Amithlon Setup Guide

[jdog320]

Originally Posted by SnkBitten

Finally, i686be-amithlon-ahiusr.lha installed and functioning. I just wanted to get it working vs. the m68k-amigaos-ahiusr.lha version. More of a challenge I guess since I kept hearing it was much more difficult to do than the 68k version.

Bernie stated there really isn't much of a difference, the i686 will be ever so slightly faster, but use it for bragging rights or something

You need run_elf in your user-startup to let it interpret the x86 binary.

run <>NIL: run_elf GUARD PATCH

I'll add the note to my guides and include run_elf 1.8c.tar.gz file.

You'll need both run_elf and run_elf86 copied to C: or C:amithlonc/

Is it possible to compile a native x86 binary?

[SnkBitten]

There's this from Aminet.net.

http://aminet.net/package/dev/gcc/x86-ami-bin

Though I'm not a programmer and haven't looked at the above.

[SnkBitten]

Some information added to the Amithlon Install Guide 2016 (see signature) with some changes on patching and the addition of i686 AHI driver install. Plus some extra info on reducing/eliminating clicks/crackle/pop in the audio playback if you are not using the contrib3b audio drivers (AmithlonBugFix). And then some notes from Bernie if you are using the contrib3b audio drivers (setenv commands)

The primary site (see signature also) has Part 2 of the guide with additions on RoadShow installation/configuring.

Roadshow on my Amithlon system does not pick up a DHCP address (it does on my A4000T though) so I manually assign an IP address. I still haven't discovered why it's not picking one up from my router.

hi all

i'm new on this forum and use amithlon because run software very well and i like this project, i have an old intel xeon prestonia at 32 bit, two processor, before with on single processor the fpu do not present, with two processor yes is present, the sytem work very well.

hi

[SnkBitten]

Welcome amiwell79, that's very interesting about your system. Amithlon and AmigaOS are single CPU, single threaded processes/OS's so I'm curious if your motherboard is doing something depending on 1 or 2 CPUs installed.

[SnkBitten]

If you want to see your Amithlon's performance disappear in a puff of command lines.....

in the shell type
slowdown nojit

Here's my difference, SysInfo v4 testing:
Normal
237 times faster than an A4000 @25Mhz

NoJIT
7.8 times faster than an A4000 @25Mhz

Make sure to type
slowdown jit

to enable JIT again

[SnkBitten]

Added Quake to the game list.....

Timedemo demo1
969 frames, 20.0 seconds, 48.35 fps
ScreenMode - nVidia: 800x600x8bit
SoundMode - EMU10kx: HiFi 16 bit stereo++
RenderRoutine - MC68040/60 Copy routine
1x1 pixel
Screen size 100%

[SnkBitten]

Doing some testing with layers.library 45.27 based on this discussion and testing scripts..
https://www.ppa.pl/forum/amiga/7310/...ki-by-cosmos/3

I created the .rexx and script files to run the test on my Amithlon system with layers.library 45.27 vs. layers.library 40.1 + fastlayers.library 40.48.

Using the scripts and aminet downloads from the thread listed above I ran the test on a large number of test drawers....265. The test starts a timer, opens and then closes a number of drawers and then writes the number and time to complete to the console.

layers.library 45.27 (plus removing fastlayers.library from libs:picasso96/ )
you have 265 opened drawers ...
00:00:06

layers.library 40.1 + fastlayers.library 40.48 (stock plus Picasso96 installed)
crashed after a long time of seeing window opens becoming slower and slower....looks like I need to reduce the number of windows I open in the test.

