Totally new to Amigas. Picked up a A1200HD/40 with a CSA twelve guage accelerator

Cool, I'll take the acellerator out and see how it goes. My suspision is that it's not powerfull enought etc. I'll try it in a sec.

Who Hoo! :-P  That did it. I took the accelerator out and the unit turned on first pop.  :-P
What now?, I might leave the PSU at the moment and put up with having to flick the switch a number of times. Hopefully I'll see something down at my local auctions.

Any ideas with my DF0:?? problem?, is there any proven way to re-furbish the floppy?, ie dip it in metho or something like that   :-D

[xeron]

Well, if the PSU isn't providing enough juice, you are likely to get all sorts of weird problems. I'd fix that first! If you have an old AT PC case, you can modify the PSU from that to work with the amiga. You can use an ATX PSU too, but thats a little more work.

Instructions are on aminet (aminet is your friend :-D )

AT PSU hack readme
AT PSU hack archive

ATX PSU hack readme
ATX PSU hack file

Otherwise, A500 power supplies typically give more juice than A1200 ones (although not as much as the AT PSU hack), so that might be an option, too.

Also, if you decide to really upgrade your Amiga, and are looking around on ebay or amibench for second hand gear, a very useful link is The Big Book of Amiga Hardware where you can look up information on hundreds of Amiga hardware items.

Thanks I'll ahve to look into it.

 :-x  :-x  :-x  :-x  :-x

I've just noticed a burnt out/destroyed surface mount capacitor on my accelerator (CSA Twelve Guage). Strange thing is that the amiga still shows that I have a 68030 CPU and the 16 meg SIMM I've installed. Hope the damage isn't in the SCSI section . THere doesn't seem to be much hope in fixing it either. Where the solder pad was is totally destroyed . and by the looks of it the PCB is one of those multi layerd types. At least it's working for now. I might need to get hold of a 'benchmarking' program and see if the CPU is doing its job.

Tonite I'm having my first ever, reall play with the unit. I've got about a dozen coverdisks which I've got to check out.

No probs
Pete

[xeron]

Well, the CSA twelve gauge isn't a very good card, tbh, and it sounds like its had a rought life. I'd keep an eye out for cheap second hand Blizzard or Apollo cards on ebay if I were you.

030 based cards are nice because they give you a bit more power, but are still pretty compatible with old games (although if you install the games to your hard disk with WHDLoad it generally fixes lots of bugs in the process.

040 based cards will be more pricey, but they allow you to run lots of slightly more up to date software.

060 based cards are expensive, but they'll give your amiga a real kick up the backside and bring it kicking and screaming into 1996  :-D This is the most common processor for "power" users, short of a PowerPC upgrade.

[xeron]

If showconfig shows the 68030 and 16Mb fastram, the CPU is working.

Cool. I'm having a mess around now with a few coverdisks and sort of got the hang of copying onto the HD using  Directory Opus. Some  of the programs wouldn't run, giving me a message 'need bla bla library', so I copied the library files of the coverdisk into the library folder on the HD, saying 'no' when  wanted to replace files allready there. Is this the right thing to do?
I ran a progy named 'aminfo' and it done a benchmark of my video. It came up with 17866 characters per second; and 11904 Dhrystones per sec. I've heard of the 'dhrystones' on the PC, but really don't know what its about. Hopefully the 'aminfo' program does an acurate comparison.
It's starting to get more fun now taht I sort of know what I'm doing.

Pete

[xeron]

Yeah, if a program needs a library, just copy it into your libs dir. If there are two versions, its best to put the highest version on your hard disk. The way to tell is to do this from a shell:

Version whatever.library

(this will show the version installed on your computer)

Then do:

Version DF0:Libs/whatever.library FILE

(this will show the version of the library you are thinking of copying).

If the version you are thinking of copying has a higher version number, copy it over.

What about size?, I figure if the new file is bigger then it's newer. Probably not a safe way of doing things tho  :-)  

The 'shell' apears to be like the MS-DOS prompt on a PC. Where can I get a list of commands from?

