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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: dougal on December 23, 2011, 03:34:37 PM

Title: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: dougal on December 23, 2011, 03:34:37 PM
PCMCIA unfriendly accelerator (like M-Tec 1230 Viper) = no PCMCIA unless jumpered down to 4MB.

Use Skick to kick down the Amiga to Kickstart 3.0

PCMCIA works without having to set the jumper to 4MB :)
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: dougal on December 23, 2011, 03:43:00 PM
The only downside is you lose 512KB fastram because kickstart uses it.
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: mongo on December 23, 2011, 03:45:45 PM
Quote from: dougal;672581
PCMCIA unfriendly accelerator (like M-Tec 1230 Viper) = no PCMCIA unless jumpered down to 4MB.

Use Skick to kick down the Amiga to Kickstart 3.0

PCMCIA works without having to set the jumper to 4MB :)


If the RAM is mapped into the Zorro II address space, it will not work with PCMCIA and 8MB. It doesn't matter what OS version you are running. It is a hardware problem, not a software one.
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: dougal on December 23, 2011, 03:57:43 PM
Quote from: mongo;672587
If the RAM is mapped into the Zorro II address space, it will not work with PCMCIA and 8MB. It doesn't matter what OS version you are running. It is a hardware problem, not a software one.


I tried it..  It works...

At boot 3.1(40.068) I see 6,800,232 Fast mem and WhichAmiga says i have 8192K fastmem . PCMCIA does not work.

I Skick to 3.0 (39.106) and see 6,110,736 fastmem and WhichAmiga says i have 8192K fastmem. PCMCIA works.

Only note.. When Skick to 3.0 and it reboots it wont boot up and you have to give it the 3 finger salute (reset CTRL Amiga Amiga). When it boots up to 3.0 you may not see the PCMCIA CF right away. Click the System Disk icon and the PCMCIA CF card shows. Strange.

But other then that it works.
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: Dazxy2001 on December 23, 2011, 04:24:25 PM
Quote from: dougal;672581
PCMCIA unfriendly accelerator (like M-Tec 1230 Viper) = no PCMCIA unless jumpered down to 4MB.

Use Skick to kick down the Amiga to Kickstart 3.0

PCMCIA works without having to set the jumper to 4MB :)


Yup, my M-Tec board worked fine with 3.0 roms but no longer works since I upgraded to 3.1 Roms so Im ditching the SCSI PCMCIA and going via IDEfix instead :)
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: Matt_H on December 23, 2011, 04:50:29 PM
This sounds more like a workaround for bugs in the M-Tec firmware than a workaround for all PCMCIA address space issues.
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: Xanxi on December 23, 2011, 06:25:32 PM
Is the trick related to using skick or to having 3.0? I remember that my old MTEC was PCMCIA unfriendly with the 3.0 1200 i had in the late 90's.
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: dougal on December 23, 2011, 06:48:03 PM
Quote from: Xanxi;672624
Is the trick related to using skick or to having 3.0? I remember that my old MTEC was PCMCIA unfriendly with the 3.0 1200 i had in the late 90's.


Hmm no idea. I guess i could try and Skick into 3.1 and see what happens. Will post.
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: dougal on December 23, 2011, 06:54:53 PM
Nope. Tried 3.1 skick and pcmcia did not work. With 3.0 its fine
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: LaserBack on December 23, 2011, 08:58:37 PM
is a kickstart 3.1 bug
the idiots of commodore touched some things in carddisk.device
I have an A1200 + TRA1200 turboboard and idem problem
Kickstart 3.0 works wonderful with pcmcia + 8mb the problem is that you can't run OS3.9

I'm working in find a way to make OS3.9 works with roms 3.0 or to build a special kickstart 3.1 with the oldest carddisk.device from kick 3.0

any ideas?
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: amiga1260 on December 23, 2011, 09:29:24 PM
The Kickstart 3.0 makes it possible to use a Blizzard 1220 with 8 MB fast RAM work with PCMCIA.
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: dougal on December 23, 2011, 09:44:07 PM
Quote from: LaserBack;672653
is a kickstart 3.1 bug
the idiots of commodore touched some things in carddisk.device
I have an A1200 + TRA1200 turboboard and idem problem
Kickstart 3.0 works wonderful with pcmcia + 8mb the problem is that you can't run OS3.9

I'm working in find a way to make OS3.9 works with roms 3.0 or to build a special kickstart 3.1 with the oldest carddisk.device from kick 3.0

any ideas?


