Amix in WinUAE

[Amiga_CDTV]

mark_k: thanks a lot!
I came across the same problem -WinUAE installation not seeing the HDD- but I am not sure how I got it working. On my currently working installation the hardfile settings are as device DH0, read/write, SCSI5 (required to be 5), RDB mode enabled.

I have asked for a passcode needed for registration in the www.amigaunix.com wiki but never got a reply. I sent it to the email seen in the main page. I have screen caps of the installation in WinUAE and I have just re-drawn some of the Amiga Unix logos (like the one on the amigaunix.com header) and I think they would look nice on the site. I'd like to help.

[mark_k]

The not-detecting-the-HD problem I was having seems to have been caused, directly or indirectly, by having more than 16MB motherboard fast RAM. At least, I tested a couple of times just now, and with 16MB motherboard RAM the installer did detect the hard disk. With 32MB or 64MB m/b RAM it didn't.

By the way, the AMIX installer is another good demo for the NTSC-mode floppy DMA bug.

[Noth]

(yes I'm back, laptop that could run winuae died but replacement is showing up the day after tomorrow)

AMIX's kernel is hardwired to recognize only between 4 and 16 megs of Fast RAM unfortunately. No RAM cards (even zorroII ones) will work since the kernel seems to map the memory address of the scsi drive wrong with more RAM... Such are the joys of early SystemVR4 I guess.

[Amiga_CDTV]

Originally Posted by mark_k

I'll try to write up something shortly.

In other news, I have created a PDF file of the Installing Amiga UNIX manual, which as far as I know hasn't been available online until now.

Any progress with the file transfer guide/instructions? Sorry to remind, but being able to get files into the Amix system would make it much easier to do anything with it

I have made a searchable and chapter-marked version of the Installation manual PDF. It looks rather bad as the reverse-sides of the pages show thrue.

I have also made some re-makes of the logos etc. Anywhere I could upload them? Still no answer from amigaunix.com.

I also test-booted the instal disk on my A3000T -motherboard and it works. I am hoping to get this machine assembled and install Amix on it.

[Noth]

Originally Posted by Amiga_CDTV

Any progress with the file transfer guide/instructions? Sorry to remind, but being able to get files into the Amix system would make it much easier to do anything with it

I have made a searchable and chapter-marked version of the Installation manual PDF. It looks rather bad as the reverse-sides of the pages show thrue.

I have also made some re-makes of the logos etc. Anywhere I could upload them? Still no answer from amigaunix.com.

I also test-booted the instal disk on my A3000T -motherboard and it works. I am hoping to get this machine assembled and install Amix on it.

You'll need some kind of *nix to create tar archives if you want to do basic transfer of files over to AMIX:

tar cvf transfer.tar transferdir

Then add this transfer.tar to WinUAE as a hardfile on scsi5 or 3, and boot AMIX. To extract the files you just point gtar at the device that the transfer.tar archive is attached to:

gtar xvf /dev/dsk/c5d0s0

(if it doesn't work on that device, try c5d0s1). With this you can transfer over whatever you need (I always copy over wget) so as to be able to use the network interface to access the rest of my files. FTP doesn't appear to work in slirp so you'll neet a webserver on a local machine that you can point wget at to recover whatever you need to copy over. Also if you do manage to get DNS working you're a better man than I, I've never had it working in AMIX under WinUAE ( no such problems in wb3.1).

Oh and I've started using WINE for WinUAE (latest 2.7 beta) in Ubuntu 13.10 and the keyboard translates into gobbledygook in AMIX. I've tried switching keyboard layouts from Swiss French to US English but it makes no difference... anyone else had this problem?

[Amiga_CDTV]

Thanks!
I was just yesterday trying to figure this out by myself. I almost got there and I was already able to get something moved into the Amix system.

Now I tried something like this and got the R11R5 installed. I get some errors (see pic, also about file permissions that couldn't be read), usually at the end of a tar file and some files didn't seem to transfer. Couldn't figure out everything but now startx gets some new stuff up.

