Soon to be released REX Release 4.6

Supported Models

M100 and T102, with either REX or REX2.

New Features

• Main ROM Replacement feature, allowing users to load and update the main system ROM
• ROM2/Cleuseau is now supported
• REX system information and acknowledgements display added
• Checksum added into TPDD routines
• Improved bank switching
• Stronger directory structure testing
• Minor changes to MENU controls
• More descriptive Help files

Bug Fixes

• the 12 block limitation in Release 4.5 is resolved

Upgrade Procedure

The upgrade procedure is quite simple. The upgrade package contains a program called REXU1.CO (the upgrader tool) and a 16k binary image of the new REX software load called REX146.BR.

The upgrade assumes you have a working REX or REX2 running software release 4.5. This is a mostly safe assumption, since all REX and REX2 to date have been only got Release 4.5.

The upgrade tool REXU1 runs in RAM and relies on a connected TPDD device to make the software upgrade image available.

Steps

1. Download the upgrade package, and place the 2 files in your favorite TPDD device so they are accessible. Upload the program REXU1.CO to the laptop.

2. Power up the laptop, start REX Manager, and de-install the REX software by pressing F7. Return to MENU.

3. Make sure that you CLEAR memory for REXU1.CO. From BASIC issue the command CLEAR0,60460. Return to MENU and run REXU1.CO.

4. The upgrade tool first allows the user to make a full system backup by indicating Y or N at the prompt. In REX, the system is a 32k binary image that includes your current software load, and your current directory. It is recommended that you save your existing image just to be safe. Keeping the system image allows you to revert to that if something unforseen happens during the upgrade. Provide a unique filename to safely identify the system image backup.

5. Proceed to upgrade the software image by indicating Y or N, or quit the application using Q or ESC. (N, Q and ESC are equivalent). Confirm your intention to upgrade the system by confirming with Y at the next prompt, or abandon using N. If you confirm the upgrade, the upgrade process will proceed by erasing the first 16k of the system image, containing the system software, and replacing it with the binary image REX146.BR stored on TPDD.

Be careful to keep the laptop powered up during the flash process!

6. Power cycle the laptop, and from BASIC issue the command CALL63012. This should start REX Manager again, and you should now be using release 4.6. You will observe that REX will notice the system upgrade, and will back up the software image to the backup block. This is normal and will happen only once.

DONE!

REX Release 4.6 Upgrade Package

REX SYSTEM images contain the REX Manager software package, including the default directories, and are 32kbyte binary files. For M100/T102, images have filenames of REX1XX.BR, and T200 images have filenames of REX2XX.BR, where XX is the release number.

In the upgrade package, 16k system images with only the software are provided, because you will want to keep your directory data.

Status	Release	Model	Description	File	Submitter / Date
GA	1.0	M100/T102	REX Upgrade Package	REX_4.6_Upgrade.zip	Sadolph 13:06, 13 June 2010 (PDT)

Rel. 4.6 Known Issues

• Startup of REX Manager is slow. I will be making improvements in the next release.
• No ability to transfer files from stored RAM images is a pain. Look to the next release.

Rel. 4.6 bug reports/fixes

1) It has been pointed out that if one deletes REXMGR.BA, it can be difficult to get it back. I'm thinking of an emergency keystroke that will allow one to recover from this.

Enhancement Requests

Status	Description	Requester / Date
Unknown	Support for so called Paired Switching, where a RAM image is swapped and an OPTROM image is switched in the same step.	Sadolph 05:17, 15 August 2009 (PDT)
Unknown	Support import of file from frozen RAM image to the thawed RAM image. RAM images can be used in a way similar to subdirectories. Therefore it is useful to be able to retrieve files from frozen RAM images	Jhoger 08:16, 16 April 2009 (PDT)
Done R4.3	Suggestion: make the TAB order OptROM, RAM image, Main ROM since Main ROM switch will be significantly less used. (order is now RAM ROM OS SYS)	Jhoger 19:54, 18 April 2009 (PDT)
Done R4.3	Add a visual progress indicator for flash functions.	Sadolph 04:36, 19 April 2009 (PDT)
unknown	Support for TPDD-2, for drive 1: (0: is supported).	Sadolph 04:36, 19 April 2009 (PDT)

nb: to put a username+datestamp just type 4 tildes ~~~~