Black screen, no errors

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lspci
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Black screen, no errors

Post by lspci »

Hi folks :)

I installed DDEr4 and navigated to the hello example in KOS:

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C:\cygwin\usr\local\dc\kos\kos\examples\dreamcast\hello
Entered the command:

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make
... which generated "hello.elf" "from hello.c"

Then typed:

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sh-elf-objcopy -O binary -R .stack hello.elf 1st_read.bin
This created an unscrambled file called "1st_read.bin". Its size is 262 KB, so it seems that something was converted. (Previously it was going through as 0KB when I used a gui utility called "DCTool")

I opened BootDreams and navigated to the same directory (hello). A window popped up asking if I wish to scramble "1st_read.bin", I clicked "yes", and then another one appeared asking if I would like to make an "ip.bin" and I chose "yes" again.

BootDreams created a DiscJuggler (.cdi) image successfully. I attempted to open this file both in Makaron and nullDC. Makaron just disappears somewhere and crashes after a while, NullDC stops and displays:

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TI , invalidating *TLB
Block 0C00E09C : disabling read-const @ 19/29
not implemented opcode : 8C00 : unknown opcode @ 8C00E0A2
Press Any key to continue
Pressing any key just gives the same error over and over (with a different "opcode").

I tried to open the .elf, unscrambled and scrambled .bin through "File -> Open bin/elf". The screen in NullDC just goes black with no errors.

I understand that running an emulator is not a good way of testing homebrew and people normally do it through the serial port. But shouldn’t a simple “hello world” work?

hello.c -> hello.elf -> 1st_read.bin (unscrambled) -> 1st_read.bin (scrambled) -> ip.bin boot file -> 1 second audio track -> hello.cdi (last 4 steps done through BootDreams)

Am I overlooking something important? Maybe the elf is compiled incorrectly, but there are no errors... Thanks.
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Re: Black screen, no errors

Post by BlueCrab »

That example doesn't do anything on the screen. It prints a message to the dbglog and exits.
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lspci
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Re: Black screen, no errors

Post by lspci »

Problem solved. Thanks!

I compiled the PNG example instead and it worked perfectly. NullDC loaded it straight from the .elf file.

Also BootDreams can create a .cdi directly from .elf so there's no need to convert it to .bin manually.
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Re: Black screen, no errors

Post by RyoDC »

lscpi, I met the same problems when started my way on developing dreamcast app's. And I'm strongly recommend you not to use NullDc or any other emulator, apart from lxdream, which has good and true hardware emulation. It's that, because other emulators, like nullDC and rest, do not seems to do emulation of hardware at all - looks like that they just seek for the pattern, and run it, not to do any correct graphic or sound chip emulation.
How do I try to build a Dreamcast toolchain:
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Re: Black screen, no errors

Post by Ayla »

Bullshit. Lxdream is not good for homebrew either. I never got it to run my apps.
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Re: Black screen, no errors

Post by BlueCrab »

You shouldn't be using emulators to test your homebrew period. If something happens, its hard to tell who's bug it is, yours or the emulator's.

Not only that, but frequently emulators let you do things that would break on the actual hardware.
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Re: Black screen, no errors

Post by RyoDC »

Bullshit. Lxdream is not good for homebrew either. I never got it to run my apps.
I only tell from the words of SWAT. I think he's experienced enought and respected here to be reliable on his words.
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