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.

[LaBodilsen]

Managed to get Amithlon running in Virtualbox, thanks to SnkBittens guide. Brings back some fond memories of being a beta tester on AmigaOS XL and Amithlon.

I have a Live Demo CD of Umilator (Amithlon 2.0) that runs pretty well on a very old laptop of mine (Pentium 4, 512mb), Would it be possible to run Amithlon on a semi-new laptop, or would i have to track down some obscure item to get it working?

ps. Thank you @SnkBitten for the guides.

[milanca]

@LaBodilsen

Congrats on setting up your VBox'ed Amithlon!
A question, are you sure please that what you have is an Amithlon 2.0 (aka Umilator)? Could it be just the regular AmigaOSXL/Amithlon CD that someone re-built and just named Amithlon 2.0? I am really curious about what you actually have.

Best regards!

[LaBodilsen]

Originally Posted by milanca

@LaBodilsen
A question, are you sure please that what you have is an Amithlon 2.0 (aka Umilator)? Could it be just the regular AmigaOSXL/Amithlon CD that someone re-built and just named Amithlon 2.0? I am really curious about what you actually have.

I guess i did mess up my explanation here.

The Amithlon setup i got running in VirtualBox, is just the "normal" AmigaOS XL/Amithlon from H&P.

But, as i was an early alpha tester for Amithlon, and later beta tester for AmigaOS XL, i got a preview from Bernie of Amithlon 2.0 (aka Umilator), before Bernie gave up on the whole project. It's a Live demo CD, that boots to workbench but will not allow you to write to HD, and after 20min it will start to slow down the emulation. It was meant as a Test CD for people to try out on their hardware, before buying the product.

Screenshot attached of it booting in VirtualBox, but it never boots to workbench. It does however boot to workbench on my old laptop, and runs quake quite nice in 1024x768.

[milanca]

Thanks @LaBodilsen,

No, you actually explained it well, I understood you correctly.

I was just curious about the cd, I thought it never saw the light of the day. It all make sense now.
Too bad its just a test cd with such restrictions, makes it unusable. But it's a nice information after all, after like 20 years, huh.

Best regards

[amigamia]

Wow I thought it was vaporware or something that never made it to the public. Since it is a test/demo CD and not the actual product, is that something you can share in the Zone?

[LaBodilsen]

Originally Posted by amigamia

Wow I thought it was vaporware or something that never made it to the public. Since it is a test/demo CD and not the actual product, is that something you can share in the Zone?

Well, i'm a little hesitant to share it.

But as it was 20+ years ago, and the project was abandoned, the integrated IP (Kickstart 3.1 + OS 3.9) is widely available on the net anyhow, and who is going to claim ownership of it now. AND i don't recall signing any NDA for it :-)

I might consider sharing it, just give me a couple of days to think about it.

[SnkBitten]

Originally Posted by LaBodilsen

Would it be possible to run Amithlon on a semi-new laptop, or would i have to track down some obscure item to get it working?

ps. Thank you @SnkBitten for the guides.

You really need the hardware around the time Amithlon was released, especially for a laptop which doesn't have slots to try different sound cards, network cards and graphics cards. There are a few that have been tested, most with some limitations (no hardware accelerated graphics or no USB support or no audio or maybe no USB and no Audio but graphics are great, etc..).

Late 1990's to early 2000's should be easy to find on eBay though finding one that covers all the bases may take some time. Prices should be pretty cheap too...as that market isn't aware of the "Amiga" connection to jack the price up

[amigamia]

Originally Posted by LaBodilsen

Well, i'm a little hesitant to share it.

But as it was 20+ years ago, and the project was abandoned, the integrated IP (Kickstart 3.1 + OS 3.9) is widely available on the net anyhow, and who is going to claim ownership of it now. AND i don't recall signing any NDA for it :-)

I might consider sharing it, just give me a couple of days to think about it.

That would be fantastic!

