Classic Workbench; Problems with aca1233 accelerator.

[paul1981]

Hello Wrath Of Khan. Please see my post at the bottom of the thread I've linked to here for the correct ACATune line for the ACA1233 or ACA1232 cards:

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=68501

And whatever you do, DO NOT buy 3.1 roms. They are a waste of money in your case as you have an ACA card with a maprom feature. You can 'soft kick' 3.1 from your hard drive with the ACATune command.

[paul1981]

Thanks, I will try this. Oddly what seems to be happening is, I activated the maprom feature and I get loads of other mem. But after resetting the amiga, ctrl, A+A, I lose the other mem. Is there a way to save the maprom command rather than having to activate this every time i boot up?

Well I will try your suggestion. Really, that's great. I guess some games require 3.1? Oh and should I enter the command in my acatune software. Its on a floppy. Or from a cli?

You need to add the ACATune command at the beginning of your startup-sequence, so that you don't have to keep typing it every time . The startup-sequence is what boots your Amiga into Workbench. It's literally just a sequence of commands stored in a text file.

Boot up your computer, go to a shell and type in "ed s:startup-sequence".
Or, just select the "Execute Command" from the Workbench menu and type "ed s:startup-sequence".

Your startup-sequence will be listed and you can add the ACATune line in here. Put it at the top, before SetPatch or any other command is run (in most cases). Then go to the menu and select 'Save'.

[paul1981]

Ive tried the command a few times but no luck. Perhaps I am entering in the wrong place/order?
Here's a pic attached of the startup sequence and you can see where ive entered the line.
Upon reset of the miggy the other mem diminishes greatly.

Open Multiview (in SYS:Utilities) and open the file 'RAM:acaoutput.txt'
Or open a Shell again and type "type ram:acaoutput.txt" instead.

This perhaps will give us some clues as to why it isn't working correctly.

I didn't know you were using ClassicWB, and I don't know what the Maxmem-sequence is, which for all I know could be causing the issue. You can try moving the ACATune line directly above the SetPatch line though.

TBH, there's nothing wrong and the line should stay at the top. Let us know what acaoutput.txt reads...

[paul1981]

The shell reads: Error: Aca card type unsupported.
It then tells me to get the latest version of acatune from icomp.de. Guess the floppy disk version supplied is not the latest.
Well, I need to buy a cd drive to set up easynet pcmcia wireless, to go online and then download the software...bummer.
I foresee some difficulty setting up easynet too...

I'll get the cd drive soon.

ACATune should be version 17.

[paul1981]

Yeah the floppy disk says ver 1.7.
I'm using a cf card preset with lots of software, whdload etc. Its installed internally. I'm not sure about most of whats on there but there is d-paint, hippo player etc. Looks like there's software for adding a large hardrive too etc.

Is classic workbench lite a good thing or bad? I'm rather clueless but i guess its meant to be fast with slow amigas?

Open a Shell, and type the command "acatune -status"

Let us know what it says.

There's nothing wrong with ClassicWB, it's just a pre-configured Workbench environment. The problem you have though is one of the chicken and the egg... the file transfers that presently are impossible for you. This is why I always keep a pc with a floppy drive around.

[paul1981]

Again the shell reads: Error: Aca card type unsupported.
It then tells me to get the latest version of acatune from icomp.de

Open a shell and type "version c:acatune full"

And let us know what that says.

Also, please do make sure that you have turned your Amiga off/on at the power brick. A 'cold boot' is a boot from a previously powered off state, and a 'warm boot' is a boot from a previously powered on state (like after a reset with A-A-CTRL). I'm interested to know whether it's working from a cold boot, so please make sure you've cold booted it first. So, see what happens from a cold boot please.

[paul1981]

Version 17 is available to download and my disk has ver.1.7? Is that just another way of typing 17 or have there been that many revisions already?

1.7 = 17 IIRC, so no problem there.

http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/ACAtune

If there's still no joy, I suggest powering the Amiga off at the brick, power on again whilst holding down both mouse buttons and this will take you to the Amiga Early Startup Control.

