Amithlon Setup Guide - Page 45

huepper · 25 April 2016, 11:06

Try to use the 9m bigird with other boot settings.
Add more ram here:

Code:

ramdisk_size=xxxxx leavepages=xxxx

Hopefully it works.

croupier · 25 April 2016, 11:37

Thanks...but these are settings for the start-up of Amithlon....

I need to increase the available space of the 'bigird' while mounted as a filesystem on Linux...it is needed just to play with it in order to add some additional files inside the 'bigird'...nothing to do with Amithlon yet...all done on a Linux machine...

croupier · 26 April 2016, 10:32

OK...managed to get the 'bigird' increased to 30Mb under Linux in order to be able to insert a larger HD image file....tested with 20Mb HD file...and it worked...almost...

The problem is now on the HD image side...the new/larger 'bigird' file is recognised by Amithlon and it boots...up to the point when it should boot-off the HD image....instead it reports that the HD image is a non DOS disk....with a correct device name (TDH0: in my case)...so Amithlon can see the new/larger partition but I guess the format is not correct (done under WinUAE; formated and installed the basic system that boots OK under WinUAE)....

Anyone knows what is the correct HD image file format for Amithlon? How to create one under WinUAE? Any way to increase the size of an existing HD image (to try and use the original HD image inside the 'bigird' file in order to not change the correct type of the image)?

Thanks!

SnkBitten · 26 April 2016, 13:48

I haven't had a chance to look into this yet....
Have you looked at the setup of the diskfile_haage image to see how it's formatted, etc..
I'm hoping the size, info, whatever isn't hardcoded in the boot files of bigird.gz for the size of "diskfile_haage" hd image file.
Once you've uncompressed and mounted as loop the bigird file, have you just tried copying a new disk image named "diskfile_haage", installed with OS 3.9 and set as bootable into the mount loop, dismount it then recompress bigird back to bigird.gz? Perhaps keeping size as close to original as possible?

croupier · 26 April 2016, 15:07

My first test was actually just removing some files from the original HD image (the ones not needed for a fast set-up of the fixed partitions as per your excellent guideline..

...) and adding the Prometheus installation files.....I managed to squeeze all files inside the available space of the original HD image inside the bigird (approx. 7 K left...

...)....after gzipping the new bigird.gz was larger than the original one (approx. 6 Mb) and Amithlon started normally and could use the added Prometheus files form Amithlon (as booted from my USB key...with kernel4)...so I guess the size of the bigird.gz and also the size of the 'haage HD' image is not hardcoded (probably just the name of the HD image inside the bigird file has to be always the same)...

I see Amithlon going through all the tests as usually and looking for available Amiga partitions (changed the console=4 in order to see all the background messages) and it would boot normally into Amiga OS if the new partition that I created in WinUAE would be recognised as bootable....

I compared both partitions in WinUAE (original haage image and my larger one created in WinUAE) as mounted at the same time and noticed that the haage HD image has some messages showing in the two lines (that cannot be edited) below the selection lines for the HD image file and filesystem....it shows something with 'RDB....@....(67485483...)'...don't recall right now the exact figures shown....but my created HD image never shows something similar...so based on this I suspect that the image file format must be the reason of Amithlon not booting Amiga OS from it....

SnkBitten · 27 April 2016, 01:55

As for the two lines....after you create the disk image and install it in AmigaOS (of WinUAE), when you exit or restart WinUAE and select your disk image it'll show the two lines as well..

Here's mine...
amithlon_hd (original=9MB)
73/4/63, 18396/18432 blocks, 9.0MB/9.0MB
RDSK...@...".... [5244534B 00000040 C09A8622 00000007]

amithlon_hd(mine=20mb)
162/4/63, 40824/40960 blocks, 19.9MB/20.0MB
RDSK...@v....... [5244534B 00000040 768B967F 00000007]

I think it has something to do with the size of the diskfile_haage size and the ramdisk_size=xxxxxx statement, remember it's mounting the file in bigird.gz in ram.

I know enlarging it I've gotten various degrees of booting, Non-Dos disk, boot to gray workbench screen with mouse cursor only display, boot to CLI with directories, boot to cli with no shell commands, boot with block error messages......each from having different ramdisk_size= numbers.