Good luck with that. Do let us know when you when its done.. you know that would be a great idea to have a special modified kickstart 3.1 burned into roms so that there would be no need for skick (and the fact that it takes 512k out of the fast ram).
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: mfilos on December 23, 2011, 10:03:53 PM
Just checking 3.0 ROM via RomSplit it has:
- card.resource --> version 37.11
- carddisk.device --> version 37.11

while 3.1 ROM has:
- card.resource --> version 40.1
- carddisk.device --> version 40.1

You can make too easily an custom Kickstart 3.1 with these, but you need to write to an EPROM and test it out just to be sure :)
Don't forget that to be able to burn A1200's EPROMS you need to Split the ROM and ByteSwap it.

To make all these with Remus is really easy:

Open a CLI and cd  to Remus/Tools
SplitROMImage SWAP
So the example: SplitROMIMage customkick31.rom SWAP
...will create 2 files:

  • customkick31.rom.hi (256kb)
  • customkick31.rom.lo (256kb)
... that now you can burn with your EPROM burner :)

Good luck
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: BooBoo1200 on December 23, 2011, 10:16:18 PM
More SKick tests (http://www.amiga.org/forums/images/icons/icon14.gif)

OS3.9 can run direct 3.0 with some limitations

http://eab.abime.net/picture.php?albumid=92&pictureid=839
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: Xanxi on December 23, 2011, 10:53:33 PM
Is there any info available about the improvements (if any) in the carddisk.device from 3.0 to 3.1?
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: desiv on December 24, 2011, 12:23:59 AM
Quote from: LaserBack;672653
is a kickstart 3.1 bug

From what I understand it isn't a bug per se..
There can be conflicts because of overlapping memory space.
So I believe Commodore disabled the PCMCIA for that possible situation..
That said, there "can" be conflicts, doesn't mean there will be.
It probably depends quite a bit on which type of PCMCIA card you are running..

I can imagine a PCMCIA memory card might be very likely to conflict...

But I've heard from several people with PCMCIA network cards and 3.0 and have reported no problems...

Now, that might depend on the PCMCIA driver and what you're doing also....

desiv
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: ncafferkey on December 24, 2011, 01:02:46 AM
Quote from: Xanxi;672667
Is there any info available about the improvements (if any) in the carddisk.device from 3.0 to 3.1?


CF cards don't use carddisk.device, so I'd say any difference in PCMCIA behaviour is down to differences in card.resource.
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: freqmax on December 24, 2011, 01:15:38 AM
Write your own driver?
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: LaserBack on December 24, 2011, 02:20:35 AM
Quote from: mfilos;672663
Just checking 3.0 ROM via RomSplit it has:
- card.resource --> version 37.11
- carddisk.device --> version 37.11

while 3.1 ROM has:
- card.resource --> version 40.1
- carddisk.device --> version 40.1

You can make too easily an custom Kickstart 3.1 with these, but you need to write to an EPROM and test it out just to be sure :)
Don't forget that to be able to burn A1200's EPROMS you need to Split the ROM and ByteSwap it.

To make all these with Remus is really easy:

Open a CLI and cd  to Remus/Tools
SplitROMImage SWAP
So the example: SplitROMIMage customkick31.rom SWAP
...will create 2 files:

  • customkick31.rom.hi (256kb)
  • customkick31.rom.lo (256kb)
... that now you can burn with your EPROM burner :)

Good luck


yep eprom burner is a solution to test this but I haven't one of those
anyways
I done a custom kickstart 3.1 with remus + carddisk.device and cad.resource from 3.0
and worked fine on winuae...however on my A1200 it doesn't boot....skick says needs rtb filles or something like that (I don't remember very well)
skick works only with original kickstarts + supplied rtb files

