Using a Compact Flash card on a600/a1200 PCMCIA

I have just received a EasyADF PCMCIA Transfer kit and as I already had a Kingston CF/4g card and Amigakit supply the same card with their IDE hard drive Adaptor I didn't bother with the recommended card.

Big Mistake. Nothing I have done can make the card be recognised as a Valid dos disk.

I contacted Amiga kit and they have confirmed that the newer Kingston CF cards are only compatible with the IDE interface for use as a hard drive.

They are not compatible with the PCMCIA interface.

[fgh]

Originally Posted by beejack

Nothing I have done can make the card be recognised as a Valid dos disk. I contacted Amiga kit and they have confirmed that the newer Kingston CF cards are only compatible with the IDE interface

Valid dos disk you say. What is the format of the Kingston card? It has to be FAT16 or FAT32 to 'work out of the box'. To use an amiga file system on PCMCIA, the mountlist (CF0) must be changed.

In addition, not all types of MBR [master boot record, pc equivalent to amiga RDB] work well with FAT95 (I assume the kit uses FAT95?).
Therefore wiping and recreating the MBR on a pc sometimes helps.

Good luck!

[fitzsteve]

It's widely reported 4gb Kingston CF's don't work on PCMCIA, I suggest Sandisk for PCMCIA and 2gb or less

[ptyerman]

What is really weird is: I bought 1 of those SCSI card readers from Mech Ware (excellent piece of kit) and 3 CF cards that don't work in the A1200's PCMCIA slot work fine in the card reader, both in the CF slot and the PCMCIA slot with adapter through my Squirrel SCSI card. Must just be a quirk with the Amiga's PCMCIA slot.

[fgh]

More likely it is a driver issue, compactflash.device is great but not perfect (yet).
(You installed compactflash.device and mounted cf0: right?)

[ptyerman]

Originally Posted by fgh

More likely it is a driver issue, compactflash.device is great but not perfect (yet).
(You installed compactflash.device and mounted cf0: right?)

Yeah, compactflash.device will be to blame. If I unplug the Squirrel and put the CF cards in the A1200's PCMCIA slot they won't read, plug the Squirrel back in and stick the same CF cards in the SCSI card reader and they work fine. All I had to do was make a copy of the CF0: mountlist rename the copy to CF1: and edit it to use squirrelscsi.device instead of compactflash.device and change the unit number to match the scsi id of the card reader. Works a treat, and with fat95 too!

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by ptyerman

Yeah, compactflash.device will be to blame. If I unplug the Squirrel and put the CF cards in the A1200's PCMCIA slot they won't read, plug the Squirrel back in and stick the same CF cards in the SCSI card reader and they work fine.

Not necessarily.

CF card in IDE adapter: CF card is hardware-level PATA IDE device. ("true ide" mode)

CF card in PCMCIA adapter: CF card is PATA IDE controller and IDE drive in single package, software configurable, IDE controller is unconfigured after insert or reset.

I have one CF card (2G Maxell) that does not enable PCMCIA linear IO mapped IDE mode (config index #1) when requested. This mode is supposed to be mandatory.. Card of course work fine in true ide mode.. Perhaps it only supports PC-like IO mode (index #2, not tested. I assume it works.)

Both compactflash.device and my own custom AROS m68k PCMCIA init code fails when using above card. I also have some Sandisk CF cards and they work fine.

[ptyerman]

Yes, anything is possible. Obviously the SCSI card reader has its own built in firmware and is isolated from the Amiga's PCMCIA slot quirks. The cards that won't read in the Amiga are fine in the card reader which will be down to its firmware been more suitable. The PCMCIA slot can be a real problem in that, it's a lucky dip if you get a card that works or not. I have a 2GB Transcend 133x that works like a charm and a 4GB Transcend 133x that wont even recognize, although it's listed as been compatible. The problem is that these cards are manufactured in that many different factory's with different components a different 4GB Transcend 133x might work without a hitch. It's sods law that gives you a card that will or wont read!

