Classic Workbench; Problems with aca1233 accelerator.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

All right, well it looks like there's only three files on that disk:

ACATune-readme.txt
ACATune
Disk.info

That makes it easy. Ignore the Disk.info, that's just the icon for when you install the disk.

So:

copy df0:ACATune to SYS:C

That will put the acatune command into your C directory. Now perform the Startup-Sequence edits from earlier in this thread.

[wrath of khan]

Eureka!!...kind of...

I copied acatune to the "C" directory. I then checked the status of the aca, here's the pic attached. I then did a soft reset to check if the other mem would stay and erm crikey...now Its not not loading my harddrive/cf card. It goes straight to the regular workbench screen. Strange... Perhaps I can change the boot priority in boot options, pic also attached.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Aah, you shouldn't need to mess with boot priority, what did you do to your startup-sequence???

Edit: When you say "not loading your hard drive", do you mean Workbench isn't loading properly?  It just goes to a shell command prompt?

[paul1981]

Hello Adrian. Disregard what I said in an earlier post about that SLOWRAM!
My Amiga is in bits at the moment but today I hooked up my ACA1232 and mine also says SLOWRAM in Sysinfo. It's perfectly normal, your screen shot looks the same as mine. I had the 33MHz card connected and got 7.88 mips speed from Sysinfo. You should get a faster reading at 40MHz though...9.x I should think. It's obviously not slow ram though as that's not possible...there's only chip ram (2mb) and any other ram on an A1200 will always be fast ram, so just ignore Sysinfo here, I think the rom remapping is confusing it.


And yes, it's perfectly normal that the memory that is added when you run the ACATune command disappears again after a reboot. But this doesn't matter because the command will be run in your Startup-Sequence everytime that your Amiga boots.

On the other hand, if you were to softkick 3.1 then the memory would always be there after the first initial boot...but I don't want to confuse you about that as it's not important at all.

[wrath of khan]

Aah, you shouldn't need to mess with boot priority, what did you do to your startup-sequence???

Edit: When you say "not loading your hard drive", do you mean Workbench isn't loading properly?  It just goes to a shell command prompt?

No, its simply bypassing the cfcard entirely and loading the regular boot screen, the one that prompts you to insert the floppy disks. Its acting like there is no cf card at all.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

My Amiga is in bits at the moment but today I hooked up my ACA1232 and mine also says SLOWRAM in Sysinfo. It's perfectly normal, your screen shot looks the same as mine. I had the 33MHz card connected and got 7.88 mips speed from Sysinfo. You should get a faster reading at 40MHz though...9.x I should think. It's obviously not slow ram though as that's not possible...there's only chip ram (2mb) and any other ram on an A1200 will always be fast ram, so just ignore Sysinfo here, I think the rom remapping is confusing it.

I would check this carefully.  I think because the RAM isn't there at initial power-on (i.e., not autoconfig, but waiting until you add it via the startup-sequence) all that stuff is getting loaded into "slow" (i.e., chip) ram, because that's the only ram that the system "sees" upon initial power on.  Dunno. How much chip ram do you have available after boot?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

No, its simply bypassing the cfcard entirely and loading the regular boot screen, the one that prompts you to insert the floppy disks. Its acting like there is no cf card at all.

But the card shows up in early startup?  Assuming nothing got knocked loose, hold down both mouse buttons.  Boot with no startup-sequence.  Type:

ed s:Startup-Sequence

Does the startup-sequence load?  Post a screenshot.  Don't make any changes at this point.  

[wrath of khan]

But the card shows up in early startup?  Assuming nothing got knocked loose, hold down both mouse buttons.  Boot with no startup-sequence.  Type:

ed s:Startup-Sequence

Does the startup-sequence load?  Post a screenshot.  Don't make any changes at this point.  

It seems that now I can only access the cfcard by first booting from my wb 3.1 floppy. The cfcard classic wb desktop appears but now the floppy 3.1 is a bootable icon here. I need to change it to prioritise the cfcard/hardrive to boot first?
I'll try what you said.

Ok. first it said please insert env; i cancelled this prompt. then it loaded the startup sequence, pic attached.

[paul1981]

I would check this carefully.  I think because the RAM isn't there at initial power-on (i.e., not autoconfig, but waiting until you add it via the startup-sequence) all that stuff is getting loaded into "slow" (i.e., chip) ram, because that's the only ram that the system "sees" upon initial power on.  Dunno. How much chip ram do you have available after boot?

