unstable, sd read issues

[paladinvng]

I've tried the zxnext version, but in my case, it's unstable. I've been able to launch some games and applications from Next, and they're really cool!

But after restarts, the zxnext environment stops working, complaining that it can't find the files in c:/zxnext or c:/machines.

I've only managed to get it working more or less well with this specific repository:

https://gitlab.com/thesmog358/tbblue.git

The 1.4boards branch.

By the way, I'm using a 16GB SD card.

Is there a specific version that works well? The latest one, which is the one you suggested, https://www.specnext.com/latestdistro/, isn't working properly for me.

[LeonisX]

Latest NextZXOS is here: https://gitlab.com/thesmog358/tbblue.git

[paladinvng]

Thanks, I tried it too, but did not work.

The only one that works partially is the 1.4 boards branch in the same repo, and even then it's unstable. The rest are completely unusable. I configure the screen, accept, TBBLUE boots, but when it starts Next it either freezes or gives read errors saying it can't find files.
I'm using ZXnano with esxDOS and I don't have any problems with the same SD card, and the same Tang Nano 20K. Any other ideas?

Thanks in advance

[RetroSilicon]

Hi, sorry to hear you're having this issue, and thanks for the detailed report — the fact that the 1.4boards branch of tbblue works for you while the latest distro doesn't is actually a very useful data point.
On my side the core runs stable across several Tang Nano boards I own, but the core is still a work in progress, and during development I ran into similar problems to the ones you describe. The root cause is the tight timing requirements of the Next that the Tang Nano has to meet — marginal timing can show up exactly like this: things work for a while, then SD/file access starts failing after a restart (the "can't find files in c:/zxnext or c:/machines" errors).
I don't have a specific distro version to recommend yet — for now I'd suggest sticking with the one that works for you. I'm actively working on the timing issues right now, and I hope the upcoming release will behave much better with the latest distro. I'll post an update here once it's out, and it would be great if you could re-test then.
One more thing worth trying in the meantime: if you have a different card around, it might be worth a quick test.

[paladinvng]

Thanks for the reply. I completely agree; it seems to be a read/write problem with the SD card. I've tried several without 100% success. The SD card ends up corrupted, and it's impossible to load ZXnest from TBBlue.

It's strange because TBBlue seems to work fine and loads the other Spectrum versions, which I can actually use with ESXdos without any issues. The same SD cards also work without problems with ZXnano, although Spectrum runs with slightly lower performance, and they don't cause any problems with Nanomig either.

I'll try again when a new version comes out. When it works, it works very well, and the Next games have good performance.