Can't see SD Card HD on Workbench (PiStorm32)

[Angus]

I got a Pistorm32 with a Pi 4 for my 3.1 rom 1200. I set the sd card up on my PC using Diskpart and in addition to the 300mb boot partition I added 3 4Gb partitions for the Amiga.

I was able to create partitions on my Amiga with HDToolbox (after editing the scsi_device_name. That all seemed to go to plan, but my problem is, despite HDToolbox co-operating, the SD drives/partitions are not visible on Workbench so I can't fast format them or do anything else with them. I took the card out and went back to WinUAE but it was just the same.

As I say, the Amiga know's they are there in HDToolbox, I can even see the bootable drives on the early startup screen, but as far as being able to access them, I'm at a complete loss.

Aside from that, the Pistorm is working in the Amiga showing 2Gb of fast ram and a much faster game of Quake.


Would appreciate some help.

[thomas]

Try if this program sees the partitions: http://thomas-rapp.homepage.t-online.../GuiFormat.lha

Sometimes it happens with brand new SD or CF cards that all cells are initialised with all 1's rather than all 0's. If you create FFS partitions on such a card, and FFS sees the first four bytes of the first sector of the partition being all 1's, it erroneously indicates to the OS "no disk in drive". The program above ignores this condition and tries for format the partition anyway.

[Angus]

Originally Posted by thomas

Try if this program sees the partitions: http://thomas-rapp.homepage.t-online.../GuiFormat.lha

Thanks Thomas, I will give that a try and report back.

[mja65]

I’m not entirely sure I understand exactly where your issue is given you make reference to playing quake suggests you have some sort of access to a hard drive and it’s unclear exactly what steps you are following. However if you haven’t already seen it, the following is a link to the guide on how to do it:
https://michalsc.github.io/Emu68/tut...eparation.html

[Angus]

Yes, sorry, I should have said, I have a Compact Flash drive connected to the IDE port. That's working fine and I haven't altered it.

Regarding the smart card I followed instructions although I created the small boot partition in Diskpartrather than Disk Management.

[Nor Bert]

A CF card on IDE is handled in the traditional way (HDtoolbox, RDB. SCSI.DEVICE as DEVICE
Only the SD card in Pistorm has to be prepared differently.

[derSammler]

Just a wild guess: did you perhaps not set the "Auto mount" option for the partitions in HDToolBox? That would exactly cause what you describe.

[Angus]

No, I didn't change anything called Automount. Is that likely the problem?

It also said like "can't find track length, assuming 64" which I okayed. That's probably inaccurate but it was something like that.

[derSammler]

Oh, wait - you are using stock 3.1 roms and Workbench? That's not going to work. You need to use a file system that can handle large partitions. Try SFS or PFS, both available on Aminet.

[Nor Bert]

Show or write how you prepare the CF card on the Amiga. It will be easier to find a solution to the problem

[Angus]

There is no problem with the CF card. The following applies to the SD card for the PiStorm, sorry got confused there for a minute.

Okay.
I used Diskpart on the pc and made a 300 mb partition for the PiStorm boot. Then I made 3 different 4 Gb partitions (virtual drives) for the Amiga. I formatted the boot partition (fat32) and copied the emu68 files to it. It works. I tried HDtools on WinUAE but wasn't seeing anything that inspired confidence.
I then tried using HDTools on my Amiga 1200 (3.1 rom) after editing the scsi name to brcm_emmc.device or whatever.. It was much easier, and clearly showed in HDTools.

I identified the three 4 Gb drives and partitioned them and saved changes. The Two bootable ones I can see in early startup boot devices.
Phew. That's about it, I think.

[Nor Bert]

What you wrote refers to the sd card in RPI or the CF card in IDE you mentioned earlier?
Because something doesn't feel right

[Angus]

Originally Posted by thomas

Try if this program sees the partitions: http://thomas-rapp.homepage.t-online.../GuiFormat.lha

Update.


Thanks, Thomas-San. It just worked. Very grateful to you.



I went with the default setting, FFS INTL.


From what people have said, I may still be in trouble.


I am unclear, can FFS not deal with 3 separate (virtual drives) partitioned variously, but none of the three exceeding 4Gb?

[thomas]

If the drive size does not exceed 4GB, then it's ok. It's drive size which matters, not partition size.

You can use this program to get more info about your setup: http://thomas-rapp.homepage.t-online.../hddreport.lha

[Dunny]

If you can, you should probably update to 3.2.2 as soon as possible. It has much better support for drives all around. You can use the digital edition and install from the ADFs (and use the PiStorm to softkick the ROM) directly on the 1200.