I tried a 20 MB image, now working on a 15 MB image to see if I can get the memory setting right.

This is about as best I can get after testing......

Click image for larger version

Name: amith-boot.jpg
Views: 251
Size: 71.1 KB
ID: 48283

It boots to a CLI and I have the files but it won't boot to workbench.
loadwb brings up a window with a disk icon for amithlon_hd (floppy icon) with no action when clicking.

croupier · 27 April 2016, 22:51

Success!☺
Managed to boot from my USB key with the modified bigird file that contains a 30 MB HD image on which I added all the installation archives/files for updates/patches needed for Amithlon to use USB ports....

I had to set the ramdisk_size to 33010 and leavepages to 22000....my bigird file is 33 MB when not gzipped...

BTW...found in another thread about the new WinUAE beta version (33) that corrected the issue with mounting the Amithlon partitions...so I play with it and found out that you can make a HD image of the Amithlon partition (from a fixed drive) but when I try to mount that same HD image in WinUAE I get only a guru meditation...?!...is this an issue with the new beta version?....I know that version 32 was unable to mount the Amithlon partitions located on actual drives...but nothing about HD images...

croupier · 27 April 2016, 23:04

BTW...

Toshiba NB100 works only with kernel4 (sata)...and for now have only the vesa graphics and the USB ports working...2 out of 3...the USB port on the left side of the notebook freezes the computer if something is inserted while it is online as unit 1 in Prometheus....if unit 1 is not mounted than the other 2 ports as unit 0 work OK...

HP Compaq NX6125 works with all kernels that I could try....now just need to install everything to see what other hardware on this laptop is recognized by Amithlon...

SnkBitten · 27 April 2016, 23:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by croupier

Success!☺
Managed to boot from my USB key with the modified bigird file that contains a 30 MB HD image on which I added all the installation archives/files for updates/patches needed for Amithlon to use USB ports....

I had to set the ramdisk_size to 33010 and leavepages to 22000....my bigird file is 33 MB when not gzipped...

Excellent! Congratulations on getting it going.

jdog320 · 28 April 2016, 05:21

How do I install pfs3?
@SnkBitten
In VB I get this screen:

SnkBitten · 28 April 2016, 12:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdog320

How do I install pfs3?
@SnkBitten
In VB I get this screen:

loadlin @amithlon or loadlin @small ? What you are seeing is the insert disk floppy screen (though garbled) which typically means kickstart has loaded/launched but it doesn't see the OS partition you created/installed OS 3.9 on.

Use Loadlin @amithlon as it uses bigird.gz which contains a small 9 MB AmigaOS partition or boot directly from the CD and use HDToolBox to create a partition to install OS 3.9 on.

If not, post the steps you've done to get to where you see this screen so we know where you are in the process.

jdog320 · 28 April 2016, 12:20

@SnkBitten
I get the screen when I type loadlin @amithlon. Haven't installed it yet. Although I do have the bigird in he c drive and it's referenced in amithlon. So far The steps I've done are 1. Partition with xfdisk 2. create 3 partitions, last 2 are 0x76 3. Install freedos 4. Copy files from freedoms disk. 5. Copy cd-rom driver from dos622 bootdisk.( since I used the freedoms floppy) 6. Copy a*thlon files to c: 7. Edit small and amithlon. Copy kernel4. 8. Loadlin @amithlon. Wait. Corrupted screen.

SnkBitten · 28 April 2016, 12:54

What is in the text file "amithlon" that you copied. did you copy kern310 to start the process?

It should be like below:

kern310 init=/linuxrc console_level=0 root=/dev/ram0 mem=512M initrd=bigird.gz vga=769 ramdisk_size=12010 leavepages=7400 video=dovesa

Make sure in VB your disk controller is IDE and not SATA.

jdog320 · 28 April 2016, 13:06

kernel4 init=/linuxrc console_level=0 root=/dev/ram0 initrd=bigird.gz vga=769 ramdisk_size=12010 leavepages=7400 crusoe video=dovesa

jdog320 · 28 April 2016, 13:19

Well I got it working, it seems to be a prob with kernel4.

SnkBitten · 28 April 2016, 13:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdog320

Well I got it working, it seems to be a prob with kernel4.