Noth: have you tried any other windows app, do you get correct keyboard there? Or with WinUAE and AmigaDOS? I have now been running WinUAE in Wine, too on my MacBook Pro and it works nicely.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by Amiga_CDTV

Now I tried something like this and got the R11R5 installed. I get some errors (see pic, also about file permissions that couldn't be read), usually at the end of a tar file and some files didn't seem to transfer. Couldn't figure out everything but now startx gets some new stuff up.

You probably need to append something at the end of tar file (for example some kilobytes of zeros or whatever), without it last bytes of tar will be inaccessible. (unless size is integer divisible with disk block size)

[mark_k]

Uncompressed tar archives are always a multiple of 512 bytes in length. At least GNU tar defaults to making archives a multiple of 10KB in length. That doesn't apply to compressed tar archives of course. But maybe the errors Amiga_CDTV is seeing are because he added a compressed tar archive as hardfile, which won't work properly due to the probably-not-a-multiple-of-512 length.

[Amiga_CDTV]

Thanks for the tip! I created the archive with a Mac OS X tool called GUI Tar.

I just tried to re-created the tar archive, this time from OS X terminal. On default settings the archive was a bit bigger (some hundred bytes) than the first one but it had no effect.

Next I tried to create the archive this way:

tar -b512 -c -v -f testpackage.tar sourcefolder

This way it works (gtar -tvf lists the whole package without errors). Great!

[Noth]

Originally Posted by Amiga_CDTV

Thanks!
I was just yesterday trying to figure this out by myself. I almost got there and I was already able to get something moved into the Amix system.

Now I tried something like this and got the R11R5 installed. I get some errors (see pic, also about file permissions that couldn't be read), usually at the end of a tar file and some files didn't seem to transfer. Couldn't figure out everything but now startx gets some new stuff up.

Looks like you've still got the b&w X11R4. Have you edited the Xscreenmodes thing in your homedir and used startx to launch X ? It should come up with a colour version or twm. Be careful with paths though, you can end up with /usr/bin/X/ and /usr/X11R5/bin/ but no /usr/X/bin/.

Originally Posted by Amiga_CDTV

Noth: have you tried any other windows app, do you get correct keyboard there? Or with WinUAE and AmigaDOS? I have now been running WinUAE in Wine, too on my MacBook Pro and it works nicely.

Ah, forgot to mention, workbench3.1 in winuae under wine has no problems keyboardwise. It's specific to AMIX I think.

[Noth]

Well this is weird. I turned up the debug on my amix config using WINE and hey presto the keyboard now just about displays what I want. Very confusing! Oh and if anyone has a working install tape image for 2.1 please contact in private, mine's the one off amigaunix.com and it seems corrupted.

[Amiga_CDTV]

Originally Posted by Noth

Looks like you've still got the b&w X11R4. Have you edited the Xscreenmodes thing in your homedir and used startx to launch X ? It should come up with a colour version or twm. Be careful with paths though, you can end up with /usr/bin/X/ and /usr/X11R5/bin/ but no /usr/X/bin/.

Yes, there is still something amiss. I have twm running now, which is new. I had couple of file errors during my original file copy, I am trying again.

Where is the path set? I am having little difficulty editing anything with vi, but I am learning

Noth: see Toni's post on previous page, the 2.1 install image is in the Zone.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Amiga_CDTV

Noth: see Toni's post on previous page, the 2.1 install image is in the Zone.

No, it's not in The Zone, but on the EAB File Server (login details in first post) in the /~Uploads/twilen/ folder.

[Noth]

Originally Posted by prowler

No, it's not in The Zone, but on the EAB File Server (login details in first post) in the /~Uploads/twilen/ folder.

Thanks prowler, I wasn't aware there was a file server other than The Zone (which I don't have access to, presumably because I don't have enough posts here yet... not a big issue).

