**Need Setup HELP** with Classic Amiga 2000 HARD DISK (Bridgeboard)

[Pat the Cat]

Yes, I was going to try to hack they keyboard map file.  It appears to be documented within.  If I want to try International how/where do I switch it.

IIRC keymaps are kept on Extras disk on 1.2.

Amiga cannot tell what sort of keyboard is plugged in, User has to select from Preferences. Usually list is kept in devs/keymaps folder I think... Been a long time since I set one on a 1.2 Amiga.

So USA keyboard and keymap is "generic". Should work all Amigas.

In theory should also work on all applications. Obvously this last point not always true, as programmers often use the 2 extra keys in their software, not realizing some Amigas don't have them).

I've been having a lot of internet issues, very slow connection, horrible OS Linux issue I think. Was like 200 times slower than normal.

[wbrejnia]

Pat,

Just to be clear. Keyboard is fine on amiga side. using CMd or notepad.
All key are correct, like "\"

Problem is I don't get blackslash in DOS prompt on 8088 pc.

[Pat the Cat]

It will be on different key somewhere. Maybe with Shift too. American keyboards have \ character on | key top right of keyboard. International usually puts it bottom left of the keyboard next to left shift.

It is not like you could not use International keyboards with Bridgeboards, just that such keyboards were designed to add extra keys. Things like Kroner, French Franc, Deutschark symbols. Also accents in French, umlauts in German.

You might need to set USA keyboard to find the / character on a working key - all keyboards work with that, but setting a different keymap if you have a USA keyboard means some characters are unavailable.

Truth to tell, I nearly always found sticking with a USA keymap to be most compatible.

[wbrejnia]

(Retro Computing Device) What is it?  What's inside? (Challenge)

I drove down to my Parents place today, and while there decided to look around the Garage Attic. With hope to find my ROM Burner Project. (Hey, to flash a ROM to upgrade my Bridgeboard).

I never found it, but this thing caught my attention.

I never really noticed it before, but it's been there for a VERY long time. (Or maybe my dad just pick it up at a garage sale ages ago).  Maybe I did. I have no idea.
My Dad used to use it to prop up his wood trailer.
It caught my attention today   since I've spent more time this last month around Retro, and storage media than ever in my life.

So I have a challenge. Can you guess what this is? (I don't yet).  What is inside?
Maybe an RLL drive, or some spare ribbon cables which I need

The sticker on the bottom does have model #, and name that I don't recognize.
I'll take it into my shop and crack it open (literally) to find out what it is.

[wbrejnia]

So the Challenge question is.

What is it?  How old/ What year/Decade?

What's inside?

[wbrejnia]

LOOK WHAT WAS (Inside the Ancient Device ) !



Kidding  That was inside my mailbox.

Maybe it will work better than the SD adapter.  Hoping!!

[wbrejnia]

Steve Gibson from Spinrite just contacted me.

He offered  to help in the RLL drive quest.

He provided me a copy of Spinrite 3.1 which he says is Ideal for my purpose.

I really want to test that RLL drive, and now that I have it working on both the 8088 and the 486, this test will be ideal.  I'd hate to spend time setting it up (with no "\" on keyboard to copy which is tricky), and they have MBR disappear and all work gone.

Stay tuned.  I'll post the testing results.

[wbrejnia]

The Lo-Tech ISA/IDE is more than an Adapter (It's a 28 pin ROM Burner) * Shadow ROM in PC BIOS must be disabled *

I just learned this after trying to change the ROM Image (for a patch) on my LoTech Adapter.

The Version of the Adapter I have is:
https://www.lo-tech.co.uk/wiki/Lo-tech_8-bit_IDE_Adapter_rev.3

Is a Universal unit, that has a Built in Flash Burner.  I think all of them do this.

That's 28 pin rom is Silicone Storage Technology ROM that can be burned over and over again.
http://www.jotrin.com/product/parts/39F010A_70_4C_WH

So you can burn any image into the CHIP, even if you have a computer board with a 28pin ROM.  The basic concept could be expanded to more pins. Using the ISA bus on your PC and the Flash Software which will run in DOS + the image you want to burn.

I first struggled and it didn't work for me. Then Lo-tech support asked me to check I didn't have ROM shadowing turn on at the Adress I was burning to. C800h.  

Sure enough my 486 was set for Shadow ROM=Intro-486



As soon as I disabled it, it flashed in a split second.

Interesting to know you can build a ROM burner for a few bucks.
And chips are dirt cheap too.

Not that you need this technology any more for daily use.
But in the Retro world,  I wish I could upgrade my Bridgeboard BIOS
Wonder how many pins that chip is?

[wbrejnia]

THIS MIGHT be KEY to getting Janus Working (ARead, Write, etc) Properly on Bridgeboard PC.

I stumbled upon this email some guy wrote back in 1993.
http://www.cucug.org/amiga/amiinfo/reviews/A2386SXBridgeb.txt

He explains what Janus files need to go into PC DOS side and where!!
Something the Manuals doesn't explain. "Manual just refer to DOS manual"
Also things the Auto install doesn't do.

I noticed I had these files from my Bridgeboard SW download, but didn't copy them over.

Some of them are certainly for the 286/386 bridgeboard, but it's hard to tell which ones are needed beyond Jdisk.sys (maybe no more for 8088).