I removed a volume: of drawer listings from the DrawerBenchmark.rexx and tested again.

layers.library 45.27 (plus removing fastlayers.library from libs:picasso96/ )
you have 108 opened drawers ...
00:00:02


layers.library 40.1 + fastlayers.library 40.48 (stock plus Picasso96 installed)
you have 108 opened drawers ....
00:00:08

Overall it looks like layers.library 45.27 is a desirable addition. I started the testing because I was asked how 45.27 was working for me as it appears to have a conflict with MCP another Amithlon user was experiencing. As 45.27 opened/closed 265 drawers faster than 40.1 + fastlayers opened/closed 108 is enough of a reason to use the new one. Add in that it managed to do 265 drawer windows when 40.1 + fastlayers locked the machine before opening them all is just bonus

hi

if installed msdos patch(amithlonupdate)on single cpu, the fpu it doesn't, if not installed the fpu do it, actually i have two cpu but one must be remove.

i have quake and run fine on 1024x768 on a old matrox g450 vga board, is good for amithlon.

[SnkBitten]

Originally Posted by amiwell79

hi

if installed msdos patch(amithlonupdate)on single cpu, the fpu it doesn't, if not installed the fpu do it, actually i have two cpu but one must be remove.

You don't need the msdos patch, or at lease I don't recommend installing it. You should be using fat95 and to handle any dos partitions as it's better.

[SnkBitten]

Originally Posted by amiwell79

i have quake and run fine on 1024x768 on a old matrox g450 vga board, is good for amithlon.

Nice.

if istalled msdos patch fpu not fuction, do not use fat95 for my partitions, i use pfs file system, is good and do not have a problem.

i have a nice gui for quake.

i have 16 bit screen hexen 2 in a window do not fuction but on full screen yes.

[SnkBitten]

Originally Posted by amiwell79

if istalled msdos patch fpu not fuction, do not use fat95 for my partitions, i use pfs file system, is good and do not have a problem.

No, I didn't mean for your Amiga partitions. The msdos patch is for accessing msdos (fat) partitions inside Amithlon. Some use a DOS install boot setup that launches Amithlon or have PC formatted partitions for another OS (WinXP or such). The msdos patch allows you to mount these. If you aren't using msdos partitions in Amithlon you don't need the patch in s:amithlon_patches.

Here are the patches I have in S:Amithlon_Patches/

patch1_ffp.o
patch1_right_ctrol.o
patch1_setconfig.o
patch1_shifting.o
patch1_timer.o
patch2_vec.o
patch3_mouse.o
patch4_compemu_fpp.o

do not have another os, horewer thanks

[SnkBitten]

Has anyone ever used a Catweasel Mk4 PCI with their Amithlon system? Curious to setup/config. I'd like to add an Amiga floppy drive to my Amithlon. I've found a Catweasel for sale.

[SnkBitten]

Doing some hardware swaps I replaced the 256 MB card with the same in a 64 MB size (an nVidia FX5200 PCI).
I noticed this gave me more available chipram. I had actually expected an increase in system ram since all ram/video ram is mapped to Amiga address space. I guess it's really the same on Amithlon anyway (chipram or fastram).

64 MB card - Chipram = 7984 KB
256 MB card - Chipram = 7792 KB

Weird coincidence maybe....but a 192 MB reduction of the Video Card gave a 192 KB addition to Amithlon's chipram.

Also compiled another kernel removing as much as I felt comfortable removing, keeping only the drivers for my hardware (Intel) and the generic versions (IDE/SATA, etc..).

Network (RTL 8169) and nVidia framebuffer are compiled in the kernel and my SB Live card is handled by AHI drivers (EMU10kx) so no kernel modules being loaded either.

[SnkBitten]

Just for grins.....here's my Amithlon system booting to AmigaOS/Workbench.


Amithlon booting from power on to Workbench

Current workbench



And SysInfo results



As I mentioned, I'm stripping down the kernel as much as I feel comfortable, it seemed to have an additional benefit of slightly (really really slightly) speeding up the OS in addition to the obvious reduction in boot time. I was scoring in the 235-237 range of SysInfo previously, now with the reduced kernel I'm consistently hitting 238 on every run. Not an accurate measurement of course...but being consistently higher than previous kernel runs it nicer to see than lower