GVP A530 / HDInstTools problem

[Gyro]

also @Mark, the info screen was unchanged after the dir command

[mark_k]

Lots of screenshots/pics of all the HDInstTools setup screens you went though might shed some light on the problem.

[Gyro]

Let me know if you need any other screenshots, thanks for the help

[Gyro]

Oops forgot an important one

[mark_k]

I can't see anything obviously wrong in the screenshots.

If you boot from an unmodified Workbench 1.3 disk, do you see any icons on Workbench (other than the Workbench disk's icon)? You might expect to see e.g. a DH0:NDOS icon for example.

Edit to add: You did click "Save changes to drive" after configuring the partitions, then reboot when prompted?

[Gyro]

No, just the RAM and Workbench icon show. The screenshots and format were after a complete shutdown and reboot. The GVP flashes for a while and then moves over to the floppy on reboot.

I can create a brand new 1.3.3 disk via Amiga Forever if you want to try that.

[mark_k]

I'm out of ideas. But you could try reproducing your real Amiga hardware setup in WinUAE, then perform the same steps and see if there's any difference.

I've attached an archive containing:
- A WinUAE config which should hopefully closely match your actual A530 setup.
- GVP SCSI ROM version 4.13 for use with that config.
- A blank/empty hardfile of (probably) the same size as your CF card. But you could instead use your actual CF card in a USB card reader.

You'll need to adjust file paths to match where you have your Kickstart 1.3 ROM file etc.

If you still have no luck, you could prep the CF with HDToolBox under Kickstart 3.1 in emulation, then move the card to your real Amiga.

[Gyro]

Thanks for the hard work! Ill certainly give it a try. I do have a usb to cf stick somewhere I'll track down. Can I use WinUAE to format the CF and copy WB files over and then bring it back to the A500?

[mark_k]

Yes.

[idrougge]

Try to use GVP's own FaaastPrep.

[Gyro]

My cf usb stick is no where to be found so I'll order another one. Since the GVP trys to load on boot, I've got a good feeling it will take off once it's formatted and wb installed.

A general question about the GVP device, can it read ADFs direct from the drive or do they need to be in the floppy format to work?

@idrougge - I tried it earlier and it didn't read the CF properly. Wondering if it's due to the large size.

[idrougge]

Try to install PFS3AIO into your RDB instead.

[Gyro]

Originally Posted by idrougge

Try to install PFS3AIO into your RDB instead.

Thanks, I googled that and will try that too with WinUAE when I get my cf reader

[Zetr0]

@Gyro

My apologies, initially I thought you were using WinUAE to set up your CF card -

Originally Posted by idrougge

Try to use GVP's own FaaastPrep.

No, this is an utter pain to use and I wouldn't recommend it - it also has forced maximum sizes of 2GB - just don't waste time with this software HDToolsBox is better - while its possible to set up on the target machine ensuring that it is enquiring "gvpsscsi.device" and not "scsi.device" - setting it up via WinUAE and say OS31 / 35 or 39 the latter two have better HDToolBox aplication - making it easier to install PFS3AIO -

Our fellow EAB'er provided this tutorial (one of my favourites) on how to install PFS3 AIO

[ Show youtube player ]

[Gyro]

@Zetr0

Thanks, no worries. I'll have the reader in a few days, I need a break from the madness anyway.

Still wondering if the GVP A530 can read ADF files as is. I'm guessing it can't.

[mark_k]

No Amiga SCSI controller has any kind of direct support for ADF files. (How would that even work?)

You can, once you've got it partitioned and formatted, copy ADF files to a partition on the CF card, then use a program on the Amiga to write them back to floppy disks.

You can also (using appropriate software) mount ADF files on the Amiga, so for standard DOS disks you can access files on the ADF without needing to write it to a floppy disk first. XFS can do that.

You could also, in theory, make one or more partitions on your CF/HD which are exactly the same size as a floppy disk. Then you could (in theory, using appropriate software) write an ADF file to the floppy-sized partition on your CF/HD instead of to a slow floppy disk. But just using XFS to mount an ADF would be easier.

[idrougge]

I noticed that your FFS is reported as version 36.3.

Version 36 means 2.0, and later FFS versions are not 1.3 compatible. Try the FastFileSystem in the L directory of a Workbench 1.3 floppy.

[mark_k]

That's not true. Even FastFileSystem 40.1 on the 3.1 Install disk works with Kickstart 1.2/1.3.

However, the show-error-requester routine in FFS 40.1 requires Kickstart V39+ because it uses TaggedOpenLibrary(); so if you hit an error condition that might crash on Kickstart 1.2/1.3. Still, it's good enough for soft-kicking 3.1 from your startup-sequence with Kickstart 1.3 in ROM.

Edit to add:
FFS 39.29 on the 3.0 Install disk has the same potential 1.x-incompatibility.
FFS 36.104 on the 2.05 Install disk should be completely compatible with Kickstart 1.2/1.3.

Edit 2:
It turns out that the show-error-requester routine in FFS v39+ is actually harmless when run on Kickstart 1.2/1.3, providing you don't have any slow ($C00000) RAM. Then it just does nothing, same as if opening Intuition using TaggedOpenLibrary() were to fail on Kickstart 3.0+.

Quick reasoning: On Kickstart 1.2/1.3, the last Exec function is CopyMemQuick(). ExecBase normally exists at address $676 (when you don't have any slow RAM). Thus the CopyMemQuick JMP in the Exec jump table is at address $400. Before that the memory is all zero bytes which correspond to ORI.B #0,D0 instructions.

FFS v39+ calls TaggedOpenLibrary() with D0 containing 3. On Kickstart 1.2/1.3 that jumps to some ORI.B #0,D0 instructions and then the JMP to CopyMemQuick. CopyMemQuick with a length of 3 does nothing and returns with D0 containing 0. Which the FFS code thinks is Intuition failing to open.

If you do have slow RAM, ExecBase is usually at $C00276 so the call to TaggedOpenLibrary() will jump to address $BFFF4C, after which things will probably not go too well...

[idrougge]

That's funny, that's not my experience, but I'll trust your deep assembly knowledge on this one.

[mark_k]

I'm definitely open to being corrected.

By the way, FFS 36.3 is on the Workbench 1.3.2 disk. (The original Workbench 1.3 has v34.85.)