newRPL: Alpha demo 0.9 released [UPDATED 2017-10-25]

[Claudio L.]

(08-20-2017 01:24 PM)Gilles59 Wrote:  I tried also to format in FAT16 with SDFormatter : same bad result with the bootloader. It's not a problem of NewRPL. I get the same failure with the HP Official ROM. I never used a SD Card in the past to upgrade HP50/49 ROM but the USB connexion. I dont undertand what happen. I will try later with another small SD Card.

The bootloader has a different driver than the actual ROM, so the fact it works with the Filer doesn't guarantee the bootloader can talk to the card.
Back in the day SD cards didn't really follow the standard. Some wanted extra power, some had timings way off specs, some had proper support for misaligned read/writes and some had not, were locked to 512 byte sectors without giving any explanation why. It was a mess.
Later they simplified the standard (SD 2.0) locking the 512 bytes sector, and more manufacturers fell "in line" with the specs.
I'd recommend you look for 1 GB and 2 GB standard SD cards (newRPL will happily accept SDHC cards, but the bootloader won't). Why 1 GB? because by the time manufacturers began offering those larger cards, the standards compliance had already improved and most cards worked without problems. You'll still have to format it to FAT16 for the bootloader, and perhaps just use a 256 MB partition, but it should give you less problems.

BTW: You can still use USB to flash newRPL, I never tried but should work fine.