Amithlon Setup Guide

[milanca]

I see. Tom has everything there already, but the driver pack you downloaded are for kern310 or earlier.

http://amithlon.snkbitten.com/files/...204%20drivers/

[Vipersan]

ok downloaded everything kernel4 related from your sourceforge Milanca.
Now to find some more blank CDs
lol
There should be a combination which works

[Vipersan]

Thanx for the link btw..
I shall burn all to cd ..once I find some blanks..

[SnkBitten]

I have the correct drivers on my site. You have to download the drivers for Kernel 4, there are multiple driver sets, one for 3.10 and one for 4.0. You can't mix and match, either install kernel 3.10 and it's kernel drivers or install kernel 4 and it's kernel drivers.

[Vipersan]

Thanx Tom..
I download both the .zip and .rar drivers4 linked to by milanca...but it seems these are the same ones I have already...thus..
same incompatibility error as before.
If these are the only options...maybe I have to download and update the kernel4 instead ?

[milanca]

It is strange. You are already running the kernel 2.4.37.9, that's kernel4, and the drivers being loaded by the pciinsmod are for the earlier kernel. You should delete C (pcilist), Devs (pcidrivers) and S (pci_modules) and copy those from kernel4 archive. There should be no incompatibility issues.

Since there is no `xcat` from your previous post, I'd suggest you follow SnkBitten's guide and install AmithlonUpdate I believe 1.31 is the final, BB update and everything that goes with it. Give us the `pcilist` output.

[Vipersan]

Fwiw...I am building Amithlon again with no involvement of kern310..
This time I am not even including kern 310 on the boot partition of the hard drive.
Having already established I cannot use kern310 on the Epia I am not using kern310 edited Amithlon at all on C:
relying on the fact that I can boot the amithlon CD and preparing the hard drive directly from the Amithlon CD...as until I make the system partition bootable I can boot the Amithlon CD and access HDtools.
So at no point using kern310.
@small has already been edited for kernel4 ...but obviously not called untill the hard drive is prepared...at which point the system should be bootable and @small can be called from C:
Hope this makes sense.
I'm doing all this to avoid using kern310 at all...except during the HD setup which uses the Amithlon CD of course.

That's my brain suitable tied in knots

[Vipersan]

So..having rebuilt amithlon from blank HD to current status...
first 4 patches applied..
AOSXL-update1
BB3 9-2
AmithlonUpdate 131
powerpci_user

Also installed Drives4

pciinsmod still returns the same incompatibility error

Im using Exclusively Kernel4

..and I am assuming no human error during the latest build.
I have to conclude I need to swap out the kernel4 on C: for a different version...rather than try and solve the drivers4 pciinsmod conflict...by replacing drivers.
????

[Vipersan]

Hi Milanca ..I believe I am getting somewhere thanks to your suggestion above.
Deleted
C (pcilist), Devs (pcidrivers) and S (pci_modules) ..
though I didn't see pcilist at first..
Turned up hiding in a folder named all.
Then rebooted....and unpacked Drivers4.zip to ram...and moved the contents into the relevant C S and Devs.....but again had me a lttle confused as these too were in sub folders.
I moved the contents into the main folder/drawers...prompted by the messages returned in shell ..when running pciinsmod..
This is what I'm now getting.
Seriously..thanx for your guidance...as a noob...this is all very new to me.

The very fact that the drivers for kernel4 are in sub folders is possibly the very reason why the original drivers are not overwritten thus causing the very errors I was seeing.
It was as though the new drivers didn't exist..
lol

[milanca]

Yes, I told you, the reason is just to make sure they are not overwritten(by any update) and to make sure you have the right version. They are in folders so the user can place them where they need to go.

The board you have, it doesn't have a network controller, does it? Can you do a `pcilist` for me please, and `xcat /proc/version` ?

