Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: motorollin on October 02, 2007, 08:52:35 PM
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Now we have devices like the KickFlash, or EPROM Kickstart replacements, it is easy to add stuff to the Kickstart. So I'm wondering how long it will be before we can boot from CDs. Would it be possible to maybe use elements from the CD32 ROM to achieve CD booting on an Amiga? Or incorporate atapi.device in to the ROM along with (somehow) a DOSDriver which would be available as a bootable device?
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moto
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This is what I've used in the past....
http://se.aminet.net/disk/misc/IDEfix97.readme
can't recall details haven't messed with it in a while (A1200 in storage)
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Your signature lists a CSMK3. Its firmware already allows to boot from a CD drive which is connected to the SCSI bus. Just enable CD mount and CD boot in the firmaware menu.
Other than that, it shouldn't be too difficult to make a ROM module which allows general CD boot. IIRC IDEfix contains a program which allows to make atapi.device and CacheCDFS resident and boot from CD on the next reset. With the right knowledge it should be possible to turn it into a Blizkick module or similar.
Bye,
Thomas
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@RW222
Yes I have seen MountCD. But I want to be able to cold boot from the CD.
@Thomas
Interesting. I had no idea the MK3 could do that. Can it do it from cold?
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moto
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Can it do it from cold?
Yes. Read the docs in one of the flashupdate archives. I think you can find one on Aminet.
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To complete comments by Thomas:
If you must have the thing inside "real ROM" (read only memory), then it gets trickier. Often disk based drivers haven't been written in "ROMability" in mind and have data segment that they modify. This doesn't bode well with read only memory.
Thus, to be able to put these modules to ROM you'd need to "loadseg" them from ROM (InternalLoadSeg probably wouldn't do, since this thing must be done before dos.library is available), find the resident tag inside and add it to SysBase->ResModules.
Obviously for this to work the drivers in question must also behave correctly when fired up early on (before dos.library etc). For booting the driver must support adding the required dosnodes, and this doesn't sound very likely if the driver is disk based.
It can be done, and assuming the drivers meet the requirements, it should work ok.
CD32 drivers only work with CD32 and thus aren't that usable for generic CD bootability.
And indeed Phase5/DCE SCSI (at least the CSMK3/CSPPC/BPPC) support booting from CD, even coldboot.
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Thanks guys! Does the CD need to have a particular identifier for the MK3 to attempt to boot from it, or will any CD with s/startup-sequence do?
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moto
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Just remembered this thread. Does anyone know if the CD needs to have a special identifier like with the CD32, or if I can just burn any CD using MakeCD with a startup-sequence?
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moto
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Also I don't have the CD Boot options in my MK3 menu. Do I need to flash the firmware?
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moto
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motorollin wrote:
Also I don't have the CD Boot options in my MK3 menu. Do I need to flash the firmware?
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moto
The 'CD Boot' option is under the SCSI Control Menue. You have to click on the Unit (where the CD is mounted) and select 'CDRom Boot.
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Oh ok thanks, I'll check that. Do you know how I create the CD? Can I just burn an OS3.9 installation to the CD and expect the MK3 to attempt to boot from it?
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moto
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Actually I've just checked and I don't have those options. I went in to SCSI, double clicked on unit 4 (my CD-RW) and these are the options I have:
8 Luns
15 Bytes/Handshake
20 Synchron MB/s
Synchron
Auto Buswidth
Auto Selection
Auto Removable
but no boot options. So I'm assuming the version of firmware I am using doesn't support the CD Boot feature. Is this (http://aminet.net/package/biz/p5/Flash-300399) the latest version?
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moto
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Hi,
it's into the "Removable" section if my memory is correct, but last firmware is needed ! Use the Grex one ;-)
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I have clicked through all of the options in the removable section but there is no Boot CD option, so I guess my firmware is too old. Where can I find the Grex one? What is the difference between that and the latest one on Aminet?
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moto
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http://phase5.a1k.org/
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Thanks Alex. Is it advisable to use the "private" release, version 44.69 dated 09.04.2000, or should I stick to the last official one 44.67 released 30.03.1999?
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moto
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No idea. I've never used any of these.
The latest one is 44.71 dated 2002.
HOWEVER if you read the flashbios readme from 44.68 (the last official phase5)it mentions mounting of CD-ROM.
So why not try 44.68 and go from there?
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Oh I didn't see that one. I'll download it and try flashing the firmware. I'm scared! :nervous:
What happens if it goes wrong? Is my MK3 a brick, or is it fixable?
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moto
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No idea, personally I am a follower of the "If it aint broken dont fix it" philosophy.
Is having the ability to boot from CD that important?
