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Amiga.org specific forums => New User Introductions => Topic started by: leytond on January 29, 2009, 04:20:31 PM

Title: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 29, 2009, 04:20:31 PM
well strugeling dont even come close, after 5 days of trying to get a cdrom working on my 1200, i finaly give up,
all the files on the cds are nearly all lha. what ever that is, ive downloaded lha.run from aminet, idefix, and loads of other files that dont actualy do anything, and as for cross dos, forget it, ive even tried to copy files from my pc to the amiga, (not happening by the way)
seems that you cant do this with a pc that is beyond windows xp,
why would anyone have a pc pre xp, ????
as for the lha i just cant get this to work the screen flashes once and that is it, it wont let me right click to extract the file,
 i need some real help, all i seem to be doing is trouling the net and not getting anywhere,
my amiga is a 1200 with 3.1 roms, apollo 1200 expansion with 8 meg ram on it 80 gig hard drive with os3.1 and a dvd cd rom , someone help me  PLEASE.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Munchkin on January 29, 2009, 04:34:29 PM
First of all, lha is an archive extension. All filex are compressed with the program lha.

lha.run is a self extracting archive that you need to run, after that you have to copy the file lha to your C folder.

After that you can extract all those lha files to wherever you want them extracted like this in a cli window.

lha x filename.lha whereveryouwantit

to extract to ram you type like this:

lha x filename.lha ram:

idefix is probably an lha archive that you first need to extract like this and then run the install-script that's a part of the extracted files.

After that you should reboot and try to mount the CD. If the CD driver isn't automatically installed in devs:dosdrivers you can try to type

Mount CD0:

in a cli window.

Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 29, 2009, 04:40:54 PM
well i dont know what im doing, but ive tried allsorts to extract the files,
when i try to extract them i get a flash on the screen and something that says they have no tool ????
what ever that is.
how do i run the lha.run file if i havnt installed an extracter ??? this dont make sence, cant i just double click it,
Quote

Munchkin wrote:
First of all, lha is an archive extension. All filex are compressed with the program lha.

lha.run is a self extracting archive that you need to run, after that you have to copy the file lha to your C folder.

After that you can extract all those lha files to wherever you want them extracted like this in a cli window.

lha x filename.lha whereveryouwantit

to extract to ram you type like this:

lha x filename.lha ram:

idefix is probably an lha archive that you first need to extract like this and then run the install-script that's a part of the extracted files.

After that you should reboot and try to mount the CD. If the CD driver isn't automatically installed in devs:dosdrivers you can try to type

Mount CD0:

in a cli window.

Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Munchkin on January 29, 2009, 04:48:06 PM
The lha.run is selfextracting. You don't need a tool to extract it with.

Copy it to your ram-disk.

Open a shell (cli) window

in that type:

CD ram:  (press enter)

after that you type:

lha.run  (press enter)

now the file should extract itself.

you will see a few files extract.

Then you type like this:

Copy lha_68020 C:lha (press enter)

Now you should have lha installed so you can extract the other files.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: don27dog on January 29, 2009, 04:51:52 PM
Don't panic it isn't very difficult.

1st run your lha program to extract files.
2nd Move LHA to C:
3rd Open Shell and type
lha x (Orginalfilepath and name of file) (directory you want it)
Example
lha x dh1:example.lha ram:
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 29, 2009, 04:51:57 PM
ok im totaly new to this.
first what is a shell and cli,
do i have to do this every time i want to extract something.
isnt there an easyer way like right clicking such as the pc,
Quote

Munchkin wrote:
The lha.run is selfextracting. You don't need a tool to extract it with.

Copy it to your ram-disk.

Open a shell (cli) window

in that type:

CD ram:  (press enter)

after that you type:

lha.run  (press enter)

now the file should extract itself.

you will see a few files extract.

Then you type like this:

Copy lha_68020 C:lha (press enter)

Now you should have lha installed so you can extract the other files.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Munchkin on January 29, 2009, 04:57:22 PM
This is Amiga in a nutshell. There are programs you can use to extract files through mouseclicks but not by default, that's something you need to download and install. Personally I prefer the original console way.

Shell is a console window so to speak. You open one by clicking on the Shell icon that you find in the System folder on your workbench partition.

in there you type those things.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 29, 2009, 05:04:53 PM
so there is no way of just clickig and extracting the file to a directory of my choice,
i am still getting the flash of the screen and nothing is happening, surly im doing something rong here, .
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 29, 2009, 05:20:26 PM
well tried again and all i get for all of the lha files is file is not executable, am i missing something here or am just wasting my time with this old thing. help if ya can,
chears leyton dodds.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 29, 2009, 06:00:06 PM
well im open to any advive at the moment ive unpacked the lha file into my c draw but still cant extract any lha file, all i get is file is not executable , ive tried a program called dir work and that seems to have an lha icon at the top, but as yet dosnt seem to do anything,
should i give up the ghost with this or is there something i can do to make this work, i was thinking of getting os3.5 or 3.9, but if this dont work is there any point, seems that this old amiga is set for the knackers yard.
pleaes HELP, anyone.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: karel on January 29, 2009, 06:58:30 PM
MTOOLII from aminet is fine.
i have A1200
 :-)
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Amiduffer on January 29, 2009, 07:41:15 PM
How to use Dir Work:

