My Amiga hardware project. I need some advice.

Hi everyone, first post here, it may be longer than I'd like! While I'm a grade A tech-head, this is all fairly new to me.

First of all, I'd like to say that I looked through the majority of boards which I thought were relevant and settled on this one being the closest match. My project kind of encompasses all aspects of the Amiga, so it's a square peg, round hole situation.



A Bit of Back Story (skip this if you're the TL;DR type!)



I've been building PCs since around 1996 and sort of missed out on the Amiga period, but did get to play with some as a child. Now I'm the ops manager/senior technician for a major MSP and deal exclusively with Mac and PC hardware running MacOS or Windows. I have to say, I'm pretty fed up with the state of the main operating systems, both mobile and otherwise. I main Slackware on my laptop, but rarely have time to use it due to work commitments being Microsoft based.

My most recent project was a performance PC build, and as it was the first I'd ever built new for myself (not customer or friend and not second hand parts) I thought I'd do it properly. So I went all out, within reason. 16 cores, 32GB RAM, 2x1080Tis SSD RAID arrays, water cooled... you know the deal.

The problem is that Windows 10 is an absolute dog. Both functionally and ethically. We are a MS (and Apple) partner and I've got more MS/Apple qualifications than I can count, and I hate it... MacOS too. I spent a long time getting the new hardware to work with Windows 7 instead of 10 by injecting drivers etc. Microsoft don't 'support' new architecture in 7, it's a 10 only deal to try to get you locked into it. It now works perfectly fine, with the usual W7 issues, as you'd expect.

So for my next project I went in search of pure end user reliability, usability and resiliency. I've run pretty much every type of Linux, BSD, Solaris, QNX, UNIX and Minix over the years, always have at least one of the above running on my main machine at any given point, and I regularly deploy them in Enterprise environments. They are definitely more resilient than Microsoft environments and a million times more predictable than Apple environments, but when they break it's often unpredictable and often hard to diagnose. Solaris being the exception here, but it's very tied into Oracle's infrastructure and support.

It came to a point where I thought all was lost. And put this project on the back burner. Until one day I was writing some simple ASM and came across datasheets for Motorola 68K chips from a previous project I wasn't involved in. I kept reading and I found this little chip as fascinating as it was efficient. Which led me back to Commodore.

I purchased Amiga Forever and began to tinker with WinUAE, this is a solid system! The cogs started to turn again and I began planning a new build with Amiga in mind. I love how modular and open the system is. I doubt it's in any way secure, but that's not the point of this project...


The Project (Also skip if you're not interested!)

I'm currently in the process of sourcing parts and software to build something that is both functional and fits a specific aesthetic and lore I'm trying to achieve. A fiction if you will, with a backstory of it's own. I'm a huge Blade Runner, Alien, Ghost in the Shell and 2000AD comics fan, so that sort of old hardware meets the future, out of necessity is where I'm headed with this. I'll likely create a professional quality user manual and service manual, and will probably get some real Amiga branding made up for the case.

Imagine a future where progress wasn't dictated by commercial success, but because it was needed, in that future I can't see the 8086 doing as well... only PowerPC and 68K derivatives. To prove a point, our 4-year-old POWER8 servers still nuke the brand new top end Xeon servers from orbit (we're talking 2x the performance), but that's the only place you're really seeing the 'old tech' used.

At the moment I'm on the fence whether this will be portable, like a GRiD Compass 1101, or more like an old 'Dumb Terminal' like a old DEC VT100. That's besides the point. More window dressing than anything.

If I go for the larger form factor it's going to let me enclose a hardware firewall, network/usb port surge protectors/lightning arresters, power management and an RCD board and maybe even an maintainer board for telnetting/sshing onto to check component health as well as connecting to the administration VLAN for the firewall, while still being airgapped from the main system.

The hardware is something I'm also actively testing. I haven't decided if I'm going to be running an x86 system or a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ or even an ODROID. The x86 and Pi are currently doing well under testing.

Currently, I don't see the the hardware as the problem.


The Problem(s)


The problem appears to be primarily the lack of consistency in the way I've read, watched and been told about the way things are done on Amiga systems - compounded by my lack of understanding of it.

