Amithlon Setup Guide

[dr.zeissler]

Matrox Mystique/Millenium users should use "video=matrox with video=dovesa".
Then update amithlon:
1. AOSXL-Update
2. BB3.9-2 Update
3. AmithlonUpdate131

After installing 1.31 and do a complete reboot "matrox-mystique" and perhaps also "matrox-millenium" are directly supported. "powerfb" changes to "matrox-1" in the picasso96. The bad effect on this is that all sounddrivers disappear even "ahi60usr" does not help on this. Audio is only "filesave" regardless what card I have into that machine. Any idea how to solve that soundproblem. Btw. "mui" is needed before installing "ahi60usr".

[dr.zeissler]

While installing 131 I have to mark everthing with "no" and especially the last entry where it deletes the pcinsmod entry. If I "puh128" then I have sound in the demos.

Not perfect for every demo, but lot's of demos do work.

That brings me to these questions:

1. Do I have to "puh128" in order to get sound, or is there another way beside starting and running it.
2. Is there any other soundoption while staying on the original kernel "emubox.gz" (like emu10k)

Thx!

[dr.zeissler]

Originally Posted by milanca

V... i plan to install low-profile PCI FX5200. Still many of them could be purchased. MX4000, FX5200, 5700, some ATI cards also and all in PCI variant....

What kernel are we talking here?

I only get a suitable picture with my gf4 mx4000 PCI if I add "video=dovesa", if I choose video=nvida or simply do not give a video-option in the "small-bootup" my desktop is coloured garbage. I have tested the orignal kernels and kern310 on this.

It's hard to get a TNT2/MX PCI card and these 4MX/4000 cards a very small and ideal for amithlon to my eyes if you only have PCI slots.

[dr.zeissler]

@SnkBitten

you covered a lot of stuff in your guide, thx for that!

Beside your Kernel3/4 recommended hardware there is also the option to go for kernel2.0x. Is your "pio-mode only" statement also for that kernel?

I thought that my SN45Gv2 should be well supported with Nforce2 capable kernel 2.04. It should give me working:
https://archive.shuttle.eu/2004/de/sn45g.htm

- IDE
- Audio
- Lan

The only downside is that this kernel should only support gfx-cards that are included up to that kernel. Therefore I am not using GF4 or FX series and a Geforce3 instead. Gfx is working fine (everything beside P96 lowres 320x240, higher resolutions are working fine.) Audio and Lan is not working because I have not figured out how to install them. I already copied the necessary files, but I used driver 0.9 that is for kernel3 , kernel 2 should be combined with drivers 0.86. So I will install them this weekend.

Doc

[dr.zeissler]

I got audio working with NF2 and kernel 2.04

So I switched the machine and got back to P3/1400 i815e AC97 with GF4mx 4000 PCI!

Only Kernel4 works with that MX4000-PCI the original kernel and the updated one and also Kernel3 do not work with MX4000-PCI (only with dovesa).

Kernel4 works but not 100%. There is still "VESA-1" and not "NVIDIA-1" as expected in P96. Any idea how to fix this?

Thx!

[SnkBitten]

Originally Posted by dr.zeissler

Kernel4 works but not 100%. There is still "VESA-1" and not "NVIDIA-1" as expected in P96. Any idea how to fix this?

Thx!

The framebuffer is only in the kernel so if it is not seeing anything but VESA-1 it's not registering against the kernel.

I had to add the following to the init file "small" on my laptop which has an nVidia GPU to get it to show up properly as NVIDIA-1 instead of VESA-1.

video=riva:1600x1200,flatpanel=1

the 1600x1200 is the laptop screens native resolution so you can set that to something else like 1024x768.

[SnkBitten]

Originally Posted by dr.zeissler

@SnkBitten

you covered a lot of stuff in your guide, thx for that!

Beside your Kernel3/4 recommended hardware there is also the option to go for kernel2.0x. Is your "pio-mode only" statement also for that kernel?



Doc

Thanks, I spent a long time working with different hardware and attempting to decipher how Amithlon worked so I tried to share what I learned.

Unfortunately I have no interest in the older kernels and have spent zero time with them.