Where is the path set? I am having little difficulty editing anything with vi, but I am learning

It's set in /etc/profile . There's a zillion tutorials for vi out there, just pick up search and replace, and how to save even if the file is read only and you'll be fine. Btw amigaunix.com has just about all the required information on configuring AMIX. The only thing not in there is how to package new software so you can install using the OS's native tools (pkgadd/pkgrm/etc), which I wrote a quick post about here: http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=65669.

[Noth]

By the way are any of you able to get the kickstart boot screen to come up in WinUAE under WINE ? Even with cpu speed set to A500/A1200 approximation it doesn't come up... Maybe it's my touchpad, but it does seem weird (yes, holding down both corners to get left & right mouse buttons). All I wanted to do was dualboot AMIX & Workbench 3.1 so I could get to play around with the tape drive between both OSes.

[mark_k]

Make sure your X server doesn't have the "press left and right buttons to emulate a middle button press" feature enabled. And maybe try using a USB mouse?

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Noth

Thanks prowler, I wasn't aware there was a file server other than The Zone (which I don't have access to, presumably because I don't have enough posts here yet... not a big issue).

All EAB members can get access to The Zone - it makes no difference how many posts you have:
How do I get access to The Zone?

When you are ready, The Zone can be accessed by using the link in the navigation bar at the top of the page, next to the Log Out link.

[Amiga_CDTV]

Originally Posted by Noth

By the way are any of you able to get the kickstart boot screen to come up in WinUAE under WINE ? Even with cpu speed set to A500/A1200 approximation it doesn't come up... Maybe it's my touchpad, but it does seem weird (yes, holding down both corners to get left & right mouse buttons). All I wanted to do was dualboot AMIX & Workbench 3.1 so I could get to play around with the tape drive between both OSes.

I couldn't find a way to do that on my MacBook, either. Finally I plugged in an Amiga mouse with USB- adapter and that worked. And yes, the dualboot works and it's cool.

I wonder what I am doing wrong. I followed these instructions. Now trying to "startx" I get "Xsvga Version 1.4 / X Window System" and couple of seconds later "giving up. /usr/X/bin/xinit: Protocol error (errno 71): unable to connect to X server".

[Noth]

Originally Posted by Amiga_CDTV

I couldn't find a way to do that on my MacBook, either. Finally I plugged in an Amiga mouse with USB- adapter and that worked. And yes, the dualboot works and it's cool.

I wonder what I am doing wrong. I followed these instructions. Now trying to "startx" I get "Xsvga Version 1.4 / X Window System" and couple of seconds later "giving up. /usr/X/bin/xinit: Protocol error (errno 71): unable to connect to X server".

Welcome to the mess that is getting the X11R5 drivers to work... your error indicates that X isn't starting at all. The install script does warn to remove all X11R4 drivers beforehand, but I'm not sure which of the Xcore or Xbasic packages need to be removed. I generally use the X11R4 drivers instead, but it is a bit hit and miss. Have you tried invoking X directly from the command line ( /usr/X/bin/Xsvga or similar)?

Just tried the USB mouse method for the bootmenu (took me ages to find where I'd hidden mine), it works perfectly thanks (no my X config doesn't have third button emu set up ... yet).

All EAB members can get access to The Zone - it makes no difference how many posts you have:
How do I get access to The Zone?

When you are ready, The Zone can be accessed by using the link in the navigation bar at the top of the page, next to the Log Out link.

Thanks again prowler!

[Noth]

A couple of observations:

a) for dualbooting, you can add 32bit memory to your config and AMIX will ignore it, but AmigaOS 3.1 will see it and benefit greatly from having more than 16megs of FastRam.

b) launching Xsvga on a fresh install of the Xsvga package's X11R4.tar gives me a blank white screen and the alt+function keys won't work for switching virtual terms. I'm going to do some more testing on this, I want my PicassoII accelerated screen back!

all testing done using the latest beta of WinUAE in WINE.