WinUAE questions and problems! NEED HELP FROM EMULATION GURUS!

[redrumloa]

I am trying to get WinUAE working again. The newest version works near perfect for just playing games, but I still cannot get it to work with any JIT settings :-x

I am using WinUAE version xxx with encrypted roms and OS3.9 installation folder(HD is simply a folder on the Wintendo HD) from a old version of Amiga Forever I own. No matter what settings I tinker with in CPU settings, if I turn on JIT it crashes after very soon after starting emulation. If I load A-Org in AWeb it crashes every time for example.

Questions:
1) Is using a dedicated harddrive preferable to just a folder on the Wintendo drive? Is this causing some of the problems?

1a) The OS3.9 installation hasn't been used since a few years back under an old version of AmigaForever. Is this suspect? Reinstall from scratch?

2)Is there some problem with the older encrypted Amiga Forever 3.1 ROM?

3)What your recomended CPU etc settings for my system?

Suggestions and any help appreciated. I am looking to get this emulation tweaked ASAP. I am missing the enviorment and alot of my software that I can't use since I sold/gave away all of dying/prehistoric hardware. No NextGen Amiga anytime soon, and there is no legal Amithlon on the market so WinUAE wins by default

My PC specs:
MSI KT333 Ultra2
AthlonXP 2000 (no OC)
256Meg DDR 333MHZ CLK2.5
All-In-Wonder-VE
Sound Blaster Live!
WinXP Pro
40Gig WD 7200RPM (NTFS)

Thanks in advance

[blobrana]

WinUAE with that computer and p96 installed should fly...
What do you normally get 020 at 150Mhz?

Using a seperate HD is preferable... but you have lots of ram so there isn`t really going to be a problem.( winVmem cashe access).

I would down load the latest WinUAE (and still use the Amiga Forever rom...it is the 3.1 rom?)

the settings are quite stable if you don`t use the FPU , or higher than an 020...
JIT set at 4mb is fine.

http://homepage.uibk.ac.at/~c72578/amiga/uae/

Worth reinstalling directX again...
BTW ibrowse is what i use.

good luck.

[redrumloa]

WinUAE with that computer and p96 installed should fly...

It does, right before it crashes..

What do you normally get 020 at 150Mhz?

Dunno, the only test I have run so far is old Systest and it reports 42X the speed of an A4000/040. What is the best benchmark out there right now? I havn't been paying attention..i know there is a new one, forget the name?

Worth reinstalling directX again...

On XP? Really? Will try.

BTW ibrowse is what i use.

I only have AwebSE(or the open source freebie) and a Voyager keyfile. I don't own a modern Ibrowse :-(

Heh, well, AWeb at amiga.org has been crashing on hardware Amigas as of late too.  Someone traced it to some image that shows up before logging in that crashes it.  Turn off images when you load amiga.org, then log in, then turn the images back on to bypass it for now.

Now, WinUAE does give me guru's with OS3.9 Boing Bag 2 some times when I first start out, but a soft boot gets it past it for me.

Anything specific you notice when it dies?

[blobrana]

i`ve up loaded a config file to my site...
http://mysite.freeserve.com/blobrana/downloads/edit.html

download the Ibrowsedemo (for any newbees?)http://www.ibrowse-dev.net/
 :-D

[Glaucus]

Well, WinUAE can be tricky to diagnose.  However I would try using a vanilla AmigaOS3.9 bootfile.  From your description of your setup it sounds as if the AmigaOS files are in a FAT32/NTFS folder?  Try using a harddisk file instead.  For my setup I placed all the AmigaOS specific files on a dedicated HD file.  All my apps and data however are stuffed in a regular FAT32/NTFS folder so I can access them with Explorer, etc.   I have found that there are cases where certain file names or file locks can cause problems when you are accessing a native Windows filesystem.

Aside from that I'm not sure what else to say.  I can say that my setup has the CPU set to 68040, CPU emulation speed set to Fastest Possible, 8MB JIT cache, Const Jump, FPU support, Force Settings, No Flags and Indirect are all checked.  It works fine for me.

I've also found that some badly behaved Amiga software can cause WinUAE to crash.  Make sure you're not running any hacks.  It's possible that AWeb causes problems, although my registered version works fine under WinUAE.  There's also a "winuaeenforcer" that you run and it might help you find any misbehaving software.  Anyway, good luck!

  - Mike

[redrumloa]

Heh, well, AWeb at amiga.org has been crashing on hardware Amigas as of late too. Someone traced it to some image that shows up before logging in that crashes it.

Ahh, that makes sense.

Turn off images when you load amiga.org, then log in, then turn the images back on to bypass it for now.

Cool, will try. Also will try Ibrowse and Voyager.

Now, WinUAE does give me guru's with OS3.9 Boing Bag 2 some times when I first start out, but a soft boot gets it past it for me.

Hmm..I don't THINK I installed BB2 on it.. Been awhile..

Anything specific you notice when it dies?

