Dayna Network Emulation with Atari Computer ...

[franklukas]

I've installed the latest firmware on the 25-pin subwoofer version, and everything's working fine with the hard drive on my Atari Falcon, but there are problems with Dayna emulation. Network emulation hasn't worked with every firmware I've used. With the latest firmware, it's a bit better, but it's still buggy. Under MiNT with a recent kernel package, the entire system freezes at the point "adding defaultroute:." It completely freezes, so much so that even a keyboard reset is no longer possible.

Others report it works, but it's never worked for me, not even with an Atari TT!

[fdanapfel]

I just tested this using the latest "bootable" FreeMiNT image from https://tho-otto.de/snapshots/freemint/bootable/ on an Atari Falcon030 with a DFB1X with a DB25 BlueSCSIv2 (with latest firmware from https://github.com/BlueSCSI/BlueSCSI-v2/releases), and for me using the network from FreeMiNT with the emulated DaynaPort SCSILink works without problems.

On the BlueSCSIv2 I configured the WiFi settings according to https://github.com/BlueSCSI/BlueSCSI-v2/wiki/WiFi-DaynaPORT

In FreeMiNT the SCSILINK.XIF was enabled in the "FALCON" folder, and the ifconfig and route entries with the appropriate settings for my network where enabled in the MINT.CNF.

When booting into FreeMINT and checking the network settings using ifconfig and route via the shell from TOSWIN2 I'm able to see the en0 interface is up and running and the routes for my network are correctly configured.

I can ping the Atari from another system on the network, and after adding the ping binary inside FreeMint (see freemint/freemint#372) i'm also able to ping the router and other systems on the network from the Falcon.

[mikrosk]

It has worked for me with the latest firmware as well on Falcon030/060.

I'd suggest to create a minimal setup (with latest freemint snapshot) instead of using the bloated EasyMiNT setup.

[franklukas]

It could well be the Easymint issue, the boot process with Easymint works via the init. The point is, it works perfectly when I use the original Dayna Hardware. I won't replace EasyMint because of this. However, I will test booting Mint without the init. This problem has nothing to do with the DFB1 Accelerator, because the same problem also exists on an Atari TT.

I suspect a timing issue between the original Dayna Hardware and the BlueSCSI Dayna emulation...?

[mikrosk]

I won't replace EasyMint because of this

The whole point of bootable snapshots is that you don't need to replace anything. ;) Just unpack the ZIP on C: and disable everything else in AUTO. That way you can run ifconfig and route from TosWin2 and see whether the situation improves.

[fdanapfel]

The bootable snapshots would be even more useful for this if ping was included as well (see freemint/freemint#372 ).

Because with ifconfig and route you can only check if the network configuration on the local setup is correct, but you can't actually test if communication with the outside world is actually working or not (which seems to be the problem in this case).

[franklukas]

I'm using EasyMiNT with a current freemint package and booting via INIT=u:\sbin\init.

I don't want to do it any other way. As I said, everything works perfectly with the original Dayna Hardware but not with the BlueSCSI Dayna Emulation and WiFi ...!

I disable the network device and try to put in the bash via TosWin2 after bootup the ifconfig and the whole system hang ...!

[franklukas]

The same Setup with a Netusbee and the NE2KENEC.XIF on the DFB1 Falcon with Nova Falcon (MACH32) all is fine and I can use my NFS Share from my M4 Macintosh ...

[franklukas]

The real Dayna Hardware works fine with my EasymiNT Setup ...

I use the current freemint Package with EasyMiNT and try also the ifconfig from the folder c:/mint/1-19-cur/sys-root/ ... and with this the System also hang when I use the BlueSCSI ...

--- MINT.CNF ------------------------------------------------------
exec c:\mint\1-19-cur\sys-root\bin\ifconfig.ttp en0 addr 192.168.2.14 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
exec c:\mint\1-19-cur\sys-root\bin\route.ttp add default en0 gw 192.168.2.1

[fdanapfel]

Both the NetUSBee and the real Dayna hardware use wired network connections, whereas the emulated Dayna on the BlueSCSI uses a wireless connection.

Have you verified that the wireless connection between the BlueSCSIv2 and your wireless router has actually been correctly establised (for example by checking if the BlueSCSI shows up in the list of network devices on your router)?

The reason I ask is because I had problems in the past where the BlueSCSI v2 would not connect to the wireless router (see #83), but on the computer it was connected to, the emulated Dayna was looking like it was working. The symptoms back then where similar to what you are seeing, that on the TT/Falcon the network interface is correctly configured, but it was not possible to ping other systems on the network.

[franklukas]

That's not the problem. The BlueSCSI is registered on the router.

