Please test this possibly-bootable CD image with your SCSI controller

[mark_k]

Following on from my posting here...

Update: The CD does auto-boot on my system, so it definitely works with at least some SCSI controllers.
Update 2: See this posting for an archive of empty/blank/template bootable CD images.
Update 3: So far, known-working SCSI controllers are: Commodore A2091 (ROM 7.0), Commodore A3000 built-in (Kickstart 2.04 & 3.1), Commodore A4000T built-in (Kickstart 3.1), GVP 68030 combo accelerator (ROM 4.13), MacroSystem WarpEngine
Update 4: I have attached a second version of the test CD which has a higher boot priority.

I have long wondered whether it would be possible to boot a normal Amiga from a custom non-ISO 9660 CD. Basically, you'd prepare a CD image, creating an RDB assuming 2048 bytes/sector media. You'd put FastFileSystem in the RDB and make sure all partitions have 2048 byte blocks. And make sure nothing in the startup-sequence tries to write to the disk. If your SCSI controller's boot ROM doesn't try to be too clever, it might read the RDB from all SCSI devices, not only type 0 (direct access, like hard disk, Zip drive etc.) devices. CD-ROMs are type 5. So it might be possible to burn a custom CD-R which would be bootable on at least some SCSI controllers.

I have created a test image like that. It's 32MB in size. Unpack the archive and burn the image to a blank CD-R/RW. You might need to rename the file to end in .iso before burning it.

There's hardly any data on the disc. The startup-sequence just uses the Echo command to show some text. This is just a proof-of-concept to see whether the technique works on any SCSI cards.

If you have an auto-booting SCSI controller (i.e. pretty much any Zorro II/III SCSI card) I'd be interested to hear whether you are able to boot from it. Please post your results here, with model of SCSI card and SCSI card ROM version.

If this technique does work on a significant proportion of SCSI cards, there is obviously a lot of potential here. For example the ability to create bootable CDs for system recovery. You could also create "combo" CDs which would boot on CDTV/CD32 and other Amigas. The other-Amigas partition would mount the ISO 9660 partition so you wouldn't need to duplicate all files.

[roy bates]

your looking at a 7z file its a zip file you can unpack it on any pc.

[mark_k]

It's a 7-Zip archive. 7-Zip is quite a common archive format these days, you can download 7-Zip from http://www.7-zip.org/.

(If anyone needs to unpack the archive on their real Amiga, I'll upload it in a more Amiga-friendly archive format.)

[mark_k]

OH. MY. GOD!!!!

It works!!!

I tested the CD and it auto-boots on my Kickstart 1.3 Amiga 2000 with GVP SCSI controller (v4.13 GVP ROM)!!!

Just think of the possibilities for auto-booting CDs. You could build a disc with loads of WHDLoad-installed games which auto-boots on any Amiga. Or build a multi-OS installation/recovery disc that allows various AmigaOS versions to be installed without needing floppy disks.

Easy data interchange and real Amiga floppy creation: download ADF files using your PC, then build a disc with ADF-writing programs and the ADF files and boot your Amiga using it.

Update: I also tested with WinUAE's A2091 and A3000 SCSI emulation and the CD auto-boots there too.

[alenppc]

Nice!!! Well done!

[desiv]

Awesome!!!

Congrats!!

desiv

[roy bates]

try imgburn.

[mark_k]

I named the file ending in .bin as a generic extension for a binary file. Technically it's not an ISO 9660 image so I didn't name it ending in .iso.

Before burning the file, rename it to end in .iso in case your CD-burning software gets confused by the extension. When you burn the file, you want your CD-burning program to burn it like it would burn a normal ISO image (.iso file).

[tesla]

Thats all I get

[mark_k]

Which program are you using to (try to) write the image file to CD?

[roy bates]

it wont work,i tried it on my pc a .bin file shows a file type.editing the name makes no difference.

[tesla]

Won't work. Burns it as a Bin. Can't edit it either, at least without using something I don't know of.

Originally Posted by mark_k

Which program are you using to (try to) write the image file to CD?

[roy bates]

i think ive fixed it,i'll upload it to the zone.

[mark_k]

Originally Posted by tesla

Won't work. Burns it as a Bin. Can't edit it either, at least without using something I don't know of.

You shouldn't need to edit it. Just unpack the archive, use Windows Explorer (or whatever) to rename test_image_32MB.bin to test_image_32MB.iso, then use CDBurnerXP to burn the file to disc.

[roy bates]

something went wrong with the upload,so i reuploaded it.

[videofx]

Mark,

After playing with the SCSI settings on my WarpEngine in my 4000T I was able to boot the CD! Great job!

Now I need a favor. My 4000T floopies wont boot. Is there any way to make me a boot CD with an ADF to floppy program and the adf's so I can create floppies so I can get my system working?

Thanks!

[TjLaZer]

Very cool, it would be nice to have a bootable WB disk, imagine having different versions, even the Classic WB packs!! Can you post a step by step on how one can create this?

[mark_k]

Hopefully I'll write some more-detailed instructions shortly. In the mean time you could try modifying the 32MB CD image I uploaded. The easiest way is with WinUAE, but it should also be possible with a real Amiga too.

Add the image file as a hard drive in WinUAE, making sure to enable RDB mode and set the block size to 2048. You'll probably want to un-check the Bootable option so as not to boot from it. Then boot your emulated system and the ~32MB FFS partition should show up on Workbench. Add whatever files you want and edit the startup-sequence. After you've finished exit WinUAE and burn the now-modified image file to a CD.

One other change you might want to do, is to use HDToolBox to set the partition's boot priority higher. Otherwise, depending on the boot priorities of your Amiga's hard disk partitions, you may need to use the boot menu to manually choose the CD each time you boot.

You can test booting the modified image file in WinUAE before burning it to disc, to save wasting a disc if you made a mistake. Make sure you un-check the Read/write option to make it read-only. That will catch any accidental writes to the disk, which obviously won't work when booting from CD.

You can also test it in an emulated CD drive if you enable WinUAE's A2091 or A3000 SCSI emulation. Click Add SCSI/IDE CD Drive and select the image file. (Note: that feature is in the latest WinUAE beta version, 2.6.0b7 at the time of writing.)

I can also create and upload some larger empty bootable CD images, which would allow more files to be put on them.

The test image I uploaded has FastFileSystem 40.1 in the RDB. That's the last version of FFS which is compatible with Kickstart 1.3. It might be possible to use PFS3 (the version on Aminet that supports Kickstart 1.3) instead of FFS but I haven't tried that yet.

[tesla]

Can anyone explain how to rename the extension from bin to iso? I am using a WINXP machine at present, but I also have Vista and 7

[roy bates]

Originally Posted by tesla

Can anyone explain how to rename the extension from bin to iso? I am using a WINXP machine at present, but I also have Vista and 7

its in the zone with the .iso extension,but unfortunatley it wont burn properly on my system i treid three times and was just burning coasters so i gave up.

why it wasent made like that in the first place i'll never know.

can the op please do a version that has the iso extension? as .bin files are actually recognised in my system as a "file type"