How to stop Deneb splash screen

[Darrin]

Doh Mfilos types faster than me

[Michele31415]

So... If your system works just fine without anything... then install Poseidon, configure it and if it works, insert into Deneb's flash the correct device that works on your system, and the PsdStackLoader that resides on your Env-Archive folder. Don't forget that every change you make on the USB configuration needs a fresh PsdStackLoader!

OK, so I stuck in the "disable ROM" Deneb jumper and rebooted.  This time the system came up normally (and for once without the Deneb animation and the "Still Alive" requester) but also without my 8 gig USB stick device that's plugged into the internal Deneb connector showing up in WB.

So what are you suggesting - that now I should reflash the Deneb ROM again with nothing but poseidon.library and PsdStackloader in the list?  Does it matter what order they're in?   For that matter, is it even possible to set the order?  It seemed like when I was adding stuff last time they ended up in alphabetical order, although that's not the way they were originally.

All I really want is to be able to use USB devices on the Amiga.  I'm not too concerned about being able to do USB boots.

The problem now is that when I run Luciferin, it says "I'm sorry, I couldn't find a Deneb device",  So now what?

[Matt_H]

Do you remember old SCSI cards that had an autoboot jumper? Setting it to be disabled meant that you had to load drivers manually, in software. The ROM jumper on the Deneb works the same way. Fire up Trident, configure Poseidon, bring the stack online, and hit Save.

Now go into Luciferin. There's a menu option called quick setup that loads in the correct Poseidon modules. Try that.

I noticed earlier that you had both denebpiousb.device and denebz2.device in your modules list - that might be your problem. denebpiousb.device is only for A3000s or A4000s. Since you've got an A2000, make sure that only denebz2usb.device is configured in Poseidon/Trident and getting uploaded to the Flash.

Also, on the Bootloader tab in Luciferin, set the 3 options the following way: Re-install on every boot, left mouse button, status as colour. Now if something bad happens, just reboot while holding the left mouse button and the Flash will be disabled - just as if you'd used the ROM jumper. Extremely convenient feature!

[Michele31415]

Ah ha - thank you so much, Matt.  Obviously my assumptions about the way this card worked were incorrect.  Your explanation really helps. And I'll bet anything that you're right about the pio device too.  I have no idea how that got it there.  I'm pretty sure I just followed the installation instructions that came with the card.

It's getting late tonight but I'll give that a try first thing tomorrow :-)

[Michele31415]

" Fire up Trident, configure Poseidon, bring the stack online, and hit Save."

I hate to sound dense, but can you expand on that a bit?  I got the  "fire up Trident" part OK, but how do I bring the stack online?  In  Trident I see menus for controllers, devices and classes (oh my) but I  need some help in finding my way to Oz, as it were.  Thanks.

[Matt_H]

" Fire up Trident, configure Poseidon, bring the stack online, and hit Save."

I hate to sound dense, but can you expand on that a bit?  I got the  "fire up Trident" part OK, but how do I bring the stack online?  In  Trident I see menus for controllers, devices and classes (oh my) but I  need some help in finding my way to Oz, as it were.  Thanks.

There should be an "Online" button at the bottom of the window

[Michele31415]

OK, well scratch what I said last time.  The machine did boot, but the reason Trident said it couldn't find a Deneb board was because I hadn't reseated it fully in the card slot after setting the "No ROM" jumper.  I also realized that there were no green LED's on on the Deneb.

So I reseated the card fully and rebooted.  Now the machine won't boot at all.  The No Rom jumper is in place, the top two LED's on the Deneb are lit ("FPGA booted" and "Zorro II mode"), but absolutely nothing happens, no disk activity or anything.  It won't even boot from DF0.

I did the L-R mouse button boot and ran the Expansion Board Diagnostic.  This is what I got:

Board  Number  Manufacturer  Product   Status
        1                  514             81     Working
        2                  514              3      Working
        3                 4626             23     Working
        4                 3643             18     Working
        4                 3643             19     Working
        5                   513              1     Working

The Deneb is board no. 4, mfr. 3643.  According to the Deneb manual, this should show up as Products 18 and 20.  I'm seeing 18 and 19.  Is this (part of) the problem?

The current configuration, looking from the front is

Slot   Board
1      empty
2      A2088
3      Deneb
4      Xsurf
5      A2091
6      empty
CPU  A2630 with DKB2632

If I pull the Deneb out, it boots normally.  Any ideas?  I'm starting to wish I had just left the fool thing alone.  At least before I reflashed the ROM, it was working.

