Finally PCMCIA! But...

[Desolator]

A nice Amiga compatible PCMCIA NIC arrived in my mailbox today thanks to Machinehead here on the Amiga forum. After reading several postings on the subject regarding networking on the Amiga I know that I have to use Genesis or Miami to get the network up and running so I can transfer files.

BUT... I'm only running AOS 3.1 since I got an unexpanded A1200. (ok, HD in it. I do own the OS3.9 CD-Rom though. can I just copy (zip it to 720kb files and then unpack) the Genesis folder from that one and install it on my A1200 or will there be OS complications, such as wrong version of files?

I always used floppies before but I'm good at networking with Windows and Linux so I just need some help with what software to install and how and then I finally can FTP over my files from my PC, and vice versa..

[whabang]

You can allways install 3.9 using UAE on a PC...

[Desolator]

But that wouldn't be a true Amiga now, would it?  :-P

Nah, I still want to use my trustworthy A1200's. I just use emulation on things that doesn't work with my classic A1200's. (like the FxPaint demo.

[MasterOfReality]

You need a few things to get it going:

1) A copy of cnet.device in sys:devs/networks/
2)A working installation of ReAction or ClassAct.

Reaction is on the 3.9CD but it's installer is part of the main install. You'd be better off downloading ClassAct from Aminet. cnet.dev is available from aminet.

Don't just unpack Genesis and try to install it by hand. Use the OS3.9 installer to do it. The internet software can be installed separately using the main installer. If you do it by hand you'll have to set all the user-startup assigns manually.

[Desolator]

But since I'm using unexpanded Amigas, I haven't got a CD-Rom for it either. :\ That's why I wondered if it was possible to copy the Genesis folder over and install it.

[MasterOfReality]

2 Things just occurred to me.

1) The card may be unreliable uless you get a CC_Reset fix dongle from somewhere like Power Computing or Eyetech in the UK, or modify your MoBo. The problem is that the card doesn't always get recognised. You can get around this by unplugging the card and then putting it back in

2)  You may have to do the preinstall step in the OS3.9 installer b4 it'll let you do a full install. In this case you will have to install genesis by hand.

On balance it'd probably be worth spending £20 or so on a memory upgrade so you can just install 3.9.

[Desolator]

*sigh* I'll never be able to get this to work.  :-(
Right now I don't have the money to upgrade my amiga with both memory and CD-rom devices and after browsing the Genesis folder on the OS3.9 cd..well, let us just say that I have no clue whatsoever on how to do it manually. :\

[Hardboy]

Also, you could get a shareware version of MiamiDX on aminet, and copy it to your amiga with floppies.

Anyway, having only 2megs of ram isn´t much when using TCP based applications, so at least a memory upgrade would be recommended. A 030-expansion card is allmost free these days, and have memory slots...

[quenthal]

Desolator wrote:
*sigh* I'll never be able to get this to work.  :-(
Right now I don't have the money to upgrade my amiga with both memory and CD-rom devices and after browsing the Genesis folder on the OS3.9 cd..well, let us just say that I have no clue whatsoever on how to do it manually. :\

Well, why not doing it like Whabang suggested..

Take your HD from A1200, insert it into your PC. Using current WinUAE versions you can use (mount) it and boot your emulation from it.

Then, using your AOS3.1 installation from it, mount your PC cd-rom there, and install everything needed from cd's, after that remove cd drivers and put hd back to your real amiga.

[Desolator]

It's one of those days... when just about EVERYTHING goes wrong.

Tried copying over MiamiDX to my amiga, and since the files were over 720kb I had to chunk it up in smaller parts by using RAR. Firing up Unrar on the A1200... output: Abort Trap. Hm, never seen that kind of output before. Wonder what that means. Unrar came without proper documentation regarding error messages.

Went here, saw notice about trying to mount harddrive in my pc. Happily I proceeded with doing that only to notice that my PC hasn't got any cables that fit the 2.5" harddrive I had in my Amiga. "ok, back to software trying then *deep sigh*" I though.

EEEEERN. Wrong. Now I have a slighty disassembled A1200 lying on my table. I can't get it to seal shut whatever I do. Something with the metalholder of the Harddrive stops the keyboard from going further down so I can't get the chassi to close again. For the first time ever in my life I wished to throw the Amiga out the window. (pun unintentionally)  :-x

This just isn't my day. :-(

when I get my next paycheck I skip my probably much needed PC upgrade (was only needing it for Cinema 4D, Falcon 4 and Morrowind really.) and buy myself a turbocard with memory attached and a proper CD-Rom device with an external SCSI box so I can install OS3.9 and live happily ever after in Amiga Land. (or even better, buy a towered A1200 with everything included from somewhere on the net.)

I guess this is some evil deitys idea of a sick joke since I haven't had any real problems with either my Amigas or Amiga related software or WinUAE for that matter ever.  :-D

[carls]

@Desolator

Don't get depressed! We all have problems with our computers.

I don't know about your previous A1200 experiences so here goes a description of how to fit it together:

To get the keyboard fitted in your A1200 correctly it's got to slide in to the spaceholder at the lower end of the A1200 bottom chassi.
I've mad a small "schematic" here:
http://carls.1av10.nu/a1200.gif

This is actually pretty tricky! I've managed to get it wrong a couple of times...

Also make sure that the HDD cradle is seated correctly on the motherboard and that no cables get in the way when fitting the keyboard.

The top part of the chassi is supposed to snap onto the bottom part.

Right, when (if?) you manage to get your Amiga back together:
Get "Miami32b-020.lha" and "Miami32b2-main.lha" from aminet. These are archives that are already split up and so it fits on two 720kB floppy disks without any extra fuzz. You'll just need lha for Amiga.

This is just a demo version but AFAIK it'll work with your PCMCIA NIC although it has a time-limit of running for 30 minutes at a time. This should be enough to get you started!

Secondly, when you've got the cash, I'd recommend you to get some kind of CPU card or at least a trapdoor memory expansion.

Good luck! I hope you'll get this running and that it won't put you off!

Edit:
Another way to get big files from your PC to your Amiga would be to get a null modem cable (make sure to get one with both 9-pin and 25-pin connectors) from for example Kjell&Co. Then get terminal program for your Amiga (NComm will fit on a 720kB disk) and fire up hyperterm on your PC. The A1200 should operate safely at 28k8 while higher speeds MIGHT trash the transfer.

[Desolator]

Got it fixed! (I had screwed the HD on the wrong side of the metalcase that holds it.. duh..

thanks for all the help on Miami downloading. I've used Amigas since 198x (something) but never tried installing new hardware into it. Broke the guarantee seal for the first time.

As for files, strangely enough I've managed to use files that exceeded 720 bytes. Those that have been larger I usually zipped into right size or something similar.

ah, first thing tomorrow after work I'm going to get this NIC to work.

[carls]

@Desolator

You must feel a lot better :-)

Hope you didn't think I was trying to degrade your IQ with drawing schematics and all... :-)