Amithlon Setup Guide

[SnkBitten]

Oracle Virtualbox 6.0.24 - anything higher and it breaks Amithlon initiating the kernel vesa framebuffer.

Setup a standard DOS system.
1 GB ram, 1 CPU
16 MB Video Memory
VBoxVGA
IDE controller for storage
I setup a 50 mb drive (IDE Primary Master) and a 4 GB Amithlon drive (IDE Primary Slave) and a cdrom using .iso files (IDE Secondary Master).
Windows DirectSound
ICH AC97
Network adapter bridged
-PCnet Fast III (kernel 3)
-Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (Kernel 4)
No serial
USB 2.0 (ECHI)

Follow the guides and install like a normal system. Pop in the FreeDOS .iso, fdisk and all the 50 mb drive, pop in the Amithlon CD and copy the isolinux folder over and the kernel you want to use. Edit the amithlon file and small file for you kernel choice and go.

Once loadlin @amithlon boots the amithlon_hd system, use that to add/partition the 4 GB drive you set aside for Amithlon/AmigaOS. Install 3.9 to it and set it as bootable and then use loadlin @small to launch with your installed Amithlon setup.

I use dynamic hard drive sizing in VB so they take up space as needed and you can set whatever size you want. You could if needed always add another drive on the secondary IDE slave channel.

[SnkBitten]

Oh, make sure to add nosleep to the end of the init string in the 'amithlon' and 'small' files so that Amithlon will boot under Virtualbox.

[SnkBitten]

A quick webm video recorded in VirtualBox using it's built in recorder...

Booting Amithlon (I have PicBoot displaying a picture during boot), launching IBrowse and downloading/extracting a file, running SysInfo and then ending the recording.

The recording process definitely pulled resources away....the mouse was a bit sluggish and even SysInfo dropped from a normal 114 to 99.

http://amithlon.snkbitten.com/videos...hlon-2020.webm

[dr.zeissler]

Any chance to get my PIII/500 with ATI-Rage-Pro-LT working in 16Bit color?
It does work with 256colors (perhaps Vesa) with the original CD, but the ATI kernel does not work for me (newkernel2=> only blackscreen--freeze). Is there something I can do?

[SnkBitten]

Originally Posted by dr.zeissler

Any chance to get my PIII/500 with ATI-Rage-Pro-LT working in 16Bit color?
It does work with 256colors (perhaps Vesa) with the original CD, but the ATI kernel does not work for me (newkernel2=> only blackscreen--freeze). Is there something I can do?

I have not used an AGP cards or had any luck with ATI PCI cards so it's near impossible for me to offer any advice.

1) Have you tried kernel 3.1 or kernel 4 as they are the newest kernels available (4 newer than 3.1).

2) Have you applied the appropriate patches? My virtual box Amithlon even has multiple color resolution choices once all the Amithlon patches are applied, all the "builtin:" modes are standard VESA modes.



If you are booting off the CD you will never get more than 256 colors. You have to install Amithlon and patch it to get additional color resolutions. You can try editing the initi string in the file 'amithlon' or 'small' with the resolution/color depth of a VESA mode your card supports...but it will only be in that color mode until Amithlon is installed and patched.

The CD boot is a stripped, essential only 3.9 OS setup using an embedded disk image (amithlon_hd), you need to apply OS 3.9 patches as well as Amithlon patches on an installed Amithlon system to get more out of it.

[dr.zeissler]

No, I have not installed it on HD and checkout the patches later. Thx!

[LanceT]

(WIP) Trying to get a pci.library that works with p96.

PCEMv1.7 with voodoo3 3000 card emulation.

Seems to runs smoother in vesa mode now with 512mb memory.

[Enzino68]

Hallo to everybody.
I'm new to the forum, and new to Amithlon in general.
I'm from Italy so I apologize for my english mistakes.
I have a message for snkbitten: I built exactly your configuration (I copied it from your blog to avoid problems), exept i have 1 sata hd only and i don't have katweasel, but i can't boot amithlon to start installation. If i use kernel4sata i receive only garbage on the screen. I tried via DVI and VGA, same result. If i use kernel4 i can't see my hd (well the type 76 partition on it).

