Amiga OS 3.9 and OS 4.0 Issues with the Mediator TX

[NioByte]

Hi All,

I must admit I have not been able to get any of the PCI cards I have to work under Amiga OS 3.9 or 4 Classic through the Mediator TX I own. Everything I have tried has resulted with the system locking up.

I'm not sure if this is caused by me having the B-Vision connected to the Blizzard PPC as well as using the Mediator TX busboard with a SB128 Sound Card, a Realtek RTL8139D NIC and a Voodoo 3 2000 PCI 3D graphics card.

I originally had a Radeon 9200 PCI 64MB and 128MB connected I have both versions. Both of course do not work, due to the fact that the for this card Amiga OS 4.0 only contains the BIOS related version used for the AmigaONE.

I do realise that the SB128 will never work with AmigaOS 4 unless the fake 'DMA' access is allowed. Then again if this is true, how do the PCI NIC cards work using the Mediator drivers? Do some of the PCI NIC's on the Mediator not use DMA?

I have tried multiple Mediator driver versions, including the latest ones. None of these seem to work for me at all. Including all of the Radeon.card ones

I have all the Amiga OS 4.0 Classic updates installed "February 2008 update" included.

Under Amiga OS 4.0 Classic I was only trying to use Picasso96. Having 2 cards assigned under Picasso96 does this cause problems?

Using the Mediator config tool found on the Mediator MutiMedia CD, it has detected all of the devices connected to the Mediator PCI busboard.

I did find when I had my Radeon card connected at the time once I applied the February 2008 update the system would just go on an endless infinite reboot sequence.

Then again, I am having the exact same issues under AmigaOS 3.9. Especially in relation to the Mixer application used for the Sound Card totally crashing the machine on boot. I tried this on multiple OS 3.9 installations with no luck either.

I read somewhere else that you should change the position of the mixer application execution in the user-startup sequence. This did absolutely nothing.

I wasn't able to get the B-Vision to work under OS 3.9 while the Voodoo 3 2000 PCI was connected. It would not release a screenmode to the B-Vision card. Under OS 4.0 the B-Vision works fine while the Voodoo 3 2000 PCI is connected. No idea why under OS 3.9 it refuses to do so.

This was happening with both CyberGraphX Version 3 and 4. All I would get was CyberGraphX boot splash screen.

Taking the Voodoo PCI Graphics Card out I could assign a screenmode to it. No idea why this would cause it. The Voodoo card doesn't seem to share the same memory address space as the B-Vision. Well, you would certainly hope it wouldn't.

With the Voodoo Card I was using Picasso96. For the B-Vision I was using CyberGraphX, I tried both version 3 & 4. With the Voodoo disconnected I could get the B-Vision to assign a screenmode so no more CyberGraphX boot screen.

I also find when I try to assign the Voodoo.card to Picasso96 Mode the system locks up. Even with CyberGraphX not being installed or assigned to the B-Vision card at the time.

Also, it being on a completely seperate PCI Bus (one on the A1200 Blizzard PPC Accelerator), would make one think it would be out of the equation.

Then again a passthrough connector is used between the A1200 expansion connector the Mediator PCI Busboard and the Blizzard PPC Accelerator.

They all use different memory address ranges, so one would think this would not cause too many issues.

Then again I am unable to get powerpc.library to work which is supposed to reference PowerUP which likes to be addressable from the Video memory, hmm. It still does not work with all the other PCI cards taken out of the mediator. Maybe the mediator just being present is enough to cause problems.

So, how do others get the PowerUP, or powerpc.library stuff to work then? I have got Terminate 2 set and hide alerts. I do know about blizzardppcfix MUI tool. That removes the powerup stuff on boot, I haven't tried that yet.

I have also tried to get the B-Vision under OS 4 to work with Warp3D and the powerpc.library the modified one for Amiga OS 4.0 available on Aminet, the system just crashes when trying to use that.

Disconnecting the Voodoo 3 PCI allowed it to do so. Also trying to use the Voodoo 3 2000 PCI card under OS 3.9 or anyother devices refuse to work.

Under AmigaOS 3.9 similar issues with PowerUP just crashes when trying to use the powerpc.library on boot. I have also tried different versions of that with no luck.

