SETTING UP CF CARD IN PCMCIA SLOT

[AmigaBruno]

I reformatted this card a few times in the past to try and get it to work at all. I used GParted under Linux every time. The last reformat also involved only having a 2Gb partition because I heard there were problems with larger partitions, or even cards larger than 2Gb at all. I have never used a CF card in the PCMCIA slot before, and I don't remember reading any advice about editing the CF0 mount entry. I'm just relieved that it's finally working! 

At the very bottom of this post you can see a graphic file I've transferred from my Amiga A1200 running Linux. I also converted it to PNG using Personal Paint. I think I just needed to add the extension PNG for it to be uploaded on here.

Great news.

Maybe if you'd just edited the CF0 mount entry to use a sector size of 4096 rather than default 512, the card would have worked as supplied and you'd have all the capacity.

Something wasn't seated quite right, but it's all going now at least.

I can understand totally if you don't want to mess with it anymore.

[AmigaBruno]

Here's some more artwork I'm doing for my album cover. This title "DECAY" is meant to look rotten, rusted, and oxidised.

As for the CF card I set up in 2015, it also contains artwork, but doesn't contain those files for supporting FAT32 CF cards in the PCMCIA slot, so I'll have to set that up to copy my artwork off there.

I also have another CF card I used a lot up until 2015. This card has somehow been corrupted and become unbootable. What do you think I can do about that?

[AmigaBruno]

Here's some more artwork I'm doing for my album cover. This title "DECAY" is meant to look rotten, rusted, and oxidised.

As for the CF card I set up in 2015, it also contains artwork, but doesn't contain those files for supporting FAT32 CF cards in the PCMCIA slot, so I'll have to set that up to copy my artwork off there.

I also have another CF card I used a lot up until 2015. This card has somehow been corrupted and become unbootable. What do you think I can do about that?

[AmigaBruno]

Here's some more artwork I'm doing for my album cover. This title "DECAY" is meant to look rotten, rusted, and oxidised.

As for the CF card I set up in 2015, it also contains artwork, but doesn't contain those files for supporting FAT32 CF cards in the PCMCIA slot, so I'll have to set that up to copy my artwork off there.

I also have another CF card I used a lot up until 2015. This card has somehow been corrupted and become unbootable. What do you think I can do about that?

[AmigaBruno]

Unfortunately, I've accidentally posted my last message three times. This was after an error message saying my session had expired, then I'm not sure what happened, but I couldn't see my message. Can a moderator delete two of those messages? I can't find any option to delete them. 

[Pat the Cat]

IIRC you can click "Modify", delete all the text in them, then click "save".

One thing you never mentioned - which version of Kickstart is in the A1200.? Do tell.

Is it the two Commodore supplied Kickstart 3.0 chips, or does it have 3.1 or later ROMs?

It does make a difference, 3.1 and above tends to turn off the PCMCIA card if more than 4MB of extra fast Zorro II memory is detected (so not an 030 accelerator card or above, but usual for a memory expansion for the built in A1200 020 CPU, ie your particular case).

Kickstart 3.0 doesn't bother, it just assumes everything is going to work together.

The version number and revision is displayed on the purple "I can't find a hard disk" screen. Vt39 for Kickstart 3, V40 for 3.1, upwards for 3.x and 3.1.4 (native big capacity drive support).

[AmigaBruno]

I tried Modify and deleted all the body text, then tried to save, but that didn"t work.

My Amiga Kickstart version is 3.0. The Revision number is 39.106. I don't know how hard it would be to upgrade this.

My main problem at the moment is the broken RGB port. Only one pin (No. 23) is half broken off, but because of this the whole port must be replaced! It seems this pin sends a signal to switch my TV from CVBS to RGB input.

It"s a great shame that there are all these problems such as Fast RAM clashing with the PCMCIA slot. I don"t really understand why this happens. After I got my first Amiga in December 1988, I read not long afterwards that the Amiga computers have no memory map, except Exec = $04. The book or article said something like the Amiga would configure its RAM however it needed to and nothing would be at a fixed location. Years later, I read that this kind of thing is due to the Amiga Workbench OS, but if you turn off the OS for games or demo coding, then this doesn't apply and in that case you've got a memory map with the custom chips, etc at fixed locations. Can you explain this any further? It's a bit confusing talking about Zorro RAM and 32 bit RAM, because AFAIK the A1200 trap door slot isn't a Zorro slot and the whole A1200 is 32 bit, unlike the A1000, A500, A2000, or A600.

