Can OS3.9 patches run fully on an A4000D?

[Vanilla]

Hello all.

I have been with the help of a friend been putting together a nice A4000D with a WarpEngine and 68040 @ 40Mhz. I now have 128MB of 60ns RAM on my WarpEngine as well. So I have disabled the wait state and it all seems stable. Plus a nice PicassoIV to boot! :-)

I have a 9GB SCSI HD on the WarpEngine's SCSI bus, but put a CDRW on the A4000 IDE bus. My plan was to use the OS3.9 scsi.device with the CDRW to avoid any IDE fix software, a plan that worked well on my A1200D. But so far the A4000 refuses to budge and OS3.9 won't let me do this!

My friend told I need both Boing bags installed for a fully working system. So this is what I tried to do. But, I found I always have to disable the ROM patch, as the machine cannot boot afterwards. :-?

I've got the WarpEngine 68040.library in there and both BoingBags installed. I made sure the OS3.9 patch files are in there and activated in start up. But to no go.

It always ends up the same. The patch installs, reboot ands the machine just sits there with the floppy drive clicking. As if it if started booting and then lost the drive. The HD light flashes briefly before this happens. I can put in a floppy but it just reads it and stops.

Now it looks like the early startup screen is still "there" as when I hold down the mouse buttons after a reset the LED flickers. Like it does when it comes up. But there is only a blank display. Nothing on my PicassoIV VGA out nor the RGB. And without key shortcuts I can do nothing.

I tried to set echo on in the start up script but that was useless as it never gets to execute  it after the first SetPatch installs and reboots! I'm really lost here. I've spend months trying to figure this out but it seems no one is around who has ever fully installed OS3.9BB1+2 on an A4000 with a WarpEngine! :-?

[Thomas]

You could try to split the ROM update and load each module seperately, so you can find out the culprit. A nice program to split the ROM update is contained in the BlizKick package. To load seperate modules, you need LoadModule from Aminet.

[Vanilla]

Good idea, thanks. I was trying to eliminate things using the SetPatch options but nothing changed.

I also saw an FAQ on Greg Donner's site about OS3.9 and it loosk like not all updated files such as SetPatch and possibly FFS are installed. I'll check my versions. But BB2 should have at least brought my system in line and with the OS3.9 SE edition I read about.

[matthey]

@Vanilla

You might as well use the unofficially updated modules if you are using load module...

http://amikit.amiga.sk/patches.htm

I have heard of others having problems getting the BB2 exec.library to work on a 68040. The old exec.library will be used after a reboot instead of the new one. The LoadModule method, as Thomas suggests, may work better. The problem may have something to do with the 68040.library also. You could try another 68040 library like this...

http://aminet.net/util/libs/MMULib.lha

and updates including a reboot persistant and memory protecting loadmodule here...

http://evogt.free.fr/amigasoft.html

Too bad there is no MAPROM option for the WarpEngine or you could build your own ROM/Kickstart with all the updates and BlizKick it. You could buy and try flashing a Deneb or KickFlash with the latest ROM/Kickstart.

[HammerD]

I would recommend a Deneb.  You can put all the patches, poseidon USB and more in the flash...so no setpatch reboot...all the updated stuff is available on power-up...smartfilesystem, too...works very well and supports os 3.x / morphos / and os4.

There are some limitations on OS4 but it's still way more than worth it.  I have two of them and it is one of the best purchases I made.

[davideo]

@Vanilla

I've got a similair set up to you.

There are two major differences though.

I boot from my IDE drive with an external SCSI CD drive on the Warp.

OS3.9 +BB1&2 were installed before my Warp.

The system booted ok before and after the Warp was fitted.

So your setup should work without fault!!

Dave G ;-)

[Vanilla]

@matthey

Thanks for the hints and links. :-)  I was afraid of using another 68040.library as I thought the WarpEngine needed it's own one.

IIRC I loaded in the BB1 patch and this just crashed my machine. So was glad BB2 wasn't as severe on my machine. The new FFS, would you recommend instaling it to the RDB as well as L: ?