I've spent the last week working with the Pi running Amibian and my Laptop running WinUAE trying to get a few things installed, and I can't. I've followed countless written guides, and videos about how to do something as simple as installing Workbench 3.1 to a HDD. The problem never seems occur with the emulator, only errors like 'Can't find needed library', and under SnoopDOS they show specific libraries missing from the workbench disks. Since I've purchased Amiga Forever, I tried getting the WB 1.3 installer from other sources online (I'm assuming this is legal in that I'm a licensed user anyway) and I either get the 'Can't find needed library' error or an error telling me the disk it's asking for isn't the right one.

Do you guys have any set config, roms, adf files etc that you can confidently say 'this WILL work' if you do XYZ in that order? I'm happy to purchase some other things, if needed. I just need to know I've got the right files and that it should be working when I follow these guides to the letter.

I'd rather KNOW why something isn't working, and understand the process than just have it fixed for me.

My end goal is to have OS 3.9 or even 4.1 Final, if i can, properly emulated in this new system build. And have it be stable. I'd like to develop for this as well.

Finally, are there any good books like we used to get in the old days? Like a 'Linux for dummies' or 'the beginners guide to Amiga'? I've been trawling the internet, forums, youtube et al for weeks now and everyone has a different opinion, workflow and perspective on how Amiga system work.

I'm from a world of best practice and compliance, I need to establish some ground rules for myself and have an understanding of the system from the ground up...

Can you help? I need help!

[Daedalus]

First off, welcome along! Now, that seems like an ambitious project, but I'm sure it's pretty frustrating when seemingly simple things don't work the way you expect. The thing is, things *are* very simply in Amiga Land, and installing stuff including the OS is usually a no-brainer. The errors you're getting are a little vague however - a bit more detail would help, such as the library version that's missing. As a starting point, you need to use a Kickstart ROM that matches the OS - since the ROM contains a fair portion of the OS, you'll get all sorts of missing component errors or even crashes if you have mismatched versions. There are some exceptions to this, but to start with it's a good rule of thumb.

Next, to install the OS properly, you'll need the full set of Workbench disks (or disk images). Some sets only have 5 disks and a missing the sixth "Install" disk. It's this Install disk you should use to install the OS. It contains tools for partitioning and formatting the hard drive, as well as the installer for the OS itself. If anything goes wrong with doing it that way, there's something pretty fundamental going wrong.

Installing other software is generally a matter of reading the Readme to see what's needed. If it comes with an Installer script, you might need to copy the Installer executable from the Install disk (or better yet, get the V43 one from Aminet) to Sys:Utilities to get it to work. Some badly-packaged software might look for the installer in a specific location such as C:, which is bad practice, but easy to edit and put right.

A lot of software doesn't even need that. Often it's just a matter of putting the unpacked drawer wherever you like, occasionally copying a library to Libs: and/or adding some lines to S:User-startup. But check the Readme and you should be fine.

[Genlock]

Start here: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=19056

Try and read as much as possible on the different setups on Here:
http://classicwb.abime.net/

Then decide on which you want to follow,,


my choice would be this to start with :
http://classicwb.abime.net/classicweb/lite.htm

then when you get the swing of it progress onto :
http://classicwb.abime.net/classicweb/p96.htm

if your aiming to go the PPC route or OS3.9 and 0S4

But most of original owners of the Amiga stick with the 68xxx
My system is close to the Amiga forever 3.11 pack with a few tweaks

but this is a good aim to get to imo:
http://classicwb.abime.net/classicweb/full.htm

Good luck

[Genlock]

Daedalus pipped me to the post by the time i hunted down the links

But he has a lot of experience with the Amiga Systems so your in good hands.

Originally Posted by Daedalus

First off, welcome along! Now, that seems like an ambitious project, but I'm sure it's pretty frustrating when seemingly simple things don't work the way you expect.

Thanks! I'm happy to be here, it seems like you're a good bunch!

You are right about it being ambitious, but that's more in the the sense of the hardware, which is where I'm more at home, I'm hoping with a little learning that I can overcome the software issues.

I think you're definitely onto something with the mismatched software versions, as there about 20 versions of any given file that I'm looking for. I apologise for the vagueness, even though I work in this field, I'm not near my test rig and I was sort of guessing from memory. Schoolboy 'error'. I'll report back tonight when I'm in front of it, but I'll also try the other suggestions from yourself and this thread first.

The set of disks you mentioned, are these the same ones included with Amiga Forever, or do I need to look elsewhere? Also, on the subject of looking for 3.9 and 4.1, Hyperion seem to be having some sort of legal headache over the whole licensing thing at the moment, and I don't want to drop the cash on a physical copy of 4.1 Final if they can't follow through with it.

