Amiga MULTIBOOT

[MagerValp]

I got tired of booting with no startup-sequence to start troublesome demos and games, so I wrote a small boot menu that lets you select different startup scripts with the F-keys.

• The keyboard is checked before the image is loaded, so if you hold down an F-key during boot the script will be launched silently.
• If you press an F-key that doesn't have a script defined, the menu just quits and resumes normal boot. I'm using this to launch the Workbench on F1.
• You can also quit the menu with Esc or LMB.

You can download AMB 1.1, including source and sample menu image, here:

• AMB-1.1.lha

Requires Kickstart 2.0+.

[Vot]

Nice

[Peter]

Thanks for sharing - nice work!

[fryguy]

Neat!

[crazyc]

Can I use this and run it before Kickcontrol? Would be useful to be able to run my CF card on WINUAE directly - its runs now with some hardware dependent options that I need to disable in startup-sequence to run it on WINUAE.
Looks interesting.

[Amiga1992]

This is a beautiful way to do what I hacked together!

[MagerValp]

Originally Posted by crazyc

Can I use this and run it before Kickcontrol?

Sorry, I've never used KickControl so I don't know.

Would be useful to be able to run my CF card on WINUAE directly - its runs now with some hardware dependent options that I need to disable in startup-sequence to run it on WINUAE.
Looks interesting.

You might want to look at detecting UAE in your Startup-Sequence and skipping the hardware dependent commands instead: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=67320

[Amiga1992]

Magervalp, would it be really hard to support KS 2.x too?

[MagerValp]

No, the only part that uses 3.x is 32-bit palette loading. If you replace ILBMNF_COLOURS32 with ILBMNF_COLOURS4, SA_COLORS32 with SA_COLORS, and pi.pal32 with pi.pal4 it should work on 2.x after that. I just don't have a 2.x setup to test on at the moment.

[Amiga1992]

What do I need to compile this? I have an A600 I can test it with.

[MagerValp]

AmigaE:
http://aminet.net/package/dev/e/amigae33a

And the full compiler:
http://aminet.net/package/dev/e/ec33a

Compile the code with EC AMB.e

[crazyc]

Originally Posted by MagerValp

Sorry, I've never used KickControl so I don't know.

You might want to look at detecting UAE in your Startup-Sequence and skipping the hardware dependent commands instead: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=67320

Thanks - I will look into it.

[MagerValp]

Turns out the ILBM module that comes with AmigaE was broken under Kickstart 2.x. I replaced it with my own ILBM loader code so it works on 2.x/ECS now. I also added an option to only show the menu if a mouse button is held down. You can grab AMB-1.1 here:

• AMB-1.1.lha

[Amiga1992]

That's awesome, thanks Magervalp!!

[qq1975b]

Just two novice questions:

- Where does it have to be copied on a Floppy / HDD? Do I have to modify anything else?

- F1 loads Workbench, F2 load Shell and F3 goes directly to DF0?
if this is the case, it would be very useful on an Amiga with HDD and Gotek drive, where you have to take out the USB key to be able to load from the hard disk.

[MagerValp]

Installation instructions are in the readme. WB/Shell/Games is just how I configured it on my system, you'll have to write your own scripts to use AMB. It will not help will Gotek drives.

[qq1975b]

Gotek loads the last .ADF you selected...so, could it work if this boot menu can be saved on an .ADF and you select it? F3-Games would make you to select position 000 on GOTEK to work (Gotek's ADF selector prg) if it means to load DF0 (to select a game of demo with Gotek).

[MagerValp]

I'm not sure what you're asking, AMB has nothing to do with DF0: or Gotek's ADF selector.

[qq1975b]

Sorry, I didn't explain myself clearly.
Gotek has nothing to do with it, so a silly question. You have only to put a blank .ADF file in position 001 on GOTEK (you can make it with WINUAE) and then it will boot from HDD so your boot menu can work as usual.

thanks for the replies and for the interest!