[Vipersan]

Yes..I do appreciate why..but I was following the guide (being a noob)..
Which says " copy them them just as we did when installing the kernel 3.10 (diver090.lha)drivers"..via the shell.
Which was the reason it didn't work ?
and yes my board does have a network port/connection...but not sure if it will function as pciinsmod didn't pick it up..
a little worrying.
Anyhoo...I'll be installing sound(hopefully) AHI and Poseidon next ...and hope the onboard USB ports work.
Wish me luck.
As to pcilist and xcat..
not got that working yet..
Do you know which patches specifically activate/add those functions ?
rgds

[milanca]

`xcat` is not that relevant, but it comes with AmithlonUpdate. `pcilist` should be under C, comes also with kernel drivers. I noticed nothing(network related) has been picked up by pciinsmod so i wanted to see a list of pci devices, `pcilist` will print them out.

[Vipersan]

Ok ..found the wrench ascociated with pcilist..
clicked on it which opened a dialog box asking for arguements..so I just clicked execute..
returned message ...
need at least verion48 of ixemul library
means nothing to me of course...but am guessing I need another library file in libs to run it.
as to amithlon update...
already installed AmithlonUpdate 131 ...so I assume another Amithlon update needed for xcat


..and yes it did worry me that pciinsmod didn't find anything for network.

[milanca]

https://aminet.net/package/util/libs/ixemul-48.0

It's easy to find it. It has always worked for me though, without the need to install it. Probably some of the packages had it already, not sure.

You asked earlier about the video cards. I did a quick search and found some great, and really inexpensive cards, over at aliexpress. Matrox G450, really great card for Amithlon and FX5500, even better, all in PCI variant. Unfortunately they are not low profile.

`xcat`

http://aminet.net/package/misc/emu/AmithlonUpdate
mentioned here, containing the new and updated version of Xcat utility. If you were a linux user (maybe you already are), you will know a `cat` utility. This is the same thing just for amithlon to ask the kernel and grab some info from it. You probably won't need it at the moment, but later maybe, as it can give you some info on the framebuffer, etc.

[Vipersan]

grabbed it from the aminet link..
Sadly I'm out of blank CDs so it will have to wait until I get USB working (assuming I can with Epia and kernel4)

[Vipersan]

Believe it or not..
This is my first venture into anything linux related...and I am enjoying it...but is difficult for an old dog to learn new tricks...and having been a DOS/Windows user since win95.
I wont pretend it is easy for an old fart like me at 66yo

[milanca]

I wont pretend it is easy for an old fart like me at 66yo

Hehe my dear mate!! May you have many, many more years! I am 49 myself, hehehe, I am not much younger, just have been messing around with these things for too long, way too long! Enjoy your amithlon, it's kind of addictive haha.I really mean enjoy it, even installing and configuring it, learning things. It reminds me of Amiga era (yes, we were all young then) but that's not it, back then as we use to say, `computing was fun`.

[Vipersan]

Thats it ..I've done for today..
The good news...
Internal Epia Sound is working...
As expected on account pciinsmod...found and listed the AC97.
The bad news...
Even though the USB wasn't found by pciinsmod I figured it worth installing posedon v4.5 and Trident ...just in case.
but nothing doing..
I have only the one pci slot on the EPIA board...so I _could_ fit a USB card...and carry on using the integrated graphics...but No room for a dedicated graphics card then.
doh !!

[milanca]

USB won't be handled by the modules (network will, but we'll come to that). Did you install everything from the `patches` section from snkbitten's guide? PowerPCI is required for USB, Poseidon and Trident.

[Vipersan]

Indeed I did Milanca..
everything the 'guide' said was neccessary that is.
and to prove to myself that the onboard USB was the problem ..I had another dig in my stash..and found a 4 port usb pci card
uses an NEC chip ...board label AUA-3100LP
Removed the backplane bracket which allowed me to just squeeze it in vertically into the single PCI slot.
It is recognised ..does work...and Amithlon recognises my USB thumb drive.
BUT...with this card in the system..
Soft Reboot is no longer possible..
It starts ...blackscreens..and never comes back.
Full power down resets the system though.
rgds