1: In one of the two windows, pick a destination of where you are going to extract the file to (usually to the HD0:Work folder where your non-workbench programs go).
2: In the other window, click once on the file you wish to extract so that its highlighted.
3: Click on the LHA button
4: file will unpack

Amiga tips (http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/tips.html)
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 29, 2009, 08:53:30 PM
done that it just puta the lha file in another directory, without unpacking it, ????
thats it for the day ive had enough, looks like it will end up back in the cubord or on ebay, i thought things would have got better for amiga, looks like things are still the same
(a pain in the ass and to expencive) lol,
thanks for the help anyway.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Munchkin on January 29, 2009, 09:34:59 PM
I don't know what you expected really. But you picked up a 15 year old computer with a 15 year old operating system and compare it with the ease you have in windows that's 10 years newer0.

You need some patience, you can learn how to work with it. It just works in a different way.

I, and others here, will try our best to help you get started as much as we can.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Flashlab on January 29, 2009, 09:42:58 PM
Things have picked up; I have a GUI unarchiver in my OS3.9 setup installed by default. But hey, if you're this impatient and expect Windows XP experience, maybe Amiga is not for you... ?
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Daedalus on January 29, 2009, 09:43:06 PM
Think about it though, it sounds like you're using an Amiga with a spec from 1992 or thereabouts. No PC would open an archive just by clicking on it then either unless you installed extra stuff - in fact, some PCs wouldn't click at all back then ;-)

Although progress has been slow, the Amiga has come a long way since then too. I can click on an LHA and see the contents on my machines, but that's just because they're all a bit more up-to-date than a plain A1200. If you had OS3.9 you could simply double click them to open the file with the built-in unarchiver. With a little bit of perseverance though you could at least extract an archive tool by hand, and once that's done you could use that from then on.

Unfortunately, by default the Amiga doesn't recognise files that have no icons associated with them. There are patches you can install which give it this ability, then it will act more like Windows etc. Most functionality that you seem to be looking for wasn't standard back then, but can be added by installing third-party apps from Aminet and other places.

For starters, you could do far worse than install Directory Opus 4, it's old but very good software for managing files, has built-in unpacking functions for archives, and filetype recognition and viewers so you don't need to worry about creating icons for "foreign" files.

It can be downloaded for free here:

http://dopus.free.fr/download.php

though you will have to unpack it by hand using the Shell command given a few times above...
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 29, 2009, 10:11:30 PM
i think im expecting to much from the old dear,
dont know what i expected realy. but it was worth a try,
how can i get hold of os3.5 or 3.9. and would my accelerator be ok with it.
things might get a little better if i had that os,
thanks for all the help that you have given, but the above instructions do not work for me,
is there a link that i can go to that would give me a print out, of any instructions regarding this dam lha rubish ??.
and why use that lha anyway. what is rong with winzip or winrar and surely it could be adapted to the amiga.
many thanks all,
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: ZeBeeDee on January 29, 2009, 10:25:55 PM
How to use lha --> here (http://traductica.upf.es/modular2000/lha/LHA211.txt)

Regardless of the OS you have, you are not using icons in a MS Windows like enviroment to unpack and pack files, you are using the Shell (the Amiga version of MS-DOS) until such time as you get something else to do the hard work for you, like the afore-mentioned Directory Opus.

Persevere ... the rewards are great plus there's a wealth of help on tap here should you get stuck.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Munchkin on January 30, 2009, 12:09:28 AM
There is rar and there is zip. Winrar and winzip are just shells/guis for those. When AmigaOS3.1 was new there weren't any of those for windows either, or they were just around the corner.

That's what I'm saying. Use a windows environment from 1992 and you will feel the same kind of frustration as you are now. That's what you have to compare with.

lha will work if you copy it to the right place, name it correctly and use it as it's supposed to.

It has to be in your C directory on your boot partition. It has to be named lha and nothing else. Then you have to be in the same folder as the file you want to extract or give a full path to it for it to work.

Then you have to give the correct arguments for it. If you just enter lha filename.lha nothing will happen except you'll see the list of commands. To extract you have to give the x argument. Syntax is as follows:

> lha x path:to/file.lha path:to/extraced

If you have changed directory (cd) to where the lha file is and you want to extract it in the same location you just type

> lha x file.lha

That's the simplest way.


I wonder if you got it right after you ran the selfextracting lha.run.

When you run that file it will extract these files:

lha_68020
lha_68040
lha_68k
lha_68k.readme

They should be in the same folder as you had the lha.run.

Depending on what CPU you want you need to copy one of them to your C

For a 1200 the safest bet is the lha_68020 file. That needs to be copied to C and renamed to just lha. This can be done easiest with typing this:

> copy lha_68020 C:lha

This copies the file lha_68020 to C and gives it the name lha in one go.

