BetterWB release 2.9 - 23.08.2013

[Gulliver]

BetterWB release 2.9 - 23.08.2013

http://lilliput.amiga-projects.net/BetterWB.htm

BetterWB is a new workbench pack, much like AIAB, Amikit, AmigaSYS, ClassicWB, etc. but applying a totally different aproach. It aims to be much like an enhancement, an updated extension to AmigaOS 3.1, without all those hardware requirement penalties typically associated with these kind of packs. It is indeed a better 3.1 than 3.1 itself!

BetterWB best targets:

-Purists that believe anything beyond 3.1 is an overbloated piece of crap
-Low end Amiga computers that are left in storage deprived from any usage, and only regarded as antiques
-Users that refuse to pay big bucks in order to be able to somehow upgrade their Amiga workbench experience
-Minimig users, that are restricted to a 68000 processor
-Anyone that wishes a clean AmigaOS 3.1 like experience

Advantages:

-Works on any Amiga.
-It occupies about 8MB on a harddrive
-It is distributed as a set of floppy images
-Its usage is simple and bares a high resemblance to an ordinary 3.1 install

Drawbacks:

-No eye candy at all
-Will appear incomplete, or even a piece of dog poo for high end or heavily expanded Amiga systems (They are probably better with other workbench packs), that take care of the visual appealing components.


Requirements:

Any Amiga computer
Kickstart rom 3.1 (May also work under 3.0)
AmigaOS 3.1 disk set (May also work under 3.0)
About 8MB of storage space on a harddrive

Whats is new in this update:

-camd.library and Midiports preferences for midi supported programs
-DMS command writes and reads its floppy images from cli
-Gzip, the very popular multiplatform compressor is now included
-LZX is yet another compressor
-PFS3 All in one (now requires less memory for usage and autodetects large drives)
-SuperPlus has been updated and no longer shows the infamuos beta warning message
-TSGUI lets you read and write adf and dms floppy images with an easy to use interface
-WBStartup preferences enables you to select the commodities you want to run when workbench loads
-New commodities: DontShowIBorder (removes icon borders), ModePro (screen promotion) and MagicMenu (flying menus)
-Printfiles tool has been updated with plenty of features and an arexx port
-TagLiFE is a simple patch for the utility.library to install a
new set of optimized assembler routines to get a faster TagList support.
-Now boot in CLI mode with maximum ram to run memory demanding games and demos by booting without startup sequence and running add44k from CLI
-Text datatype was rolled back, due to printing bugs
-Lha can now adequately work under low memory condition (Thanks Dwyloc)
-Boards.library allows proper identification of Amiga hardware
-WhichAmiga replaces showconfig, as it has plenty more features
-PatchWB solves many workbench bugs
-Many minor tweaks and bugfixes

[Gulliver]

Thank you all for your support.

Hey Gulliver, I just saw this recent upload to Aminet and though it might be a useful addition to BetterWB if there is space on one of the floppies for it.

http://m68k.aminet.net/package/disk/misc/Format64-m1

Thanks, I saw it too. It will hopefully be incuded in the next release.

[Gulliver]

I am sorry for my late reply. I somehow missed your post until you sent me a PM pointing that fact.

Some answers:
BetterWB will only affect your SYS: partition/volume. It doesnt come with whdload or mui. If you installed magicwb, I suggest you back up your startup-sequence, in case something goes wrong when you set up BetterWB. The BetterWB archive contains everything required to install it (except workbench 3.0/3.1).

[Gulliver]

@AmigaBruno

Both archives contained 4 disk images (not 3). So you are probably having problems with your decompression program or have corrupt images.

You are evidently not following the instructions, and probably havent started with a CLEAN workbench install at first.

If you are not familiar with the Amiga enviroment you shouldnt attempt to disregard instructions.

MagicWB has a daemon that forces its palette and must be loaded for it to work. MagicWB is not a part of BetterWB, but you can install it after BetterWB (not before, unless you know what you are doing).

To fix whatever happened to your system just replace the startup-sequence by the one you were instructed to back up before installing BetterWB.

Other people have had success installing and updating their BetterWB installs.

BTW, I dont have the obligation to be 24 hours a day on this forum, and most of all, you have no reason for being rude!

[Gulliver]

Okay, so now you have the 4 disks.
First, BetterWB ONLY affects your sys: partition (your bootable/Workbench partition). It only replaces and udpates many AmigaOS components with more adequate/better solutions, and slightly modifies the startup-sequence.
Don worry about MagicWB right now, and dont format your drive yet!

1.Just insert the floppy named "Workbench3.1" from your original workbench set.
2.Open a shell and type without quotes "copy df0:s/startup-sequence dh0:s/" Here we are assuming that dh0: is your bootable/Workbench drive partition.
3.Remove your floppy
4.Reboot your machine
5.You should have a working system by now. If not, somehow your system got screwed before and you need to reformat and reinstall workbench.

Let me know how it goes and we can continue from there.

[Gulliver]

I am glad it is working for you.

Now enjoy it!