Shapeshifter super slow init

[xavlahaye]

Hey everybody
I'm successfully using Shapeshifter but something bugs me: The initialization time is huge (black screen for minutes). Once the Mac logo appears it loads super fast and runs beautifully.
What could solve this issue?
I seem to remember having it go to the boot screen almost instantly with a 030/50 Mhz, is that possible?

My setup is:
Re-Amiga1200 v1.5/Warp1260
Picasso96 RTG
super fast SD mass storage with a dedicated Mac partition (MacOS 7.5.5)
AmigaOS 3.2.1/MuFastZero/MuFastRom/MuEVD
MacRom: 1994-07 - 06684214 - LC,Quadra,Performa 630

Having a dedicated partition or a diskfile doesn't change anything regarding that issue, not sure otherwise
I run with no cache otherwise Shapeshifter crashes on boot
Any tips are appreciated

[Aardvark]

Shapeshifter should boot up fine with 060 caches on, so that must be a symptom of some problem, but I have no idea what, sorry.

[daxb]

Check filesystem (settings) buffer/caches.

[xavlahaye]

Ok, I do have problems with the 68060/mmu.library indeed.
I think it's OS related since:
whdload works without any issues
demos work also very well (OCS/AGA/060/RTG)
But with caches on, I do have instability issues within Workbench, random crashes
I did a clean install (formatting and starting from scratch) in that order: Amiga OS 3.2>update 3.2.1>MMU lib install(from OS3.2 cd)>Picasso96>whdloadusr_small>Icon.library>MUI3.8>Roadshow
No other patches whatsoever.
At that point, I don't know what to do. Building a new MMU table?
Can someone confirm that Shapeshifter shouldn't be stuck on a black screen for minutes before starting?
Oh, and I use PFS3 as a filesystem, if that makes any difference

[xavlahaye]

Originally Posted by daxb

Check filesystem (settings) buffer/caches.

Buffers are at 600 (the max that I can get out of the ADDBUFFERS command)
MAXTRANSFER=01xFE00
BLOCKSIZE=512 (as stated in Shapeshifter manual for creating a mac partition)
Partition is within the first 2gb of the SD card (learned that the hard way), using PFS3
Is there something else?

[Don_Adan]

Better try to run ShapeShifter direct after installing Amiga OS 3.2. If it works ok, then install next things one by one, and check which installation make problems.

[Aardvark]

Originally Posted by xavlahaye

Can someone confirm that Shapeshifter shouldn't be stuck on a black screen for minutes before starting?

Yes, I have almost identical setup to yours, and SS boots up fast, but really there's no point to worry about Shapeshifter or any other software until you have a stable system with caches enabled.

[xavlahaye]

Ok, so it turned out that I had the happy new year '96 virus in my system. Now everything works great, Shapeshifter works with caches, but the Mac still takes a bit over 2 min to get to the boot screen. From there, it's a 12 sec ride to the finder.
I tried different roms but it didn't change that. Any other ideas about what could be causing that?

[saimon69]

sounds like PRAM can be damaged, try to press the equivalent of command/option/P/R at the start to restore it on mac side, or if i remember good there is a pram file in shapeshifter directory that you could rename or delete - is just a guess though

[xavlahaye]

So, I could solve the issue by downgrading Shapeshifter to version 3.8. As far as I can tell, everything works great like that, same hd files, same settings, same rom. Issues might arise if you are using system 8.1, according to ShapeShifter's documentation, but I don't. System 7 is considered better within the retro Mac community, especially for 68k machines, being faster and all, so I don't bother for now.

Good to know if somebody else struggles with 3.11. I did erase the PRAM file but it wouldn't change anything. Regarding the key combination on boot to restore it on the Mac side, I never could trigger it for some reason.

I also discovered the website system7today which is full of useful information on the system. It also hosts all kinds of apps for you to try in Shapeshifter. It's amazing how everything works, Shapeshifter rocks!