File system to support 8 Gb Flash card?

[acadiel]

There are 3 issues with drives larger than 4GB. The first is scsi.device, the second is the hard drive prep utility (HDToolbox), and the third is FastFileSystem.

OS3.9 fixes all of these. If you can use 3.9's HDToolbox (which may require you making and then booting from a 3.9 Emergency Floppy), then you can prep the drive and install a filesystem that will allow you to use all 8GB. Your boot partition must be within the first 4GB of the drive, since the 3.1 ROMs need to be able to identify and boot from it in order to load the updated 3.9 modules.

If you're staying on 3.1 it gets a little harder. You need to patch scsi.device and FastFileSystem, and you need a different prep utility - I use HDInstTools in these cases.

Easiest solution? Use a 4GB Flash card instead - no patching required. It'll still be a huge upgrade from your 500MB drive.

I can related to this... I just used two Transcend 133X 8GB cards in a dual-CF Syba (from Amazon) case.

I have a 512MB DH0: partition on one (bootable), 3.9 fully installed with Boingbag 1, 2, & 3, and a ~7.2GB partition left as DH2: (DH1 was my DLG BBS back in day, so DH2 is habit for me.)  The third CF partition, DH3: is 7.7GB, and it's another Transcend card.

Both use FFS.  I can verify that if you do early startup, the system can only see DH0.  I'm just now getting back into the Amiga scene after not having regularly used one since around 1997 (I used my A1200 in college from 1993-1997), so I still have yet to dig through the startup-sequence and the user-startup.  Boing Bag 3 did have me run some fancy setpatch arguments.  I did my install under UAE, so I don't even know if it did the right stanza for my A1200.

From the installer for BB 3:

(if (= (exists "DEVS:scsi.device" (noreq)) 0)
         (working
          (cat "You should add these lines to the start of S:Startup-sequence:\n\n"
               "SYS:C/LoadModule L:FastFileSystem L:RAM-Handler L:Shell-Seg LIBS:icon.library LIBS:workbench.library NOREBOOT REVERSE\n\n"
               "SYS:C/SetPatch SKIPROMMODULES fs,icon,ram-handler,shell,workbench QUIET\n\n"
               "and remove the existing SetPatch line."
         ))
         ;else
         (working
          (cat "You should add these lines to the start of S:Startup-sequence:\n\n"
               "SYS:C/LoadModule L:FastFileSystem L:RAM-Handler L:Shell-Seg DEVS:scsi.device LIBS:icon.library LIBS:workbench.library NOREBOOT REVERSE\n\n"
               "SYS:C/SetPatch SKIPROMMODULES fs,icon,ram-handler,scsi.device,shell,workbench QUIET\n\n"
               "and remove the existing SetPatch line."
        )))

So, does anyone know what exactly *enables* the larger file systems in the 3.9 startup-sequence so that the system sees them?  Is it one of the setpatch commands, above?

[nicholas]

I can related to this... I just used two Transcend 133X 8GB cards in a dual-CF Syba (from Amazon) case.

I have a 512MB DH0: partition on one (bootable), 3.9 fully installed with Boingbag 1, 2, & 3, and a ~7.2GB partition left as DH2: (DH1 was my DLG BBS back in day, so DH2 is habit for me.)  The third CF partition, DH3: is 7.7GB, and it's another Transcend card.

Both use FFS.  I can verify that if you do early startup, the system can only see DH0.  I'm just now getting back into the Amiga scene after not having regularly used one since around 1997 (I used my A1200 in college from 1993-1997), so I still have yet to dig through the startup-sequence and the user-startup.  Boing Bag 3 did have me run some fancy setpatch arguments.  I did my install under UAE, so I don't even know if it did the right stanza for my A1200.

From the installer for BB 3:

(if (= (exists "DEVS:scsi.device" (noreq)) 0)
         (working
          (cat "You should add these lines to the start of S:Startup-sequence:\n\n"
               "SYS:C/LoadModule L:FastFileSystem L:RAM-Handler L:Shell-Seg LIBS:icon.library LIBS:workbench.library NOREBOOT REVERSE\n\n"
               "SYS:C/SetPatch SKIPROMMODULES fs,icon,ram-handler,shell,workbench QUIET\n\n"
               "and remove the existing SetPatch line."
         ))
         ;else
         (working
          (cat "You should add these lines to the start of S:Startup-sequence:\n\n"
               "SYS:C/LoadModule L:FastFileSystem L:RAM-Handler L:Shell-Seg DEVS:scsi.device LIBS:icon.library LIBS:workbench.library NOREBOOT REVERSE\n\n"
               "SYS:C/SetPatch SKIPROMMODULES fs,icon,ram-handler,scsi.device,shell,workbench QUIET\n\n"
               "and remove the existing SetPatch line."
        )))

So, does anyone know what exactly *enables* the larger file systems in the 3.9 startup-sequence so that the system sees them?  Is it one of the setpatch commands, above?

