A600GS Updates

[THX-1138]

I've not updated this month, so today I did it - without checking what new features were going to be added.  Wow.  Once again you guys have surpassed my expectations - thank you!

[broadblues]

Hopefully that bugfix will be rolled out soon. Is there a known rough ETA?

For the F12 issue? I know why it happens, and will be formulating a fix next week, I won't promise ETAs . 

The why is that for some reason in our minimal X environment DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS is not set, even though dbus session itself is running, if that var is not set CEF munges it to prevent a dbus autostart, which can  race conditions in CEF but which we also don't want anyway as we have a valid session. When the variable is not set the commands we use find the correct address through other means, but when it is set wrongly but CEF it causes them all to fail. 

[janikosk78]

I dug the device out of the closet and updated it to the latest version. I noticed that the A600GS has slowed down drastically. Starting Amibench takes almost a minute, and the couple of games I tried (Santa & Skidmarks) have laggy sound and choppy gameplay. I guess I probably need to do some kind of factory reset, because it is completely unusable now. Do others have the same issues?"

[slemmo]

I have stuttering mouse (reported in another thread, and it freezes the mouse when I open amibrowser for instance. Also opening folders in amibench is very slow. I have given up on this product, it hasn't worked since I bought it half a year ago. I update it every time a new update is released hoping it will be fixed, but instead you just get fresh new bugs

[Rusty Breadbin]

i want to do a factory reset after the install of the video codecs failed and all attempts to get it isntalled since just don't work, but all attempts to try to get information on how to do a factory reset just go ignored. Since then I dug out my Turbo Chameleon cartridge that I bought in 2014 (from AmiKit, coincidentally) and have been having an absolute blast on that using the Minimig core on it, while my A600GS sits mostly unused.

I thought the A600GS was the device that was really going to ignite a love for the Amiga that I knew had to be in me somewhere but had never really been tapped (being a massive C64 fan from the 1980s), but with all the problems the A600GS has had, and continues to have, it just was not the device to do so. Such a pity.

[polyp2000]

The more i read about the problems with these so called "next generation" amigas the more i think i will pass.

[janikosk78]

I have stuttering mouse (reported in another thread, and it freezes the mouse when I open amibrowser for instance. Also opening folders in amibench is very slow. I have given up on this product, it hasn't worked since I bought it half a year ago. I update it every time a new update is released hoping it will be fixed, but instead you just get fresh new bugs

 

Yeah. Back into the closet it goes since it doesn’t work. I set up a Pi 4 and installed Pimiga on it. Works great.

[janikosk78]

A small update here as well. I’ve been in correspondence with AmigaKit about the issues. They provided me with a link to a new disk image, which I downloaded and wrote to an SD card according to the instructions. The installation was quite a pain as it kept freezing frequently, and sometimes I managed to install it, but then the device wouldn’t boot the next time I tried. I tested with three different SD cards and the power supply is not the problem – it has more than enough capacity. The latest attempt: it installed cleanly on the original card and all programs/games worked great. But after shutting down the device properly, it’s completely a lottery whether it will start again or just freeze at the initial status bar.

[broadblues]

When you say the "installation" what to do mean? Just writing it to an SD card? Updating after the signing in to AmiSphere? The latter will be slow because of the large libcef.deb but once installed that should usually only need to be done once.

Are you absolutely sure of your power supply? What is its exact spec?

[janikosk78]

After writing the card, when you insert the SD card into the machine, it takes a few minutes (at worst overnight and stuck) before it boots into the operating system. The firmware in the disk image I received is already up to date, so you can’t update anything — except maybe from the advanced section. The machine seems to work perfectly with all programs and games, but when you need to shut it down/reset it, it won’t start up again. Or should I wait for a certain amount of time after a successful boot? Psu is 5A.

[janikosk78]

Apparently, a new firmware update became available. I downloaded it and have been testing the device a bit, and it seems like games and programs are working normally.  The device also seems to start up every time now without getting stuck.

EDIT: Turns out it didn’t work after all. The same freezing at the startup screens continues, no matter which SD card is in the machine. At first, it really seemed like the device was working after the update, but no...  :'(

[amigakit]

The following software updates for the A600GS and  A1200NG have been uploaded today through the in-built live update system.  They are available to download for all registered AmiSphere users:


46.2.1215  (05/09/2025):


* Small optimisation for high polling mice

* Fix for F12 menu key not working when AmiBrowser was run.

[Rusty Breadbin]

So after my post a few days ago AmiKit contacted me directly with a link to the latest image file, which I downloaded (although it took a few tries as the download kept stopping, finally after disabling my VPN and copying the file to my personal Dropbox space it finally downloaded), and the Win32DiskImager refused to work on two computers, one with Windows 11 and another with Windows 10 (which it is supposed to work with), so I found another (thanks @janikosk78) called BalenaEtcher which worked perfectly.

I decided to buy a new SD card in case I completely fouled things up with the new card, and was able to buy the exact same model and size of MicroSD card that was inside my A600. The image writing process took only a few minutes, and the wait on the initial boot up on the 600 was only a few minutes as well. After a false start trying to set my wifi up (which required a reboot, that pregnant pause between the booting bar screen and the startup tune playing every time still leaves me wondering, will it, won't it...) I got everything working and did the update, which was another few minutes, and now here I am.

I finally got to try the video player and I've got to echo the comments of others before in saying that it is simply amazing to see an mp4 file play, in 720p no less, on an Amiga style system. If only this could be done back in the day on a classic Amiga. I copied an mp4 file over from my Windoze box to try to which also played flawlessly. I notice it's only a bare bones system, but at least I can use the left and right arrows to jump forward and backward a few seconds at a time (that's a bare necessity). The ability to show the time elapsed (like in VLC) would be nice too, but I'm very happy with what I'm seeing for now, and will most likely use it from time to time instead of watching mp4s on my PC, just for the novelty of being able to.

I also tried out the new AmiBrowser, once again, simply stunning. I haven't tried loading a YouTube video, will try that next, but my first stop had to be here. I really can't believe I'm typing this post for this forum on my A600GS, that's quite a buzz.
Again I notice it's pretty bare bones at the moment, hopefully things like bookmarks and the ability to download will be added in due time, also tabbed browsing (if possible). But still stunning what has been achieved so far.
EDIT: tried YouTube, guess that's not gonna tear me away from watching vids on my PC (and f*** you Google I'm never turning adblocker off), but once again it's an amazing achievement that it's playing, even if it is slightly choppy even at 480/360p.

Thanks to the guys & gals at AmiKit for your help, and also shout out to @janikosk78 for your comments via email.
Not gonna tear me away from using my Turbo Chameleon cart just to play some games (game speed on some games still below par, and WHDload game support spotty at best), but I'm loving what I have seen in AmiBench at least already.

[janikosk78]

You're welcome, great that you got it working. I might give it a try myself with a completely new SD card and adapter. I’ll need to go shopping for those early next week.