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Operating System Specific Discussions => MorphOS => MorphOS -- Application questions and support => Topic started by: save2600 on October 23, 2009, 08:42:26 PM
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Having a bit of trouble getting this to install on my new HD which did not have a previous install. Not even sure if it is formatted to be honest and maybe that's where the problem lies?
System hangs and drops its video signal after quark is displayed. I've looked at the MorphOS site and it mentions something about trying to boot the .iso manualy. Did that too and about a half an hour later(sigh), the system just freezes. Is this because the Efika only has 128mb of ram? Nothing built into the firmware that switches to video ram when necessary?
I've got both the morphOS.key and .iso image in the root directory of my USB drive. Same with the install image of course. Anyone know what's going on here? I don't have any tools or a PeeCee to format this 2.5" drive, so I hope that's not the problem...
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boot scsi:0 morphos-2.4-efikainstall.img with the flashdrive connected directly to the usb ports on the Efika. Make sure the flashdrive is formatted FAT32. If that doesnt work, try just plain ol' FAT.
I've installed MorphOS countless times and this always works for me.
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boot scsi:0 morphos-2.4-efikainstall.img with the flashdrive connected directly to the usb ports on the Efika. Make sure the flashdrive is formatted FAT32. If that doesnt work, try just plain ol' FAT.
I've installed MorphOS countless times and this always works for me.
Done that, still no go. Is there a switch after this command line that I'm supposed to do with a new HD? As it sits now, system hangs after Quark/OpenFirmware is displayed and if I try to boot, says no file system recognized.
BTW: There's two buttons on this damn thing a black and red one. I discovered pressing both together, the system resets. Plug in the power supply and the system is automatically on. Tried pressing both in separately, hoping for a shutdown, but nope. Do they have any other function besides reset?
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Can you put the HD into another computer to see if it is formatted and what type of format it has? I have an adapter that I can hook almost any HD to that has USB on the other end to connect to my PC, or Mac to do any formatting, partitioning, or reformatting of the drive. Remember the IDE on the Efika is not the best, or fastest and the 1.1 USB ports are even slower. Hope this helps, we need more info about the drive.
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No, I do not have a PATA adapter to monkey around with. I did just order a SATA to USB Adapter though for use with the SATA drive I accidentally bought. lol
Guess it figures the drive was not setup or formatted huh? Just my luck. That SATA adapter I bought was only $10 shipped. I hope it works. Guess I should buy a PATA to USB adapter for this drive next. No PeeCee's here. Just Mac and Amiga.
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No, I do not have a PATA adapter to monkey around with. I did just order a SATA to USB Adapter though for use with the SATA drive I accidentally bought. lol
Guess it figures the drive was not setup or formatted huh? Just my luck. That SATA adapter I bought was only $10 shipped. I hope it works. Guess I should buy a PATA to USB adapter for this drive next. No PeeCee's here. Just Mac and Amiga.
Don't try using the PATA to USB adapter on the EFIKA, connect it to your Mac to check the drive's format and do any partitioning you want. The Efika's USB ports are buggy and slow.
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Don't try using the PATA to USB adapter on the EFIKA, connect it to your Mac to check the drive's format and do any partitioning you want.
Right - I got that :-) I'm pretty confused right about now. The Adapters I'm seeing say SATA/PATA in the title, but when you click on them, they mention nothing about PATA. Just SATA and IDE. Are PATA and IDE the same?
I wonder if the one I just bought (and have yet to receive) will work? Will SATA to USB adapters work with that PATA drive? I'm not buying another computer without the frickin' OS installed already. I've read about installation nightmares with MorphOS and that's exactly what I'm experiencing right now :-( Guess I shouldn't be surprised! lol
BTW: do you think I am confusing the installation process by having other files on the USB drive? Such as other morphOS related installs or images? You'd think not, but... and I wonder if I should try installing a different version of MorphOS? I have the ISO image for 2.3, but on the .img file. Can't find them anywhere on the net and they're certainly not on their website :-(
And I don't suppose putting an Amiga HD utility program on that flash drive would get me anywhere either, huh?
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Better yet, sell the Efika and pick up a mac mini!!!
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Better yet, sell the Efika and pick up a mac mini!!!