Originally Posted by Genlock

Start here: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=19056

Try and read as much as possible on the different setups on Here:
http://classicwb.abime.net/

Then decide on which you want to follow,,

Thanks for these links, also I'll get stuck in. I want to learn and do this properly. As much as this is also an artsy project, my heart lies with the technical stuff.

Is there any reason that people stick to the 68K over the PPC? Compatibility? I suppose I need to rein the hunger for horsepower in a bit, as it's not really needed here!

I'm going to get back to it and crack on.

Thank you both for your time. It is much appreciated.

[Daedalus]

Originally Posted by WayforgeCorp

I think you're definitely onto something with the mismatched software versions, as there about 20 versions of any given file that I'm looking for. I apologise for the vagueness, even though I work in this field, I'm not near my test rig and I was sort of guessing from memory. Schoolboy 'error'. I'll report back tonight when I'm in front of it, but I'll also try the other suggestions from yourself and this thread first.

No bother, Amiga Forever does come with multiple setups representing the different OS versions across the years. Versioning on the Amiga is slightly funky - almost all files have a version and revision included internally which can be examined with the Version Shell command (or the file's info window on OS 3.5+), and will typically look like 39.29 or 45.106. This doesn't bear any immediate resemblance to the release number, which is essentially a label on the package, like "Windows 7". The internal version numbers are closely related to the release numbers however, with the major releases generally (though not exclusively) sticking to the following scheme:

1.3: v34.x
2.0x: v37.x
2.1: v38.x
3.0: v39.x
3.1: v40.x
3.5: v44.x
3.9: v45.x
4.0: v50.x, 51.x, 52.x
4.1: v53.x

In general, you want all v40 components in a 3.1 setup for example, though there are exceptions.

The set of disks you mentioned, are these the same ones included with Amiga Forever, or do I need to look elsewhere?

They should be in there, 6 disks named Install, Workbench, Extras, Fonts, Locale and Storage.

Also, on the subject of looking for 3.9 and 4.1, Hyperion seem to be having some sort of legal headache over the whole licensing thing at the moment, and I don't want to drop the cash on a physical copy of 4.1 Final if they can't follow through with it.

3.9 is still available from Vesalia, and is nothing to do with Hyperion as 3.5 and 3.9 were developed by a 3rd party after the demise of Commodore and so are not included in Hyperion's licence. As for OS4, you can always just buy it from a dealer who has a physical copy of it in stock. That way, no matter what happens, you'll always have it there. To be honest though, 4.1 is a bit big for classic use so you might be best served sticking to 3.9. But if you do want to use OS4, 4.1 Final Edition for Classics is the version to get.

Is there any reason that people stick to the 68K over the PPC? Compatibility? I suppose I need to rein the hunger for horsepower in a bit, as it's not really needed here!

Depending on who you ask, you're likely to get widely varying answers, or even start an all-out flame war. PPC was chosen back in the day as the upgrade path for when the 68k CPU reached the end of its development life. The Amiga tanked around that time however, meaning that the PPC part of the market was relatively small, and therefore so was the software selection to take advantage. Nowadays, PPC is also more or less left behind with essentially no mainstream desktop usage, but the Amiga is left slowly trundling along that path anyway, lacking the manpower/funding/motivation/market/ability to switch again. As such, many people simply stick with the 68k end of things as their hobby, since for many people, the Amiga was about the classic games and software. CPU compatibility isn't really the issue however since the OS4 and MorphOS include transparent 68k emulation - the compatibility issue comes from the lack of the classic chipset on PPC machines which most games require. Other people like to use productivity or system-friendly software, and indulge in some "what if" thinking, and PPC fills this gap by providing a much updated Amiga OS to run on much faster hardware.

There are also other NG OS options developed by users who didn't like the pace or direction of OS4 development (or various other political/personal/religious reasons), and developed their own updated OS implementations based on the Amiga API: MorphOS, which is also tied to PowerPC hardware, but can run on a lot of old Macintosh PowerPC hardware, and AROS, which is an open-source implementation based on the API but running on many different architectures including x86.

Thank you both for your time. It is much appreciated.

No problem The important thing is that you enjoy yourself!

Great info, thank you. Like, realy, really thank you. It helped a great deal.



So I've been following instructions for the Classic WB installs above, and I've reached the same stumbling block on when attempting any of them.



I've loaded the config file, put the hardfile in place and then booted. Following the instructions to the letter.


