Amiga 3000, Deneb and the different Busters

[Matt_H]

You can run it in Zorro III mode, just not DMA Zorro III mode. Just use denebpio.device with Poseidon.

Incidentally, this is exactly what I'm doing.

[Matt_H]

Zorro III non-DMA mode = denebpio.device. Delete the others (from Poseidon, that is, not Devs:USBHardware).

You might need a firmware update if even that's not working. My board was a bit wonky until the V9 firmware.

[Matt_H]

I have yet to try this because I'd rather not dilly-dally around and mess something up experimenting this time. Are you guys saying that you can remove the Zorro II jumper IF you use PIO Mode? Is PIO mode faster than forcing Zorro II mode?

Precisely. I see no reason why it wouldn't be faster (just like the non-DMA CV3D and Picasso IV boards are faster on Zorro III), but I can't confirm first hand. Someone here probably can, though.

[Matt_H]

Try without the FlashROM for now - empty it with Luciferin (you shouldn't have to deal with any more jumpers by this point). Then set up Poseidon and start it the old fashioned way by putting PsdStackLoader in user-startup. Make sure to do a cold reset to make sure the Flash contents are truly cleared from memory.

[Matt_H]

Let's see. In no particular order...

Reset vectors are something to do with reset-resident stuff. So if you've changed the contents of the Flash, clearing the reset vectors will make sure that the Flash is re-read when you reboot. It also clears out stuff like BlizKick, IDEFix (if it's been made resident), maybe even the 3.9 modules (don't remember). I've had mixed results clearing Poseidon stuff. A push from this tool sometime helps. A cold reboot usually works better.

Green flashes are normal. That's a good sign.

PsdRomTag makes your current configuration reset resident. Useful if you don't have a Flash ROM and you don't want to reload from disk at every boot. Also means that you can boot from a USB stick once the modules are loaded in. Makes more sense with a Highway or Subway card.

It sounds like you're almost there. I've got a few more ideas you might try. First, unset the Zorro II jumper. Comment out PsdStackLoader and (cold) boot with the Flash disabled (LMB by default). Pop into Trident and make sure the only hardware controller is denebpio.device. Go into the Configuration panel and delete everything there (except the core, which you can't delete). Go to Classes, massstorage.class. Set the Startup delay to 1000ms. Hit Save Defaults. Hit Save in Trident itself.

Now go into Luciferin. Clear out the list of modules on the Local tab. Now select Poseidon USB from the Quick Setup menu (should work out to be about 1300 blocks). Upload that to the Flash. Loading in the device alone isn't enough, because the rest of the stack needs to be there to know what to do with it

Make sure PsdStackLoader is still commented out from user-startup, and cold boot. Any luck?

The startup delay under massstorage.class is something that I only figured out last weekend. Whenever I tried to boot with a Flash drive attached, it wouldn't be detected and opening Trident would hang the machine. Maybe the same mechanism is behind your problems.

If this all works, you can probably swap in denebdma.device, save, and re-Flash to get going at full speed.

[Matt_H]

Damn! It seems like you're so close...

You say the system locks when you double click a partition. Can you get access to a Shell (from the Execute Command menu option)? Maybe if you can get SnoopDos or Sashimi running you can figure out more of what's happening...

[Matt_H]

There were rumours that some bug survived the Rev11 design. But now I can finally prove that Buster Rev11 indeed has some troubles under certain circumstances with only one busmaster, which was considered stable up to now.
But as DENEB has a nice huge FPGA with lots of resources unused, we can take some countermeasurements.

This bug was found during development of ZorRAM SDRAM card for Zorro III, were for the first time the bus was really loaded and heavy DMA operation going on... in the beginning I believed in some SDRAM bug, but could track it down to Buster finally.



Yes, DENEB can do some workaround and take over some of Buster's work.
This will only work with one busmaster active (the DENEB), but I also think about a real fix on DENEB for enabling several busmasters on Buster 11 independently of their origin (like A4000T SCSI). This fix will need some hardware modification on DENEB, a CPLD upgrade and will most likely not be for free.

And yes, I particularily like firmware upgrades by simply running a flash program - this concept has proven to be the correct way to go :-)

Michael

Hang on, is the ZorRAM board affected by the same only-one-busmaster bug that's preventing me from using Deneb DMA on my SCSI'ed 4000T?

Still interested in such an upgrade for Deneb, though.

[Matt_H]

It is fine, so there's no reason to avoid ZorRAM :-)
As mentioned, only DMA operation is affected, no matter which card it is (A4091, Fastlane Z3, DENEB,...). But DENEB can operate with PIO, so you're fine.

So Deneb Z3 PIO + ZorRAM + A4000T SCSI = okay?