But I just bought the damn thing because it came with the license! :-)
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I've never manaed to get MorphOS to install on my EFIKA from a USB pen... OpenFirmware just refuses to read them all (although MorphOS reads them fine once booted, so it's good to have the iso image on :D).. I had to do my install over TFTP... I haven't installed the latest MorphOS yet, so I may write-up some instructions on how to do a TFTP based install.
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But I just bought the damn thing because it came with the license! :-)
Did you get it from Dave? I am sure he will help out, and I was joking, but I would much rather get a license for my mini over the Efika!
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Did you get it from Dave? I am sure he will help out, and I was joking, but I would much rather get a license for my mini over the Efika!
No, bought it from Nate (I think he only checks his e-mails once a day when he gets home or something, so thought this would be quicker) - Dave posted his for sale right afterwards, but he's been helping. Thanks Dave!
Okay... just tried a different card. Same exact problem! UGH!!
After the Quark text comes up, what's this thing supposed to do? Do you HAVE to have the Ethernet hooked to it? Or should the computer boot into some kind of Disk Utility screen? That seems like the logical answer to me, but I'm running blind here...
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In your situation I would get one of these ide/sata to USB adapters:
http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-2-0-to-SATA-PATA-Hard-Drive-Cable-Converter-Adapter_W0QQitemZ230389442192QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item35a447e690
Hook up the hdd to the deneb and format and partition the drive using hdtoolbox (or similar) on that. Then copy the efikainstall.img to the first partition and the iso file if you've already downloaded that. Then attach the hdd back to the Efika ide port and boot the install image. That's basically how I install my Efika only I use a CF-IDE adapter as a hard drive and a PegII instead of a real Amiga.
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I had some problems myself installing morph OS...
I used the built in format tools.
Before you start the install tool but when in desktop...
Explore the menus, it is there somewhere...
Prep the HDD first. it should do the trick...
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In your situation I would get one of these ide/sata to USB adapters:
http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-2-0-to-SATA-PATA-Hard-Drive-Cable-Converter-Adapter_W0QQitemZ230389442192QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item35a447e690
Okay, thanks. So this one will not work? This is the one I have coming...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330368100219&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSA:US:1123#ht_1929wt_801
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I had some problems myself installing morph OS...
I used the built in format tools.
Before you start the install tool but when in desktop...
Explore the menus, it is there somewhere...
Prep the HDD first. it should do the trick...
I can't get the Efika to boot into anything. Hangs after a while.
I just measured the voltage of its BIOS or backup battery... it was dead. Could this be my problem?
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That one should be ok too. I only pointed out the other one because it's like the one I have which I have tested with Poseidon.
Regarding the battery - You'll want to get that replaced otherwise your keyfile probably won't be recognised. I've had that happen a couple of times.
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That one should be ok too. I only pointed out the other one because it's like the one I have which I have tested with Poseidon.
The one save2600 links to is a SATA 2.5" adapter, so no way he can connect a PATA drive to that adapter. Not even a normal SATA drive. The one you linked to can handle 44 pins drives, 40 pins drives and SATA 3.5" drives, so that is the one to get.
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What kind of drive is it? Is it hooked up to the internal ide 44 pin? After the Quark message, usually you get the MorphOS butterfly.
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I can't get the Efika to boot into anything. Hangs after a while.
I just measured the voltage of its BIOS or backup battery... it was dead. Could this be my problem?
I am not sure of that. my battery is low on poser as well...
It resets the network mac address every time it is powered off...
But the computer powers on without any problems...
Try to find out if there is any way of prepping the HDD form open firmware...
It may need disk space for buffers....
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@Doctorq, thanks! I'll get the known tested one then :-)
It's a Samsung PATA drive that Nate (previous owner) recommended I get and yes, she's hooked straight into the internal 44 pin header. I did not screw that drive in though. In fact, I just put a couple of anti-skid rubber bumpers over the last two (away from the header) mounting holes, thinking it'll go nowhere and aid in anti-vibration. This does mean however that it's not 'grounded' to the mainboard. Would this make a difference? And yes, the drive spins up.
After I get the Quark text, the video dies on my screen as says: "input not supported", so I really don't know what is going on - if there's a butterfly or not.
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I am not sure of that. my battery is low on poser as well...
It resets the network mac address every time it is powered off...
