ClassicWB Feedback & Guestbook

[coze]

With Advanced on an A500, you should turn off fblit as the first thing to do.

Yes Classic WB is a brilliant Project. I use the Classic WB Full for my own use in WinUAE and on my Real box Amiga. not only is this brilliant it save me a hell of a lot of time from Downloading Apps from Aminet and re-installing them all over agian. All Tools are Here well most of them are.

i thank the Bloodwych for Classic WB, Keep it Up

[killergorilla]

Bloodwych, any chance you could move the "Shell" menu item to the same place as "Dopus" when you next tinker with it (if ever).

It's ok when clicking on a directory but not when right-clicking on the workbench or in a blank window.

[Bloodwych]

Tyball, brave man installing it on an A500! I'm not sure if you'll get any issues due to the older chipset but I guess there is no harm trying.

As Coze said, fblit is enabled by default so you could try disabling it via the tools menu (top left of the screen) if you are experiencing problems.

k2uphill, thanks for the support.

KillerG, I guess that could be moved - don't want to make the default menu too big but I'll have a look for the first update pack. In the mean time, you can change and customize all popup menus very easily via the tools menu by selecting "Scalos->Menus".

Hello. Im a longtime Commodore user, vic20, c64, c128, but not Amiga. This ClassicWB UAE looks nice but I cannot get it to work. I DL the UAE package since I dont have a real mig. I have a valid kick3.0 rom (I beleive since UAE accepts it, but not 3.1 that UAE likes) and a valid (I believe Workbench 3.1 disk set ADF format).
I read the install instructions several times and they state after the kick.rom is in place and verifiying paths, to go to configurations and choose install WB first and follow the prompts. Fine so far, but when it reaches the part that says you will soon be prompted to provide the Workbench disk in DF0. The problem is I cant figure out how to switch back to WinUAE to load it.
I have tried preloading Install adf and Workbench adf in UAE prior to attempting the install from the config prompt. The install instructions dont say to do that, but that didnt work either.
Also which ADF does it want? Install adf, Workbench adf or which of the 5 0r 6 adf files that are in the pacakage?
Thanks, Im sure Im just missing something or incredibly stupid. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers, allen

[killergorilla]

Press F12 to bring up the WinUAE menu again and insert the Workbench.adf

Should be fine after that!

Thanks KillerGorilla. That (f12) appears to have done the trick (Install). Install said the Workbench adf file appeared legit and installed, I think, ( I was expecting install to a HD though) I maybe wrong.
Now I have a purple screen with the Amiga checkmark and a animated disk/floppy showing the version of 3.00 and copyright info. Now what? It doesnt go any further.
Sorry, I dont mean to be a pest, just stupid I guess.

Thanks again KillerGorilla!

Cheers!

[Ultron]

If everything went well it with installing ClassicWB, it should've booted from the HD... Are you sure install went well, and the WinUAE config has the HDF mounted? (well, if it installed, it should, unless you changed config midstream)

Thanks Ultron. I do not see a entry under hard disks with the 3.x OS so it must not have installed to a emu hard disk. I have tried to create a HD in Win UAE but im not sure if Im doing it correctly as it didnt seem to work.
I dont remember Install asking for a path or if I wanted to install to a harddisk.

Thanks again Ultron

[coze]

classic wb comes inside a hdf (harddisk file) you don't have to create another one. if you boot from that hdf, it will ask you for the workbench adf. this step is neccessary cause classic wb can not distribute copyrighted workbench files. It copies these files from your adf and then your classic wb is ready. it doesn't install to your adf. You can just boot from that hdf and you're done.

Nevermind, I think I figured it out Yeah!
Thanks everybody!


Thanks coze.
I have located the 4 wb hdf files in the hard disk directory. Now how do i get one of them to load? As I previously stated, I have a purple screen with the Amiga checkmark and a animated disk/floppy showing the version of 3.00 and copyright info.
Ultron asked if WinUAE config has the HDF mounted? I dont think so. How do I do that?

