Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: murple on August 14, 2007, 03:50:45 AM
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I tried to install NewIcons, and found out that it looks absolutely horrid on non-interlaced mode Amigas (and EVERYTHING looks horrid on interlaced). Is there anything similar to NewIcons that doesnt want to install gigantic icons? Or is there a NewIcons set that has sanely sized icons?
Also, I ran the NewIcons uninstall script and while it fixed most of my icons, some are still broken, like the Ram Disk icon. I wouldn't care so much since I've never in my life ever used the Ram Disk on an Amiga, but since that icon is kinda stuck prominently on my WorkBench I'd prefer it not to be a little square. I looked in the backups of my old icons and it looks like they were moved back to where they should be.
Is there any fix for this that doesnt involve reinstalling the OS?
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Buy a flickerfixer then all ur probs r gone.
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Check ENVARC:Sys for def_ram.info and remove it. If it's not there, check your startup-sequence or user-startup for commands (or a call to a separate script) that copy some icon to RAM:Disk.info
I think virtually all replacement icon packages expect a screen taller than 200/256 pixels, so you're probably stuck with what you have unless you want to put up with distorted icons or interlace flicker.
You never use the RAM disk? You're passing on one of the Amiga's best features. I can't live without it. Give it a try for temporary storage (like unarchving stuff from Aminet) - you'll love it, I promise.
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Of course NewIcons sucks, you are better using normal OS3.5/3.9 GlowIcons, they are much less kludgy (and less ugly too IMHO).
I suspect you will have to recopy the icons you want manually.
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NewIcons doesn't suck just because you didn't get what you expected.
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Matt_H wrote:
You never use the RAM disk? You're passing on one of the Amiga's best features. I can't live without it. Give it a try for temporary storage (like unarchving stuff from Aminet) - you'll love it, I promise.
I just had to second that opinion. RAM is an absolutely awesome drive for the Amiga to have. I do indeed unpack/pack all my archives in RAM before transferring them to hard drive, Jaz disk, Zip disk or Compact Flash card 8-)
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Well hes lying anyway, every time he switches his amiga on hes using it cause all the prefrence stuff is copied there :-D
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A flicker fixer isn't going to help.
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HellCoder wrote:
NewIcons doesn't suck just because you didn't get what you expected.
No, but it does suck for not making it clear that the icons look like crap on non-laced NTSC/PAL, and for having an uninstall script that only partially works.
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I used to use NewIcons on a standard PAL display and they looked fine.
--
moto
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Forgive the preaching about the Ram disk.
Other OSes have tried to implement a Ram disk (Apple II, Mac, etc) or 3rd parties have tried to add them into existing OSes. I'm aware of none that have the elegance (over-used word) and function of the Amiga's auto-sizing design. It's invaluable to try new software from the Ram disk before writing it to some system drive. Have you ever decided you didn't like some trial software on a Mac or Windows machine and then tried to remove it?
Equally cool is the RAD: drive (if you haven't heard). If you have extra ram but no HD, you can move the OS there. Rad: is lightning fast and will survive a warm reset. Incredible!
Have you tried Magic Workbench and some of the other pre-OS3.5 icon packages on Aminet? Mr.500 has posted some excellent Workbench screenshots (icons, backdrops, etc) on this website executed in only 8 or 16 colors on original ECS hardware. Take a look!
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Did you use the default icon set that came with it? The icons I got were gigantic, and had even more gigantic borders around them. The icon for DH0: was easily over 2 inches tall on my 1084 monitor.
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Tenacious wrote:
Have you tried Magic Workbench and some of the other pre-OS3.5 icon packages on Aminet? Mr.500 has posted some excellent Workbench screenshots (icons, backdrops, etc) on this website executed in only 8 or 16 colors on original ECS hardware. Take a look!
Nope... I'll have to look. I'm a long term Linux user and there are tons of sites with screenshots of various X/KDE/Gnome/E setups that help you pick themes, icon sets, etc. With AmiNet you just get an ASCII description, if that. Screenshots would help a lot! I'll look for Mr 500's stuff.