Well if I try to run freecell (freebie off Aminet) the system simply locks up completely, WinUAE not WintendoXP that is. I even had it just exit without warning a few times simply browsing the HD, but that may have been when I was trying with FPU enabled..

I'm going to try a few of the suggestions mentioned here as soon as I get home. Thanks to you and blobrana for the help. I'll let you 2 know how it goes.

[Glaucus]

Hey, well guess what!  I just tried it and AWeb crashed when I went to Amiga.org. I even had winuaeenforcer running and it gave me a nice little report, so I'm pretty sure it's AWeb's fault, not WInUAE.  Of course this doesn't help much but if you're really serious about fixing this you might wanna dissect Amiga.org's HTML and perhaps suggest a fix to wayne?!? (although really it's AWeb that should be making the fix).  I'm assuming Amiga.org's main page has some new HTML code that causes confussion in AWeb and it just blows up.

  - Mike

[redrumloa]

Well, WinUAE can be tricky to diagnose.

So I've seen :-o

However I would try using a vanilla AmigaOS3.9 bootfile. From your description of your setup it sounds as if the AmigaOS files are in a FAT32/NTFS folder?

Ok will try. Yes they are in a NTFS folder.

I have found that there are cases where certain file names or file locks can cause problems when you are accessing a native Windows filesystem.

Umm.. Sounds like my problem with Payback.

Anyway, good luck!

Thanks for the info!!

[Targhan]

I've got AF5, and still have problems getting UAE working correctly under Win2k... I wonder if it's any easier to set up under the linux side?

[Glaucus]

I have found that there are cases where certain file names or file locks can cause problems when you are accessing a native Windows filesystem.

Umm.. Sounds like my problem with Payback

Yeah, just to back that up a bit...  I have actually emailed the current developer of WinUAE about some filesystem bugs that I discovered a while back.  Shared file locks on files that reside on a Windows native FS have caused problems in the past.  The latest version does seem to fix them but there could still be some more unknown FS problems.  Also worth noting is that the standard Amiga FS allows some characters in filenames that are not allowed in FAT32/NTFS.  I've found that if you attempt to create a file with these particular characters WinUAE will attempt to create them and end up locking itself up in the process.  I first discovered this when I attempted to copy over my entire Amiga4000's HD into an NTFS filesystem so I could then back it up onto CD-ROM.  The system kept crashing on me until I realized this little problem and renamed the guilty files on the Amiga before transferring them.  Just something to keep in mind.

  - Mike

I wonder if it's any easier to set up under the linux side?

If someone says yes to that, please impart there wisdom upon me.  I have yet to get UAE on Linux running, but WinUAE was a breeze for me.  Sure it crashes once in a while, but so does my real Amiga.

[Desolator]

I would not use NTFS as filesystem to host WinUAE files on. My tests with that crashed more than twice as often as when I had the files on my FAT32 partition.

Anyway, try reinstalling OS3.9 (just in case) under the newest WinUAE. Don't worry about the Amiga Forever files, just use the rom files and key. (I use the ones from AF4.)

Make sure that you have installed p96 correctly under WinUAE. you can read how to do it on the AOS3.9 under WinUAE Guide on my website (elite79.tripod.com) if you don't know exactly how it's done with the emulator.

That's my tips..

And Yup, I don't manage to run UAE under Linux successfully either... it's quite a pain in the *ss to get it work.

[redrumloa]

Update, I took much of the advice here and started from scratch. That did it I think, I'm getting there:-D I'm in the tweaking mode ATM, and BOY does it fly!!! WinUAE certainly is maturing!! It's just a crying shame Bernithlon isn't for sale... Oh well WinUAE sure will hold me over, maybe indefinately...

So, thanks again! I finally am able to play Payback again, and it FLIES!

OK, two question though.

1) The first time I launch WinUAE, I get GURU after GURU. I have to insert the (virtual) emergency recovery disk and boot it. Once I boot that, I can eject it(virtually) and warmboot over and over with no problems whatsoever. Any ideas? Setpatch issue?

2)The CDROM support still seems a little buggy. I am using OS3.9's CDROM device. I set maxtransfer to 0x1FFF and it still locks up under certain circumstances.

Overall, were doing great :-D

1) The first time I launch WinUAE, I get GURU after GURU. I have to insert the (virtual) emergency recovery disk and boot it. Once I boot that, I can eject it(virtually) and warmboot over and over with no problems whatsoever. Any ideas? Setpatch issue?

I get Guru's too, but if I warmboot from the guru, it usually comes up fine.   I've never had to use the boot disk.

2)The CDROM support still seems a little buggy. I am using OS3.9's CDROM device. I set maxtransfer to 0x1FFF and it still locks up under certain circumstances.

I tend to get read/write errors with CD accessing, so there still may be some issues with the uaescsi.device for accessing CD's.  I've found that copying the CD to the hard drive using Xcopy from the command prompt in windows, then assigning it the directory as the CD's name on the Amiga works, although not exactly convenient.