It boots fine and prompts for a Workbench 3.0 disk (and says a 3.1 disk will work, too). I've used the amiga-os-310-install.adf from Amiga Forever (i checked that there is in fact 6 disks here) and it displays a System Request box with 'Not a DOS disk in DF0' - the status bar at the bottom of UAE reads DF0: then the file name. When trying these same disks from across the web, from places like iKod, I get "This is not a valid Workbench disk".



In my experience, I'd chalk it up to a corrupt file, so I downloaded again and hashed the two files to compare, and they are identical. EDIT: BitLocker was doing some funky things to my ext drive. I think I may have cracked it. Bear with...

DOUBLE EDIT: Ok, the crypt problem is gone, as I've disabled BL on that drive. Now I can boot from the floppy, but it is 'not a DOS disk' in the WB Classic installer when prompted




Or is this not the correct file for this task? It's both a crushing and invigorating experience, learning from scratch!

[Genlock]

I think i know where your stuck at, somewhere in the instructions for ClassicWB
It should say- now press f12 and choose floppy from the menu on the left
which will enable you to choose the disk its asking for ..

Dont use all the 4 df - drives , Stick to df0 for now , also to speed the floppy access up , look down the page where there is a slider bar and drag it to the right =800 (me thinks from mem .

then just follow the prompts.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by WayforgeCorp

It boots fine and prompts for a Workbench 3.0 disk (and says a 3.1 disk will work, too). I've used the amiga-os-310-install.adf from Amiga Forever (i checked that there is in fact 6 disks here) and it displays a System Request box with 'Not a DOS disk in DF0' - the status bar at the bottom of UAE reads DF0: then the file name. When trying these same disks from across the web, from places like iKod, I get "This is not a valid Workbench disk".

I've installed ClassicWB Lite many times and never had that issue.

Mind you; I don't have or use the Cloanto / Amiga Forever sets... I always use the original Commodore ones

[Daedalus]

You shouldn't have errors like that for normal floppies unless they're damaged or corrupted. Games on the other hand often use custom disk formats for copy protection, and these will appear as non-DOS disks.

If you can boot from the Workbench disk images, and they show up ok on the desktop that shows up with them, then there's something really strange going on. ClassicWB (and other OS distros/packages) is more than just the OS installation and adds another layer of complexity to the installation process, though it really should "just work".

Originally Posted by Genlock

I think i know where your stuck at, somewhere in the instructions for ClassicWB
It should say- now press f12 and choose floppy from the menu on the left
which will enable you to choose the disk its asking for ..

Dont use all the 4 df - drives , Stick to df0 for now , also to speed the floppy access up , look down the page where there is a slider bar and drag it to the right =800 (me thinks from mem .

then just follow the prompts.

Thanks for the reply again. I think I'm managing up to that point. It's just when I hit F12 and pop the adf in the DF0: it throws that 'Not a DOS disk' error.

I've tried 3 legitimate disk sets now, so I think it may be something else I'm missing. Still getting the 'No DOS disk' error. Maybe something with the config and/or ROMs? There's a lot of options here and the instructions provided with the WB Classic stuff seem to assume I have some prior Amiga experience, which is totally understandable. e.g. It says the 'recommended config' uses:

CPU: 68020 + FPU
But doesn't specify which FPU or which settings.

Z3 Fast: 16MB
But I can't get 16MB while the 68020 is selected, only the 68030+

JIT: 8MB (Force Settings and Hard Flush boxes cleared)
There is no Force Settings box, but there are a few more

As for instructions:

1. Place the "ClassicWB.UAE" file into the WinUAE configurations directory. DONE
   
2. Start WinUAE and load the ClassicWB config DONE
   
3. Select a relevant ROM file in the ROMS tab DONE
   
4. Add the "System.hdf" file to the Hard Drives tab using "Add Hardfile" - make sure it's listed as being device DH0: DONE
5. Save the configuration DONE
   
6. Boot and follow the on-screen instructions
   Hit RETURN once to confirm message. Hit RETURN again when informed I'll be asked to insert a disk in the next step.
   
7. When asked to instert a Workbench 3 disk, hit F12, enter the Floppy Drives tab and select an ADF for DF0: Hit F12 and INSERT INSTALL FLOPPY. Hit OK. Hit RETURN to continue. 'Not a DOS Disk' error appears.

