PiStorm Emu68 simple tutorial


Useful Emu68 programs:
Emu68Info 16 Feb 2022 by Flype (under development)
Emu68-tools nightly by Michal Schulz (emu68-vc4.card, EmuControl, VC4Tweak, Buddhabrot & SmallPT)
Emu68.adf 2 August 2022 ADF file that includes all above(+Emu68.img.zip + update scripts using fat95(L folder) and
UnZip(C folder). First run MOUNTFAT and then updEmu to upgrade via floppy..when done reboot)
↷ to FAQ

SDCARD:

Partition for emu68 should be fat32 formated (Emu68 see's it as 0).
Minimum recommended size for the fat32 partition is ~260 MB.
Warning! Don't fill up fat32 partition >95% then Raspberry Pi will not boot!

Download latest Emu68-pistorm-yyyymmdd-build.zip and extract all files to sdcard.
(next time it is enough to copy and replace Emu68.img from latest build)

copy kickstart.rom of your choice (for better performance)
(byteswapped also supported) to sdcard

change line in config.txt for example to initramfs kick32a1200.rom
(must match kickstart filename on sdcard exactly)

It's recommended to use a 1200 kickstart rom for better RAM support and features

Additional extra partitions's for Emu68:
make them a multiple of 504 MB for better performance.
create and set them to id 0x76 using your favourite partition tool.
Emu68 see's them as 1,2,3 (if you make three, which is max allowed)
0123
 FAT32   0x76     0x76          0x76       
Example of three 0x76 partitions that can be uses by Amiga OS.

Random example how to create 3 Amiga drives into 32 GB SDCARD: Each of the 0x76 partitions are individual Amiga drives and each of them can hold multiple Amiga partitions.

Amiga harddrive setup:
change hdtoolbox, icon information, tooltypes from scsi.device to
brcm-sdhc.device then hdtoolbox will find them
sdcard guide


RTG:

Use latest emu68-vc4.card from Emu68-tools and copy to LIBS:Picasso96/
Setup Guide
In devs/monitors and tooltypes good defaults are(case sensitive):
VC4_SCALER=1
VC4_PHASE=128
VC4_KERNEL=1
VC4_KERNEL_B=333
VC4_KERNEL_C=333


cmdline.txt

consist only from one single text line..so no line breaks. Options in more detail

Buptest (output on HDMI screen)
Tests if PiStorm firmware + hardware and CHIP ram is working ok:
buptest= Size in KB CHIP to test (512/1024 or more)

Number of buptest iterations:
bupiter=1 (to max 9). New random data is generated for every iteration


Memory
Limit mapped ARM memory to 2 GB(use if >2 GB ram on Pi):
limit_2g

z2 ram:
z2_ram_size= x (x=0 (new default), 1, 2, 4 or 8). Set lower if other Zorro II devices are installed in the system

Slow ram:
enable_c0_slow (0.5 MB)
enable_c0_slow enable_c8_slow (1.0 MB)
enable_c0_slow enable_c8_slow enable_d0_slow (1.5 MB)

Use SLOW ram as CHIP(Uses memory in Expansion slot. Needs min. Agnus 8372A):
move_slow_to_chip JP2 in default position(no soldering of JP2 on the motherboard needed)

Copy onboard ROM to fast ARM memory (avoid if kickstart.rom file is used):
rom_copy= Size in KB (256/512/1024/2048)


emu68-vc4.card
Set amount of VIDEO memory for emu68-vc4.card driver:
vc4.mem=16 (default). Set value to 0 to disable use of video driver


68040.library
Move VBR to end of FAST ram:
vbr_move
+ Slightly faster interrupt handling & fetching address through faster arm memory instead of slower chip ram
- Classic demos/games may not work


Miscellaneous
Disable fpu:
nofpu

Swap df0:
swap_df0_with_dfx (x=1,2 or 3)

Change Emu68 logo to black:
logo=black


brcm-sdhc.device
Disable switch to 50 MHz speed on SDCARD:
sd.low_speed

Change speed of SDCARD clock(will not work if sd.low_speed is also used):
sd.clock=50 (default). Value can be 50-200 MHz(>50 is overclocking).
Good values to experiment with (if data corruption) are: 100, 80, 75, 25

