Yes, another AF install problem topic

[Sinphaltimus]

No solution found here with all f my searches. Only one really described what I am experiencing and I don't understand any of the fixes if there was one.

Here we go.

I have 2 old dell laptops. one is an older single core model and the other is a dual core model. Different years and models.

I'm having the exact same issue on both machines.
I have tried the partitioner included as well as gparted.

I'm not well versed in linux at all.

I want to install Amiga Forever 2016 to local hard disk as the only OS (no multibooting). Everything seems to go fine until there is an error copying files and something about a log file that I have no idea how to navigate to or read or anything.

I've also noticed this has been a problem for many years with previous versions of AF. I don't understand why this is. I'm not doing anything complicated, just want to install the live CD to the local HDD. I understand it's emulation on top of Knoppix Light. It just doesn't work out of the box for me and it's frustrating after trying for a few weeks to get Amiga Forever integrated in to Icaros desktop without any success there either.

I just need the Amiga Forever disk to work as advertised.

Can anyone help me?

[Sinphaltimus]

Yes it boots to CD find.

And I managed to get this far....

on the dual core

[Sinphaltimus]

Changed hard drives out, same error. Could it be a bios setting?

I just tried in a VMWare VM, Same freaking error. WTH?

I

[haps]

Bad install media?

[Sinphaltimus]

If it's bad installation media then it's the application producing it. For the real hardware installs I used a physical disk burned from an iso a few weeks back. I created another iso yesterday (using Amiga Forever image builder option) and used that for the vm. My pc is in good health and proper working order.

[Sinphaltimus]

Does anyone from Cloanto eyeball this? Perhaps I should contact them directly?

[Sinphaltimus]

So I got in touch with Tech Support and they sent me a different iso to try. That ISO loaded everything find without error in both a virtual machine and on real hardware.

However, upon trying to start up either configuration; in both instances, it shuts down and powers off automatically. Updating this so I can send them a photo of the screen.

[lolafg]

Hello , did you see this thread : http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...=Knoppix+Light

hope it helps.

[Sinphaltimus]

Originally Posted by lolafg

Hello , did you see this thread : http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...=Knoppix+Light

hope it helps.

Yeah, unfortunately not. I'm not all that savvy with linux and from what that topic reads it's for adding a boot option to an existing linux installation.
I might be misunderstanding it but that's part of the reason it won't work for me.

All I want to do is load the default live cd installer expanded to hdd like the instructions on the website say to do. It hasn't worked on two real laptops or any virtual machines.

No multi boot, just turn it on and go into an emulated amiga as if it were real iron.

Running afinstall should take care of it but my iso from AF2016 never works with the first error I posted and the iso Cloanto tech support sent me appears to work but shuts itself down instead of going in to workbench.

It's very frustrating and their tech support hasn't answered my latest update in days.

They say kx light is "experimental" but it's been available for several years now.

I don't understand why there isn't a straight up solution to the afinstall as supplied by Cloanto.

This is as far as I get..

https://app.box.com/s/variyqznz219zbctynsseskrvp0cwx3b

[lolafg]

well i don't remember all i did when i tried AForever but i think that when it asks you to install all files or cdrom you have to choose cdrom , that should work.
It's why i linked you to the old thread about AForever because it seems that the install process is missing something.
Remember that you must have a linux partition in your hdd.

cheers.

Or do what i did with an old pc booting directly into winuae

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[Sinphaltimus]

Thank you much I guess I have to give these Linux things a shot. I'm basically without an Amiga until I can afford a Vampire board. So I want to get a laptop working in its place as if it were a stand alone Amiga. I don't want to put Windows on it. I already have AE installed on Windows 10 without any issues. Needed something more pitiable than my desktop.

The AF boot cd seemed the easy way to go. I'll try the use as cd option as opposed to decompress to hdd option later this week.

[Sinphaltimus]

Originally Posted by lolafg

well i don't remember all i did when i tried AForever but i think that when it asks you to install all files or cdrom you have to choose cdrom , that should work.
It's why i linked you to the old thread about AForever because it seems that the install process is missing something.
Remember that you must have a linux partition in your hdd.

cheers.

Or do what i did with an old pc booting directly into winuae

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Hey man, that worked. I chose copy like CD instead of decompress to hdd and it works with the iso Cloanto sent me. So Kudos. and thank you.