But the computer powers on without any problems...
Try to find out if there is any way of prepping the HDD form open firmware...
It may need disk space for buffers....
That would be great. Without creating a new account somewhere (such as the MorphOS dedicated site) and searching all day long... anyone know what that firmware command would be to prep the drive? Drive is 160gb in size...
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The one save2600 links to is a SATA 2.5" adapter, so no way he can connect a PATA drive to that adapter. Not even a normal SATA drive. The one you linked to can handle 44 pins drives, 40 pins drives and SATA 3.5" drives, so that is the one to get.
Lucky someone's awake! Yeah it's sata only. In my defence it's been a really long day at work today and my tired eyes didn't actually read the description :(
The one I linked to is a really good set. Not expensive for what it offers.
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@Doctorq, thanks! I'll get the known tested one then :-)
After I get the Quark text, the video dies on my screen as says: "input not supported", so I really don't know what is going on - if there's a butterfly or not.
Strange, it suggests it opens a screen in an unsupported resolution.
Have you got your monitor connected directly to the Efika's graphics card or through a KVM or other switcher?
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Yeah... for the $9, sounds like a great investment. Can't wait to see all the snafu's though hooking that to my Deneb card. I'm just experienced enough to know better than thinking it'll just work and inexperienced enough to not be able to fix all that invariably goes wrong hooking new things up to Deneb. lol
BTW: I didn't do anything but reset the Efika and now I can't get to the firmware screen at all :-(
SO... irregardless of the HD not being prepped, shouldn't I at least be getting past that damn Quark thing?? When I first got the machine, I thought I could play around with some of the OS or settings and tried it out before having a HD hooked up to it. That wouldn't have blown anything on the mobo, would it?
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After I get the Quark text, the video dies on my screen as says: "input not supported", so I really don't know what is going on - if there's a butterfly or not.
You could try adding the BM boot parameter, this should let you choose an alternative screenmode to boot up in.
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Strange, it suggests it opens a screen in an unsupported resolution.
Have you got your monitor connected directly to the Efika's graphics card or through a KVM or other switcher?
Yeah, that's what I was hoping, but no... it's going straight into a modern/brand new Acer LCD. I've also tried hooking it to an older CRT, but same thing. Okay, after I let the Efika sit for a while, she now boots up again. I've got her plugged into the CRT and will try this one more time. Damn is USB 1.1 slow :-(
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You could try adding the BM boot parameter, this should let you choose an alternative screenmode to boot up in.
So after typing in the boot.img, type BM after that? Is that the switch I need? What exactly is the protocall for that? MorphOS website says BM=BootMenu/s or something like this, but I do not know how that translates to the command line.
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We're getting somewhere now that I re-hooked the CRT back up! yes, indeed it calls for a screen mode that's not compatible with my LCD. It showed the butterfly for a sec and now I get a grey screen with blue window asking about keymaps. I think I've got it now guys, thanks! It sees my HD now and I'm about to partition. What size do you recommend for boot partition? Keep it low, just as in Amiga?
Yay! She works! :)
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BOOYAKA! Sounds like you are on the right path now.
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Cool! You shouldn't need a very big sys: partition. 500MB would be plenty.
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BOOYAKA! Sounds like you are on the right path now.
Yeah, this is GREAT! System is super intuitive. Installing files now. Everything is going just fine (through the CRT), even with the buggy USB ports. I hope this thing will connect to my LCD just fine though. I have enough CRT's and LCD's and that's putting it mildly ;-)
Thanks to everyone for all the help. Definitely on my way here. Well, maybe we learned something "new" somewhere throughout this thread? Like knowing when to use a frickin' CRT for cryin' out loud! lol
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Cool! You shouldn't need a very big sys: partition. 500MB would be plenty.
If it's say... 10GB, is that going to present a problem with bootup or speed like it might on an Amiga? This drive is 160GB... so figured 10GB could be the system partition. That's what I installed. Just need to figure out how to change screen modes now. Sys: prefs...
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It's a bit strange it didn't display on your LCD. Cybergrafx is usually very good at detecting the attached monitor and outputting at the correct frequency. You might have to enter the values for your monitor manually.
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10GB shouldn't be a problem my PegII has a boot partition that size.
Prefs are different on Morphos. You access them from the global menus - Settings -> System.
