The Amiga911 boot disk.

[PanterHZ]

Imagine a boot floppy for the Amiga that has "everything". A single DS/DD floppy which contains various drivers and tools that can be used to set up a harddisk in a quick and easy way, or that can be used to boot up a system in order to fix a broken Workbench installation, or maybe even restore files from a system backup. Imagine that this disk can contain drivers which allows you to easily transfer files from PC to Amiga in various ways like: PC formatted floppy disks, CD-ROMs burned on the PC or by using a Compact Flash memory card together with a CF to PCMCIA adapter.


Imagine that this disk in addition to the most essential Workbench files also includes the following:

 Fat95
 LhA 1.38
 mARK  (a very simplistic archive extraction GUI)
 MiniXpkGuide  (renamed to MultiView on the disk)
 NCD  (change dir in Shell via a requester)
 reqtools.library
 ScreenMode
 ShowConfig
 ToolsDaemon
 UnLZX 2.16


And that it can also contain the following:
 
 AmiCDFS  (gives CD ROM support)
 CFD  (gives Compact Flash card support via CF to PCMCIA adapter)
 FFS  (Fast File System with TD64 patch)
 HDToolBox  (can be patched to work with Compact Flash cards)
 PrepCard  (configure PCMCIA SRAM card as RAM or storage device)
 SFS  (Smart File System)


And that it can also contain the following programs:
 
 FileMaster3  (very powerful file manager)
 JanoEditor  (simple and efficient text editor)
 SysInfo  (gives comprehensive system information)
 HDInstTools  (harddisk installation tool)



Imagine that all of the above (which in total is around 1.5MB of files) can fit on a single 880KB floppy disk! Imagine that you can easily create such a disk for yourself where it contains the stuff that YOU prefer! Imagine that you can actually create multiple boot disks where each one is customized for each of your Amigas (if you have several of them).



Impossible, stop joking, get real, it can't be done, take your medication, you're dreaming, what are you smoking..... I hear you all say, but all of this is actually possible, just take a look here:   http://rhz1.com/programs/Amiga911Maker.htm

[PanterHZ]

F-ing thanks for the feedback everybody

But it doesn't stop here, because I'm pretty sure that some of you don't quite agree with the choice of programs that can be included on the boot disk. So tell me, what other programs would you like to be supported? This can be alternative file managers and text editors plus whatever else you think might be useful on such a disk.

Just have in mind the following limitations:
- No MUI programs
- No ARexx stuff
- The program should not be too large (in file size)

I can start with DOpus since I'm sure that some of you would like to see this file manager included, but in order for me to do this, I will need some help since I personally haven't used this program that much. So tell me what version should be included? On aminet there's version 4.12, 4.14 & 4.16, which one of these should I choose?

Another thing is that apart from the main DirectoryOpus file, what else is really required for a minimal bare bones install?

One last thing. All DOpus versions on aminet requires at least a 68020 processor, but since I don't want to leave anybody out, is there a version of DOpus on the net that works with 68000 processors as well?

[PanterHZ]

Actually, i'm having an error in Gui4CLI "Makedir error code 10 ABORTED" just by creating the project name.

Have i made an error in the installation?

Hmmm... Well I have made it so that Amiga911 Maker could be used directly without having to install anything, the files to copy which are mentioned in the documentation are optional. The only thing I can think of which causes this error is:

- You used some "illegal" characters in your project name.
- There isn't a Projects directory in the "Amiga911 Maker" dir, if this is the case you will have to create it manually.

[PanterHZ]

Yes it is working now.
However, i have been unable to make a disk with everything within 880 KB.
I followed the tutorial on the website and made a not too stuffed project but disk is full before the end of the files copying. On a second try i removed some more programs but still the same.
Actual size of the files is 941 KB.

When you created the project, did you enable the "Create Low-Mem disk" option for making a disk which is meant for Amigas with less than 2MB RAM?
If this is the case, you unfortunately can't include as much stuff on the disk as you can with the "normal" disk (which is meant for Amigas with 2MB or more RAM).
The reason for this is that fewer files will be included in the LZX archives when creating a Low-Mem disk, this in turn means that the files not included will stay uncompressed and use more space on the disk. This was unfortunately the only way I could include support for Amigas with low memory, and it seems like I forgot to mention this in the tutorial.

So if you really created a Low-Mem disk project, I'm sorry to say that you most likely can't include any programs on the disk.

But I do however have plans of making it possible for the users to create an additional "Extras" disk where all the stuff that wouldn't fit on the main boot floppy can be added instead.

[PanterHZ]

Ordering (    http://aminet.net/util/dir/Ordering_v1.18.lha ) is much smaller and faster than Dopus 4.xx.  Fast even on 68000 CPUs.

Yes, support for Ordering will be included in Amiga911 Maker

And to all you others, please follow Tenacious's example here when you suggest programs to be included,  do mention what it does and where it can be found. This will make things a lot easier for me.