The problem is that the behavior of the Dayna BlueSCSI emulation doesn't match the original for Atari use, which consists of the XIF driver and the handling of the MiNT network stack in conjunction with the BlueSCSI Dayna emulation.

I also have 68k Macintosh computers, for example, an IIsi, and there are no such problems and everything works perfectly.

[fdanapfel]

I just noticed that according to your screenshots you have the SCSILINK.XIF in the C:\MINT\1-19-CUR\ folder. Is this really the latest version of the driver from https://github.com/freemint/freemint ?

Because in the snapshots available from https://tho-otto.de/snapshots/freemint/ there are separate versions of the SCSILINK.XIF in the "FALCON" and "TT" folders, and you normally activate the one that is specific for the computer you are running on.

Also I can see at https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Afreemint%2Ffreemint+scsilink&type=issues that there were a number of issues reported for the SCSILINK driver in combination with BlueSCSI/RaSCSI, but most of them have been fixed.

Therefore you should make sure you really use the latest version of the SCSILINK.XIF for the Falcon.

[franklukas]

I used the latest Freemint snapshot with EasyMint and enabled the XIF driver in the Falcon folder. However, this doesn't change the problem; the system freezes during the boot process "adding default route:," just like before!

[fdanapfel]

I used the latest Freemint snapshot with EasyMint and enabled the XIF driver in the Falcon folder. However, this doesn't change the problem; the system freezes during the boot process "adding default route:," just like before!

Do you also have the SCSILINK.XIF in the C:\MINT\1-19-CUR\ folder enabled at the same time? If yes, then try renaming it to SCSILINK.XIX.

[franklukas]

No, only in the Falcon folder. 1-19-b09 is my MiNT folder ...

[franklukas]

Reluctantly, I booted the current snapshot 1-19-b09 pure without any EasyMint stuff and after typing the ifconfig command, the computer freezes. So it has nothing to do with EasyMint.

[fdanapfel]

What happens if you try to run slinkctl en0 or slinkctl -r en0 from the shell in TOSWIN2 (see https://github.com/freemint/freemint/blob/b09c517a8d33320c8da8ca12d34f63cf03c89a5f/tools/net-tools/slinkctl/README for more info on slinkctl)

[franklukas]

I can not run ifconfig en0 ... before slinkctl because after the ifconfig commando the system freeze.

[root@atari ~]# slinkctl en0
slinkctl v0.60: Copyright 2007 by Roger Burrows, Anodyne Software

Processing log for interface en0

Driver version 0.60

MAC address 00:ffffff80:19:08:ffffffe3:6d

Statistics en0

Input counts:
19690 input calls
19690 interface down
0 device active
0 device resetting
0 reads
0 reads failed
0 reads recovered
0 zero reads
0 negative flag
0 invalid length
0 receive errors
0 packets received
Output counts:
0 output calls
0 interface down
0 device active
0 device resetting
0 write enqueues
0 write dequeues
0 writes
0 writes failed
0 writes recovered
0 packets sent
Device statistics:
0 reads, 0 writes, 0 resets
No errors reported by SCSI/Link

Tracing is inactive

[root@atari ~]#

[fdanapfel]

OK, if running slinkctl en0 works without freezing the system, then it means that the communication between the SCSILINK.XIF and the emulated DaynaPort of the BlueSCSIv2 is working in general

Another thing to try then would be to first run slinkctl -r en0 (which according to the README should reset the Daynaport) and then run ifconfig afterwards.

If the ifconfig still hangs then, the issue must be related to the way the actual network traffic between the SCSILINK.XIF and the emulated Daynaport is handled (maybe something similar to PiSCSI/piscsi#619).

But somebody who is familiar with the inner workings of both the emulated Daynaport and the SCSILINK. XIF would have to take a look at this to figure out what is going wrong and how to fix it.

[franklukas]

freeze ...

[mikrosk]

OK, I pushed myself to do a complete-from-scratch test, just for the sake of argument.

1. Download https://tho-otto.de/snapshots/freemint/bootable/freemint-latest-02060-tt_falcon_clones.zip which still was 1-19-b09, same as @franklukas's.
2. Renamed C:\AUTO and C:\MINT to something else, unpacked the ZIP archive on C:
3. Renamed SCSILINK.XIX in FALCON and CT60 folders to SCSILINK.XIF
4. Took an empty SD card, created there bluescsi.ini with:

[SCSI]
System="Generic"
WiFiSSID="<wifi name>"
WiFiPassword="<wifi password>"

5. Created there an empty file NE6.hda
6. Booted in CT60 mode (from IDE), typed ifconfig en0 addr 192.168.100.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 up and verified that the network interface is there.
7. Booted in 030 mode, repeated the test

No freezes. @franklukas I can see that you are still booting into some crazy big resolution (graphics card?) so I'd suggest to strip down your setup to minimum and repeat my steps.