After that you should be able to extract any lha file no matter where you are on your harddrive. Just remember that both the compressed file and all the extracted files will still be there unless you do it in your ram disk since that will be cleared when you reboot. Extracting losts of files just anywhere on your harddrive will clog your file system up and make it difficult to read so keep that in mind. I always extract to ram: because of this.

Take that suggestion and download DirectoryOpus. It's a great file handling program but it's the same there, you need to exctract it before installing and it will need to have lha in C as well to work properly. It doesn't have lha built into it like winrar does for example.

Using an Amiga has a bit of a learning curve for someone who's used to a windows xp system or a mac system for that matter. There are some subtle differences, differences that I myself think are advantages. Probably because I'm used to them. I'm so used to using shell/console that I often do things in a DOS window when I'm in XP. Just feel more comfortable like that.

You will get everything working and you will learn, you just need some patience. :)
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Daedalus on January 30, 2009, 12:23:08 AM
@leytond
Yeah, I think you're expecting too much of it too, though it's not the machine itself or the fact that the file is in lha format - Amigas can unpack zip or rar archives too! The problem is that your software is woefully out of date, and to update it to have a nice point-and-click unpacker, you need to either a)download, unpack (by hand) and install a front-end for lha, or b)upgrade to OS3.9 with its included extractor. You're looking for a nice front-end for unpacking archives, but back in 1992 chances are you would be using DOS commands to extract your archives too...

If you type exactly what you typed and the message you got from lha, it would help us to know what's going wrong with your setup so we can help you sort it out.

What accelerator do you have? OS3.9 will work on pretty much anything more than a bare A1200 - even a RAM expansion might get you by. OS3.9 is on sale here:

http://www.vesalia.de/e_os39.htm

Bear in mind though that you may also have to update the ROMs inside your A1200 if it only has 3.0 ROMs in it now. (Check this with the Workbench->About menu item, if it's 39.106 you need to update to use OS3.9).
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: NovaCoder on January 30, 2009, 02:09:50 AM
Quote

leytond wrote:
well strugeling dont even come close, after 5 days of trying to get a cdrom working on my 1200, i finaly give up,
[SNIP]
my amiga is a 1200 with 3.1 roms, apollo 1200 expansion with 8 meg ram on it 80 gig hard drive with os3.1 and a dvd cd rom , someone help me  PLEASE.


I feel your pain, as a new Amiga user myself with years of PC use I also found it all very hard to adjust.

I find you only learn by doing.  There are some good guides on the Net (eg the Green Alien (http://guide.abime.net/)) but most of them are a bit out of date now.

The first thing you should do is upgrade to OS 3.9, I did this using my PC running WINUAE as my 1200 desktop doesn't have a CDROM.  It took my about a 1000 attempts but I'm slowing getting it all setup the way I want it :)
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Fingers on January 30, 2009, 02:27:53 AM
Hey dude,

Just get this: http://classicwb.abime.net/

There are unarchiving tools & loads of other goodies built in...it'll make your life sooooo much easier! :-)

PZ.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: NovaCoder on January 30, 2009, 03:27:20 AM
oh yeah forgot about that, and there's also AmigaSys (http://amigasys.extra.hu/).

You still learn more by setting up your own install though.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Daedalus on January 30, 2009, 10:40:48 AM
@NovaCoder
Doh! I missed the spec in the first post. Yeah, you should be able to install 3.9 straight off on that machine, no problem!
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 30, 2009, 10:44:16 AM
ive downloaded a package fro the site but it just looks like an emulater for the pc, ??????
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 30, 2009, 11:55:21 AM
looks like ill have to bite the bullet and get OS3.5, anyone know were i can get this from.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Fingers on January 30, 2009, 01:40:06 PM
Try reading the text from the Classic Workbench site.

You only need 3.1 (which you already have).

A little bit of thought will also help you make the installation process on a real Amiga HDD easier than explained on the site, but you can figure that out yourself...PM me if you really, really can't figure it out.

PZ.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 30, 2009, 07:12:13 PM
might be me being totaly stupid, but dam i cant get this thing working, ive just lost the whole of my dh0: partition it says dh0:???? adn ive had to format it and install os3.1 again, how could this happen when im actualy using this so called computer. no matter what i do its one problem after the other, (is this all realy worth it),
has anyone got any sujestion regarding this dam lha and zip problem , yes i can download files but they are nearly all lha or zip and still unable to extract them , cos i cat read the cds with my amiga, the dam idefix is a lha file, pmsl,
HELP, AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: motorollin on January 30, 2009, 07:25:40 PM
Several users have already told you what you need to do - for example Munchkin's instructions on how to install lha, how to extract lha files, how to install IDEfix etc....

Have you tried any of those instructions?

--
moto
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 30, 2009, 07:28:20 PM
yep tried all, when i tir to extreact a lha file it says the file is not executable ,
ive copied the files into the c: directory and rebooted several times and yet nothing, /????.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: motorollin on January 30, 2009, 07:30:07 PM
What commands are you typing in to the shell to extract the lha file?

