WHDload without workbench?

Hi I have been running adf's on winUAE for some time but I dont have workbench. I have a kickstart (obviously)

Question: Can WHDload be installed/used without workbench?

All the documentation and faqs for installing seems to need it but you legends out there must know whether that is true or not and how to get it done.

[killergorilla]

Well no you don't need workbench as such...

But you do need someoway of running whdload.

A startup sequence such as would work...

setpatch quiet
assign ENV: RAM:
assign T: RAM:
whdload gamedir/gamename.slave preload

It would however load only one game from boot. You could boot to a cli and then load games via the commandline but it's probably just easier to setup a simple workbench instead

sounds ok except:
1st: those commaands come up as "unknown command setpatch" in cli
2nd: how do i install whdload without workbench? I could get the files into a directory and then onto an .adf then trried to boot with that .adf which didnt work. Obvious to you perhaps but now im out of ideas.

Oh btw Im using a basic wb13boot.adf to do the stuff I am doing it has some functionality but not a whole lot

oopss it seems that wb13boot actually has a workbench in it ha ha. So I gues I'm asking how to set that up. If I find out on myy own I'll post here for others aat least.

Ok made it further by doing the following
1) in UAE loaded wb13boot.adf into df0 (i guess that stands for (d)isk (f)loppy zero

2) loaded my folder containing the extracted WHDload as a directory into dh0 gave it the volume name w

3) loaded folder containing game into dh1 gave it volume name g

4) started UAE

5)got out into cli> (guessing thats the equivilent to the dos prompt for us microsoft zombies)

(have to say amiga dos commands are not the easiest things to figure out without any documentation - a link would help here - we all know the things we want to do <load and run games> just not the commands to do them)

6) for me the exact command was:
w:/c/whdload g:/californiagames2.slave preload

Hooray almost there? ..,. No
error
on reading "devs:kickstarts/kick34005.a500"
ok i thought i had a kickstart? so what now?
please tell me I'm nearly there. 3 days of head + brickwall = not good

still working on it

I see I just need to get my kick file into the right spot. As soon as I figure out EXACTLY how to do that Ill post it here

7) download skick345.lha easy to find on google

cant copy the files to devs as they seem to exxist on the floppy pobaably coz i ran my wb13boot from the floppy. I guess I need to run it from the hard disk instead... will get this to work or die trying. Will also post as I go coz I know people out there are as new to this as me.

[Anubis]

I don't think that you can install it without workbench. Also some WB files (as you just saw it) are required to start the game.

Is it hard to get workbench and / or ClassicWB to work?

[killergorilla]

As I said, yes it is possible to use whdload without workbench. That startup sequence works perfectly when loading a game.

You obviously need setpatch in c: otherwise you'll get the error as shown.

WHDLoad doesn't need "installing" as such, you simply need the WHDLoad file in c:

Before trying to get whdload running without workbench, I'd suggest you learn a little bit about how the amiga OS runs and how to setup a HDD/hdf.

[Anubis]

I really like to hear on how to setup HDD without workbench.

[killergorilla]

Well once you've got a HDD, all you need to do is format it.

Then you can put whatever files on it you like. You don't need Workbench installed.

My Amiga doesn't boot into Workbench at all.

[Anubis]

What you trying to say is that you can install and operate from Amiga DOS, which is again part of Amiga WB.

I agree that you don't have to have WB loaded, but you need a lot of stuff from WB directory to be able to work with HDD.

[killergorilla]

Well no you don't, not to do what the title of this thread says, which is "WHDLoad without workbench".

You need setpatch and whdload in c: and a startup-sequence in s:

For some installs you'll also need the kickstarts in devs/kickstarts

[Anubis]

Now that Toni said that in the future we might have adf/hdf option to run the games, does that means that each hdf install that we will run trough ADF selector (topic about save states for HDFs) we will have to have kickstart file if needed and those other files ready?

[killergorilla]

The whole hdf in adf idea seems a bit silly to me (for whdload at least), you'd need all of the whdload/kickstart files within the hdf, which would mean anytime whdload is updated you'd need to go through all of your games and replace the whdload file.

This would make any save state used from the old whdload redundant too if I'm not mistaken.

[Npl]

Originally Posted by killergorilla

As I said, yes it is possible to use whdload without workbench. That startup sequence works perfectly when loading a game.

You obviously need setpatch in c: otherwise you'll get the error as shown.

WHDLoad doesn't need "installing" as such, you simply need the WHDLoad file in c:

Before trying to get whdload running without workbench, I'd suggest you learn a little bit about how the amiga OS runs and how to setup a HDD/hdf.

Why do you need setpatch at all? Works fine without. This startup-sequence should be enough, while only needing C:Assign, C:WhdLoad and eventuall Kickstarts in DEVS:

C:Assign >NIL: ENV: RAM:
C:Assign >NIL: T: RAM:

cd <gamedir>
C:WhdLoad <gameslave> PRELOAD

Personally I did a few Whdload-adfs for games which fit on 1 floppy (compressed diskfiles help here, so I also have xpk sitting on disk)

S
--WHDLoad.prefs
--Startup-sequence
DEVS
C
--List
--WHDLoad
--MakeDir
--Assign
BubbleBobble
--BubbleBobble.Slave
--etc...
L
--WHDLoad.key
LIBS
--xpkmaster.library
--compressors
--|--xpkMASH.library
--|--xpkSQSH.library

Startup-sequence looks like this: (note that it automatically will find the .slave File in the subdirs )

C:MakeDir RAM:T RAM:ENV

Resident >NIL: C:Assign

Assign >NIL: ENV: RAM:ENV
Assign >NIL: T: RAM:T

Assign >NIL: REXX: S DEFER
Assign >NIL: KEYMAPS: DEVS:Keymaps DEFER

IF NOT EXISTS SYS:Fonts
  Assign FONTS:
EndIF

Resident Assign REMOVE

cd `C:List SYS:#?/#?.slave LFORMAT="*"%p*"" FILES`
C:WhdLoad `C:List SYS:#?/#?.slave LFORMAT="*"%n*"" FILES` PRELOAD

[killergorilla]

Originally Posted by Npl

Why do you need setpatch at all?

Try running an AGA game.

[Npl]

Originally Posted by killergorilla

Try running an AGA game.

Ah, dint thought of that.

[killergorilla]

Hehe,

neither did I at first

[BippyM]

Originally Posted by killergorilla

The whole hdf in adf idea seems a bit silly to me (for whdload at least), you'd need all of the whdload/kickstart files within the hdf, which would mean anytime whdload is updated you'd need to go through all of your games and replace the whdload file.

not true!

[killergorilla]

Surely it is true if you only have one hdf?

Sure you could have the important files in another hdf, but again you might as well have a harddrive because the second it changes you'd make all your save states redundant...

I might well be overlooking something here so feel free to correct me!

[BippyM]

savestates and hds don't work anyway..... do they?

[killergorilla]

Well they do yeah but it's not adviseable as anytime anything on the hdd changes, the savestate really shouldn't be used anymore. It'd mean that the current loaded "state" of the machine differs to the actual state of what's on the system.

i.e. the Amiga thinks the hdd contains data which may well have been altered/removed/deleted since the last time you used the savestate. This could result in data loss.

This problem is gonna occur with hdf's in the adf slot too.

[BippyM]

I was referring to general HDFs used as whdload.

My system works and has been tested with both lemonade and Gamebase and should work with Mage too!

Selectable autoboot HDFs are better in some circumstances than having them all on one HDF and using a mouse etc!