Set verbosity level of brcm-sdhc:
sd.verbose=x (x=0,1 or 2. Default is 0 = light debug)

Change sd.unit0 (partition0) behaviour of brcm-sdhc.device:
sd.unit0=ro read-only. This is the default
sd.unit0=rw read-write. Use with care!!!
sd.unit0=off hidden

Disable brcm-sdhc.device:
sd.disable


Debugging
Serial debug (2 GPIO pins):
debug disassemble async_log
(async_log option uses it's own CPU core for logging. Remove if not desirable)

921600 bps 8n1 (any ft232 should do. FT232RL-USB-TO-TTL 3.3V/5V in picture below)
Blue ground. Red (TX) to ft232 RX

For updates go to Michal Schulz Patreon

For nightly release's click here

For Michal Schulz twitch stream click here

Emu68 early game compatibility list

Emu68 early software compatibility list

Does Raspberry Pi Zero 2W work on Emu68?

Yes!

Can't get whdload to run?

test to set option NOMMU in s:whdload.prefs

Do Emu68 have working Pi Wi-Fi driver for Amiga network?

no, not yet (but planned for)

Red screen when starting Emu68(Mushashi PiStorm works fine)?

test another SDCARD

Can I test if my SDCARD is fake?

Yes, this program test's your SDCARD actual size, as opposed to the advertised side H2testw

Can't get Kickstart 1.3 or lower to work?

Underclock using arm_freq=600 (to max 1000) in config.txt and kickstart will start every time

I use showconfig and the system crashes!

It's a bug in boards.library. Download temporary fix from discord here and wait for official release (in 2022) on Aminet

Is there any way to transfer files fast to Emu68?

Copy files to the fat32 partition and afterwards mount it within Emu68 using fat95
or Start WinUAE as administrator and add 0x76 partition(s) using Add Hard Drive button

How does one mount the Emu68 fat32 partition under Amiga using fat95?

Click here for more details 1) Copy fat95 to L
2) Do the following steps 3 → 6 or download ready-made file here and icon file here
3) Create a file and put the following text inside:
FileSystem = L:fat95
Flags = 0
MaxTransfer = 0x1fe00
LowCyl = 0
HighCyl = 0
Surfaces = 1
BlocksPerTrack = 1
Buffers = 100
StackSize = 8192
GlobVec = -1
Priority = 5
 4) Add an icon to the file and change tooltypes to:
UNIT=0
DEVICE=brcm-sdhc.device
DOSTYPE=0x46415401
ACTIVATE=1
 5) Set following to:
Default tool : C:Mount
Stack size : 4096
Start from : Workbench
6) Save
7) Click the icon to mount

Note: change/add sd.unit0=rw in cmdline.txt to enable write (if needed)

Is there a ready to use Emu68 partitioned(fat32 + 0x76) image for my SDCARD?

Yes! Download from discord here. Win32DiskImager, BalenaEtcher, Rufus or other can be used to write it

How to build Emu68.img using Raspberry Pi?

Instructions

How to build Emu68-tools?

Instructions

How to check if GPIO pins are ok on Raspberry Pi?

Click here for more details 1) Disconnect Raspberry Pi from Pistorm!
2) Insert SDCARD with working Raspberry Pi OS / Mushashi PiStorm
3) Stop PiStorm emulator (if it has been started during boot(sudo pkill emulator))
4) sudo apt -y install pigpio
5) wget http://abyz.me.uk/rpi/pigpio/code/gpiotest.zip
6) unzip gpiotest.zip
7) sudo pigpiod
8) ./gpiotest
9) press enter...should say: Failed user gpios:none

How to flash CPLD beta firmware 3.1?

Click here for more details 1) Download firmware RTL_Proto3_1_Beta.zip from discord and unzip it
2) Insert SDCARD (Raspberry Pi OS / Mushashi PiStorm) and power on Amiga
3) Stop PiStorm emulator (if it has been started during boot(sudo pkill emulator))
4) git clone https://github.com/captain-amygdala/pistorm.git beta31
5) cd beta31
6) sudo apt-get install openocd (skip if already installed)
7) transfer/copy bitstream.svf & EPM_240_bitstream.svf & maxv_bitstream.svf from unzipped file to folder /beta31/rtl
8) ./flash.sh

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