--
moto
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 30, 2009, 07:33:05 PM
right this is what i type.
new shell open
cd ram:
lha x idefix.lha dh3:

after this i get file ie not executable on all lha files i trie
if it is a zip file i get something has no tool, ????
what ever that meens.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: motorollin on January 30, 2009, 07:35:29 PM
It sounds like the lha file has lost its file attributes, so doesn't know it is executable. Open up a shell and type in:

protect c:lha rwed

Then press enter. That should make the lha extractor executable again. You should only need to do this once. Then type in your extract command again:

lha x idefix.lha dh3:

and see what happens.

--
moto
Title: /
Post by: Lorraine on January 30, 2009, 07:39:38 PM
/
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 30, 2009, 07:41:57 PM
right ive tried a different file,
lha x dw.lha dh1:
this is a file called dirwork, and i still get the error file is not executable.
am i doing something rong or is it just to old to da it.??
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Munchkin on January 30, 2009, 07:42:15 PM
Sounds to me like you didn't rename/copy the right file that was unpacked when you ran lha.run

Try to type this:

> list C:lha

and tell us what size the lha file has

These are the files unpacked from the self extracting lha.run. You can see what sizes the different executables should be. I suggested you copy the lha_68020 and if you did the result of your list should then be 91512 bytes. If it's not then you have copied the wrong file.

Code: [Select]
lha_68k.readme                    1815 ----rw-d 13-Mar-06 23:33:18
lha_68k                          94020 ----rwed 13-Mar-06 22:25:20
lha_68040                        87296 ----rwed 19-Okt-05 13:16:50
lha_68020                        91512 ----rwed 13-Mar-06 22:26:14
LhA.guide                       108619 ----rw-d 13-Mar-06 22:58:50l
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: motorollin on January 30, 2009, 07:47:17 PM
Did you actually try what I suggeted with the protect command?

--
moto
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 30, 2009, 07:48:04 PM
right i didnt have the lha_68k.readme in c:
ive copyd this over,
tried the dw.lha file in a new shell, and yes i still get not executable.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 30, 2009, 07:50:27 PM
did this, protect c:lha rwed in a new shell window , nothing happend, ????
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Munchkin on January 30, 2009, 07:53:57 PM
No. You don't need the readme in C: It's of no importance at all.

So, you have the files extracted in C but you haven't renamed any of them to lha? You just copied the files as they were?

Can you type this:

list C:lha#?

copy and paste the result here
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: motorollin on January 30, 2009, 07:56:18 PM
IIRC the protect command doesn't return anything to tell you it has done something. So just try extracting the lha file now.

--
moto
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leirbag28 on January 30, 2009, 08:06:12 PM
@leytond


LISTEN!  this is the easiest way.... I gaurantee you!

Get DiskMaster II from Aminet or whererver.

Install it. Try to get it from someone that has a version that is NOT LHA packed but is just the files ready to run.

Now get the LHA command and UNLHA command from someone.  Put them Both in your Operating System C: drive....select that OS window (usually called Workbench or System) and while the window is selected go to the menu and select SHOW ALL FILES so that you can see all the Drawers/Folders. Look for C  and just drag the LHA and UNLHA into it to copy it.

ok now your READY!  open DiskMaster II  and on the left window look for where you placed whatever File you want to unpack (lha files only)  and on the right window select where you want to copy it.  Now select the first window again and click once on the file you want to unpack/extract and while it is highlighted go to the menu and find LHA Extract and I think LHA Extract destination

one will extract it to the same directory the file is in, the other to the destination you selected.


Trust me..... No Easier way.  and by the way you can double click the icon and it will extract.... I will show you that later.

Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 30, 2009, 08:08:12 PM
c:lha#? if i do this it says unknown command.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Munchkin on January 30, 2009, 08:10:36 PM
No.. you need to type it all, list as well

> list c:lha#?

Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 30, 2009, 08:21:22 PM
ok think ive had enough of this now, thank you for all of your help but i think this amiga thing is not for me,
think i understand why pcs have cornerd the market now, all i wanted to do is set up my cdrom, PMSL, i get this when i type it in

directory c: 30-jan-09
lha_68020 ------- 91512
lha_68040 ------- 87296
lha_68k   ------- 94020
lha       ------- 91512

4 files 717 blocks used
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Flashlab on January 30, 2009, 08:25:09 PM
Yep, please sell your Amiga to a home where it will appreciated. No offence meant but retro Amiga hobbying isn't for everyone.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Munchkin on January 30, 2009, 08:27:37 PM
Ok.. it seems like you have the correct file then, as well as the others that you don't need but that can be fixed later.

So, you have the lha, it's the right size. You didn't list what protection bits they reported though.

