A600 and Furia 020 woes...

[kickstarter]

Hi all,

I've a freshly recapped Amiga 600 here (Revision 1, Amiga 300). I've bought the following upgrades:

Kickstart 3.1 roms (40.063)
1MB Trapdoor Ram - https://sordan.ie/product/527/amiga-...ory-extension/
Furia 020 - https://amigastore.eu/en/480-furia-3...amiga-600.html
IDE to SD solution - https://sordan.ie/product/481/angle-...miga-600-1200/
Keelog Amiga power supply.

Having fit all of the upgrades, I'm getting nothing but a black screen when trying to boot from sd card.

I can boot perfectly fine with the Furia attached and NO sd card insterted (using workbench floppy to boot), and the extra memory of the Furia is detected.

The sd card I'm using has been prepared in WinUAE, and again, boots fine if the Furia is NOT connected....I just can't get the Furia and the SD card to play nicely at the same time.

I've tried Sandisk Extreme 32GB card, and I've tried a Samsung EVO 32GB card....both using a 3.1 workbench install (classic workbench) with a patched scsi.device for larger partitions, and manually calculated partitions so the wrap-around bug isn't an issue.

I've tried with a single 250MB partition on the card also, and the rest of the card not partitioned....same result, black screen.

I can hear the floppy drive seek a disk, and click a few times, then the read light on the SD adapter just stays on.

The Furia is on 13.1 firmware I believe (sticker on the pcb).

I genuinely don't know how to proceed from here...and it seems like my only options are to throw money at sd card after sd card hoping that's the issue. Has anyone any advice that might help me?

Many thanks

EDIT - The parition(s) have been set using PFS3AIO file system, and max bitrate of 0x1fe00 has been set too.

[Jolabandola]

You could try wiping the card and install WB on real hardware instead of Winuae.

[Pollock]

dump the SD card solution your using, that's probably where the issues are coming from, get an IDE CF adapter, get a good Sandisk CF card, a good one that is, format with a good FS, and all your issues should vanish. i had a Furia for years, great little card, but it is picky about CF cards etc. it's overclocked so much, it pushes CF cards to the limit with it, so it needs something good.

hope this helps

[r.cade]

I had the opposite issue.... CF cards would not work and SD card adapter worked fine.

[kickstarter]

Originally Posted by Boing-Ball

Unfortunately it is well known that Furia cards are a PITA when it comes to CF and SD card compatibility. Do a search in this forum to see issues owners have had. I have had them too. Got rid and purchased a second hand ACA 620 instead.
I know this is hindsight, but you should have gone with the newer ACA630 card from individual computers. Less issues. The Furia isn’t that easy to flash update either…

The 030 is a fair bit more expensive, and quite overkill for my needs which is why I settled on the 020, cheers though

[kickstarter]

Originally Posted by Pollock

dump the SD card solution your using, that's probably where the issues are coming from, get an IDE CF adapter, get a good Sandisk CF card, a good one that is, format with a good FS, and all your issues should vanish. i had a Furia for years, great little card, but it is picky about CF cards etc. it's overclocked so much, it pushes CF cards to the limit with it, so it needs something good.

hope this helps

As r.cade mentions, I can too agree I've heard the opposite....in that the SD cards seem to be easier to get working with the 020. I've tried three different (genuine) Sandisk cards at this point, from 8GB to 32GB, and none of them work unfortunately.

[project23]

I've had more than my fair share of Furia issues, including a complete rebuild, and I've *never* had a problem with an SD card , using a bog standard ebay sdcard reader.

But ymmv with these cards

[project23]

By the way, lotharek himself was pretty helpful at the time, so maybe send him an email if ya cant get anywhere with this.

What about playing around with furiatune? If ya whack it on a floppy?

[Jolabandola]

I sent my furia off to lotharec to update the firmare on my old Furia just to get it to work with kickastart 3.1.4
it all went very smooth and i was able to use my Amiga again. ^^ Do that if everything else fails.

Btw writing this from my Pistorm6oo with netsurf. Mind blown as usual with CaffeineOS.

[Pollock]

Originally Posted by project23

I've had more than my fair share of Furia issues, including a complete rebuild, and I've *never* had a problem with an SD card , using a bog standard ebay sdcard reader.

But ymmv with these cards

TBH, i haven't used an SD card solution, i should have mentioned that, so my bad, but i did initially get issues with getting the Furia running, Lothar emailed me, and talked about how the card is overclocked, and pushes the IDE to the limit, and needs a really good CF card, as soon as i switched from a no-name to a Sandisk card, all my issues went away. Maybe i should do some reading up, and see how good these IDE SD card controllers really are

[manxkarl]

I'm also having odd issues, A600 with 2mg Chip, I've disconnected my SD card, the machine boots to the 3.2 kickstart screen then after a few seconds black screens and reboots. If I remove the Furia Card it doesn't reboot, and waits for a disk ?

Furia Card is firmware V13.1, I have earthed the card to the board. It's fine with a Kickstart 3.1

[amigasith]

Originally Posted by manxkarl

I'm also having odd issues, A600 with 2mg Chip, I've disconnected my SD card, the machine boots to the 3.2 kickstart screen then after a few seconds black screens and reboots. If I remove the Furia Card it doesn't reboot, and waits for a disk ?

Furia Card is firmware V13.1, I have earthed the card to the board. It's fine with a Kickstart 3.1

Problems with OS 3.2 are a known issue with older versions of the Furia firmware. This was fixed in later versions - I just cannot remember which exact one it was. Get the latest firmware (14.3) and this should be solved.

