Troubles installing Amiga Unix

[mackbw]

Hello everyone,

I'm attempting to install Amiga Unix (AMIX) onto an A3000.

I have all the pre-requisites. A3000 with 16MB ram, A2065 Network card, updated chips - latest revision buster and WDC SCSI chip.

I first tried to download images from http://amix.failsure.net/
However, I'm having problems unzipping any of them. When I use bzip2 to decompress any bz2 file from that site, I get a "Data integrity error when decompressing." This is the same in either Mac OS or on my Windows XP box. I'm not sure if there's something I'm doing wrong, or if the files were written with some other zip program and falsely have a bz2 extension. Hoping maybe someone can confirm or deny what I'm seeing.


In searching for media I found http://www.vintagebytes.de/amix/
I downloaded the files and was able to decompress them.
After decompression I sent the files over ftp to my Amiga 3000.
I used dcp to write the install media directly to a spare drive, and I made the floppy disks.

I'm able to boot and the install script starts. However, when the script gets to "Scanning SCSI bus for hard disk..." things appear to lock up. The hard disk light stays on and the computer just sits there. I've tried different SCSI ids, same result.

I do have an Amiga 3070 and some blank tapes. However, without usable files, I can't attempt that route. I do have access to a linux box at work. I'd like to hook the Amiga 3070 to that machine and create the Amix install tape. However, not too sure of all the steps installed in that process, as the instructions seem to be specific to creating the tapes from an Amiga Unix installation. I've read others seemed to have created the tapes on an AmigaOS installation. I'd be glad to do that, but again, unsure how to do it. If the tar is expanded on the drive and then using BTNtape to write the files in the correct order onto the tape...? In either case, it's impossible to create the tape without the files to do so.

Of course, that still doesn't fix the issue with locking up while scanning the SCSI bus...


I'm hoping someone may have some ideas and files to help me out.

Thanks,

Mack

[danbeaver]

Did you try EAB's FTP site or TOSEC directly?

They will be under "Operating Systems" as AMIX.

[mackbw]

Did you try EAB's FTP site or TOSEC directly?

They will be under "Operating Systems" as AMIX.

I've tried EAB's ftp (gradnis.nu). Found a file AMIGAUNIX.7z. Was able to expand it. Not sure what to do with the install media, which is a set of cpio files. Whether the cpio files need to be expanded before putting them to tape, or just put them directly on the tape.

However, I did make a set of floppy disks to see if I could get to a point of having the SCSI id's scanned. However, I didn't get that far.

The install disk set is Version 1.1. When the Install Script begins it triggers a TRAP. I tried copying another root disk to see if it was a corrupt disk. But I got the same result.

I'm not sure about TOSEC. I did do a search and found a ".dat" file that is labeled as Amiga Unix… however, I'm not sure what to do with this .dat file. The site recommends a "ROM management program" which doesn't seem to make a lot of sense given that these should be disk images.

[danbeaver]

This is the list I see:

[mackbw]

This is the list I see:

Where are you getting that from. grandis.nu? Some other ftp site?

[mackbw]

Using the file names in the image you posted I did a further search and found those files on other searches. So I've downloaded them.

Still not sure how to create the tape media… however, that's not the primary problem.

I created the new set of boot and root floppies. When I load them, just as with the other set, the Amiga locks up when it hits "Scanning SCSI bus for hard disks…"

I don't know what would be causing this. The SCSI appears to work fine for Amiga OS. The HD Toolbox scans correctly…
 
The tape drive had the original Commodore terminator on it, and I have an active terminator on the other end of the internal bus.

Not sure if this has anything to do with Kickstart Version, WDC SCSI Chip, or Buster - all are the latest version…

Mack

[danbeaver]

I've run across information in the forums on transferring the "tape" file to drive use.

[johnklos]

SCSI tape drives can be accessed like disk devices in Unix, so you should be able to use dd to make the tapes:

dd if=amix_tape_file of=/dev/st0 bs=512

No idea what corresponds to tape drive 0 in GNU/Linux, but it should work just fine there, too.

[olsen]

SCSI tape drives can be accessed like disk devices in Unix, so you should be able to use dd to make the tapes:

dd if=amix_tape_file of=/dev/st0 bs=512

No idea what corresponds to tape drive 0 in GNU/Linux, but it should work just fine there, too.

The original Amiga Unix installation tape contains a sequence of components, some of which are script files, some of which are compressed cpio archives. The components are separated by markers, which when read come out as EOFs.

Hence, in order to read the tape you need to use the non-rewinding variant of the tape device (I don't quite remember what its name was; it's been almost 20 years since I last installed Amiga Unix), or you'll only succeed at reading the first component over and over again

Likewise, writing the individual components to tape also requires that you use the non-rewinding device (if you want to install it from the original A3070 drive, or something that worked like it), or you'll only end up overwriting the first component with all subsequent components.