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Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga Software News => Topic started by: Argo on November 20, 2005, 06:21:22 PM
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AROS developers has been quite busy in last two months, discovering and fixing bugs, adding new features and so on. Maybe, from a user point of view they are not so noticeable, but you can be sure they are really important as well. There are, indeed, some really BIG news about PPC and 68k portings of AROS.
Bernd Roesch has compiled an AmigaOS-68k hosted version of AROS called AFA (AROS for AmigaOS): "AfA OS is a way to use AROS source without changes and compile them on every AmigaOS based operating system.
It can run and be build hosted on every AmigaOS compatible system and provides a compatible API to all systems. With AFA, the host Amiga OS is degraded to do things that MS-DOS was doing for Windows 3.11-WinMe. It is easy to check for bugs/errors using testprograms, but the rest of the system is using the old stable functions. You can easily boot with or without the new libraries". More informations and pre-compiled binaries are here.
Pavel Fedin has modified the mount command in order to support DEVS:DOSDrivers and SYS:Storage/DOSDrivers foldersa, as like as in AmigaOS 2.1 and later revisions. Many c: commands has been back-ported from MorphOS as well.
Michal Schulz has re-vitalized VMware graphic hidd, so running AROS on this famous emulator will be easier. He's also working on a 2D accelerated graphic hidd for Ati cards.
Finally, you can download x86 FreeBSD hosted version, and lots of funny interesting software on Back2Roots FTP.
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Sweet!
But has anyone got it to work on their classic Amiga? I tried it briefly but when I try and start the AFA Prefs I get an error message saying "No AFA OS running", and when I SnoopDOS it fails to open LIBS:afa_system.library :(
If anyone has had any similiar problems and solved it, I would be happy to hear how :)
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You might also try to repeat your question in the german comments thread of the original news-item about AfA OS - noone would mind if you do so in English there, since there are no comments yet at the english version of our news-item.
amiga-news.de (http://www.amiga-news.de/de/news/comments/thread/AN-2005-11-00069-DE.html)
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Yep, exactly the same behaviour here too.
I was interested in being able to use truetype fonts and antialiasing through diskfont.library (i.e. throughout the workbench/all interfaces etc.) - atleast, this is what I gather can be achieved.
Any hints or tips would also be welcome here too.
Cheers,
James
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when above message come then you have not start the afa_loader.
download the archive from 20.nov this work without assign
BTW: If someone can write a installerscript and want help on AFA it is nice when he write a installer script.but currently you must copy files by hand
short install and test without risc is.(No files are overwritten)
copy in the afa_OS dir the fonts dir to your bootpartiton.
copy afa_os libs dir to your bootpartition libs dir
copy the dir afa_os_libs to your bootpartition.The folder ois create automatic when you do it from WB
no go in the dir c: of the afa OS archive.doubleclick on afa_loader.Now it should work.in fontreq there are Fonts vera mono Vera sans.This are truetpye fonts and work with antialiasing in every app.if something fail look on snoopdos what the loader want do
If you show in scout the libraries there should be another diskfont.library graphics.library with pri 1 in the system
If you want use AFA on startup then you can copy afa_loader to your c: dir and add in startup-sequence
in this sheme
....
c:adddatatypes
c:afa_loader <-----new entry
c:iprefs
........
if your system really dont boot with AFA a left mousbutton hold on boot skip afa initialation.
also if you add
c:afa_loader MOUSESTART
then afa work only if you press and hoild down left mousebutton during boot
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If I can get this to work I will try and write an installer, I have some experience with Installer but have never tried to add anything to the Startup-Sequence yet, so we'll see how that turns out :-)
Anyways I made a screenshot of what is happening on my Amiga, I tried to show all files that are needed for AfA_OS but I might have forgot someone since I did it quite in a hurry. Am I missing something obvious?
Screenshot (http://viten.mine.nu/pic/afa.png)
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Thats great if you can make a installer.Hope to get it working on your system
adding to startup sequence should only a option.maybe this can add later
Thanks for your precise report.Your file place look ok.
Have you use the afa_os_loader from that archive ?
AFA_OS_20_nov_05.zip-
And you get no requester that volume AFA_OS: is miss ?
The old loader from the user archive work only with the assign.only the new loader work in the way
you test.If you get no volume requester then it should work.the loader work so that it first check a dir in sys:afa_os_libs
If he dont find it,he check for afa_os: dir or assign
If not you can start each file in afa_os_libs folder.first start afa_system_lib.exe.
then start diskfont_lib.exe and graphics_lib.exe
then it should work and we must find out wy the loader do this not.
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Yay! It worked when I started everything manually!
New screenshot [ ~330kB ] (http://viten.mine.nu/pic/afa2.png)
But the loader fails :-(
I am using the loader from the Nov 20 update, and I don't get any request for AFA_OS: - so everything should be fine I guess.
I'm gonna start working on an installer script now anyway, for starters perhaps I should only make it start everything manually, in exactly the way it worked for me. Then I can change it to use the loader later when it is sorted out what makes it not work.
One more thing, all executables looses the executable flag when you zip the files, so the distribution should probably be in lha format.
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Wow, after I put the executable flags on all the files in Sys:AFA_OS_LIBS/ - the loader started working! Yay! So now everything is working great!
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where exactly is the FreeBSD hosted version? (under what name?)
