Amithlon

[SnkBitten]

I've put together a number of Amithlon systems from boxed systems (HP, Dell) to home built PCs (AMD and Intel) to even Oracle Virtualbox setups (with USB, AHI sound and Networking functioning).

The original AmigaOS XL CD has a pretty old kernel and isn't the best at testing system compatibility.  I'd suggest building a new CD with kernel 3.10 in place of emubox.gz.  Some SATA support (usually in Legacy mode) and more video card support.  

I personally have had better luck with Kernel 3.10 than Kernel 4, though one motherboard I had really liked Kernel 4, even allowing the built in NIC to be at 1 Gb.  Kernel 4 does add more support for NICs, Video Cards and such so it depends more on the system.

As for speed, Amithlon is BLISTERINGLY fast.  In comparison my Windows 10 PC is an i7 3.5 Ghz with 32 GB of ram running WinUAE (A4000 setup, JIT enabled, fastest possible) gives a SysInfo v4 resutls in dhrystones of 64 times a real A4000.  My Amithlon PC using a e8600 Core2Duo 4.0 Ghz (3.36 overclocked) results in dhrystones of 235 times an A4000.  Plus it's on a nice 1680x1050x32bit display that screams (hardware accelerated Nvidia FX5500 PCI).

My latest "project" has been Amithlon on a laptop.  I'm typing this post using NetSurf on a Dell Inspiron 5150 running Amithlon....over WiFi..  PIV 3.0 ghz, 768 MB ram, 80 GB HD, AHI audio, USB and WiFI  The motherboard wired NIC works with Kernel 3.10 and so does a mini-pci wireless nic I picked up with Prism2v2 drivers.   Unfortunately graphics are VESA unaccelerated but still, 1280x1024x32 bit works well on the 15" display.  
Supported motherboard featues:
Wired Nic (Kernel 3.10 drivers)
Audio (AHI)
USB (Poseidon)

I can see other Dell systems from around the same time period being good base candidates.

I'm working on an updated list of hardware that works so any who can offer what has worked for them, please let me know.  I want details (motherboard and chipset, what worked or didn't, etc..).  

Oh...tip another user at EAB discovered.  Install Poseidon v3.8, then ArakAttack and configure and see if it works.  If successful, install Poseidon v.4.4 on top of your 3.8 install and it will remove the license requirement (since 3.8 required a key and 4.4 was open sourced).  It has worked on pretty much every thing I've tried, including Virtualbox.

[SnkBitten]

For anyone interested, if you have a laptop with a mini-pci internal connector, this card works with the Prism2v2 drivers allowing wireless internet.  I have a Dell Latitude C610 and a Dell Inspiron 5150 and both of these have the same type mini-pci internal connector.

IBM ThinkPad T30 802.11b Wireless Modem Card Intel M3AWEB56GA 91P7215 26P8520.
[ATTACH]4828[/ATTACH]

[SnkBitten]

I know of lot of the information (and even posts) are old regarding Amithlon but since I've just started using it the last few months it is of high interest to me.

I've been working on a guide on installing Amithlon
http://amithlon.snkbitten.com/files/install/snkbittenguide.html
which is a published Google Doc which is updated as needed and contains pictures and animated.gifs to walk through installing Amithlon.

What I'm looking for now is what hardware people have had success with installing/running Amithlon.   I'm looking for detailed aspects more than it booted.  Ie...motherboard, motherboard config (ram, ide, sata (sata in native or legacy mode), did Audio work, NIC work, what graphics card (accelerated or vesa).  

I'd like to add this to the install guide so others can have a reference of what works and how well.  A good motherboard can be one that has enough PCI slots to accommodate PCI cards for sound, video, network and/or TV cards, etc... while an excellent motherboard may be one that supports sound and network with an AGP or PCI slot for the video card.

I know there is a released list with chipsets and all that are supported but I'm more interested in the actual motherboard models that work.

Examples....some I've tested

Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L MB - Socket LGA775 (3 PCI slots)
Chipset Type Northbridge: Intel® P35 Express - Southbridge: Intel ICH9
IDE (kernel 3 & 4)
SATA (kernel 4)
USB

Motherboard:
ASUS A8N-E  MB - Socket 939 (3 PCI slots)
Chipset Type NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra
IDE (kernel 3 and 4)
USB
NIC - 1 GB

Motherboard:
GA-MA790FXT-UD5P  MB - Socket AM3 (2 PCI slots)
Chipset Type - North Bridge: AMD 790FX - South Bridge: AMD SB750
IDE (kernel 3 and 4)
SATA (kernel 3 and 4)
USB

Video Card:
Nvidia FX 5500 PCI 256 MB (hardware accelerated)
Nvidia FX 5200 PCI 256 MB (hardware accelerated)
Nvidia PCX5750 PCIe 256 MB (vesa mode)

Nic:
Realtek RTL8139D 10/100 Mbps PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter
IBM ThinkPad T30 802.11b Intel M3AWEB56GA 91P7215 26P8520 MINI-PCI (laptop)

Sound:
Soundblaster Live PCI

Or Systems:

Dell Latitude C610: - Laptop
Onboard Audio, USB, IDE, NIC
Video (vesa)
Mini-PCI slot

Dell Inspiron 5150 - Laptop
Onboard Audio, USB, IDE, NIC
Video (vesa) (Radeon 9000 or Nvidia FXgo5200)
Mini-PCI slot

You don't have to be as detailed but the more the better.