I was thinking now and...
maybe using loadmodule to load resident oldest card.resource and carddisk.device ???
I will test that later....I know that a simple patch must be possible
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: LaserBack on December 24, 2011, 02:23:08 AM
Quote from: BooBoo1200;672665
More SKick tests (http://www.amiga.org/forums/images/icons/icon14.gif)

OS3.9 can run direct 3.0 with some limitations

http://eab.abime.net/picture.php?albumid=92&pictureid=839


which limitations? I am content with something that can show OS3.9 icons
plz post the full link with info
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: mfilos on December 24, 2011, 08:23:31 AM
Quote from: LaserBack;672685
I done a custom kickstart 3.1 with remus + carddisk.device and cad.resource from 3.0
and worked fine on winuae...however on my A1200 it doesn't boot....skick says needs rtb filles or something like that (I don't remember very well)
skick works only with original kickstarts + supplied rtb files

I was thinking now and...
maybe using loadmodule to load resident oldest card.resource and carddisk.device ???
I will test that later....I know that a simple patch must be possible
RTB files only work for specific Kickstart files so it's logical not to work with the custom Kickstart you made.

Using LoadModule won't work cause the newer versions of card.resource and carddisk.device are already being loaded from the original 3.1 Kickstart so it will give you an error that they're already loaded and can't load the ones you trying.

Only solution is burning them to Eprom mate.
Either find a guy near you that can burn this image to an Eprom or order 2xEproms from eBay (http://stores.ebay.com.au/IC-China) and tell the guy to burn the files that you'll send him to the Eproms for ya :P
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: BooBoo1200 on December 26, 2011, 09:02:38 AM
Quote from: LaserBack;672687
which limitations? I am content with something that can show OS3.9 icons
plz post the full link with info


You need a tool called SetVersion from the squirrel CD32 emulator.
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: LaserBack on December 27, 2011, 01:44:13 PM
Quote from: BooBoo1200;672918
You need a tool called SetVersion from the squirrel CD32 emulator.


that's cool
I will check that later and post results
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: LaserBack on December 28, 2011, 10:18:47 AM
Quote from: BooBoo1200;672918
You need a tool called SetVersion from the squirrel CD32 emulator.


you are great man !!!
I inserted this lines after setpatch and OS3.9 works with Kickstart 3.0

************************
setpatch quiet

SetVersion expansion.library 40
SetVersion exec.library 40
SetVersion utility.library 40
SetVersion graphics.library 40
SetVersion layers.library 40
SetVersion keymap.library 40
SetVersion intuition.library 40
SetVersion dos.library 40


***********
ok
the icon system works wonderful and is lot faster using the new icon.library done in assembler,the refresh on workbench is lot faster !
and PCMCIA of course works great using 8mb

but there is a problem with gadtools.library
the preferences do not works and all programs that uses gadtools also don't works
the problem is that setversion do not works with gadtools.library...it says object not found
maybe someone can help with this?
anyways I will found a patch for this


btw, as you can see testing this hack ..
ppl behind OS3.5 and OS 3.9 set the requirements of kickstart 3.1 in a dishonest way
they set kickstart 3.1 requirements on purpose to sell rom kits and to sell all the remained stock of A1200 + kick 3.1 done by Escom
sincerely I despise them now
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: psxphill on December 28, 2011, 10:32:08 AM
Quote from: LaserBack;673221
btw, as you can see testing this hack ..
ppl behind OS3.5 and OS 3.9 set the requirements of kickstart 3.1 in a dishonest way
they set kickstart 3.1 requirements on purpose to sell rom kits and to sell all the remained stock of A1200 + kick 3.1 done by Escom
sincerely I despise them now

I doubt they cared about setting 3.1 roms or a1200's, they wouldn't have received any money from that. However they would have had to double the amount of testing they did.
 
3.1 is necessary, quite why they blocked PCMCIA the way they did is a mystery. It should have been possible to only reject cards that couldn't be mapped (which IIRC should only have been ram cards).
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: BooBoo1200 on December 28, 2011, 12:23:31 PM
Quote from: dougal

PCMCIA works without having to set the jumper to 4MB :)


When it works I assume PCMCIA SRAM might still cause a problem

Quote from: mfilos;672708

Using LoadModule won't work cause the newer versions of card.resource and carddisk.device are already being loaded from the original 3.1 Kickstart so it will give you an error that they're already loaded and can't load the ones you trying.