I've been doing some more work on my graphics, mainly on that analogue watch picture, but I found that some of it coudn't be done with only 6Mb, so I had to change the jumper setting again. The Amiga went into a loop with a Recoverable Alert and a Requester asking me to click Proceed, but I wasn't able to click on it. There was also a green box telling me about the lack of RAM. This happened when I picked up the watch as a brush to bend it for a more 3D effect instead of leaving it looking very flat. After I change the jumper setting, the Amiga doesn't always boot up.

 

[Pat the Cat]

I also have another CF card I used a lot up until 2015. This card has somehow been corrupted and become unbootable. What do you think I can do about that?

If you can copy the CF0 file to like CF1, and modify it to point at ffs (Amiga fastfilesutem andler)  rather than Fat95 (fat32 filesystem handleron the Amiga) then you could try formatting it and setting it up in the PCMcia slot. You would have to wap the CF0 and CF1 icon in and out ofd DOsdrivers to get it recognized, but that would let you setup the (nonworking) CF card drive usinging your working cf card that does work with PCMCIA.

Then maybe you could put your other CF drive in the pcmcia lot working wit the new CF1 mount file, and jut copy the file to it to ue PCMCIA compact fiaslh.

Getting your Gotek working just has to be easier.

[Pat the Cat]

I tried Modify and deleted all the body text, then tried to save, but that didn"t work.

My Amiga Kickstart version is 3.0. The Revision number is 39.106. I don't know how hard it would be to upgrade this.

Changing two old ROM chips for 2 new ROM chips. It's not that difficult, making sure you get the notches the same way as the old ones fitted. If they're fitted wrong order (lo in hi, hi in lo), It won't power up but no damage done. But do get them fitted right way round and correectly spaced (usually have extra pair of pins that are not connected). Fitting the the wrong notch around or trying to use wrong pins can really mess up the chips and the A1200.

They behave very differently though from original 3.0. They take much longer to boot, they turn the PCMCIA off (usually a little program runs on a hard disk to turn it back on again). Latest one (3.1.4) was aimed very much at making big drives and partitions usable straight from boot, plus bug fixes.

My main problem at the moment is the broken RGB port. Only one pin (No. 23) is half broken off, but because of this the whole port must be replaced! It seems this pin sends a signal to switch my TV from CVBS to RGB input.

That's fixable. It seems there are still supplies of 23 pin D connectors to fit EDIT Not cheap, like £25 each for ones that mount on main board.

It"s a great shame that there are all these problems such as Fast RAM clashing with the PCMCIA slot. I don"t really understand why this happens. After I got my first Amiga in December 1988, I read not long afterwards that the Amiga computers have no memory map, except Exec = $04. The book or article said something like the Amiga would configure its RAM however it needed to and nothing would be at a fixed location. Years later, I read that this kind of thing is due to the Amiga Workbench OS, but if you turn off the OS for games or demo coding, then this doesn't apply and in that case you've got a memory map with the custom chips, etc at fixed locations. Can you explain this any further? It's a bit confusing talking about Zorro RAM and 32 bit RAM, because AFAIK the A1200 trap door slot isn't a Zorro slot and the whole A1200 is 32 bit, unlike the A1000, A500, A2000, or A600.

Every Amiga has auto-config. When an Amiga powers on, it takes note of expansions, extra ROMs fitted in them. You may not think of the trapdoor in an A1200 as being a Zorro slot, but Mediators connect that way, and they do have Zorro (even PCI) slots.

Most Amigas all have 24 address lines. That's a total of 16MB. Up to 2mb chip RAM at the beginnin, the ROM grows downward from the end of memory, and where fast RAM gets placed is a matter of what expansions are detected at power on.

The way Commodore did PCMCIA, you could plug in extra RAM to the PCMCIA on a600s and A1200s. It wasn't very fast. But it was convenient (and expensive).  It was a bad implementation.

Kickstart 3.0 just assumes you have 4mb of extra memory or less and leaves the port turned on. The fixes to 3.1 on the hard drive try to turn it  on again.

