Q68 - setting up a BBQL style environment

[Sparrowhawk]

Hi,

I'd be grateful for a little assistance regarding my Q68 software setup. Although I find the new QL UIs fascinating and impressive, especially considering the tiny size of the dev teams, what I really want to use my Q68 for is good old SuperBASIC, and running my old software, such as a few games, emulators, dev tools and the Psion suite.

I don't want to modify the supplied SDHC card - this will be my fallback to get files off in case of emergencies. So I have a new 8GB (7GB FAT32, 200MB FAT16 x 2) one onto which I have copied just the latest Q68_SMSQ.WIN (3.33) from http://www.wlenerz.com/smsqe/

I plan on creating and formatting the QLWA files from within SMSQE using the Q68's card and drive commands. However, I am not sure where to store my initial boot program - does this go inside the Q68_SMSQ .WIN file or its own QLWA file? When I look at the boot program inside the Q68_SMSQ.WIN file, it sets a device$ to win8_ and runs some programs on that, but I can't see how it maps the device$ to an actual QLWA file?

I have a feeling that I am missing a part of the puzzle, hopefully something simple.

Could somebody therefore explain the steps I need to take to get the Q68 to boot up, point to the drive where my boot file is and then load and run it?

the boot program will be super simple and just do the following for now:

Set the DISPLAY_MODE to "classic" Mode 1,
Set the language to English GB
Set the keyboard layout to GB
Initialise the FAT16 driver (I'll raise a separate query regarding that)

Down the line I'd like to try get QPAC/QRAM working, and the mouse too. Small steps at first though!

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

The supplied SD Card with new Q68 computers now starts in QL Mode 512x256 Mode 4/8, which I now told QL Classic mode.

Look at the boot file there are some commands at the start to configure the options you require:

DISP_MODE 1
LANG_USE "GB"
KBD_TABLE "GB"

The speed of the mouse is set by

MOUSE_SPEED x

Where x is the acceleration, I set it to 5.

QRAM is good, but QPAC2 is better, it allows GUI use and Hotkey control of applications.

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

The supplied SD Card with new Q68 computers now starts in QL Mode 512x256 Mode 4/8, which I now told QL Classic mode.

Look at the boot file there are some commands at the start to configure the options you require:

DISP_MODE 1
LANG_USE "GB"
KBD_TABLE "GB"

The speed of the mouse is set by

MOUSE_SPEED x

Where x is the acceleration, I set it to 5.

QRAM is good, but QPAC2 is better, it allows GUI use and Hotkey control of applications.

[janbredenbeek]

The command to map a WIN device to a QLWA file on the Q68 is WIN_DRIVE <drive nr>,<SDcard nr>,<QLWA file> so WIN_DRIVE 8,1,Q68_SMSQ.WIN will get you access to the SMSQ system drive on WIN8. Then, do a LRESPR win8_config_menu_rext_english and EX win8_config_menuconfig and you can configure the Q68_SMSQ file.
This drive is only used to load and run the SMSQ operating system, the boot file is run from the WIN1 container whose location is configured in the Q68_SMSQ file.
It's best to backup the files on the SDHC card to a PC using Windows or Linux, then you can freely play around with the card's contents (don't forget to backup the FAT16 partition as well).
Note that you don't need to load the ptr_gen and wman on SMSQ as these are already built in.

Jan.

[Sparrowhawk]

Thanks both - yes, the bit I was missing in my head was how the Q68 knew that the win8_ drive on the main boot program pointed to the Q68_SMSQ.WIN file.