Using Amiga Forever to create Amiga Laptop

[downward_s]

Hi,

I know this topic is brought up here a lot; creating a standalone Amiga using PC hardware and some form of emulation.

However, it seems most people are into using Amithlon or AROS for this. I would rather use UAE for compatibility. I don't care about speed.

It looks like Amiga Forever has a very nice boot CD feature which uses KX Light to then load a version of UAE. This is exactly what I'm looking for.

Before I buy it though, I am wondering if anyone can help me with these questions:

Using KX Light + UAE, what kind of hardware support is available? Can I use the PCs sound and GFX hardware, CD/DVD drives, USB etc?

Is there a way to permanently install the KX Light and UAE startup to a HD partition, so that my laptop can boot right into AmigaOS?

Finally, how quick is the boot using KX Light? If it is quite slow, I may as well just keep using Winuae on top of XP..

David

[pjhutch]

1. E-UAE can use PCs graphics using Picasso96 drivers.
2. For sound, you can get at most 16 bit Stereo sound.
3. You can use USB you can use USB Flash and USB Printers if you have Turboprint otherwise use Parallel printers.
4. For installation, see http://www.amigaforever.com/kxlight/installation/
5. Its pretty quick!

[Fraccy]

I've set up an 'embedded' version of Gentoo Linux that boots into E-UAE in about 15s. The Linux part of the installation takes only about 16MB on the hard drive. It's far more optimised than KXLight, but you need to do a bit of work to customise it for your hardware.

Any hardware supported by Linux should be available to the emulation - wireless networking, USB, etc.

I'm working on a How-To, but if you want the gory details, I'd be glad to email a WIP version to you!

[quenthal]

Fraccy wrote:
I've set up an 'embedded' version of Gentoo Linux that boots into E-UAE in about 15s. The Linux part of the installation takes only about 16MB on the hard drive. It's far more optimised than KXLight, but you need to do a bit of work to customise it for your hardware....

I'm working on a How-To...

Sounds very intresting - keep us posted!

[downward_s]

Thanks PJ & Fraccy. I think I will go ahead and get it!

[costabunny]

I have just been given a T22 IBM for nothing, (dead hdd), so I dropped a spare 20gb in it and now want to do the Amiga Forever Install bit but the link below doesn't work (any how to's would be great - I am fluent in unix so even a rought guide would be useful).....

http://www.amigaforever.com/kxlight/installation/ just says this page will be up when the next version is released

 :lotsacoffee:

[sir_inferno]

costabunny wrote:
I have just been given a T22 IBM for nothing, (dead hdd)

sheesh....wouldn't mind getting free stuff like that lol

[pjhutch]

Hum, seems like Kxlight cannot be installed to HD. I suggest finding a small Linux distro such as Damn Small Linux and install E-UAE on top of that. It should load fast.

[Amigamia]

@Fraccy

Any way you could post your WIP about getting Linux installed and then run E-UAE with it in a fast and efficient way?

I have been trying to use Slax distro (www.slax.org) but I haven't had great success yet. I can start e-uae manually but I want to automate the whole process.

Slax seems promising in the way it uses modules and the simplicity of its design.

[Fraccy]

@Amigamia

Nearly finished!

I didn't realise there was so much to explain (I have to take into account that Linux is unknown territory for a lot of people).

I can email you what I've got so far, if you give me your email address.

I'm just a bit anxious that it should all fit together nicely, the Linux forums are full of people getting stuck on things.

BTW, I'm using Gentoo as the host OS (a host computer is needed to set up the Amiga emulation). So, if you go with this method, you'll need to have Gentoo set up initially.

[Tomas]

One thing though.. Dont expect to run it off batteries, as uae will load the cpu all time which causes the batteries to drain really quick.

[Fraccy]

Yes, there's a substantial CPU overhead... :-(

Not sure how bad it is - perhaps (one day) if emulators get more efficient or someone comes up with a new model, this'll be reduced...

[AmiKit]

One thing though.. Dont expect to run it off batteries, as uae will load the cpu all time which causes the batteries to drain really quick.

Isn't there a CPU Idle feature?

[Amigamia]

That is true but not just with emulators. Whatever you run that requires CPU processing time will drain a battery for a laptop.

I never run my laptops on batteries unless I am listening to some music and doing something else or sitting on the porcelain throne.

It is amazing what can be done with linux and how you can customize it to run an application like E-UAE and make it look like a real Amiga booting up.

With Windowz you can't change much and you have to wait for the whole os to be loaded before you can execute WinUAE.

Think about it.. Amithlon, KX-Light, all are using minimal linux modified in some way to run e-uae. I personally have Amithlon installed on a Pentium III 550Mhz, 196MB Ram and 13Gigs HDD, Sound Blaster Live, nVidia FX 7000, and Nic card and all runs so smooth and so nice. I'll post some stats soon... If I could only get that wonderful package called Amikit to run on it that'd be a kick arse Amiga that you can't get with classic hardware.

[AmiKit]

If I could only get that wonderful package called Amikit to run on it that'd be a kick arse Amiga that you can't get with classic hardware.

Check this  thread please.