Dual Booting 3.1.4 and 3.9???

[Ledfoot]

Hey guys,



Just finally got my hands on an A1200 after MANY years away from the scene. Getting ready to set things up and was wondering if it's possible to set up a multi-boot arrangement?



Basically, I'd like to have 3.9 on one partition, 3.1.4 on another (have ordered both), and then all my games and other software on a big 3rd partition that either OS could access and use...


Is this doable? How would I go about selecting which OS at boot time? Is there a specific file system type I should use? Is there going to be any issues with one OS fighting the other in terms of file properties or anything?

Edit: I should mention that I'll also have a GoTek installed. Maybe I can use that to help kick/select between OS's at boot up?


I'd like to do this because I'm going to be using an SD card hooked to the IDE port and it's going to be all internal so not easy to get at to swap out between multiple cards.


I'll probably be doing all the setup of the SD from WinUAE this week while my A1200 board is being recapped.... So any advice is appreciated.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

To do Dual-boot you should create two partitions or two disks, install the two systems in their respective partitions or disks. In Amiga start disable (no bootable) the partition or disk you do not want to boot.

You can also install everything in one partition, but here the operation is more complicated because you have to create double system directories with different names and in the startup-sequence assign everything to the new paths. Then there would also be the problem of changing the ROM that on an Amiga Real this would not be possible by a standard situation without special expansions.

If you need to use WinUAE no problem, just change the ROM, install the systems on two HardFiles / Windows Disk / Directory and boot the emulator to disable the bootloader on the system to be blocked.

[daxb]

You can use this: http://www.thomas-rapp.homepage.t-on...ngebootpri.lha to change the boot priority of the boot partition. How it should behave is your decision. You can have always a boot select function or work with a default boot partition. Requester or keyboard to select...

With filesystems you are more or less free (FFS, SFS, PFS). I would avoid to mix short and long filename use in case you will transfer data from one to the other.

[desiv]

Unfortunately it's not quite so simple sometimes.
You can select the non-primary partition, but...
The newest OSes tend to "reboot" themselves after doing some loadmodule work.
That reboot can flip you back to your primary partition.
It can get a bit complicated unless you have a partition that doesn't need a reboot after it loads a module (or 2).

[Ledfoot]

Well, I'm wondering if the following would be doable then:

Back in the day when I had an A500 I had a non-Autobooting SCSI controller. As a result I had a floppy disk which had a VERY minimal OS image on it which would start the boot up process and then kick over to the HD for the rest of the boot and go from there.

Could maybe something similar be done with a pair of "boot floppy" images onto the GoTek, one for each OS, that would maybe start the boot process, point to the appropriate HD partition and do whatever ROM patches and then reboot and boot from there?

[Romanujan]

I would do it this way: one boot partition with a very minimal system. It's Startup-Sequence should check the OS (for example querying exec.library version) and do the following:

1. Original Commodore exec.library - ask the user for desired OS version ( [ Show youtube player ] - the bootselector I use, although my use case is different), load appropriate modules or softkick/maprom appropriate ROM and reboot.

2. 3.9 exec or 3.1.4 exec - remap the assigns to appropriate OS partition (http://aminet.net/package/util/cli/MoveSYS) and call the Startup-Sequence of the given system.

Besides, I would use scsi.device and filesystem (if you prefer FFS than PFS3; I personally use PFS3, but didn't test the OS 3.1.4 FFS yet) from 3.1.4 even for the OS 3.9 installation; I don't think they are relevant for games compatibility, but might prevent problems in case you exchange data between these two systems.


[edit] Ledfoot - IMHO the floppy (or a floppy emulator) is too slow for this purpose.

[fgh]

It’s perfectly doable, I have 5 system partitions on one of my machines
As Daxb mentioned you can use changebootpri (Desiv: it solves the reboot problem by changing the partitions priority in the RDB)

If you keep kickstart 3.1, both 3.1.4 and 3.9 will have a setpatch reboot, after which you need a cold boot (power off) to run the other system.
If you install a kickstart 3.1.4 ROM, you need to modify the 3.9 installation to work with 3.1.4.

[desiv]

Interesting, I'll take a look.
Thanx!

[Dynamic_Computi]

If you are using a CF Card setup, I would be half tempted to just use a second CF card with 3.1.4 loaded on it. I have a second hard drive with OS 3.9 on it that I can hook up in about two minutes to go back to OS 3.9 - but I just have not found a good enough reason to move away from 3.1.4 yet - it is really that good.

[patrik]

It is possible to remove resident vectors by software, try:
http://aminet.net/package/util/cli/crvectors

[daxb]

There is another possibility. Early-Startup-Menu - where you can select from which device you want to boot.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Originally Posted by daxb

There is another possibility. Early-Startup-Menu - where you can select from which device you want to boot.

It was what I had mentioned in my first speech, that is, to disable the volume at boot Amiga (Early Startup Control). Programs like "changebootpri" is a great program but you have to be careful otherwise you have to use HDToolbox to restore boot Disk/Partition.

[Hewitson]

I personally wouldn't bother. 3.9 is nothing but bloatware, and won't be enjoyable at all unless the A1200 you've purchased comes with a decent accelerator fitted.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Amiga 3.9 is no more demanding than 3.1.4 if you want a 256-color Workbench, this is the minimum thing that you ask these OS, otherwise if you want speed better use WB 3.0.

[kolla]

3.1(.4) is just as fast as 3.0, what makes 3.5+ "slow" is Reaction programs that consume more RAM.

[Daedalus]

The "bloatware" is the only reason I have OS 3.9 installed on every classic Amiga setup I use - without the extra stuff, using Workbench for anything is so much more of a chore.

[kolla]

@Daedalus
So you are a heavy user of the GIF-anim icons?

There is really very little in OS3.9 that I find useful, that isn't in OS 3.1.4 now - lacking Reacton is for me a positive feature.
The only things I miss is AmiDock (for which there are equivalents) and the feature of "GhostBuster" (optionally hiding NDOS device icons from Workbench).