Amithlon Setup Guide

[cloverskull]

Gotcha, seems straightforward enough I suppose. *shrug*

[chr0mak3y]

A new update. I had been having constant issues with my GA-p35-ds4 rig, so i went back to a motherboard i tried last year and thought i would have another attempt.

Right now I have a fully functioning Amithlon rig on a pentirum 4 661FX-M motherboard. Using and IDE HDD and CDROM. Onboard USB, Network and Sound are all running happily on Kern310. There are occasionally some little glitches though. For example, it wont boot or reboot if there is a usb stick plugged in. And sometimes the usb card wont work if network stack is running. There can also be the occasional issue with using audio will trying to use usb or network.

But overall it works and has been another fun install.

[dr.zeissler]

Is "soundmax" supported by any kernel-version of AMITHLON ?
(Analog Devices AD1981B (AC'97) Audio Codec)

I have that onboard and no free PCI-Slot for a soundcard.

Thx!

[milanca]

@dr.zeissler

Not sure for others but it should work with kernel4 if device id is 8086:24c5 (VEN_8086 DEV_24C5). Check if it matches with yours.
BR

[dr.zeissler]

Originally Posted by Methanoid

Has anyone (except Milanca) ever built drivers for Amithlon? I downloaded his V4 pack and in the audio file found references to MANY (unfortunately rare and hence not much use) sound cards eg

STAC9766/67 STAC9756/57 STAC9750/51 STAC9744 STAC9721/23 STAC9708/11 STAC9704 STAC9701/3/4/5 STAC9700/83/84
YMF753 YMF752 YMF743
WM9705 WM9704/quad WM9703/9707 WM9701A W83971D
VIA1612A
TLC320AD9xC
TR28602 TR28028 TR28026 TR28022
Si3036/8
UCB1400
LM4549 LM4540/43/45/46/48
IT2226E
VT1616
ICE1232 ICE1230
HMP9701
ESS1988 28028 DT0398
Cx20468
HSD11246
CS4291 CS4205 CS4201 CS4299 CS4294 CS4294/4298 CS4297A CS4297
CMI9739 CMI9738 (MANY PCI & PCI & LP CMI8738 CARDS STILL)
ALC250 ALC202 ALC101 ALC650 ALC200/200P (MOST COMMON SERIES USED TODAY)
RL5383 RL5382 RL5306
AD1981A AD1980 AD1886A AD1887 AD1886 AD1885 AD1881A AD1881 AD1819 (MANY OLD DESKTOP PCS USED)
AK4545 AK4544A AK4543 AK4542 AK4540
NM256AV

If we could extend the three bold sequences we'd have virtually limitless options for sound. I wonder if this is something the AROS guys can help with (similar). ???

Wow, that is what I searched for, so Pack4 will give nearly all the machines I have sound. Great!
https://sourceforge.net/projects/amithlon/files/Latest/

[dr.zeissler]

where do I get the results, seemed not be be archived?
https://web.archive.org/web/20190628...rollandcg.com/

[dr.zeissler]

Was there ever an attempt to use intel igp gfx-chips in amithlon?
In linux they got dri-support, but I never found anything for amithlon.

[dr.zeissler]

Only the 815e refuses to boot the Amithlon-CD, later ones i845(intel extreme-gfx) /i865(intel extreme-gfx2) boot correctly in 640x480 8Bit.

[SnkBitten]

Originally Posted by dr.zeissler

Only the 815e refuses to boot the Amithlon-CD, later ones i845(intel extreme-gfx) /i865(intel extreme-gfx2) boot correctly in 640x480 8Bit.

What kernel is your Amithlon CD? If it's a stock Amithlon CD and not modified, a newer kernel may offer VESA support for that chipset .

Amithlon CD not booting on a machine is not a strong indicator Amithlon doesn't work on that machine, it's a strong indicator that the kernel doesn't support the basic I/O of that chipset. I've had machines kernel panic on the stock Amithlon CD, boot with no video, lock on the final reboot before the OS loads....all to work just fine on Kernel 3.1 or Kernel 4.

No guarantee this could resolve the black screen but it's possible.

[dr.zeissler]

I have tested every kernel, it's not about the kernel. I am not sure but I think I found a solution but I do not have the hardware yet.

The error message is "no framebuffer found" that indicates that amithlon kernel is not able to use the shared (v)ram from the bios-setting for the igp (64MB in my case). My D1215 board supports GPA-Ram (AIMM), so I will go for a 4MB upgrade via AGP slot. Hopefully that will solve that problem. https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/a/aimm.htm

Best regards
Doc

[rare_j]

Originally Posted by rare_j

I have a matrox g550 pci low profile and dual monitor adapter. Its useless for windows as there are no drivers beyound vista. Does anyone want it for cost of postage?

I just found this in a box again. Someone did ask for this before, unluckily it was just as the pandemic started and I was unable to get it delivered at the time.
Just reposting this in case anyone (perhaps even the same person as before?) might find this useful.

