Soft reset in Sofarun is unreliable

Resident (57)

16-01-2021, 20:04

I'm using Carnivore2 and I tried using Sega Genesis 6 button controller with Joymega adapter to soft reset ROMs on Sofarun. When I launch a ROM it loads it to Carnivore2 RAM and after I reset by controller I get to Sofarun menu much faster but after I load another ROM, it is loaded to "memory mapper" but this method is so broken and unreliable. Games "load" constantly and are slow and work very weird. When I reset the MSX2 with the hardware button, another game gets loaded to RAM and is reliable again

While I appreciate the idea of soft reset, it defeats the whole purpose completely. I cannot load any second ROM normally and need to reset my MSX2 using the hardware button anyway which takes longer to load. I figured the Carnivore2 RAM is probably not cleared properly so I clicked "clean temporary files" and "forget last flashed ROM" but it didn't work. Please advice what I can do if anything. Thanks in advance

By Manuel

Ascended (17501)

16-01-2021, 20:10

I also experienced this issue. Louthrax and I think the C2 is still configured as MeagRAM in the soft reboot, and when that is happening, no software detects it as Carnivore 2 anymore and thus Memory Mapper is used by SofaRun.

I hope Alexey can tell us whether there is a way to reset the C2 state to normal from software. If there is no way, then it would be a very good feature request to implement...

This issue wasted a few hours of my time, because I thought my ROMs weren't working properly (e.g. the Zanac EX Enhanced game). But that was just because I tried it after trying Salamander Enhanced (which for some reason soft resets my MSX). Only after looking more carefully after Louthrax's hint, I noticed that it was using Memory mapper instead of Carnivore 2 RAM and I also noticed that C2MAN didn't even detect the device. Alexey told me this is because the boot-menu in the slot is used to recognize the C2 and when the MegaRAM is still active, this is not the case.
So, a way to reset the configuration back to normal is needed.

By Louthrax

Prophet (2398)

17-01-2021, 00:34

Yep, as Manuel said.

We'll probably need a modification in the Carnivore 2 FPGA to fix this (a software way to restore the mapper and make the Carnivore 2 RAM configurable again). Alexey, what do you think ?

Just thinking: have you guys tried to use the "Carnivore 2 - Flash" instead ? You'll need to reserve some space on he Carnivore 2 flash memory, follow instructions here.

By VegaVegas

Resident (57)

17-01-2021, 14:05

I tried to flash games to Carnivore2 - Flash and it works at first but doesn't work anymore after soft reset

By Louthrax

Prophet (2398)

17-01-2021, 15:20

Ok, thanks for trying. So same behavior. Let's see if Alexey can do something.

By Grauw

Ascended (9580)

17-01-2021, 15:37

I would think that absent a hardware reset signal, the software needs to tell it to select the default config by writing to the Carnivore2 registers prior to reset…

By Louthrax

Prophet (2398)

17-01-2021, 16:10

Ah, yeah, or maybe at detection time when SofaROM is launched... But that could break some existing setup and cause a crash. I was kind of assuming that this was not possible because even the Carnivore 2 official tools do not do that, I'll check !

By Manuel

Ascended (17501)

17-01-2021, 16:10

Grauw: in my case the soft reset was unintended (crashing software). But after that soft reset, the C2 mapper was still active, and thus it wasn't usable anymore by SofaRun (or even its own C2MAN software).

By Louthrax

Prophet (2398)

17-01-2021, 17:28

So I checked my SofaROM code... and it already had a Carnivore 2 reset code before doing the detection. Maybe it worked at a time with a previous Carnivore 2 firmware, but I frankly do not remember

I've sent an email to Alexey with explanations, we'll see.

By Louthrax

Prophet (2398)

18-01-2021, 18:48

It's been confirmed by Alexey and the RBSC that currently, the only way to detect or reprogram a Carnivore 2 after a first "flash phase" is a hardware reset.

But maybe something could be added on the FPGA side to allow that, reflexion is in progress...

VegaVegas, if you can't wait, there are other flash cartridges that support the soft reset correctly, like the MegaFlashROM SCC+ SD.

By Manuel

Ascended (17501)

18-01-2021, 21:34

It would be good if the programming register would be just always available somehow to detect and/or reset/setup the C2. But let's see what they come up with