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

I have one CF card (2G Maxell) that does not enable PCMCIA linear IO mapped IDE mode (config index #1) when requested.

I did more tests. This card simply refuses to enter any CF IDE mode. Absolutely nothing happens when Configuration Option Register (at io base + 0x200) is written. (Other cards like Sandisk do work fine)

This card also identifies itself as "V2.00" which does look quite stupid.. My 8G Transcend says "TRANSCEND TS8GCF133" and 8G Sandisk "SanDisk SDP 5/3 0.6" (Note that these PCMCIA identification strings are usually different than IDE mode Identify Device strings)

It should support CF IDE because it has CISTPL_CFTABLE_ENTRY tuples that says it supports config indexes 0 to 3..

No idea whats missing..

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

I did more tests. This card simply refuses to enter any CF IDE mode. Absolutely nothing happens when Configuration Option Register (at io base + 0x200) is written. (Other cards like Sandisk do work fine)

After even more testing..

Maxell CF only accept writes to config space if both PCMCIA Write Protect and Audio line are disabled (I think compactflash.device also have audio pin enabled). Any other combination causes card to totally ignore all writes, configuration and status register also isn't updated. (stuck at 0x0f)

But it still isn't working perfectly. Only if I manually poke correct config index it goes to IO space mode. When aros m68k does the same during booting (It can boot from CF card in PCMCIA slot), it always goes to memory mapped io mode (index=0)

Probably some timing condition thats wrong.. -> testing still to do..

EDIT:

This card appears to be buggy!

Any access to any address inside PCMCIA address range that is not valid causes it to quietly revert back to uninitialized state.

It also does above when reading config index #1 (linear IO mapped) valid addresses, it returns correct data and then goes to uninitialized state.. That can't be correct behavior.

Config index #2 appears to work better but apparently there is still some weird condition because it refuses to stay in initialized state during aros m68k booting (probably bug somewhere else)

[Toni Wilen]

Maxell success, finally boots in A1200 PCMCIA slot with AROS m68k!

This is crappy "PC-only" card..

- It only works if using "PC" config (index #2). Index #1 won't work, you can access correct IDE register contents and get correct data but soon after it resets back to unconfigured state..

- It is impossible to read Error / Feature IDE register. Another buggy card feature? (Other cards work, of course) Fortunately this register isn't really needed.

- Card also does not like if non-existing slave device is attempted to be accessed. It seems to hang..

- Both Gayle PCMCIA Write Protect and Digital Audio (IO mode enabled if IO card) must be disabled when setting config index. Any else combination = config index write is ignored!

- Digital Audio Gayle flag MUST BE enabled after config index has been written. Write Protect state does not matter anymore.

- Any kind of invalid access will reset it (non-existing register, 16-bit read from 8-bit register etc..)

If any above option is wrong: card reverts back to unconfigured state..

[virtualnut]

setup: stock a1200, 4gb cf-ide card, classicwb, ks 3.0.
wanting to do: use a 4gb cf card via pcmcia slot.

scenario :

pc recognises cf card, already transferred files over prior to inserting into pcmcia, inserted into pcmcia slot, card recognised first time after booting from supplied floppy with adf software (is pcmcia hot swappable?), tried an adf file write to disk, nothing, booted into wb, inserted cf adapter with card, nothing, just seemed to hang with the busy pointer (how long does it actually take for wb to recognise the cf card?), checked dosdrivers for cf0: device, already mounted.

what am i doing wrong, and more importantly, what do i do next?, keep in mind, i have no floppy drive installed on pc

[fgh]

If the machine freezes when you insert the card, I'd make sure to check with the latest version 1.27 of compactflash.device.
Several people had freezes when inserting the pcmcia-CF with version 1.21.

As you probably know, you also need the FAT95 file system.
The compatibility of the file system also increased, so be sure to use the latest version there as well.

