Possible to turn a netbook into a tiny portable emulated Amiga?

[AB Positive]

I know I could just go "Linux Install... E-UAE DONE!" here but I'm curious as to...


1) Can I make it boot straight to, say, OS 3.1 or 3.5 with the emulated Amiga piggybacking the linux-run hardware so it could still go online, IRC, etc...

2) Would this be possible without a CD drive? As a netbook it's completely missing one, and I don't have an external.

I'm guessing Amithlon is the choice of choices here but I was curious to hear the experts ideas here.

[killergorilla]

You're better of installing Windows and using WinUAE.

[kaptajnbligh]

For a mininal linux + e-uae you could try X-Amiga (http://www.xamiga.net).

I'm sure installing from a USB-drive is possible showhow.

[antonvaltaz]

You can do a similar thing as X-Amiga using Windows XP and WinUAE - booting straight into a WinUAE config without seeing the XP logon or Explorer. Someone posted a step-by-step guide recently over at Amiga.org.

Haven't tried it yet, but plan to on a separate partition when I get my new PC!

[TheCyberDruid]

Someone posted a step-by-step guide recently over at Amiga.org.

Not only on Amiga.org : http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=47693 ;)

[antonvaltaz]

Oops, I feel like a traitor to EAB now :-)

Thanks for the link TCD!

[TheCyberDruid]

Oops, I feel like a traitor to EAB now :-)

You better should ;) (only kidding) A tad little text in the thread, so it's hard to tell what it's about without downloading the file :)

[cosmicfrog]

just put windows 7 on my advent netbook (MSI wind clone)
Intel atom N270 1.6Ghz or is it 1.8 can`t remember at moment
2 GiG of memory , most it can take

Haven`t done full testing on it yet but I can def say WinUAE works on it

[antonvaltaz]

A tad little text in the thread, so it's hard to tell what it's about without downloading the file :)

I could upload it to the Zone if it would be helpful, but I guess it would be polite to ask the author's permission first?

If it's the sort of thing that might go in the Zone, then I'll PM him and see if he's okay with it.

[TheCyberDruid]

The zone is also only a temp place for files. I'll up it to the file server now :)

Edit : Done. In the folder 'Emulators'.

[AB Positive]

For a mininal linux + e-uae you could try X-Amiga (http://www.xamiga.net).

I'm sure installing from a USB-drive is possible showhow.

This is exactly what I was looking for! Awesome, shall try this out... mwa ha ha ha

[kaptajnbligh]

This is exactly what I was looking for! Awesome, shall try this out... mwa ha ha ha

I haven't tried it myself yet. Please let us know how it goes:)

Regarding USB install:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tools_to_create_Live_USB_systems

UNetbootin supports Gentoo. Others might as well.

[kipper2k]

You can also install an operating system on a USB stick or a SD card in a USB adapter and pick whatever version of OS to run just by selecting boot device at startup.

[UncleSpam]

I just set up an HP Mini 5101 with Windows 7 and WinUAE about 3 weeks ago and it's flawless (almost).

Used a 16gb flash drive to install Windows 7 (trivial process).

[Link removed - I assume this was an unfortunate error and you didn't intend to put some rather mild porn in there... - Graham]

The rest was just installing the WinUAE + environment.

I had to run WinUAE with the -ddsoftwarecolorkey option due to the flakey Intel graphics driver.

HP 5101 + 2GB RAM + HD (1366x768) display + 160GB HDD + 802.11g wifi

The built-in display works great in RTG and the Amiga native displays scale well (with correct aspect ratio).

For example the SuperHiRes Interlaced PAL mode works in 1366x768 as 1280x512 with small borders, or it can be stretched a bit and it will actually fill the entire screen (aspect ratio disabled) or fill top to bottom with side borders (aspect ratio enabled).

- Bogdan

[Cammy]

Here's my new A1600 running Icaros Desktop (Aros). Aros is binary compatible with AmigaOS, and can run Amiga applications much faster than the original hardware or PPC Amigas can.

http://home.exetel.com.au/amiga/A1600-Icaros.jpg

[antonvaltaz]

Aros is binary compatible with AmigaOS, and can run Amiga applications much faster than the original hardware or PPC Amigas can.

