Boot from CD

[motorollin]

Now we have devices like the KickFlash, or EPROM Kickstart replacements, it is easy to add stuff to the Kickstart. So I'm wondering how long it will be before we can boot from CDs. Would it be possible to maybe use elements from the CD32 ROM to achieve CD booting on an Amiga? Or incorporate atapi.device in to the ROM along with (somehow) a DOSDriver which would be available as a bootable device?

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moto

[motorollin]

@RW222
Yes I have seen MountCD. But I want to be able to cold boot from the CD.

@Thomas
Interesting. I had no idea the MK3 could do that. Can it do it from cold?

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moto

[motorollin]

Thanks guys! Does the CD need to have a particular identifier for the MK3 to attempt to boot from it, or will any CD with s/startup-sequence do?

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moto

[motorollin]

Just remembered this thread. Does anyone know if the CD needs to have a special identifier like with the CD32, or if I can just burn any CD using MakeCD with a startup-sequence?

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moto

[motorollin]

Also I don't have the CD Boot options in my MK3 menu. Do I need to flash the firmware?

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moto

[motorollin]

Oh ok thanks, I'll check that. Do you know how I create the CD? Can I just burn an OS3.9 installation to the CD and expect the MK3 to attempt to boot from it?

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moto

[motorollin]

Actually I've just checked and I don't have those options. I went in to SCSI, double clicked on unit 4 (my CD-RW) and these are the options I have:

8 Luns
15 Bytes/Handshake
20 Synchron MB/s
Synchron
Auto Buswidth
Auto Selection
Auto Removable

but no boot options. So I'm assuming the version of firmware I am using doesn't support the CD Boot feature. Is this the latest version?

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moto

[motorollin]

I have clicked through all of the options in the removable section but there is no Boot CD option, so I guess my firmware is too old. Where can I find the Grex one? What is the difference between that and the latest one on Aminet?

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moto

[motorollin]

Thanks Alex. Is it advisable to use the "private" release, version 44.69 dated 09.04.2000, or should I stick to the last official one 44.67 released 30.03.1999?

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moto

[motorollin]

Oh I didn't see that one. I'll download it and try flashing the firmware. I'm scared! :nervous:

What happens if it goes wrong? Is my MK3 a brick, or is it fixable?

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moto

[motorollin]

It's not important. But part of the fun of the Amiga is getting it to do new things, and I think it would be fun to get it booting from CD. It would also be useful to have a bootable backup.

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moto

[motorollin]

A4000_Mad wrote:
The great program 'CD-Boot' that I use for booting into CD32 games gets my A4000 to check whether a bootable CD is in the drive at a very early stage in booting up

The advantage of the MK3/CSPPC/BPPC is that its SCSI controller supports booting from CD, so you don't need any software to get it to work.

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moto

[motorollin]

Well the MK3 firmware flash worked, thank goodness :banana:

I now have the CD Boot option, and CD0 is listed as a drive in early startup, even from cold boot. And even booting from HDD with no startup-sequence gives access to CD0 without even mounting anything which is quite cool.

However, CD0 is not listed as a bootable device in early startup. Does it depend on the type of CD inserted at the time? I did try with a CD32 game which I assume would be detected as bootable but it still wasn't selectable as a boot device.

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moto

[motorollin]

To clarify, CD0 shows in the "Control Active Devices" section but not in the "Select Boot Device" section. It shows up as follows:

"Enabled - CD0     not bootable  CDFS  cybppc-4"

The settings in the firmware are as follows:

8 Luns
15 Transfer Offset
20 MHz Sync Period
Async/Synchron
Auto Buswidth
Auto Reselection
Auto Mount
Auto Removable
CDRom Boot
CD Boot Priority 0
CD Device Name CD0

I don't know why the boot priority would make a difference if it isn't even reported as bootable :-?

I used version 44.71 of the firmware.

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moto

[motorollin]

Just set the LUNs setting to 1 and also set the boot priority to 1. The drive still shows up as an active device, but is not bootable. Is anyone else using the same firmware version who can confirm that CD Booting definitely works? Or could it be my drive?

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moto