Amiga OS4.1 Classic on Blizzard PPC - installation freezes

[HammerD]

@kreciu
How is the cdrom connected to the FastATA?
I believe the correct setup when installing is to have the harddrive connected to the primary port as master and the cdrom as slave, also on the primary port.
But it might be worth experimenting a little here.

This is probably the answer. If you see the OS4.1 splash screen it means the kernel has loaded and reset the machine properly.  It's probably searching for the CDROM drive and not properly finding it.   Dump the FastATA for now and setup as primary and slave on the A1200 IDE port and try again.

[HammerD]

Try reading my Blog post on hard drive setup.  You do really have to follow it to the letter, yes.  http://blog.hyperion-entertainment.biz/?p=210

[HammerD]

So, I did exactly (including block size..., saving file system in RDB - I did that already few times...) as in your blog and after finished installation Amiga will not boot from HDD, only screen with floppy drive.

HDD (partitions) are not visible in early boot menu.

I'm using 4xEide to install OS4.1.

BTW. When I install OS3.9 system WILL book perfectly fine. I'm actually thinking of making dual boot and see how this will work.

If you cannot see the OS4 partitions in early boot menu it means the filesystem is not installed into the RDB.  I don't know if you are using FFS or SFS (I'd recommend SFS) but you need at least one of those from the L: directory on the OS4.1 CDROM.  Here is the relevent section from my blog post:

Adding a file system into the Rigid Disk Block (RDB)

On the “Editing partitions…” screen, select “Add, Remove, or edit filesystems”.

Click on “Add new FS”

Browse to the L: directory (of the Installation Disc) and choose either SmartFileSystem or FastFileSystem.  Let’s pick SmartFileSystem for this example.  After you pick SmartFileSystem from the ASL requestor, you will be presented with a “Filesystem edit” screen.

It is very important in this screen to type the correct DOSType for your file system! This is one of the most common “gotchas” for setting up your hard disk.   For SmartFileSystem we have to change the “DosType” field from the default of 444f5303 to 53465300.  Once you do that, press enter, and you will see the name become SFS \ 00, which is the proper identifier for SmartFileSystem.



The above picture shows the proper settings for SmartFileSystem.  Note the DosType.

After you have selected the File system, changed the DosType, you can click “OK – Accept Changes”.  The hard part is now done!  The file system has been placed inside the RDB.

[HammerD]

SOLUTION: I used on of "cooked/updated" ROMS chips, works from cold boot zero issues. Computer boots, with DVD-rom.

BTW. Hyperion time to update ROM chips in Amiga's. After this "experience" I think AmigaOS4.1 should be delivered with UPDATED ROM chips, as long time ago. New system, new ROM chips.

Probably the file system is included in these updated roms...anyway, good you got it working!

[HammerD]

Thank you for help, but I really followed you blog manual and it doesn't work. In attachment you can see that files system is "loaded". Do you see anything wrong with it?

With updated ROMs it works but FastATA will not work (pink screen forever) and I don't think I will use it in this case (0.9Mb/s HDD transfer...). System works (including Update 1), but it is way slower then OS3.9. Additionally, no USB support, ancient LAN card support etc. etc. Technically all software I would use runs great under OS3.9, so if there is no solution to run AmigaOS4.1 with FastATA (that is listed as compatibile!) I'm going to use it AmigaOS4.1 on my... PC. AmigaOS4.1 it is really mixed feelings, it works fine, looks great... but at the same time it is terrible with all this limitations!?

That looks OK to me.  Are you using a compact flash card or a real hard drive? I had lots of problems with CF cards.  Just curious.

I personally never owned an A1200 with FastATA, so I can't really be of much further help. I suggest you post on the Hyperion Forums.  There were other testers that did have A1200's and FastATAs.

As for the speed or compatibility or limitations of OS 4.1 Classic, I can't really speak to that, I was only a tester. My *personal* opinion is that I think Hyperion did the best they could with the (limited) resources available to them.  Trust me they tried, and tried for a long time.  It was very difficult to find developers who were willing to code OS4 for the Classic platform and also had the level of knowledge required (kernel/driver level knowledge).  You could probably count the number of people still around even with the knowledge on one hand.  There was a small number of dedicated testers driving it forward and spending hundreds of hours testing things (as you know it takes lots of time and patience on the classic platform) and obviously lots of painstaking work by a small number of developers.  

I think the Classic version, in the latest "Final Edition" incarnation, is pretty good.  The best you can expect on such old and slow hardware.  Hyperion could have chosen to stop bothering to make the latest OS 4.1 versions still compatible with Classic, but they didn't and they haven't.  That says a lot.  

Remember MorphOS stopped at (I think) version 1.4 on the classic platform and they never released updated versions.  So for a PPC AmigaOS on the Classic it is the best there is.  It would be best to try to run the newer OS4 apps and not OS 3.x apps who's development has long since stopped.  OS4 apps will tend to run better as long as they are not too cpu, graphic, or memory intensive.  

I haven't been able to do much lately on OS4, I've got a family now with 2 young kids who take up the vast majority of my free time (or what's left of it) and money (so I've sold much of my prized Classic collection).  I still have an A4000 but only with a Sonnet.  Been playing with that under OS 3.9 and it's very fast for most WarpUP programs!  I don't have any CS PPC's anymore.  If that new phase5 digital company is not a hoax and releases new CS PPC's, I may buy one.  We will see but I do not count on it.  I'm also eyeing a Vampire V4 for my A2000.  I do still have an X1000 though.

Darren