My Deneb is here! (a little excited here)

[MozzerFan]

The package contains the hardware, a manual and a
registration card. The installation software is in
the flashrom of the card. This was done, because there
are many people with problematic floppy disk drives.
Installation was a breeze. Insert the card in a free
Zorro slot, set the RESCUE jumper and power on the
system. In workbench a virtual disk is automatically
mounted with the installation software on it. Install
the software, power off the system and remove the RESCUE
jumper. Then power on again. Poseidon and Luciferin
both come with very clear documention in amigaguide format.
I had the Deneb installed in less then half an hour,
including software installation and configuration.
All of my USB devices are recognized (cardreader,
printer, scanner, flashdrives etc. ). Michael Boehmer
and Chris Hodges delivered a top product. I have no regrets
buying the Deneb card. If people have any doubts buying
this card, don't hesitate. It works beautifully and the
speed is incredible.

Regards,
Lloyd

[mbrantley]

David, don't let my own bit of confusion put you off the Deneb. It is a nice piece of "kit," and I am quite capable of going off course with even the best of instructions. Lloyd described the contents of the package very well. I'm sure I'll get my problems with the romupdates sorted out.

Darrin, if you followed the printed instructions letter for letter, you probably have the hardware hooked up right and the software installed. Now it's likely  a matter of fussing about in Trident in your Preferences drawer. Took me a small amount of head scratching to enable the DMA controller driver, but not too much.

The CD-ROM problem takes me back to setting up my 4000 a couple of years ago. With SCSI CD drives on my other Amigas, I've gotten them to work using asimcdfs, and then used the CD drive to install OS 3.9. The 3.9 installation seems to upgrade the asimcdfs installation to cachecdfs, which I prefer because it allows longer filenames. I deleted the asimcdfs files later.

On my 4000 I use the same setup as you with the onboard IDE controller. I seem to recall that my asimcdfs approach didn't work out well for me, but I don't remember why. What I think I wound up doing was downloading the demo version of IDEfix and using that to get CD support going. After installing 3.9, I got rid of all the extra IDEfix files and the lines it added near the start of startup-sequence.

[Darrin]

amigadave wrote:
From reading this thread it seems that the person having trouble either did not get sufficient documentation and setup instructions with their Deneb, or they have not bothered to read everything that came with their new toy.

I hope the first case is not true, it is a PITA to get a new Amiga peripheral and have to struggle for weeks to get it working correctly, or you have to be an expert to know how to get it working.

I am guilty of being one of those that wants to just plug in a new Zorro card or device and have a Install file that sets it up with just a dozen or so questions answered (call me lazy).

It's me being lazy (probably).  From the description when this card was announced, I at least expected it to pick up a minimum of devices after insertion and definately after installing the software from the Flash ROM.  What made it doubly frustrating was the fact that I can't get this ****ing CD ROM to run on the A4000 (while setting up a CD ROM on my A2000, A3000 and A1200s has been a piece of piss) and that the PCs I have set up don't have a floppy drive.  Add to that the fact that my Buddha card has gone tits-up and reports any drives connected to it as gibberish and I've not been having an easy time.

Anyway, I've bought a USB floppy so I now have an A: drive on the PCs.  Cross DOS sucked at first for transferring files due to the file name limitation, but I got FAT95 of the Deneb (hurrah!) and now that problem is fixed.  I still haven't got MUI installed which is why I haven't been able to do anything with the USB stack preferenced (because I've been trying to get my ****ing CD ROM drive working to transfer the ****ing files).  PLus, I've not been able to apply my full attention to the problems as I've got several other things I have to deal with including having my wife in hospital with a heart problem.  Talk about stress!

Thanks to everyone for the pointers.  I've just got home from visiting my wife, so I guess I'm going to have to wade through all the instructions.  I've got MUI on a floppy now to install, however I was not impressed when my Buddha install disk refused to install CDFS as it thinks my Hard Drive has a negative capacity!

One interesting note for the developers:  With the Buddha card inserted, the software on the Deneb Flash ROM doesn't come up in rescue mode.  It does once the Buddha card is removed.

One last question:  I'm using a Kickstart 3.0 ROM in the A4000.  As I've said, setting up the CD ROM access in my other Amigas has been straightforward, but they all have 3.1 Kickstarts.  Is there extra code in KS3.1 that makes CD ROM access easier?

[Darrin]

I noticed so text briefly flashing up before Workbench loaded, so I inserted a wait command before the LoadWB and rebooted.

I get the following error during startup:

ENVARC:PsdStackLoader: Unknown Command

[MozzerFan]

ENVARC:PsdStackLoader: Unknown Command

That's probably because you haven't saved your settings
yet with Trident prefs.

(edited because of typo)

Regards,
Lloyd

[Darrin]

MozzerFan wrote:

ENVARC:PsdStackLoader: Unknown Command

That's probrably because you haven't saved your settings
yet with Trident prefs.

Regards,
Lloyd

Cheers.

Now MUI won't install because it can't find a file called " "!  Sheesh!  I think I'll go and play with a PC for a while...

[MozzerFan]

Now MUI won't install because it can't find a file called " "!

Look at this thread at EAB.

Regards,
Lloyd

[mbrantley]

Darrin,

I've been exactly where you are in many ways -- from messed up Amigas to a very ill wife (lupus, a very serious infection, colon rupture and permanent kidney failure last summer). She is doing better, and she and I send our best wishes to you and your wife.

Your Amiga(s) should be a stress reliever not a stress maker. I think you are trying to install too much at once. Seems like you do have a chicken or egg thing with the CD installation. My advice is to pull out the Buddha and run the hard drive and CD-ROM off the internal IDE. I don't think the Buddha is any better. I do have a Buddha card that has never worked for me. Try getting the CD working with IDEfix on the internal IDE header.