Glad you got it figured out.

Kernel4 tends to work better with "small" after you've installed AmigaOS and updated it, as it likes a patched system to boot and the "small" file just loads the emulation and kickstart.

You can try this for kernel4 and "amithlon".

kernel4 init=/linuxrc console_level=4 root=/dev/ram1 initrd=bigird.gz vga=769 ramdisk_size=12010 leavepages=7400 video=dovesa

(Changed root=/dev/ram1 instead of /ram0 and removed crusoe as you will never need crusoe in the string as it was experimental for the Crusoe cpu (Transmeta). Well, if you have an old crusoe cpu sytem then I guess you'd need it.

jdog320 · 28 April 2016, 13:59

So how do I install pfs3aio for system and work? And what nic to use? Also does USB work in vbox?

SnkBitten · 28 April 2016, 14:52

pfs3aio, I believe you'll just copy that to libs: and then use hdtoolbox to install it in to the RDB of your "disk". I used PFS3 and ran the install then loaded the filesystem into the RDB. I did my other volumes (not sys

first, then booted off the CD and used the amithlon_hd image as my system image, copied my hard disk system files to another volume, partitioned it as pfs3 and copied my system files back.

I only did that on my physical system, my virtualbox Amithlon setup I just leave as FFS as I only allocate a few GB of storage.

For network...

Click image for larger version

Name: snip_20160428083726.png
Views: 186
Size: 45.2 KB
ID: 48300

And I used the default NatNetwork you can create.
And then make sure you have installed the kernel 3 drivers and updated Amithlon with Amithlonupdate131.lha.

In Genesis you'll pick the amithlon_net.device (something like that) and you'll need to configure a particular static address.

See this post for more detail
http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=...&postcount=598

jdog320 · 28 April 2016, 15:09

Can I just store the handler in the CD or in the system partition? Because I want to make both system: and work: partition pfs.

SnkBitten · 28 April 2016, 15:18

It goes in the RDB (Rigid Disk Block) of your Amiga HD, you may be able to load it from anywhere in to the RDB initially. It needs to reside in the RDB of the amiga drive. You can make both partitions pfs3 or just one. You have to have pfs3 in your RDB and then create your partition as pfs3 and quick format it.

25 April 2016, 11:06	#881
huepper Registered User Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: GDR Age: 49 Posts: 249	Try to use the 9m bigird with other boot settings. Add more ram here: Code: ramdisk_size=xxxxx leavepages=xxxx Hopefully it works.

26 April 2016, 15:07	#885
croupier Registered User Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Koper, Slovenia Posts: 94	My first test was actually just removing some files from the original HD image (the ones not needed for a fast set-up of the fixed partitions as per your excellent guideline.....) and adding the Prometheus installation files.....I managed to squeeze all files inside the available space of the original HD image inside the bigird (approx. 7 K left......)....after gzipping the new bigird.gz was larger than the original one (approx. 6 Mb) and Amithlon started normally and could use the added Prometheus files form Amithlon (as booted from my USB key...with kernel4)...so I guess the size of the bigird.gz and also the size of the 'haage HD' image is not hardcoded (probably just the name of the HD image inside the bigird file has to be always the same)... I see Amithlon going through all the tests as usually and looking for available Amiga partitions (changed the console=4 in order to see all the background messages) and it would boot normally into Amiga OS if the new partition that I created in WinUAE would be recognised as bootable.... I compared both partitions in WinUAE (original haage image and my larger one created in WinUAE) as mounted at the same time and noticed that the haage HD image has some messages showing in the two lines (that cannot be edited) below the selection lines for the HD image file and filesystem....it shows something with 'RDB....@....(67485483...)'...don't recall right now the exact figures shown....but my created HD image never shows something similar...so based on this I suspect that the image file format must be the reason of Amithlon not booting Amiga OS from it....