Thanks everybody!

Cheers

Im still working on installing it, so my feedback is limited at this point. Mainly, the docs you have are near useless for people running the Linux UAE. I haven't run a MicroSoft operating system since MSDOS 6.2 and dont plan to ever again. Unfortunately, while UAE works great under Linux, theres enough differences in the way its set up from WinUAE that your how-tos and screen shots have nothing really in common with what Linux users will see. I still havent found the syntax to mount a .hdf ...it seems to be done in the user config file, not through menus. I cant find a manual though.

If I figure it out I'll try and submit a how-to that you can look over and add to the instructions page if you want.

It looks like ClassicWB will be cool if I can get it on there!

[Ultron]

Originally Posted by allen

Ultron asked if WinUAE config has the HDF mounted? I dont think so. How do I do that?

Thanks everybody!

Cheers

WinUAE -> Hardrives -> Add Hardfile.

Guys, Classic WB is easy to install, just unpack to Winuae dir, load ClassicWB config, have Workbench.adf ready, insert when needed, remove when finished\asked, then reboot. It should boot into ClassicWB with nothing less to do.

OK, I got it installed, and have some feedback that may make it more useful for Linux users.

First, to install, I installed WB 3.1 on a fresh hard drive. I then had to install Compact Flash drivers to be able to get the System.zip on there. To make System.zip, I didn't use UAE. I'm sure unix UAE has a way to use .hdf files, but I don't know how and when I didnt turn up any docs with Google, I decided I'd just forgo that. Linux can handle Amiga filesystems through the kernel and seems to do a good job managing Amiga file attributes. I mounted System.hdf as a virtual drive ("mount -o loop -t affs System.hdf /mnt") and just did a "zip -r System.zip *" from within the directory where it was mounted. I copied that zip and the install floppy ADF to my Compact Flash card. On the Amiga, I copied System.zip to DH0: and made a floppy from the ADF. I put in the floppy and rebooted. I didnt delete anything because the ClassicWB docs just have a vague "delete workbench files" and I wasn't sure which files it wanted removed. The floppy booted and ran the install script. I didnt get any errors. When I rebooted, it asked me to stick in my WB disk, which I did. It seemed to go OK, but it horked on renaming C/LoadWB.temp to C/LoadWB (I guess that's the WB file I should've removed). I ran a CLI window and read the install script, and saw that renaming LoadWB was the last step before asking about Copper and cleaning up. I manually went and removed (well, renamed) my old LoadWB and moved LoadWB.temp to LoadWB. I moved the install script from DH0:s/ to a harmless location so I could later manually do the cleanup and Copper install. I rebooted.

Someone doing this (which I'm sure is not the best way to go about it) might be alarmed before that reboot that all the icons are just little white boxes. The real NewIcon icons came up fine after reboot. This may not be an issue for people using ClassicWB Lite or ClassicWB Full, since they dont use NewIcons.

First problem: It came up in PAL. That was fun on my NTSC screen. I guess that is one of the gotchas of not being able to customize in WinUAE (and not knowing how to do so in Linux UAE). I turned the VHold knob on my 1084 monitor as far as I could, which stopped the PAL screen from flickering like a strobe light and gave me a distorted but readable display. I went into DH0:Prefs/ScreenMode and picked NTSC High Res. I rebooted. It seems to be working fine now.

OK, now for the feedback.

1) Some kind of Linux docs might be nice. I dont know how different MacUAE is from UAE and WinUAE, but if its not like the Windows one, they might deserve some tips too. The main thing is, how the heck do you mount a HDF in unix UAE since it doesnt seem to have the same GUI at all for managing disk images. Everything else in the steps to make System.zip I'd guess is pretty similar, once you get the image mounted. Alternatively, mention that you can just mount the HDF as a filesystem in Linux and do a regular zip like I did, but that you wont be able to customize it first then.