For protect to actually change anything you need to add a + so try this:

> protect c:lha +rwed

after that just on your prompt type:

> lha

now you shouldn't get the "not executable"


And don't give up, you'll get the hang of it!
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 30, 2009, 08:33:34 PM
dood like its my fault it wont work , ive done all everyone has said , and as for vintage , ive spent a fortune on this thing,
the reason i want the cd rom to work is so i can spend more money on os3.9, so please dont say i dont appreciate it , i think it is time it was in silicone heaven dood,
not that i dont apreciate the help from everyone but if it wont work, what is the point in trying to fix it if it cant be fixed !!.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: karel on January 30, 2009, 08:34:20 PM
you have in C: lha-68020 or lha-68040
rename to lha
Quote

Flashlab wrote:
Yep, please sell your Amiga to a home where it will appreciated. No offence meant but retro Amiga hobbying isn't for everyone.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 30, 2009, 08:35:29 PM
Munchkin, i still get unknown comand.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Munchkin on January 30, 2009, 08:36:37 PM
If the harddrive works, the os boots and you can do other things then it's working. Hence should lha work as well so the problem is something else.

Now it seems like you have the file correctly and the only option is that the protection bits are wrong so try what I last suggested and see what happens.


protect C:lha +rwed

Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 30, 2009, 08:38:07 PM
thats what i did , it says unknown command, ????
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Munchkin on January 30, 2009, 08:38:39 PM
Then try this...

> delete c:lha

> rename c:lha_68020 lha


and try again with

> lha

to see what happens
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 30, 2009, 08:43:35 PM
dood , that is deliting it, will it be ok,
time for me to have a rest ive been at this all day, ive got square eyes, il try some mor tomorow ,
thanks for everything and ill let ya know what happens tomorow.
chears leyton.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Munchkin on January 30, 2009, 08:54:26 PM
Yes, that's ok since you will rename another one that will take it's place. I wonder if that file was damaged somehow so try this.

Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 31, 2009, 10:42:16 AM
right i did everything ya said and nothing,
ive got a friend to download lha.run. on the amiga,
i copyd it into ram and typed lha.run
unpacked the files
copyd them into c:
and guese what
 IT WORKS,
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA
i can now unpack the idefix, and yes the cd rom now works.#
now ine got to find out why dh0: sudenly nodos and was empty.
could it be because the partition is just over 2gig.???.
but anyway THANK YOU  for all the help,
DAM this amiga thing is hard work.
os 3. or 3.9 and a scan doubler like indivision.
    any idias or sujestions on this.
chears leyton dodds.
Title: /
Post by: Lorraine on January 31, 2009, 11:14:56 AM
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Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 31, 2009, 12:46:43 PM
what is Zorro autoconfig, is it an os insted of amiga os, ????
like i said im a total newb as they say.
anything has to be better than what i have installed at the moment, talk about basic looking and it dont realy do that muck, there isnt even a media player, even win 95 had a media player, not a very good media player , but it had on,
PMSL,
its going to cost a fortune this old thing aint it,
chears leyton.
Title: /
Post by: Lorraine on January 31, 2009, 12:58:23 PM
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Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 31, 2009, 01:03:36 PM
i do not see the point in emulators, this is why i got the real amiga, but he said that i have to install an emulator so i can install on my amiga, how dose that work, install on my pc so i can install on my amiga, not possible is it,
i dont know
what has installing an emulater got to do with installing on my amiga. AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Munchkin on January 31, 2009, 01:20:15 PM
I don't see what he means either. If you have internet and a cd drive working on your 1200 it's a lot easier to install and configure everything directly on your 1200.

I guess what he means is to take the harddrive, connect it to your PC, run uae and boot from that HD into workbench and do all the installations and after that move the harddrive back to your 1200.

But to me thats like going over the river to get water and then back if you have the 1200 ready for internet access and a working cd.
Title: /
Post by: Lorraine on January 31, 2009, 01:25:08 PM
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Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 31, 2009, 01:27:10 PM
my amiga is not internet ready yet but i do have the cd working after neraly 2 weaks, well just over a weak, it took me that long just to set up a cd rom , {bleep} i aint ready for all this yet, take it steady,
LOL, one thing ata time , im a pc freak, i like computers to do things for me not the other way around , this is what i cant get into my head, why have a computer  that you have to tell it what to do in a shell box, and if ya dont it wont do anything, ???/
mmmmmm, microsoft have got it in the bag realy dont they, you install windows and everything is done it even knows how to unpack things . lol.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 31, 2009, 01:34:48 PM
so to install 0s3.9 its easyer to use a pc, see what i mean about pcs, they have the market tied up.
DAM i thought this would be easy to set up a compter that is older than my kids,
PMSL
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: taunusand on January 31, 2009, 01:36:18 PM
Quote

leytond wrote:
my amiga is not internet ready yet but i do have the cd working after neraly 2 weaks, well just over a weak, it took me that long just to set up a cd rom , {bleep} i aint ready for all this yet, take it steady,
LOL, one thing ata time , im a pc freak, i like computers to do things for me not the other way around , this is what i cant get into my head, why have a computer  that you have to tell it what to do in a shell box, and if ya dont it wont do anything, ???/
mmmmmm, microsoft have got it in the bag realy dont they, you install windows and everything is done it even knows how to unpack things . lol.