Then select screens.
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Might have to reduce the boot partition size. It's taking forever to boot back up. Don't know if that's the problem or not. System seems to have 'crashed'. How long does it usually take to boot? And it says it has 105mb ram... is this normal? Supposed to have 128mb...
And shoot... we're stuck with Cybergrafx drivers? I've never liked them. Use P96 on my other Amiga's, even with Cybrgrafx cards. lol
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It's Cybergrafx 5 and it's actually very good!
It shouldn't take ages to boot back up. 105mb is what mine always says. Is it stuck on the boot logo?
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It's Cybergrafx 5 and it's actually very good!
It shouldn't take ages to boot back up. 105mb is what mine always says. Is it stuck on the boot logo?
Yes, but I just reduced the boot partition to 900mb and it doesn't look like it destroyed the data anywhere! I'm rebooting now and will see what happens. Black button turns on the system and red resets? Now that I have that figured out... lol
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She boots super quick now! Efika or MorphOS with Efika must not like super large boot partitions...I don't have a 2 button USB mouse.... but are there supposed to be drop down menus from the top of the screen like AmigaOS? Ambient is Workbench? This looks sweet!
Oh and you can just shut her down like an Amiga? Unlike PeeCee and Mac? I'm done with questions for now. :) Guess it's time to check out the MorphOS sites!
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Yeah there are the drop down menus (I called them global menus earlier but drop down is more Amiga-ish :-). If you go in utilities/commodities hopefully you should find the shiftclick commodity for Apple style one button mice.
Yes, Ambient is Morphos' Workbench.
Shutdown is Amiga style :-) but you can reboot/switch off from the menus as well.
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Thanks for all the answers Ruud, I appreciate it! I'm waiting for my GF to come home from work with a new CR2032 battery. System after a short while comes to a crawl. Hoping replacing that battery will allow the key recognition to take. Oh and I'll be sure to get a 2-button mouse before too long. Gotta maintain that Amiga like feel :-) Already have a sweet and compact Apple style black keyboard from an old Power Mac already. Perfect fit for this!
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A new battery should sort it out. My Efika lives at work where luckily we happen to sell CR2032 batteries so they're always on hand which is very usefull.
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Well, I took a break from this quirky little system for most of the night. Upon first install, I had all sorts of monitor issues. Couldn't get the system to play with my LCD. Finally reduced the boot partition down to 996mb and re-installed her. Now, MorphOS sees my Acer x22w monitor and has a bunch of screen modes to choose from - although I can't seem to change them, even after saving and rebooting. Still, I was pleasantly surprised at how "intelligent" the Cybergrafx driver must be. I'm sure I'll get this thing licked before too long - just wanted to give an update to how wrong that first install was. I don't know exactly what happened there, but it caused the system to act very strange. Must have been a combination of things - but I suspect that battery might be more important to this little guy that it is to some other computers.
Oh wait! I just noticed that I actually have MorphOS 2.3 installed! rotflmao This has been a long night. But 2.3 sure seems to be doing more than my original 2.4 did! lol
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When you say you can't change the modes, do you mean you can't edit them or can't change the screenmode?
If you want to change the screenmode select the system settings from the drop down menus, then select screens. Once you've go that, double click on where it says Ambient with the name of your gfx card. That'll bring up the "edit screen" window where you can choose a skin and the resolution for the Ambient screen.
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best way to procede might be updating to 2.4 from inside the 2.3 install.
1. mount the cd.iso
2. move bootefika.img file to your boot partition
3. reboot (it should now identify itself as MorphOS2.4)
4. mount the iso again
5. start the installation (read copy the remaining files)
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You can do it without a reboot too, at least it worked on my PegII.
1. mount the cd.iso (right click and select mount from context menu)
2. move bootefika.img file to your boot partition
3. Start the iWizard from the iso (it's in tools)
4. Select update installation
5. Reboot & enjoy!
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@Kronos, yes - I performed an update last night before bed of 2.4 over 2.3. All seeme well now. Placed the tag BM after the efikaintall.img command and that allowed me to choose a 1024x768 screen thta was semi-Acer x223x friendly. I say "semi" because the screen was all washed out and I could barely make out what was going on. Clearly, the refresh rate or something built into the Cybergrafx driver is a little off for this monitor.