I tried installing an updated OS3.9 FFS into the RDB one time and it just crashed right away. Perhaps because OS3.1 is there from boot.

[Vanilla]

@HammerD

I guess I would like too but the transfer rate of the USB flash drives would be an insult to my AmigaOne! :-o

[amigadave]

I would recommend a Deneb.  You can put all the patches, poseidon USB and more in the flash...so no setpatch reboot...all the updated stuff is available on power-up...smartfilesystem, too...works very well and supports os 3.x / morphos / and os4.

There are some limitations on OS4 but it's still way more than worth it.  I have two of them and it is one of the best purchases I made.

I haven't installed my Deneb yet, care to share the file you loaded into your Deneb that gets rid of the reboot/double boot and has all the good stuff already installed as soon as my A4000 is booted?

[Vanilla]

I boot from my IDE drive with an external SCSI CD drive on the Warp.

The oppositte of mine!

So your setup should work without fault!!

:-o

Should! Perhaps the SCSI booting is stuffing it up. Actually IIRC I have a wide SCSI HD. My friend done that for me and it needed an adaptor, and I could get a HD light line off it. Perhaps that could be interfering? Check my SCSI config?

[HammerD]

@amigadave

for OS4 you can't really do it, OS4 would require a new loader to load the kernel modules resident into the Deneb flash.  

For OS 3.x you should add smartfilesystem (if you use it) poseidon usb, and any blizkick modules you want, and the OS 3.9BB2 rom-updates.   You may also want to add the newer patches that AmiKit uses.

[davideo]

Perhaps the SCSI booting is stuffing it up. Actually IIRC I have a wide SCSI HD. My friend done that for me and it needed an adaptor, and I could get a HD light line off it. Perhaps that could be interfering? Check my SCSI config?

It might be worthwhile checking your SCSI termination but if it booted prior to installing 3.9+BB1&BB2 then it shouldn't be the termination causing a problem.

Have you tried an IDE hard drive?

Dave G

[matthey]

@matthey
Thanks for the hints and links. :-)  I was afraid of using another 68040.library as I thought the WarpEngine needed it's own one.

I have no experience with the Warp Engine but most accelerators can use other CPU libraries. There are exceptions though. I use the Mu/Thor/mmu.library cpu libraries with my Phase5 accelerator. Read the docs well though.

IIRC I loaded in the BB1 patch and this just crashed my machine. So was glad BB2 wasn't as severe on my machine. The new FFS, would you recommend instaling it to the RDB as well as L: ? I tried installing an updated OS3.9 FFS into the RDB one time and it just crashed right away. Perhaps because OS3.1 is there from boot.

I replaced the latest FFS in my RDB and L: without problems. I use the smartfilesystem now with my CSMK3 ultraSCSI. I don't know what to tell you about putting the latest FFS in the RDB after having problems except back everything up if you are going to try it.

[Jose]

I got a WarpEngine with BB2 installed by I skip the exec library update which is slower and reported as buggy sometimes or certain situations. I've planned to give it a try on Piru's excellent exec.library replacement but till today I never bothered...

Anway, as someone said above if it was botting and the hardware config is the same it should be software. But from my experience with the A4000D a lot of stuff can have bad contacts. Sometimes I just have to push the CPU card a bit further after I moved the machine around, to make it work again.
The termination on the WarpEngine is also a pain. Have you changed any external device ? My chain is terminated by the external CDRom, I have to keep it on otherwise it won't boot. I tried once to get an external terminator (can't remember which) and it didn't work at all! And this was a terminator fot SCSI2.

[matthey]

I got a WarpEngine with BB2 installed by I skip the exec library update which is slower and reported as buggy sometimes or certain situations. I've planned to give it a try on Piru's excellent exec.library replacement but till today I never bothered...

The AmigaOS 3.9 BB2 exec.library is faster in general than earlier. Memory pools and CopyMem()/CopyMemQuick() are faster for example. Several bugs have been fixed and it seems very stable here. The only thing slow and buggy about it that I know of is the BoingBag update/double reboot process.