Are there no other tools that could load older modules?
Quote from: LaserBack;673221
you are great man !!!
I inserted this lines after setpatch and OS3.9 works with Kickstart 3.0


Its Alive! - and they said it could never happen
Quote from: psxphill;673222
I doubt they cared about setting 3.1 roms or a1200's, they wouldn't have received any money from that.


I think Amiga Inc would but anyways who cares
Im just glad Laser it works for you (http://www.amiga.org/forums/images/icons/icon14.gif )  for me OS3.9 in 16 colour is faster than 3.0 with lots of Patches and I like the Doc bar,Unarc..........

What gadtools progs are not working this might be one the limitation I mentioned :)
maybe loading a single module could fix this
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: Daedalus on December 28, 2011, 12:29:00 PM
Quote from: psxphill;673222
I doubt they cared about setting 3.1 roms or a1200's, they wouldn't have received any money from that. However they would have had to double the amount of testing they did.
 
3.1 is necessary, quite why they blocked PCMCIA the way they did is a mystery. It should have been possible to only reject cards that couldn't be mapped (which IIRC should only have been ram cards).


Also, it set the minimum hardware requirements for 3.5 and 3.9, meaning that you could be sure that an Amiga with 3.5 or 3.9 had 3.1 ROMs. It shouldn't make a difference really if they're softkicked, but it was a decent way of making sure everyone was as up-to-date as possible. Hardly dishonest! Can you be 100% sure though that everything works as expected? For example, 3.1 will boot to Workbench with 3.0 ROMs but some programs will crash that don't if it's 3.0 / 3.0 or 3.1 / 3.1...

I wonder also if there were weird side-effects caused by some accelerators which mightn't be immediately obvious, and which caused issues with PCMCIA in rare cases? Or, maybe it was feared that some PCMCIA driver software would assume the PCMCIA addresses were free for it to use, which would be a dangerous situation if it was actually system RAM...
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: LaserBack on December 28, 2011, 02:21:47 PM
Quote from: psxphill;673222
I doubt they cared about setting 3.1 roms or a1200's, they wouldn't have received any money from that. However they would have had to double the amount of testing they did.
 
3.1 is necessary, quite why they blocked PCMCIA the way they did is a mystery. It should have been possible to only reject cards that couldn't be mapped (which IIRC should only have been ram cards).



for me it was really dishonest because kickstart 3.1 haven't new features...supposed to fix old bugs but instead add new bugs like PCMCIA and trackdisk.device v40.1....some game not works on kickstart 3.1....they touched something regarding to ready signal

also OS3.9 crash in a misery way if libraries from kickstart 3.0 are found...that's is really dishonest........there is no popus or signs....it crash
That is dishonest code that make the workbench crash on purpose only if the libraries in rom reports 37.x or 39.x
and I will find where is that dishonest code...at the moment I suspect is in workbench.library
Title: Re: Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators
Post by: LaserBack on December 28, 2011, 02:48:57 PM
Quote from: BooBoo1200;673230


Its Alive! - and they said it could never happen


I think Amiga Inc would but anyways who cares
Im just glad Laser it works for you (http://www.amiga.org/forums/images/icons/icon14.gif )  for me OS3.9 in 16 colour is faster than 3.0 with lots of Patches and I like the Doc bar,Unarc..........

What gadtools progs are not working this might be one the limitation I mentioned :)
maybe loading a single module could fix this


yes it's alive and working and I found a patch for the gadtools !!!
OS3.9 working now 100% on kickstart 3.0 ...no limitations and no bugs found yet

you have to extract gadtools.library v40 using ROMSPLIT (rename it to gadtools and copy it to C dir) and add a line before setpatch

loadmodule gadtools quiet     => gadtools working in the 2nd boot
or
loadmodule gadtools quiet reboot  

*******
also I tested using the coommand loadresident from remapollo package..works perfect too
btw,
we can celebrate it starting a new thread with the new info....what do you think?