ACATune

[paul1981]

Hi I am trying to reinstall start up ,but cant remember where I go to add the start up details ,I remember if I drag ACATune in to the c directory ,and then enter ed s:user-startup a editor comes up and I have to enter the start up details but I am not quite sure where as there is no mention of ACATune on the page I have opened in the ed , so how do I find this ,sorry if this is confusing but I am a little confused mysif

If you have an ACA1232, then the line needed is:

C:ACATune -cache on -burst on -vbrmove  -maprom * >ram:acaoutput.txt

This line will need adding to the beginning of your Startup-Sequence, not User-Startup...

So type in a shell:

ed s:startup-sequence

And add the line before any other command (usually). It depends on your setup though. Once typed in, click save in the file menu.

If you only have a 3.0 Kickstart you could use this line to softkick 3.1:

C:ACATune -cache on -burst on -vbrmove -maprom DEVS:Kickstarts/Kick40068.A1200 >ram:acaoutput.txt

After your Workbench appears you can open the text file RAM:acaoutput.txt to have a peek at the output of the ACATune command in order to make sure everything's okay (ie. no errors or anything). That's what I've always done anyway.

Honestly though, with a different ACA card it's probably a slightly different line you'd need...so could really do with knowing your ACA model.

[paul1981]

Thanks for this Paul! I sure hope it helps mrmoonlight. It sure helped me! I had bought an ACA1232 when they first came out and went by the readme file (or maybe EAB) to setup ACATune. So, just for the heck of it I thought I would compare what you have with what I had set up a long time ago. (never checked output message as I had it set to >nil: Well, turns out I was doing it wrong!

I had this for my ACATune command line:
ACATune -maprom * p -cache on - burst on >nil:
After adding an output file I was getting the following error:
ERROR: maprom already active

So I guess I was never mapping the ROM to FASTRAM!

With your command line I get no error, with a message:
VBR is moved to fastram

THANKS Paul!!!  

Hello gizmo,

I've slightly edited the line as I forgot to use the maprom * feature in my post (I always softkick 3.1). So basically, here's the line you need:

C:ACATune -cache on -burst on -vbrmove  -maprom * >ram:acaoutput.txt

The reason the -maprom argument should be used last is because of a bug in AcaTune (even up to 17) whereby if maprom is already active (which it is after a reboot) it doesn't read other arguments (such as -cache on & -burst on -vbrmove etc etc). Not sure why this keeps escaping the programmers. So enter the line exactly as I have written it.

If after a reboot you get a black screen and it doesn't boot then you will need to use the -maprom * p which will add a delay upon reboot to allow slow hard drives to spin up in time. But if this isn't needed then don't use it because it adds a delay to the startup which is undesirable.

As for your message "maprom already active" - this is normal after a reboot. First boot should say "Copying 512K Kickstart...done!" instead.

[paul1981]

Hi thank you so much for your help ,my board is a ACA620, or that's what it shows when it detects the board has been fitted ,I have not added any start up command yet because I am still not sure what is needed for this board ,what I don't understand is how come the A600 shows a marked performance already as show by sys info in yet I have not finished the start up yet and the figures show its not far behind the A 3000 lol infact should I just leave it as it lol ,best wishes Brian.

You're in luck. I have an ACA620 too.

Here's the line you need. Enter it exactly as I write here:

C:ACATune -cache on -vbrmove -maprom * -maxram >ram:acaoutput.txt

Or if you don't want to debug its output just redirect ouput to NIL: (you can do this once you're confident you have it set up right. Personally I like to have the output available so I can read it if need be).

C:ACATune -cache on -vbrmove -maprom * -maxram >NIL:

There you go. Remember, it needs to be the 1st line in your Startup-Sequence (below the ; $VER: startup-sequence xx.xx (xx.x.xx) etc...).

It will be much faster if you use this line Brian than not using it. You'll notice a big difference. Also it allows you to use all the ACA620's RAM.

[paul1981]

NICE! Thanks Paul! So I guess I partly had it correct. I never knew about the ACATune bug. And, before I replied yesterday I didn't go back and look up what * & p arguments were for. Again, THANKS! :laugh1:

You're welcome. Enjoy your new Amiga!

[paul1981]

BTW, I always use the command -maxmem on my ACA620, I guess -maxram is the same?

All the best,

Steve.

Yeah, maxmem = maxram according to docs, so either can be used.

[paul1981]

Sorry about the pic quality ,but is this where I should put my new startup info,best wishes Brian.
 

Hello Brian,

Go to the extreme top left of the Startup-Sequence (line 1, cursor in top left corner). Make the top line empty by pressing return twice, then on the 2nd line (now blank line ) enter the ACATune line. Then save it. Then re-open it and check that it's saved the changes correctly as ed is a bit flaky with trashing the top line, hence I tend to keep top lines blank if editing with ed.

So you should have a blank line at the top, 2nd line should contain the ACATune command, and third line should be whatever was at the top before editing (; Added by NETPCM00X......... in your case according to your photo).

Hope this helps.

[paul1981]

Hi Paul ,went to top left side with cursor but cant make the top line empty ,I know the lower ones work but no joy with the very top one and I have tried for a while with no joy ,lol  can I go a little lower ?

Yeah, course you can mate. As long as you put it somewhere it'll do.

The reason it should be as early as possible is because it will speed up subsequent execution of the commands in the Startup-Sequence, that's all.

[paul1981]

Thanks Paul for all the help ,I have had it installed as the pic shows ,but I had a lot of trouble booting up is the some thing I can do if the same thing happens again, it was really fast until I rebooted then nothing ,so I went in to the boot menu and messed about a little and it booted up but as soon as I turned it off and rebooted the same thing happened again,lol

I don't quite follow, but maybe it's something to do with os3.9 modules or something. Your Startup-Sequence seems a bit odd from the picture though. If you're having trouble, put the Startup-Sequence back as it was for the time being, and add the line in your user-startup instead.

So open a shell and type:

ed s:user-startup

Add the ACATune line in there at the top, or as near to the top as you can and see how that goes.

Hope that works okay.