Workabout for PCMCIA unfriendly accelerators

[Xanxi]

Is there any info available about the improvements (if any) in the carddisk.device from 3.0 to 3.1?

[desiv]

is a kickstart 3.1 bug

From what I understand it isn't a bug per se..
There can be conflicts because of overlapping memory space.
So I believe Commodore disabled the PCMCIA for that possible situation..
That said, there "can" be conflicts, doesn't mean there will be.
It probably depends quite a bit on which type of PCMCIA card you are running..

I can imagine a PCMCIA memory card might be very likely to conflict...

But I've heard from several people with PCMCIA network cards and 3.0 and have reported no problems...

Now, that might depend on the PCMCIA driver and what you're doing also....

desiv

[ncafferkey]

Is there any info available about the improvements (if any) in the carddisk.device from 3.0 to 3.1?

CF cards don't use carddisk.device, so I'd say any difference in PCMCIA behaviour is down to differences in card.resource.

[freqmax]

Write your own driver?

[LaserBack]

Just checking 3.0 ROM via RomSplit it has:
- card.resource --> version 37.11
- carddisk.device --> version 37.11

while 3.1 ROM has:
- card.resource --> version 40.1
- carddisk.device --> version 40.1

You can make too easily an custom Kickstart 3.1 with these, but you need to write to an EPROM and test it out just to be sure
Don't forget that to be able to burn A1200's EPROMS you need to Split the ROM and ByteSwap it.

To make all these with Remus is really easy:

Open a CLI and cd  to Remus/Tools
SplitROMImage SWAP
So the example: SplitROMIMage customkick31.rom SWAP
...will create 2 files:

• customkick31.rom.hi (256kb)
  
• customkick31.rom.lo (256kb)
  

... that now you can burn with your EPROM burner

Good luck

yep eprom burner is a solution to test this but I haven't one of those
anyways
I done a custom kickstart 3.1 with remus + carddisk.device and cad.resource from 3.0
and worked fine on winuae...however on my A1200 it doesn't boot....skick says needs rtb filles or something like that (I don't remember very well)
skick works only with original kickstarts + supplied rtb files

I was thinking now and...
maybe using loadmodule to load resident oldest card.resource and carddisk.device
I will test that later....I know that a simple patch must be possible

[LaserBack]

More SKick tests

OS3.9 can run direct 3.0 with some limitations

http://eab.abime.net/picture.php?albumid=92&pictureid=839

which limitations? I am content with something that can show OS3.9 icons
plz post the full link with info

[mfilos]

I done a custom kickstart 3.1 with remus + carddisk.device and cad.resource from 3.0
and worked fine on winuae...however on my A1200 it doesn't boot....skick says needs rtb filles or something like that (I don't remember very well)
skick works only with original kickstarts + supplied rtb files

I was thinking now and...
maybe using loadmodule to load resident oldest card.resource and carddisk.device
I will test that later....I know that a simple patch must be possible

RTB files only work for specific Kickstart files so it's logical not to work with the custom Kickstart you made.

Using LoadModule won't work cause the newer versions of card.resource and carddisk.device are already being loaded from the original 3.1 Kickstart so it will give you an error that they're already loaded and can't load the ones you trying.

Only solution is burning them to Eprom mate.
Either find a guy near you that can burn this image to an Eprom or order 2xEproms from eBay and tell the guy to burn the files that you'll send him to the Eproms for ya

[BooBoo1200]

which limitations? I am content with something that can show OS3.9 icons
plz post the full link with info

You need a tool called SetVersion from the squirrel CD32 emulator.

[LaserBack]

You need a tool called SetVersion from the squirrel CD32 emulator.

that's cool
I will check that later and post results

[LaserBack]

You need a tool called SetVersion from the squirrel CD32 emulator.

you are great man !!!
I inserted this lines after setpatch and OS3.9 works with Kickstart 3.0

************************
setpatch quiet

SetVersion expansion.library 40
SetVersion exec.library 40
SetVersion utility.library 40
SetVersion graphics.library 40
SetVersion layers.library 40
SetVersion keymap.library 40
SetVersion intuition.library 40
SetVersion dos.library 40


***********
ok
the icon system works wonderful and is lot faster using the new icon.library done in assembler,the refresh on workbench is lot faster !
and PCMCIA of course works great using 8mb

but there is a problem with gadtools.library
the preferences do not works and all programs that uses gadtools also don't works
the problem is that setversion do not works with gadtools.library...it says object not found
maybe someone can help with this?
anyways I will found a patch for this


btw, as you can see testing this hack ..
ppl behind OS3.5 and OS 3.9 set the requirements of kickstart 3.1 in a dishonest way
they set kickstart 3.1 requirements on purpose to sell rom kits and to sell all the remained stock of A1200 + kick 3.1 done by Escom
sincerely I despise them now

[psxphill]

btw, as you can see testing this hack ..
ppl behind OS3.5 and OS 3.9 set the requirements of kickstart 3.1 in a dishonest way
they set kickstart 3.1 requirements on purpose to sell rom kits and to sell all the remained stock of A1200 + kick 3.1 done by Escom
sincerely I despise them now

I doubt they cared about setting 3.1 roms or a1200's, they wouldn't have received any money from that. However they would have had to double the amount of testing they did.
 