27 April 2016, 01:55	#886
SnkBitten Amithlon Fanatic Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Lexington, SC / US Posts: 781	As for the two lines....after you create the disk image and install it in AmigaOS (of WinUAE), when you exit or restart WinUAE and select your disk image it'll show the two lines as well.. Here's mine... amithlon_hd (original=9MB) 73/4/63, 18396/18432 blocks, 9.0MB/9.0MB RDSK...@...".... [5244534B 00000040 C09A8622 00000007] amithlon_hd(mine=20mb) 162/4/63, 40824/40960 blocks, 19.9MB/20.0MB RDSK...@v....... [5244534B 00000040 768B967F 00000007] I think it has something to do with the size of the diskfile_haage size and the ramdisk_size=xxxxxx statement, remember it's mounting the file in bigird.gz in ram. I know enlarging it I've gotten various degrees of booting, Non-Dos disk, boot to gray workbench screen with mouse cursor only display, boot to CLI with directories, boot to cli with no shell commands, boot with block error messages......each from having different ramdisk_size= numbers. I tried a 20 MB image, now working on a 15 MB image to see if I can get the memory setting right. This is about as best I can get after testing...... It boots to a CLI and I have the files but it won't boot to workbench. loadwb brings up a window with a disk icon for amithlon_hd (floppy icon) with no action when clicking. Last edited by SnkBitten; 27 April 2016 at 02:47.

28 April 2016, 05:21	#890
jdog320 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2015 Location: Anywhere City Posts: 188	How do I install pfs3? @SnkBitten In VB I get this screen: Attached Thumbnails Last edited by jdog320; 28 April 2016 at 06:49.

28 April 2016, 12:20	#892
jdog320 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2015 Location: Anywhere City Posts: 188	@SnkBitten I get the screen when I type loadlin @amithlon. Haven't installed it yet. Although I do have the bigird in he c drive and it's referenced in amithlon. So far The steps I've done are 1. Partition with xfdisk 2. create 3 partitions, last 2 are 0x76 3. Install freedos 4. Copy files from freedoms disk. 5. Copy cd-rom driver from dos622 bootdisk.( since I used the freedoms floppy) 6. Copy athlon files to c: 7. Edit small and amithlon. Copy kernel4. 8. Loadlin @amithlon. Wait. Corrupted screen. Last edited by jdog320; 28 April 2016 at 12:37.*

25 April 2016, 11:37	#882
croupier Registered User Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Koper, Slovenia Posts: 94	Thanks...but these are settings for the start-up of Amithlon.... I need to increase the available space of the 'bigird' while mounted as a filesystem on Linux...it is needed just to play with it in order to add some additional files inside the 'bigird'...nothing to do with Amithlon yet...all done on a Linux machine...

26 April 2016, 10:32	#883
croupier Registered User Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Koper, Slovenia Posts: 94	OK...managed to get the 'bigird' increased to 30Mb under Linux in order to be able to insert a larger HD image file....tested with 20Mb HD file...and it worked...almost... The problem is now on the HD image side...the new/larger 'bigird' file is recognised by Amithlon and it boots...up to the point when it should boot-off the HD image....instead it reports that the HD image is a non DOS disk....with a correct device name (TDH0: in my case)...so Amithlon can see the new/larger partition but I guess the format is not correct (done under WinUAE; formated and installed the basic system that boots OK under WinUAE).... Anyone knows what is the correct HD image file format for Amithlon? How to create one under WinUAE? Any way to increase the size of an existing HD image (to try and use the original HD image inside the 'bigird' file in order to not change the correct type of the image)? Thanks!

26 April 2016, 13:48	#884
SnkBitten Amithlon Fanatic Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Lexington, SC / US Posts: 781	I haven't had a chance to look into this yet.... Have you looked at the setup of the diskfile_haage image to see how it's formatted, etc.. I'm hoping the size, info, whatever isn't hardcoded in the boot files of bigird.gz for the size of "diskfile_haage" hd image file. Once you've uncompressed and mounted as loop the bigird file, have you just tried copying a new disk image named "diskfile_haage", installed with OS 3.9 and set as bootable into the mount loop, dismount it then recompress bigird back to bigird.gz? Perhaps keeping size as close to original as possible?