There's always 1MB of fast ram from the ACA card from power on, so nothing eats chip ram here. But to avoid the system finally eating into chip ram (when the 1MB is used up, probably after booting ClassicWB) then the acatune command line needs to be run as early as possible...ie 1st command executed in the Startup-Sequence is the best place, plus it means you get faster booting as it remaps the kickstart to fast ram.

[paul1981]

No, its simply bypassing the cfcard entirely and loading the regular boot screen, the one that prompts you to insert the floppy disks. Its acting like there is no cf card at all.

Quoting from the ACATune-readme:

ACAtune -maprom * p

With Kickstart in fastmem, the computer starts extremely fast. Sometimes so fast that the Gayle chip is not yet out of reset state - it will miss some accesses. As a result, the computer does not find a harddisk and comes up with the "insert disk" screen, waiting for a bootable disk to be inserted. By adding the "p" option to your maprom command line, ACAtune will attempt to patch the kickstart and insert a short waiting period on every reset. This will give the Gayle chip and harddrives enough time to wake up from reset condition and go into normal operation. The screen is turned light brown during the waiting period.

It could be this. On your ACATune line in your Startup-Sequence, after the '*' write a 'p' as shown above. So '....maprom * p >ram:acaoutput.txt'

[wrath of khan]

Quoting from the ACATune-readme:

ACAtune -maprom * p

With Kickstart in fastmem, the computer starts extremely fast. Sometimes so fast that the Gayle chip is not yet out of reset state - it will miss some accesses. As a result, the computer does not find a harddisk and comes up with the "insert disk" screen, waiting for a bootable disk to be inserted. By adding the "p" option to your maprom command line, ACAtune will attempt to patch the kickstart and insert a short waiting period on every reset. This will give the Gayle chip and harddrives enough time to wake up from reset condition and go into normal operation. The screen is turned light brown during the waiting period.

It could be this. On your ACATune line in your Startup-Sequence, after the '*' write a 'p' as shown above. So '....maprom * p >ram:acaoutput.txt'

I added the "p" the screen turned browne a few times and when it stopped loading, i was left with a blank screen.
The system is shagged now it seems. The cfcard desktop appears but nothing works, no programs whatsoever will launch. Only the wb 3.1 floppy icon works.
There was some boot options in a settings/startup. They were:
Sequence, user, assign, cliboot,wbsmanager, minboot, safe, runlist, shell and whdload. I may have changed these yesterday by accident; I know I clicked on minboot and on safe. Could this be the problem?
Pic attached shows system memory upon boot up; the other mem now stays at about 249,736 upon boot-up. soft and hard resets have no effect on it now.
Now this is getting annoying...grrr:(

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

There was some boot options in a settings/startup. They were:
Sequence, user, assign, cliboot,wbsmanager, minboot, safe, runlist, shell and whdload. I may have changed these yesterday by accident; I know I clicked on minboot and on safe. Could this be the problem?

This is ClassicWB stuff here, not standard Amiga settings.  No idea.  Format the hard drive and reinstall your operating system.  Get rid of that ClassicWB crap.  Honestly, that's what I would do.  How did you get stuck with that, anyway?

[wrath of khan]

This is ClassicWB stuff here, not standard Amiga settings.  No idea.  Format the hard drive and reinstall your operating system.  Get rid of that ClassicWB crap.  Honestly, that's what I would do.  How did you get stuck with that, anyway?

This is what came on the cf card. Everything is set up, programs, whdload etc. If i format I lose everything.

I'll have to check if the damn cf card came loose inside the case, I guess...
Is there any command to get the system to boot from hardisk as a priority over floppy/df0? Scutterbucket!:)

[paul1981]

This is what came on the cf card. Everything is set up, programs, whdload etc. If i format I lose everything.

I'll have to check if the damn cf card came loose inside the case, I guess...
Is there any command to get the system to boot from hardisk as a priority over floppy/df0? Scutterbucket!:)

Why is your Workbench floppy inserted? It will boot from floppy if a floppy is inserted.
The screen shot you show above, was that booting from hard drive or floppy?
You don't need to alter any boot priorities, they are setup fine.

[wrath of khan]

Why is your Workbench floppy inserted? It will boot from floppy if a floppy is inserted.
The screen shot you show above, was that booting from hard drive or floppy?
You don't need to alter any boot priorities, they are setup fine.

I see. Yes from floppy. I can only boot from floppy now it seems. When i copied the acatune to the C directory, this happened, after i did a soft reset.
I was checking to see if the other mem would disappear after a reset.

No clue, maybe some confliction with classic wb?

[paul1981]

You had it working in post #61. From there all that needed to be done was to add the acatune line to the beginning of the Startup-Sequence. It's annoying for me and Mike as well as we've put efforts in to help and still haven't managed to help you yet!