Amithlon Setup Guide

[croupier]

Probably a stupid question...but I'm not an expert with gfx cards...

How to test/check if a card has any hardware acceleration used under Amithlon?

Just got one AGP MB with P3 and managed to get the gfx, audio and USB working with the original kernel (emubox.gz)........so now I have finally a chance to test all those AGP gfx cards laying around in the boxes...

[milanca]

@croupier

Hi, do not worry whether the question is stupid or not ;-) It's a question.

It doesn't matter if the kernel is the original (from the CD). I think though there is even an updated kernel in one of the amithlon's original updates. But you will need a hd install with all those updates to get more powerfb under 'monitors', also some Libs, but definitely do a 'hd' install with everything that follows.

Then it's simple, Picasso96Mode will offer you a new card (other than vesa) to attach your settings to. That means your card is recognized and working under p96 as accelerated. After you attach a new card, at ScreenMode, you will see your card listed with all the resolutions it supports.

[SnkBitten]

Milanca, I have multiple GeForce PCX 5750 cards as that was the easiest to find on eBay and none worked. It's been a long time since I was attempting to work with one so I don't even remember if it showed up in one of the PCI list commands or anything else.

I think the vendor ID was correct as I do recall looking through it.

I really need to rebuild my Amithlon system and I may give one of those cards another go. Not like I need too, the 5200 pci card I have runs great...but it would be nice to free up a PCI slot as well as have a PCI-E option other than the Matrox card.

[croupier]

Originally Posted by milanca

Then it's simple, Picasso96Mode will offer you a new card (other than vesa) to attach your settings to. That means your card is recognized and working under p96 as accelerated. After you attach a new card, at ScreenMode, you will see your card listed with all the resolutions it supports.

Thanks! So if I understand correctly, the gfx card runs in hardware accelerated mode if P96Mode shows it with its own name under available boards? As for the most of the cards it shows mainly VESA or powerfb....

[milanca]

Originally Posted by croupier

Thanks! So if I understand correctly, the gfx card runs in hardware accelerated mode if P96Mode shows it with its own name under available boards? As for the most of the cards it shows mainly VESA or powerfb....

Exactly! It's really as simple as that.


@SnkBitten


Right, so your PCX5750 should have 0x00fa as its device id. I checked the kernel and it is not there, so it should be added. But yes, that's the correct way to go. When you have time and put the card in, first list pci devices under amithlon. I am sure it will be there, kernel will find it even it is a pcie device, it will be initialized just not activated yet, until device id is added and rivafb is told to use it under nv30 arch.

[LaBodilsen]

So i got Amithlon_CaffeineOS running on a Lenovo X200 12" laptop. (sweet little machine).

No Sound, no network, and only 8bit screenmodes.

But my questions is for file exchange between Amithlon and my PC:
1. Does Amithlon support PCMCIA cardslot for network?
2. Can i mount a Fat32 partition on the same harddrive?
3. Does it support USB pendrive (USB mouse works, but thats properly more a linux driver than amiga)
4. There is a cardreader in the laptop, but i suspect it's USB internally can that be used?

[croupier]

The USB ports are working? If yes...is Poseidon showing any devices attached to the USB ports (apart the internal HUB)? If nothing is shown (e.g. card reader) than it is not recognized and therefore unusable by Amithlon...as an example...my EeePC has in internal Bluetooth adapter and it was recognized by Poseidon...the issue is that there are no drivers for BT made for the Amiga...



PCMCIA is not supported by Amithlon AFAIK...

[LaBodilsen]

Originally Posted by croupier

The USB ports are working? If yes...is Poseidon showing any devices attached to the USB ports (apart the internal HUB)? If nothing is shown (e.g. card reader) than it is not recognized and therefore unusable by Amithlon..

Thank you so much, i did not think of usb storage.
Yes apparently the USB ports are working, and Trident can see some devices (also an Thinkpad Bluetooth adaptor)

The card reader did not show up, but i managed to mount a 4gb USB stick, and can use that for data transfer.

Also noted that usbaudio showed up with an plantronics adaptor, but no sound came out. Is there any known USB audio devices that works on Amiga/Amithlon, and same question for USB network adaptors?

btw: got 16 and 24bit screenmodes working, by tweaking the boot options (vga=792 for 1027*768 24bit)

[croupier]

Originally Posted by LaBodilsen

Also noted that usbaudio showed up with an plantronics adaptor, but no sound came out. Is there any known USB audio devices that works on Amiga/Amithlon, and same question for USB network adaptors?

