THIN 64 File System

Download Version 1.0 2007-08-20 Status: Working

What is it?

One big problem with my DTV is that the flash rom might only last for about: 100 re-flashes, and that every time I flash a new directory image to the flash, I have to re-flash position 0x10000 and forward.
This means that position 0x10000 is probably the position which will fail first.

Thin64 improves the flash-disk routines to support several flash partitions, each with its own directory starting at different positions in the flash.
You can for example have your normal flash directory at 0x10000, another one at 0x50000 and a third at 0x1B0000.

Features

Support for up to 31 partitions in steps of 0x10000 bytes

Fixes the load bug in flash, documented by T.L.R.

Sanity check of the partition switched to

Automatic re-coding of 0x10000-based flash images

Display of current partition

How do I use it?

Just run the file thin64v1.0.prg. ThinFS will be installed, and you can now change partition with the extended syntax:

LOAD"$5",1 - Change to partition 5 (base adress 0x50000)
All following flash operations will be re-directed to that partition.

LOAD"$0",1 - Display current partition
Since it is not possible to place a partition in the low-mem area (without considerable danger), trying to change to partition 0 will instead show the current partition.

When you make a new partition at for example 0x70000, there is no need to change the load adresses for the files. Thin64 will adjust the adresses of directory and programs according to the selected partition.
Just make your file system as you would if the directory started at 0x10000.

How does it work?

Thin64 makes a copy of your original Kernal and copies it to RAM. It then patches the flash-routine to use different offsets.

Todo

Future plans is to include support for thin64 into both DTVBIOS and DTVBASIC.

The code needs to be cleaned up a bit (it is an ugly hack today)

Check if it works with a "patched" Kernal, and if it doesn't, include support for it.