Update: After about a dozen reboot attempts, I got it to boot off the Emergency OS 3.9 floppy, with the jumper removed on the Deneb.  But now when I click on Trident, I get an error "Failed to load version 3 of Poseidon.library".  All I can do then is click "Cancel".  What's that all about?

Update 2: OK, I figured out how to assign the libs: so Trident was happy.  Now in Trident I click to the Controllers panel and see Unit = 0, Online = No, and Product = unknown until online.  So I click on the "Online" button at the bottom of the window and I get an error:

"Failure poseidon.library Opening DEVS:USBHardware unit 0 failed deviceInit failed to open(-1)".  

This message is repeated three times.  Now what?

Update 3: Just for laughs, I tried running Luciferin again.  This time I get a pop-up error
"Your Deneb card has the ROM-OFF jumper set and thus the Flashrom contents are currently "DEACTIVATED" until you remove the jumper.  This is only an information."

But I removed the jumper one or two reboots ago!  This is shall we say, slightly mystifying.

[mfilos]

Have you tried inserting Deneb in another zorro slot (for example the first empty one you got)?
Also, what version of Poseidon are you installing? Version 3 of Poseidon in your message is old stuff. You should get the newer version from Chris Hodges website here: http://www.platon42.de/index2.html

[Michele31415]

"Have you tried inserting Deneb in another zorro slot (for example the first empty one you got)?"

No I haven't.  I only have one empty one all the way to the right, but I can't use it because the 2632 blocks it.  I could try pulling the 2088 and moving the Deneb one slot to the left.

"Also, what version of Poseidon are you installing?"

Yup - 3.0.  That's what came with the Deneb.  Thanks for the link.  I grabbed the latest Poseidon and Trident and will install them tonight.

[Michele31415]

Um, I have a stupid question - if the only way I can get the machine to  boot is by inserting the Deneb "no rom" jumper, but Luciferin refuses to  rewrite the rom when that jumper is in place, then how the heck can I ever change the contents of the rom?

[Matt_H]

Get Poseidon 4.4 installed first and report back.

Did you try the "hold left mouse button to disable Flash" trick I mentioned earlier? The board ships with the settings I described, so unless a previous owner changed them, you should be able to disable the Flash in software.

Your Deneb may need a firmware update as well, but let's not introduce that variable just yet.

[weirdami]

This is a strange default feature. Does everyone who doesn't want to be annoyed all the time have to go through this whole Luciferin mess?

[mfilos]

This is no mess at all. Luciferin is easy stuff, it just needs a bit of attention.

Btw I dont' recall Deneb coming with Poseidon 3.x
I got one of the first Denebs in first run and it came with Poseidon 4.0 burned into it's unwritable flash memory so you could install it easily with it! No floppy disks required to get it up and running!
When you get Deneb the jumper is set to RES position in which the Unwritable flash is enabled so you can install Poseidon. After you install you power off Amiga, and put the jumper in SPR position.
It's all written in the manual.

[Michele31415]

"Luciferin is easy stuff, it just needs a bit of attention."

Sure - it's easy once you know how it works.

"Btw I dont' recall Deneb coming with Poseidon 3.x"

Well mine did.  I bought it brand new from Amikit on 8/6/08 and followed the installation directions exactly.  I never downloaded any Deneb software from anywhere else, so that's the only place 3.0 could have been.

[Michele31415]

Get Poseidon 4.4 installed first and report back.

Did you try the "hold left mouse button to disable Flash" trick I mentioned earlier? The board ships with the settings I described, so unless a previous owner changed them, you should be able to disable the Flash in software

Poseidon 4.4 downloaded and installed without problems.  I also installed the new version of Luciferin - again it installed OK.

Thanks for reminding me about the left-button boot.  I just missed that somehow.  I tried that and hey presto, it booted normally from the hard drive with the Deneb installed with no jumpers on it.

So I fired up Trident and clicked on "Controllers".  This time I saw this:

             USB Hardware Contollers available

Name              Unit  Online      Product

denebz2usb.device   0     Yes   Deneb EHCI USB Host Controller
denebpiousb.device  0      No   unknown until online

So that's different!  Last time, this pane was empty.  So we're clearly making some major progress.  Can you tell me exactly what I need to do now to get the pio device (which is apprently screwing things up) out of the ROM?  I'm so paranoid about this now I don't want to screw it up.  Thanks.

[mfilos]

Just select the denebpiousb.device and click delete to remove it permanently.
Just leave the denebz2usb.device and hit online. If it turns up Green then you're ok and you only need to press SAVE and reboot