Usefulness of Kickflash?

[x56h34]

I'm debating whether I should buy one. What does it actually do in order to make life easier with OS3.9, expanded Amigas, Phase 5 accelerators, USB peripherals, etc.?

What software does it come with?

Thanks.

[adolescent]

Kickstart mapping, no-reboot rom updates, etc.  My A4000D went from a minute to boot to under 30...  The Algor Pro software is more advanced for now.  Luckily, Chris let me use some of his patched BlizKick modules (noclick, etc.) from Luciferin.

BTW, I'll PM you back today.  Sorry for the vesalia, I've been too busy to bother.

[x56h34]

Hehe, alright sounds good. I was wondering what happened and if you were actually receiving my private messages.

[Effy]

How far can you actually expand this kickflash or is this just a rumour  :-?

[Argus]

@Effy

It has a 22-pin clockport header but I don't know if regular 1200 clockport cards work on it.  The manual says the header needs software drivers to make it work like an a1200 port but is best left empty for a forthcoming flash memory expansion (release date unspecified).

[Trev]

Any clockport hardware driver would have to be modified to detect and use the hardware connected to the Kickflash. The A1200 clockport base address is 0x00d80001, which is what most drivers use.

I can't find docs for the Kickflash clockport, but it's most likely at or near ConfigDev->cb_BoardAddr + [size of Kickflash mem]. A quick email to Jens should get you a list of clockport hardware drivers that are known to work with the Kickflash.

ADDITIONAL: Speaking of Kickstart patches, one that routes keyboard I/O to the Catweasel MK3/MK4 would be cool (so you don't need a separate "driver"--but I guess they're pretty much the same thing, with the same installation overhead).

Trev

[Effy]

Argus : " forthcoming flash memory expansion (release date unspecified)" ... I have sent a mail to Vesalia last year with a nice request for more info about that but they couldn´t give me an answer about how or when to expand that memory to 1 Gb as advertised ...  :-o

[Brian]

Can anyone plz explain to me what "modules" are that I can trow into my kickflash. After ROMupdate and 1.3ROM I was kinda lost and silly me thought that I could trown anything I wanted into it to have it precent anytime but no... files from C:, LIBS: & DEVS: don't work well with the kickflash so what does?

Anyone put together a list of existing "modules" that can be used... preferable with links to downloads of these modules?

[Noster]

Hi,

I have asked Jens Schoenfeld a few weeks ago, if I could attache a Defina soundcard to the clockport of the Kickflash. He answered immediately but denied the existance of any expension for this clockport at now...but he said that there is coming "something" soon, and this will not be expensive -- whatever it will be ?

@Brian

You can load any module into the Flashrom that might be loaded using "LoadModule" into seglist of AmigaDOS. These are usually handlers or ROM-updates. I currently use the update of the Shell and the RAM-Handler with my KickflashOS4.
You must exclude these modules from the ROMupdate, when you copy it into the flashrom.
These modules can be found in Aminet:

ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/util/boot/ShellUpdate.lha
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/util/boot/PatchRam.lha

The guys from cojoteflux -- that write the firmware of the Kickflash -- are currently working at some improvements like NoClick, a security module and maybe support to MUFS :-)

Noster

[adolescent]

You can use NoClick now from the Luciferin package.  (Make sure to ask Chris for permission first though, I did and he was happy to help.).  Also, the docs in the archive explain in  good detail what is needed to make a program run from an Algor/Romulus (or Kickflash).