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Matt_H wrote:
Check ENVARC:Sys for def_ram.info and remove it. If it's not there, check your startup-sequence or user-startup for commands (or a call to a separate script) that copy some icon to RAM:Disk.info
ENVARC:Sys/def_ram.info doesn't exist, nor does anything that copies an icon to RAM:Disk.info... any other ideas?
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I don't think you mentioned what version of the OS you are running. Since the Ram: disk is a virtual device that is created during booting, there are no files there initially. This includes no disk.info file to define the icon image and it's snap-shotted position. With earlier versions of the OS, the Ram Disk icon was whatever was defined in the ENVARC:sys/ directory as the default icon for all disks. With older systems, the user could make a cool icon for the Ram disk and copy it directly to the Ramdisk toward the end of the startup-sequence, usually from some safe location on the boot-up disk (like SYS:Envarc/sys/ or S:). It seems OS 3.9 defines a default icon for the Ramdisk and stores it in the ENVARC:sys/ directory as def_ram.info. My OS 3.9 does not need to copy a .info file to the ramdisk anymore to present it's icon.
Is this helping or am I writing this for my own entertainment?
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Personally I love NI. Glowicons in 3.5/3.9 are the very same driver, but the icons.
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Tenacious wrote: Have you ever decided you didn't like some trial software on a Mac or Windows machine and then tried to remove it?
Yes, I mounted it, ran it (without installing), unmounted it, and then I just dragged it to the trash can. On a mac it's no big deal,you can run without installing. On a Windows machine or Linux....argh. yuck!
Have you ever spent a bunch of time unpacking and configuring something ram, only to have the machine guru and loose it all?
I have :) More times than I can count :) Heck I did it about 25 times this week just trying to get WHDLoad to work correctly with virtual floppy devices.
I love the ram disk... but I like virtual memory swap space even more.
No I'm not bashing the Amiga... everything has it's drawbacks.
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Tenacious wrote:
I don't think you mentioned what version of the OS you are running.
WorkBench 3.1 with 3.0 ROMS (for now, AmigaKit is sending me a replacement for my 1200 motherboard with 3.1 ROMS).
Since the Ram: disk is a virtual device that is created during booting, there are no files there initially.
I had the default RAM Disk created on a fresh out of the box WB 3.1 install. It had a generic icon before I installed then removed NewIcons. Now it just has a little square. All my other icons seem to be OK. I haven't done anything to my S: scripts so the RAM Disk is created the same way as before... but now no icon.
With earlier versions of the OS, the Ram Disk icon was whatever was defined in the ENVARC:sys/ directory as the default icon for all disks.
Thats correct, and I still get that generic icon for Compact Flash and floppy disks I insert. No RAM disk love though.
I don't have the Amiga manuals since I got all mine used (except for my old A1000 which has all manuals). I dont really know how icons and .info files work on Amiga so I dont know how to create, modify, or remove them aside from basics like creating a new drawer and deleting a .icon file. Ive never found much online about how that works either. You have a recommended FAQ for that?
I'll see if I can repair the RAM disk by finding some icon to copy to RAM: in user-startup, but I'd like a pointer to more info if possible.
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Found this thanks to your disk.info mention...
http://www.nyx.net/~rdavis/AmigaHints2.html#ramicon
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I have no experience with WHDload, not much of a gamer. I wonder what success you would have had if there had been a clever way to unpack and configure in RAD: instead. Just a notion.
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I got the Ram Disk icon back. Thanks.
In addition to the FAQ, is there a recommended icon browser for Amigas? Doesnt seem to be one built in to WorkBench.
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I think you are getting a tiny square for the Ramdisk icon because the old icon was over-written when you installed NewIcons which also installs (i think) a special, non-standard icon display engine. When you removed NewIcons, you removed the engine but not the new Ram disk icon. Now you must find where that something.info file is stored on your boot disk and replace it with the original. It is probably in ENVARC:sys/. ENVARC: is a virtual device (an assignment) that points to a specific place on your bootdisk. For example YOURBOOTDISKNAME:Prefs/Env-Archive/ (add /sys/ to the end of this string for the full path to the file). This is where you should find the file def_ram.info. Delete this or over-write it with the file of the same name from your OS3.1 floppies.
