Sunday, June 28, 2009

Wubi Wubi Wubi! Wubi Ubuntu 9.04 Install Error

If your Wubi Ubuntu 9.04 install is hanging at "Creating the virtual disks" it's probably down to the file system you are trying to install Wubi on. Fat32 formatted disks have a file size limit of 4GB, so no matter what the Wubi installer tells you, you won't be able to create a >4GB Ubuntu install on this disk.

You should convert the disk to NTFS from the command line using the Microsoft convert tool if you want an Ubuntu install greater than 4GB (open up a command prompt and type "convert /?" for more info) or install to another disk that uses NTFS instead.

If this isn't the problem with your install you can find out exactly what is by looking at the wubi installer log file in (Windows XP - YMMV) C:\Documents and Settings\[user name]\Local Settings\Temp. In this case the logs shows

ERROR Virtualdisk: Failed to extend file. Not enough free space?
ERROR Virtualdisk: WriteFile() failed!

which is the symptom, not the problem!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Image to ZX Spec 1.0.2 Progress

I thought I'd post progress on Image to ZX Spec. I've now added a number of other dither options and a separate dialog for configuration, but I guess what you really want to see is how much it's improved - the following conversions where done with my own "low error" dither based on the Atkinson dither. Click the images to see them full size. Yes... this is what the images will look like on a real ZX Spectrum!






Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Image to ZX Spec 1.0.1 Released


Image to ZX Spectrum has been updated.

For a full description of what this application does see the original post.

I'm not entirely happy with this release - the "Full Colour Floyd Steinberg Converter" (FCFSC) mode is still quite poor, however I'm releasing it now so users can get a feel for the "Half Colour Floyd Steinberg Converter" (HCFSC) which is new to 1.0.1 and is potentially a lot better (pre release screenshot above).

Version 1.0.2 will fix the colour issues in FCFSC.