I've tried this with my Amiga Forever 3.1 ADFs, my sister's older AF 3.1 ADFs and a generous soul let me try their 3.0 ADFs. All with the same error. To me at least this isn't pointing to the disks...

I did once get an error advising a path name was too long, So I transferred them all to a root location to keep it as short as possible. So hopefully i've ruled that out.

I feel my glorious project is quite literally falling at the first hurdle haha.

[Daedalus]

What ROM version are you using? You should be using the same version that matches your Workbench disks. So, for using Workbench 3.0, your ROM should be 3.0 (or 39.x), and if you're using 3.1, your ROM should be 3.1 too (or 40.x) I would recommend using 3.1 across the board to start with.

Originally Posted by Daedalus

What ROM version are you using? You should be using the same version that matches your Workbench disks. So, for using Workbench 3.0, your ROM should be 3.0 (or 39.x), and if you're using 3.1, your ROM should be 3.1 too (or 40.x) I would recommend using 3.1 across the board to start with.

So the version number after the '.' shouldn't matter? e.g. KS ROM v3.1 (A1200) rev 40.68 (512k).rom should be compatible with Workbench v3.1 rev 40.42 (Disk 1 of 6)(Install).adf?

Because nowhere in my AF files or any others I've found match up perfectly...

I've tried these v3.0 ones, too: KS ROM v3.0 (A1200) rev 39.106 (512k).rom with Workbench v3.0 rev 39.29 (Disk 1 of 6)(Install).adf

I've now tried LITE, FULL, ADV and ADVSP

It just seems odd that I can boot from either of those floppies, just not install with them. Other floppies work too, as I created one for SysInfo which works fine.

I've just installed on another system and I'm getting the same issue.

[Daedalus]

Yep, after the dot is the revision or build number, and so they won't match, it's just the 39.x or 40.x part.

39.106 and 39.29 are the standard versions that were shipped originally with the A1200. The A4000 for example will have a different ROM build but the same Workbench version.

It's very strange indeed, but it would appear that there could be something wrong with the ClassicWB installer in this case. If you have your partitions created, try installing the standard Workbench, not ClassicWB or any other package. To do this you'll need to boot from the Install disk and use the installer on there to install Workbench. That should leave you with a bootable hard drive containing a standard 3.0 installation.

Originally Posted by Daedalus

It's very strange indeed, but it would appear that there could be something wrong with the ClassicWB installer in this case. If you have your partitions created, try installing the standard Workbench, not ClassicWB or any other package. To do this you'll need to boot from the Install disk and use the installer on there to install Workbench. That should leave you with a bootable hard drive containing a standard 3.0 installation.

Ok! Thanks for this.

EDIT: So... I've been experimenting and editing this post as I go - I think it's working now, but here's what happened:


I've just started the 'vanilla' install from the install disk, and I've got a bit further than last time, in that it's now accepting my correctly formatted HDD. What happens next is also relating to floppies. When you're asked "please inster the "Amiga Workbench" disk Version 3.1 in any floppy drive", I insert the disk I think it's asking for. I've tried my AF amiga-os-134-workbench.adf, wb31-workbench.adf which I think I found online, and Workbench v3.1 rev 40.42 (1994)(Commodore)(M10)(Disk 2 of 6)(Workbench).adf
but it just keeps saying the disk is incorrect.
I also tried a few others, like inserting the install disk in the second drive, just in case.

With that not working, I've started making my way through the previous versions of WinUAE, to the same effect. Always failing on floppies, I'm 3 or 4 versions back now. I've also tried FS-UAE and if I still cant get it working I'll try it on UAE4ARM later.



Ok, so fast forward again. I put the TWO floppies in before I booted. That's the install disk in DF0 and the Workbench disk in DF1. Then I booted. Both the Install and the Workbench disks were visible on the desktop(old habits, Workbench) this time. I started up the installer and it just started eating the install disks as fast as I put them in!


It's fully installed to disk now! I've tried it with the WB Classic installer but it's being a bit funky on boot as I'm not sure if you can set a boot order between the hardfile and the floppy, as floppies seem to take priority regardless of the HDD boot priority. Booting the hardfile from the WB installer with my AF Workbench floppy inserted at the same time boots the AF workbench, yet has a ton of programs that I'm assuming are from the installer, yet after this has happened, booting the hardfile just gives the installer prompt. How is this possible? haha


So what would be stopping me from being able to see that first disk? It must be a setting, yeah? Cause this is happening on 3 machines over 2 source ports...