Here is a guide for upgrading the firmware: https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=322#faq But keep in mind that you need special hardware in order to flash it, like a Xilinx Platform USB Cable Programmer or similar. If I remember correctly, there is also a Pi-based solution to do this.

Alternatively, if you don't feel comfortable flashing it yourself, you can also send your Furia to Lotharek in order to get it flashed.

[mja65]

My Furia works with Kickstart 3.1 but not 3.2 as mentioned above - with the caveat if I use a small compactflash (<= 1GB) it works, albeit at really slow speed.

With 3.1, it works with all cards I've thrown at it, whether that be the Sandisks recommended or the random cards I had left over from my old 2003 era digital camera. I'm including both SD and CompactFlash.

I've had some random issues with the set up of the card when I do it on real hardware I haven't got to the bottom of. I suspect it's my not setting things like MaxTransfer properly. I've been using HstWB Installer (https://hstwb.firstrealize.com/), either the blank images, or using it to set up WB installs and that's worked fine.

[mja65]

Interesting comment re the Pi! Are there any instructions on how to update using a Pi? Could be cheaper than buying a new programer!

Originally Posted by amigasith

Problems with OS 3.2 are a known issue with older versions of the Furia firmware. This was fixed in later versions - I just cannot remember which exact one it was. Get the latest firmware (14.3) and this should be solved.

Here is a guide for upgrading the firmware: https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=322#faq But keep in mind that you need special hardware in order to flash it, like a Xilinx Platform USB Cable Programmer or similar. If I remember correctly, there is also a Pi-based solution to do this.

Alternatively, if you don't feel comfortable flashing it yourself, you can also send your Furia to Lotharek in order to get it flashed.

[amigasith]

Originally Posted by mja65

Interesting comment re the Pi! Are there any instructions on how to update using a Pi? Could be cheaper than buying a new programer!

I'm not aware of any instructions... But here's the comment that made me think that a Pi-based solution also works: https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php...12#post1199712

At the end of the day, a Furia firmware update is nothing but flashing a Xilinx, so if you're proficient in using xc3sprog, you should be fine. Sorry, but I can't help you further, since I've never used xc3sprog myself.

[mja65]

Thanks for the link! I had also seen this link around progamming the TerribleFire ( https://linuxjedi.co.uk/2020/12/01/p...-raspberry-pi/) and you are obviously correct it should be simple in theory since it's a Xilinx CPLD. I was just hoping not to be the first guinea pig! :-)

Originally Posted by amigasith

I'm not aware of any instructions... But here's the comment that made me think that a Pi-based solution also works: https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php...12#post1199712

At the end of the day, a Furia firmware update is nothing but flashing a Xilinx, so if you're proficient in using xc3sprog, you should be fine. Sorry, but I can't help you further, since I've never used xc3sprog myself.

[mja65]

Well...I decided to be the guinea pig and used a Raspberry Pi 3B to update the firmware to 14.3. It worked. I think. Had a few issues, but I think they were self inflicted:
1. The software has an option to back up the existing firmware. Restoring this doesn't work.
2. The latest version of the firmware doesn't work (at least is not stable) on my A600. I think this is due to the ROM I have (Cloanto's 3.X) rather than what I've done

I sent a PM to Boris since the comments I've seen to date suggest, while he's dissuading people from the EU from updating themselves, he was providing some level of support given shipping a unit from elsewhere would be quite expensive so perhaps he can confirm. Good news is that rewriting an older version of the firmware (13.1) has got me back to where I was before.

I may try this again when I can either buy a 3.2 Kickstart ROM file or set up a drive to map the 3.2 ROM to the Furia.

Originally Posted by mja65

Thanks for the link! I had also seen this link around progamming the TerribleFire ( https://linuxjedi.co.uk/2020/12/01/p...-raspberry-pi/) and you are obviously correct it should be simple in theory since it's a Xilinx CPLD. I was just hoping not to be the first guinea pig! :-)

[eXeler0]

@mja65 Today I installed a new Furia into my A600 with 3.2.2 ROMs and A3.2.2 OS on a CF from Amigastore.eu
It does not work at all. Ive heard about Furia being picky but yea.. I was expecting something more stable from the latest firmware.

[eXeler0]

Today I switched to older ROMs but same CF card.
Interestingly I got it to boot with 3.1 ROM but it wasnt stable. Next I tried a 3.2 ROM ( not 3.2.2) and it actually booted into WB and things looked promising. I got as fae as testing Sysinfo but when I tried drive speed it crashed and since that moment it wont boot again. I get Guru at startup.
Pulled out the Furia and WB booted just fine so no corrupt CF or anything.
Starting to understand the naming of that damn card, making people furious…

[mja65]

Mine's working OK now I've downgraded both to version 13.1 of the Furia firmware and AmigaOS 3.1.4.1. What version of the Furia firmware are you on?

I was successful on 3.2 in the past, but only on a 1 gig CompactFlash card. Anything larger failed.

Originally Posted by eXeler0

Today I switched to older ROMs but same CF card.
Interestingly I got it to boot with 3.1 ROM but it wasnt stable. Next I tried a 3.2 ROM ( not 3.2.2) and it actually booted into WB and things looked promising. I got as fae as testing Sysinfo but when I tried drive speed it crashed and since that moment it wont boot again. I get Guru at startup.
Pulled out the Furia and WB booted just fine so no corrupt CF or anything.
Starting to understand the naming of that damn card, making people furious…