[PanterHZ]

Is it possible to have a version for 68040/68060 cards?  I have an Apollo A1260 and a cyberstorm  2 68060 A4000.  The phase 5 68040/68060 library archives work on both- I have compact flash card that I can use in both and i can boot both, but neither will boot without the libraries.

I personally haven't got a 060 based card, so I haven't testet it, but yes I strongly belive it should work

The only thing you have to do is to copy the 68040/68060 libraries to the "System1/Libs" dir inside your project directory. This is the best method since they will then be included in the System1.lzx archive, which in turn means they won't take up so much disk space.

The only thing I can think of that can be a problem is with the UnLZX command. The 040 version of UnLZX will be used on boot disks meant for 040 & 060 based Amigas, and it might be an issue if UnLZX tries to use functions that are present in the 68060.library upon booting (since the library will not yet be available). I have a Apollo 1240 card and UnLZX doesn't seem to require the 68040 library for running, but I'm not sure what the status is with 060 cards.

Anyway, if the disk won't boot on your Amiga, try to copy the library files to the "Amiga911/Libs" dir instead.  
 
BTW. If you try this, please tell me how it went

[PanterHZ]

No, i have not choosen the low memory version as i have a large amount of RAM.
I am puzzled by the disk creation, maybe i will just wait for the next version with the "creat disk" option activated

Just wondering, exactly what are you trying to copy to the disk? Remember that it is only the content of the Amiga911 dir that shall be copied to the disk. The System1, System2 & Programs directories shall not be copied to the floppy (these dirs with content are already present in the three archives inside the Amiga911 dir).

I have now started on the "Create Disk" part of Amiga911 Maker, and right now it's the format disk stuff I'm working on

[PanterHZ]

DOpus 4.12 from the CU Amiga coverdisk works for 68000, get it from http://www.guildserver.co.uk/AMR/cu_amiga_coverdisks/cu_1995_02_d100.zip

Actually, the link you provided seems to be dead, I got it from here instead: http://www.pictureinthesky.net/appinfo.php?id=58

But after checking things out, I have to agree with Khephren, adding DOpus is a bit overkill since it will use waaaay too much disk space. So I think I will drop this idea.

[PanterHZ]

Back when I was using my A500 I did also powerpack every file that was safe to pack on my WB disk as well, but I couldn't get packed libraries to work though. Another thing was that it wasn't safe to pack commands that should have the possibility to be made resident.

But it's a good idea, and maybe I will try to include packing of otherwise uncompressed files on the Amiga911 Low-Mem disk. But since I belive Turbo Imploder is better, I think I will use that instead of PowerPacker.

[PanterHZ]

running the 68060 version of unlzx without the 060 being initialized by the 68060.library I would say would fail.  But having a cpu-specific version of unlzx is unnecessary  AFAIK, beacsue the 68060 version of unlzx  was just an optimised versions for that cpu to provide a bit of a speed up.  As the generic 68k version works on the 68060, and as this an emergency disk, I think speed isn't the main priority, and it would save space, if just a generic 68k version of unlzx was included by default.

i should have time on the weekend to try this and see how it goes.

Yes I see your point, but as I previously said - it really depends upon  whether the 060 version of unlzx uses functions only present in the  68060 library or not.

Anyway, this isn't really a problem since it's possible to select the  processor in the "Configure system" window, and this in turn leads to  the unlzx version that best matches the chosen CPU will be added on the  disk.

This means that it's possible to select between the following two scenarios:

1. A disk that boots up as fast as possible.
Here you select whatever processor that your accelerator has, then a  unlzx version that is optimized for that processor will be used on the  disk. This in turn might lead to a shorter boot-up time since the  extracting of the lzx archives will be faster. But it might lead to  problems with 040 & 060 based Amigas since the 680x0 library file(s)  are not present the first time unlzx is run.

2. A disk that is as safe and compatible as possible.
Here it's best to choose the processor that is the native one on the  Amiga it is intended for, this usually means 68000 for ECS Amigas and  68020 for AGA Amigas. It might lead to a slower boot-up time, but it may  be a bit safer with 040 and 060 based Amigas since the unlzx version  used is not optimized for these processors. Another thing is that the  disk will also work with the accelerator card removed.

But no matter what, it is really recommended that the user makes sure  that the correct 680x0 library file(s) are copied to the System1/Libs  directory. I can also mention that it's possible to check what CPU  specific version of unlzx that is present just by checking the file  comment of it.


Finally I would like to mention that I have now finished the "Create disk" part of Amiga911 Maker .  In order to get this functionality you must download a small update file which can be found at the bottom of this page: http://rhz1.com/programs/Amiga911Maker-download.htm

[PanterHZ]

Ok, i misunderstood then. I was copying everything inside he project. Will give it another try then.
Thanks.

You're welcome
But actually I want to thank you as well since you made me aware of a couple of bugs in Amiga911 Maker (where one is that the "New Project" GUI didn't check if the Projects dir exists).

If you download the update, you may find that creating the boot disk should be easier now.