This is EXECTLY what I don't like about Windoze, it does a lot of things that I don't know about ;-)
Amiga, does EXACTLY what I expect and want it to :-)
Yes, I have been in the same boat as you are now, I started to mess around with Amiga in 2006, I did have Amiga when I was a kid though.
When you get the hang of it, I'm sure you'll really like Amiga :-)

BTW, I think it's easiest to setup OS3.9 (or anything else!) on a real Amiga system. Anything "UAE" really confuses me :lol:
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Munchkin on January 31, 2009, 01:43:11 PM
Like I said before. You're not making a fair comparison.

You should compare what you have now with Windows 3.1 because that's what was avaliable on the PC back then. Sit down and work with that and you will feel exactly the same like you do now.

But, it's also two completely different systems and they are designed to work in different ways so even an up to date amiga will feel different to work with.

Honestly, it would be more fair to compare with linux in the way that it works. In linux you still need to do quite a few things in a shell to make things work. It's just a difference in design and depending on what you're more used to you'll feel more comfortable using.

I still think windows is extremely badly designed basically since it more or less have all system files thrown into one directory. To me the catalog structure that Amiga OS has feels more logical and easier to grasp. But that's my personal opinion.

My point is, if you just give yourself time and experiment enough you will learn how it works, how it's built and as you do you'll feel that you are in control and know what you're doing.

And the fact is, a computer never does anything unless it's been told to do it no matter what system you have. :)
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 31, 2009, 01:43:25 PM
i dont think its a case of doing things that ya dont know about, i think its because there are that many people with pcs now that they have to cater for every one and they have to give an operating system that is capable of doing everything that it is expected to do, like my windows vista machine , i would be gutted if i paid all that money for it and it couldnt extract an archive that i downloaded or it couldnt read a file because i hadnt installed a libary for,
i know i can buy os3.9 and that might do some things better than it dose now, but can i say it will be better than windows, mmmm, i dowt it , but i will try it to see,
Title: /
Post by: Lorraine on January 31, 2009, 01:46:46 PM
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Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 31, 2009, 01:50:19 PM
so if i buy os 3.9 it wont come with a boot flopy.
so how do i get it to boot from cd to install it.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Munchkin on January 31, 2009, 01:56:09 PM
It's been a while since I installed 3.9 but I'm pretty sure you don't need to boot from the CD to install.

All you need to do is get the CD-rom working in your current 3.1 installation, put the 3.9 CD in and start the installation from there. You have an option to create an emergency disc during the installation.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 31, 2009, 01:58:05 PM
so i take it it is a good idia to creat this disk then.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: motorollin on January 31, 2009, 02:00:00 PM
OS3.9 won't be installed properly unless you create the emergency boot disk, boot from it, and install from there.

The title "Emergency Disk" is misleading. It should be called "Installation Boot Disk".

--
moto
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Munchkin on January 31, 2009, 02:01:39 PM
Yes, it is a good idea. If you do you can easily install everything again if the harddrive fails or you replace it without having to install 3.1 first.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on January 31, 2009, 02:04:45 PM
oooohhhh, why cant this be straight forward, LOL,
right i would like to thank all of you for the help you have given to me, and your patiance,
its just a shame that the amiga hasnt kept up to date with software , if they had a lot more people might have stayd with it, but i will battle on and see what i can get out of this old thing.
many thanks to you all.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: r0jaws on January 31, 2009, 04:34:49 PM
After reading your posts I think you might find Emulation more satisfying.
Running WINUAE and installing OS 3.9 to that will be a lot easier.
Then you could sell all your amiga hardware and make someone else very happy indeed.

As an aside, the Amiga's OS was considerably easier to use than Windows/ DOS in its day.
You do realise that this is a considerably older piece of kit and all this convenience touted by Windows is as the result of an extra 15 years of development (not all of it theirs BTW)?
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: ami_junki on February 01, 2009, 02:14:03 AM
Leytond mate, listen the best option for you would be to buy a Compact Flash card, Compact Flash card IDE adapter and download Classic WB Classic WB (http://classicwb.abime.net/classicweb/download.htm) this will save you money and time. Classic WB is free and it does pretty much all the things that your Windows XP does or all that can be expected for a computer of its age.  In the end of the day - your better off first with Classic WB as it has a lot stuff installed including software which Amiga OS 3.5 doesn`t have.  Installing Classic WB is piss easy as long as you buy a 15 quid Compact Flash kit from AmigaKit.com.  Trust me on this.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Amiduffer on February 01, 2009, 05:35:20 AM
Normally, when you bought an Amiga, it came with the workbench disks, so you were provided with the means of partitioning and setting up the harddrive rather easily, or even running it off of disks alone if you didn't have a harddrive.