Firmware https://github.com/BlueSCSI/BlueSCSI-v2/releases/tag/v2025.08.02, BlueSCSIv2 desktop (25-pin) version, again, same as @franklukas.

Having said all of that, I did notice something weird: similar as Frank, I have a much more "pimped" setup available, where I have a lot of scripts going on to set up my network, desktop etc. As a first test, just for the lulz I replaced my current network driver with scsilink.xif and rebooted to download the latest freemint snapshot. All seemed nice in Litchi (FTP client) but at the last kilobyte of the download process the transfer basically stopped. Nothing happened for about 30 seconds and the the transfer finished. To my surprise, the last kilobyte was not downloaded and therefore the zip file was corrupted.

I was able to reproduce the problem when I tried it one more time after I was done with testing the clean setup. Downloaded 10 087 140 bytes instead of 10 087 589 bytes. Also, and I hope this is related, when finished downloading and exiting Litchi, I got a freeze as well.

[franklukas]

I boot without the Nova Falcon driver and the MiNT b09 setup and SCSILINK driver enable in the Falcon folder. When I run the ifconfig command the whole System freeze. I see the BlueSCSI is not connected to my Router in the Router Setup.

--- bluescsi.ini ----
[SCSI]
System=Generic
EnableSCSI2=0 ; Off
EnableParity=0 ; Off
Debug=1
WiFiSSID="MagentaWLAN-ORFY"
WiFiPassword="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
--- log -----------------------
Platform: BlueSCSI (Pico1/W)
FW Version: 2025.08.02-rel Aug 2 2025 16:25:01
Flash chip size: 2048 kB

=== SD Card Info ===
SD card detected, FAT32 volume size: 7602 MB
SD Name: SD16G, MID: 0xFE, OID: 0x34 0x32
Speed grade set to reclocking system
Initial Clock set to 133MHz
Reclocking the MCU to 200MHz
Setting the SDIO clock to 40MHz
After reclocking, system reports clock set to 200MHz

I test my BlueSCSI 25 D Sub with a Macintosh IIsi and all was fine ...

[fdanapfel]

On my working setup the bluescsi ini only contains the WiFiSSID and WiFiPassword options.

I would therefore recommend to test if removing the first 4 options (System, EnableSCSI2, EnableParity, Debug) from the [SCSI] section helps.

I still occasionally get the issue that the BlueSCSIv2 does not connect to the router (Fritz!Box 7583). It seems to happen when there has been no device conneected to the Router on the 2.4GHz WiFi for some time, and then the router seems to decide to shut down the 2.4GHz WiFi. Powering on another device that uses the 2.4GHz WiFi usually helps with getting the router to rnable the 2.4 GHz WiFi again, which then also enables the blueSCSIv2 to connect again.

[franklukas]

I now have two devices on the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi: an old Huawei mobile phone (192.168.2.130) and a Macintosh IIsi with BlueSCSI (192.168.2.48).

The Atari Falcon with BlueSCSI freezes as soon as I run the ifconfig command. The mouse cursor can still be moved, but I can't select or select anything and keyboard input is no longer possible. The only option is to press the hardware reset button.

--- blueSCSI.ini -----
[SCSI]
System=Generic
WiFiSSID="MagentaWLAN-ORFY"
WiFiPassword="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

[franklukas]

It works now ...

I have no Idea what it was, maybe the ini ...?

It works with pure b09 package and also with EasyMiNT. My Atari Falcon has a DFB1 with 40Mhz and a Nova Falcon ISA Bus Graphiccard Adapter and a ATI 2MB MACH32 Graphiccard.

[fdanapfel]

Congratulations!

[franklukas]

Thanks for the help ...

[franklukas]

The problem was the "Debug=1" line in the BlueSCSI.ini

The Macintosh has no problem with it and my Atari Falcon and Atari TT stuck when debug=1 is set and works when Debug=0 is set ...

[mikrosk]

I have noticed that Debug=1 has bad side effects on Atari but I didn't expect it could lead to freezes.

Anyway, don't celebrate too early. Try to download the ZIP snapshot over FTP with Litchi for instance, whether it transfers OK.

[franklukas]

I suspect Debug=1 triggers a timeout on the Atari. The Macintosh can handle it and there are no problems, that's why I would never have thought of something like that.

I will test the Litchi transfer ...

[franklukas]

Current Litchi version with b09 freemint package and easymint. The download a 10MB freemint package worked flawlessly and completely. I copied it back and unpacked it for testing without any problems. However, after the Litchi download was complete, the entire system froze when I tried to continue working.

[mikrosk]

However, after the Litchi download was complete, the entire system froze when I tried to continue working.

At least this part we could both reproduce it seems.