Red then blue screen when booting OS4 Classic from CD

[motorollin]

A1200 in Power Tower
BPPC (unknown spec)
IDE CD-ROM on first channel of IDE adapter
No HDD currently attached


When I boot the above machine from the OS4 floppy it does the following:

1. Accesses the floppy disk for a while then reboots
2. Accesses the floppy disk for a while then accesses the CD-ROM for a while, then reboots
3.  Screen turns red, then blue, then reboots

These steps repeat over and over again.

I thought it might be something to do with the MapROM setting, since red screen usually means ROM issues, but MapROM is disabled. Memory is set to 70ns as per the OS4 manual.

Any ideas what's going on? Could the PPC be dead? Is there a way of testing it without finding a hard drive, installing an OS, and installing WarpOS? (whatever that is - I've never used a PPC on an Amiga before)

TIA

--
moto

[TiredOLife]

Try without the ide adapter.
There is an issue with at least one make to my knowledge.

[motorollin]

Thanks for the suggestion. I don't have a cable suitable for connecting a CD-ROM to the 44 pin IDE interface. Is it possible to copy the contents of the OS4 CD to a hard drive with the same volume name as the CD and get the OS4 installer to boot from that?

--
moto

[zipper]

I think you have to get the floppy out just when it tries to kick into the second cycle.

[motorollin]

Really? In the manual it says that it should recognise that it's booting OS4 and hand over to the CD. Also, if I take the disk out, will it be able to boot from the CD?

Anyway, I'll try it. Just to make sure I understand what you are suggesting:

1. Boot from floppy. Let it reboot
2. Boot from floppy. Let it reboot then immediately take out the floppy
3. Boot from CD

Right?

--
moto

[TiredOLife]

@Moto

If you have a partition with 3.9 you can install fom there.

People have also just copied the cd to the hard drive, and made the neccessary changes to the kicklayout.

[motorollin]

TiredOLife wrote:
If you have a partition with 3.9 you can install fom there.

I don't have any OS installed on this machine ATM.

TiredOLife wrote:
People have also just copied the cd to the hard drive, and made the neccessary changes to the kicklayout.

I was thinking of just creating a partition, giving it the same volume name as the OS4 CD, and dumping all the files there. Would that work?

--
moto

[motorollin]

*bump*

Just hoping for confirmation that an FFS partition labelled "AmigaOS 4.0 Install CD" with the contents of the CD copied to its root will function as an installation source for OS4. If so, would this boot without needing the floppy?

--
moto

[A4000_Mad]

Hi moto,

It's been a while since I played with OS4 and I don't have a CDrom on my A4000/PPC at the mo.

I can't answer the question above but IIRC it's just the same as booting into your Emergency-Boot floppy and OS3.9 CD.

I've just booted into the A4000/PPC using OS4 boot floppy disk only and got the report "Please insert volume AmigaOS4.0 install CD in any drive".

(I didn't see any flashing colours)

I then stuck the OS4 boot floppy disk into my A4000/060 and go the same "Please insert volume AmigaOS4.0 install CD in any drive". Inserted the OS4 CD but it wasn't found because my CDrom is unit 2 on the secondary IDE channel......Doh! (no flashing colours were seen)

Took the floppy out and did a reset forgetting that I was running the prog called CD-Boot. I chose to boot into the OS4 CD and got:-

C:BootLoader: Unknown command
C:BootLoader failed returncode 10


IIRC correctly the fact that you are seeing the flashing coulours is a good indication that the OS4 CD is being found ok. If you remove the OS4 CD and just boot from the OS4 boot floppy, do you see "Please insert volume AmigaOS4.0 install CD in any drive"??

(It's rather fitting that my 1000th post should be for you mate ;-) :pint:)

[motorollin]

A4000_Mad wrote:
I've just booted into the A4000/PPC using OS4 boot floppy disk only and got the report "Please insert volume AmigaOS4.0 install CD in any drive".

Yes, that's what I get if I don't put the CD in. With the CD there, it doesn't happen and there is activity from the CD drive.

A4000_Mad wrote:
(I didn't see any flashing colours)

The flashing colours appear after it has accessed the CD.

A4000_Mad wrote:
IIRC correctly the fact that you are seeing the flashing coulours is a good indication that the OS4 CD is being found ok.

I'm not so sure. It's not flashing colours like the softkick of a ROM image. It's static, coloured screens which stay for a second, then either change to the next colour or go black.

A4000_Mad wrote:
If you remove the OS4 CD and just boot from the OS4 boot floppy, do you see "Please insert volume AmigaOS4.0 install CD in any drive"??

Yes.

A4000_Mad wrote:
(It's rather fitting that my 1000th post should be for you mate ;-) :pint:)

Indeed it is - thanks!
:pint:

--
moto

[motorollin]

I think I might have made some progress. I copied the contents of the OS4 CD on to an FFS formatted hard disk, which I then connected directly to the A1200's IDE interface. I booted from the floppy and this is what happens:

1. Accesses the floppy disk for a while then reboots
2. Accesses the floppy disk for a while then accesses the hard drive for a while, then reboots
3. Screen turns red, then blue, then purple, then reboots
4. Lots of hard disk activity (seems to be booting) then 15KHz screen turns white. No input on the VGA monitor connected to the BVPPC

The amount of disk activity in stage 4 suggests to me that it's booting. I'm hoping that means the PPC works. But why the white screen on the 15KHz output? Is that normal once OS4 has finished booting? Is it possible that it has booted but the BVision either doesn't work, or the resolution is too high for the monitor?

Soooo, I suppose what I'm really asking here (long story short...) is this: is it normal for the 15KHz output to go to a blank screen when OS4 has finished booting if you have a BVision installed?

--
moto

[Framiga]

"Soooo, I suppose what I'm really asking here (long story short...) is this: is it normal for the 15KHz output to go to a blank screen when OS4 has finished booting if you have a BVision installed?"

yep

edit- as blank i mean white.

[motorollin]

Framiga wrote:
"Soooo, I suppose what I'm really asking here (long story short...) is this: is it normal for the 15KHz output to go to a blank screen when OS4 has finished booting if you have a BVision installed?"

yep

Ahh, brilliant! So it looks like the BPPC is working!
:banana: :pint:

Framiga wrote:
edit- as blank i mean white.

Oops, yes I meant to say white :-)

If I remove the BVision, will OS4 display on an AGA screenmode?

--
moto

[Framiga]

never tryed to actually use OS4 on AGA ... probably yes. (i did only all the installation under AGA for mistake)

Edit- just checked with Scout and ScreenMode  and although without having any PAL descriptor in Devs/Monitor, a lot of PAL modes are present

[motorollin]

So did the installer actually display under AGA? If so I'll whip out the BVision and try to boot OS4.

--
moto