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Author Topic: Internet boot disk for A1200  (Read 1270 times)

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Offline RetroNinjaTopic starter

Internet boot disk for A1200
« on: November 14, 2022, 05:03:58 PM »
Hello,

I'm wondering about the feasibility of making an Internet boot disk for my A1200. The main reason is due to the memory that gets used/wasted if I'm not going online. My A1200 has WB 3.1, 2MB RAM, and 8GB CF (compact flash). While a floppy does not have the space for everything (OS files, Roadshow, drivers, ftp, etc) my expectation would be to have a stripped down boot disk with a user-startup script that calls the files from CF.

Another direction would be to have a menu option at boot, off the CF. Is there a 'Choose your boot config' menu app out there?

It's been 20+ yrs since I played with the startup scripts so bare with me if there are big obvious answers. Is it possible to have a startup script that has a wait function and 'read an input or continue on'? Something (logically) like the semi-BASIC below

print "Would you like to Game, WB, or Internet?"
wait 5 secs
if G goto game-startup
if W goto wb-startup
if I goto internet-startup
else goto wb-startup
 

Offline TribbleSmasher

Re: Internet boot disk for A1200
« Reply #1 on: November 14, 2022, 07:09:28 PM »
you can make a script with a clickable requester,
using the requestchoice command.
This script would get executed from the startup-sequence.

 

Offline mechy

Re: Internet boot disk for A1200
« Reply #2 on: November 14, 2022, 08:07:01 PM »
This will not do you any good,but many years ago i made a 880K floppy with miami3.2 with gtlayout.library stripped down with grapevine irc client,termite ftp and telnet clients and managed it by crunching some programs(implode/explode..powerpacker??) or it may of been another cruncher. It was a bootable disk and ran on 2MB chip ram machine(like stock 600) or 500+ with 2MB via dilaup.. since miami3.2b supports ethernet etc,it should be doable.
Its much easier on a 1.76MB high density amiga floppy tho.
 

Offline pVC

Re: Internet boot disk for A1200
« Reply #3 on: November 15, 2022, 07:04:40 AM »
Here's a similar project: Network Boot Disk

It hasn't been updated for a while, but I guess it should work fine with more traditional setups at least.

BTW. I don't think Roadshow will consume any memory if you don't put it online automatically at boot. I have configured my A1200 to have a menu selection to put Roadshow (or any other stack) online/offline whenever I need it.
« Last Edit: November 15, 2022, 07:11:30 AM by pVC »
Daily MorphOS user and Amiga active.
 

Offline AndyFC

Re: Internet boot disk for A1200
« Reply #4 on: November 15, 2022, 06:12:51 PM »
Hi Retroninja,
Another direction would be to have a menu option at boot, off the CF. Is there a 'Choose your boot config' menu app out there?

It's been 20+ yrs since I played with the startup scripts so bare with me if there are big obvious answers. Is it possible to have a startup script that has a wait function and 'read an input or continue on'? Something (logically) like the semi-BASIC below

print "Would you like to Game, WB, or Internet?"
wait 5 secs
if G goto game-startup
if W goto wb-startup
if I goto internet-startup
else goto wb-startup

Based on my resent experiments I'd recommend GetMouseinput and ButtonMenu for this.
https://www.futaura.co.uk/amiga/
http://aminet.net/package/util/misc/ButtonMenu_123
https://aminet.net/package/util/boot/GetMouseInput

It can be configured so that a GUI selector appears when you hold down a mouse button on boot. The options can be configured to run different scripts which effectively mean different startup sequences - it depends how early in your main SS you call it.

Here the part of my main SS which uses GetMouseInput to detect whether left or right (or neither) mouse button is pressed. If nothing is pressed it carries on as normal, if left is pressed it executes a bunch of commands and then the maxmem-sequence script. If right is pressed it calls Bootmenu-Sequence which is where ButtonMenu is then called.

Code: [Select]
C:GetMouseInput LOCAL

IF $MouseInput EQ 1
  Unset MouseInput

  C:SetPatch QUIET
  C:Assign >NIL: ENV: RAM:
  C:Assign >NIL: T: RAM:
  C:Assign >NIL: Genetics: system:games/g/geneticspecies
  C:Execute S:Maxmem-Sequence
  EndCLI >NIL:
EndIF

IF $MouseInput EQ 2
  Unset MouseInput
  C:Execute S:Bootmenu-Sequence
  EndCLI >NIL:
EndIF

Unset MouseInput

This is all built on the foundations of what I've learnt from examining the configuration of ClassicWB.
A1200 in DIY Tower. 3.2 ROMs (softkicking 3.2.2), OS 3.2.2 with ClassicWB, CF card, CD RW and IDE to SD adapter running off the internal IDE port (using the A4000 4-port IDE adapter from Amigakit), Pistorm 32 lite with Pi4/2GB/Emu68 or Blizzard 1230-IV, with 32MB 60ns RAM and 50MHz 68882 FPU. 3COM PCMCIA Network card running with Miami DX.
MorphOS on PowerMac G5 and ATI 9600 pro