OS3.9 boots with very low chip mem left - why? - ALL SORTED

[Astral]

I've done a fresh install of OS3.9 on my A1200. I have a BlizzardPPC card with 256Mb Fast RAM.

OS3.9 boots with only about 8000bytes of chip mem left - meaning nothing can really be opened. The only extra software on top of this fresh OS3.9 install is the FASTATAMk-III driver.

I seem to remember a "use fast mem first" type of command, but can't find anything like it. I've installed OS3.9 before and not had this issue...

[Nearly-Right]

I think you are looking for the Prefs drawer and mean the "Workbench Prefs" settings which allows you to use Other Memory (FAST-RAM) for graphics loading in preference to Chip-RAM, but if you have gone to all that expense with a PPC card you might as well get a GFX card to see it in 24/32 bit colour, don't you think ;-)

[jmbattle]

If you do not have a graphics card, the OS will use chip memory for storing images.  So if you use a large resolution with lots of colours (arguably impossible under AGA), a colourful wallpaper, PNG icons, and a snazzy VisualPrefs theme, you may find the amount of chip memory reduced considerably.

8000 bytes remaining is rather excessive however - that sounds more like the processor memory is not being used at all for any tasks.

I would recommend using FBlit, which should improve the speed of graphics redraws, while also forcing any graphics related tasks to use fast memory (where possible).

Cheers,
James
x

[zipper]

you could use http://main.aminet.net/pub/aminet/util/boot/startmem.lha
it shows where your memory is consumed during boot.

[Lemmink]

Simply go to prefs -> workbench for store graphics in : select "other memory"

[weirdami]

I wonder if the 2MB chip RAM limit is becoming the Amiga equivalent to the 64KB limit on IBM's. So, choosing "other memory" is like using "extended memory".  :cry:

[Astral]

Still having issues with this. The program chewing all the chip mem is the FastATA MkIII driver. With the driver not running I have around 1,900,000bytes of chip mem. Once the ATA driver is run I have about 9000 bytes left. I've tried all kinds of "use fast mem first" settings in workbench and with countless aminet patches, along the lines of those recommended.

Surely I can't be the only one with this problem, and the solution can't really be that hard. Is there a syntax I can add to the ATA driver command when first running it that'll force it to use fast mem? Any more suggestions?

[TiredOLife]

How big is your hard drive and how many partitions do you have?

[Astral]

Main HD 4g/3 partitions. Secondary drive 40g/2 partitions. 1 dvd burner as well. I don't consider this excessive...

[TiredOLife]

No, I agree, you should be fine with that.
I assume you are using the latest FastATA drivers?

[Astral]

The unit is only about 3 weeks old and I'm using the software that came with it. To double check, where can the latest drivers be gained from?

[krize]

From Elbox, I think you have to mail them or be on the mailing list.. (or someone on irc or here who will help you

[Astral]

I've checked. I am using the latest drivers. Any other suggestions. I might email elbox to see what they say?

[x303]

Maybe you can decrease the buffersize for each partition to 100-150 or so. If they're set too high, it eats loooots of mem too. And turn off programs like mem or mem32 and so. Hope this solution works.

[color=ff0000]x303[/color] :-D  :-D  :-D

[yogisumo]

weirdami wrote:
I wonder if the 2MB chip RAM limit is becoming the Amiga equivalent to the 64KB limit on IBM's. So, choosing "other memory" is like using "extended memory".  :cry:

Don't think so..  Chip ram is more like the equivalent of vram on your gfx card that you can also use for regular procesing if you don't have any other ram...