Help! FBlit, Startup-Sequence, Guru's & more (long)

[save2600]

@ all but especially 'meega' & 'D'...

Thanks for the tipoffs on FBlit and a few of these other free programs that enhance the Amiga experience. The latest thread on A1200 must haves is excellent. I've had an A1200 since '94 & cannot believe how much faster it seems to run now using FBlit in 2008! Makes surfing the web, viewing jpegs and dealing with icons (that's the extent of all I've done so far) a much more tolerable experience.

I have a few issues I'd like to share though regarding the installation of these programs. Come to think of it, I've mostly stayed away from upgrading my Amigas w/ 3rd party enhancer software throughout the years because their installations can be cryptic at best. I understand and have "mostly" understood manually installing programs, but when the Installer is set to 'novice' or automatic, seems more often than not, something runs amok.

For instance... Here's how a typical installation works for me in my Amiga world: I download FBlit onto my G5 iMac and transferred it to a CF card for my A1200 (I do sometimes download straight to my A1200 via CF ethernet and Aminet). Double-clicked on the .lha icon and decompressed it to my HD. Double-clicked on 'install' and proceeded to install. Did it twice: once in novice mode and the other in expert. Both times failed to add the appropriate command lines in ANY of my Startup-Sequences. AND, get this... when I manually inputted the command into my SS and restarted, I got the error of: "FBlit is not an executable program".

NOW... being slightly aware of these things, I remember seeing a dialog box in an icon's info setting where you can check or uncheck if that icon is 'executable' or not. WTF?? Why would I have to manually go in and "fix" that before getting this program to work? Does it have to do with OS3.9's unpacker program mucking things up?? I've heard of people using alternatives, but unsure which ones, why they are better, etc.

SO... okay- check that the icon is executable and now my system flies. Don't check that FBlitGUI is executable, else it will bring up a GUI screen everytime!  lol  

With FBlit, do I need to set the Workbench Prefs to use graphics memory in other?

Looking at the guide for this "simple" little program, it says to add the C:FBlit command AFTER Envarc is set and the best place for that is usually the line above 'Binddrivers'. I'm going to have to look again, but I'm pretty sure that did not work. I'm fairly certain, that after trial and error, I had to insert that command WAY DOWN the line in order to get it to work. Which brings me to my next question:

I have a BoingBag startup-sequence something or other, but am unsure if it gets loaded or not. Does the command SetPatch or another command call upon that script to load? In both user-startup and startup-sequence, I do not see a pointer at all to that Startup-Sequence_OS3.9_BB1 (or whatever its called). After installing both Boing Bags, was I supposed to rename the one BoingBag SS file to simply 'Startup-sequence'? In the Toolbar, my Workbench version does have a copyright of 2002 on it AND is version 45.3. KickStart is 3.1 45.57 - so that indicates to me that the Boing Bags have been successfully implemented, right?

Further, whenever I install a program - be it MUI, MiamiDeluxe, Newsrog, etc., seems the proper assigns, etc. are never inputted to my startup files. Until I manually enter them in either the right or wrong places. I believe that is the reason why my machine seems to crash a lot. My Startup-Sequence files are probably a mess and I'm asking more out of my A1200 than ever before. Between installing programs and actually using my computer in useful/productive ways, my modern Amiga experience is more of an exercise in frustration than anything else. Would REALLY like to do more with my Miggy's than the occasional game or two  :-)    

To recap: FBlit works currently on my system. After I tweaked it out its installation that is. Works wonderfully, but not sure how well it gets along with Aweb or Ibrowse. Aweb seems to crash more now. Star Trek 25th also crashed on me last night early into the game. When playing ST:25th, I always close all windows, etc. Game plays groggy as it is with an 030  ;-)

Tried installing the Usenet newsreader plug-in for YAM. Yeah right. I haven't been able to get that properly set up for years now!   lol  

Guess I should post my startup files and have an expert look at 'em huh?
My system config is this:

A1200 (don't know the mobo revision) w/ A500 power supply, Mtec 030 w/ 32megs fast ram, OS3.9 w/ BB2, KS 3.1.

All ideas, discussion and help greatly appreciated!!


 

[davideo]

I have a BoingBag startup-sequence something or other, but am unsure if it gets loaded or not. Does the command SetPatch or another command call upon that script to load? In both user-startup and startup-sequence, I do not see a pointer at all to that Startup-Sequence_OS3.9_BB1 (or whatever its called). After installing both Boing Bags, was I supposed to rename the one BoingBag SS file to simply 'Startup-sequence'? In the Toolbar, my Workbench version does have a copyright of 2002 on it AND is version 45.3. KickStart is 3.1 45.57 - so that indicates to me that the Boing Bags have been successfully implemented, right?

Your boingbag startups are backups of your original Startup-Sequence. The file called Startup-Sequence is the one that is run when you start you Amiga up. The others are now redundant but are kept in case you need to roll back your system to its original state. I.E. the one that ends in 1 is the original startup-sequence prior to boing bag one being applied, etc

Dave G   8-)

[save2600]

My Startup-Sequence file points to load 'User-Startup' right before it loads the Workbench. If it exists that is - which it does!  lol

So, that long file BoingBag Startup-Sequence is a backup of the original huh? Thanks for that bit. I should probably examine that to see if most things are in place.

Oh - and the User-Startup *IS* important, right? Not just redundant? I see different entries in there compared to my Startup-Sequence. Mostly assigns and path statements. What installer scripts actually write to User-Startup? Should I chuck everything in my User-Startup into Startup-Sequence?  I thought the original idea of User-Startup was to keep the user from mucking up the original Startup-Sequence. Well, after so many installs and years going by, hard NOT to muck this stuff up!  lol

[davideo]

The User-Startup is just that. It's were you can setup your own Assigns, additions to paths etc.