@ Ruud: speaking of monitors, Yes, I go into System/Settings from the pull down menu and clicked on Monitors (or screens as you called it). Doubled clicked on the video card edit setting, which brings me to the Ambient setting. Save, reboot and it doesn't change the screen mode. BTW, this has always been my experience using Cybergrafx on a real Amiga. And in fact, even P96 with this monitor. On my Amiga, not only will it not save the change, but it will often crash the computer! Okay, back to this Efika deal... ONLY way I am able to change Ambient's screen mode is by going directly through Ambients MUI setting and changing/saving it there. Yay! That works :-) Just curious as hell why it doesn't work through the other way.
BTW: am using OWB right now to read and reply! Was also amazed to find that simply hooking up my ethernet... the comptuer and MorphOS knew it was there! Didn't have to fudge with a TCP program of any kind like you have to normally do on an Amiga. Just need a good mail/news program now, though I suspect YAM is still the best?
Gosh and I just thought of something else if someone doesn't mind confirming... on my boot partition, I noticed several AmigaOS like drawers. 'C' is one of them, but nothing is in there! There's a drawer labeled 'MorphOS', which has the same type of files of course, but it's 'C' directory is jam packed with goodness. Does the OS or EnvArc know to point to all these files within the MorphOS folder or do I need to copy this stuff over? If they're supposed to be empty...what are they there for? Will programs or Amiga programs install and do there thing outside of the MorphOS folder?
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make sure the system is live when you change the battery!! otherwise you'll loose your mac address and your MOS license. The MAC is algorithmic but can be a REAL pain to try and re-roll until you find the correct original mac.
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Dunno mine came back as registered on the 1st try ....
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@ Ruud: speaking of monitors, Yes, I go into System/Settings from the pull down menu and clicked on Monitors (or screens as you called it).
There are too different setting one called "screens" (top left) one called "monitors" (bottom right). Not sure which one you tried :-?
BTW: am using OWB right now to read and reply! Was also amazed to find that simply hooking up my ethernet... the comptuer and MorphOS knew it was there! Didn't have to fudge with a TCP program of any kind like you have to normally do on an Amiga. Just need a good mail/news program now, though I suspect YAM is still the best?
Yes still YAM :-) Morphos version is available.
Gosh and I just thought of something else if someone doesn't mind confirming... on my boot partition, I noticed several AmigaOS like drawers. 'C' is one of them, but nothing is in there! There's a drawer labeled 'MorphOS', which has the same type of files of course, but it's 'C' directory is jam packed with goodness. Does the OS or EnvArc know to point to all these files within the MorphOS folder or do I need to copy this stuff over? If they're supposed to be empty...what are they there for? Will programs or Amiga programs install and do there thing outside of the MorphOS folder?
The MorphOS drawer is used by the MOSSYS: assign. The idea is you don't touch anything in there. You just add extra libs, devices, commands etc. in the Amiga-like places which will be pretty much empty after a clean install. This is really great as it separates third party and core system files and means when you update Morphos in the future you can keep all your settings, user startup etc. without them being overwritten.
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Dunno mine came back as registered on the 1st try ....
Mine too.
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There are too different setting one called "screens" (top left) one called "monitors" (bottom right). Not sure which one you tried :-?
Yes still YAM :-) Morphos version is available.
The MorphOS drawer is used by the MOSSYS: assign. The idea is you don't touch anything in there. You just add extra libs, devices, commands etc. in the Amiga-like places which will be pretty much empty after a clean install. This is really great as it separates third party and core system files and means when you update Morphos in the future you can keep all your settings, user startup etc. without them being overwritten.
Ahh.... found the 'Screens' icon... its' in the upper left. Monitors is in the bottom right. Sorry 'bout that. Still strange though that even within monitors and then editing the 'screen', it doesn't take. Oh well. Some of this MUI/Ambient/Workbench/Screenmode/Monitor business is VERY confusing to me sometimes.
And yes, sounds great the way system files are now handled. Totally makes sense (unlike the screens/monitor business - lol) and should help curb install disasters.
