A2386SX bridgeboard problems

[CLS2086]

Hi there,
I reopen this old thread, not because about RAM problem, but floppy problems.
I didn"t successed to use External drive...
What is the trick ? Something to do with the jumpers ?
I took a stock A1010 drive and plug it, nothing.
I exchange the drive in the A1010 for a standard PC 1.44, nothing.
Can you help ?

[CLS2086]

So balance the bazaar:

I have gotten the 2 "images" of Janus2.1 for Amiga and PC side. But with WB3.1 and OS3.5 freshly installed with very little addition, installation is not working at all !

So I "deleted" installer (v1.xx) to take the "system"'s one (v4x.xx).

Here, it starts to work.
It ask a sympathetic question about the disc "boot" if it'is different from the application one.
I replied no, and it is continuing its sweet way ...
Then it shows me a beautiful script error just after Flipper.info install ... I like dolphins ...

I shall not lose courage, I look at the floppy content, I took him janus Lib in extension then I reset the machine. I heard the card made a little beep, which seems to be initalisation OK.

Well, then, I still was not avaible to create a "HardFile", but that should not prevent me from being able to work on diskettes !
So I count again on my luck.

I had to play with the jumpers, because I believe that the former owner had put an IDE or SCSI controller (though if it is possible with some cards Adaptec with floppy controler).

As my machine lacks of internal space, I tried hard on the external connector to be successfull.

I used my A1010 box and put the drive in DS1 mode, it "works" (understand he wanted to take a floppy).
As I told myself, on PC since a long time everything is in "HD"... So I have to replace the 880 Kb drive with a HD one.

I took the kit Teac RealHD+, but no luck this tiem, he did not like it at all. I tried to change the "jumper" RealHD... unsuccessful too (does someone know something about it?).

Good to this point, I reopened the machine to put a real HD PC drive and plug it in 503 port with a normaly twisted pc cable.
Here, I say to myself ok, BANZAÏ!

Close to my hand, I had a floppy of Msdos 7.1 (that the one of W95 v1, which makes it possibles to launch Win3.x) and .... No, it is trying to load but it freese (on pc side) without explanation....

It will be necessary that I try to find a version 3.3 or 6.22 in my archives ...

I keep you informed soon, but if you've trick, please explain ! This drive me crasy as Britney's song...  :-P

[CLS2086]

evening Tests : Hopes!
Yeps! It's alive.

I first made the try with MSDOS 3.3 for Amstrad 3386sx and it's booted.
That's Cool, I continued.
DrDOS 5 or 6 ... Yeah! Boot !
Win95 OSR2 Boot disks ... Yeah! Boot !
WinNT 4.0 SP1 Boot disks ! It also booted, but it displayed to me a beautiful message "required a 486 ..."

Then the Floppy test for IBM Thinkpad-310 (PC-DOS 7.1), it booted ! And the main tests were OK.
And yes only the main ones, because we need a VGA card with VESA bios for the portion of the tests Video ... an installed hdd, cdrom, plugged mouse and so on...

Then, I try to create a partition as described physical here http://home.arcor.de/kickstart/TKA/Tutorials/bridgeboard/amigajanus.html

Note : due to the install script error I didn't get the message of screenshoot 1/2/3/4...

I changed Dosserv ... , an created partition (i used MSD and MSH type as they use the same DOStype), I edited the aboot.ctrl with eMacs.
But no luck again, I also try to use the mode 41 for an auto detect, no more luck

Any tip, any hint?
Thank you all,

[CLS2086]

So, now, one step beyond !!!
I regenerated once again the Janus2_1.dms, and this time I leave the original installer v1.1 in its place, and tried to boot and install from a little wb3.1 partition (500Mb).
And that worked !!! (It HATES size highier than 1.9 Gb).

There is something incompatible with newer release of Installer. Maybe someone skilled enought would find what to adapt ?

I successfully made a 10Mb "virtual" partition on an Amiga.