3.1 is necessary, quite why they blocked PCMCIA the way they did is a mystery. It should have been possible to only reject cards that couldn't be mapped (which IIRC should only have been ram cards).

[BooBoo1200]

PCMCIA works without having to set the jumper to 4MB

When it works I assume PCMCIA SRAM might still cause a problem

Using LoadModule won't work cause the newer versions of card.resource and carddisk.device are already being loaded from the original 3.1 Kickstart so it will give you an error that they're already loaded and can't load the ones you trying.

Are there no other tools that could load older modules?

you are great man !!!
I inserted this lines after setpatch and OS3.9 works with Kickstart 3.0

Its Alive! - and they said it could never happen

I doubt they cared about setting 3.1 roms or a1200's, they wouldn't have received any money from that.

I think Amiga Inc would but anyways who cares
Im just glad Laser it works for you  for me OS3.9 in 16 colour is faster than 3.0 with lots of Patches and I like the Doc bar,Unarc..........

What gadtools progs are not working this might be one the limitation I mentioned
maybe loading a single module could fix this

[Daedalus]

I doubt they cared about setting 3.1 roms or a1200's, they wouldn't have received any money from that. However they would have had to double the amount of testing they did.
 
3.1 is necessary, quite why they blocked PCMCIA the way they did is a mystery. It should have been possible to only reject cards that couldn't be mapped (which IIRC should only have been ram cards).

Also, it set the minimum hardware requirements for 3.5 and 3.9, meaning that you could be sure that an Amiga with 3.5 or 3.9 had 3.1 ROMs. It shouldn't make a difference really if they're softkicked, but it was a decent way of making sure everyone was as up-to-date as possible. Hardly dishonest! Can you be 100% sure though that everything works as expected? For example, 3.1 will boot to Workbench with 3.0 ROMs but some programs will crash that don't if it's 3.0 / 3.0 or 3.1 / 3.1...

I wonder also if there were weird side-effects caused by some accelerators which mightn't be immediately obvious, and which caused issues with PCMCIA in rare cases? Or, maybe it was feared that some PCMCIA driver software would assume the PCMCIA addresses were free for it to use, which would be a dangerous situation if it was actually system RAM...

[LaserBack]

I doubt they cared about setting 3.1 roms or a1200's, they wouldn't have received any money from that. However they would have had to double the amount of testing they did.
 
3.1 is necessary, quite why they blocked PCMCIA the way they did is a mystery. It should have been possible to only reject cards that couldn't be mapped (which IIRC should only have been ram cards).

for me it was really dishonest because kickstart 3.1 haven't new features...supposed to fix old bugs but instead add new bugs like PCMCIA and trackdisk.device v40.1....some game not works on kickstart 3.1....they touched something regarding to ready signal

also OS3.9 crash in a misery way if libraries from kickstart 3.0 are found...that's is really dishonest........there is no popus or signs....it crash
That is dishonest code that make the workbench crash on purpose only if the libraries in rom reports 37.x or 39.x
and I will find where is that dishonest code...at the moment I suspect is in workbench.library

[LaserBack]

Its Alive! - and they said it could never happen


I think Amiga Inc would but anyways who cares
Im just glad Laser it works for you  for me OS3.9 in 16 colour is faster than 3.0 with lots of Patches and I like the Doc bar,Unarc..........

What gadtools progs are not working this might be one the limitation I mentioned
maybe loading a single module could fix this

yes it's alive and working and I found a patch for the gadtools !!!
OS3.9 working now 100% on kickstart 3.0 ...no limitations and no bugs found yet

you have to extract gadtools.library v40 using ROMSPLIT (rename it to gadtools and copy it to C dir) and add a line before setpatch

loadmodule gadtools quiet     => gadtools working in the 2nd boot
or
loadmodule gadtools quiet reboot  

*******
also I tested using the coommand loadresident from remapollo package..works perfect too
btw,
we can celebrate it starting a new thread with the new info....what do you think?