WHDLoad Freeze with PCMCIA Network Card

[eva]

Hello!

This is probably answered already, but I cannot play games unless the PCMCIA ethernet adapter on A1200 is turned off. Is it a misconfiguration on my behalf or is this a known problem with WHDLoad?

What happens is that if the Net is started then any game I start, loads fine but then "freezes" before actually getting to the title screen. The Amiga itself does not freeze, I can press DEL / * or F10 and exit the game, stop the Net from AmiTCP, then restart the game and it works fine.

I have no problem with stopping the Net before playing a game though WHDLoad, I was more curious if this is a known issue and why... I have also tried a game that I installed manually (without WHDLoad) and I can play while the Net is started so it seems that WHDLoad has a problem with networking.

I tried with and without the CardPatch-related set of patches.

[thomas]

Probably the same reason as for USB. The hardware creates interrupts which have to be handled, but WHDLoad deactivates all OS components including interrupt handlers. You have to shut down the network before you run WHDLoad.

[eva]

Originally Posted by thomas

Probably the same reason as for USB. The hardware creates interrupts which have to be handled, but WHDLoad deactivates all OS components including interrupt handlers. You have to shut down the network before you run WHDLoad.

Thank you! Makes sense now.

[crazyc]

Aaaah - that explains why I had issues when I had miami running directly from startup......

[Wepl]

You can use ExecuteStartup/Cleanup to let WHDLoad start/stop these software. Check your http://whdload.de/docs/WHDLoad.prefs and the provided scripts which should already contain the commands for TCP/USB.
See http://whdload.de/docs/WHDLoad-Startup and http://whdload.de/docs/WHDLoad-Cleanup

[eva]

Originally Posted by Wepl

You can use ExecuteStartup/Cleanup to let WHDLoad start/stop these software. Check your http://whdload.de/docs/WHDLoad.prefs and the provided scripts which should already contain the commands for TCP/USB.

Great thanks for that! I was constantly switching between NET and Games! Awesome stuff! :-)

[liviux76]

I am having this problem for years but i didn't find a way to stop the tcp stack (AMITCP) once started.

I use easynet and now easynet pro, both the programs use amitcp and i can see the process running if i type "status" in the "CLI", unfortunately I haven't found any way to stop/kill that process.

Could someone explain to me how to stop/kill amitcp once started through easynet?

[Wepl]

Did you try it like:

; stop Genesis with a X-Surf card
AmiTCP:bin/offline x-surf0

replacing x-surf0 with the driver you use?

[liviux76]

I am going to try, thanks.

Since I use 3c589 I'll try this command:

AmiTCP:bin/offline 3c589

I tried to break the process AMITCP:AMITCP.020 or even to kill it (I installed executive in order to have the kill command) without success...

[liviux76]

It works!

Ok, I just tried to give the command from a cli without inserting it in the whdload-startup file but the whdload game that I started didn't freeze!

I wrote in the CLI

AmiTCP:bin/offline EASYNET01

since in my file Amitcp:db/interfaces there is the following line:

EASYNET01  DEV=devs:networks/3c589.device UNIT=0

I still have to do some tests but this is the first time that I was able to start a whdload game after have started (and closed) easynet.

Thanks so much for the tip!

[eva]

Ran into a snag with this a little - so here's to completion. My device is defined as:

eth  DEV=devs:networks/3c589.device UNIT=0

so I tried:

AmiTCP:bin/offline DEV=eth UNIT=0

which bailed out with some resource not being able to be allocated.

After randomly uncommenting all those pesky OS patches... I tried something else:

I just entered the full path to the device for WHDLoad-Cleanup:

AmiTCP:bin/online DEV=devs:networks/3c589.device UNIT=0

respectively for WHDLoad-Startup:

AmiTCP:bin/offline DEV=devs:networks/3c589.device UNIT=0

which now works just fine.

[liviux76]

Originally Posted by eva

My device is defined as:

eth  DEV=devs:networks/3c589.device UNIT=0

so I tried:

AmiTCP:bin/offline DEV=eth UNIT=0

which bailed out with some resource not being able to be allocated.

I think that if you use the "alias" eth you don't have to specify DEV and UNIT, I think that you could try with this:

AmiTCP:bin/offline eth

I put the offline/online command in the startup/cleanup whdload scripts and it seems to work if I launch the game with iGame but it doesn't seem to work if I launch the game with GamesMenu...

I have to do more tests though...