EDIT: Great!
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murple: Strangely, I never had a problem with NewIcons, and I run Hi-res non-interlaced... Did you check Aminet for alternate NewIcons iconsets? I have run into one or two that are considerably smaller than than the NewIcon 'standard'...
My 2 cents....
edit: were you using Newicons V. 4???
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Yes, I used NewIcons 4... is there an older one that's more suitable?
Also, while I got the RAM disk icon back by copying a disk.info to RAM: at boot, Ive noticed a few other missing/square icons. It seems that anything without a specifically defined icon now gets a blank icon (little square) rather than before where there were default icons for disks, folders, and files.
Anybody know how to repair that?
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Please post your Startup-Sequence, your User-Startup and a listing of ENVARC.
You can do so by creating 3 files, using the 3 commands below
Type S:Startup-Sequence >SYS:SS.txt
Type S:User-Startup >SYS:US.txt
Dir all ENVARC: >SYS:ENV.txt
Copy these 3 files to your PC, and post the output here. I don't think you have fully removed NewIcons yet.
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OK... my Startup-Sequence is pretty much the default WB3.1 install. I've done most of my changes in User-Startup as we're supposed to. Anyway:
; $VER: Startup-Sequence_HardDrive 40.2 (25.2.93)
; Startup-Sequence for hard drive systems
C:SetPatch QUIET
C:Version >NIL:
C:AddBuffers >NIL: DF0: 15
FailAt 21
C:MakeDir RAM:T RAM:Clipboards RAM:ENV RAM:ENV/Sys
C:Copy >NIL: ENVARC: RAM:ENV ALL NOREQ
Resident >NIL: C:Assign PURE
Resident >NIL: C:Execute PURE
Assign >NIL: ENV: RAM:ENV
Assign >NIL: T: RAM:T
Assign >NIL: CLIPS: RAM:Clipboards
Assign >NIL: REXX: S:
Assign >NIL: PRINTERS: DEVS:Printers
Assign >NIL: KEYMAPS: DEVS:Keymaps
Assign >NIL: LOCALE: SYS:Locale
Assign >NIL: LIBS: SYS:Classes ADD
Assign >NIL: HELP: LOCALE:Help DEFER
BindDrivers
C:Mount >NIL: DEVS:DOSDrivers/~(#?.info)
IF EXISTS DEVS:Monitors
IF EXISTS DEVS:Monitors/VGAOnly
DEVS:Monitors/VGAOnly
EndIF
C:List >NIL: DEVS:Monitors/~(#?.info|VGAOnly) TO T:M LFORMAT "DEVS:Monitors/%s"
Execute T:M
C:Delete >NIL: T:M
EndIF
SetEnv Language "english"
SetEnv Workbench $Workbench
SetEnv Kickstart $Kickstart
UnSet Workbench
UnSet Kickstart
; Added for NewIcons
;C:PatchOpenWB
C:AddDataTypes REFRESH QUIET
C:IPrefs
C:ConClip
Path >NIL: RAM: C: SYS:Utilities SYS:Rexxc SYS:System S: SYS:Prefs SYS:WBStartup SYS:Tools SYS:Tools/Commodities
IF EXISTS S:User-Startup
Execute S:User-Startup
EndIF
Resident Execute REMOVE
Resident Assign REMOVE
C:LoadWB
EndCLI >NIL:
My User-Startup is:
; Turn off drive clicks and fix wildcards
wildclick
; Replace CON: and RAW: with KingCON
Assign CON: DISMOUNT
Assign RAW: DISMOUNT
Mount CON: from DEVS:KingCON-mountlist
Mount RAW: from DEVS:KingCON-mountlist
; WHDLoad stuff
Assign AUTODOCS: DH0:AutoDocs
Assign INCLUDES: DH0:Includes
; Flash card
Mount DEVS:CF0
;BEGIN xfdPatch
xfdPatch >NIL:
;END xfdPatch
;BEGIN MUI
if exists "DH0:MUI"
assign MUI: "DH0:MUI"
if exists MUI:Libs
assign add LIBS: MUI:Libs
endif
if exists MUI:Locale
assign add LOCALE: MUI:Locale
endif
version >nil: exec.library 39
if not warn
if exists MUI:Docs
if exists HELP:dummy ; do not remove
endif ; this entry!