I thought AROS was only API compatible, i.e. AmigaOS programs need to be recompiled to run on AROS?

In any case AROS does look pretty neat and I want to try it out - but I think it'll have to be via VMWare for a while as I don't think AROS has much support for SATA drives yet?

[Cammy]

Blaahhhhh I mean SOURCE compatible :p

Sorry I had a BIG night.

[Cammy]

SATA drives seem to work fine, at least the one in this netbook does.

[antonvaltaz]

Oh really? That's good news, I might just have to try installing it on a new partition then...

[UncleSpam]

[Link removed - I assume this was an unfortunate error and you didn't intend to put some rather mild porn in there... - Graham]



I'd like to apologize for the inappropriate link. I should have checked the link upon posting, however I did not realize that the hotlinking to it would lead elsewhere.

Here's a link below that should not cause any problems. It also explains how to transfer the contents of a Windows 7 DVD to a flash drive for installation on a netbook:

http://www.blogsdna.com/2016/how-to-install-windows-7-from-usb-drive-without-windows-7-iso-dvd.htm


- Bogdan

[UncleSpam]

Here's my new A1600 running Icaros Desktop (Aros). Aros is binary compatible with AmigaOS, and can run Amiga applications much faster than the original hardware or PPC Amigas can.

http://home.exetel.com.au/amiga/A1600-Icaros.jpg

What brand is the little red hotrod?

[Cammy]

Why, do you want one? They don't sell these in shops :)

[UncleSpam]

No, I already have a decent netbook, I was merely curious :)

I noticed there are no labels on it...

[cosmicfrog]

looks like an asus eeeccc peee ccc or what ever thet are called, to me

[Cammy]

It looks better than an EeePC in my opinion. The A1600 could end up being the first netbook to come with Aros preinstalled. We are working on native drivers for the internal chipset and bug testing at the moment, so with a little luck and a rich investor, we might finally have a commercially available Amiga laptop.

My little red one is just the prototype, we still have to come up with a badge for it, and a brand name. Anyone got any suggestions for an Amiga-ish sounding name we could give to a run of new Aros-powered computerss, starting with the 1600Mhz A1600?

We could be selling these things for much less than any netbook available in the shops, you have no idea how much extra you're paying for your brand name and Windows license. Possibly around $300US, plus postage, and they'll come in white, black, red, yellow and metallic pink.

[AB Positive]

It looks better than an EeePC in my opinion. The A1600 could end up being the first netbook to come with Aros preinstalled. We are working on native drivers for the internal chipset and bug testing at the moment, so with a little luck and a rich investor, we might finally have a commercially available Amiga laptop.

My little red one is just the prototype, we still have to come up with a badge for it, and a brand name. Anyone got any suggestions for an Amiga-ish sounding name we could give to a run of new Aros-powered computerss, starting with the 1600Mhz A1600?

We could be selling these things for much less than any netbook available in the shops, you have no idea how much extra you're paying for your brand name and Windows license. Possibly around $300US, plus postage, and they'll come in white, black, red, yellow and metallic pink.

You're either my long lost, much prettier, twin or a Goddess we should be setting a shrine to.

Well, I know how I'm spending my downtime at work - looking up Aros info... I'm rocking an acer Aspire One so perhaps Aros might be the way to go. Assuming it's not hard to recompile for it... :D

I take it Aros is great for Amiga development, what with the whole source compatibility.

[Cammy]

It's only OS-compatible, mind you, not chipset compatible. If you're writing code that hits the hardware, it'll need to be run through UAE, which is pretty well integrated into Aros now.

The Aspire One has roughly the same specs as my netbook, like most others at the moment, so it's one of the platforms Aros development is focusing on.

You can download the Live-DVD or Live-CD from the link in my signature, and just boot from the disc with an external USB CD/DVD drive.