It only takes a second or two to recognise the inserted card.
PCMCIA is supposed to be hot swappable, but I've seen people whose opinion I usually trust recommend against doing that to your amiga.

[Neil79]

I did a search and this was the recommended thread!

I have both a 4GB Sandisk Ultra and an uknown brand 4GB, both are causing me grief in my Amiga 1200 ClassicWB-ADVSP. Sometimes it causes the system to freeze, most of the time it causes the Amiga 1200 to crawl. Yet on the very rare occasion it works perfectly fine. Loading the Amiga 1200 with the PCMCIA/cf will cause it not to boot properly to WB.

tried

cardpatch
cardreset
acatune -resetpcmcia

No change!

[fgh]

1: Be 100% sure you are running v1.27 of compactflash.device. Type 'version compactflash.device' in dos/shell to see which version is loaded. Also type 'version fat95' to check that it is a recent version (3.17/3.18).

2: If the versions are ok, reboot, enter early boot menu (press both mouse buttons) and select boot without startup-sequence. Then type mount cf0: in amigaDOS. The CF will be accessible again. Check if the machine is still slow.

3: If it is still slow, try editing the mountfile CF0 in devs/dosdrivers and change the value 'Flags' to 2, save and reboot.

4: If still slow, change 'Flags' back to 0, turn off the machine, remove the ACA1232 and try point 2 above again.

5: if still slow, and if the card was formatted on a PC - try quick formatting the CF card on the amiga to make sure that there is no problems with the type of MBR on your card.

If none of this works, read the compactflash.device readme and follow the steps to report your problem to the author Torsten Jager.

Good luck

[Neil79]

Compact flash = 1.27

When I first did Version Fat95 it said cannot find file!
I found it in L(?) have copied it over to C / Sys / DOSDRIVERS, basically the usual folders and it now reports version 3.11! So the version in L is old anyway!


UPDATE -

FAT95 has been updated to 3.18 from 3.11 in L & DOSDRIVERS
FLAGS changed to value 2 for CF0:

Formatted CF to default values, inserted into Amiga 1200 and it's super smooth!

Now time to add the game files

UPDATE 2

Added game files, 430MB inserted into Amiga 1200 and once again the Amiga 1200 is crawling

So it seems it's perfectly ok with an empty formatted CF, but with anything on the CF and the Amiga doesn't like it

[fgh]

So you tried 1 and 3, I would try 2, 4 and 5 as well

Fat95 should be in L. I thought the version command would look in L: but I guess it doesn't.

[sneaksby]

Originally Posted by Boo Boo

After buying 2 cards that havent worked I was pleased Id ordred the 4gb version of the above card from Amazon and it works

I have this card and am having probs. I only have an ADF of the install disk and so am trying to partition the card with Win UAE. I have tried everything on every forum and cant get the card to show up.

last thing i was looking at was this

http://www.amiga.org/forums/archive/...p/t-38878.html

I am finding it super odd that i try to get the icon information by selecting HDtoolbox, holding down right mouse button, going to icon and then information to change SCSI_DEVICE_NAME tooltype of HDtoolbox to uaehf.device but clicking information never gives me any options to change anything, it seems to do nothing for me

Spent 10 hours trying to work this out today and im really starting to wonder if its possible

[fgh]

If there are no tooltypes stored already you have to add them. And the AmigaOS user interface requires that you press enter after each value you enter in such fields.
Also, if you select IDE0 instead of UAE hd-controller when you add the CF card in WinUAE you don't need to change the SCSI_DEVICE_NAME tooltype.
(And the disableharddrivesafetycheck feature was removed long time ago.)

Steve made a video tutorial here: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=68315

[delshay]

I can't remember but I think my 16Gb CF card works in the PCMCIA slot and I'm still using the old drivers,I will have to check again to confirm this,but what makes a big difference for me is I have the hardware reset fix built into the motherboard so regardless of what OS I am using the PCMCIA slot will always function correctly without extra drivers/fixes.