I somehow think if I was to disconnect the B-Vision under Amiga OS 3.9 I would no longer have these issues. That is the only thing I have not tried to date. I am just reluctant to do so

Also, under AmigaOS 3.9 installing BoingBag 1 and 2 through the InstallerNG package (wishes never installed it from contributions) totally ruined the OS installation after the 2 updates. So, for me AmigaOS 3.9 and 4.0 is causing me grief.

I was finally able to get the B-Vision to also work under AmigaOS 3.9 too. But, once of course the 2 BoingBag updates were applied the OS install is totally useless. For instance I get loads of assign errors and I have to launch workbench manually, nice.

I have not tried the Radeon.card driver under AmigaOS 3.9 yet. I will have to start from scratch again in order to do that. Since my OS3.9 installation is now useless.

Apolgoies for the long post which is a hybrid of both OS 3.9 and OS 4.0 related issues I have been experiencing.

I have not contacted Elbox about any of these issues I have experienced. I usually like to work things out for myself first.

In regards to AmigaOS 4.0 Classic I do definately consider it a non-finished product. I am astounded that A1200 Blizzard PPC SCSI support was missed. Blamed for lack of schematics, datasheet information, device information, etc.

I would think at least for Mediator related users at least make an optional hotifix to support the obscure mediator hardware. At least making it an optional kernel update for some.

I do realise adding such hacks to the kernel can open up stability issues and a can of worms, then again that should be at the risk of the user. I do understand Hans-Joerg Frieden's concerns in adding such hacks. It is rather messy and can potentially break things. At least making it available is better than nothing.

Then again, you cannot expect a huge amount from such a limited developer base. I think it is great what Hans-Joerg Frieden and his brother are doing. If it wasn't for them their would be no Amiga OS 4.x at all. They do an exceptional job considering it is only the 2 of them that make up OS 4 for the most part and other ambitious projects.

Talk about being a niche and almost a total vaporware platform Hyperion have done a great job.

Anyway, just wondering if anyone else has experienced these issues under Amiga OS 3.9 or 4.0? I am unsure what to do next besides remove the B-Vision completely.

Thanks.

[NioByte]

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[NioByte]

@Tripitaka
Thanks for the reply.
I may trying to install from AmigaOS 3.1 and install OS 3.9 from there. But, I would seriously doubt this is going to make a difference with the issues I am experiencing.

@BuzzBrain
Thanks for the reply.
You have both the Cybervision PPC connected and the Voodoo 5500 connected and it seems to still work when both are connected.

Hmm, so I wonder if I was to remove the B-Vision if it is going to make any difference.

I am not sure, I still haven't tried that yet. I may do that within the next few days or so.

I will keep trying different things. First thing to do will be to re-install AmigaOS 3.9 again. I will also try various things under AmigaOS 4.0 again too.

Thanks for the replies so far.

[NioByte]

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[NioByte]

@Nearly-Right,

In this case you're right

I must admit I wasn't very pleased with the current situation with the Amiga OS 4.0 classic release. More updates should definitely be released.

Is your setup working without issues under AmigaOS 3.9.

Also, are you able to tell me if you've issues using PowerUP under AmigaOS 3.9. This just seems to lock up for me.

Over the weekend I will try various things. I have already tried adding a card one by one to isolate any issues. Next step will definitely be removing the B-Vision and just have the Voodoo 3 PCI card installed in the mediator.

Thanks for the replies so far.

[NioByte]

Hi All,

I decided to try again without the Mediator TX plugged-in. Fixed up my AmigaOS 3.9 installation, since Boing Bag 1&2 installation totally mangled it (most likely caused by InstallerNG). Once all back to normal, I decided to try and install the powerpc support files off the AmigaOS 3.9 CD again. I am still having issues trying to get powerup to work. I decided to go into the Blizzard PPC Config menu on-boot (by pressing ESC, at the right exact time <- It's a real f'n pain to get that, timing has to be exactly right).

Tried all the various config options under that menu none of them seemed to help to get the powerpc.library to work. I tried turning off all the caches, adjusting the ram timings to 60ns, then 70ns, then free config. The system still decides to lock-up.

It seems to lock up as soon as the CyberGraphX RTG screen comes up. You then just see the mouse cursor wait icon in the top-left hand corner of the screen, the mouse cursor is frozen.

Now to get the system to boot again and not lock-up, I will have to rename the powerpc.library file to something else. It then will start booting all the way through again.

Has anyone else experienced these issues with powerup, I seriously want to try some PPC apps out. Especially warp3d ones.

Any help greatly appreciated.