SETTING UP CF CARD IN PCMCIA SLOT

[Pat the Cat]

Does the Amiga have any fast RAM?

You might need to reduce it to 4MB to get the PCMCIA slot working if it's mapped into zorro 2 space, rather than 32 bit fast RAM on 030 accelerators and up.

Recent thread here, you should be able to mount your "internal" CF card in Linux and read and write to it directly rather than copying the files twice.

https://forum.amiga.org/index.php?topic=75027.0

EDIT:

You can use GParted to reveal the CF cards device ID on your system (usually sdb1) and if it's formatted in Amiga Fast File system V40 (4 gigabytes or less mount it for use on Linux with;-

mount -t affs /dev/sdXN0/mnt                      <- In a Debian Linux terminal, probably need sudo at the front

[Pat the Cat]

4MB on the card, not total, to answer your question.

Only about 1 in 3 cf cards work in the PCMCIA slot, it seems. You can get a card that will work plugged into the IDE with an adaptor that works fine, but won't work in a PCMCIA adaptor.

And for over 2GB partition in FAT32, you have to have a block size of 4096 or 8192. 512 bytes won't cut it if you are using Windows Format to set it up.

One alternative is to get a CF-SD card adaptor, and plug that into the PCMCIA adaptor. Those seem to work consistently, with small partitions at any rate... but that doesn't help you get the compactflash.device, fat95, CF0 and CF0.icon files onto your Amiga drives to use them.

From what you are saying, it sounds like you do have those files (CF0 in Devs/Dosdrivers, compactflash.device in Devs, Fat95 in L) but it still isn't playing ball?

EDIT: Instructions in the next link for setting up a USB stick for use with an Amiga Gotek (basically you have to copy a couple of files to the root directory of the stick so the Gotek will read any ADF files on the stick as Amiga floppy disks).

https://www.retro32.com/gaming/amiga/01042020508-amiga-gotek-getting-started-guide-installation-set-up-and-game-downloads-flashfloppy

[Pat the Cat]

...because my RGB port is broken...  I can't easily remove the card because it's too big to fit properly in the Amiga and I had a hell of a job plugging it in!

If you remove the top metal metal shield from an A1200, it gets very easy to reach the top of the card without unplugging it. This has to be done anyway to change the capacitors for new ones (definitely recommended on an A1200 if not done already).

It sounds like the connectors are a little short and it will only have full connection when it's arranged just right (not quite fully in and sligtly out of 90 degrees.

[Pat the Cat]

Another way round this is that there is actually some Amiga to PC file transfer software that has been preinstalled onto the main CF card hard drive I'm using. This requires a connecting cable to work. In the past, I used similar software with an old PC serial port. I don't know if the software on my current Amiga CF card will transfer files using a cable from the Amiga serial port to USB, though.   

Programs to look for on your CF drive - NComm, Zterm, Xterm. They are terminal emulators that can transfer files over the serial port.

Now, I know setting up a usb port as a COM port is doable in Windows, because that's how programs like Pronterface talk to 3D printer controller boards. same principle, although Pronterface can't upload or download files (just typing commands).

That means on the PC side, you would have to install a terminal emulator program capable of file transfers like XModem, YModem or Zmodem protocols, point it at the right COM port, and yes, that should work. If they're both running at 38400 speed or lower.

It is worth checking the "storage" drawer of your bootable CF drive. You might find that compactflash.device and Fat95 are already in devs and L, but the CF0 icon was put into storage rather than devs/Dosdrivers.

EDIT: I apologize, you have obviously done the last as you reported finding the files! 

[Pat the Cat]

If you disconnect the CF drive and set the memory to 4 or 5.5 mb - do you get the purple Kickstart screen with a disk going into a drive?

That would indicate the problem with less memory isn't the memory card, it's your hard drive setup needing at least 6MB of fast RAM to boot up properly.

One way to further test that is to reconnect the CF card, hold down both mouse buttons, and turn on. Wait for a prompt to type at.

Then type

Bindrivers
Loadwb
endcli

Pressing the reurn key each time. That would give you a very minimalist Workbench.

EDIT: One particularly hoggy program is Poseidon. It's for usb. If that's in your user-startup drawer (automatically loaded on start). It would cause this sort of problem (and it's completely pointless unless you have a usb interface on a clockport or similar). I don't think you do, otherwise you wouldn't be bothered about PCMCIA or serial solutions to transfer files.

[Pat the Cat]

Great news.

Maybe if you'd just edited the CF0 mount entry to use a sector size of 4096 rather than default 512, the card would have worked as supplied and you'd have all the capacity.

Something wasn't seated quite right, but it's all going now at least.

I can understand totally if you don't want to mess with it anymore.

[Pat the Cat]

IIRC you can click "Modify", delete all the text in them, then click "save".

One thing you never mentioned - which version of Kickstart is in the A1200.? Do tell.

Is it the two Commodore supplied Kickstart 3.0 chips, or does it have 3.1 or later ROMs?