I think you mentioned that you're having problems with your HD? How big is it anyway? Until you install 3.9 on it, you can't use drives bigger than 4 gigabytes.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: marcfrick2112 on February 01, 2009, 08:08:09 AM
Lyetond: Amiduffer has a good point. A lot of us started out with one new(ish) Amiga with all the disks, manuals, etc. This hobby (as all do) has a learning curve. For some, it's a bit easier as we went from say, a basic A500 to a fairly tricked out A4000T (in my case) We installed more and more software, learned more about the hardware, etc. I still have problems with my Amigas, despite a good amount of experience.

Comparing Amiga today to a PC isn't really fair, the PC market has endless $$$, lots of overpriced software, (and, to be fair, some very good free software) but still is not perfect... I would joke that I could go online, check my E-Mail, and 'shutdown' my Amiga, before I could get online on my, admittedly slow, PC....

It may take some time and patience, my friend, but you will get everything sorted out ....  :-)
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on February 01, 2009, 10:38:09 AM
im getting sorted now, my hard drive is an 80 gig 3.5 external connected to my dvd rom drive,
ive got most problems sorted out last night,
installed some softwware that makes the os3.1 look loads better allthough it is still the very basic thing,
my hardrive is partitiond into 4 parts and seems to be working ok, like i said very fast to boot.
there are two things ive noticed, no facility to write cds and no media player, ??????

oohhh will this item work on it,
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/987731#productInformationSection

i havnt got a clue if it will work.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on February 01, 2009, 10:45:02 AM
i have downloaded tis clasic workbench,
but when i get it is in a zip file ,
how do i get it onto the amiga, do i burn it onto a cd then install it on the amiga,
i have tried that but the amiga wont recognise the files on the cd.????
am i doing something wrong !
how do i install it ive looked at the instruction on there website, trust me they might as well be wrote in german, they make no sence,
something about inserting roms into folders, ????
Title: /
Post by: Lorraine on February 01, 2009, 10:48:29 AM
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Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on February 01, 2009, 10:54:30 AM
so i have to connect the amiga hdd to the pc, how do i do that, ??????
the pc wont read the drive due to the fact it is formated with the amiga,
so what do i do there, ??
Title: /
Post by: Lorraine on February 01, 2009, 11:04:03 AM
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Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on February 01, 2009, 11:13:20 AM
why do i need a cf card, i have a 3.5 pc hdd on the amiga 80 gig.
it is external all i have to do is unplug it and it will fit into my ps, but the problem is that my pc is all sata connecters the only ide is on the dvd writer,
but the amiga hard drive is just a standard pc 3.5 drive.
so i have to get the software that will transfer the unzipped files, but when i unzip the files the pc dont recognise them they are adf files.
this is getting a bit silly now aint it,
LOL
what is the software i need to get ????
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on February 01, 2009, 11:18:14 AM
it says this when i click on it.
one of these system roms is needed then it just gose of,
have i done something wrong.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on February 01, 2009, 11:22:27 AM
it says the system rom i path is empty ???????
were do i get the roms from.
Title: /
Post by: Lorraine on February 01, 2009, 11:23:59 AM
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Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on February 01, 2009, 11:30:11 AM
click on paths rescan roms, it says all roms are unavailable , seems it dosnt work,
what am i doing wrong
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on February 01, 2009, 11:36:08 AM
- Kickstart 3.x ROM Image (from somewhere)
- Workbench 3.x Disk/ADF Image
were do i get these from and how do i get an adf image of my wb disk the pc wont read amiga disks,
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: motorollin on February 01, 2009, 11:38:50 AM
Just buy OS3.9.

--
moto
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on February 01, 2009, 11:41:33 AM
WinUAE has the option of mounting and preparing a real hard drive for use on an Amiga! This option is only available in Win2k-XP.

thats what it says in the destructions. i use VISTA on my pc
Title: /
Post by: Lorraine on February 01, 2009, 11:43:39 AM
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Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on February 01, 2009, 11:45:43 AM
this is all above my head, i dont know what im doing here ,
i think the best way is to buy os3.5 or os3.9, and install a real copy of this on the amiga,
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Munchkin on February 01, 2009, 11:47:34 AM
I don't agree with those who say connect the drive to a PC and use winuae to install everything on it. It's just making things more complicated in my opinion.

If everything is working, the cd file system is installed and working then there's no need to do it like that. Just get the 3.9 CD and start installing. Things will be a lot easier after that.
Title: /
Post by: Lorraine on February 01, 2009, 11:51:37 AM
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Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: taunusand on February 01, 2009, 12:17:07 PM
Quote

Munchkin wrote:
I don't agree with those who say connect the drive to a PC and use winuae to install everything on it. It's just making things more complicated in my opinion.

I agree!

@ami_junki
I installed ClassicWB Lite on a standard A1200 yesterday. It works great, I should have done this a long time ago :-)

But I have to say.. You have to follow the instructions on the site! You learn a lot by doing that.

But.. I just started ClassicWB in WinUAE (hate this, I like to use a real Amiga!) Started DOpus and copied all the files to a folder on a CF card, used PCMCIA-CF card to copy it to my A1200.