[xeron]

Size is not a reliable way to tell; for starters what if the library author optimised all his routines and they ended up smaller? It should be possible to add a button to DOpus so that you can highlight a file, and click it to get the files version number. I haven't reconfigured Directory Opus in years, and i'm at work now, so i'll let someone else explain that :-D

As for the shell, believe me, its about a gazillion times better than the MS-DOS prompt on the PC. For starters, you don't even need to type "cd" to change directory, just type the directory name, eg:

1.Work:> Apps/
1.Work:Apps>

But thats just the tip of the iceberg! A quick google turned up this AmigaDOS online reference manual

Also, if you find (or download from Aminet) a program called KingCON, it will make your shell a million times nicer. You can do things like type part of a filename, and hit tab to complete it. It will also give your shell window a scrollbar so you can see things that whizz off the top.

Once you have KingCON, it is a little tricky to install for an amiga newbie, but here is a step-by-step guide:

1) if the file is LHA archived, unpack it to ram by typing this:

1.Work> lha x KingCON.lha ram:

(this assumes you have the lha program, but i would be surprised if the previous owner didn't have it installed).

2) in Directory Opus, find the file in "Ram Disk:" called "KingCON-mountlist" and copy this to "Devs:"

3) find the file called "kingcon-handler" and copy it to "L:"

4) Now, still in DOpus, go to "S:", and edit "user-startup" (usually DOpus has some sort of text editor configured to one of the buttons)

5) Go to the bottom of the file and add this line:

mount kcon: from devs:kingcon-mountlist

6) Reboot

7) From workbench go to Project->Execute (or hit Right Amiga + E)

In the dialogue box, put "NewCLI window=KCON:"

you should now get a shell with filename completion, and a scrollbar. If you right click you also get some menus.

Wow sound a little bit confusing. I think I need to check out that nline reference manual. For instants I don't really know what directories are used for what ie, devs, l etc  or even the RAMdisk. I figure it's abit like the windows directory on a PC or maybe the way the autoexec.bat and config.sys file need to be in the root directory etc.

 :-D  I usually hang out on a site called Overclockers Australia.  http://www.overclockers.com.au/  They have some pretty good forums aswell, but I think like most , you need to register first.
Wicked thing just happened. I posted a wanted add for a external SCSI drive and a dude replied offering me one for free. I'ts an old 'apple' one.   :-?  I hope it will be compatible :-?  
What keeps me going at the moment is the thought of being able to play all those cool classic games such as fire and ice and turrican and xenon etc. In fact I remember when I was just doing year 9 in high school and my best mate (with the amiga) just got hold of 'fire and ice'. We thought that it was a pretty cool game.
Another hing I remember was all those cool graffix demos we'd come accross. I think one group was called 'assembly' or something like that.

Pete

[xeron]

Well, the AmigaDOS online reference manual teaches you what all the directories are, but here is a quick rundown:

The "Ram Disk:" (or "RAM:") is a virtual drive that is always present on 2.0 ROM based amigas (and newer). It is for storing temporary files, which all get lost on reboot.

On a basic workbench partition, you'll have the following directories:

"C" (also a "virtual drive", known as an assign, called C: )

This is where all the shell commands live. Some commands are in the ROM, but others live here. You can copy useful commands here, and they will always be available in your shell.


"Libs" (or assign "Libs:")

This is where shared libraries live. Shared libraries allow many programs to use the same routines without each program having its own copy. Its a bit like windows DLL files, except that they aren't given quite so cryptic names.

"Devs" (assign "Devs:")

The root of devs is where we keep "Devices". Devices are like libraries, but they generally provide a standard way for programs to access actual hardware (for example parallel.device to access the Amiga parallel port).

Inside Devs, there are various other directories:

"Devs:DOSDrivers". These are text files that contain information AmigaOS needs to access a drive, for example a CD-rom would put an icon called "CD0" here, containing information about how to access the CD drive. These are called "Mountlists". (the action of adding a drive to the operating system is known as "Mounting")

"Devs:Monitors" contains drivers for different graphics modes, or even different graphics cards if you have one.

"Devs:Storage" is where you put DOSDrivers, Monitors etc. that you want to keep handy, but you don't want to be active every time you boot your amiga.

There are various other dirs in devs, but refer to the online reference for that.

"S" (assign "S:")

This is where scripts are kept, such as "startup-sequence" (like autoexec.bat), "user-startup" (also like autoexec.bat, but for the user to mess with).