It does make a difference, 3.1 and above tends to turn off the PCMCIA card if more than 4MB of extra fast Zorro II memory is detected (so not an 030 accelerator card or above, but usual for a memory expansion for the built in A1200 020 CPU, ie your particular case).

Kickstart 3.0 doesn't bother, it just assumes everything is going to work together.

The version number and revision is displayed on the purple "I can't find a hard disk" screen. Vt39 for Kickstart 3, V40 for 3.1, upwards for 3.x and 3.1.4 (native big capacity drive support).

[Pat the Cat]

I also have another CF card I used a lot up until 2015. This card has somehow been corrupted and become unbootable. What do you think I can do about that?

If you can copy the CF0 file to like CF1, and modify it to point at ffs (Amiga fastfilesutem andler)  rather than Fat95 (fat32 filesystem handleron the Amiga) then you could try formatting it and setting it up in the PCMcia slot. You would have to wap the CF0 and CF1 icon in and out ofd DOsdrivers to get it recognized, but that would let you setup the (nonworking) CF card drive usinging your working cf card that does work with PCMCIA.

Then maybe you could put your other CF drive in the pcmcia lot working wit the new CF1 mount file, and jut copy the file to it to ue PCMCIA compact fiaslh.

Getting your Gotek working just has to be easier.

[Pat the Cat]

I tried Modify and deleted all the body text, then tried to save, but that didn"t work.

My Amiga Kickstart version is 3.0. The Revision number is 39.106. I don't know how hard it would be to upgrade this.

Changing two old ROM chips for 2 new ROM chips. It's not that difficult, making sure you get the notches the same way as the old ones fitted. If they're fitted wrong order (lo in hi, hi in lo), It won't power up but no damage done. But do get them fitted right way round and correectly spaced (usually have extra pair of pins that are not connected). Fitting the the wrong notch around or trying to use wrong pins can really mess up the chips and the A1200.

They behave very differently though from original 3.0. They take much longer to boot, they turn the PCMCIA off (usually a little program runs on a hard disk to turn it back on again). Latest one (3.1.4) was aimed very much at making big drives and partitions usable straight from boot, plus bug fixes.

My main problem at the moment is the broken RGB port. Only one pin (No. 23) is half broken off, but because of this the whole port must be replaced! It seems this pin sends a signal to switch my TV from CVBS to RGB input.

That's fixable. It seems there are still supplies of 23 pin D connectors to fit EDIT Not cheap, like £25 each for ones that mount on main board.

It"s a great shame that there are all these problems such as Fast RAM clashing with the PCMCIA slot. I don"t really understand why this happens. After I got my first Amiga in December 1988, I read not long afterwards that the Amiga computers have no memory map, except Exec = $04. The book or article said something like the Amiga would configure its RAM however it needed to and nothing would be at a fixed location. Years later, I read that this kind of thing is due to the Amiga Workbench OS, but if you turn off the OS for games or demo coding, then this doesn't apply and in that case you've got a memory map with the custom chips, etc at fixed locations. Can you explain this any further? It's a bit confusing talking about Zorro RAM and 32 bit RAM, because AFAIK the A1200 trap door slot isn't a Zorro slot and the whole A1200 is 32 bit, unlike the A1000, A500, A2000, or A600.

Every Amiga has auto-config. When an Amiga powers on, it takes note of expansions, extra ROMs fitted in them. You may not think of the trapdoor in an A1200 as being a Zorro slot, but Mediators connect that way, and they do have Zorro (even PCI) slots.

Most Amigas all have 24 address lines. That's a total of 16MB. Up to 2mb chip RAM at the beginnin, the ROM grows downward from the end of memory, and where fast RAM gets placed is a matter of what expansions are detected at power on.

The way Commodore did PCMCIA, you could plug in extra RAM to the PCMCIA on a600s and A1200s. It wasn't very fast. But it was convenient (and expensive).  It was a bad implementation.

Kickstart 3.0 just assumes you have 4mb of extra memory or less and leaves the port turned on. The fixes to 3.1 on the hard drive try to turn it  on again.

Hence the early startup, to give the user some idea of what expansions the Amiga was recognizing

I've been doing some more work on my graphics, mainly on that analogue watch picture, but I found that some of it coudn't be done with only 6Mb, so I had to change the jumper setting again. The Amiga went into a loop with a Recoverable Alert and a Requester asking me to click Proceed, but I wasn't able to click on it. There was also a green box telling me about the lack of RAM. This happened when I picked up the watch as a brush to bend it for a more 3D effect instead of leaving it looking very flat. After I change the jumper setting, the Amiga doesn't always boot up.

Perhaps the memory card needs at least one cold reboot for the new setting to take effect. It can't flip straight from one memory setting to the other.

A few cards are configured that way as a fail safe. Or maybe it's an old corroded jumper that isn't making a good connection to the pins.

I guess maybe one not too expensive way for file transfer is a faster serial port off a clockport. Or get your Gotek working again.

I still swear by just using FFs partitions and filesystems and Linux mounting the drives though. No WInUAE for me. It does help that I know how to setup a working hard drive, but I would struggle hugely too without any kind of floppy drive.