If this file doesn't exist your Amiga will still load up and run. A check is made for it before it is called. And yes the normal place for this to be called from is just before the LoadWB in the Startup-Sequence file.

Some software that you install will need assigns or paths setting up to run properly, i.e. DPAINTIV: etc. Without these assigns the program won't run. What should happen is that when you install software any assigns that it needs are normally added to the User-Startup.

If you have an error in these files - depending on what the error is - you will get a message shown on the screen at startup.

I hope this is making sense  :-?

Dave G  8-)

[save2600]

Yes, Dave - all that makes sense. Although I'm a little unclear on how some of the commands affect the main program. I do know that YAM would bring up a dialog box from time to time (it was not consistent) that would say: "please insert volume YAM" or something similar. I "think" I thwarted that with the insertion of an assign in my user-startup. It's just odd to me that you need to set up an environment for a program. As if the computer "forgets" where you originally loaded it up from.  lol

Most/all errors I experience are not when I start a program. Although and sometimes, when it comes to programs that require other programs, yes.

[davideo]

I do know that YAM would bring up a dialog box from time to time (it was not consistent) that would say: "please insert volume YAM" or something similar. I "think" I thwarted that with the insertion of an assign in my user-startup.

This sounds like what we've been talking about - a missing assign. Sometimes an error in a path statement can cause similair problems.

Does the crashes and lockups happen after a certain amount of time that you've been on the Amiga? Sometimes heat buildup and/or low power can cause problems. So it may not all be software related.....

Dave G  8-)

[save2600]

I do not believe I have issues with it being on long or not. Since the addition of the Indivision AGA card, I did feel the need to add a small CPU sized fan on top of the vents though. It sits there with rubber bumpers attached to not scratch and hold the fan still - sucking air out and through the case.

And I keep the trapdoor off my computer. Which... I just noticed I may have a goofy version of M-Tec card. It's a the E-Matrix 1230-50 with no FPU installed. No socket for one either - even though there's a crystal for it! 50mhz crystal for the CPU and a 40mhz for the FPU. There are solder traces for the FPU, but no socket. No holes, nothing. I believe my CPU is the: MC68030RC50C.  

If the card is starting to act up, would that account for the random crashes? And don't get me wrong - it's not as if my A1200 crashes all the time or every time I use it. Guess it happens mostly on heavy resource type software.

BTW: my soldering skills are much better than my Amiga programming skills and would like to add a 68882 FPU and socket to that M-Tec board. Anyone have a combo they'd like to sell? I don't imagine it would cost much, but may improve my systems functionality some...

[davideo]

If the card is starting to act up, would that account for the random crashes? And don't get me wrong - it's not as if my A1200 crashes all the time or every time I use it. Guess it happens mostly on heavy resource type software.

Sorry I didn't mean to suggest it was - only that it could be one answer to your crashes  ;-)

If it's heavy resource programs - have you thought about testing the board with some other Ram?

Dave G  8-)

[save2600]

Excellent suggestion about the ram. Totally escaped me that *it* may be bad. I do have another simm - but I believe it's only 4mb. Still, will give that a try and see. I can put up to 128mb in here. Might be good to get a new stick if that's the problem. Might as well max out this 030 card for the "fun" of it anyway. Thanks for all your help and input Dave!

[EDIT]

Course now, after installing the 4mb simm with OS3.9, I'm getting buku out of memory errors  ;-)   Just put a request in for more ram in the marketplace forum, which I'd like in any event. Just ran memcheck from Aminet and zero errors were reported with both my 4 & 32mb simms. So, guess it's not a memory issue then, huh?

 -Frank
 

[davideo]

Frank,

You're welcome and good luck with the problems.

Dave G  8-)

[Damion]

With FBlit, do I need to set the Workbench Prefs to use graphics memory in other?

You definitely can, and it will save some chipmem and speed up icon rendering a bit. First you need to download the wbctrl program, stick it in c:, and place the line "c:wbctrl imt=iconfast" in your startup-sequence, right before the "loadwb" command. Also, add the tag "simplegels" after loadwb. You will lose the "transparent drag" effect of the icons this way, but the speed increase is nice. (Actually, you can screw with the configuration to retain the transparent drag, but I don't remember getting that to work correctly.)

Another idea may be top try running fblit (using fblit gui) in "exclude" mode, that way it will attempt to promote all programs aside from those you specifically exclude. Default is "include" IIRC. (Sorry if this has already been mentioned.)

The boingbag ROM update is installed by setpatch, so you should be all set there. You can also manually check the version numbers of the patched ROM components, and setpatch will tell you (type c:setpatch in a shell) what patches have been installed.

Between installing programs and actually using my computer in useful/productive ways, my modern Amiga experience is more of an exercise in frustration than anything else. Would REALLY like to do more with my Miggy's than the occasional game or two :-)

LOL! They are quirky and frustrating at times, I suppose that's part of their charm. Now you can laugh next time one of the amiga.org oldtimers says "Why can't WinBLOWS just work like AmigaOS does?" :-P

[save2600]

@ -D-

...thanks a bunch mate! After installing the WBctrl program, inputting the proper lines to my SS and using FBlit in 'exclude' mode, ST:25th now works without crashing (so far) from Workbench. Never experienced crashing running from the CLI though. Not sure I sense much of a speed improvement rendering WB icons using WBctrl vs. FBlit, but any little bit helps. What brilliant little plug-ins and patches these are to tweak our favourite computer.

And trust me, generally speaking, I would never say any of my Miggy's were less reliable than a WinBlows machine  ;-)   Have spent less than 2 years out of 27, computing on WinTel boxes for a reason!