Amithlon Setup Guide

[mac388]

Have tried but forgot to say have all res 640x480, 1024x768 etc from the first install but only in 8 bit not 16 or 32 bit i was wondering if the graphics card in my setup was different to yours will pull it to bits when i have time to check if it is the standard as listed on dell`s spec site

[SnkBitten]

Originally Posted by Methanoid

With all the things learned and gathered from various sources its probably time for a major update to Charlie's guide if someone has the time. I don't! :-(

I've already done that, making it a complete walk-through from start to finish.

[SnkBitten]

I talked with Charlie and have asked him to drop by this thread, he said he might but appears to be rather busy. He's on Amibay (where I pm'd him) the few times I've seen him online.

[mac388]

Hi i was wondering what revision the bios in your dell c610 is on as mine is on version a16 cannot seem to see any mention of any changes on the dell site to the ati video card but sometimes they forget to mention about add on graphics cards this could be the cause of only getting 8 bit graphics i think and would be worth a go thanks

[SnkBitten]

I'll take a look when I get home and get a chance to see. Most likely I will be at the last version they made available, but I'll find out tonight.

[SnkBitten]

Nope, I'm Bios A13. I usually update bios as a general rule but I never did with this one (bought used off eBay specifically for Amithlon).

I may update this one anyway.

This is the change I see in the changelog though....not sure if that could be the cause or not.

2. Updated the ATI M6 video BIOS to version 7.006.001

[mac388]

Hi thanks even after down grading the bios to A13 still the same results but after Meany hours of research found that Uk / euro models where built in Ireland and the ATI graphics Card may not use the same components as corners where cut to keep prices down on both graphics card and motherboard but I do not have a problem with the motherboard just the graphics some graphics card are NVidia GeForce 2 so will look around for one I may be lucky I have setup many Amithlon PCs over the years but this is the first time with a laptop and unsuccessful this time thanks again for all your help as it is much appreciated

[ptyerman]

If you're having no luck with Amithlon, give X-Amiga or Kxlight a try, they are more forgiving when it comes to hardware and give you the same result. You could even put WinXP on it and replace explorer.exe with WinUAE.

[mac388]

Thanks for that have put kxlight on a few times X-amiga does not exist anymore and would not know where to find it i just got a chance of an old dell c610 and thought Amithlon but was not to be

[ptyerman]

Yeah, Amithlon can be hit and miss if it fully works or not and even when it does it can take some fiddling around to set it up right. Fortunately you do have alternatives, if your happy enough with kxlight you can replace the supplied Workbench with something else such as ClassicWB, AmigaSYS or Amikit, even just a plain OS 3.1 or 3.9 Workbench. Another advantage you would have with kxlight or X-Amiga is AGA support as well as RTG, Amithlon is RTG only so you get no chipset support.

[mac388]

Thanks for the advice but nothing beats the raw speed of amithlon and it would not be any fun if there was not any problems trying to get some laptop or pc to work with it like i say have been using amithlon for years and only wanted to try setting up a laptop but was the wrong laptop selection

[SnkBitten]

Originally Posted by mac388

Thanks for the advice but nothing beats the raw speed of amithlon and it would not be any fun if there was not any problems trying to get some laptop or pc to work with it like i say have been using amithlon for years and only wanted to try setting up a laptop but was the wrong laptop selection

These two are reported to have hardware accelerated video....

Dell C640 Intel
Pentium M (2.4 Ghz)
(kernel 3.10)
Chipset - Intel 845MP
Graphics - ATI Mobility Radeon 7500
Onboard USB
Onboard Audio
Onboard NIC


IBM Thinkpad T42 (model 2373) Intel
Pentium Centrino (1.7 Ghz)
(kernel 3.10)
Chipset - Intel 855PM
Graphics - ATI Mobility Radeon 7500
Onboard USB
Onboard Audio

[mac388]

i am already looking for a c640 and just missed out on one on ebay and still looking for a c610 graphics card that as a certain board number thanks for the info on the lenovo

[SnkBitten]

I've uploaded my Google Doc guides as PDFs to Aminet. I think they were as complete as l could make them. I'm working on some miscellaneous notes and information that will be on my site as a live Google Doc, but the overall install guides seemed to be done.
http://aminet.net/package/docs/help/Amithlon-Guides

[siyllad]

Great credit due to you SnkBitten for keeping the amithlon platform going many thanks.

[huepper]

Thank you!

[malko]

Originally Posted by SnkBitten

I've uploaded my Google Doc guides as PDFs to Aminet. I think they were as complete as l could make them. I'm working on some miscellaneous notes and information that will be on my site as a live Google Doc, but the overall install guides seemed to be done.
http://aminet.net/package/docs/help/Amithlon-Guides

About 2 years ago I re-re-re-gave a try to Amithlon . I installed it to HD and was successful in booting it but the display was slow and did not had any sound. As I did not had much time, I did not dig to solve the issues...
Maybe I will give another try with your documentations. Put it in my "to do" list. Thanks

[SnkBitten]

The key is having compatible hardware which Amithlon is very picky about. However even VESA mode unaccelerated graphics are still faster than RTG on real Amigas.

The guides cover supported hardware as well as AHI, USB, networking and P96 graphics.

[SnkBitten]

Here's my current config. The system runs wickedly fast and pretty darn complete.

System configuration:

Gigabyte Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L motherboard

Intel Core2Duo @ 4.00 Ghz (E8600)

(2) 512 MB ram modules (1 GB total)

64 MB nVidia 5200 PCI graphics card (full hardware accelerated)

Catweasel MKIV PCI card (R/W Amiga HD/DD floppy disk)

Soundblaster Live 5.1 PCI (AHI 6 i686)

Intel Pro-1000 10/100/1000 Desktop Network card (PCIe)

8x DVD-RW(-/+) Slot loading drive

20 GB SATA dos boot drive (freedos)

256 GB SATA AmigaOS drive

Multi-card USB reader


Top you have the slot loading DVD-R/W drive and the multi card USB reader, near the power switch is a NEC floppy drive attached to the Catweasel then to the motherboard. The two USB ports below that work as well.


Amithlon next to my A4000T. Sitting on top I have a DPS-235 Dual TBC with my in-progress A4000D on top of that.

[ptyerman]

The only Amithlon system I currently have, is a old Socket 462 Asus Motherboard, (can't remember the model without looking), with a AMD Athlon 1100Mhz CPU. It has a Nvidia Geforce 2 MX video card, (which is fully supported in Amithlon), a SoundBlaster Live sound card, (again fully supported), Realtek 8139 network card, and generic PS/2 mouse and keyboard.
It runs like a dream and is very fast running Amiga software! You can pick up Amithlon compatible hardware for nothing these days, I had it running on a Pentium III with 512mb RAM a few year ago and it was fast even on that!