Hence the early startup, to give the user some idea of what expansions the Amiga was recognizing

I've been doing some more work on my graphics, mainly on that analogue watch picture, but I found that some of it coudn't be done with only 6Mb, so I had to change the jumper setting again. The Amiga went into a loop with a Recoverable Alert and a Requester asking me to click Proceed, but I wasn't able to click on it. There was also a green box telling me about the lack of RAM. This happened when I picked up the watch as a brush to bend it for a more 3D effect instead of leaving it looking very flat. After I change the jumper setting, the Amiga doesn't always boot up.

Perhaps the memory card needs at least one cold reboot for the new setting to take effect. It can't flip straight from one memory setting to the other.

A few cards are configured that way as a fail safe. Or maybe it's an old corroded jumper that isn't making a good connection to the pins.

I guess maybe one not too expensive way for file transfer is a faster serial port off a clockport. Or get your Gotek working again.

I still swear by just using FFs partitions and filesystems and Linux mounting the drives though. No WInUAE for me. It does help that I know how to setup a working hard drive, but I would struggle hugely too without any kind of floppy drive.

[AmigaBruno]

Thanks for all your help so far, it's been amazing! 

Unfortunately, I don't think you understand what I want to do with this corrupt CF card. If you do understand, then it's even more complicated than I thought! It's a 4Gb Sandisk CF card which was used by me as an Amiga A1200 CF hard drive some time before 2015, or even before 2014 or earlier! This means it contains various Amiga files which I want to rescue. They're probably Deluxe Paint artwork I did. I recently inserted it into the PCMCIA slot and it came up as NDOS. What's the best way of salvaging the files on this CF card? I think there may be some particular software I could use for this, which might be on Aminet.

As for my Gotek drive, that's a totally different issue. I bought it in 2015 via eBay. I can't remember which seller I bought it from. I don't think I can check my eBay account that far back, either. I think that the firmware needs to be reflashed. I don't know what firmware it originally used. I have never flashed the firmware on a Gotek drive, so it would be easier just to buy a new Gotek drive! I also found when it still worked that it wasn't possible to do file transfers by creating blank ADF files, then copying some files from my CF card onto an ADF image on my Gotek drive's USB stick. These files appeared when using the USB stick with the Gotek drive, but didn't appear when I plugged the USB stick into a laptop or desktop PC and read the ADF files in an emulator. The ADF images just appeared as blank.

I also have another CF card I used a lot up until 2015. This card has somehow been corrupted and become unbootable. What do you think I can do about that?

If you can copy the CF0 file to like CF1, and modify it to point at ffs (Amiga fastfilesutem andler)  rather than Fat95 (fat32 filesystem handleron the Amiga) then you could try formatting it and setting it up in the PCMcia slot. You would have to wap the CF0 and CF1 icon in and out ofd DOsdrivers to get it recognized, but that would let you setup the (nonworking) CF card drive usinging your working cf card that does work with PCMCIA.

Then maybe you could put your other CF drive in the pcmcia lot working wit the new CF1 mount file, and jut copy the file to it to ue PCMCIA compact fiaslh.

Getting your Gotek working just has to be easier.

[Pat the Cat]

Thanks for all your help so far, it's been amazing! 

Unfortunately, I don't think you understand what I want to do with this corrupt CF card. If you do understand, then it's even more complicated than I thought! It's a 4Gb Sandisk CF card which was used by me as an Amiga A1200 CF hard drive some time before 2015, or even before 2014 or earlier! This means it contains various Amiga files which I want to rescue. They're probably Deluxe Paint artwork I did. I recently inserted it into the PCMCIA slot and it came up as NDOS. What's the best way of salvaging the files on this CF card? I think there may be some particular software I could use for this, which might be on Aminet.

Disksalv is the only Amiga program I'm aware of for rummaging around in hard drives looking for data. You still got the issue of getting it to mount as an Amiga formatted disk rather than FAT32 disk.

Kill or cure method if you don't get any joy - try an fsck on the partition on a Linux machine, after mounting it as an Amiga partition.

If it's NOT in fastfilesystem from Workbench 1.3 - 3 hen that would probably destroy the data. Can you remember if you set it up from floppies or bought it with Workbench installed?

As for my Gotek drive, that's a totally different issue. I bought it in 2015 via eBay. I can't remember which seller I bought it from. I don't think I can check my eBay account that far back, either. I think that the firmware needs to be reflashed. I don't know what firmware it originally used. I have never flashed the firmware on a Gotek drive, so it would be easier just to buy a new Gotek drive! I also found when it still worked that it wasn't possible to do file transfers by creating blank ADF files, then copying some files from my CF card onto an ADF image on my Gotek drive's USB stick. These files appeared when using the USB stick with the Gotek drive, but didn't appear when I plugged the USB stick into a laptop or desktop PC and read the ADF files in an emulator. The ADF images just appeared as blank.