assign add HELP: MUI:Docs
endif
endif
endif
;END MUI
;BEGIN CAPREFS
C:CAPrefs >NIL:
copy ENVARC:sys/def_ramdisk.info RAM:Disk.info
;BEGIN DirectoryOpus 5
ASSIGN DOpus5: "DH0:Opus/Opus5"
PATH DOpus5:c Add
;END DirectoryOpus 5
And my ENVARC: dir... the .info files in there are the backup ones from before NewIcons.
Sys (dir)
def_8svx.info def_amigaguide.info
def_amos.info def_anim.info
def_archive.info def_arj.info
def_ascii.info def_asm.info
def_avi.info def_basic.info
def_bmp.info def_brush.info
def_Busydisk.info def_c.info
def_CD0disk.info def_CDDAdisk.info
def_compress.info def_cpp.info
def_CTLG.info def_device.info
def_disk.info def_dms.info
def_doc.info def_drawer.info
def_e.info def_email.info
def_empty.info def_fax.info
def_fd.info def_filearchive.info
def_filesystem.info def_flic.info
def_font.info def_FTPdisk.info
def_FTXT.info def_gif.info
def_gzip.info def_h.info
def_handler.info def_html.info
def_i.info def_iff.info
def_ilbm.info def_imploder.info
def_inemail.info def_installer.info
def_jpeg.info def_key.info
def_keymap.info def_kick.info
def_kickstart.info def_KingCon.info
def_lha.info def_lharc.info
def_lib.info def_library.info
def_loadmodule.info def_lzh.info
def_lzx.info def_m.info
def_Mac0disk.info def_make.info
def_med.info def_mod.info
def_mountlist.info def_mp2.info
def_MSD0disk.info def_music.info
def_NETdisk.info def_object.info
def_outemail.info def_outlinefont.info
def_pcx.info def_picture.info
def_png.info def_postscript.info
def_powerpacker.info def_pref.info
def_printer.info def_project.info
def_Quicktime.info def_ramdisk.info
def_rexx.info def_rnc.info
def_s3m.info def_script.info
def_sfx.info def_smus.info
def_sound.info def_src.info
def_sunau.info def_tar.info
def_targa.info def_tex.info
def_tiff.info def_tool.info
def_trashcan.info def_usenet.info
def_uuencode.info def_video.info
def_voc.info def_wav.info
def_xm.info def_zip.info
def_ZIP0disk.info icontrol.prefs
overscan.prefs wbconfig.prefs
Scala (dir)
ScalaMM.oFontDB
ClassAct (dir)
ClassAct
.info WHDLInstPath
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A clean install of OS3.1 haven't got any def_#?.info files in envarc:Sys, so are you 110% sure these are backups, and not from the NewIcons package??
I would delete all .info files in the sys dir, and remove the "copy ENVARC:sys/def_ramdisk.info RAM:Disk.info" from your us. After a reboot you should be able to see the standard icons once again for all files.
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According to the stuff the install and uninstall scripts from NewIcons said, those were my pre-NewIcons files. I guess that was inaccurate though, as removing them fixed everything. Thanks!
Now to start looking for an icon set thats more colorful and nice looking which doesn't require a gigantic screen resolution.
That or a good flicker fixer setup so I can do 'laced modes sanely ;)
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Glad you got it working, but as others have indicated, you might have gotten some wrong files in. In normal PAL resolution (is it 256 heigh or something) you will only be able to have 3 disk icons or so. With MagicWB you can have 4 disk icons I think, but it's not so colorful and good looking as NewIcons if you ask me.