[LaBodilsen]

Originally Posted by LaBodilsen

Screenshot attached of it booting in VirtualBox, but it never boots to workbench. It does however boot to workbench on my old laptop, and runs quake quite nice in 1024x768.

Figured out why it did not boot to Workbench in VirtualBox.
It seems that Umilator have the same problem as Amithlon with not wanting anymore than 512mb Ram. With 512mb it boots, but only to a completly empty workbench screen, so something is still not working as intended.

[SnkBitten]

Originally Posted by LaBodilsen

Figured out why it did not boot to Workbench in VirtualBox.
It seems that Umilator have the same problem as Amithlon with not wanting anymore than 512mb Ram. With 512mb it boots, but only to a completly empty workbench screen, so something is still not working as intended.

I have a 1GB ram setup on my Virtualbox Amithlon configuration. The only thing really lacking is hardware accelerated graphics but Audio, USB and Networking are all working. What is your base configuration for the virtual that Amithlon runs?

I use a DOS base, 1 GB ram, set for single cpu, acceleration enabled for both options, PIIX3 chipset, PS/2 mouse, Enable I/O APIC and Hardware Clock checked. Display limited to 16mb as more just eats up available Amiga ram, graphics as VBoxVGA, 2 IDE controllers, ICH AC97 sound, a bridged network adapter to my host physical adapter so I can see my NAS box on my network and USB 2.0 enabled.


Also I'd be extremely interested in the Umilator demo CD you have, just to see the differences first hand that he was working on in the next/new release he had planned.

[LaBodilsen]

Originally Posted by SnkBitten

I have a 1GB ram setup on my Virtualbox Amithlon configuration. The only thing really lacking is hardware accelerated graphics but Audio, USB and Networking are all working. What is your base configuration for the virtual that Amithlon runs?

I was running Amithlon with a 2GB setup, but i was under the impression that the Init string variable 'mem=512M' restricted the kernel from using more than 512mb of memory.

Tried using the same variable for Umilator, but it had no effect. Only lowering the amount of memory in VirtualBox made a difference.

Also I'd be extremely interested in the Umilator demo CD you have, just to see the differences first hand that he was working on in the next/new release he had planned.

I'm currently asking around, to make sure i don't step on some people, or break some promises i have made in the past. please stay tuned.

[SnkBitten]

Amithlon doesn't like more than 1GB available memory, primarily from how Bernie was kicking out the bios memory/PCI addressing and shoving it all into a particular area. Some system's bios didn't have issues with this but most do. The init string limit is to allow what is configured for AmigaOS as kernel, drivers, the remapped PCI addressing, etc.. are taking up the remaining ram and may or may not need additional space. One of my systems has to have the 'mem=' string set to 752M while the other is fine with out the 'mem=' statement at all. Both are physically 1GB of memory installed.

My Virtualbox configuration is 1024MB for the Amithlon virtual and my init string for kernel4 is as follows:

kernel4 init=/linuxrc console_level=0 root=/dev/ram1 initrd=smallird.gz ram=1024M vga=773 ramdisk_size=2310 leavepages=5000 nosleep

Additionally, setting aside space with 'ramdisk_size=' and 'leavepages=' can also affect how much ram your system can allocate for AmigaOS, if set higher than what's needed.

[LaBodilsen]

Originally Posted by SnkBitten

I use a DOS base, 1 GB ram, set for single cpu, acceleration enabled for both options, PIIX3 chipset, PS/2 mouse, Enable I/O APIC and Hardware Clock checked. Display limited to 16mb as more just eats up available Amiga ram, graphics as VBoxVGA, 2 IDE controllers, ICH AC97 sound, a bridged network adapter to my host physical adapter so I can see my NAS box on my network and USB 2.0 enabled..

Thank you for this Settings resume. It actually made Umilator boot in VirtualBox. (see screenshot for teaser)


Which is great, as that means the .iso dumb i made of it, actually works. Due note the available memory :-)