i just released a REU Plugin for MMC64 to dump / restore the REU content from / to a dump file on / from the MMC64's Card.
Have a look at the file section and read the read me for details!
Please report bugs / incompatibilities.

EDIT: I can't upload anything in the files section, so i uploaded it here, maybe you want to move it, RaveGuru...??!

What exactly is the intended use for this? To save and restore a RAM drive? I think my idea of actually distributing a REU-using release in this format might be useful for something...

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Commodore 128 Programmer
City of Kouvola, Finland

http://mydarkgothvampiricplace.endofthe ... Commodore/

yep. exactly. or to save and restore REU contents in general (doesn't habe to be a ramdisk of course...)

I don't actually have anything I could test this with... Unless I freeze a game that uses a REU. Can you give me examples of programs with which this plugin can be useful?

_________________
Commodore 128 Programmer
City of Kouvola, Finland

http://mydarkgothvampiricplace.endofthe ... Commodore/

i use it with RAMDOS (which came with the REU on its demo disk, but there is a enhanced version of this available that supports REUs > 512K). So, set up a ramdisk and load anything you want onto it, then before switching off you can backup the ramdisk (that is: the whole REU) on MMC64 and the next day just restore it and proceed where you stopped....
this is what i use it for: As ramdisk-backup.

please folks, could you MMC64 & REU - owners test this one out, even if you have no use for it, since I need to know if it runs well or not. I recieved some failure reports from other users and I fear there is some heavy incompatibility with different cards. please report me if this plugin even LOADS and RUNS and what MMC64 BIOS you are running and what type of card you are using.
Thanks a lot!
and hey... give it a try, I think this is a great plugin, together with ramdos this one turns your REU nearly into a Ramlink - well, ok, nearly.
It works perfectly on my C128 with REU1750 and a Toshiba 1GB Card on Bios v1.10.

Umm... I tested your plugin with poor results, I'm sorry to say. I tried it numerous times with three different image files and every time the result was that the border flickered for approx. 500 ms and then the computer froze. Nothing happened anymore.

Also, sorry for the confusion. At the time of my previous post I hadn't yet read the docs. It was a good idea to actually include RAMDOS, but I don't remember this being mentioned anywhere - I mean on release notes, so you might want to advertise that a bit, as it's a good thing.

I have a few notes from the docs as well:

- for experienced users it is obvious that the dump file is to have a .reu extension, but to the beginners it isn't - and this is not specified in the doc
- I was left wondering what happens after the transfer is complete - this information can be found in the latter example, but you might want to add it to the first one as well
- it was also a bit unclear how I am to restart a program after I restore a RAM Expansion image, so you might want to reduce the amount of guesswork by the user
- use spell checking or at least proof-read I counted at least 4 typos and one grammar error

/me hides

PS. You prolly know I have a C128 setup, with 1750. I used a 32 MB card that originates in a Nokia 6600 phone. The card could well be responsible for my trouble. As far as I know, it should be a regular MMC anyway, so your software should work with it...

PS2. The pre-requisite of needing a dump file already created on the card is a bit awkward. Is it possible to create the file by your plugin? Also, is it possible to add autodetection to your rdinstall program? Or provide a configuration tool like graham's setip to fix custom settings.

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Commodore 128 Programmer
City of Kouvola, Finland

http://mydarkgothvampiricplace.endofthe ... Commodore/

this behavior is known to be a bug in this version. I updated the whole thing to a whole framework for "Universal RAM-.Expansion Plugin", I wrote the module for REU and GEORAM - others (RR-RAM, RAM-Link etc) can easily be written using the Lib and the source templates in the package. Furthermore the plugin is reported now to reliably WORK at last for some other users, so I hope it will do for you! Again: The version posted here in the first post IS BUGGY.
Download the new package containig sources and pre-compiled binaries for reuplgin.bin and geoplgin.bin: http://people.freenet.de/hannenz/files/emplugin.zip

yes, i surely should - you are right.


isn't it?! I am quite sure I mentioned that??!

what the hell do you expect to happen??! it returns to the filebrowser, as any plugin does... but - the source in the new package contains a switch at which - if assembled with that switch (called RAMDOS) automatically reinstalls RAMDOS. loads its first program, starts it and does some (very special) init commands, which I use in my daily work but it can be easily altered to your needs!

i don't get the point what you mean, sorry...

oops. ok. thanks for notification.

as i said, your card is surely not to blame, the buggy version is.
no. not for me, sorry..... i am not that deep in mmc64 programming (yet).

what do you mean? the RAM Expansion is detected automatically. If you think about auto-detecting the image if it contains a ramdisk - yes, i am in fact planning to do something of that kind in the near future...

what else do you want to configure...?! give me concrete examples please....

My plans for the future will be:
some program (not plugin in that sense) that autostarts at boot-up and reads a given dump file, checks if it contains a ramdisk or not. If not then it behaves like now. If it finds one, it loads the ramdisk (in this case it will be possible not to load the whole dump but only the actual ramdisk size, so things will speed up!!!). This could contain more configurable data, like the dumpfile name, commands to execute after loading the image and so on...)
For dumping the REU back the normal plugin can be used....

but for now, please check out the new package and if you are in a good mood and have ideas for implementing further RAM-Expansion-Modules (like RR-Ram) and if you have ca65 consider writing a module...

LOL. Well, point was I had to make a guess. Alternatives were a restart of the browser, hang and reset to BASIC. Anyways, it was a useful hint that you can use VICE to create the dump file.

Actually, I don't remember what I meant with "autodetection". I was probably thinking about storing and automatically retrieving the options that had been used with RAMDOS the last time.

I don't want to configure anything else, but store the RAMDOS settings in the rdinstall program, so that it would automatically bring up my own defaults instead of the factory settings.

Your autostarting program will be installed as BOOT.BIN? You should provide a way to autorun another program to which it then passes control, if it finds no existing RAMDOS image.

I mean, most people already have an autostarting program that they will want to chain with your new one. I will check out your new REUPLGIN and see what I can complain about that one.

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Commodore 128 Programmer
City of Kouvola, Finland

http://mydarkgothvampiricplace.endofthe ... Commodore/