The last and failed step :
http://home.arcor.de/kickstart/TKA/Tutorials/bridgeboard/amigajanus.html
As it is explained, it's possible with the updated Dosserv to use and create a pure "PC" partition.
I took my chances one more time.
But no luck.
1 - Hdtoolbox automativcly change the partition type from CUSTOM to MSH\00 (but i suppose this is normal due to the fact that they've got the same Identifier, and MSD\00 too !).
2 - So I made 2 "PC" partition :
One of 202 Mb 'Dos1' -> MSH\00 Identifier
One of 2002 Mb 'Dos2'-> MSD\00 Identifier
None of them are visible on the workbench.

No luck with any of them.
Each time i try to start PcColor, a requester ask me to put device Dos1:  or  Dos2:
I pushed "RETRY", no luck. I pushed "CANCEL" it passed.
Now with FDISK, the same requester appeared again and same sad thing...  so Fdisk finished by telling me that there is no harddisk present.

Any trick or advice ? Must I install FAT95 and try to initialize these volume ? (if yes how ??)

Many thank guys !

[CLS2086]

A new stage passed !
This time, I installed Fat95 and MSD.
Then, I added in the Fat95 RDB using the identifier Custom FS instead of the normal Fat95's one.
I Reboot
I see that partition (DOS1) but appears as non-initialized.
I respected what was explained on the site and I started PcColor, who made  come a different requester.
Again, the only solution was to press the button "CANCEL".
I continued anyway.
I start FDISK and ... Miracle
It saw a hard drive of 200 MB, I created a partition, then I rebooted the "PC part", I formated it with "FORMAT C: / S / Q" always in PC mode, it's super-fast! !

I put all files of the win95 rescue floppy, and then edited the autoexec.bat and config.sys to remove unneeded line.

I rebooted once again the PC side, took off the floppy, it booted well on the partition :-D

I begun installation of win3.1 for fun, and it seemed good. But I have not yet been able to generate the PC HD Janus disk for the PC side.

I left the emulator, and then I realized that the Workbench itself still see this as uninitialized partition ...

I'm currently formatting the 2nd partition DOS2 almost 2 GB but via the Workbench.

The result in a few hours.

[CLS2086]

The sequel of yesterday test.

After dinner, I came back to see if all went rent (format 2gb in pc mode with WB).
I found a black screen...
I rebooted, and discovered that most of my FFS v40.x (wb3.1) partition where corrupted. Only the small first one that i use for wb3.1 was still alive and the big one 3Gb created with FFS v45.x. Both PC "partition" where still seen as uninitialised.

The DOS1 partition was still good...
I'm going to check the "new" DOS2 of 2Gb if it's well prepared or not.

[CLS2086]

About the 2Gb "partition", it didn't work.
I had well changed in aboot.ctrl  DOS1:  by DOS2:

And the same story that happen with the DOS1 partition,
the requester -> cancel
boot on W95 floppy, FDISK, create partition, reboot PC, format partition and enjoy !

I tried some tricks in aboot.ctrl to use DOS1: and DOS2:, but no luck.

What is the reference of the ISA connector to put for the
2 missing 16 bits part in an A2000 ?

Tonight, i'll try to put an old Dfi VG-5000 ISA (ET4000 256 colors - 1Mb), and a sound blaster 1. And maybe some extra such as the CD sharing programm.

I'll keep you informed.

[CLS2086]

next day, next step
OK
sharing CD OK (but small corruption of the video out amgia in mode PC)
adding isa card ok and even screen doubling in text mode
The tools d' exchange Awrite and Aread functions well (in binary mode)

KO
the " requester" is always on the Amiga video out
the mouse even with the pilot amouse under dos and Windows that does not want to work
the keyboard even with the pilot remains quite particular, and take a huge attention with certain keys which open a window of CBM helps but that on the output screen of the Amiga
ADisk does not support the large discs

i'm still needing help about the use of PC partition on Amiga side

[CLS2086]

OK : I need to put a 2nd amiga mouse on the 2nd port ...

KO : The card sightly lack of external CPU cache. I had an Amstrad 3386sx in time, it had a 64 kb external and that make a huge difference...
I will try to find a 486 module to snap, but they are so rare. If I can't, I should send it to modify in germany to replace the 386sx by a 486slc2/50. But if you have a module to sell, let me know...

