OS 3.9 installation issues

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

You know I'm going to ask you another dumb question here.  You definitely have 3.1 ROM's, right?  Not 3.0?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

:laughing:

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Two other thoughts: In your second screenshot it says 40.16.  If you're booting off the 3.9 ERD It should be 44.16.  Or 44.38, if you use the version I posted earlier.

Also here's what mine does.  Just 'cause we're on the subject, not that it's very relevant.  I hacked the sh*# out of mine though, with a string of LoadResident & LoadModule commands, and a lengthy "SKIPROMUPDATES" string, as well.  One of these days I'll get around to joining the exclusive club of "I burn my own 3.9 ROM's too", but in the meantime that double-reboot doesn't bother me too much.  

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Are you sure your floppy drive is working okay?  Did I read somewhere you mentioned something about your internal drive being toast, and that you are trying to do all this off an external DF2:?

You have any game disks or anything else you can try booting off of, just to give the drive a workout?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

FYI here is the output of a straight SetPatch with no additional options or config changes.  What it should look like, anyway.  

Yours crashed at console.device.  Try this:

C:SetPatch SKIPROMMODULES console.device

Does it get past it then?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

When you boot with no startup sequence, what happens when you enter the following: SetPatch SKIPROMUPDATES "scsi.device"

Ha, was just going to post something about that, too.    Maybe his multiple SCSI controllers aren't playing nice with the updates?

Edit: I suppose you could also try "setpatch NOROMUPDATE" and then just add the updates back in one-by-one?  But that would be a real PITA.  

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I'm still going back to your second screenshot in this post, however.

Can you tell us exactly what was happening there?  You say you were trying to boot off your ERD? Because it says "SetPatch V40.16 already installed".  40.16 is a 3.1 SetPatch.  Then it's giving a checksum failure on console.device 44.6, which a 3.9 update.  No way are these two files going to play nice together...

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

so when I try to boot from it I have to do the "hold down both mouse buttons on restart" and select DF2 as the boot device

Can you adjust your boot priorities of any other devices (hard drive partitions, etc.) to be lower, so you don't have to do this?

*SetPatch does make changes to the Early Startup Control screen that if you're having to go back into it each time, might be throwing something off...

*I vaguely seem to recall someone having a problem a long time ago where it would start to boot off the floppy, then incorrectly pull some of the files of the hard disk instead

*I wonder if they even considered the possibility that someone might try to install 3.9 off an external DF2:?  I'll have to skim one of my ERD's later to see if there's anything off-hand that might have an issue with this...

TL;DR.  I wonder if you shouldn't focus on getting all your hardware issues resolved before starting on software stuff?  AFAIK I think you can still buy new internal floppy drives from AmigaKit; they won't match your faceplate but they'd work in a pinch.  

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

In the first picture I had typed workbench:c/setpatch
Immediately after typing that (no reboot) I typed df2:c/setpatch The results were the 2nd screenshot.

Okay, you know you're not supposed to do that, right?  

You need to reboot - boot off the ERD floppy disk.  I'd get all your 3.1 partitions off there, clean slate.  Or make them a lower boot priority so the system automatically goes to the floppy drive first.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

So to reiterate: ERD floppy in DF2:.  3.9 CD in CD0:.  Either lower the priority on all your other partitions so the system doesn't try to boot off them, or just go into HDToolbox and check the box to make them non-bootable.  Power on.  Don't touch anything.  What happens?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Ok, but in terms of wiping out the 3.1 partition completely, I can't do that until I have made an emergency disk based on a fresh 3.1 install that has CD0 mounted... .yes?  Then I can go into HDtoolbox and change the bootable thing, yes?

Yes.  You mean you don't have like 20 ERD's made, already?  

Just to make sure before you do that, you do have a working 3.1 Install disk with a copy of HDToolbox on  it, right?  (this is so you'll be able to change it back, if the other process doesn't work)

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Man, now you've got me making ERD's, just for the hell of it.  Just made one on my A500, worked fine.  Good practice, I guess.  Maybe I should mail you one, haha.  :p

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I was just thinking... (dangerous I know). I think I have an adapter (its an adapter that goes from internal scsi 50 pin ribbon to external 25 scsi plug like my cdrom uses) that would allow me to get my external cd rom on the warpengine chain.  Do you think I should do that if possible, or should I not add another variable at this point?

I would try to eliminate as many variables as possible.  At one point was even thinking to suggest just getting that WarpEngine out of there and using the A3000's built-in 68030 and SCSI.  

*Although* having all the devices on the same chain probably wouldn't hurt. Does your WarpEngine use scsi.device?  Or something else?  (i.e., my GVP uses gvpscsi.device that's on a ROM on the board)

Edit:  This page lists an optional external SCSI connector.  Is that what you have?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Hi Sacc-guy, thank for writing, and for having a drive I could try at the last meeting.  I'm sorry I wasn't able to attend that meeting.  I will try to attend this Sunday.  Thanks again for your support!

Oh heck, just bring your mess of stuff there, I'm sure they'll be able to get you sorted in no-time.  Sometimes 15 minutes hands-on is way better than 3 days back-and-forth on the forums.  :roflmao:

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

@ Olds-mike
I didn't mean to stop the fun!

I'm not stopped, just bogged down at work, but you know I still refresh this forum at least 50 times a day, haha.  

I'd say he's looking at two approaches:

(1) get that floppy drive from you
(2) disable the existing partitions or lower their priority to force the system to boot straight off DF2: with an ERD disk in the drive

I think I see OP's future, and it involves burning a few more ERD disks, just to make sure to get a good one.  

I was actually thinking it might be helpful just to throw a video together showing how to make one, for anyone who comes across this in the future, but don't know if I'll have time tonight/this weekend or not.  

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Try:  setpatch SKIPROMUPDATES console.device,scsi.device REVERSE NOREBOOT

(no quotes)

One other thought:  manually copy the "AmigaOS ROM Update" file from the CD onto the ERD.  But I think this is where your problem is - you've either got a scratch or degradation on your CD, or just incredibly bad luck with disks and floppy drives.  Work-arounds aren't the answer, you need to get this fixed right.

On the bright side, there's a copy of "AmigaOS ROM Update" inside BoingBag2.  So even if your CD is scratched or degraded, you could get it from there as an alternate source.  The downside is to extract that file from the BoingBag archive you need your Xad decompressors working.  And that's a whole other can of worms for you already.  It's a catch-22 at this point.  You need that file, but no way of getting it from either your CD or your BoingBags.