[AB Positive]

It's only OS-compatible, mind you, not chipset compatible. If you're writing code that hits the hardware, it'll need to be run through UAE, which is pretty well integrated into Aros now.

That's what I had picked up in immediate research... but with the UAE integration that sounds a bit easier to work with than dealing with WinUAE. Plus, I'm an OS geek and haven't used Aros yet.

I take it then most of the programming that is cross compatible is in the APIs - meaning if one were doing say, C coding with the Amiga, it'd work in Aros?

[StingRay]

meaning if one were doing say, C coding with the Amiga, it'd work in Aros?

Not necessarily since hardware banging is perfectly possible in C too!

[AB Positive]

Not necessarily since hardware banging in perfectly possible in C too!

Heh. Banging.

Fair enough... I should've done my "more research" before asking that though, as reading and watching a couple demo videos... I get what's going on with Aros now.

Needless to say I want - and will be installing on my spare partition immediately when I get home today. Wow.

Now if I could just, you know... learn programming... :D

[Dunny]

They'll come in white, black, red, yellow and metallic pink.

Awww, no white/tan (or cream/tan) combinations? Shame :)

D.

[cosmicfrog]

so just to let me get this straight in my head cammy
some of the aros team are developing for the netbook market ie atom + its chipset
allready know about us paying through the teeth run windows and it one of the reasons screen rez id 1200x600

or you are developing hardware for aros to work on, if so do something about the 600 bit in the rez if you can :)

iether way :great
ps thanks for havein icaros in you sig saves me bookmarking it , it realy is comeing along a treat now

[AB Positive]

Either Aros isn't ready for my netbook or my netbook's not ready for Aros. Just doesn't want to boot right. Ah well. Back to the XAmiga idea. However I might make an aros partition on my desktop just to have a new OS to futz with. :D

[Cammy]

Dunny, unfortunately it seems the days of beige/tan computers have ended. I think we're lucky to have the choice of five different colours though. The white one reminds me of a clean new A600 or A1200, the black one reminds me of a CD32 (it looks more dark grey with a black keyboard). The yellow one is Bumblebee from the Transformers, the red one is the fastest, and the metallic pink one might go down well with girls and effeminate males.

cosmicfrog, the A1600 is an unbranded OEM netbook that we can import directly from the wholesaler with no pre-installed OS. The specifications are practically the same as most other netbooks on the market, which means they only come with screens in resolutions of 1024x576 and 1024x600. I am a little bit upset because the test model they sent me is the 576 model, which means any program or game designed for 800x600 resolutions won't fit. By the time we have the packaged deal ready, we won't settle for less than 1024x600.

Unfortunately due to the size of these netbooks with their 10.2" screens, they just don't come in higher resolutions until you get larger models. We may look into full-size laptops if this netbook idea pans out.

So far, our test model boots into Grub, which waits 1 second for you to select Ubuntu Karmic Koala Netbook Remix (if you choose to) before it defaults to booting Icaros Desktop Lite. This gives you a choice to boot Linux if you want, but will boot into Aros if you don't touch anything. Icaros loads up in 1024x576 and runs extremely quickly. I have never experienced an Amiga this fast, or an Operating System this responsive! Soon we will have hardware accelerated 3D too. We just need to write AHI drivers for the audio chipset, Poseidon drivers for the WLAN and Webcam, and everything should be ready to go.

AB Positive, did you manage to boot into Icaros via the Live-CD? Usually a netbook's BIOS allows you to use an external USB CD/DVD drive as a boot device, pretending it's internal so the OS doesn't need to load the USB stack first to recognize it (that'd be a catch-22). If you can boot into Icaros, you can use the InstallAROS tool in the Tools/ drawer to add a partition to your drive for Aros and install it. I found this was the easiest way to install Aros on my internal drive after stuffing around with setting up partitions for it. Once it's installed, the partitions should be able to be resized later anyway.

Let me know how you're going because I'd love to help you get Aros installed, it's a lot of fun. :)

[rare_j]

What refresh rates do the screens support?
My laptop supports 50hz and 60hz which makes it ideal for scrolling games in winuae.
I also like the idea of a 576 model - nearly the perfect res for that retro workbench feel!