From here select the button "Boot with no Startup-Sequence".

When the AmigaDOS prompt appears, type in "c:acatune -status"

And let us know what that says. If it recognises the card then there's something in the ClassicWB startup-sequence which is upsetting it.

[paul1981]

Thanks, I will try this. Oddly what seems to be happening is, I activated the maprom feature and I get loads of other mem. But after resetting the amiga, ctrl, A+A, I lose the other mem. Is there a way to save the maprom command rather than having to activate this every time i boot up?

Well I will try your suggestion. Really, that's great. I guess some games require 3.1? Oh and should I enter the command in my acatune software. Its on a floppy. Or from a cli?

I'm just turning the clock back here a bit. Here you stated that acatune was working as it gave you the extra ram. Can you repeat this behaviour? This proved that acatune detected your card.

Also, don't forget to try the cold boot but without Startup-Sequence (see my last posts) and type 'c:acatune -status' and let us know what it says.

EDIT: Ok seems you already did that last part... In my mind, it's either the wrong (old) version of acatune, or the card perhaps isn't seated correctly, which may explain why it recognised the card earlier.

[paul1981]

Here is sysinfo pics attached with the acatune maprom * feature activated
Perhaps I should try the line in startup again and put it right at the top before any other line?
There is an acaoutput.txt file in my ramdisk though...

Yes, there should be because we told ACATune to write it's output to the file 'ram:acaoutput.txt' in the command line that we entered into your Startup-Sequence. This file is created whether there's a problem or not, so until you get it working correctly you should read it.
If that file is created in ram: then it means that that line must still be in your Startup-Sequence, and you should open the file in Multiview and see what it says... or open a shell and  type 'type ram:acaoutput.txt'.

So what we've discovered here then is that ACATune is finally recognising your card. Might be worth while plugging/unplugging the card a few times, say 5 times just to create a clean contact on the edge connector.

The Sysinfo pics aren't relevant at the moment until we get your ACATune working correctly. We can know whether it's working correctly with the -status argument ('acatune -status' in a shell).

We're going round in circles here.:laughing:

If you really want fault finding in it's simplest form, then I'd suggest you power off your A1200, boot a Workbench floppy disk, open a shell, put your ACATune disk in, copy the ACATune command from your floppy to your ram disk, and run the ACATune command line straight from the ram disk. Once the command has run, in the same shell type 'acatune -status' and let's see what that says.

[paul1981]

Just copy it from the command line. I.e.:

copy source_file_location to SYS:C

Command would probably look something like:

copy df0:c/acatune to SYS:C

Or where ever the acatune command is stored on the floppy disk. And then you'll be able to run it in your Startup-Sequence, like we've been telling you to do.

It's unfortunate that ACA isn't autoconfig memory. Only thing I get out of those SysInfo screenshots is that (as you can see) it's loading all of those libraries into "SLOW RAM" (i.e., wasting your chip memory) rather than into the faster memory on the ACA at power-on. Nothing you can really do about this, just it sucks. By comparison here is a screenshot of mine, showing everything loaded into 32-bit fast memory, as it should be.

Paul - you're the expert on these ACA cards. Anything he can do about this? For better performance?

Thanks, I've never been called an expert before! I just wish it was true...
I have an ACA1232 and ACA1233 with KS3.0, so I know how to correctly configure it. What I don't have is ClassicWB.
I'll quote here from the ACATune-readme, as supplied with v1.7:

6.6 ACA1232

For OS3.0 users, this card has only 1MByte autoconfig memory.  ACATune will
add  126Mbytes  of memory to the system on start-up.  1MByte of memory will
not  be  added to the free memory pool.  It is kept reserved for the maprom
option.    On  later  OS  revisions,  the  memory  is  detected  and  added
automatically  by  the  OS.