About the battery... I did experience some quirky stuff there too, although I did change it out with the power off. Seems to me that as long as the system gets rebooted AFTER your morphos.key is in Devs:, then you should be fine. And yeah... I need to get a router someday. As it sits now, I'm in the habit of resetting my cable modem each and every time I switch between the Mac & Amiga. Hmm... I have this wireles WiFi 54M USB adapter sitting here... I wonder if Efika/MorphOS will be able to make use of it yet? That's a big negatory... Poseidon doesn't like it :-(
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In Monitors you tell the system what kind of monitor you have, what resolution it supports and can change the timings for each resolution if needed. Changes may require a reboot to take effect.
In Screens you select one of the modes (pre)defined in Monitors for use with Ambient, select a skin,backdrops and such. You can also predefine costum-screens for use with apps that should not appear on Ambient's screen.
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Thanks for the clearer explanation Kronos. So is it just a glitch then when you're in Monitors, but editing Ambients screen mode that it doesn't take? An omission maybe?
Well... I'm trying to get a long with this little system, but before too long, I experience freeze ups. It does get a little warm in there, even though the 9250 video card does have a heatsink. The CPU sits right underneath this HD, so the system seems a little too warm for my tastes. I just added a small fan inside the computer and it resides right between the power connector and on/off switches blowing air through the case and over the CPU. Hope this resolves the crashes! System would freeze randomly after some time, but usually when messing around with a window or if a window was supposed to pop up. In the case of a requester, you'd see the outline of its box and then the system would hang :-( One of the attractions to Efika was supposed to be its silent operation, but like I said, it really does get warm in there. This is quite the buggy system, isn't it? Anyone else experience these hang ups? And sometimes, you have to let the damn thing sit for 15 or so minutes before she'll start back up again :-( This whole experience is leaving me wondering if the MacMini is the way to go :-) MorphOS seems really nice, but as of now and even considering the speed difference, I'm not about to trade in my 060 equipped A2500 for this experience ;-)
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Hmm... Something isn't right. My Efika runs non-stop running the dnetc client crunching OGR-27 (so full cpu load), and I don't experience what you're describing. There's no fan in its case and it sits next to a warm PC in my small office at work. Sure I don't have a conventional hard drive in there creating heat but even so it can't be any less warm than yours.
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Weird. Well, ever since adding the fan, she's been more reliable. Just "installed" YAM. Same probs here as on an Amiga. Installer crashes, says it can't find a source file or something. And then copying files got me there for the most part. Still, program didn't know where the MUI files were or where .lib was - copied those to their respective drawers... fixed the .lib prob, but not the MUI stuff. Found you you have yank the MUI drawer out of the Install folder and place it in the root YAM drawer. LOL Program doesn't care that there's a drawer in SYS: called MUI. Thankfully, we Amiga users are used to not using Install scripts. Amazing and frustrating that all of these problems remain, follow amd haunt us! lol Still, it's a lot of fun learning this system. Using a Microsoft 2-button mouse now and that really helps. Will be looking for a scroll wheel'd mouse here soon!
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Weird is most certainly the word! I don't remember having those problems with YAM either! Oh well maybe these Efikas each have a different personality :-)
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Well, that's using an Amiga too. I'd say I have more trouble than not using installer scripts. Kind of like Cybergrafx drivers. lol But they seem fine with this Efika system now.
So... no dock? I remember reading somewhere somebody didn't get the license to use that? Apple has dibs on the concept I guess? Maybe I can install the Dock from OS3.9 disk :-) Just found this 'Panel' thing though... seems like that'll be good enough - LOL!
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Thanks for the clearer explanation Kronos. So is it just a glitch then when you're in Monitors, but editing Ambients screen mode that it doesn't take? An omission maybe?
Well... I'm trying to get a long with this little system, but before too long, I experience freeze ups. It does get a little warm in there, even though the 9250 video card does have a heatsink. The CPU sits right underneath this HD, so the system seems a little too warm for my tastes. I just added a small fan inside the computer and it resides right between the power connector and on/off switches blowing air through the case and over the CPU. Hope this resolves the crashes! System would freeze randomly after some time, but usually when messing around with a window or if a window was supposed to pop up. In the case of a requester, you'd see the outline of its box and then the system would hang :-( One of the attractions to Efika was supposed to be its silent operation, but like I said, it really does get warm in there. This is quite the buggy system, isn't it? Anyone else experience these hang ups? And sometimes, you have to let the damn thing sit for 15 or so minutes before she'll start back up again :-( This whole experience is leaving me wondering if the MacMini is the way to go :-) MorphOS seems really nice, but as of now and even considering the speed difference, I'm not about to trade in my 060 equipped A2500 for this experience ;-)
Well I hope you won't blame the Efika, or the MorphOS developers totally for your frustration, as I suspect that you have not yet taken the time to READ all the documentation that you can find for MorphOS yet.