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Ah execute bit is problem,on the page can currently only upload .zip.I ask if this can change that support
lha too.
BTW: is speed of truetype usabable or is it too slow to be usefull.
It can speedup,by only calc this values with a alpha value difrent 0 or 255.(most values on fonts are transparent)
but it cost develop time which maybe better use in the current state of AFA when teh text speed is usefull
to add more features
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Working good here too but I had to put the loader before LoadWB in my startup sequence, I guess it crashed with all my Amiga Theme Experience patches which are everywhere between Iprefs and the datatypes etc
Will upload a screenshot later
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@bernd
I have finished a early beta of the installer (http://viten.mine.nu/AfA_OS_fx.lha), it's very basic and has a few bugs that needs ironing out but it's semi-working for now :)
I took the liberty to make a lha archive when I archived it, all the files that are in the nov 20 release are there, only difference is I added my installer and has set the executable flag on all (hopefully) needed files.
The bugs:
The installer thinks a directory exists and asks if it should be removed even if it doesn't exist, this can be ignored.
The C:AfA_OS_Loader command is added to S:User-Startup instead of the Startup-Sequence. This works in most cases, but it seems if you save your workbench with an anti-aliased font, it doesn't show up after a reboot.
Anyway if someone tries it please let me know how it worked.
Oh, and about speed on classic Amigas. It was pretty slow, but still faster than I had expected on my 040/40 with a Cybervision 64. On a friends machine with 060/50 and a Cybervision PPC, he said it was very usable! He could hardly notice any difference.
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@fx many thanks for doing that,i download and test it soon
for speedup,i look what can do,when switch the JIT on winaue off this seem same speed as 040 25 so i can see
yes if you have patches the loader must start behind that or the patches patches the afa funcs in the new libs away
Only Limit when you start behind c:iprefs then the new picturdatatype cant use
But i see now that 256 color iff backgroundpictures dont work
So best for new picture datatype is use truecolor backgroundpictures for now.The color reduction of AROS picture
datatype is not very good so when use truecolor pics and 256 color WB give too not very good quality.
If this a limit,because you want 8 bit WB,best remove new picturedatatype out of the
afa_os_libs dir
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Thanks the installer work very good.I hope i get ok that the afa upload can change to lha,then i upload a new archive
But text is better change to that.when start in user-startup then new picture.datatype does not work
(set #startup "Do you want to add the required \"C:AfA_OS_Loader\" to your \"S:User-Startup\"?\n\n")
(set #startup2 "If you run into any problems with the AfA_OS_Loader,or want use new picture.datatype try and ")
(set #startup3 "move it to \"S:Startup-Sequence\", right before IPrefs and remove it from User startup.")
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okay, I will change the text to say that right away! also if someone want to translate the current strings used in the installer to other languages that would be great, here is a textfile (http://viten.mine.nu/afa_install_strings) with the current strings.
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It has stopped working here, it causes ramlib errors when executing programs and I get crashes when booting
Hope future releases will work better with other patches like for example Amiga Theme Experience which I'm using.
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Wow, great stuff - antialiased fonts working well on my AIAB setup!
I had to disable the picture.datatype library as my truecolour backgrounds were not displaying correctly, however everything else is great!
Two questions - what is the distribution status of this package? Would it be possible to use the truetype font rendering (and more) within the AIAB package?
Also, how might one add more TTF fonts? I have attempted to use the ttf.library preferences manager to generate .otag and .font files, but no luck.
Cheers,
James
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>Hope future releases will work better with other patches like for example Amiga Theme Experience which I'm using.
For the ramlib error i guess it is a stack problem.every new complexer function patched or not need more stack.
If a program have stack set too low then you get crashes randomly.
If the coder of prog have set the stack to default 4096 bytes then risc is high that problems happen.
increase stack with the shell command help not on all programs.
On aminet is a tool stackattack.
This increase every stack when start early on startup-sequence.(stackattack addstack 1000) add 1000 bytes more stack
later AFA OS work with AROS execlibrary this is done intern.
The minimum stack is then set to 5000 bytes.
also many funcs do a verify that no illegal structure pointers are used and stop the program before it run amok.
But now problem is AROS use on same offset number that Kick3.1 have function exitintr a fnction
I think there is no hope when you only wait for new versions.only with a more precise report i can look what happens because it is impossible to fix a
bug that i cant reproduce or the user can tell me whats wrong.Also i found out that it is important,that do NOT start
afa loader with run >nil:
when you send me your startup sequence and other tools you boot then i can make a install and look what happen
or maybe i see on startup-sequence whats wrong.
The status of AFA currenty is:
I have fixed now displaying 256 color images on true color screens ,in next release it should work in aiab.
also next release have a AA speedup and a slider to choose optimal AA settings.
Full Antialiasing give most time blur fonts no AA give pixelize fonts.you can then choose with a slider between it
also less AA give more speed.On 040 i remember a multiplication take 10 cycles an 060 it take 2 cycles.every pixel
take 3 muls so reduced AA give here lots speed increase too(i hope)
I release that next weekend
To make fonts you need a fontmanager that generater the .otag and .font file.This fioels can generate and use from MOS and AROS
I have done a project for the fontmanager from aros.but cant compile for 68k.MUI code is for me a mess,
because hooks are on every system diffrent.maybe a MUI expert can do that.the source have 2300 lines
In german anews Holger write he look for it(link from senex).maybe he get it working