Wrath Of Khan's Sysinfo screen shot showing things in SLOW RAM is very strange...shouldn't happen at all. As you can see from the readme above, under KS3.0 the ACA1232/1233 does auto-configure 1MB of fast ram anyway, even without running ACATune. There's no reboot after running the ACATune command, unless of course one is softkicking another Kickstart from disk. But no, NOTHING should show up as being in SLOW RAM.

So to correctly configure it he needs to locate his ACATune command first. I'm confused as to why it's not on the floppy any more?

[paul1981]

I finally managed to get the readme open thats on the acatune disk. It says I should copy acatune to the C directory of my boot partition. I have no idea how to do that.
Having done the above, it says to then type "acatune -staus" into a shell.
It is then supposed to give me all the aca system details, and i can see if its fully working etc.

I think they recommend some line called "acatune option argument option argument as the first thing to add to startup?

I just had a look at your Startup-Sequence from yesterday, and you forgot the '-' on the "-maprom * >ram:acaoutput.txt"

Here is how it should be:

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

Now according to the manual, the "-" isn't needed, but for consistency I would correct your mistake and try the line in your Startup-Sequence again and see if it works. The missing "-" could easily have made the whole command void.

[paul1981]

If I understand your quote from the manual correctly, if he had Kickstart 3.1 it would autoconfig all of the memory automatically?

I bet you dollars to donuts he moved the acatune command off the floppy disk, and either into ram: or onto the hard drive, rather than copying it. Let's hope it's on the hard drive and he can correctly locate it and copy it into C:. If it somehow got moved into ram:, well it's gone-city and he's stuck until he either gets another floppy disk, or figures a way to transfer files from PC to Amiga.

Yes, with KS3.1 it would configure all the ram automatically. You'd still have to run the ACATune command though just the same as I have put it in my previous post (regardless of running under KS3.0 or 3.1).

[paul1981]

Ive no idea. It boots up into classic workbench. I have whdload and other programs
Would i have access to all three partitions upon boot up or do i need to access the other partitions someow?
Are partitions problematic here?

You need to go back to basics like I said previously. Cold boot your Amiga from your Workbench floppy. Open a shell, and run the acatune command from your acatune floppy. So if your acatune command is in a drawer called 'acatunev17' then in the shell you would type 'df0:acatunev17/acatune'

If it runs correctly, you will see the extra memory appear as 'other mem' at the top of the Workbench screen. Let us know if that works. BTW... what's your name?

[paul1981]

Hello Adrian. Disregard what I said in an earlier post about that SLOWRAM!
My Amiga is in bits at the moment but today I hooked up my ACA1232 and mine also says SLOWRAM in Sysinfo. It's perfectly normal, your screen shot looks the same as mine. I had the 33MHz card connected and got 7.88 mips speed from Sysinfo. You should get a faster reading at 40MHz though...9.x I should think. It's obviously not slow ram though as that's not possible...there's only chip ram (2mb) and any other ram on an A1200 will always be fast ram, so just ignore Sysinfo here, I think the rom remapping is confusing it.


And yes, it's perfectly normal that the memory that is added when you run the ACATune command disappears again after a reboot. But this doesn't matter because the command will be run in your Startup-Sequence everytime that your Amiga boots.

On the other hand, if you were to softkick 3.1 then the memory would always be there after the first initial boot...but I don't want to confuse you about that as it's not important at all.

[paul1981]

I would check this carefully.  I think because the RAM isn't there at initial power-on (i.e., not autoconfig, but waiting until you add it via the startup-sequence) all that stuff is getting loaded into "slow" (i.e., chip) ram, because that's the only ram that the system "sees" upon initial power on.  Dunno. How much chip ram do you have available after boot?

There's always 1MB of fast ram from the ACA card from power on, so nothing eats chip ram here. But to avoid the system finally eating into chip ram (when the 1MB is used up, probably after booting ClassicWB) then the acatune command line needs to be run as early as possible...ie 1st command executed in the Startup-Sequence is the best place, plus it means you get faster booting as it remaps the kickstart to fast ram.