Being Screwed around over icon.library and workbench.library.

[rcrook9190]

So I bought an IRIX Classic 520 with a licensed WorkBench 3.1.4 CF card. The product also came with an official set of adf's for 3.1.4.1.


When I fist booted my A500 with it it got as far as complaining about no icon.library and then no workbench.library. I didn't think of this very much as I found both these on my adf's and I copied them over and all was good.


I, being a little OCD decided I needed to get an official licensed copy of 2.1 Just for completeness.



It too complained about no icon.library or workbench.library. I ask the retailer for a copy of the 2.1 adf. They sent DMS files, none of which have the missing libraries.


After further requests to AmigaFoever, The Retailer and IRIX who by the way all blame each other and me for being such a NOOB, I find out both libraries are generally found in the ROM. As it turns out the "Official Amiga Forever" ROM image on the Classic 520 does not actually contain either of these libraries.


My choices are:


Rebuild and flash a new ROM on my Classic. Which will require me to actually solder on a header to the board, find (most likely buy) the appropriate boot flash tools and find a ROM, modify it to include the libraries, and hope its not too big for the onboard flash storage.


Or ask some one who would be kind enough to (as cloanto and IRIX seem reluctant) pass on to me the two 2.1 version of the files I can then load onto my CF card.


Mind you this reluctance is in spite of me owning 3 valid licenses for AmigaForever. One for 3.1.4.1, One For 2.1 and One for the plus version I use in my emulation.



So disappointed.


Can anyone here help me find icon.library and workbench.library for 2.1 so I can run it on my A500?


Thanks in advance.



Randall.

[torsti76]

Hi,

the problem lies with your 3.1.4 ROM.

Hyperion decided to leave both libraries out of the ROM because there was no space for them in the 512kB ROM image.

This is true for all 3.1.4 ROMs on all machines and generally creates the problems you mentioned when using older Workbench versions. So, your best bet indeed would be to use the Kickstart that fits the WB version.

Best,
Torsten

[daxb]

Why do you want to run OS 2.1? There is nor reason for it if you have a newer version. If you still want to use 2.1 you should know what you are doing and get it working by yourself. First, I would try to load 2.1 and see if it will load the both libraries (OS 3.1.4. version) from libs. If not, try to load it in S-S with LoadModule for example. If that isn't compatible try to load the OS 2.1 library versions. If that still don't work, leave it. If you don't know how this works, leave it.

[rcrook9190]

Thanks for your help.. will try the 3.1.4 library files and see how they go.

Randall

[Daedalus]

The CF card should have already included the required libraries if it was set up with OS 3.1.4. If it didn't, it wasn't set up correctly.

If you really want to use other Workbench versions or boot from other Workbench floppies or applications (e.g. DeluxePaint), it's still possible provided the 3.1.4 partition is mounted too. The ROM will look on all available volumes for the libraries before asking, so it should be fine.

[Hedeon]

Maybe re/softkick the 2.0 ROM? Not sure if that is possible on your A500.

[AmigaHope]

As mentioned, 3.1.4 includes the libraries on disk. I should clarify this a bit though. When you boot off a 2.1 disk, you are NOT running OS 2.1, you are running OS 2.1's utility files on OS 3.1.4.

Almost all of the Amiga's core OS functions (kernel, etc.) are on the ROM, so to boot into AmigaOS 2.1 you *have* to use an AmigaOS 2.x ROM (2.04 for example), then the 2.1 SetPatch program in the startup-sequence will patch any 2.1-specific updates into memory.

If you boot with the 3.1.4 ROM to anything that uses workbench features, you will need the 3.1.4 icon.library and workbench.library on disk. Up until now, all software assumed these libraries will always be available since they always came on ROM. But again, you will be running 3.1.4 even if you boot from a 2.1 disk, because the core OS is in ROM. The OS "boot" happens when you turn the machine on, before it even touches the disk.

[rsn8887]

Originally Posted by AmigaHope

As mentioned, 3.1.4 includes the libraries on disk. I should clarify this a bit though. When you boot off a 2.1 disk, you are NOT running OS 2.1, you are running OS 2.1's utility files on OS 3.1.4.

Almost all of the Amiga's core OS functions (kernel, etc.) are on the ROM, so to boot into AmigaOS 2.1 you *have* to use an AmigaOS 2.x ROM (2.04 for example), then the 2.1 SetPatch program in the startup-sequence will patch any 2.1-specific updates into memory.

If you boot with the 3.1.4 ROM to anything that uses workbench features, you will need the 3.1.4 icon.library and workbench.library on disk. Up until now, all software assumed these libraries will always be available since they always came on ROM. But again, you will be running 3.1.4 even if you boot from a 2.1 disk, because the core OS is in ROM. The OS "boot" happens when you turn the machine on, before it even touches the disk.

So if you have a program on a self-booting disk that makes use of functions from workbench.library or icon.library, it won’t run anymore on 3.1.4 but run fine on 3.1? Seems like a pretty big incompatibility to me.

[Jope]

Originally Posted by rsn8887

So if you have a program on a self-booting disk that makes use of functions from workbench.library or icon.library, it won’t run anymore on 3.1.4 but run fine on 3.1? Seems like a pretty big incompatibility to me.

As long as you have a correctly installed 3.1.4 setup on your hard drive, it will work from any floppy you boot from too. If you don't have a hard disk, it will ask you to insert your Install 3.1.4 disk into any drive when those libraries are needed.

So yes, the software will still run, but if you have a floppy only system, you will have a hoop to jump through. However, 3.1.4 is not a very good fit for a floppy only machine, better stay with 3.1 (or even 1.3) if you don't intend to add a hard disk.