[Dick Dastardly]

Well it looks like I am a little late to the party...

I would love to get this running on my ryzen 5900x and Windows 10 in virtualbox, I read in this thread that amithlon is about 5 times faster than Winuae, that would put me at about 1350x the speed of an A4000-25 for about 25,000,000 Dhrystones, I would like to see that.

I will be following the guide on here of course, if anybody has any advice in using amithlon in virtualbox and their own experiences that would be much appreciated, especially the virtualbox settings for amithlon.

Kind regards
Nick

[SnkBitten]

Originally Posted by Dick Dastardly

Well it looks like I am a little late to the party...

I would love to get this running on my ryzen 5900x and Windows 10 in virtualbox, I read in this thread that amithlon is about 5 times faster than Winuae, that would put me at about 1350x the speed of an A4000-25 for about 25,000,000 Dhrystones, I would like to see that.

I will be following the guide on here of course, if anybody has any advice in using amithlon in virtualbox and their own experiences that would be much appreciated, especially the virtualbox settings for amithlon.

Kind regards
Nick

I posted this earlier but here it is again. Follow the standard install process as outlined in the guides I've written on your virtualbox system.
---------------------------------------------------
Virtualbox system
You can use Virutalbox for Amithlon with all features working (USB, Network, AHI) except for hardware accelerated graphics. You just have to use an older version. "VirtualBox-6.0.24-139119-Win" works perfectly.

https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/6.0.24/

Just configure it as a DOS based system, 16MB video card, 1 GB ram and IDE drives. Audio setup as ICH AC97 and network depends on the kernel you plan to run.
Kernel4 set your adapter type as Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop and Kernel 3.10 set your adapter type as PCnet-FAST III. I attach it as a bridged adapter on my host computes NIC so I can access my internal stuff (wireless printers, NAS storage, etc..).

[dr.zeissler]

What can I do if Amithlon tells me:

- VESA VGA
unidentified mode, available only textmodes... regardless what textmode I choose...

"...less than 4MB System halted..."

What can I do?

[dr.zeissler]

Originally Posted by croupier

...HP Compaq NX6125 works with all kernels that I could try....now just need to install everything to see what other hardware on this laptop is recognized by Amithlon...

@croupier
how did this turn out?

[croupier]

Originally Posted by dr.zeissler

@croupier
how did this turn out?

Gfx: VESA only
Ethernet: OK
Wi-fi: no
Sound: no
USB: able to activate only 1 port (if trying to add more the system freezes)
CD/DVD: ok
Bluetooth: no


While the CPU is more powerful than the older Dell laptops that I use for Amithlon, I prefer using the Dell laptops as they have more HW that is recognized/usable by Amithlon....

[dr.zeissler]

OK Thx, what Dell machines would you suggest? C610 ?
I am thinking about IBM T21 as well...

[dr.zeissler]

Originally Posted by croupier

Gfx: VESA only
Ethernet: OK
Wi-fi: no
Sound: no
USB: able to activate only 1 port (if trying to add more the system freezes)
CD/DVD: ok
Bluetooth: no


While the CPU is more powerful than the older Dell laptops that I use for Amithlon, I prefer using the Dell laptops as they have more HW that is recognized/usable by Amithlon....

https://cdn.cnetcontent.com/f0/93/f0...dabce9a0e2.pdf

I search the web, but you are right, I could not find a reference for the conexant audio and amithlon.
Beside that X300 is overkill for win98, but should only do VESA in amithlon...so I will put my nx6125 back in the store and search for something else...

AMD Turion 64 ML-30 (1.6-GHz, 512KB L2 cache)
15.0-inch TFT XGA with 1024 x 768 resolution (up to 16 M colors internal) ATI Mobility Radeon X300
Conexant AC '97 CODEC, Line out/headphone and microphone jacks
Integrated NetXtreme Ethernet Controller (10/100/1000 NIC)
Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN, Bluetooth Touchpad with scroll zone

[dr.zeissler]

You can install Amithlon ontop of freedos and start it via "loadlin xxx" but you can also install QNX and Amithlon ontop of this right?
Interestingly how many gfx-cards are supported. 3dfx-cards are also shown with lot's of acceleration.
How can this be if Amithlon should only work with VESA on 3dfx? Something wrong here?

https://web.archive.org/web/20011226...orm/video.html

[croupier]

Originally Posted by dr.zeissler

OK Thx, what Dell machines would you suggest? C610 ?
I am thinking about IBM T21 as well...

Dell Latitude C610/640s are the safest bet...as you can find them also with the supported ATI gfx card and if you can get hold of a supported Mini-PCI WLAN card (PRISM2 chipset!) you are all set!......have 2 of them, with different gfx cards....



I'm presently running my main Amithlon set-up on a DELL INSPIRON 5150...the only thing that's not fine with it is the limitation to the use of VESA gfx....as the gfx inside this laptop is not supported by Amithlon......but everything else is supported (audio, usb, LAN, wi-fi (with PRISM2)...).