If you have multiple Amigas, consider getting a Parnet cable and download Parbench from Aminet. That's handy for transfering install files from Miggy to Miggy. AmigaKit sells Parnet cables, I noticed. I'd go for a 3.1 Kickstart, too, to allow a 3.9 install if you want.

Good luck with the Miggy stuff and best wishes for your wife's recovery.

[mbrantley]

The above assumed you're trying to run the CD from the Buddha. If that's not the case, then nevermind.

Would it help to post my CacheCDFS CDO mountlist?

[Darrin]

@ Mozzerfan & MBrantley,

Cheers guys for the help.  I played a quick game of Star Trek Amarda, calmed down, fed the dog and went back to the Miggy.

In short, I've got it reading my memory stick!!!  Yeah!!!  OK, I officially love this thing - Deneb rocks!  :-)

I think the problem with the MUI install was that I used WinRAR to extract it, copied the files to 2 floppy disks, dumped them in a single folder on DH0: and tried installing from theere.  Something ebcame broke in the process.

I downloaded LHA and copied that to my C: folder, copied the MUI LHA archive from the floppy to the HD, extracted it via the command "LHA x DH0:38USR.LHA" to the RAM: drive and installed it from there.

I could then access Poseidon preferences.  I then rebooted, went back into the prefs, cleared all the error messages in the log, shoved the USB stick back in and then watched Poseidon mount it in seconds!

Next I need to get brave, dig out my old USB CD ROM drive and then see if I can use that instead of the ****ing IDE one.

Can I just suggest, for ease of use, that the following files are added to the Flash ROM for future Deneb batches:

Latest INSTALLER file.
MUI install package.

I need to test that USB to SATA/IDE cable again too...

[Darrin]

mbrantley wrote:
The above assumed you're trying to run the CD from the Buddha. If that's not the case, then nevermind.

Would it help to post my CacheCDFS CDO mountlist?

Firstly I tried to use the CD ROM as a slave on the internal A4000 IDE header.  It would spin up on power on, but would not appear as a connected device under SCSI.device whereas the hard drive could be seen as Unit 0.

I inserted my Buddha card and connected the CD ROM to that and it immediately showed up as Unit 1 on 2nd.SCSI.device (although the information on the drive is garbled as is the case for all drives since it stopped working).

IF you could, assuming you have your CD ROM drive set up as slave, can you please email me your CD0 DOSdriver file to "DARRIN01311 at AOL dot COM".  Cheers.

[mbrantley]

Hurrah! Let us know how the USB CD-ROM goes. I've got a USB CD burner here but have not connected it to the Deneb. So far just a USB memory stick and (temporarily) a USB mouse.

As to my issue, I'm going to go try the romupdates again, one by one.

[mbrantley]

Darrin wrote:

IF you could, assuming you have your CD ROM drive set up as slave, can you please email me your CD0 DOSdriver file to "DARRIN01311 at AOL dot COM".  Cheers.

Will do in a bit.

[Darrin]

Oh boy!  This is great!

I bought this device:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2329300&CatId=470

I just plugged in an old Amiga formatted 4GB 2.5" drive from my A1200, plugged it into one of the Deneb USB ports and it came straight up as an available drive with all of the old Amiga files visible.

This is going to make backing up or restoring a hard drive a breeze!

[mbrantley]

I will have to order one of those from Tiger.

I sent you my CD0 Dosdrivers file by e-mail. Here's what's in it...

/***************************************************************/
/*  CacheCDFS mountlist entry © 1993 Elaborate Bytes, O. Kastl */
/***************************************************************/
   FileSystem     = L:CacheCDFS /* The name of the game */
   Device         = "scsi.device" /* Name of exec device driver */
   Unit           = 1 /* exec device unit */
   Flags          = 0 /* OpenDevice flags */
   BlocksPerTrack = 351000 /* Unused */
   BlockSize      = 2048 /* True, but unused */
   Mask           = 0x7ffffffe /* Memory mask for direct read */
   MaxTransfer    = 0x1000000 /* Maximum amount of bytes for direct read */
   Reserved       = 0 /* Unused */
   Interleave     = 0 /* Unused */
   LowCyl         = 0 /* Unused */
   HighCyl        = 0 /* Unused */
   Surfaces       = 1 /* Unused */
   Buffers        = 50 /* Number of cache lines */
   BufMemType     = 513 /* MEMF_PUBLIC|MEMF_24BITDMA */
   BootPri        = 2 /* Boot priority for MountCD */
   GlobVec        = -1 /* Do not change! */
   Mount          = 1 /* Mount it immediately */
   Priority       = 10 /* Priority of FileSystem task */
   DosType        = 0x43443031 /* Currently unused */
   StackSize      = 3000 /* Minimum stack required is 3000! */
   Control        = "MD=0 LC=1 DC=8 L LV AL LFC=1 S"
   /* The Control field is for special adjustments */
   /* L/S convert all file/volume names to lowercase */
   /* LV/S convert volume names to lowercase */
   /* AL/S Auto-Lower converts only non-Amiga CDs */
   /* LFC/N start converting at this character */
   /* LC/N/A number of blocks per cache line */
   /* DC/N/A number of cache lines for the data cache */
   /* MD/N/A number of blocks, when starting direct read, not using */
   /* the cache. 0 will be a reasonable default (LC*DC+1) */
   /* S/S Do SCSI direct commands, no Trackdisk like commands! */
   /* NC/S Do NOT use TD_ADDCHANGEINT, poll for DiskChange! */
   /* M/S Issue a TD_MOTOR (OFF) command after read */

[Darrin]

Cheers.  It's still a no-go detecting Unit 1.  I'll give IDEfix a go in the morning along with that USB drive.  Thanks for all of your help.   :-)