Could you post your compiled kernel here or on your site?
Thank you in advance for your help!!


Enzino68

[SnkBitten]

Originally Posted by Enzino68

Hallo to everybody.
I have a message for snkbitten: I built exactly your configuration (I copied it from your blog to avoid problems), exept i have 1 sata hd only and i don't have katweasel, but i can't boot amithlon to start installation. If i use kernel4sata i receive only garbage on the screen. I tried via DVI and VGA, same result. If i use kernel4 i can't see my hd (well the type 76 partition on it).

Could you post your compiled kernel here or on your site?
Thank you in advance for your help!!


Enzino68

How are you launching Amithlon to install it, loadlin @amithlon or loadlin @small? I didn't add anything in my kernel compile, I just stripped out more drivers to try to make the kernel smaller.

How is your BIOS configured for your SATA drive?

[Enzino68]

Hallo, may i call you Tom?
Easyer to write than SnkBitten, i think.
My name is Vincent
I'm using the @amithlon string you put in your guide:
kernel4s init=/linuxrc console_level=0 root=/dev/ram0 mem=512M initrd=bigird.gz vga=769 ramdisk_size=12010 leavepages=7400 video=dovesa
kernel4s is the Milanka kernel sata support
I tried ram0 black screen, ram1 garbage on the screen
If i use kernel310, or kernel4 without sata support, i reach the workbench but i can't see the hard disk.
I left the BIOS configuration as AHCI native mode.
Thank you for your quick reply.

[SnkBitten]

Strange. I may have added additional SATA controllers in the kernel while deleting a lot of other drivers....it's been a long time since I compiled my own. My Amithlon is down currently as I had planned to rebuild it....give me some time and I'll see about hooking it all back up and pulling the kernel off of it.

[Enzino68]

Originally Posted by SnkBitten

Strange. I may have added additional SATA controllers in the kernel while deleting a lot of other drivers....it's been a long time since I compiled my own. My Amithlon is down currently as I had planned to rebuild it....give me some time and I'll see about hooking it all back up and pulling the kernel off of it.

Thank you again,
i keep in touch

[Enzino68]

Hallo Tom,
no chance to start the system.
I tried snk40-a ram0 and ram1, nothing.

I use freedos 1.2 as a base, maybe is this the problem?

[SnkBitten]

I don't think FreeDos version is the problem. Once Amithlon is launched the stripped linux kernel kicks out the running OS and takes over the hardware, remapping PCI address space among other things.

I'm really not sure what the issue is you are having. This motherboard was recommended to me from a long time Amithlon user and after setting it up and comparing against others it has been my recommended board. I run two SATA hard drives and one IDE DVD drive (Amithlon's kernel does not support SATA optical drives).

If you have the motherboard manual (download it if you don't), there may be weird SATA/IDE mapping in the BIOS and you'll need to use specific motherboard connections? It's been a number of years since I physically setup this board but I will see what connectors I'm plugging my SATA drives in.

[Enzino68]

Hallo Tom,
I told you.
I followed exactly your configuration, except cpu (i have a Core 2 Duo E8500 not overclocked) and the drives, 1GB of ram (2 banks) of course.
I use a 250GB SSD as primary sata, for dos and amithlon related files, and another 250GB sata disk for data, mainly in DOS, a Zotac FX 5200 256MB PCI, Sound Blaster Live!, an ATA DVD Drive.
I also use PS2 Keyboard and mouse.
Casually i have a monitor very similar to your, HP w2228h.
Sata drives are in AHCI mode, but i've seen in your video you set up them in the same way.
So kernel 4 and snk40-a: if i set ram0 garbage on the screen, if i set ram1 nothing but keyboard leds flashing.
I trust in your help.

[Enzino68]

I forgot to mention, my motherboard runs F9 bios version