[Pat the Cat]

Thanks for all your help so far, it's been amazing! 

Unfortunately, I don't think you understand what I want to do with this corrupt CF card. If you do understand, then it's even more complicated than I thought! It's a 4Gb Sandisk CF card which was used by me as an Amiga A1200 CF hard drive some time before 2015, or even before 2014 or earlier! This means it contains various Amiga files which I want to rescue. They're probably Deluxe Paint artwork I did. I recently inserted it into the PCMCIA slot and it came up as NDOS. What's the best way of salvaging the files on this CF card? I think there may be some particular software I could use for this, which might be on Aminet.

Disksalv is the only Amiga program I'm aware of for rummaging around in hard drives looking for data. You still got the issue of getting it to mount as an Amiga formatted disk rather than FAT32 disk.

Kill or cure method if you don't get any joy - try an fsck on the partition on a Linux machine, after mounting it as an Amiga partition.

If it's NOT in fastfilesystem from Workbench 1.3 - 3 hen that would probably destroy the data. Can you remember if you set it up from floppies or bought it with Workbench installed?

As for my Gotek drive, that's a totally different issue. I bought it in 2015 via eBay. I can't remember which seller I bought it from. I don't think I can check my eBay account that far back, either. I think that the firmware needs to be reflashed. I don't know what firmware it originally used. I have never flashed the firmware on a Gotek drive, so it would be easier just to buy a new Gotek drive! I also found when it still worked that it wasn't possible to do file transfers by creating blank ADF files, then copying some files from my CF card onto an ADF image on my Gotek drive's USB stick. These files appeared when using the USB stick with the Gotek drive, but didn't appear when I plugged the USB stick into a laptop or desktop PC and read the ADF files in an emulator. The ADF images just appeared as blank.

I was thinking more of swapping the CF driver between Workbenches rather than transferring files the Amiga to PC. You can get Adfs of blank floppy disks.

Anyway, 3 ways to flash the firmware - copy the files onto a fresh usb stick as described. The Gotek flashes itself from the HXFconfig file.
 On first power on with the Amiga, it will ask you to point at which ADF files point to which menu number.

Only If that doesn't work, then you either have to bridge four holes on the Gotek and flash with a usb A-usb A cable from a PC. Or do it with a usb =a linked to a level convertor board hooked up into the guts of the thing.

It isn't that difficult, there are tutorials on Youtube. Although most of them use Windows. (There are linux alternatives of course).

If you bought it in 2015, pretty sure it will have fast floppy style of firmware already and just copying the files onto a usb should reflash. Maybe that needs a small partition too - 8GB biggest stick I've seen offered with them, could be a factor.

They get much more useful with an OLED screen. That tells you the name of he disk when you are moving around the list of adfs.

[Pat the Cat]

A more detailed explanation of how you flash a gotek with video links and Linux alternative method to Windows;-

https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy/wiki/Firmware-Programming

Couple clarifications - you don't need to solder anything when changing Kickstart ROM chips. At least on an A1200.

Most adf files have protection bits set. If you set them to prwed then they can be edited. (Including adfs of blank Amiga formatted floppy disks. With the protection bits set, they can't easily be changed (or even deleted without formatting the usb. That could be where you came a cropper before?

This makes a big difference to saving files on a Gotek pretending to be a floppy disk. The ADFs size doesn't change, they are all exactly the same length.

[Pat the Cat]

In terms of alternatives, they all need a voltage to switch to RGB mode AFAIK...

... And I was wrong about a supply of available video connectors (ones required are for board mounting, with the pins going 90 from horizontal to vertical, to connect to a board. I would guess Amibay would be one place to adverrtize for such a need - people do strip dead boards for such "they don't make them anymore" sort of connectors. Then when you have the spare, you could arrange a meet n fix session.

But, if you can solder a wire to a pin or two... What you could do is take +5V from one of the other ports on the back of the Amiga, and connect that instead to the cable going to the TV.

23 pin connectors are available for the cable side of things (external floppy drive port has these) so you could do it that way and at least get a functioning system. As a short term solution until you get the port fixed properly.

As for ROMs, most hard drive installs on CF cards expect 3.1 ROMs. That can cause issues too. Although if you're just gaming and 2d doing artwork, you'll probably be OK. The big difference was RTG support (between 3,0 and 3,1) for 24 bit graphics cards.

[Pat the Cat]

As for that "getting my old data back from a non-booting CF card" - I suggest you start a new thread on that, after getting your Gotek going.

I am not at all familiar with CF cards, I stick to sd and msata drives with adapters. CF have a problem with attaching 2 cards on the same channel (ide cable with 3 female connectors), which is why I avoided them in the first place. AFAIK they don't like being master drives on a channel, they're only happy as slaves. I could be wrong on that.

A request for a mountlist for an Amiga formatted CF card being made available via PCMCIA would be a start. Although things like a ready made floppy to do that would require you getting your Gotek working first, which is why I'm suggesting you start with that before asking.