ASIM-CDFS help please!

[save2600]

Okay.... I just have to get this off my chest... this software SUCKS! Always has and always will (for me anyway).

Plain vanilla OS3.1 installation on an A500 equipped with a 3.1 Kickstart ROM and MrMRKL's 68kIDE CF adapter board.

BEFORE installing ASIM_CDFS, system booted off the CF card and worked just "fine". Except that I have a 3 way IDE cable (normal IBM fare) hooked to it also, foolishly thinking I could add an external CD Drive and it would just work. Of course it does not.

I cannot install IDEFIX from Aminet because it says it can't find 'Installer'.

Grab a copy of Installer off my OS3.9 equipped A2500 and place it in 'C' on this A500.

NOW, when trying to install IDEFix, the computer crashes.

WTF?!?

So, after that... I go ahead and proceed to use ASIM_CDFS's SCSI Find utility to see my CD  ROM. Nope - not there. Device on this 68kIDE thing is supposed to be scsi.device.

So I go ahead and install the ASIM_CDFS (version 3.7) and now I get a requester that asks for ASIM_CDFS Buffer and the damn thing won't let me boot OS3.1 anymore!! I even commented out all the worthless garb it installed in my User-Startup to no avail. Even deleted some of its disease from C, L and Libs - to no avail. Looked in WBSTartup to see WTF is causing the machine to look for some stupid buffer that doesn't exist.

WTF is going on here?

Okay... found some more of the disease that is ASIM_CDFS in the form of atapi crap in Devs:. Deleted them and now the system boots. Yay! Back to square one. Is there a magical "Installer" that needs to be 'installed' on my frickin' OS3.1 partition or what?!?  44.1 isn't good enough? Is it time for an Amiga Indian Rain Dance yet? lol

[save2600]

Golly... we're making great strides here... figured out you need version 43_3 of Installer in order to get Aminet's version of IDEFix97 to get past the double-clicking stage of trying to install said program.

NOW... the machine freezes at the registration prompt. This thing needs to be bought and paid for?!? Seriously? So every single A1200 or A4000 user has to go through this rigamaroll before they can hook more than one scsi.device (really, IDE) up??

[tone007]

I had a similar issue trying IDEFix with my A500 using the CFIDE68k and a real SCSI CD-ROM (via SupraDrive.)  Eventually it all worked, can't recall anything particular I did to make it, though.  Installed OS3.9 from CD-ROM to CF card once it all worked.

[save2600]

It looks like it might work (still a major gamble) if I had the 9-digit passcode or whatever. How in the hell do you register this thing? Went to elaborate bytes website and saw all sorts of irrelevant to Amiga garbage there.

No way I can install OS3.9 on an A500 with 1mb Chip Ram and a 68000...  lol

I'm really, really seriously and completely pissed right now. lol  WHY on Earth would Aminet be harboring this download and others on this board and God knows where else have been advocating this blessed IDEFix for decades and NOT telling anyone that it really doesn't work?!? OR that it needs a passcode...   lol

Those WHOLE point to IDE devices is that they were supposed to be easier to use than SCSI. IE: no need for Termination!

[tone007]

Sounds like I oughta list my VXL-32 accelerator in the old marketplace here!

[save2600]

LOL! Oh... okay... should be used to this by now. The Installer really doesn't tell you everything you need to know. IF you select 'Cancel' at the Registration process, it'll exclaim that it's going to install a "demo version"... whatever the frick that means. lol

Upon reset - I still can't get this IDE/Atapi CD Drive to be recognized. Computer freezes up when I select atapi.device from the scsi seek program. And yes, 68kIDE is set to master and the external CD ROM is set to slave.

[save2600]

Sounds like I oughta list my VXL-32 accelerator in the old marketplace here!

Ummm.... yeah! That'll fit into an A1000, wouldn't it? I'm always in the hunt for A1000 stuffs.

[tone007]

Dunno, never tried.  I don't think the 1000 is listed in the product description, though.

edit: ah, VXL*30, not 32. http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/vxl30

It's kinda large.

