AmiKit Real, X-Surf & 4GB+ disks

[arnljot]

I am using AmiKit on a real Amiga.

I see that AmiKit S:Startup-Sequence tests for the existence of XSurfIDE in SYS:Expansions.

If it's present it'll skip loading of the updated scsi.device in the ROM update in bb2 of OS3.9

Will XSurfIDE patch scsi.device so that NSD patch is applied so that SFS works with SmartFileSystem?

[AmiKit]

As far as I remember the line you describe is part of default OS3.9 startup-sequence. It's not AmiKit specific.

[arnljot]

Okay.

Good. Then I need to find out if Jens' X-Surf IDE for the expansion drawer will patch the internal scsi.device under OS3.9 bb2 to allow 4+ GB disks

edit:

Q:    Regarding 4GB problems, some drivers are either not being taken care of, or the solution is overkill. Is there a workaround until a fix is released in Boing Bag 1? (Controllers affected: Buddha, Catweazel IDE, FastATA, GVP SCSI, X-Surf IDE, IDEfix Express). [fixed in BB1]
A:    

Disable the following two lines in "DEVS:NSDPatch.cfg" by placing a "#" at the beginning of the line:

DEVICE scsi.device DEVICETYPE NSDEVTYPE_TRACKDISK COMMANDS 1-15,20-23,28,!22 FIXSCSIUPDATE

DEVICE 2nd.scsi.device DEVICETYPE NSDEVTYPE_TRACKDISK COMMANDS 1-15,20-23,28,!22 FIXSCSIUPDATE

The other "scsi.device" lines should be safe as they are only triggered by a certain version of "scsi.device".

[Martin Steigerwald]

http://www.gregdonner.org/os39faq/installtips.html#13

Seems that it's all good? :-/

[Thomas]

Will XSurfIDE patch scsi.device so that NSD patch is applied so that SFS works with SmartFileSystem?

No, it won't. XSurfIDE is a driver for the XSurf IDE port. It allows to use >4GB drives on the XSurf, but nothing else. It does nothing to the Amiga's internal IDE port.

Regarding scsi.device, if you don't have any devices on the internal IDE bus, the XSurf driver will be named scsi.device. If there is already another scsi.device in the system (Amiga's IDE), the XSurf driver will be called 2nd.scsi.device and if there is already another 2nd.scsi.device (Amiga's SCSI), the XSurf will be named 3rd.scsi.device.

Bye,
Thomas

[arnljot]

But it seems like XSurf IDE won't load if the new scsi.device is loaded from ROM Updates.

This means that I'll have to use my 8GB card off the X-Surf IDE, and just use 4GB devices on the internal IDE port, right?

[Thomas]

You should use startup-sequence V45.1 and not 45.4

[Framiga]

the X-Surf IDE is damn slow anyway ... except you really need it, is a pain

[arnljot]

You should use startup-sequence V45.1 and not 45.4

Not sure what that means?

Btw, my startup-sequence is identical with AmiKit startup, but for the Binddrivers and showpicture96 commands (one commented in, the other out).

[Thomas]

Not sure what that means?

Code: [Select]


; $VER: Startup-Sequence_HardDrive [u]45.1[/u] (25.11.00)
; Startup-Sequence for hard drive systems

If Exists C:IDEFix
  C:IDEFix
EndIf

C:SetPatch QUIET

C:Version >NIL:
C:AddBuffers >NIL: DF0: 15
FailAt 21


Code: [Select]


; $VER: Startup-Sequence [u]45.4[/u] (4.4.2001)
; Startup-Sequence for AmigaOS 3.9

; The following lines disable updating "scsi.device" for driver
; software where this could lead to failures. They also start
; IDEFix if installed.
;
; You can manually disable updating "scsi.device" by setting
; the environment variable "NOSCSIUPDATE" to something.

If EXISTS C:SquirrelSCSI
    C:SquirrelSCSI
EndIf

Set SCSIUpdate 1
If EXISTS C:IDEFix
    C:IDEFix
    Set SCSIUpdate 0
EndIf
If EXISTS SYS:Expansion/XSurfIDE
    Set SCSIUpdate 0
EndIf
If EXISTS SYS:Prefs/Env-Archive/NOSCSIUPDATE
    Set SCSIUpdate 0
EndIf
If $SCSIUpdate EQ 1
    SetPatch QUIET
Else
    SetPatch SKIPROMUPDATES "scsi.device" QUIET
EndIf
Unset SCSIUpdate

C:Version >NIL:
C:AddBuffers >NIL: DF0: 15
FailAt 21


[arnljot]

Aha.

I see. My S:Startup-Sequence is like the one 45.4

What have the coders thought wrong when they deviced 45.4 and changed it from the way it was in 45.1

Should the new scsi.device always be loaded, despite the presence of IdeFix and X-Surf?

[Thomas]

IDEfix installs a new version of scsi.device. Its version number is in the range of 116+, so it is much higher than Commodore's, even if the ROM update installs version 45. Nevertheless some older versions of IDEfix do not run correctly if the ROM update is active.

I don't know what the developers thought when creating this update. But I think they knew that it does not work because it is not activated. If you install Boingbag 1 over a clean OS 3.9 installation, the startup-sequence V45.1 remains active. You get a second file called startup-sequence-3.9BB1, but it is not used unless you rename it.

If you want to use larger harddrives and CD drives on the internal IDE bus without IDEfix software, you need the ROM update. If you want to use the IDE port on the X-Surf you need the XSurfIDE driver. If you want to use both ports, you need both drivers.