Noob Workbench setup

[gurthuk]

After a long hiatus and looking back at Amiga memories through rose tinted glasses I have decide to resurrect my machine(s). I have 2 Amiga's:

A500 Kickstart 1.3 + Action Replay MKIII
A1200 Kickstart 3.0 + Compact Flash IDE (4Gb) + Compact Flash PCMICA reader + 4Mb Fast Ram

I see all these flash Workbench screenshots with colourful icons and hires backgrounds and I'm wondering how I can have the same on my A1200. If I purchase a Kickstart 3.1 ROM will that help me get started?

[gurthuk]

ah worked it out, I need to start with ClassicWB.

[fishy_fiz]

No need for ks3.1. The differences between 3.0 and 3.1 are negligable. About the only halfway reasonable arguement for it is to make os 3.5 and 3.9 easier to install. Even they arent really necessary though and theres very little they offer vs 3.0 and 3.1 setups that have similar 3rd party enhancements.

Im currently using my phone so cant really type a long response detailing the enhancements youre trying to learn about,  but theres plenty of threads around that do. If you head over to English Amiga Board (eab.abime.net) and look for a thread about making os3.x look like OS4 for example you'll find most stuff covered (its generic info though, so can be used outside of the thread starters intention).

[fishy_fiz]

ClassicWB is just a collection of already available software configured to its creators liking.
Not that Im trying to discourage you from using it (although Im not a fan), but it offers nothing that cant be done by configuring the system yourself (save for ease of installation).

[paul1981]

After a long hiatus and looking back at Amiga memories through rose tinted glasses I have decide to resurrect my machine(s). I have 2 Amiga's:

A500 Kickstart 1.3 + Action Replay MKIII
A1200 Kickstart 3.0 + Compact Flash IDE (4Gb) + Compact Flash PCMICA reader + 4Mb Fast Ram

I see all these flash Workbench screenshots with colourful icons and hires backgrounds and I'm wondering how I can have the same on my A1200. If I purchase a Kickstart 3.1 ROM will that help me get started?

I like AmigaSYS AGA:

http://amigasys.ultimateamiga.co.uk/amiga.html

That will work fine on 3.0 and with your CPU/RAM. Like others have said, no real need for 3.1 It's all down to personal preferences in the end though regarding which package to use. You could set up your own WB from scratch but it's a long long long job.

This may be of interest too, although it's 2 years out of date over:

http://lilliput.amiga-projects.net/TechDetails3.htm

Personally, I've always loved the MagicWB look. And nothing is more "classic Amiga" than MagicWB. Then again though, you state that you like the fancy new looks of a 21st century Workbench. I must be old fashioned. :elvis:

[PanterHZ]

Personally, I've always loved the MagicWB look.  And nothing is more "classic Amiga" than MagicWB. Then again though, you  state that you like the fancy new looks of a 21st century Workbench. I  must be old fashioned. :elvis:

I guess this comes down to personal taste. Although I admire the  work done on the MagicWB icons, both the gradients and how it makes the  most out of a 8 color palette, I still think a MWB Workbench looks kind  of "sad", almost like I'm looking at a mausoleum or something.

[gurthuk]

Many thanks to you all. Lots for me to think about and investigate. AmigaSYS looks interesting although I'm not afraid to put the time in and roll my own... I quite like tinkering and my long term goal is to get ASM-One stood up so I can write code for the A500 1.3 - that's where my fondness for the Amiga come from. Might be a little different from the daily PHP + JavaScript I do at work!

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Everybody's got their own opinions on this sort of stuff. IMHO ClassicWB contains too much bloat and isn't really "designed" for a classic Miggy, anyway, but for an emulated environment.
 
I really like 3.9, but if you intend to stick with 3.1 check out some of these patches here:
 
http://lilliput.amiga-projects.net/TechDetails3.htm
 
The design tips on this thread: http://www.mfilos.com/2012/01/guide-making-workbench-prettier-using.html

And also Peter K.'s icon library.
 
Don't cheap out, the 3.1 ROM can be found for less than $20 on AmigaKit or Ebay.
 
Amiga is infinitely customizable, that's for sure!

[Colani1200]

I'm not afraid to put the time in and roll my own... I quite like tinkering

Me too, but be warned: It will take you a lot of time and effort to get anywhere near the functionality of a ClassicWB install. ClassicWB may not be everybody's cup of tea, but it is much easier and much lesss work to customize/minimize a ClassicWB install than starting from scratch. If your primary goal is to get a working system to start coding, I'd definitely go for ClassicWB.

IMHO ClassicWB contains too much bloat and isn't really "designed" for a classic Miggy, anyway, but for an emulated environment.

I disagree. ClassicWB comes in a couple of different flavours suitable for different hardware configurations, from low end to emulation. For the OP's configuration, the 68k, Lite, Full, or ADV versions seem suitable:

http://classicwb.abime.net/classicweb/requirements.htm

[rdolores]

After a long hiatus and looking back at Amiga memories through rose tinted glasses I have decide to resurrect my machine(s). I have 2 Amiga's:

A500 Kickstart 1.3 + Action Replay MKIII
A1200 Kickstart 3.0 + Compact Flash IDE (4Gb) + Compact Flash PCMICA reader + 4Mb Fast Ram

I see all these flash Workbench screenshots with colourful icons and hires backgrounds and I'm wondering how I can have the same on my A1200. If I purchase a Kickstart 3.1 ROM will that help me get started?

Another good option is BetterWB.  It's the cleanest 3.1 look with all the updates.  The last one was release less than a month ago.

http://lilliput.amiga-projects.net/BetterWB.htm

[gurthuk]

Okay day 3... This has been a little more difficult to complete than I originally started but I'm getting there. After much messing around with my A1200 copying over ADF images and trying to create disks with (what I now know) a faulty drive I have switched to setting up the CF in UAE first.

I'm trying AmigaSYS for now as I see it comes with AmiPro Assembler already installed so I'll see how I go. After running AmigaSYS in an emulator with my A1200 specs I was a little disappointed with the speed but I'm not sure how much is the fact I'm running it on an old MacBook and have the CF hanging off USB - time will tell. BetterWB sounds like a plan B and a good starting place to tinker from.

Signed up for Amibay yesterday so I'll be introducing myself over there soon with the intention of putting my name down for a 8Mb / IDE card if one pops up.

Thank you all.

(found this video helpful for setting up the max transfer rate on the hard drive partitions)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd42RsKHm5Y

[DutchinUSA]

Yes, the 4/8 mb plus IDE you can find here: http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?t=51339

[Kernel]

So why no AmigaSYS for non AGA Amiga's?  Or am I not looking in the right place?

[paul1981]

So why no AmigaSYS for non AGA Amiga's?  Or am I not looking in the right place?

There isn't any AmigaSYS for OCS/ECS, unless you convert it yourself like mfilos did last year:

http://www.mfilos.com/2013/03/a600-fun-amigasys-testing-and-some.html

The reason might be that the developer didn't have a non-AGA Amiga, or maybe he couldn't get the wallpaper to look any good under OCS/ECS (more likely).

[Kernel]

There isn't any AmigaSYS for OCS/ECS, unless you convert it yourself like mfilos did last year:

http://www.mfilos.com/2013/03/a600-fun-amigasys-testing-and-some.html

The reason might be that the developer didn't have a non-AGA Amiga, or maybe he couldn't get the wallpaper to look any good under OCS/ECS (more likely).

I'll check it out - thanks!