It is also the default place to store ARexx scripts, and some programs keep their preferences here.


"Fonts" (assign "Fonts:")

As the name suggests. You can put Amiga bitmap fonts here.


"L" (assign "L:")

This is where filesystems and things like that live. For example, the CD0 mountlist might reference a CD-Rom filesystem kept here. (e.g. L:AllegroCDFS)


"Prefs" (no assign)

This is where all the AmigaOS preferences editors lives.


"Prefs/Env-Archive" (assign "ENVARC:")

(short for "environment archive")

This is where workbench, and other programs, permanently save their preferences files. They also save a temporary copy in RAM:Env (assign "ENV:"). This allows you to change preferences temporarily, and have your stored defaults restored when you reboot.

There are various other dirs, but once again, refer to the AmigaDOS online reference manual.

Oh thanks, yeah it all makes abit more sense now . Just wondering, you mentioned that the Devs:DOSDrivers directory would contain 'mounting' info for drives etc. When I install a SCSI cdrom, will a file be automatically be created or will I need to make one directing it to the drive. I suppose it all depends on the SCSI interface and wether it autodetects the cdrom etc. Any how I don't know what time it is where you are, but here in Adelaide its just turned 11pm, and my back is totally killing me from sitting on this chair all day.  It's been good talking to you, I've learnt a bit. I'll have to catch up with you sometime tommorow :-P
pete_pumpkin

Oh yeah, shouldn't you be workin?  :-D  :-P  :-D

[xeron]

Hmm... when i said the CD-Rom puts the file there, i was totally wrong. What i should have said is that YOU put it there.

What you'll have to do is this:

* Download a CD-Rom filesystem, such as AmiCDFS and install it
* Find the CD0 icon in Devs:DOSDrivers. In workbench, click once on the icon and go to "Icon->Information"

There should be a list called "Tooltypes", and in there should be "Device" and "Unit".

Device should be whatever the CSA twelve gauge scsi device is called (i don't know offhand, sorry) it could be csascsi.device or something else... i really don't know.

Unit should be whatever SCSI unit number the drive is

With a bit of luck, upon reboot when you put CDs in the drive, an icon should appear on workbench.

BTW, to transfer the files you download to the amiga, you need to format a disk to 720Kb MS-DOS on the amiga. To do this, you need to make sure CrossDOS (which comes with workbench) is installed.

In L:, there should be a file called "CrossDOSFileSystem". If not, you'll need to find your workbench disk and copy it from DF0:L/

In DEVS:DOSDrivers, or Workbench:Storage/ there should be a mountlist called "PC0". If it is in Storage, double click it to mount PC0.

A new icon should appear on workbench, called "PC0:?" or "PC0:Bad disk" or similar. Insert a disk you want to format, and click once on the PC0:? icon. Then right click, and select "Format Disk" from the icon menu.

If it formats OK, you should now have a disk both the PC and Amiga can read.


Edit: oooops! I just remembered that Storage isn't in Devs: at all, its in the root of your workbench partition.

Hi,
I've finally got a external SCSI CDROM  :-D  but yeah, setting it up seems to be proving pretty hard.
I downloaded a file setup program from this link:

http://ftp.plig.org/pub/aminet/disk/cdrom/AmiCDROM-1.15.lha

which was provided by Lando in a previous post. I copied the appropriate files to where they are supposed to be etc( I think , but I've hit a snag. I don't have a clue what the name of my SCSI.device should be. I get an error come upo at boot time 'CD-ROM Handler error /  Cannot open 'csascsi.device'  unit 1 . I've been searching the web for the last few hours hoping to find a manual or some text regarding CSA , but also with no luck.
Is there some kind of generic name that I could use instead?
My head hurts

 :-x  :-x  :-x

[xeron]

It sounds like you're nearly there. The amigas operating system traditionally provides "scsi.device", which controls onboard SCSI and IDE drives (the name is still scsi.device for legacy compatability, even though it also gets used for IDE drives). Is the drives SCSI ID definately 1?

You're right though, it doesn't seem like anywhere on the internet has any documentation for setting up the SCSI... :-( When I get home (which will be around 6:30pm GMT), i'll write a program to list all resident devices on your system, and you can post the list back and we can look for likely candidates.