[hth313]

A floppy in df0: is intended to have higher priority over anything else. This, I believe, is to ensure that when something is up with your HD installation, you can always boot from floppy as rescue.

You can set the boot priority for the HD in the HDToolBox.

If you boot with both mouse buttons down, you will get into the early boot menu, which will look different depending on which version of the kickstart you are using. Here you can override various boot behaviours, like disable booting from a particular device, omitting startup-sequence (the boot script) and a couple of other things.

In a real system the computer senses a floppy in a drive and what you describe does not happen. A simulated environment may be different, but I have hardly used them so I cannot really help here.

[DamienD]

Once everything is installed to hard drive then you don't need to have the floppy disk in DF0: anymore

[Genlock]

Originally Posted by WayforgeCorp

Ok! Thanks for this.

EDIT: So... I've been experimenting and editing this post as I go - I think it's working now, but here's what happened:


I've just started the 'vanilla' install from the install disk, and I've got a bit further than last time, in that it's now accepting my correctly formatted HDD. What happens next is also relating to floppies. When you're asked "please inster the "Amiga Workbench" disk Version 3.1 in any floppy drive", I insert the disk I think it's asking for. I've tried my AF amiga-os-134-workbench.adf, wb31-workbench.adf which I think I found online, and Workbench v3.1 rev 40.42 (1994)(Commodore)(M10)(Disk 2 of 6)(Workbench).adf
but it just keeps saying the disk is incorrect.
I also tried a few others, like inserting the install disk in the second drive, just in case.

With that not working, I've started making my way through the previous versions of WinUAE, to the same effect. Always failing on floppies, I'm 3 or 4 versions back now. I've also tried FS-UAE and if I still cant get it working I'll try it on UAE4ARM later.



Ok, so fast forward again. I put the TWO floppies in before I booted. That's the install disk in DF0 and the Workbench disk in DF1. Then I booted. Both the Install and the Workbench disks were visible on the desktop(old habits, Workbench) this time. I started up the installer and it just started eating the install disks as fast as I put them in!


It's fully installed to disk now! I've tried it with the WB Classic installer but it's being a bit funky on boot as I'm not sure if you can set a boot order between the hardfile and the floppy, as floppies seem to take priority regardless of the HDD boot priority. Booting the hardfile from the WB installer with my AF Workbench floppy inserted at the same time boots the AF workbench, yet has a ton of programs that I'm assuming are from the installer, yet after this has happened, booting the hardfile just gives the installer prompt. How is this possible? haha


So what would be stopping me from being able to see that first disk? It must be a setting, yeah? Cause this is happening on 3 machines over 2 source ports...

I found this post which may explain your problems.
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=14640&page=11


It looks like a fairly newer version that's been released has some real F*****g problems.


Iam sorry for suggesting that you should try it
The reason our's is ok is its probably an old old version of the workbench disks that we are using .


Plus it looks like the classicWB Script has been changed too, as i tried the newer 2015 version and had a problem where it was asking for DH1
(If it aint broke dont fix it )

[DamienD]

Ok, home now and just tried installing a fresh copy of the latest "Classic WB Lite v28"; download from here. No issues what-so-ever

Files used were as follows:

Kickstart ROM:

... KS ROM v3.1 (A1200) rev 40.68 (512k).rom


Workbench Disks:

... Workbench v3.1 rev 40.42 (1994)(Commodore)(M10)(Disk 1 of 6)(Install)[!].adf
... Workbench v3.1 rev 40.42 (1994)(Commodore)(M10)(Disk 2 of 6)(Workbench)[!].adf
... Workbench v3.1 rev 40.42 (1994)(Commodore)(M10)(Disk 3 of 6)(Extras)[!].adf
... Workbench v3.1 rev 40.42 (1994)(Commodore)(M10)(Disk 4 of 6)(Storage)[!].adf
... Workbench v3.1 rev 40.42 (1994)(Commodore)(M10)(Disk 5 of 6)(Locale)[!].adf
... Workbench v3.1 rev 40.42 (1994)(Commodore)(M10)(Disk 6 of 6)(Fonts)[!].adf


Instructions (from the Classic WB webpage):

1. Place the "ClassicWB.UAE" file into the WinUAE configurations directory.
2. Start WinUAE and load the ClassicWB config. image
3. Select a relevant ROM file in the ROMS tab. image
4. Add the "System.hdf" file to the Hard Drives tab using "Add Hardfile" - make sure it's listed as being device DH0: image
5. Save the configuration. image
6. Boot and follow the on-screen instructions. image
7. When asked to instert a Workbench 3 disk, hit F12, enter the Floppy Drives tab and select an ADF for DF0:

Originally Posted by WayforgeCorp

CPU: 68020 + FPU
But doesn't specify which FPU or which settings.