I had very similar trouble when I first got my Efika last year, but I can't remember what I did to resolve it. I do remember that the fix was simple once I found it and I felt kind of stupid for not finding it, or figuring it out for myself earlier. I suspect that once you do work it all out, you may feel the same way. The Efika is a great little computer for the price, but it does have it's short comings and quirks. MorphOS is very Amiga like in many ways, but it does have enough upgrades and differences to have a learning curve, even for seasoned Amiga users. Part of the problem I have found is that most of the people that offer help on MorphOS have been using it for so long that things just come naturally to them and they often don't realize that when they are trying to help a newbie to MorphOS, they need to include some of the steps that they learned about MorphOS 4 or 5 years ago, so as a result, many times their help is missing some of the more basic steps that they assume you should already know about the OS.
I still consider myself a newbie on MorphOS, but have to say that it is getting easier, now that I am using it more often with it installed on my MacMini.
Hang in there and try to find some of the earlier MorphOS documentation to read completely so you will understand the subtle differences and basic workings of the OS and I think you will begin to appreciate it more with each passing day. I know it is not fun and I rarely do the required reading myself, as I would rather just jump in and hope to understand how things work by common sense and trial and error (I am lazy at heart these days).
I will try to remember how I figured out my monitor/screens trouble, but to tell the truth, the version of CyberGraphx built into MorphOS is so good at automatically recognizing which monitor is connected to the video card, I haven't had to think about screen resolutions, or bit depths since I first got my Efika and finally got it set it up correctly, so I have forgotten what I did back then.
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Hi Dave, you're absolutely right I haven't taken the time to read up much on this system. The Efika came with no docs at all, but I've read how to install (and it's pretty basic actually) it from a USB card, mount the .iso et al. For about a year, I've kind of passively been keeping a pulse on MorphOS/Efika & Sam/OS4.1 for that matter - so this wasn't a total 'blind' or impulsive purchase per se. Sure does "feel" a little different than I was expecting though. Problem was, you had to dig deep to find that there's a boot menu switch that I needed for installation with my Acer X223w monitor. Up until then and being a hardware guy, I was suspecting something was wrong that way. The other install problem (and I was doing everything everyone suggested, including the install directions in Docs) I could not overcome was the fact that a clean install of 2.4 would absolutely not recognize my Acer monitor. Even with the BM switch. Only way MorphOS would see that monitor and include all of its settings was to first install 2.3 and then upgrade to 2.4. I'm sure maybe all I had to do was find a config file somewhere and drop it over, but seems to me something is goofy with the srtaight 2.4 install and my situation. Either that or my 2.4 .iso got corrupt somehow.
Still... got it worked out now and am now starting to enjoy the system finally. Been running for hours with the fan. Will have to try it without the fan and see if things become less stable. The best docs and adviice sure seem to be from users with experience though - so thanks all for the help. Gonna see if I can get M.A.M.E. running on this puppy now :-)
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So maybe it wasn't a heat issue why I'd get the random crash. Might just have been the flaky USB hub that came with the machine! I noticed most of the ports are super loose. Contact not the greatest, so considering the quirkiness of Efiak's USB bus, perhaps that was the problem? Not one crash now going on a couple of hours without the fan. Next up, I want to learn how to get the flash plugin or even the Arexx .swf file grabber for OWB to work :-) Not having luck with *anything* that relies on an install script yet. MorphOS obvious has an installer, but put Amiga Installer 43.3 in the 'C' drawer for "good luck". Guess I'm going to have to get down and do some serious reading :-(
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ARexx-Filegrabber for OWB ??
May it be that I again missed something ?
The only thing I know is tubexx, a semi-standalone script for YouTube which can be found on Aminet.
Note, you will need a full ARexx-installation for it (requires files from AmigaOS-disk) and a few other things (the script will tell you what is missing). Intregrating it OWB ? Should be possible, never tried.
