Amithlon Setup Guide

[milanca]

@ HeZoR,

Aha, i see. Yes, what i also meant is to try using flatpanel argument to see if DVI connection works. Let us know how it was.
Regarding horizontal and vertical sync options to be used in boot line, i will see what i can find in kernel and let you know. I think it can be useful but on vga connection, on crt panels. If i am right (correct me if i am wrong) on flatpanels, dvi connection, it is a different story.

-milanca

[HeZoR]

@milanca:

Thanks, DVI works fine! The boing ball spins red, leaving traces with the backdrop and incorrect pallette colors but when workbench boots all colors are normal.
I forgot to mention that I connected wirelessly now with amithlon!
But I have one problem: It doesn't like my deathadder mouse: if I don't move it before boot, it's not moving; if i do move it until amithlon workbench shows up, the mouse y axis is inverted!
Any solution to this? I tried older mice with no probs, seems that something is bugging the amithlon usb ps2 emulation?

[milanca]

@HeZor,

Great, so DVI is working fine. Regarding boing ball animation, on some cards it doesn't work well so you'd better use console level 4. On some ATI cards it doesn't work at all.

I use usb keyboard, sometimes usb mouse. But it's highly recommended, if the mouse is usb, to connect it to PS2 port via adapter. Keyboards can be used on USB port, i never had problems with it on usb port. But some mice, very probable like yours, require only usb connection. It is a very high speed mouse. What does it say, is it ps2 compatible? Usually they all can be used via usb->ps2 adapter but if there are problems i think compatibility is the cause then, nothing else.

-milanca

[HeZoR]

@milanca,

It won't work with a ps2 adaptor, it's a high speed mouse and it needs usb power to work. I tried it.
Is there a workaround for the inverted axis? maybe a software hack could to the trick here.

Does any PCI Express work with h/w acceleration?
A Compatibility list would be grateful.

[amigoun]

Even if I delete S: pci_modules , insmod still gives me the error of not being able to find/create /insmod on linuxside. Strange, as with kern310 inserting modules works fine with on the same pc..

[amigoun]

finally I managed insmod to work with kernel4 (changed the -leavepages from 5500 back to 5200). But drivers give me other errors, f.ex. net - eepro100.o, soundcore.o does not work either. So not much luck there.

[Xytec]

So didn't Charlie mention doing an ISO (once permission given?), any chance of one on way, with all new Kernals etc?

Please

[prowler]

I remember Charlie doing an .ISO update, but it wouldn't have included the latest kernel update.

I suspect that more testing and experience with the new kernel will be required before it will be included in any future .ISO update.

[milanca]

@ amigoun

I tried to recreate and come to the error you had "Could not find/create /insmod on linuxside" "Error code: 1" and I couldn't. I am using kernel4 for almost a year, works flawlessly, and never had such an error. I do trust you, of course, and i am willing to try to find out what the cause is. Amithlon is very very hardware picky, but regarding kernel modules and the issue you have, if it is a bug we will track it down. What is the video card you're using (i know why i am asking, trust me on that), is it nvidia, if not, which one? Will you tell me please your hardware info, motherboard, chipset controllers, ethernet, sound? When inserting the modules try not to mix them, previous versions with the modules i compiled. Which module did you exactly try to insert/load ? You can not unpack them all and just insert. You have to know which module is required for your hardware and load that particular one, or multiple ones. But only those modules required for your hardware otherwise you'll have a conflict. Kernel 3.10 has an utility for inserting module, it was all done automatically, and only modules listed by device id's after scanning. Some modules were blocked from loading cause those id's are supported by amithlon's core engine. I didn't create such a list and a small utility, we talked about it earlier here, i will if i have time.
Please send me the hardware info I asked and i will try to make a dedicated kernel for your hardware (what is possible to work within kernel) after testing i hope i can find whats blocking modules from inserting.

@ prowler,

I provided 'kernel4' AS IS. Everyone is free to use it if it works for that particular hardware and distribute it. If its found as not usable then it shouldn't be used. I take no responsibility. Hope you understand me.

Kind regards,
-milanca

[prowler]

Originally Posted by milanca

@ prowler,

I provided 'kernel4' AS IS. Everyone is free to use it if it works for that particular hardware and distribute it. If its found as not usable then it shouldn't be used. I take no responsibility. Hope you understand me.

Hi milanca,

Thanks for clarifying the "terms of use". No problem.

