Pegasos on the way - yay!

[KennyR]

I'm using my Pegasos now - and I promise you, it's the fastest, most responsive system I've ever used.

[KennyR]

You don't need a sound card with a Pegasos! 16bit sound support is built in! As is network support.

Memory is a problem. You can't just get it from a PC hardware shop and expect it to work - most wont. I got my DIMM from kdh-datentechnik in Germany - a single 512MB one, PC133 registered buffered CL3, Kingston brand. Works perfectly. See the compatible memory list on MorphZone to pick DIMMS - and to see what ones to avoid.

You'll also need UDMA cables for the hard drive - the 80pin ones. KDH also sell these. You might need one for the CD-ROM too. Don't put the HD and CD-ROM on the same IDE channel or you'll slow the HD down.

Try to keep to PS/2 mouse and keyboard for now, and avoid USB. MOS currently needs PS/2 devices to boot, but this will change in the future.

In fact, I got my whole order from kdh - including the keyboard, which was a mistake on my part because it ended up being a German one! QWERTZ is really quite annoying. ;-)

Edit: A nullmodem cable is also a must-buy, so you can diagnose problems if your Pegasos fails to boot. Which kind depends on the serial port of the machine you want to read debug output on. The Pegasos's serial port is 9 pin male, same as most PCs. An amiga is 25pin male. I have a laplink one that has both sizes on each end.

[KennyR]

My girlfriend has just rang to tell me it's arrived. I'm itching to get home now.  

Why? Chances are it'll be sitting in its box in a cupboard until you get the stuff for it anyway.

/me throws a metaphorical bucket of water over Wilse ;-)

[KennyR]

Is a standard ATX case sufficient?

Yes. Keep in mind your Peg wont boot without a PS/2 keyboard though - the first time, anyway.

If you get a blank screen with everything plugged in, make sure that CPU card is pushed in all the way. The bugger had me panicking for almost a whole day.

If everything is in and you still get a blank screen, your RAM is not accepted (blame Articia).

Unfortunately the only way to definitely see that your RAM is not accepted is serial debug output, which is why the nullmodel cable is a good idea. Blame the x86 init code on GFX cards...

[KennyR]

Oh, and bed down for some serious tinkering. I swore more times in one day than I have in 10 years, even if the end result was fantastic. ;-)

[KennyR]

I'll use the one on my g/f's PC for now.

Be careful. I tried to use my family PC's keyboard and it wasn't detected. Cheap TIME crap. The Peg just stalled in the OF screen.

How does it work? I connect the peg's serial port to the PC's and then what? (Excuse my ignorance.)

Load some kind of serial terminal on the PC. I used AmTerm on the Amiga, I don't know what is available for Windows. Edit: its 115000 baud, no error checking and XON/XOFF handshaking.  (Edit: NOTE: make sure machines are OFF before playing with serial cables. The Peg is ATX and isn't really off until you switch it off at the back (or pull out its power cable). This goes for playing with cards, dimms and cpu cards also!)

I always thought that would be the case.  
Hopefully I won't swear too much.

Don't get too angry if MOS seems buggy at first - there's a lot you have to do to get it stable. For the first two days that reset button is your friend, so don't get a tower with the crappy little reset button that needs a pen to press. ;-) And DONT just copy all your Amiga files over to the Peg, if you have them.

I also recommend you burn some Amiga apps onto a CD for quick installation on the Peg, including Miami/MiamiDX and samba or an ftp server and client, (Edit: and ARexx commands, libs, and Rexxmast). Miami itself is a pain in the arse to install, since its installer is dumb and makes wild assumptions that fail on MOS. Easier just to copy from a CDRW and make the add the assign manually to user-startup.

[KennyR]

I've fixed the mobo to the case and plugged the power supply into the socket at the top of the board. Are there any other connections to the mobo?

Yes, you must connect up the on switch to the board, otherwise the PSU won't even come on, because in ATX its the board that tells the PSU to fully power up. But your pegasos is on and dormant - you just can't see it. So be careful when you're hauling out dimms and stuff.

I've also connected the Radeon 8500, the CPU card and seated the RAM in the first slot from the left 9nearest the cpu). Is this the right slot?

It doesn't matter.

I just tried switching on the power and nothing happened at all, not even the fan in the PSU came on. I know I'm probably missing something obvious but any ideas would be appreciated.

Connect that PWRON on the motherboard to the on switch. Then you'll have luck. This is different from PWR-LED. See the sheet of A4 with the schematic that came with your Pegasos - but I can tell you right now its the "bottom" two pins on the connector that's just next to floppy connector. It looks like a connector for a cable but its just for jumpers and leads - that confused me a bit too.

