
- Header files for common constant definitions
From Eric:
- Test Unit Ready command implementation
- LUN ID parsing is back
- Code cleanup, removing unused options and such
PROGRAMMING
Please choose the binary version which matches your hardware. Programming the XCVR version onto a standard board will probably cause issues, so don't do that.
Please also match F4 firmware to F4 hardware, along with F4Lite firmware to F4Lite hardware. Mixing these up will result in either under-clocking your device (with lesser performance) or over-clocking it to unknown results.
First Snapshot Release For XCVR
- Please report issues in GitHub Discussions on this repo. In any such discussion, please post: your XCVR F4 BlueSCSI hardware version, the firmware version, the device you are testing on, OS version of the image used, etc.
Compatibility:
Compatible only with the new XCVR F4 and F4Lite BlueSCSI designs. Using these on your non-XCVR designs will result in un-tested and unknown behavior, so please don't do that.
Code Changes
There's now a #define flag (compile-time flag) to turn on XCVR hardware support. Default is for this to be off, as the XCVR hardware has only just released.
Repo Changes
Under the /hw/Desktop_50Pin folder in this repo you can find the hardware designs for F4 and F4Lite XCVR.
Programming
See the page on flashing firmware updates here
Generally speaking you will need an STLink V2 clone stick, as my experience using the built-in USB programming bootloader has been very mixed. Some units happily accept programming that way, and many others do not.
1.1-SNAPSHOT-2022-04-07-F4
This is a pre-release
- Please back up all drive images before testing
- Please report issues in GitHub Discussions on this repo. In any such discussion, please post: your F4 BlueSCSI hardware version, the firmware version, the device you are testing on, OS version of the image used, etc.
- ETA on a 'full release' of this code is unknown
Compatibility:
Please check the firmware version you are flashing. F4 units must be flashed with F4 firmware, and F4Lite units must be flashed with F4Lite firmware.
- Currently has been tested on the various desktop hardware versions of F4 and F4Lite which have been released. Will shortly be testing the powerbook and external styles.
Changes
The changes in this release are nearly the same as in the upstream repository's release here
Differences:
- For the Image Sets feature, pins PC14 and PC15 are used instead of PA1 and PB1. PB1 was already in use for the external LED in this fork, and upcoming changes are using PA1. Image Sets are as yet untested by me in this fork.
- Toolchain version is unchanged, this process is different in the arduino ide than in platformio
Programming
See the page on flashing firmware updates here
First Snapshot Build Release, SNAPSHOT-2022-01-07
Taken a rather long time to get here, but here we finally are.
These are the first released builds for F4 (and F4Lite) BlueSCSI. They are based on the 2022-01-07 snapshot code as noted here. Substantial changes have occurred since this, and the upstream changes will be merged soon.