Haven't played with USB peripherals yet....Try to play with the 'USB audio device' (or whatever device Poseidon installed for the USB audio) in AHI settings...and for the USB Network adaptor check if there are any USB devices offered by Poseidon for the USB network (this has to be used in GENESIS for the network set-up)....


Don't have access to my Amithlons/Amigas right now (writing from office)...so cannot check and advice correctly....above was just from top of my mind what I would look for now..........but not sure if it will actually work!...

[dr.zeissler]

Originally Posted by milanca

Thanks @SnkBitten. Yes i read in your previous post that it works fine using that version. Unfortunately I can not use it (at least currently) which will require me to downgrade currently installed VBox. As I am a developer by trade I have some projects (some of their parts) which are under vagrant (and virtual box) and segments are on CentOS. I am afraid not to break it. Not sure if it will all go smoothly so I am not keen to risk. That's why I wanted to try it with Qemu.

It is actually not going well with Qemu. I am not able to get any mode other than builtin 640x480, even in vesa, and i tried with all available video devices in qemu which are supported by kernel. Vesa mode is working but only in 640x480. Ati rage 128p was promising but its support looks minimal. I spent a weekend messing up with it, it was fun though, but I'd suggest staying away from amithlon in qemu (which is great by the way). Looks like that amithlon doesn't like virtual video devices at all. Could be that i missed installing something, all amithlon updates are installed. Anyways, if anyone wants to try running amithlon in qemu here is the way I am running it:

qemu-system-x86_64 -machine type=pc,accel=kvm \
-m 768M -vga vmware \
-device dc390,id=scsi0 \
-device scsi-hd,drive=drive0,bus=scsi0.0,channel=0,scsi-id=0 \
-drive file=path-to-hdd-image.vdi,format=vdi,if=none,id=drive0 \
-device scsi-cd,drive=drive1,bus=scsi0.0,channel=0,scsi-id=1 \
-drive file=path-to-cd-image.iso,if=none,id=drive1

Here I am using image from virtualbox(which is supported) so the format is vdi. So make sure to use appropriate format, raw,qcow,etc.

The way drives are added to scsi

-device dc390,id=scsi0 <-- here we set scsi device id=scsi0
-device scsi-hd,drive=drive0,bus=scsi0.0,channel=0,scsi-id=0 <-- here we set scsi hd drive=drive0
-drive file=path-to-hdd-image.vdi,format=vdi,if=none,id=drive0 <-- attach image to drive0

Kernel to use for qemu is attached.

Best

Is there any chance to get accelerated ati (lt) rage pro ? I am testing a thinclient with integrated ati rage pro (LT).
The standard kernel from the cd does boot on VESA mode on that machine. Every other kernel leads to a freeze, I have tested all available kernels.
Afaik the "new_kernel2" is an ati-kernel that could perhaps work but it does not. I did not find what ati-cards are supported on this.

What is the (performance)-difference between "powerfb" and "vesa-1" is it the same, or is this different?


Thx
Doc

[dr.zeissler]

Can someone please explain me in simple words how the connection between the hardware, the linux and amithlon is done.
I am interested in fixing the framebuffer-issue on my i815e chipset machine.
Linux has indeed a framebuffer-driver for that gfx-chip: https://docs.kernel.org/fb/intel810.html
If I manage to setup a new kernel with this checklist: http://amithlon.snkbitten.com/Docs/KernelCompiling.html

Would it be possible to get amithlon working?
Will Picasso96 work with a new kernel (perhaps there will only be vesa mode) If I manage to get up an running.

Thx!

[milanca]

Unfortunately without C programming knowledge you can't do much as it's not just adding a framebuffer driver to the kernel. Driver needs to be modified a bit (it needs to be for 2.4 kernal), adjusted for amithlon usage. It isn't too difficult and doesn't require too much work but some C programming is needed.

[dr.zeissler]

thx @milanca

I would perhaps barely manage to use SNKBittens checklist for the kernel, but I have no experience in "C". So dead end here.
I will have to use/find another machine for Amithlon
On early I815e there is no way to start amithlon.
Every kernel behaves the same. Later i845 do work in vesa, i815e not.