[save2600]

Dunno, never tried.  I don't think the 1000 is listed in the product description, though.

edit: ah, VXL*30, not 32. http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/vxl30

It's kinda large.

Hmm... I might be able to fit that fat pig in a 1000...  lol  If you're not looking for an arm and a leg for it, PM me!  Or trade for something... especially if it comes with the SCSI unit (that definitely won't fit in a 1000, but I might be able to hack something). Those Daughterboards are not totally necessary in our NTSC 1000's...    Come to think of it, might be selling my Blizzard 2060 and could put that VXL biotch in there instead.

I still need some professional help Re: the IDE CD-Rom A500 project though... anyone?!?

[save2600]

Well unless someone has some real good ideas here (Thomas?!?), I'm considering multi-IDE devices off this 68kIDE device a moot point. Tried everything I could. And yeah... that ASIM_CDFS software is the absolute worst POS I've EVER loaded onto an Amiga system. Totally goofy and system manipulating. I bet the bums that wrote that garbage are now working for Micro$oft    That's how terribly it screws with your system.

[Matt_H]

AsimCDFS is a great package, but there's a bit of a learning curve. I'm guessing you don't have a manual with your copy of Asim. It explains quite a lot. Remember that Commodore's IDE scsi.device doesn't support ATAPI devices like CD drives - that's why IDEFix comes with atapi.device. Asimware's equivalent is called asim_atapi.device, but it might not present itself as such during installation. Pretend that you're installing on an A1200/A4000, since that's what your scsi.device is essentially equivalent to.

Installer v44 chokes on a plain 68000, as you've discovered.

I bet the [expletive] that wrote that garbage are now working for Micro$oft    That's how terribly it screws with your system.

Iomega, actually.

[save2600]

Thanks Matt... I was getting a little 'hot and heated' about this last night because I just sold the system to someone that I promised would have some kind of removable mass storage solution to add to the 4GB CF HD when he wants. I can't get the IDE cable to play nice with both a CD ROM unit or an IDE<>CF card adapter. IDEFix has been installed and when atapi.device (I think that's the one) gets called upon in the SCSI Search utility, the IDEFix requester pops up (because it's the non-registered version) and the computer either freezes or ignores the fact there's a CD hooked to it.

In the past, I have used the SCSI search function from my ASIM_CDFS disk (original, not a copy btw and I have two versions: 3 and 3.7) to figure out what ID a device is and then I'd modify OS 3.1 or 3.9's CD Icon to match that data. Has worked in a dozen different installations, but this one I'm stumped.

Simply modifying CD0 is not working with this config and the ASIM software only makes things worse.

Neither IDEFix's SCSI Search or ASIM_CDFS Searches will recognize *any* drive I hook to the 68KCFIDE card. So it makes sense that the software wouldn't work if nothing knows it's there.

And you're right - no manual over here.

[delshay]

i have asimware CDFS the last version i think its 3.9 or 3.10 it works perfect under OS3.9. it also works under OS4.0 along with MASTERISO.

[save2600]

After re-installing ASIM_CDFS and changing the name of device back to scsi.device, the machine now boots without error and slaps a CD0:NDOS Icon up (whether there's a disk in the drive or not). Also, when I go into the ASIM Prefs, the software "pretends" to know that a CD Drive has been hooked to it, but it still wants to call it Sandisk (that's what my CF card is) and doesn't throw me any other info that might be helpful as to what unit number it is supposed to be. Again, none of the SCSI Search software tells me anything of relevance. So, I guess I'll just keep changing the unit number until I strike bonanza. Only way I know how to do this though (I believe) is to reinstall this software each and every time  

[tom16mm]

I have a very similar issue.

A1200 (OS 3.1, 030 accelerator) with a CF card adaptor (master) and ATAPI CD drive (slave). System boots off the card just fine, but the CD drive is not recognized by any of the devices bundled with IDEFix. Tried different drives, with no difference. The CF card appears as device ID 0.

Attaching the CF/IDE adaptor and card to one of my A4000T's causes it to hang on bootup. Could the CD drive be conflicting with the card/adaptor in some way?