It's the SCSI.device and FastFileSystem bits that do it.

[Crumb]

use PFS3 aio

[superfrog76]

I think that I will go for PFS3 aio; altho I have got the LHA from Aminet, but I don't see any guide about how to install Is there a FS for dummies somewhere, that tells me how to prep the card ?

And just to be clear, I do not need any big partition, I just want to use the 8 Gb, so if I have to make 5 partitions of 1.5 Gb and 1 500 mb partition for the OS, I am fine with it

[Thomas]

Get the PFS3_53 archive from Aminet and install it. It contains the complete distribution with tools, documentation and everything. Just use PFS3aio when it talks about PFS3 or PFS3ds. You can as well use PFS3ds, aio brings no benefit for you.

Once you have a file system which supports accessing outside the first 4GB of a harddrive, you can make partitions as big or as small as you like. The issue is the position of the partition on the harddrive, not its size.

[superfrog76]

Get the PFS3_53 archive from Aminet and install it. It contains the complete distribution with tools, documentation and everything. Just use PFS3aio when it talks about PFS3 or PFS3ds. You can as well use PFS3ds, aio brings no benefit for you.

Once you have a file system which supports accessing outside the first 4GB of a harddrive, you can make partitions as big or as small as you like. The issue is the position of the partition on the harddrive, not its size.

Thanks Thomas, I was wondering why the archive that I have, had just one file inside, nothing else. I will get it tomorrow and give a try.

I also tried SFS, following the guide from Killergorilla; and while it seems to work for the 4 GB format, my 8 GB card won't work as advertised.

The 4 GB card seems fine, but the 8 GB allows me to create only 3 partition with SFS (altho if i create more partition with FFS they appear on the desktop); spent almost 4 hours trying various combination, and the result is always the same.

I guess I can just trash SFS and go for the PFS3...tried them all at this point

[Thomas]

SFS does not support harddrives bigger than 4GB without a patch for scsi.device.

The same is true for PFS3 (normal version). Only PFS3ds or PFS3aio do.

[superfrog76]

DOH, that would explain why I was getting that weird behavior.

Could you tell me which patch should I get? Thanks!

[superfrog76]

Guess time is up....tried to put PFS3on a CF card via real amiga, all OK until I try to install WB 3.1 on it; then I get error messages saying that the drive DH0 is read only, or there are errors in writing.

Will try again next weekend; for now at least I was able to get the 4 GB card with SFS on it...I can play Superfrog and Elite now

[Thomas]

For an 8GB card you shouldn't need a patch, just use PFS3ds or PFS3aio.

Note that a patch of scsi.device implies an automatic reboot which almost doubles the boot time.

Depending on how accurate the CF card reports its size, you should make the last partition one cylinder smaller than shown and leave the last cylinder of the card empty. Some cheap CF cards report themselves one block bigger than they actually are. If the file system then checks the accessibility of the last block, it fails with an error message. (PFS3aio checks accessibility, PFS3ds doesn't).

[Retrofan]

Very interesting, Thomas. I always use PFS3aio, and use to have problems when using high Pio modes. But my problems use to be on DH0 or DH1, very rare on the last I use, DH2. How do I reduce one cylinder there?. Edit: Well I will take a look.

[Geit]

I use one partition here on any system, too. These days it makes no sense. Even on a windows system I only need around 30GB to store all applications I need.

Data is stored on network attached storage, so I can simply maintain them and access them from any system I want without transfering the data.

Especially when dealing with flash and with classic hardware, a single partition is a must, as each additional partition eats memory and wasts disc space.

At the end one partition is filled, while the other is mostly empty and the mess begins. Better create one partition, create a data drawer and place it on workbench. Same accessability as with multiple partitions, but you will never ran out of space until the harddrive is filled completley.

 Geit

[Thomas]

How do I reduce one cylinder there?

Reduce End Cyl by one.