Problems installing OS on new HD

[Hedefar]

Hi guys.

After following good advice from the good people here, I just bought a CF HD and PCMCIA CF adapter from Amigakit for my A600 running kickstart 2.05.

The installer starts just fine and copies the files from the WB floppy and the Extras floppy, but when it comes to the Fonts, it fails.
It makes a long list of messages like this one:

"Can't open rexxsupport.library for output - object is in use."

Do you think that my Fonts floppy is dead?
And is it really needed?

The Amiga reboots when I click next and when it boots from the HD it gives the following message while loading the Workbench screen:

C:Adddatatypes: Unknown command

Then it continues to the workbench which is seemingly working fine.
I then insert the floppy, which was bundled with the PCMCIA CF adapter, called "ADAPCMCFL".
I am supposed to launch it from WB to install the driver for the card by double-clicking the drive with its name but it shows the floppy as "DF0:????" instead of "ADAPCMCFL".
When I double click "DF0:????", it says "The icon(s) have no default tool.

Might this indicate that the installation of WB on the HD is missing some files other than just fonts?

Any clues would be appreciated!
Thanks in advance

[diablothe2nd]

the datatype file you speak of is what tells the OS a file is. in windows, it knows that a .bmp is an image file by the extension... While on amiga, the OS knows that it is by the first few bytes of a file. without this datatype to reference, the amiga doesn't know what should be used to open a filetype.

as for the fonts, you can do without them, yes. but some other programs might depend on them.

when you formatted the CF card, did you set the maxtransfer speed to 0x1FE00 ??

[Hedefar]

Thanks for the quicks reply diablothe2nd!

The datatype file you mention, is that in relation to WB not recognizing what's on the floppy I inserted? I'm not sure what you mean?

I didn't format the harddrive CF card because it came pre-loaded with an installer.
This is the one I bought and it should be ready to go right after installing the OS on it.

Can you tell me how I run the contents of a floppy from inside workbench when it doesn't open when I double-click its drive icon?
If double-clicking the icon is the correct way to go, I'm suspecting that something is wrong with the floppy.

[diablothe2nd]

it could very well be the reason the DF0 isn't recognised. but equally something else.

you have the same CF as me. for some reason the self installer on the CF card messed up for me too. I had to format the drive and install manually.

if you're not used to the way amiga works raise a ticket with amigakit. they dont respond much to emails but tickets they are very quick and can help you.

if you are confident with amiga and dont mind reading guides, then there are tutorials on here that can help you install workbench manually.

[Hedefar]

And this is the PCMCIA CF adapter that I am trying to install the driver for.

I read in the instructions that it should be possible to boot from the ADAPCMCFL floppy which should contain the driver for the card. But it doesn't boot. It just ends up at the kickstart screen like it would if it cannot read the floppy.
I think I'm going to drop Amigakit a line because to my knowledge, this is the only way to get the show on the road.

But other suggestions are still very welcome!

[diablothe2nd]

i think you need the driver loaded to access the PCMCIA card, which means you need a working workbench installation on your CF card.

one step at a time. get workbench working, then PCMCIA

[Hedefar]

Thanks again for the 2'nd quick answer
I'll raise a ticket with Amigakit.

[Hedefar]

Ah, but the workbench floppy works. It's only the Fonts floppy that seems damaged.
I have uninstalled the HD now and was planning to try to run the PCMCIA card alone.
This is why I was trying to boot from the driver floppy for the PCMCIA card.
According to the guide, it's supposed to boot from it and then ask for the workbench. But it doesn't boot from it at all so I'm beginning to think I have no problems with WB (apart from missing fonts) and just got a bad floppy from Amigakit.
But I'll check with them now

[Hedefar]

I have taken out the CF card that I'm using as a HDD and put it in my PC so I can access it with WinUAE.
I have added the CF card as a hard drive and it is able to boot to work bench from there.
But because of my problems with my 3'rd workbench disc, I am thinking that I will install the smallest version of Classic Workbench on it. Is this a good choice?

And can anyone explain to me how I install it from WinUAE?

I have downloaded the lite Classic WB v.27 but don't know how to proceed from here so any help is very welcome!

[diablothe2nd]

classicwb will likely need the fonts disk. i doubt it comes with all the copyrighted material it'll need to run out of the box. i know that when installing AmiSYS 4, it asks for the fonts, extras and main wb disk.

If your workbench disks are legit, I personally dont see any problem in obtaining the fonts disk image from the 'net to restore to a fresh new floppy. you're allowed to own backup copies of it afterall, you're just unfortunate enough to not have any and your original has corrupted.