27 April 2016, 22:51	#887
croupier Registered User Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Koper, Slovenia Posts: 94	Success!☺ Managed to boot from my USB key with the modified bigird file that contains a 30 MB HD image on which I added all the installation archives/files for updates/patches needed for Amithlon to use USB ports.... I had to set the ramdisk_size to 33010 and leavepages to 22000....my bigird file is 33 MB when not gzipped... BTW...found in another thread about the new WinUAE beta version (33) that corrected the issue with mounting the Amithlon partitions...so I play with it and found out that you can make a HD image of the Amithlon partition (from a fixed drive) but when I try to mount that same HD image in WinUAE I get only a guru meditation...?!...is this an issue with the new beta version?....I know that version 32 was unable to mount the Amithlon partitions located on actual drives...but nothing about HD images...

27 April 2016, 23:04	#888
croupier Registered User Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Koper, Slovenia Posts: 94	BTW... Toshiba NB100 works only with kernel4 (sata)...and for now have only the vesa graphics and the USB ports working...2 out of 3...the USB port on the left side of the notebook freezes the computer if something is inserted while it is online as unit 1 in Prometheus....if unit 1 is not mounted than the other 2 ports as unit 0 work OK... HP Compaq NX6125 works with all kernels that I could try....now just need to install everything to see what other hardware on this laptop is recognized by Amithlon...

28 April 2016, 12:54	#893
SnkBitten Amithlon Fanatic Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Lexington, SC / US Posts: 781	What is in the text file "amithlon" that you copied. did you copy kern310 to start the process? It should be like below: kern310 init=/linuxrc console_level=0 root=/dev/ram0 mem=512M initrd=bigird.gz vga=769 ramdisk_size=12010 leavepages=7400 video=dovesa Make sure in VB your disk controller is IDE and not SATA.

28 April 2016, 13:06	#894
jdog320 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2015 Location: Anywhere City Posts: 188	kernel4 init=/linuxrc console_level=0 root=/dev/ram0 initrd=bigird.gz vga=769 ramdisk_size=12010 leavepages=7400 crusoe video=dovesa

28 April 2016, 13:19	#895
jdog320 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2015 Location: Anywhere City Posts: 188	Well I got it working, it seems to be a prob with kernel4.

28 April 2016, 13:59	#897
jdog320 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2015 Location: Anywhere City Posts: 188	So how do I install pfs3aio for system and work? And what nic to use? Also does USB work in vbox? Last edited by jdog320; 28 April 2016 at 14:50.

28 April 2016, 14:52	#898
SnkBitten Amithlon Fanatic Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Lexington, SC / US Posts: 781	pfs3aio, I believe you'll just copy that to libs: and then use hdtoolbox to install it in to the RDB of your "disk". I used PFS3 and ran the install then loaded the filesystem into the RDB. I did my other volumes (not sys first, then booted off the CD and used the amithlon_hd image as my system image, copied my hard disk system files to another volume, partitioned it as pfs3 and copied my system files back. I only did that on my physical system, my virtualbox Amithlon setup I just leave as FFS as I only allocate a few GB of storage. For network... And I used the default NatNetwork you can create. And then make sure you have installed the kernel 3 drivers and updated Amithlon with Amithlonupdate131.lha. In Genesis you'll pick the amithlon_net.device (something like that) and you'll need to configure a particular static address. See this post for more detail http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=...&postcount=598

28 April 2016, 15:09	#899
jdog320 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2015 Location: Anywhere City Posts: 188	Can I just store the handler in the CD or in the system partition? Because I want to make both system: and work: partition pfs.

28 April 2016, 15:18	#900
SnkBitten Amithlon Fanatic Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Lexington, SC / US Posts: 781	It goes in the RDB (Rigid Disk Block) of your Amiga HD, you may be able to load it from anywhere in to the RDB initially. It needs to reside in the RDB of the amiga drive. You can make both partitions pfs3 or just one. You have to have pfs3 in your RDB and then create your partition as pfs3 and quick format it.

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Amithlon / AHI Sound Configuration Guide?	dframeli	New to Emulation or Amiga scene	31	11 November 2023 11:16
My first guide - Drakkhen leveling guide	Fragger	Nostalgia & memories	2	08 April 2010 21:35
Amithlon-Guide / PDF-version	Paul	News	0	10 March 2006 15:43
Amithlon	Peter Leyland	Amiga scene	1	11 February 2003 02:43
Amithlon	eldiablo10	support.WinUAE	6	20 September 2001 19:19