[Sinphaltimus]

Ha, One disappointment after the next.

I'm going to have to try another route. Like maybe a different bare bones linux distro running a better linux emulator.

Fair is fair, I've only done this on one laptop so far. Since it sucks, I'll try another. Hopefully it'll be different.
Do far..
Networking doesn't work. Sucks that USB isn't emulated to come degree. So that basically leaves me with burning CDs to get adfs over to the other system.

But, sound doesn't work either so my hopes of running med or octamed or fantavision are squished.

ICARUS is just as problematic.

After all these years and no one has a solid solution for running Workbench on x86 that would work for all. You'd think by now Cloanto or some other big Amiga OS player would have thought - if we customize our own highly compatible linux distro and then developed the virtual hardware for our own emulation to enable at least generic sound, usb, networking support for all, I bet we'd make a killing.

I guess I'll continue to research and poke around at what others have done using different methods. Perhaps I'll find something that will work for me.

[Sinphaltimus]

OK so I did eventually find a laptop where the sound works. Still no USB storage even though a USB mouse works. Also has trouble reading CD Burned Roms. So how to get ADFs and Programs on to this install?

Well I booted into a live knoppix environment separate from any of this. From within there I was able to copy files to the amiga setup easily. I discovered why ADF loading doesn't work in the EMUConfig utility. It's not set in the uae config file. And unfortunately I cannot access any of these files for editing because of a permissions issues. But I was able to open the adf file on the PC, copy the contents to a folder and burn those folders to CD then in the knoppiz environment I copied these fodlers to the Amiga WORK: folder (emulator) rebooted in to AF and those fodlers were in my WORK: drive. Successfully running programs that way.

So I guess I will go back to this link (http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...=Knoppix+Light) and read a lot more. The author explains a bunch of permission changes to make to get things working in his example. So I'm going to give that a go later today.

One step closer to replacing Amiga with a PC that works for what I need it for.

One concern I have is that I am going to be booting in to a separate OS to do all this (taking of ownerships and such) then rebooting in to KX light. Will my permissions work? Is the ownership bash account or whatever standard across all; linux distros? I mean, If I give permission to everyone for full access using a third party linux live boot disk, will those set permission work when I boot in to KX Light? I figure using a Knoppix live cd is the closest I'm going to get to the KX Light install. Either way, I suppose I'll find out later today.

I'll be sure to report back and if I end up getting allths together correctly, I may even write up my own guide for others to follow.

[Sinphaltimus]

I should probably mention that I'm doing all this on a Dell Inspiron 9200. Seems the hardware is a good fit for KX Lite and Amiga Forever.

With that said: I was able to finally chmod on the Amiga folder on the hard drive and edit the config file for euae but when I rebooted afterwards, everything seemed to go back to the way it was.

So I'm still experimenting there. And yes, I can customize and install programs and things that would normally get deleted by using the CD however; installing the OS to HDD like a CD (in the install options) it does indeed save changes.

My guess is that it saves changes to the local HDD in a file that gets added at boot time. I don't think I can retain changes made to the KX LITE environment. I dunno, still learning there.

With all of that said, here's the update:

Using this video guide from Akira I am now able to mount adf files. So that's working. It doesn't solve the bootable adf issue but that just might be as siomple as copying the file0 device to the root instead of leaving it in the xfs folder (since it doesn't remount at bootup from within that folder obviously).

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Here's a quick summary.
1. Install Amiga Forever from CD to HDD, options I used (with help from others) was to type af-fbtxt 2 at the first boot prompt and ht enter. Type afinstall at the next boot prompt (yeah I know you can to other settings but I wanted a basic setup to test getting up and running). I wiped the entire HDD and selected the option to install to HDD as a CD because decompressing to hdd did not seem to work. I will revist that later or try to convert this install to that kind if possible.

2. boot off a third party linux live cd. I used Knoppix.
3. copy adf files to Amiga hard drive. The Amiga CD image file or whatever (however they do it) it is, is the location. 4GB/Amiga/ I think it's the DIR or Folder directory - dong this from memory. In there someplace you'll fine the SYSTEM and WORK folders. Those are the Amiga hard drive mounts. So make a folder and copy your adf files to that location. It won't have an icon, you can show all once in workbench.

So that gets your afd files in to Workbench. Now follow this guide by Akira to get your ADF files mounted in workbench.

