nubie Question on installing the A2090 card

[quarkx]

Ok, I really wanted to put this on my A2000 thread, but its a software question.
Last night, I connected my XP box to the Amiga 2000 and got Amiga Explore up and running ok. I transfered over a bunch of files including system info and it does see my A2090 card, but it is not installed. I went up and downloaded the install file from Amiga.resource.cx both files and transfered them over to the Amiga, and the Amiga can't see both of these files. Am I missing something? Does anyone have the original disks or files they can e-mail me or put up somewhere?
-Thanks in advance.

[Zac67]

The A2090 is very picky about how the drive is installed...

It predates RDB, so an RDB HDD is not mounted by the driver. It should be possible to mount a partition done elsewhere through a manual mountlist entry, but I've never tried that with an A2090. There are much better SCSI controllers around.

[quarkx]

Ok, so I have found an Install for the A2090, and it has been sitting at the prompt "Installing Driver" for over an hour. The hard drive light is on and every 10 min or so it starts to blink for a few minutes than goes solid again.
I know it has 2 -20 meg drives attached and it may be formating them, but the screen says nothing. I know these machines or slow, so I don't want to re-boot and try again, especially if the hard drive light is solid.
Any suggestions?

[quarkx]

So, after 2 hours, I pulled the plug and rebooted the Amiga.
Looks like I pooched the Workbench disk, as now it boots to the AmiDos screen, and sits there while the hard drive light is on and thats it. It is a good thing I have about 6 copies of the workbench 1.3 disk.I will look at it again tomorrow night.

[melott]

As a suggestion ..... get rid of that A2090 card.
You can pick up a A2091 card from EBay for just a
few bucks (they're cheep) and be much farther ahead.
The A2091 card is much easier to work with, and you
can use just about any (Less than 4 gigs)50 pin SCSI
drive.

Mel

[quarkx]

melott wrote:
As a suggestion ..... get rid of that A2090 card.
You can pick up a A2091 card from EBay for just a
few bucks (they're cheep) and be much farther ahead.
The A2091 card is much easier to work with, and you
can use just about any (Less than 4 gigs)50 pin SCSI
drive.

Mel

I have been looking, but I haven't seen any (on Ebay.ca) remember that MOST Americans on Ebay.com refuse to ship to Canada, so looking for anything on Ebay.com is useless. Ebay.ca will show the American Auctions (or any Auctions worldwide) that will ship to Canada.
Beside, I have this card NOW, with 2 drives full of "unknown" stuff. The challenge is to get it running. If you want to send me a better one for free, PM me and I will gladly pay for postage. :-D

BTW, anyone know of a good "Step by Step" guild or web page to make a custom workbench disk for a complete beginner, and will take us through everything and explain what everything is on the disk and such. Copping the disk is one thing, but understand the boot sequence is another.

[mpiva]

Ahha!  I think I might have found something quarkx.

Scouring through my boxes of old Amiga disks I think I might have found the disk I was using to boot that computer many years ago (for those who don't know, quarkx's "new" A2000 was formally mine).

It has a modified startup-sequence and Mountlist:

Startup-Sequence:

c:SetPatch >NIL: r ;patch system functions
c:BindDrivers
cd DH0:
Execute DH0:s/Startup.HD

Mountlist:
/* MountList for V1.3 */

/*  Mount Entry for the new Console Handler */

NEWCON:
    Handler = L:Newcon-Handler
    Priority = 5
    StackSize = 1000
#

/* This is an example of a non-filing system mount using a handler written
   in C.
*/
 
SPEAK:    
    Handler = L:Speak-Handler
    Stacksize = 6000
    Priority = 5
    GlobVec = -1
#

/*  This is an example of an alternative type of non-filing device mount,
    used to mount the non-buffered serial handler
*/

AUX:
    Handler = L:Aux-Handler
    Stacksize = 1000
    Priority = 5
#
/*  This is a non-filing system device */

PIPE:      
    Handler = L:Pipe-Handler
    Stacksize = 6000
    Priority = 5
    GlobVec = -1
#

/* This is an example of a mount list entry for using the recoverable
   ram disk.  Depending on the amount of memory you wish to devote to
   it, you may want to change the HighCyl value.
*/

RAD:       Device = ramdrive.device
           Unit   = 0
           Flags  = 0
           Surfaces  = 2
           BlocksPerTrack = 11
           Reserved = 2
           Interleave = 0
           LowCyl = 0  ;  HighCyl = 79
           Buffers = 5
           BufMemType = 1
#

/* Sample Mountlist Entry to add another partition to a ST-506 drive */
P2:        Device = hddisk.device
           Unit   = 1
           Flags  = 0
           Surfaces  = 4
           BlocksPerTrack = 17
           Reserved = 2
           Interleave = 0
           LowCyl = 300  ;  HighCyl = 601
           Buffers = 20
      BufMemType = 0
#
/* SCSI drives are units 3 and up */
RES2:     Device = hddisk.device
           Unit   = 3
           Flags  = 0
           Surfaces  = 4
           BlocksPerTrack = 17
           Reserved = 0
           Interleave = 0
           LowCyl = 0  ;  HighCyl = 1
           Buffers = 5
      BufMemType = 0
#

