Happy – “SepTandy”! – My FreHD Update Story
To quote “Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy” – The story so far……
Opening Comment: The “FreHD” is an amazing machine! Frederic and all the other contributors have my congratulations and thanks, as does Ian for his excellently built units!
Part One – All FreHD Utilities (tools) have been updated and bug fixed (V 2.05)
My little project started out with a very simple goal! To locate the “FreHD” CP/M utilities that “I assumed” were just missing from the “stock” CP/M image that came with my FreHD.
I found that:
1, There was no way to “import” to the CP/M image (no ‘import2.com’).
2, The version of ‘vhdutl.com’ (v2.02) could “directory” images on the SD Card (DIR) & “list” the mounted images (MNT) but it was “NOT” able to mount them.
After this I spent a great deal of time – both directly and indirectly – working with many members of the “Tandy” discord (What a great group of people), with Matt (@maboytim) in particular. With their “great” assistance I have “curated” multiple bugfixes and code corrections into the codebase for the FreHD Utilities for all the stock OS’es. All the bugfixes have been noted / commented in the code base and referenced to the contributor.
In short, these corrected the issues I was having with the CP/M utilities and many others.
VHDUTL.COM – Mounts drive images correctly now under CP/M
A Note on Version Numbers – (firmware) This is jumping ahead a little, but I thought it best to cover it now – in brief – there was in the past a great deal of “grief” in relation to version numbers and the confusion that it caused. I do hope I have not added to this, in fact my goal is to help get everyone back on an even keel. A “tiny” summary of the back story – I don’t know the exact timing here or full details but, suffice it to say – at some point after firmware 2.13 additional hardware support was added and this may have inadvertently caused some issues in its operation on the TRS-80 and – may have – caused “errors” in compiling it from source. One of the releases of 2.14 would appear to have been the culprit here! The successfully compiled version that came after this is 2.15 and will be found on “most” pre-built units. General opinion is that 2.13 is “rock” solid, so if you are not affected by any issues and “do not” wish or need to compile your “own” firmware – feel confident in sticking with (v2.13) or (v2.15).
(Utilities) – I don’t think I need to go into great detail here (most drive images I was able to locate on the Internet contained v2.00 – v2.03) – The Utilities (Tools v2.05) have been updated & bug fixed significantly and I would “generally” recommend using the later versions – These (v2.05) utilities contain some “missing” tools, are compliant with and will work with all 2.13 firmware and on.
After finalising and testing – as best I was able – the utilities, I spoke with Frederic (@veco) and he was very pleased to pull these into the main repository.
Frederic’s repository now contains these updates: https://github.com/veco/FreHDv1
FreHD Utilities (tools) v2.05 – Release files (if you are not compiling your own) can be found here: https://github.com/ontheslab/FreHDv1CPM/releases
Utilities Update Notes are here: https://github.com/ontheslab/FreHDv1CPM/blob/main/notes.alltools
Available Files:
cpm_tool205.zip – CP/M Only Utilities (tools) – (original project that started it all 😉 )
all_tool205.zip – Utilities for all stock OS’es
TOOLS205.DSK – Disk Image with the above Utilities
Part Two (a) – FreHD firmware has been updated and bug fixed (V 2.16 & V 3.68)
Like the work that has been done on the Utilities, the “firmware” has also been bug fixed. Given the history of issues, Matt (@maboytim) incorporated these fixes into the development of his “TrsVid” firmware and from this he has patched the stock (2.xx) firmware. The goal here was to make bug fixed firmware that would compile cleanly and was compliant with “fupdate”. Firmware (v2.16) is now the current version for Model I/III/4 if you are compiling it yourself. Firmware (v3.68) is the current version for the Model II.
This process showed up another small bug in the “fupdate” utility with the final version display missing a digit – This is now fixed and is already in the “utilities / tools” release on the main GitHub.
** In the following example (v3.14) refers to the “TrsVid” Bootloader Compliant firmware.
** How to use this software updatable firmware will be covered in my next article (Part Two).
“fupdate” loading of the new (2.16 & 3.14) and old firmware (2.15) is confirmed on the 4p.
Bug (now fixed) in the display after update (dropping a digit (2.6 instead of 2.16) etc.
Programming and Confirming software update to 2.16
Process confirmed.
Programming and Confirming software update 3.14 – (with TrsVid support).
“fupdate” version display bug also confirmed fixed – version display corrected.
Part Two (b) – FreHD rom has been updated and bug fixed (V 1009)
A version display bug that would cause a crash was also identified in “frehd.rom” this patch is also now incorporated into the main repository and release (binary) files.
New “frehd.rom” functional in all – above – tested firmware versions without crash (details of the bug are not covered here but can be found in the source and on the Tandy discord).
Available files:
FreHD_2.16.zip – FreHD Firmware (v2.16) and frehd.rom (v1009)
Release files are here:
https://github.com/ontheslab/FreHDv1CPM/releases/tag/v2.16-firmware
Repository firmware notes:
https://github.com/ontheslab/FreHDv1CPM/blob/main/notes.firmware
Frederic’s repository now contains these updates: https://github.com/veco/FreHDv1
In Closing! I hope this is of help and use to others! 😉
Summary:
- FreHD Utilities updated to 2.05 and pulled into “mainstream” by Frederic.
- FreHD Firmware bug fixed and updated to 2.16 – pulled into “mainstream” by Frederic.
- FreHD frehd.rom bug fixed and updated to v1009H – pulled into “mainstream” by Frederic.
Novice Instructions – for people like me 😊 – are in the next article – Part Two.
**** Warning – “flashing” or updating firmware – Warning ****
**** “can” and does go wrong – so only proceed with caution ****
Please note: Multidos and TrsVid support is not present in the above software.
References for these:
Tim’s MultiDos – https://github.com/hallorant/bigmit/tree/master/etc/multidos_frehd
Matt’s FreHD Stream: https://github.com/maboytim/FreHDv1
Matt’s 3.14 TrsVid firmware: https://github.com/maboytim/FreHDv1/blob/main/sw/pic/trs_hard/FreHD_3.14.hex
Additional References:
Frederic’s web page: https://www.vecoven.com/trs80/trs80.html
Mav’s FreHD and other TRS-80 Hardware: http://www.frehd.com
FreHD Update Story – Part 1 – (v1.03) – Link to Forum Message Board