Clean Install of OS3.9

[madgrizzle]

As discussed in another thread, I have an Amiga 2000 with GVP 68030/22 MHz A2000-030 Combo card (among others).  The GVP provides the SCSI interface to the hard drive.  I'd like to replace the hard drive and do a clean install of OS3.9.  I'm planning to install a SCSI CD-ROM to access the OS3.9 install CD, but will the Amiga boot straight from the CD-ROM or do I need a floppy emergency disk or something to boot from and start the CD-ROM install process?

John

[madgrizzle]

Thanks, after your post I did some digging and found other posts regarding the same.  So I need to get the CDROM working in OS3.1, make an emergency disk from the OS3.9 CD, replace the hard drive, boot from the floppy and partition/format the hard drive, and continue to install OS3.9.  Let me know if this is wrong.

Thanks.

[madgrizzle]

I've managed to install AmigaOS3.9.  Took a while because the VA2000 does not seem to play nice with the video mode the AmigaOS3.9 installer uses (I had to remove the card and use the B&W composite).

Anyway, everything got installed and then I tried to install the boingbags.  I burned all the files to a CD (lha, bb1-4).  I copied LHA over and got in installed, but now, everytime I try to copy a file from the CD (either this CD or the AmigaOS3.9 CD), the computer crashes.  I've successfully installed AmigaOS3.9 from a CD to the hard drive so I know it worked at one time.  Directory and list commands to the CD work fine, but as soon as I start copying a file, it crashes.  I tried copying the angles.avi file from the AmigaOS3.9 CD and it crashed, but did manage to copy 65536 bytes though (size of the file on the HD.. CD file is much larger).

I'm a bit perplexed as to why, after managing to copy some files off a CD, I can no longer copy any files off any CD.  What's changed?  I know I copied lots of files off the AmigaOS3.9 CD just to install it.

Any ideas?  Both the hard drive and CD use gvpscsi.device.  I was going to change the cd to scsi.device (I think it will still work with that), but OS3.9 is apparently different than 3.1 in this regard and I haven't figured out how to do that.

[madgrizzle]

What's your MaxTransfer value?

Try copying a file from CD to RAM:.  Any difference vs. copying it to the HD?

You need to use the device name for the actual controller you have installed.  I.e., if all of your SCSI devices are connected to a GVP SCSI controller, you need to use gvpscsi.device (or omniscsi.device, if you have a Guru-ROM).

Well, I think it actually is a problem with the VA2000 graphics card.  I know the developer reported an incompatibility with GVP SCSI cards and indicated he fixed it in v1.5:

V1.5 Beta Release Notes
Fixes /OVR signal bug that caused incompatibility with GVP boards (SCSI errors) and probably interference with other cards. Big thanks to A1K members Rotzloeffel and PeterLustig for borrowing GVP hardware and to Christer Sigfrids for testing.

I'm running v1.6, which I assume (logically) still has the fix.

To make sure it wasn't a corrupt install of OS3.9, I booted from the emergency disk which happens to be set for NTSC mode (don't use the VA2000 graphics drivers).  I have a VA2000CX which sends the output from the video slot through the VA2000 and out the HDMI.  When I copied batman.avi from the AmigaOS3.9 CD, the screen went dark, but I watched the lights on the HD and CDROM drive still flicker.  When they stopped, I restarted the computer and sure enough, the batman.avi file actually copied over.  

This would explain why it "stopped working" all of the sudden... I didn't have the VA2000 installed when installing AmigaOS3.9.  I thought the VA2000 didn't like the AmigaOS3.9 installer graphics mode (it would crash when I tried to load it).  Now I think the VA2000 doesn't like the CDROM drive.  I can copy the files from the hard drive back to the hard drive with no issues.  But CD to hard drive or to RAM: glitches and crashes.

I guess it's not a AmigaOS3.9 issue after all.  Probably will start a new thread under hardware issues.

Time to do more testing.

[madgrizzle]

Once I removed the VA2000 and connected my computer to the composite input of a tv set, I was able to fully use the CDROM.  I managed to get boingbags 1&2 installed, but upon installation of boingbags 3&4, I got hard drive errors.  Tried to remap bad blocks with FaaastPrep but it reported no spare blocks available.  That's what I get for buying a used $50 SCSI drive off ebay.  

I'm now looking to go the CF route.  I'm hopeful a PCD-50B will work with a GVP Combo 68030/22 SCSI card.  Seems like it is through reading messages here.  Can the GVP card support >4 GB CF cards?  Obviously I'd keep the boot partition small (way less than 4 GB), but can I use something like a 32 GB card and use the remaining space or would I be limited to a total of 4 GB?

[madgrizzle]

Yes sir!  It was the only thing that would recognize the drive but through some searching this morning I found out how to get HDToolbox to recognize it (take pity on me, it's been a very long time since I've done anything with the Amiga).

The card reports v3.15 (IIRC).. My card is labeled GVP 2000-30/RAM16 (IIRC).. I assume that's a Series II if I were to believe:

http://amiga.resource.cx/photos/gforce2030,4

Card looks the same but mine is missing what I would describe as the RF shield.