/* An example MOUNTLIST file enabling a 5.25" disk to be mounted
   as DF2: and an interactive serial port mounted as AUX:
*/

/* If you only have 1 3.5" disk, change the name to DF1: and the Unit to 1 */
DF2:       Device = trackdisk.device
           Unit   = 2
           Flags  = 1
           Surfaces  = 2
           BlocksPerTrack = 11
           Reserved = 2
      PreAlloc = 11
           Interleave = 0
           LowCyl = 0  ;  HighCyl = 39
           Buffers = 5
           BufMemType = 3
#
/* An example mount entry for preparing a hard disk for use
   The hard disk is not included; this is only an example.
*/

RES0:      Device = hddisk.device
           Unit   = 1
           Flags  = 0
           Surfaces  = 4
           BlocksPerTrack = 17
           Reserved = 2
           Interleave = 0
           LowCyl = 0  ;  HighCyl = 1
           Buffers = 1
           BufMemType = 3
#

/* Second Hard Drive */

RES1:      Device = hddisk.device
           Unit = 2
           Flags = 0
           Surfaces = 4
           BlocksPerTrack = 17
           Reserved = 2
           Interleave = 0
           LowCyl = 0 ; HighCyl = 1
           Buffers = 1
           BufMemType = 3
#

 
SPEAKER:   Handler = L:s-handler
           Stacksize = 1000
           Priority = 5
      GlobVec = 1
#

/* An example mount entry using the fast file system with a partition
   of the hard disk using the 2090 disk controller.  PREP has been
   used to create the first partition (up to cylinder 20).  The second
   partition is MOUNTed, using the following entry:
   NOTE: Some hard disk drivers require more stack than specified here.
   Some may required less.
   (The hard disk is not included; this is only an example.)
*/

FAST:
    Device = hddisk.device
    FileSystem = l:FastFileSystem
    Unit   = 1
    Flags  = 0
    Surfaces  = 4
    BlocksPerTrack = 17
    Reserved = 2
    Interleave = 0
    LowCyl = 21  ;  HighCyl = 800
    Buffers = 30
    GlobVec = -1
    BufMemType = 1
    Mount = 1
    DosType = 0x444F5301
    StackSize = 4000
#

There are also a couple of files in the Expansion drawer called "hddisk" and "hddisk.info"  "hddisk" is an executable (I think it's a device driver) and "hddisk.info" has the tooltype "PRODUCT=514/1"

pmail me and maybe we can make arrangement to meet so I can give you the disk.

[quarkx]

Fantastic  :bow: PM sent s we can meet, and I Must remember to make a few back ups of that disk. :banana:

[mpiva]

Hopefully your 2 hour failed install didn't erase the HD or something. :boohoo:

[quarkx]

Ok, kind of a quickie update. Got the right boot disk, but it still "Hangs up" at the AmigaDOS screen, so I think the hard drive or boot sector of the drive 0 has been lost.
I have been hunting for tutorials on understanding the boot processes and how to make a custom boot disk, but all I can find is info for workbench 3 and above.
So, I ordered a 3.1 ROM from flebay and I am waiting for that to come in and try to start from scratch. I am trying to find a better Scsi card (possibly a combo card) for cheap, but so far no luck- everyone seems to want a first born child for any useful combo card, no mater what the specs are.
I will update after the ROM comes in and I have played with it more then, until then, I have to just play with it without the Hard drive, and treat it like a A500 :roll:

[mpiva]

Have you tried reading through this:

A2090 SCSI Controller FAQ

[quarkx]

thank you,
I will print out and go over this tonight or tomorrow.

[quarkx]

Ok, so I have decided to ditch the A2090 card and I ordered a Buddha flash and OS 3.1 from AmigaKit.com and got them in yesterday (Thanks for the super fast transaction Amigakit).

Before I go a head and tear everything apart, a few quick questions.
I would imagine the correct way to install this in the A2000 is the "plug" end facing the front of the case with the front of the card facing the CPU- Am I right?

Second:

If I wish to install 3.1, the correct steps would be to install the card, boot the workbench disk, install the budda, format the drive, install the card, Reboot. run the "install" disk on OS 3.1 the re-install the buddha or will I have to go through it all again?

I am installing a seagate 5 gig drive and a 32x cd rom with it.

Thanks again in advance. :-?

[quarkx]

ok, so I tore everything down and installed a Aopen 32x cd rom and a Quantum Fireball le 5 gig drive.

Here it is mounted up in the sled.


While I had everything apart, I decided to solder on the coin battery holder i ordered from AmigaKit, So this final picture is the Motherboard back in and the Buddha flash installed (hopefully the right way).

Hopefully, that is the correct orientation of the card, I have not put it back further or fired it up yet
I tried to hunt down a manual of the Buddha online, but I cant find it anywhere. The website the instruction sheet says to go to www.ami.ga but that seems to be DOA. I was reading other threads, and people were asking why get a "Phoenix" edition card. That is because that is what Amigakit sells, and they probably made 100x more of these cards then the actual Phoenix motherboard.

[Zac67]

Try Individual Computers.

The board is oriented correctly, the components have to face the CPU slot (just like ISA cards do, PCI cards were flipped around to allow slot sharing).