I just want to say, there has been a lot of great instructions in this thread, I have learned something new of this!
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on February 01, 2009, 01:33:36 PM
cant i just extract the files and burn them to cd, then put the cd into the amiga cd rom and copy the files that way,
i cant get this winau thing to work
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Munchkin on February 01, 2009, 01:39:43 PM
of course you can burn files to a cd in windows and then put the cd in your amiga and copy there.

Though, I would advise against extracting the files before you burn them to CD. Better to burn the archives. If you unpack them on your PC the file names and protection bits is very likely to get borked since the file handling is completely different on an amiga compared to windows.

Best is. Burn the archives, put the cd in your amiga and extract them there instead.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on February 01, 2009, 01:42:38 PM
ive tried this but the amiga wont unpack the zip file ?????
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on February 01, 2009, 01:44:11 PM
so what is this about a flopy disk that i need to boot the amiga with
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on February 01, 2009, 01:50:37 PM
The ClassicWB install ADF provided must first be written back to a real Amiga disk.
how is this done .
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on February 01, 2009, 02:39:44 PM
ive transferd the files over to the amiga , i got the program to write the flopy disk but when i unpack the file it just says .lha.
so when i try to write it to the flopy with the software from aminet it says its not the write lengh or something.
help,
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on February 01, 2009, 04:13:53 PM
looks like i cant do this without having the winau emulator,
but it wont work on my windows vista
any idias what i can do to get the classicwb working
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Munchkin on February 01, 2009, 04:59:59 PM
You need a program called transadf to write an .adf to a floppy.

http://aminet.net/search?query=transadf

I have never used this ClassicWB so I know nothing about it and can't help you there.

To unpack a zip you need the unzip program.

http://aminet.net/search?query=unzip

Title: /
Post by: Lorraine on February 01, 2009, 05:00:30 PM
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Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on February 01, 2009, 05:44:32 PM
just want to get this working now,
sick of messing with this thing,
got to get it working right,
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: leytond on February 15, 2009, 01:13:53 PM
seems that you have to have this winuae thingie to install the classic wb, i thought id done it , but seems not, just wont work, and i cant get this winuae to work,
i am beeten , I GIVE IN ,
os3.5 wins.
Title: Re: help needed, just set up amiga 1200
Post by: Biscuit on May 11, 2009, 08:23:33 AM
Just thought I'd say...

I was having trouble with the lha.run file. Seems like it lost it's file atributes, and my Shell experience is a bit woeful (forgotten commands). So this thread really helped me out of a jam.

So that you all know your efforts haven't been wasted. ;)
Title: woosh
Post by: Voyager74 on May 19, 2009, 09:43:49 AM
My my... Patience really is a virtue! :)

"and guese what  IT WORKS,  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA"

It should have done so all along, if things were done correctly.
Most pc-users seems to have forgotten ye' olde MS-DOS unless they do networx.
So, it's hard to appreciate AmigaDOS which is way superior with it's UN*X-style shell/cli/console/dos-windows.

"its just a shame that the amiga hasnt kept up to date with software "

It must have been hard to "keep up" since Commodore went *bust* long ago,
but still, check out aminet f.ex. All the dedicated Amiga-users have ensured that
we have several web-browsers, amplifier, pdf, movieplayers and a sh*tload more.
And this is for hardware, like your A1200, which is really old today.
Not to talk about all that old software... 1000s of titles from wordprocessing to 3d-rendering!

"- Kickstart 3.x ROM Image (from somewhere)"
The kickstart ROM is a chip on your Amiga motherboard, compare it if you like, with
a peecee-BIOS. You need to transfer it to a file for emulation to work.

"- Workbench 3.x Disk/ADF Image
were do i get these from and how do i get an adf image of my wb disk the pc wont read amiga disks,"

That's actually the point, since Amiga reads PC-disks (among others), but the PC can't
read Amiga disks (due to hardware controllers), Amiga disks must also be "digitized", into
AmigaDiskFile-images (ADF), they are usually slightly larger than an original Amiga-disk.

I found that after the fall of Commodore, and the rize of win95, I found using peecees got easier
since they had stolen alot of concepts from other systems (Apple, C=, xerox etc.) From "multitasking" to semi-"drag'n drop".

I work with peecee's for a living, 'coz times change...
At home, I have, like you, a desktop Amiga1200 with internet and CDRW.
It takes time to set up such an old machine, with an OS from 1992, but once it is done;
You can expect *smarter* file-managing, true multitasking etc.
At home, I doubleclick an .lha, .zip, .rar, .mov, .avi .whatever and the corresponding
program (of my choice) opens up to view or unpack or edit.
I can even have different programs set to the same filetypes thanks to icons.

It appears to me that since you lack much of that "hands-on" experience,
OS3.9 would set up most things for you.

Then I'd like to ask a question, WHY did you buy it? Games? Productivity or ?what?
What were your expectations, really?

Best Regards, take a deep breath and take a walk outside if the weather permits.
I have to get back to those horrid xp/vista-machines ;) It pays the bills.