Thx
Doc

[milanca]

@dr.zeissler

Correct. I saw your previous message regarding Ati Rage, yes, you're also right, unsupported. Both of them can be added to the kernel, with some nice or partial acceleration including i815 as i see there is a kernel 2.4 driver. Unfortunately not enough free time lately. Maybe during the following months or in the summer time. I know at least three graphic cards that could be added to the kernel, yes, they are all old but even the kernel is, and everything else ;-) including myself :-)

Best

[Deremon]

Hi!
I'm super late to amithlon party
I've a couple of questions if someone have any idea/suggestion will be greatly appreciated!
I've a GA-EP35-DS3R with a core duo E8200 which "in theory" is very similar to the supported GA-P35-DS3L, the differences are P35 "non express" for my MB and ICH9R southbridge instead of "normal" ICH9 and of course the fact it does not work
I've tried with a random PCIe Geforce with "dovesa" and it does not found the framebuffer device (console level 5), I've also a supported Matrox G550 PCIe 32 MB, with "dovesa" it does not found the framebuffer device (like the nvidia do), with any combination of video=matrox* I've, at best, a purple screen (I think framebuffer is not working either)
So the questions are:
Can a "standard" PCI card like a nvdia FX5700 (I've to buy it in case that's why I'm asking) resolve this problem or the problem will persist due the fact the motherboard is likely not supported?
If I recompile kernel sources, will be a possibility to found a module for the P35 non-express and the ICH9R southbridge?
The last question is, I've an athlon XP 1700+ system with a supported geforce 2MX AGP which unfortunately cannot run emulated whdload games under e-uae (low fps with sound stuttering) may an athlon XP 3000+ have enough power to run them?

Thanks!

[dr.zeissler]

Very fast and mordern machines you have.

Have you limited your RAM to 1GB ? Takeout everything that is more than that.

On AGP matrox cards you don't need "video=matrox and video= vesa" that is only needed on the very early Mystique/Millenium PCI cards. G550 was supported directly in the newkernel and that is best used with 131. I only have the G550 AGP and it works good. The later and therefore unsupported chipsets will most likly only use pio mode on HDD access but that does not care because the machines are so fast.

I see no real benefit in playing whdload-games in amithlon, but if this is your goal then go for it. My main focus is native amiga software that does not need the custom-chipset and runs direct on amithlon...though there is not so much stuff for this niche, but for everything else I can game on that thing... [ Show youtube player ]

[dr.zeissler]

Originally Posted by milanca

@dr.zeissler

Correct. I saw your previous message regarding Ati Rage, yes, you're also right, unsupported. Both of them can be added to the kernel, with some nice or partial acceleration including i815 as i see there is a kernel 2.4 driver. Unfortunately not enough free time lately. Maybe during the following months or in the summer time. I know at least three graphic cards that could be added to the kernel, yes, they are all old but even the kernel is, and everything else ;-) including myself :-)

Best

That would be a really big thing if you can make this possible sometime.
I815e and Rage LT pro are often used in PC's and laptops around 200x.

Best regards
Doc

[vk3heg]

Originally Posted by Deremon

I've also a supported Matrox G550 PCIe 32 MB, with "dovesa" it does not found the framebuffer device (like the nvidia do), with any combination of video=matrox* I've, at best, a purple screen (I think framebuffer is not working either)

I have a working PCIe G550 in my machine. My loadlin command line:

kernel4 init=/linuxrc console_level=0 root=/dev/ram1 inittrd=smallird.gz ramdisk_size=2310 leavepages=7460 video=matrox:dfp,vesa:0x12

I then have my amiga screen set to "Matrox: 1024x768 16bit"

[jdog320]

Originally Posted by milanca

@dr.zeissler

Correct. I saw your previous message regarding Ati Rage, yes, you're also right, unsupported. Both of them can be added to the kernel, with some nice or partial acceleration including i815 as i see there is a kernel 2.4 driver. Unfortunately not enough free time lately. Maybe during the following months or in the summer time. I know at least three graphic cards that could be added to the kernel, yes, they are all old but even the kernel is, and everything else ;-) including myself :-)

Best

Can I see your small and amithlon boot files that you use in qemu? mine is always stuck in rebooting 68k and gfx card reset when trying to install with the qemu specific kern41a and generic kern310

[jdog320]

@snkbitten
Here's amithlon working on the latest build of VirtualBox as of this writing. Almost everything works except for networking once again. I tried Nat, NatNetwork and Bridged but it doesn't work. Also tried MiamiDX and Genesis and no dice. It gets the DNS Servers from my router, but that's about it.