I was thinking more of swapping the CF driver between Workbenches rather than transferring files the Amiga to PC. You can get Adfs of blank floppy disks.

Anyway, 3 ways to flash the firmware - copy the files onto a fresh usb stick as described. The Gotek flashes itself from the HXFconfig file.
 On first power on with the Amiga, it will ask you to point at which ADF files point to which menu number.

Only If that doesn't work, then you either have to bridge four holes on the Gotek and flash with a usb A-usb A cable from a PC. Or do it with a usb =a linked to a level convertor board hooked up into the guts of the thing.

It isn't that difficult, there are tutorials on Youtube. Although most of them use Windows. (There are linux alternatives of course).

If you bought it in 2015, pretty sure it will have fast floppy style of firmware already and just copying the files onto a usb should reflash. Maybe that needs a small partition too - 8GB biggest stick I've seen offered with them, could be a factor.

They get much more useful with an OLED screen. That tells you the name of he disk when you are moving around the list of adfs.

[Pat the Cat]

A more detailed explanation of how you flash a gotek with video links and Linux alternative method to Windows;-

https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy/wiki/Firmware-Programming

Couple clarifications - you don't need to solder anything when changing Kickstart ROM chips. At least on an A1200.

Most adf files have protection bits set. If you set them to prwed then they can be edited. (Including adfs of blank Amiga formatted floppy disks. With the protection bits set, they can't easily be changed (or even deleted without formatting the usb. That could be where you came a cropper before?

This makes a big difference to saving files on a Gotek pretending to be a floppy disk. The ADFs size doesn't change, they are all exactly the same length.

[AmigaBruno]

@ Pat The Cat, from the details you've given about the ROM chips, they don't do that much, so I don't really need them. One big difference is taking longer to boot, though. This would happen every time, no matter what I wanted to do with the Amiga, so that would be a disadvantage.

As for the 23 pin D connnectors, the main problem is how to fit one or get it fitted. I have only one Amiga at the moment. I haven't managed to learn how to solder properly and this looks much more complicated than soldering a couple of wires. Of course, if I sent my Amiga away for repair, then it could take ages to be repaired and come back. I think I can use Twitter to contact an Amiga A1200 enthusuast and electronics repairer who's really good at soldering, then we might be able to meet up and he could do the RGB port replacement during the space of one day while I was with him. 

An alternative to replacing the RGB port might be to get another TV with a SCART socket or some other socket which is in RGB mode by default, or can be put into RGB mode before I connect my Amiga into it. Do you have any ideas what kind of TV this would be or how it would be put into RGB mode?

[Pat the Cat]

In terms of alternatives, they all need a voltage to switch to RGB mode AFAIK...

... And I was wrong about a supply of available video connectors (ones required are for board mounting, with the pins going 90 from horizontal to vertical, to connect to a board. I would guess Amibay would be one place to adverrtize for such a need - people do strip dead boards for such "they don't make them anymore" sort of connectors. Then when you have the spare, you could arrange a meet n fix session.

But, if you can solder a wire to a pin or two... What you could do is take +5V from one of the other ports on the back of the Amiga, and connect that instead to the cable going to the TV.

23 pin connectors are available for the cable side of things (external floppy drive port has these) so you could do it that way and at least get a functioning system. As a short term solution until you get the port fixed properly.

As for ROMs, most hard drive installs on CF cards expect 3.1 ROMs. That can cause issues too. Although if you're just gaming and 2d doing artwork, you'll probably be OK. The big difference was RTG support (between 3,0 and 3,1) for 24 bit graphics cards.

[Pat the Cat]

As for that "getting my old data back from a non-booting CF card" - I suggest you start a new thread on that, after getting your Gotek going.

I am not at all familiar with CF cards, I stick to sd and msata drives with adapters. CF have a problem with attaching 2 cards on the same channel (ide cable with 3 female connectors), which is why I avoided them in the first place. AFAIK they don't like being master drives on a channel, they're only happy as slaves. I could be wrong on that.

A request for a mountlist for an Amiga formatted CF card being made available via PCMCIA would be a start. Although things like a ready made floppy to do that would require you getting your Gotek working first, which is why I'm suggesting you start with that before asking.