[SOLVED] Hdf not working after moving it to sdcard + simple OS4 install guidelines

[ccapublic]

Hi all,

I created quite some time ago an amikit hardfile on my mini pc (emmc). Both hardfile and winuae were in c:/program files. Today I simply moved both to a sdcard formatted in ntfs (as was the initial emmc), updated winuae configuration and roms path, loaded the configuration and modified it to point to the new hardfile location. Did this kind of things a million times. Now I get a not a dos disk in device ak0... tried to copy the hardfile again in case it got corrupted, ran winua with administrator privileges. .. no way to get it to run. I run Windows 8.1 x86 (as before moving the files) with winuae 3.1.0 (as before moving files too)...

Anyone ever got similar problem ?

Help !

Thanks !!

[ccapublic]

Stupid me... Mistakenly messed up geometry...

Now trying to install os41 on latest winuae... dont even know where to start...

[Aegis]

Below you'll find the A4000/Cyberstorm PPC config I use.

I've stripped out anything that's specific to my PC - you'll need to point it to your Kickstart 3.1, Cyberstorm PPC and Picasso IV roms.

Add your CD drive and OS4.1 ISO image as a Cyberstorm PPC device (not UAE) - do the same for the HDF you'll need to create to install OS4.1 on - see my examples here:




This should get you booting OS4.1 - see this post for help on getting the HD ready to install.

[ccapublic]

Thanks ! Will give it a try ! I thought a boot floppy was needed to boot cd image...

[ccapublic]

Originally Posted by Aegis

This should get you booting OS4.1

Os41 properly boots from "standard winuae". Thank you for having taken time to share ! Really appreciated !

[Aegis]

Excellent! Now stick the OS4 testing version of WinUAE in the same folder (rename it WinUAE_OS4.exe or whatever).

Save a backup of your working config somewhere!

Now edit your config in Note/Wordpad to add uaeboard=full+indirect (doesn't matter where).

Then run WinUAE_OS4.exe and load your config, adding a directory folder like this:



That'll make it easier to copy stuff back and forth - leave the other drives as Cyberstorm PPC for now 'cause that's currently faster than uaehf.device. You can also add up to 768MB of Zorro III RAM to use as swap (although it doesn't seem to make much difference in practice and using more than 512MB eats up a little system RAM).

Find a copy of the 68k UAEgfx (or just UAE) Monitor driver for AmigaOS and get that in your Monitors drawer via your new shared drive (or .ADF/HDF whatever) - once you've done that (and not before!) you can change your RTG board from Picasso IV to UAE Zorro III (64MB+ video RAM works best). You might want to add the NOBLITTER tooltype as well since Toni recommends it.

Then you're pretty much up to speed with where we're at right now do note though that we're severely Fast RAM limited and setting large display resolutions and/or running lots of stuff will quickly hang OS 4.1 when it runs out of RAM - hopefully sometime soon we'll be able to use Z3 as Fast RAM.

[Aegis]

A few tips to save some RAM:

1) Run in a 16 *not* 32-bit screenmode (uses less RAM and OS4.1 seems to have some display issues in 32-bit).

2) AmiDock eats around 3-4MB of RAM - disable it with WBStartup prefs if you don't need it.

3) Larger screen resolutions use up some RAM (1440x1080 uses 3MB more than 1024x768).

4) Icons cans be moved to Graphics RAM in Workbench prefs.

5) Compositing (GUI prefs) uses scads of RAM - leave it off.

6) Images used as window backgrounds can be set to Poor/Poor quality (or disabled) without much visible detriment to the default theme.

7) WBStartup prefs can be used to disable a few commodities that you may not need (RAWBinfo, ScreenBlanker, ClickToFront, ContextMenus, AmiDock, RinghioServer).

8) The startup sound can be disabled in Sound prefs.

9) You can move the PicassoIV monitor to Storage once you've got uaegfx working.

10) Likewise, unless you need them PAR and SER can be moved from DOSDrivers to Storage.

11) The following lines can be commented out of S:Startup-Sequence

;C:ATA3.driver QUIET
;USBCtrl START
;Run >NIL: *>NIL: SoundPlayer QUIET

12) Lastly in Workbench prefs you can add %mg graphics mem, %mf other mem to Screen title format to see how much free RAM you have available.

With all this running at 1440x1080 with AmiDock enabled, on boot I have 79MB (of 128MB) free - saves around 12MB in all (82MB free with AmiDock off) - not much but it helps without sacrificing too much.

Do note though that AmigaOS 4.1 is *really bad* at freeing up memory after it's been used so if you're opening and closing apps you'll still run out of RAM eventually - and stuff like Odyssey's pretty much unusable on Classic at this time unfortunately.

*Edit* scraping the barrel here - you can free up a little more RAM by reducing the buffers to 300 for your partitions/hard disks with the Media Toolbox - lastly, if you're not using it any more remove the CD drive in WinUAE. Got just under 81MB free now on boot (enough to run Odyssey and load os4depot.net ).

*Edit* 81.5MB free now after dropping my Z3 swap RAM down to 256MB.

[ccapublic]

Thanks Again Aegis. Unfortunately WinUAE crashes with "minidump" right after I select a uaegfx mode (in my case 1024x768 16 an 32 tested) and select "use". Emulation window grows to the new selected resolution then crashdump. Note that I directly jumped from AGA to Uaegfx (didn't use Picasso for initial install) and that I am running AOS4.1U6 (not FE). I'll dig into this as best as I can...

[Aegis]

Did you remember to add uaeboard=full+indirect to your config and select UAE Zorro III in the RTG boards tab?

[ccapublic]

Originally Posted by Aegis

Did you remember to add uaeboard=full+indirect to your config and select UAE Zorro III in the RTG boards tab?

Yes (with 64MB VRAM)
Also added NOBLITTER tooltype

[Aegis]

Hmm... this is listed as one of the new features of 4.1 FE:

Originally Posted by Hyperion Entertainment

New unified graphics library with RTG support which allows for (current and future) very substantial general and platform specific performance optimizations e.g. through the use of on-chip DMA engines (present on recently released hardware going back to the Sam440)

Look in the Storage folder (or your 4.1 DVD - System/Devs/Monitors) for the PicassoIV monitor, stick that in Monitors and enable PIV emulation in WinUAE (remove the UAE Monitor) - see if that works.

[ccapublic]

Originally Posted by Aegis

Hmm... this is listed as one of the new features of 4.1 FE:

It would be too bad this issue comes from not using FE... Would need to find FE and re-install