And thanks also for your work on this project.

[milanca]

Hi prowler,

I actually do owe you an apologize. I didn't mean my post to sound like an official one (when i read it now, it actually might sound like that). I am sorry, it was not my intention. I worked on this project, and still working, and my goal was to contribute to the community so there shouldn't be any terms of use. Something like that has never been in my vision of this project. Hope you understand me on this. Also, as we all know what amithlon is like, how hardware picky it is, and what it is like when you release something as free and open source stuff then it should be released 'as is'. Because of the numerous and various reasons. I don't want to go into details and bother, but you can trust me, there are really many reasons why something comes out as is. Hope you can understand me here also. I am just giving my best to contribute, for the community, amiga and amithlon fellows. All the best buddy!

@amigoun,

I have managed to recreate the error and splash screen you had troubles with, error code 1. What it means is: nothing to load or/and a version module mismatch. Kernel4 is just fine, i did a ton of tests again and it will remain as it is. This error was caused by pciinsmodule somewhere in startup-sequence (or user-start up, i will explain it later). This small utility inserts the module (or multiple modules if required) via pci_modules list, as it depends on this list file. That file actually makes the module inserting process automatic. I didn't create that file to follow kernel4 modules so pciinsmodules shouldn't be used. If you installed all the amithlon updates, contrib3/3b or drivers pack that came with kernel310, you might also have pciinsmodule call somewhere in user-startup. All the previous module drivers, contrib3 and later, are compiled from 2.4.19-pre4 kernel and are compatible to use either with new_kernel from Bernie M. or kernel2 to 310 from Garry C. Kernel4 is the latest 2.4 kernel and you should only use drivers that follow it.
I see now that it can be very difficult to use (mainly sound) modules that i provided without pci_modules list. Network modules can be used with 'insmod' but you have to know which module to load by device and vendor id of your hardware. Much easier but it can be also a problem for an average user. Amithlon itself can be enough tricky to install and setup. So i decided to create pci_modules file and recompile all the modules. It will be, the loading process, as it was with previous kernel versions, automatically with pciinsmodules.

NEWS

New drivers, sound, ethernet and serial with the pci_modules list are on their way. I already compiled all of them and I am half the job done creating the list file for auto loading with pciinsmodules. There are bunch of new drivers, many sound chips are in there and many network chips; realtek 8169 gigE is one of them, etc. I will update the topic here when it is available to download (sourceforge). Please do not use the modules which are actually on the site, you can use network drivers though. Just wait a bit as it will be online anytime soon.

Regards,
-milanca

[amigoun]

@ milanca

Very good News You bring, and thanks for the time You put into looking in that matter. As soon as the drivers are available for download I'll test and report how it works for me.
Thanks again and keep up the good work!

[prowler]

Originally Posted by milanca

Hi prowler,

I actually do owe you an apologize. I didn't mean my post to sound like an official one (when i read it now, it actually might sound like that). I am sorry, it was not my intention. I worked on this project, and still working, and my goal was to contribute to the community so there shouldn't be any terms of use. Something like that has never been in my vision of this project. Hope you understand me on this. Also, as we all know what amithlon is like, how hardware picky it is, and what it is like when you release something as free and open source stuff then it should be released 'as is'. Because of the numerous and various reasons. I don't want to go into details and bother, but you can trust me, there are really many reasons why something comes out as is. Hope you can understand me here also. I am just giving my best to contribute, for the community, amiga and amithlon fellows. All the best buddy!

Hi milanca,

There really is no need to apologize. I fully understand the compatibility problems you are facing.

Your continuing effort on this project is appreciated by us all.

[fishyfish]

Just wondering if anyone can offer me any suggestions as to why my pcx 5300 card will crash Amithlon ? I have a dedicated amithlon system which works very nicely (core2duo@3.86ghz, sblive, 2x512Meg (1gig) ddr2@1200, g31 based mobo, etc.). It absolutely flies and its quite cool to be able to watch high res/high quality video files at full speed and use aga software full speed/full framerate in 68k e-uae, but Im restricted to using my matrox g200 based pci card (8 meg, but some of the vram chips are a bit dodgey and I can only access 2 meg properly). I found a pcx 5300 pci express card on ebay, but trying to boot amithlon with it will make the system crash heavily. I believe it's a kernel crash as it does it as soon as pc post screens are finished. I've tried the card with another os (AROS) on the same machine and it works fine, and I've tried another pci express card with amithlon (gf9600gt), which also works, albiet in vesa modes. Seemed a bit strange that a card that has no support will work, whereas a card based on a gpu that is supported crashes the system heavily.
Any advice/suggestions would be appreciated. Im this one problem away from being very content with Amithlon and I'd rather not have to go back to my old athlon64 for it, (or use up a pci slot) as while it's still fairly decent on that system I do still have to make a few compromises (no full speed aga euae, no full speed FPSE (playstation emu), and a few other bits and pieces).
Oh, Im using kernel 3.10 by the way. Kernel4 doesnt work for me.