I would recommend that if it is possible to use the tools to DUMP your current flash ALWAYS do that first.
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It's not important. But part of the fun of the Amiga is getting it to do new things, and I think it would be fun to get it booting from CD. It would also be useful to have a bootable backup.
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moto
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motorollin wrote:
part of the fun of the Amiga is getting it to do new things
I certainly agree with that but like you I'm too nervous to mess about with my CSPPC settings :nervous:
However, your thread made me curious as to whether my A4000 running OS3.9 could boot into a CD containing OS3.1. The answer was yes :-)
For those remotely interested......................
The great program 'CD-Boot' that I use for booting into CD32 games gets my A4000 to check whether a bootable CD is in the drive at a very early stage in booting up (a bootable CD is one containing an S drawer with a startup-sequence of course). If one is found a screen is displayed where you can choose to either continue the boot into OS3.9 or into the bootable CD. For the experiment I copied the contents of the OS3.1 floppy disk set onto the CD-R as if it had been properly installed into it. After choosing to boot into the CD-R i proceeded to boot into OS3.1 instead of OS3.9 and all the partitions of the hard drive were available.
I guess this would be useful for someone using OS3.5 or OS3.9 who wanted to use OS3.1 for a change :-D
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A4000_Mad wrote:
The great program 'CD-Boot' that I use for booting into CD32 games gets my A4000 to check whether a bootable CD is in the drive at a very early stage in booting up
The advantage of the MK3/CSPPC/BPPC is that its SCSI controller supports booting from CD, so you don't need any software to get it to work.
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moto
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It would also be useful to have a bootable backup
I have a bootable backup on my zip disks.
It is not a cd-rom, but at least it boots on itself....
And it boots even not having any HD in the system.
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Well the MK3 firmware flash worked, thank goodness :banana:
I now have the CD Boot option, and CD0 is listed as a drive in early startup, even from cold boot. And even booting from HDD with no startup-sequence gives access to CD0 without even mounting anything which is quite cool.
However, CD0 is not listed as a bootable device in early startup. Does it depend on the type of CD inserted at the time? I did try with a CD32 game which I assume would be detected as bootable but it still wasn't selectable as a boot device.
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moto
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@ Moto
Looks like you might have mistyped something - your post says that CD0 does show up in Early Startup and then that it doesn't. Which do you mean? :-)
And did you use .67, .69, or .71?
EDIT: Wait, nevermind, I know what you mean...
In the CSPPC menu, did you set the device to CD Mount or CD Boot? What's its boot priority?
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To clarify, CD0 shows in the "Control Active Devices" section but not in the "Select Boot Device" section. It shows up as follows:
"Enabled - CD0 not bootable CDFS cybppc-4"
The settings in the firmware are as follows:
8 Luns
15 Transfer Offset
20 MHz Sync Period
Async/Synchron
Auto Buswidth
Auto Reselection
Auto Mount
Auto Removable
CDRom Boot
CD Boot Priority 0
CD Device Name CD0
I don't know why the boot priority would make a difference if it isn't even reported as bootable :-?
I used version 44.71 of the firmware.
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moto
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Don't know if it'll help, but drop that LUNs setting down to 1. It should still work; anything higher than that might get the system confused.
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Just set the LUNs setting to 1 and also set the boot priority to 1. The drive still shows up as an active device, but is not bootable. Is anyone else using the same firmware version who can confirm that CD Booting definitely works? Or could it be my drive?
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moto
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I've tried several versions of the firmware on my CSPPC, up to the latest G-Rex/OpenPCI compatible version, and I have been unable to boot from a CD.
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NEW JERSEY MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES (http://newjersey.dispensaries.org/)
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Does anyone know which type of CD it should boot? CD32 games (whether or not they work)? ISO9660 with s/startup-sequence? Or some other format?
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moto
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i used to be able to boot of cd till i flashed with the grex firmware and have lost the abilty just l;ike you it shows it as an option but i dont have it listed in bootable volumes anymore in my mind that firmware is incomplete oh and by the way been told millions of times i couldnt boot from cd even when i could lol
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I think Motorollins' original idea for a Kickstart module has some merit. The CS/Blizzard CD filesystem is old and limited. CacheCDFS can be made resident, so an app that could read in a mountlist and spit out a resident module that mounts the CD-Rom as a bootable drive seems a better option. Don't wait for me to produce one though, my coding skills are next to non-existant. :-D
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FORD MOTOR COMPANY OF NEW ZEALAND (http://www.ford-wiki.com/wiki/Ford_Motor_Company_of_New_Zealand)
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@LawlessPPC
What version of the firmware did you use before, when it did work? And what format of CD did you boot from?
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moto