[cosmicfrog]

cammy :bowdown Kewl so it is an msi wind clone thingy ace

nice to know work is been done on drivers, don`t forget the web cam if you can

we have microsoft to thank for the 1024x600 resolution

msi wind net books are ace as they can run all kinds of os`s aros,mac osx,xp, win7,linix must try amithlon some time on mine

[UncleSpam]

My HP Mini 5101 has the HD display with 1366x768 resolution. It is also a 10.2" display, but with the optional higher resolution screen.

Excellent eyesight required :)

- Bogdan

[Pyromania]

Amiga emulation via WinUAE works great on Acer Aspire One running Android and XP.

[Cammy]

Sorry AB, I forgot you mentioned in your first post that you don' have an external CD drive, bummer. I have been using a 5.25" External Box with an IDE-USB adapter in it, and it seems to be working fine now with both my new netbook, and this Acer Aspire 3610. I hope you can borrow one from someone!

In fact, this Acer Aspire 3610 seems much better supported, since it's a little older. Icaros boots straight into the native 1280x800 resolution, ethernet and wireless both work, sound and music work, USB works, the internal HDD partitions show up and are accessible, movies work with audio and subtitles...

I'm posting this from Origyn Web Browser, which has full CSS support and renders this site and every other site I've tested including YouTube, FaceBook and MySpace (although inline flash videos don't work yet, but they can be played through MPlayer).

I don't think I'll ever need to boot back into Linux on this PC again, Aros does everything I need for daily use. IRC and MSN (with SabreMSN and WookieChat) work perfectly for chat, OWB works perfectly for browsing the web, MPlayer plays movies, and there are plenty of games and emulators on here.

By the way, I have been playing the first commercial game available for Aros, "BOH", and it's great fun :) Kind of like Alien Breed but with gameplay and perspective similar to Seek & Destroy.

[doble07]

WOW!

It's sound really good.

I hope some day, AmigaOS4 will work with i386 like Aros too.

Juan

[Jonathan Drain]

How many people do you suppose use some kind of post-68k hardware based Amiga as their main computer? And are there apps or features that WinXP/OSX/Ubuntu can't do as well as a new-age Amiga?

[Jope]

Is there anything a new-age Amiga can actually do better than Win/OS X/Ubuntu?

[antonvaltaz]

Is there anything a new-age Amiga can actually do better than Win/OS X/Ubuntu?

Oh, that's not the point! :-)

Me, I'm planning to triple boot my next PC - Windows 7, Ubuntu 9.10 and AmigaOS or AROS (maybe even a quad boot!)

Why? Why not?

[Rebel-CD32]

A new-age Amiga can boot faster than Windows, Linux and OSX :)

I've been using my A1200 as my daily computer since I got it back in the early 90s, but recently I've been using Aros on my dad's laptop, and I have to say it's really impressive.

There's no need for AmigaOS4 on x86, Aros is fine, and it's getting better faster than OS4 is now that people are starting to realise how simple it is to burn an ISO and boot it on their PC. I haven't even installed it on here yet, since I need to burn off some stuff to free up space, but I'm running a web browser, chat applications and games online from the CD I booted from.

With more users, developers have more motivation to keep going. Why not try Aros now? If anyone here has a PC with a CD or DVD drive, download Icaros Live and give it a go.

[cosmicfrog]

slightly of topic
but made an usd cd/dvd drive from internals of usb HD
just replace HD with dvd drive, simples
even better if you got a 5.25" enclosure to make it look nice

[ancalimon]

I advice buying that new Amiga Netbook...

:P

[MarkONE]

I really like the idea of the “A1600”, the only thing what I don’t like is the low screen resolution… Well, saying that, it might be not so much as an issue for Aros? I had ones a ASUS EEEPC 701 and the screen resolution was to small, as a lot of the windows would be open outside of the screen (makes that any sense at all?) I don’t know. However if the price is right and the marketing is working well, I would think it could be a success. Good to see that people are trying to keep the spirit alive!