13/08/12 ROM Bomb

Tried today’s ROM. My BB -xM Rev C doesn’t find the desktop configurations. It starts up with 256 colours, 640×480 resolution & frame rate unknown. It’s using the default tool set.

Configured settings are – 16M colours 1024×768 res & 60 Hz based on the Generic MDF. I use a set of toolsprites & sprites set in Choices:Boot.PreDesk which are now ignored.

I can re-configure for current session but get an error message that the settings can’t be saved & they’re not.

Is there something I need to do, a bug or an intermediate stage which will sort?

Reverting ROM version fixes.

I suspect the problem is caused by the VIDCBandwidthLimit command being removed from the ScreenModes module. Try going to PreDesk.Configure.!Run and changing the line:

set Alias$VIDCBandLimit VIDCBandwidthLimit 2000000000 2000000000 2000000000

To:

set Alias$VIDCBandLimit X VIDCBandwidthLimit 2000000000 2000000000 2000000000

Which is what the boot sequence has been updated to use.

Did you get any useful error message on entering the desktop? I’m sure it’s meant to give you at least a hint as to what the error was or where it’s gone wrong.

Is there something I need to do, a bug or an intermediate stage which will sort?

The disc image failed to build overnight, but you may wish to try the following change in
Boot.Choices.PreDesk.Configure.!Run
there’s a set alias command, put an ’X ’ before the VIDCBandwidthLimit command. For completeness the corresponding files in RO500Hook and RO510Hook could be changed too incase you ever need to reset boot.

Edit: gah – I see Jeffrey said the same thing (I was disturbed by someone talking to me while typing).

Thanks Jeffery & Sprow

That sorted it out. I always check the disc image to make sure everything’s synchronised but as it’s dated the 11th didn’t think anything of it.

Did you get any useful error message on entering the desktop? I’m sure it’s meant to give you at least a hint as to what the error was or where it’s gone wrong.

No. Started up with no error message. Only got the one when I reconfigured the display. First sign of a problem was when the Castle start-up page displayed.

Just out of curiosity…

My Choices:Boot.PreDesk.Configure.!Run file contains

Set Alias$VIDCBandLimit X VIDCBandwidthLimit 2000000000 2000000000 2000000000
VIDCBandLimit
Set PreDesk$Configure <Obey$Dir>.Monitor
/<PreDesk$Configure>

which works fine with today’s (14th) disc image & the 13/08 ROM.

The RO510Hook version has the extra line;

/BootResources:Configure.ClrMonitor

Replacing the original with the new !Run sets my display to a non MDF mode as before. Reconfiguration is lost on reset as before though no error message this time. Replacing the old version brings things back to normal though requires display reconfiguration again which is persistent this time.

So… Which version should I have in PreDesk.Configure and what does ClrMonitor do?

what does ClrMonitor do

ClrMonitor checks the “I just nuked the CMOS settings” flag bit, and if set it will disable the configured monitor to let a default (safe) mode to be used. It just comments out the LoadModeFile command, and hence will persist until the screen configure plugin is used to select a new monitor definition. It is to ensure that after a reconfigure (‘r-power’ on or ‘delete-power on’) you’re not left with no display.

The flag is cleared by the kernel on the next power up, so it should only happen once!

However – I’ve just spotted my fat finger mistake in ClrMonitor, and will check in a fix in a moment. Tomorrow’s one should be much better…

Inane questioning has its uses then! I was tempted to ask how the hook system worked but thought better of it. :-)

Presumably after tomorrow I should use the RO510Hook version of PreDesk.Configure.!Run?

[Edit] That’s a ‘yes’ then (or at least it doesn’t seem to cause a problem). :-)

In my HardDisc image of 22/09/12 from ROOL, there is no ClrMonitor file in !Boot.Resources.Configure although it is referred to in the line
/BootResources:Configure.ClrMonitor of the !Run files of
Boot.Choices.Predesk.Configure , RO500Hook.Boot.PreDesk.Configure and RO510Hook.Boot.PreDesk.Configure.
Does this account for the error BB throws up, “No Boot Application has been run on startup ………….”? That is, could it stop the Boot process completing?

I see in today’s HardDisc image, dated 1/10/12, file ClrMonitor is present in Resources.Configure.