Z3 Fast: 16MB
But I can't get 16MB while the 68020 is selected, only the 68030+

JIT: 8MB (Force Settings and Hard Flush boxes cleared)
There is no Force Settings box, but there are a few more

All this is already set in the configuration file "ClassicWB.uae".

Mind you, you don't really need to have an FPU selected or JIT; these are only really required if you are playing hardcore, resource hungry, *new* Amiga games...

Originally Posted by hth313

A floppy in df0: is intended to have higher priority over anything else. This, I believe, is to ensure that when something is up with your HD installation, you can always boot from floppy as rescue.

You can set the boot priority for the HD in the HDToolBox.

If you boot with both mouse buttons down, you will get into the early boot menu, which will look different depending on which version of the kickstart you are using. Here you can override various boot behaviours, like disable booting from a particular device, omitting startup-sequence (the boot script) and a couple of other things.

In a real system the computer senses a floppy in a drive and what you describe does not happen. A simulated environment may be different, but I have hardly used them so I cannot really help here.

This is INCREDIBLY useful information, thank you!

Originally Posted by Genlock

It looks like a fairly newer version that's been released has some real F*****g problems.

Yeah, I've read about quite a few issues with WB Classic and WinUAE when accessing floppies, I've dropped it for now and I've got a working 3.1 install from the vanilla disks. I'm in the evaluation phase at the moment, but it seems to be going well .

Is there an advantage to the WB Classic installs, or are they just really good pre-packaged deployments? I like the sound of that for the future.

Originally Posted by DamienD

Ok, home now and just tried installing a fresh copy of the latest "Classic WB Lite v28"; download from here. No issues what-so-ever

Thanks so much for going to the effort! I did exactly as you said, and I still get the same error. Even with the same disk set as mentioned, but it's not the end of the world as I not only got 3.1 installed I also managed to make my way through the 3.9 install, after all of the guides I followed failed at one point or another.

One thing that may help me is if there is some documentation on how Amiga's reference storage and devices. I've seen scripts reference volume names, yet others use device names. As far as I can tell, AmigaOS/WB treats volumes the same as physical devices. In Linux this might be explained by using a 'friendly name' for a device, or a 'Label' in Windows, but the OS would always reference the drive letter or port, not the friendly name when doing anything.

I do have one burning question about my 3.9 install, though. How do I get settings to survive a reboot? I've set the video settings and installed the Picasso video stuff, and had it at native resolution for a while, then rebooted and I'm back to 4 colours (I think) and a tiny resolution.

Originally Posted by Daedalus

To be honest though, 4.1 is a bit big for classic use so you might be best served sticking to 3.9. But if you do want to use OS4, 4.1 Final Edition for Classics is the version to get.

I'm going to attempt another 3.9 install on my second laptop, and then maybe on my PC, just for a laugh with sysinfo, but once I know I've got that down, what reason would you say that 4.1 is too big for classic use. I'm hoping to have this be as functional as possible and I'm not really bothered about gaming as I have 'The Beast' for that. I notice some people talking about SMP and multithreaded options in 4.1, but I don't know how UAE handles this, or if it can even pass it through to hardware. Am I correct in assuming that all versions prior to 4.1 fall victim to synch-lock?

Anyway, I'm not too bothered about that, as long as it is functional. I'd love the option of Blender etc, but in all honesty I'd be quite literally wasting time waiting for renders when I have a rig sat right next to it with 22GB video memory and 7168 GPU cores built largely for that purpose.

It's probably a point of contention, but what is considered the best AmigaOS in terms of all out functionality and dependability?

Also, a (really) minor note, wouldn't 4.1 be more 'in universe' for this build seeing as this was originally developed internally before the financial problems? (and got bought out by a large tech conglomerate)

At the end of the day, I'm looking at building the best Amiga build I can without splashing out on 'real' hardware that gets out-benched by emulators on cheap hardware anyway. I'm enjoying the process and you guys have been so welcoming and informative (and patient)

Once it's done I'll image this at the block level and keep it safe so I can deploy in seconds in the future, if needed.