[KennyR]

Is that "POWER SW"? (I don't have "PWRON")

Yes. Edit: It's marked PWRON on the Pegasos schematic, and POWER SW on the tower cable.

See the sheet of A4 with the schematic that came with your Pegasos

I don't seem to have one. I was actually thinking it was odd that there were no instructions. That explains it.

Thankfully it should be on your MOS CD in pdf form. If you really need it, use a PC to view and print it. In fact, if you need it, you can find it here on my webspace, in pdf. (I hope I'm not breaking any copyright here).

Should the orange wire go at the bottom or the top?

None of my wires were orange (AFAIR). It depends on the tower. Each of the tower connectors should have a small label on it. This is oriented upward towards the top of the tower case.

[KennyR]

Be fair Dave, it's a Betatester board. It's pretty easy to actually build the system, it's just that Wilse (and myself when I went to try it) have no experience building ATX systems.

The hard part is still to come - installing MOS is a sinch but I expect Wilse will need my help again when he tries to get it to auto-boot - I'll have to spout some open firmware nonsense.

[KennyR]

@Dave

No problem. I'm not offended. ;-)

It just seems absurd that whoever sold Wilse the board didn't send easy to understand step by step instructions printed out.

It was probably just overlooked by accident. I got the schematic and the other people who got this offer also did. He could have mailed or written to Genesi and sent him the schematic, I'm sure. Wilse should check if he has the full package and that nothing else has been overlooked.

Pegasos is still not out of Beta, nor is MorphOS despite what some people claim. Its not for the masses and the whole absurdity of how close yet how so far made me laugh out loud. I was getting mental images of Wilse being
electrocuted or getting so frustrated he popped a heart valve.

Heh. Yes, you are right. MOS and Pegasos are still in beta, MOS more so than the Peg. I expected the worst when I got it and for a while my worst fears seemed to have come true. If not for my friends at #AmigaZeux it probably would have taken me ages to set up. But in the end, almost all of the problems were caused by my negativity - I had really low expectations of MOS, but I was very pleasantly suprised when I got it to run.

Don't let anyone try to tell you MorphOS is perfect - it's not, and has frustrating bugs (edit: and frustrating omissions). Yet at the same time is absolutely amazing the job it's coders have done. It's fully stable, apart from Ambient which I do not like, even though it looks great.

I don't know if Wilse would have had the same experience with A1 or not - probably would but it bothers me that you say that the hardest part is installing MOS. Jeez.

The actual install is easy, once you get that far. It's basically a case of "Copy CD0:#? ALL DH0:". Partition the drive before install is also easy, and even if the partitioning tool (SCSIControl) which comes with MOS isn't my favourite, it is very powerful.

Open firmware is the rub. You have to give it some very obscure commands to tell it to auto-boot MOS, commands that aren't explained and aren't supplied with the board - except as the full open firmware manual, which doesn't help much. This isn't MorphOS's fault, but I'd be happier if Genesi included a quick install guide on paper with Pegasos.

We are so near to a consumer system dammit!

Nearer than ever. It's really within sight now. At long last.

[KennyR]

Did you get the little Pegasos sticker?

[KennyR]

Yep, the games are pretty good - especially Software Tycoon. Point and click adventure game fans will love Feeble Files but I've never liked that genre (about the only Amigan I know who doesn't :roll:). Tales of Tamar looks good but I can't figure out how to play it... Knights and Merchants (which doesn't come with the stuff but you can buy it seperately) is a quality port of a quality Settlers-type game.

[KennyR]

:-(

All that I can suggest is that you recheck all your connections, and in particular make sure the ATX active power feed is in tightly. If it still doesn't work, you might have a broken tower, or a broken Peg. The first one is more likely. I can't help beyond that, sorry. :-(

You can tell the Pegasos is receiving power even if the PSU fan is off. If you plug in a network cable the link LED will light up (but it's not likely you'll have such a cable unless you have a LAN or broadband).

My tower didn't have a SHIELD. What do the docs of your tower say about it? Or the website if you have no docs?

[KennyR]

Ok, I confused people - the IDE cable needed for a Pegasos hard drive
is an ATA66/100 IDE cable. This has 40 holes on each connector but 80
wires inside. The older cables won't work with HDs but they might work
with CD-ROMs - but I'd get two ATA66/100 just to be sure anyway, and
forget the old cables.

[KennyR]

Mine don't have a blue connector, but they do have a tag saying telling you what IDE socket to plug it into - master, slave or controller. The controller tag is blue.