[Angus]

Originally Posted by thomas

If the drive size does not exceed 4GB, then it's ok. It's drive size which matters, not partition size.

You can use this program to get more info about your setup: http://thomas-rapp.homepage.t-online.../hddreport.lha

Thanks, Thomas - but can FFS support multiple (3 in my case) drives of 4Gb each?


@Dunny - thanks I will make a note of that for future consideration. I'm a bit overwhelmed at the moment.

[Jope]

Originally Posted by Angus

Thanks, Thomas - but can FFS support multiple (3 in my case) drives of 4Gb each?

The limit is per drive, so yes.

[thomas]

AmigaDOS runs a task for each partition with the file system code running as a program. The file system code then allocates the resources (memory) it needs to handle the partition and it speaks to the harddisk driver to access the actual data on disk. The interface between the file system code and the harddisk driver is what limits the capacity to 4GB.

Each additional partition (and you need at least one partition per drive) eats a little memory. But otherwise the number of drives or partitions is unlimited.

[Kin Hell]

Hi Angus.

Pi3:

scsi.device to SCSI_DEVICE_NAME=brcm-sdhc.device

In your case....

Pi4:

scsi.device to SCSI_DEVICE_NAME=brcm-emmc.device

Based on what you've tried already, try this but understand you do so at your own risk entirely. I followed the Wiki several times before it all worked out seamlessly.

Put MicroSD in a PC & right click a DOS cmd & run as an Administrator.

Type:

Diskpart - Enter

list disk - Enter

"select the disk # listed of the MicroSD you inserted. (Right click This PC/Manage & select Disk Management to show the MicroSD in the drive list. It's disk number in there is the disk number you need to select in Diskpart.

Type:

Select Disk (your number)

list disk again will put an asterix alongside the relevant disk. Be sure it's the right one or you will destroy whatever is on it.

Type:

clean

"Space should now read it's maximum capacity."

Type:

create partition pri size=512 and press return (enter) this will be your Pi Boot partition. (We'll format this FAT32 later on....)

create partition pri size=256 id=76 and press return (enter) this will be your Workbench partition & id=76 is the identifier for Amiga Operating system

create partition pri size=512 id=76 and press return (enter) this will be your Work Partition. Install any extra programs & utilities here to save cluttering your boot partition. It's quicker to de-frag & maintain your OS Partition doing this. Assigns for any programs needing it can be set up in your user-startup.

type create partition pri id=76 and press return (enter) notice no size is set. this will just make the rest of your MicroSD Amiga format able.

Then type:

List partition

"You will now see the three partitions you have created."

Type:

Type select partition 1 and press return (enter). Then type assign and press return (enter). Then type exit and press return (enter). This will Auto mount partition 1 in windows. Format it FAT32 & copy the latest Emu68 files from here https://github.com/michalsc/Emu68/releases/tag/nightly to it.
Don't forget to include a ROM Image as well. Copy it to the same partition as the EMU68 files from Github & rename it to kick.rom

The really really IMPORTANT bit.....

On this Fat32 partition with the EMU68 files, create a new text document & call it "cmdline.txt"

Paste this into it but don't include the stuff in brackets:

buptest=512 bupiter=1 (<------ Test's connection between PI, PS32 and Amiga Chip RAM. - You will only see this test on a Monitor off the HDMI off the Pi4 & you will still need a native RGB monitor to initially install AmigaOS)
sd.unit0=rw and emmc.unit0=rw (<----- this might be why you cant access atm)

Throw the MicroSD into the Pi4 on your Amiga & boot from the 3.1 Install disk. Be sure HDToolbox scsi.device is set to SCSI_DEVICE_NAME=brcm-emmc.device & you can create your Amiga Partitions as you wish.

I'd be Formatting 256 id=76 partition & Installing the OS first & then run everything from the MicroSD.

I'd also recommend something later than AmigaOS 3.1 to support larger hard drive partitions too.

Pull the SD card so you're naked & loyal on the PiStorm. You can always pop this back in later after adjusting boot priority's in HDToolbox. Selecting in the Amiga's Early Startup screen can be frustrating when the Pi4 is kicking the kick.rom into memory.

Good Luck fella.

[Angus]

Originally Posted by Kin Hell

Hi Angus.

Pi4:

scsi.device to SCSI_DEVICE_NAME=brcm-emmc.device

Based on what you've tried already, try this but understand you do so at your own risk entirely. I followed the Wiki several times before it all worked out seamlessly.



Good Luck fella.

Many thanks, but Thomas solved my "Stealth SD Card" problem (see above) with his GUIformat tool.


I do appreciate your efforts on my behalf (and everyone else's).
Cheers.