2) The docs ought to mention something like "ClassicWB defaults to PAL, change this in Prefs/ScreenMode before making System.zip if you require NTSC." While I mainly got surprised there because I didnt get to see it in UAE first, people in WinUAE who arent paying attention to what video mode its in might accidentally create a PAL zip too. The docs dont mention PAL or NTSC at all that I could see.

3) This is probably a NewIcons issue rather than a ClassicWB issue, and I'm going to experiment soon as I finish this post... but the NewIcons on there with a clean install of ClassicWB require a pretty high resolution screen to not be gigantic. Some people like me may have a powerful enough CPU and enough RAM to run ClassicWB ADVSP, but not have a fancy display. I can reasonably run in NTSC High Res or NTSC Super High Res. In High Res, the icons are just too big. In Super High Res, theyre a nice height, but are so narrow theyre hard to see. I guess if I could run super high res interlace, theyd be a good size, but then I'd have a seizure from the screen flicker haha. It would be cool if there were a ClassicWB that had all the features of ADVSP but have wider or smaller NewIcons for people using only high or super high resolution NTSC or PAL.

Anyway, now I'm excited to go play with it. It looks like its a great package, and once I tweak it some I think its going to make my Amiga a whole lot cooler. Thanks for putting this together!

[Ultron]

Are you using UAE oe E-UAE? If you're using Linux, you should go with E-UAE.

UAE hasn't been developped in quite some time.

I've got whichever UAE comes on the Amiga Forever 2006 CD. I believe its regular UAE. E-UAE isn't familiar to me... I'm not really a fan of emulation so I haven't really followed the developments.

ClassicWB seems to have me stuck in a GB keymap. The usa2 keymap file is there, but trying to pick it in prefs gives me some error that it seems to be trying to load a mangled keymap. I'll have to play with it more tomorrow when I've got time.

[Methanoid]

Bloodwych

I was returning to ClassicWB after some time not using WinUAE and was about to download all the packs when I spotted them on my HD but since there are no version numbers, no dates and no version history on the website how can anyone know what is the current releases!!

Can't believe you missed that in such a professional piece of work!!

Yes there is a sort of version history in this forum but the filenames are all the same... unless I have the final final final version already? ConfusinG!!

Meth

[Bloodwych]

Methanoid!!!

I’m naughty aren’t I?

There is a version history along with release dates linked on the main download page. I think you’ve already spotted it:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=13494

To check your current packs, look at the file date on the HDF file included in the zips and compare with the dates on the version history postings.

There is also a version number available from within the Workbench. Go to the top left hand menu and select “Tools->System->Bloodwych”.

Not naming the individual zip files is something I did on purpose, but really not down to anything other than laziness! I have a script to created all the zipped Workbench packs with one click and didn’t want to keep on changing the archive names and the webpage links before uploading – I know, I know, poor excuse! I should have at least included a simple text file in the zips listing version number/history for easy reference.

Although I appreciate the compliment, I’m certainly no professional when it comes to presentation like AIAB, AmiSYS and AmiKitt. Guess I enjoy building the Workbench packs, but really skip on the part of distributing them.

[Methanoid]

Originally Posted by Bloodwych

Although I appreciate the compliment, I’m certainly no professional when it comes to presentation like AIAB, AmiSYS and AmiKitt. Guess I enjoy building the Workbench packs, but really skip on the part of distributing them.

Hey, I think your ClassicWBs are VERY professional. For me they are THE pack and the others are just alternatives. But you'll need a new project now they are final....

How about sorting out an Amithlon installer routine for PCs?

[Bloodwych]

Amithlon - hmmm if only I could help! I've never even tried it to be honest.

Thanks for the compliment. You’re right, all the packs make great alternative setups, as they're so different to one another. I must admit, I have a copy of each on my retobox PC but obviously ClassicWB on the A1200.

As for the ClassicWB Final, yes the road has come to an end. However, there will be the update packs...