I cant upload it for you here as it's still copyrighted i believe but googling will usually find them.

if you head over to aminet and get adf2disk here:
http://aminet.net/search?query=adf2disk

download that, extract it using winrar on your windows machine and copy the extraced data to your CF card, along with the fonts.adf disk image, then run adf2disk on your amiga with a blank floppy in the drive, you'll end up with a working fonts disk.

[Hedefar]

Yup, the disks are legit... just really old, I guess. There is even a copy of exactly the Fonts disk and it reacts exactly the same way so I think the previous owner made it in an attempt to get a better working disk. Unfortunately without luck.

Thanks for the info and link!

[Hedefar]

My PC doesn't recognise the formatting of the CF card so I can't copy the anything to it other than via WinUAE.
So how would I go about getting the files onto the card?

[diablothe2nd]

windows wont recognise it as it's formatted with the Amiga Filesystem.

you'll need to mount the CF card with winUAE. also, mount a shared folder on your windows hard drive where you keep the adfs etc, so you can literally drag and drop them onto the CF inside winUAE

and if windows ever demands to format the CF drive tell it to f**k off! LOL

[diablothe2nd]

I'll just add more detail to this previous post. shant edit as you're watching the thread as i type this....

basically set up a UAE system that's got your CF card mounted, then set a folder on windows... say C:\Amiga to be ADH0: (i put an A for all windows drives so i dont confuse with DH0 DH1 etc of the real amiga drive). have it set to non bootable.

then, before running UAE, put the workbench ADF disk in device DF0:

let it boot. you should see two drives on the desktop, one being your shared folder, the other being your real cf hd. just drag and drop the files between them

[Hedefar]

Haha, I won't listen... Windows knows NOTHING!
I'll give it a go right away.

[Hedefar]

Argh! I am the one who knows nothing! Next question!

I take it you mean that I should copy the files from workbench running in WinUAE, right?

I have set up the CF HD so I can boot from it.
And I have made a folder with a bunch of games in .adf files which I downloaded a long time ago for use with WinUAE.

In WB, I can see the folder I named Games. But when I open it, the folder looks empty.
Ehh?

[diablothe2nd]

Originally Posted by Hedefar

In WB, I can see the folder I named Games. But when I open it, the folder looks empty.
Ehh?

with the window active, hold RMB, hover over Window, Show, and let go of the mouse on Show All


i'll answer the rest in my next post

[diablothe2nd]

Originally Posted by Hedefar

Argh! I am the one who knows nothing! Next question!

Is this your first time using Amiga? or just a bit rusty? if first time i'll be more verbose in my replies.

Originally Posted by Hedefar

I take it you mean that I should copy the files from workbench running in WinUAE, right?

its the Fonts disk you need for things to work properly as you're getting errors when you boot from your CF card on the real amiga, yes?

so we need to copy the fonts.adf and adf2disk to your cf card so we can run it on your real amiga to make a real floppy disk that the installer can use.

we're basically going to run the install again to get rid of these errors you're having.

Originally Posted by Hedefar

I have set up the CF HD so I can boot from it.
And I have made a folder with a bunch of games in .adf files which I downloaded a long time ago for use with WinUAE.

In WB, I can see the folder I named Games. But when I open it, the folder looks empty.
Ehh?

when inside that folder, do what i said in previous post, then you will see. if you like you can also hold RMB > window > view > by name to have it show in a list.

[Hedefar]

I am able to copy files now
Still not able to run them though.
It says "file is not executable" and "failed returncode 10".
But I blame that on the only partially installed WB unless you say otherwise.
I'll get on with the workbench struggles now it seems. I really owe you... something... a cold beer if you ever get to Denmark.

[Hedefar]

Originally Posted by diablothe2nd

Is this your first time using Amiga? or just a bit rusty? if first time i'll be more verbose in my replies.

It's not my first time... but the last time was 19 years ago and I only played games back then. Only thing I ever used WB for was to make it say dirty words in Danish, hehe...

Originally Posted by diablothe2nd

its the Fonts disk you need for things to work properly as you're getting errors when you boot from your CF card on the real amiga, yes?

Correct!

Originally Posted by diablothe2nd

so we need to copy the extras.adf and adf2disk to your cf card so we can run it on your real amiga to make a real floppy disk that the installer can use.

we're basically going to run the install again to get rid of these errors you're having.





when inside that folder, do what i said in previous post, then you will see. if you like you can also hold RMB > window > view > by name to have it show in a list.

Great. I'll get right on it!