You can just list what video card you used and if was hardware accelerated or what sound card you've used, etc..

Thanks.

[SnkBitten]

Oooh. Thanks. How did you get this working? the C610 and 510 are basically the same. I have a 510.

Plug it in, download and install Prism2v2.lha from aminet, fire up Genesis Wizard and add a new adapter, choose Prism2 device and set it up like a regular adapter.

I used a static IP address like the internal wired nic (one number higher).  WPA2 killed speed, WEP would be faster but my router doesn't support WEP.  I set up a guest network with internet access only and left it open and it connects  and works.

[SnkBitten]

The Dell C510 also works, with Gary's kernel. If you add all the contribs, the video chipset works, without vesa modes. Never got Wifi to work, though. Also, the Dell C610 works with the original kernel.

My Dell C610 is using "builtin" which is the same as vesa.  You have to attach a board in Picasso96mode to get the accelerated graphics and it only presents "vesa-1" as the board (which will not be accelerated).  My tower Amithlon presents "nvidia-1" as the board and has full hardware acceleration.

[SnkBitten]

Perhaps if you ask Neil Cafferkey if he would compile the Prism 2 driver with the i686be compiler it wouldn't be so slow as it would be using native x86 code?

Hmm...good idea.  It was slow....slower than 300 baud modem slow.  I almost thought it wasn't working.

[SnkBitten]

Can't await part 2.
Really nice guide at all.


EDIT: how you buildt up the CD exactly step by step to use kernel 3.10?

I used AMIthlon_CD.lha from aminet and WinUAE.  I added a 500 MB partition to my WinUAE setup and copied the contents of the CD to that partition.  Copied kern310 to the isolinux folder on that partition, edited every text/config file inside isolinux replacing emubox.gz with kern310.   I also threw in a folder with all the patches/updates that I use on the root of the partition.  Ran the script included, saved the output file (AmigaOS XL.iso) to the Windows folder I have mounted in WinUAE and burned the .iso to CD with Imgburn in Windows.

[SnkBitten]

Ramithlon from aminet gives a huge speedup btw

Thanks, I haven't covered the "extras" stuff yet like SetDMA, Ramithlon or other tweaks, just trying to get an all purpose install guide and lists of actual real hardware people have used to help others know what to look for.  Heck some probably have a lot of compatible hardware just lying around

[SnkBitten]

Here's an update of the hardware list.  Eventually I'll separate the video cards between "Supported" (fully supported/hardware accelerated) and "Works" (builtin/vesa mode).

Amithlon Supported Hardware

Motherboards
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L MB - Socket LGA775 (3 PCI slots)
Chipset - Northbridge: Intel® P35 Express - Southbridge: Intel ICH9
IDE (kernel 3.10 and 4)
SATA (kernel 4)
USB

Asus A8N-E MB - Socket 939 (3 PCI slots)
Chipset - NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra
IDE (kernel 3.10 and 4)
USB
NIC - 10/100/1000

GA-MA790FXT-UD5P MB - Socket AM3 (2 PCI slots)
Chipset - North Bridge: AMD 790FX - South Bridge: AMD SB750
IDE (kernel 3.10 and 4)
SATA (kernel 3.10 and 4)
USB

Gigabyte GA-M52L-S3P MB - Socket AM2 (4 PCI slots)
Chipset - NVIDIA nForce 520LE
IDE

Asus K7V MB - Slot A (5 PCI slots, 1 AGP)
Chipset - VIA Apollo KX133
IDE (kernel 3.10 and 4)
USB

MSI k8t neo2 v2.0 MB - Socket 939 (1 AGP, 5 PCI slots)
Chipset - VIA K8T800 Pro - South Bridge VIA VT8237
USB (kernel 3.10)
AC97 Sound (kernel 3.10)

Shuttle AK32 MB - Socket A (1 AGP, 5 PCI slots)
Chipset - VIA KT266A
USB (kernel 3.10)
AC97 Sound (kernel 3.10)