KO: I have added elements for having 2more  16-bit ISA slots, no short-circuits, they chekced all well inline.
I tried a lot of cards VGA 16-bit ISA bus, the only ones functioning are those with a retro-compatible 8-bit mode thus limiting thiers onboard ram to 256k !
And that whatever the slot chosen.

I wrestled with a Trident 8900CL supposed to be 16-bit and to have 1 mb (512kb I think) ... it display: Bios 8-bit and 256k ram ... sometimes these writing are in colours sometimes in B/W...
I tried to put an Adaptec 1512 (unconfigured) but the bridgeboard keep making bip when it's on ....

Is there any trick to do ? I even try without the VGA cache in bios, it does not change anything...
   
      

[CLS2086]

I continued my tries with no luck. All informations i got relate to WB 1.3 & 2.0x, never with 3.x
I felt on this tutorial on aminet : http://aminet.net/package/misc/emu/CDJanusTools
But once again, it relates on WB2.xx old Mountlist system... Whatever i found there some good points.
I took my 2Gb "DOS2" partition and changed the type from 0x4d534800 to 0x4d534400  and attached "CrossDOSFileSystem" to it (may be i also changed the cluster size, i don't remember...).
It was still seen as uninitalized. I tried to initialise it with WB but it refused.
Then, when i chose to boot on this one, it didn't display any requester !
On pc side, the partition needed to be recreated.
I  recreated it, and when i formated it un QUICK mode (so just a FAT erase) , it had more than 70% of bad blocks !! and no way to use it no even copying a 8k file....
I attached Fat95 to 0x4d534400 , then rebooted and .....
No nothing !!!
it didn't want to start my installed WB any more ...
I booted on the 3.1 install disk, and kicked the FS attachement , and set back type to 0x4d534800.
Then it reworked as usually...

I will try next week to change my 8 bits SB by a SB 32 Pnp to see what happen.
Are you aware of any usefull tricks ?

[CLS2086]

Ok: I disabled in PCPref emulation COLOR / MONO in the amiga, I saw finally:
Trident - bios 32 bits - 1024kb Dram instead of 8 bits - 256kb ...

I took the opportunity to change the SB 1.5 by a SB 32 PnP with 32Mb of ram (and SPDIF output labelled under the Emu800 ?)


KO: I tried again to mount the DOS2 partition DOS2  under the WB ... still no success ....
Even worse using CrossDosFileSystem ! Even after the partition was deleted, recreated and then re-formated it was always KO and unusable.
But the strongest thing is that after I reassigned the custom FS to Fat95, I found my old partition and files!
No comment ...

KO: Win95 installation on a FAT32 partition of less than 2GB (2007 mb exactly).
I had the beautiful message SU-0013, I took Fdisk and responded do not care for large disks and Formated it (mode FAT16b) -> Ok it starts.

KO: Installing Win95 -> no mouse support, even with Amouse.com already launched ... only with navigation by keyboard (using TAB / SPACE / ENTRY). The keyboard will be recognized as a 82/84 keys PC AT.

Tips : Copy all files in the directory of the Win95 CD-ROM on the partition and launch SmartDrv (and add in the autoexec).

Ok: The total installation time is 2:15 before the 1st access to desktop and finished device recognisation.
That is quite correct speed for a SX-20 with no cache.
Everything is well recognized in PC / ISA. Still no mouse...

Ok: By copying the file amouse3.drv in win / system and then editing the system.ini to add mouse = amouse3.drv, my amiga mouse was well recognized

Ok: boot time is only around 2 min (reboot the PC party included).

KB: despite buffers 500, the data transfert rate appears to be 50-70 kb/s. Even the "system" sounds are discontinuous if they are long ... But it works...

KO: after installing Office Pro 95(around 1 hour), the time to  display characters in M$-Word is around 4 to 6 seconds ...
But I think that more memory it would be better.

Ok: use of IDE port of SB32. I think I'll put a FAST compact flash on it, reinstall Office, move TEMP directories and temporary swap.

Et Voilà ...

Next step...