[milanca]

hi fishyfish,

it's really strange that pcx-5300 doesn't work for you, it should work fine. I compiled my last version of kernel 4 on similar configuration, Core2Quad and P35 motherboard and when i use my amithlon i'm also on PCI matrox card. What is the crash like with kernel4? Is it the same as with kernel3.10, immediately upon first kernel instructions? Kernel 4 is available to download at sourceforge, final version.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/amit...4.zip/download
If you boot internal amithlon hd make sure you change 'ram0' to 'ram1' in grub boot line. It doesn't matter for hdd installed os3.9. You could also try with increasing 'leavepages' a bit. Let us know how it was.

Regards

[fishyfish]

Yeah, Im running an hdd installed os3.9. I'd actually tried increasing leavepages in small increments up to around 7,500, but it made no difference. As for kernel4, yep, same problem as with kernel 3.10

[milanca]

Hi fishyfish,

will you try with this kernel:
http://www..com/?xvsi3gluqpa9swg

Try with internal image, bigird.gz:

kernel /amithlon/kernel4 console_level=4 init=/linuxrc root=/dev/ram1 mem=512M vga=769 ramdisk_size=12010 leavepages=8200 cachesize=65536
initrd /amithlon/bigird.gz

If you try hdd installed os3.9 please try with several options also. Adding video=dovesa, try also with video=riva... etc to see if its going to work for you.

I wrote a reply post a couple of mins ago but when i hit post looks like my net connectin was lost, or i don't know, and entire text was lost so this is a quick reply and i will write it once again but if you'd like you can try with the kernel i attached first.

regards,
-milanca

[fishyfish]

No idea what's going on, but amithlon simply refuses to co-operate with me anymore. Out of frustration Ive tried going back to my old athlon64 box that I used amithlon with for about 2 years, and now even that crashes (kernel). The only times I can get it to work now are with vesa gfx drivers. I cant even get my old gf5200 agp card to work now.
Really starting to piss me off. Ive been using amithlon pretty heavily for 6 or 7 years, so I know my way around it, but for some reason it just wont co-operate anymore for me.

[milanca]

Hi fishyfish,

Really strange issue. It should work just fine with your older configuration and agp fx5200 at least.

Have you tried the kernel i compiled for your intel chipset motheroard G31 and core2duo from my previous post? it is to be used on intel based motherboards only.

Regards

[fishyfish]

I never got around to trying your newer kernel again, and Ive actually downgraded my amithlon box to my trusty old athlon64 system. I found my old geforce3 card and it works happily with that again, so that'll do me. Bit of a shame to have to downgrade it, but Ive recently acquired an a1200, so Im not too bothered. The main reason I used such a system with amithlon was for good speed with 68k euae for aga stuff, but that's not a priority anymore. It seems a bit strange though that I cant use either my gf5200 agp card with my athlon64 or pci express pcx5300 with the core2duo/pcx5300 without amithlon kernel crashing, but I lost patience with it. That machine is my media centre box now anyway (as of tonight). I suspect once I upgrade my main pc amithlon will once again inheritt the core2duo/g31 based system (current main pc will end up media centre system, media centre system will end up amithlon box, amithlon box will end up doorstop.. 1 upgrade tends to upgrade everything down the line for me), so Im sure it'll drive me batty enough to warrant me asking for help again in a month or two
One thing I am curious about though,.... I read recently that pcx 5300 only has partial hardware acceleration anyway ? Is this true? If so I'll probably end up buying a better supported pci card once Im using a system without agp for amithlon again anyway.
One more quirk I noticed though that's eliminated solely by switching back to the athlon64 over the core2duo/g31 system is that I no longer get gfx corruption in the top 1/4 of the display. It was minimal, and mostly occured when moving solid/opaque windows, and was fixed by simply refreshing Workbench, but a little irritating still.