Abit AN7 MB - Socket 462 (1 AGP, 5 PCI slots)
Chipset - NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 - South Bridge NVIDIA nForce2 MCP-T
USB (kernel 3.10)

Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 MB - Socket 939 (3 PCI slots)
Chipset - NVidia nForce4
USB (kernel 3.10)


Video Cards
Nvidia GeForce FX 5500 PCI 256 MB (hardware accelerated)
Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 PCI 256 MB (hardware accelerated)
Nvidia GeForce 4200Ti AGP  (hardware accelerated)
Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti AGP (hardware accelerated)
Nvidia GeForce PCX5750 PCIe 256 MB (builtin/vesa mode)
Nvidia GeForce GS7800 PCIe (builtin/vesa mode)

Network Cards
Realtek RTL8139D 10/100 Mbps PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter (OpenPCI driver)
IBM ThinkPad T30 802.11b Intel M3AWEB56GA 91P7215 26P8520 Mini-PCI (laptop) (Prism2v2 driver)

Sound Cards
Soundblaster Live PCI
Soundblaster 128 PCI

Systems - Desktop/Tower
Dell Dimension B110
Onboard USB (kernel 3.10)
Onboard AC97 Audio (kernel 3.10)


Systems - Laptop
Dell Latitude C610 (kernel 3.10)
Onboard AC97 Audio
Onboard USB
Onboard IDE
Onboard NIC
Onboard Video (vesa)
Mini-PCI slot

Dell Inspiron 5150 (kernel 3.10)
Onboard AC97 Audio
Onboard USB
Onboard IDE
Onboard NIC
Onboard Video (vesa) (Radeon 9000 or Nvidia FXgo5200)
Mini-PCI slot

Misc Hardware
Linksys USB200M - USB to ethernet adapter with Poseidon/ArakAttack and usbasixeth.device driver

[SnkBitten]

I've updated the Install Guide with getting all your motherboard's USB ports enabled (if compatible) and have added a few more items to the hardware list (which I need to publish as well).  In the meantime I've pulled Milan's (milanca) kernel 4 tree (2.4.37.9) down and merged it in to the last 2.4.x kernel (2.4.37.11) and successfully compiled it.  I'll post a guide on compiling the kernel as soon as I have more familiarity with it and hopefully someone with linux skills/knowledge can move it up to a newer kernel.

[SnkBitten]

I've added a "starter guide" to compiling the kernel for Amithlon.  It's using Milan's kernel4 tree he compiled on the linux-2.4.37.9 tree.

It's on my site http://amithlon.snkbitten.com/ as well as the Amithlon Installation Guide, Modifying the Amithlon Kickstart and Supported Hardware documents (published Google Docs).

[SnkBitten]

Here's kernel 2.4.37.11 tree patched. Inside the .tar file you'll also find my diff patch file "amithlon.patch" which I used to patch kernel 2.4.37.11.
http://amithlon.snkbitten.com/SnkBitten-kernel/amithlon-2.4.37.11.tar.gz

And if you just want the diff file...
http://amithlon.snkbitten.com/SnkBitten-kernel/amithlon-patch.tar.gz

The "amithlon.patch" file was created by running a diff between the stock linux-2.4.37.9 tree and Milan's linux-2.4.37.9-amithlon tree, creating the "diff"erences file which can then be used to patch the stock tree. I applied it to the linux-2.4.37.11 tree and was able to compile a kernel that boots my VB Amithlon.

[SnkBitten]

What's the difference between this kernel and the previous one? Also, has anyone tried to update the UAE files to the current ones? Be nice if we could hack that together.

Absolutely nothing, other than the 2.4.37.11 was the final 2.4 linux kernel before 2.6.  Some driver updates and bug fixes in the linux kernel which may or may not benefit Amithlon.

Most "could" use this to compile their own kernel with the drivers for their particular NIC/Sound built in to the kernel and wouldn't need to load any driver modules.   My goal was to get to boring part out of the way so maybe some one interested in the details could tear it apart and merge it up in to Linux 2.6.x base and the advantages it could offer (newer framebuffer drivers and greater motherboard support).

[SnkBitten]

Installation guide part 2 is in progress, with what's done available now, with more to come, soon hopefully.  Replacing kernel 3.10 and it's driver modules with kernel 4 and it's driver modules.  Also I've added the basics of installing Genesis and configuring the network connection.  Published Google Doc so changes/additions happen as I make them.

http://amithlon.snkbitten.com/

**Edit**
Anyone ever run across Gary Colville's 3.10 kernel source?  I have his 3.00-test1 source and compiled it last night, trying to get a look at what he did vs. what Milan did on Kernel 4.   Gary's 3.10 kernel was much more "complete."

[SnkBitten]

Picasso96Mode use added to the Installation Guide Part 2.  

http://amithlon.snkbitten.com/snkbittenguide2.html