Plus as discussed above, some older versions of these files, like "fdisk provided" don't like DOS 6.2 and if you get other copies, don't like DOS3.

Another puzzle to solve, since all my solutions so far force me to have a 5.25" floppy to boot, and still have a C: Hard drive.

I don't like that, since 5.25 disk are not reliable.

The Hard file solution I got working, will only work if Hard Drive controller is removed.

I need to have the 8088 boot without a 5.25" floppy.
"Jlink is the only way" without a bootable "C:" Hard Drive.

(One or the other must work for me)

[darkage]

(Retro Computing Device) What is it?  What's inside? (Challenge)

Looks like something from the 90's.. reminds me of something that either SGi, Sun or Digital would bring out.....  at first I wanted to say SGI but no funky colours, logo or unique shapes.

[wbrejnia]

WOW!  A paper (typed and hand drawn diagrams) copy of Amiga Training Manual (Course)
(Including many details on architecture of A2000 Components, Signals, Bridgeboards, Bridgeboard Install steps)

https://computerarchive.org/files/comp/hardware/amiga/Amiga_Training_Course.pdf

[Raffaele]

Starting to move forwards toward finishing project.

The XTE ISA Patch never worked, hoping for another that will work

What's interesting, is the Hard Drive is working perfect (Other than auto booting).   After many reboots, it mount on the 8088 6.2 Dos each time.  
That RLL parameter (Precomposition 128), low level format may have done the job to wake up old Magenetic Material.

So I trust the RLL drive to start installing the final DOS applications, and will install Windows 1.2 for fun.

Need some help on a couple of annoying items.

2)  This one is annoying.  I know about the keyboard file maps, peeks at them.   But when I go into PC 8088 Emulation.   My "\" doesn't work.  It works on the amiga side.    Hard to copy files on the DOS side without that working.   Is there a good tool to fix this?

To obtain national keyboards in MS-DOS you must have two commands on your floppy and add one line to config file called Config.sys and one line to Autoexec.bat (that is the corrispective to S:Startup-Sequence in Amiga).

Commands are Country.sys and Keyb.com. They should be present on DOS floppy that makes PC startup.

First parameter is country, followed with codifing of kind of alphabet.
Latin alphabet is the most common and its codenumber is 850.

Here are codes for nations. USA is obviously 001. For my country Italy country code is 039.

To add correct parameters for my keyboard I should add these parameters to file Config.sys with a text editor.

COUNTRY=039,850,C:\DOS\COUNTRY.SYS

And I should add this command to file Autoexec.bat:

KEYB IT

Here follows the list of main country codes.

http://wwwcdf.pd.infn.it/AppuntiLinux/a2860.htm#almlanchor17140

Here is the list of keyboard two digit codes:

http://wwwcdf.pd.infn.it/AppuntiLinux/a2860.htm#almlanchor17159

If you want to know more about Config.sys and Autoexec.bat read this document. It is in italian, but it may be Google translated and you can find useful infomations about MS-DOS commands and parameters at startup.

http://wwwcdf.pd.infn.it/AppuntiLinux/a2860.htm

Now that you are aware of it, you can found similar info pages in English or your native language.

[Raffaele]

In the document that I suggested you to read, I found some informations on command DRIVEPARM (drive parameters) that I never recall I ever used in DOS times, as I just barely dealt with Config.sys except to edit keyboard parameters and RAM memory EMS parameters, move all memory in the space out 640KBs and obtain 704KB for DOS instead than usual 640KB. It may be useful for you to make hard drive (sectors, cylinders) being correctly initilized by MS-DOS.

[Raffaele]

USEFUL HINT

In MS-DOS just as like in Windows, if you are typing, despite of the keyboard you are using, you may add any character of the standard ASCII sequence by simply pressing and holding ALT on the keyboard followed by numeric keyboard insertion from 0 to 255.

ALT+126 obtains for example tilde character "~".

[wbrejnia]

USEFUL HINT

In MS-DOS just as like in Windows, if you are typing, despite of the keyboard you are using, you may add any character of the standard ASCII sequence by simply pressing and holding ALT on the keyboard followed by numeric keyboard insertion from 0 to 255.

ALT+126 obtains for example tilde character "~".

Raffaele,

Everything in above 3 posts is Super!  

- Going to setup  DOS keyboard properly (top priority, since missing '\' is insane when trying to do file manipulation)

- Now I know what to do with those Extra files provided with the Bridgeboard DOS installs disks.  (Some may not apply to 8088 , but that DRIVEPARM looks interesting I saw it in my 486 machine setup)

AND your KEYBOARD (ALT+xxx) trick is Amazing.
(I actually need that for general use)

Here is a very good A-Z DOS setup guide.   (too much for my 8088, but covers everything)
http://legroom.net/howto/msdos

[wbrejnia]

Anyone have any info on Bridgeboard BIOS Rom Upgrades?

The Lo-Tech Flash ROM chip matches the ROM chip on the Bridgeboard.
If I can get a  copy of the Upgrade ROM image, I can have it installed for testing purposes

- (Proof that it will it work to fix IDE/Flash-Drives).
- Possibly fix the C: drive boot issue too.

If BB BIOS Upgrade works, that would be a big improvement.