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With internet working, you can download straight to WB using AWeb.
Setup an ftp or http server containing all your adf files and you no longer need to rely on a third party linux live distro to get adf files in to workbench.

I find this usable so far. But I want to find a way to change the simulation so I can use a faster cpu, more ram and the rest of my HDD. I have MED and Octamed working great. Fantavision not so much which is getting less and less important anyway. Really doing this for Octa/MED and animation which I will find another package to complete that if I never get FV to work.

I'd love to have a try at bootable games to see how that goes too. But first things first.... Customize simulation....

[Arnie]

Originally Posted by Sinphaltimus

I should probably mention that I'm doing all this on a Dell Inspiron 9200.

I tried Installing to a Dell Inspiron 6400. I had exactly the same problems as you.
As you have said, It is a pity it doesn't work out of the box as, like you, I'm not that aui fait with Linux, all that chod, chown stuff never works for me

I did the same as you in the end, Installed using the CD option, but having to have the cd in the drive all the time is a pain, plus I was never able to save any changes??

If you ever work it out then please post a howto, but keep it simple, I'm getting on and the old CPU isn't fast enough to keep up.

[Sinphaltimus]

Originally Posted by Arnie

I tried Installing to a Dell Inspiron 6400. I had exactly the same problems as you.
As you have said, It is a pity it doesn't work out of the box as, like you, I'm not that aui fait with Linux, all that chod, chown stuff never works for me

I did the same as you in the end, Installed using the CD option, but having to have the cd in the drive all the time is a pain, plus I was never able to save any changes??

If you ever work it out then please post a howto, but keep it simple, I'm getting on and the old CPU isn't fast enough to keep up.

When I chose the install to HDD as CD I don't require the CD to be left in the drive at all and I can save changes. I was able to chmod the AMIGA directory which then allowed me to edit and configure the the uae config file.

I have a lot going on right now but hopefully this weekend I'll make some time to redo everything from scratch in a video.

right now, I'm able to load programs and adf files in to a drawer on the WORK: volume via ethernet (http of ftp) OR by using a completely different linux live boot cd (in my case Knoppix Live) to copy files via USB to the Amiga WORK:<drawer> location.
Then I reboot in to the Amiga environment and can load the adf files as emulated disks via Akira's video linked above.

When looking to play around, I can mount amiga format cd iso images in windows, browse them for things to tyr out, copy the drawers I want to a usb stick and then copy that to the Amiga installation for using.

I'm set as a '040 with lots of ram. So far most things just work. Somethings don't, anbd some things run in a stange smaller window that won't stretch, occasionally too much in the overscan area making is useless. I have yet to work those things out but so far, it's not happened with something I want to use.

I'm pretty happy with MED and OCtamed working.

I own OctaMed Sound Studio on PC and used MED on Amiga back in the day. So I'm pretty happy to have it working under linux emulation. Now I just have to build up my samples library again.

I really wanted to do all this on a real Amiga but my SCSI controller went belly up. So I'm stuck in emulation for now.

[Sinphaltimus]

Alright, so my setup became unstable. I think it's because when I copied the files over to get xfs installed, I think it DW overwrote newer files (without asking) that AF needed.

Not entirely positive on that but that's kind of where the instability set in. Which means, when/if you install xfs, don't overwrite anything.

With that said. I figured I'd start all over again but instead go the route of an existing linux installation and add the AF environment top it much inthe say it is described here:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...=Knoppix+Light

If it doesn't go well, I'll go back to the AF install as CD but I'll video record the entire process this time.

[Sinphaltimus]

Well, spent way too much time trying to get this to work correctly and I can't. So I'm currently dual booting Knoppix with KX Light with Amiga forever installed as a CD. The install to Hard Drive uncompressed option works but for some reason it is set to shutdown (kill all processes) right after the X-Window session closes which I posted about earlier. I cannot seem to get it to stop doing that and just load up uae to workbench. Sucks really.

Going back to what kind of works and then installing the adf mounter. At least with the dual boot scenario I can boot in to Knoppix and load up all the adfs to the amiga setup.

I can't even get the uae floppy emulation to work, so I have to rely on Akira's solution.

What the heck Cloanto, isn't there any interest in making this product better?

[haps]

To stop shutdown when closing X check the scripts in the X config directory /etc/X11 or something similar. The system will be getting shutdown by one of them, more that likely 'Xsession' or 'Xreset'.