OS 3.9 installation issues

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Is the max transfer a value determined by the CDROM drive itself?

MaxTransfer is for the hard drive.  Shouldn't have to change anything for the CD.

Check your 3.9 CD for scratches or errors?  You can't boot from the CD itself, need to boot from the recovery disk, but the old saying "garbage in, garbage out" - if it's copying damaged files from the CD it'll stop you right there.

And SetPatch does a lot of things, including enabling enhanced graphics modes, turning on processor caches, and loading various device drivers.  I did a quick google search to see if I could find a full doc for it but nothing was coming up, but suffice to say, you need it.  

...more later, busy at work today.  

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Hey buddy,

A few quick thoughts on burning CD's.  I use them all the time to transfer files to my A500 when I'm at home, since it doesn't have all the networking stuff I have in my 2000.  Normally I use a recent version of Nero but I just tested and confirm correct operation using the built-in CD burning tools in Windows 7 Pro and being able to read-back in Amiga OS 3.9.

I'd start by re-checking all your settings, you may need to also edit your CD0 mountlist, but the only thing I ever had to change in mine was the specific device and unit ID.  See attached screenshots, first three are from my PC, last two are of the identical files on my Amiga.  Burned using the standard Windows tools onto a generic Maxell CD-R disk that I had kicking around in a drawer.

ProTip: when you use Nero you can make your disk "unfinalized" so you can copy a few files onto it, and then add a few more later, and a few more later, etc.  I've got a couple CD's that I've used dozens of times to move many files from my PC to my Amiga.  

See screenshots:

Edit - disregard that it says "3.1" in screenshot #4.  MultiCX (which I use for editing part of my title bar) doesn't understand anything above that version.  On my A2000 it totally flakes and just says "OS version ?.?".  Haha.  But it is 3.9.  

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I reboot via the emergency disk as before and this time BOOM crash SETPATCH.

Gah.  Just saw this.  Are you *sure* it's crashing at SetPatch?  Have you turned on the feedback so that it displays each line as it executes?

Check the version of 68040.library on the disk?

Also it couldn't hurt to ask, what version of SetPatch?  I believe the latest is 44.38 but that's installed in one of the BoingBags.  I "think" 3.9 initially comes with 44.13.  See the notes on the gregdonner webpage mentioned above for more info.  Maybe try manually extracting one of the later versions (either 44.16 or 44.38) and replacing the version that's on the disk?

Is it something wrong with mounting the partitions after you've prepped them in HDToolbox?  FFS, SFS, PFS, or something else?

Just throwing that out there, too many 16-hour work shifts in a row make my head foggy.  

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Yes. 3.9 is not supposed to be installed on a blank partition. Otherwise, you're again stuck with the wrong 68040.library. Install it on top of the already installed 3.1. And thank P5 for their custom hardware requiring a custom library.

3.9 is designed to be installed on a blank partition, there's tools for doing that right on the ERD and the CD.  Problem is P5 and their custom hardware requiring a custom library not 3.9.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

When I stopped using os 3.1's CD0 and installed the 3.9 CDROM software the CD started showing full file names which is great, but I can't seem to be able to properly extract any of the boingbags.  Each one says the file "AmigaOS-Update" is corrupt and fails CRC check or something like that.

What tool are you using to extract them?  Just use LHA.run from Aminet and extract them to RAM:.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Your other option if you are still unsuccessful in getting a working unarchiver over onto the Amiga-side:

Use WinRAR and unarchive all of them on a PC, then burn the unarchived contents onto a CD like this:

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Now the problem is I start to run the update and I get XAD password errors.  Unable to depack XAD missing password.
Any idea whats up with that?

Look for the file S:xadmaster.key

It should be on your OS3.9 CD and installed as part of the initial installation.

If it's missing look on the CD again.  

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I can't find the xadmaster key file anywhere on the OS 3.9 CD nor can I find it on my system. hmmmmm.....

Try this one.  Second link from the top.  Freely released by the author.  It might not be "the" problem but it's certainly "a" problem.

http://www.vht-dk.dk/amiga/diverse/unsorted.htm

If that doesn't work I can send you a copy of mine in the morning.  Go to sleep.  :p

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

What version of SetPatch? Did you see note above about trying different versions 44.13, 44.16, and 44.38?

Could you post a screenshot of the exact xad message you're getting?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

You need to figure out your SetPatch error, first.  If you boot with no Startup-Sequence and just type in "setpatch", what happens?  And which version?  Be specific.

You might also want to throw away any of your old CD's that you burned with the program that was giving disc errors, and burn a whole new set of everything.  Just to rule that out as a possible issue.

I don't know anything about what specific 68040.library you need for your card (I use THoR's libraries and they work great).  I would say just start with whatever's on the install disk for your specific card.  You have a WarpEngine, right?  Then use these:  http://amiga.resource.cx/install/WarpEngine.dms

You're right, it should not be this hard.  But we suffer for our hobby, it's an act of love.  

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I don't think using a different version of SetPatch is such a good idea, since it might lead to a conflict when SetPatch is run for the third time (from the CD) upon booting.

I think he's using a 3.1 SetPatch in there, in conflict with a 3.9 SetPatch, or something.  He mentioned "one he downloaded from the web", which could be anything, who knows?  

Tough to diagnose this problem until we start getting some actual version numbers and screenshots of the actual error message.  

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I checked on the original warpengine floppy and the 68040.library is also version 37.30 so there is no point in copying since it appears the 3.1 install already has that version.

This may sound overly paranoid, but there are at least six different authors of 68040 libraries.  Cosmos, THoR, C=, P5, just off the top of my head.  There was a survey posted here a few months ago that listed all of them, but damned if I can find it now.  Just because the version # matches doesn't mean it's not different.  I would err on the side of caution and copy the file off your install disk, just in case.

I would make the ERD disk and try to boot off it.  Document exactly what happens.  If it crashes on running SetPatch, try this version (rename your other one to .old so you can go back to it easily, if you have to):

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Go back and read the gregdonner link.  There's five different copies included with 3.9.  You want 44.16.  No idea what 44.17 is, I wouldn't use it personally.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

OMG, it just occurred to me.  Are you using the same floppy disk for all of this?  Is it some old disk you pulled out of a box that's 20+ years old?  Try a different floppy and report back.  

Also try booting with no Startup-Sequence and just run the setpatch command.

[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?