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So... no dock? I remember reading somewhere somebody didn't get the license to use that? Apple has dibs on the concept I guess? Maybe I can install the Dock from OS3.9 disk :-) Just found this 'Panel' thing though... seems like that'll be good enough - LOL!
The Panel's work pretty well but I use PolyNet NG myself. Available from http://polymere.free.fr/index_en.html. It is very configurable.
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Better yet, sell the Efika and pick up a mac mini!!!
I'm actually considering doing just that if the .key would be good for the Mac Mini version?
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I'm actually considering doing just that if the .key would be good for the Mac Mini version?
The key is tied to your individual machine. The MorphOS team will only transfer it in the case of hardware failure.
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The key is tied to your individual machine. The MorphOS team will only transfer it in the case of hardware failure.
Gotcha, thanks. So far, I'm having a blast with this little machine. Learning what AmigaOS files I can copy into the empty Sys: drawers right now without screwing things up. lol Still, mostly using MorphOS native programs at the moment because I haven't quite got the hang of using Amiga stuff just yet, although I suspect I might have to modify some assigns. Still kind of confusing; this seemingly transparent and integrated MorphOS over AmigaOS thing.
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I wonder if you physically trashed the efika or other "obsolete" board ,they would let you transfer the key?
It would seem fair in that if you have paid for the license to run one instance of the software.
Or send them the old board?
Sacrificing an efika (still available new for $99) would be less expensive than spending $225 for another license!
Recidivist now standing back to see what opening THIS can of worms attracts....
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And sometimes, you have to let the damn thing sit for 15 or so minutes before she'll start back up again.
My Efika showed (show?) this kind of behaviour. I never figured out what exactly lead to refusing to boot. Was quite annoying. I guess it was a thermal issue (it is the Efika with an integrated tft and quite more, so there was some heat dissipation, read my experiece here: http://via.i-networx.de/eframe/eframe.htm ). But recently I dd a lot of changes including a new (pico) psu and a new entire housing. Since then the device works rock solid (uptimes of days). Only downside is that the audio output still is not acceptable (I hear every gfx and hdd operation in the audo output). But I fear there is something defective in the analoge filter of my Efika. I tinkered a lot around with it, so I wouldn't be too surprised about a little damage.
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ARexx-Filegrabber for OWB ??
May it be that I again missed something ?
The only thing I know is tubexx, a semi-standalone script for YouTube which can be found on Aminet.
Note, you will need a full ARexx-installation for it (requires files from AmigaOS-disk) and a few other things (the script will tell you what is missing). Intregrating it OWB ? Should be possible, never tried.
I have getvideo for OWB which allows you to snag videos off of youtube, myspace, etc... never cold get tubexx working due to "codesets.library".
Frank, sorry you had so many problems with the efika! I had no idea the battery was failing.
As far as booting the installer image, I found that the firmware is extremely picky about the USB stick. Some smaller cheaper 4gb sticks(Ultra - Tiger Direct brand) I had simply would act like they are loading the firmware but would fail, but finally I tried a 16gb cosair survivor and it was more reliable. You could tell it was working better as the "\", "-". "/" cursor moved faster as smoother.
Sorry I was not of more help, but I went on that little (2 week) vacation in Hawaii as your HD was arriving.
Anyway, glad it sounds like you are finally up and running!
-nate
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Only downside is that the audio output still is not acceptable (I hear every gfx and hdd operation in the audo output). But I fear there is something defective in the analoge filter of my Efika. I tinkered a lot around with it, so I wouldn't be too surprised about a little damage.
Did you try the digital output? I found that there was less bus noise vrom the video however the audio still had occasional popping and such (in mplayer mostly) due to the fact that the efika only supports a fixed 48KHZ audio audio rate.
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Anyway, glad it sounds like you are finally up and running!
-nate
No biggy Nate! Got a lot of help here in the meantime and just now made space for the little system. Desk that used to have my A2500 on looks a lot neater and tidier :-) (A2500 in game room now)
@zylesea: I do not hear the garbage out of the audio like you do, but there is a "funkiness" going on with the audio section for sure. Sounds really distorted or noisy with certain sounds. No wonder they included a optical out ;-)