Mozna jsou tyto informace soucasti FAQ, jeste to nemam cele prectene, nicmene jako zajimavost
CDcko obsahuje verze pro vsechny 68k Amigy, digital download, bude pozdeji, uz bude obsahovat pouze verzi pro konkretni model Amigy.
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omlouvam se, zatim ten FAQ neni (co vim) nikde na webu k nalinkovani, takze jsem to resil takto, pokud je to az moc, tak to mozme smaznout...Autorem citovaného textu je Predseda Přejít na původní příspěvekVložit komentář:
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$VER: AmigaOS 3.2 FAQ 47.1 (09.04.2021) English
Please note: This file contains a list of frequently asked questions along with answers, sorted by topics.
Before trying to contact support, please read through this FAQ to determine whether or not it answers your question(s).
Whilst this FAQ is focused on AmigaOS 3.2, it contains informati on regarding previous AmigaOS versions.
Index of topics covered in this FAQ:
1. Installation
1.1 * What are the minimum hardware requirements for AmigaOS 3.2?
1.2 * Why won't AmigaOS 3.2 boot with 512 KB of RAM?
1.3 * Ok, I get it; 512 KB is not enough anymore, but can I get my way with less than 2 MB of RAM?
1.4 * How can I verify whether I correctly installed AmigaOS 3.2?
1.5 * Do you have any tips that can help me with 3.2 using my current hardware and software combination?
1.6 * The Help subsystem fails, it seems it is not available anymore. What happened?
1.7 * What are GlowIcons? Should I choose to install them?
1.8 * How can I verify the integrity of my AmigaOS 3.2 CD-ROM?
1.9 * My Greek/Russian/Polish/Turkish fonts are not being properly displayed. How can I fix this?
1.10 * When I boot from my AmigaOS 3.2 CD-ROM, I am being welcomed to the "AmigaOS Preinstallation Environment". What does this mean?
1.11 * What is the optimal ADF images/floppy disk ordering for a full AmigaOS 3.2 installation?
1.12 * LoadModule fails for some unknown reason when trying to update my ROM modules. What can I do?
1.13 * I installed without selecting appropriate keymaps and/or printer drivers. Is there a way to fix this without reinstalling?
2. Hard disks and file systems
2.1 * Can I use partitions beyond the 4 GB boundary?
2.2 * How do I setup a new drive with HDToolBox? I do not see the drive in the selection box at all; what is wrong?
2.3 * Long filenames--I was promised long filenames! How do I use them?
2.4 * But Workbench still limits my filenames to 30 characters!
2.5 * I read something about a setting called "Max Transfer", which is a value I need to manually adjust according to my system. How do I set it up?
2.6 * When mounting the CD file system on an XSurfIDE device, reading large DVDs results in an "-3" error being shown.
2.7 * My Amiga now takes about 10 minutes to boot my new 3.2 64 GB partition. What is going on?
2.8 * How can I make HDToolBox estimate the block size for my new drive?
2.9 * I am trying to format and/or validate my 32 GB drive and I can't; the system gives me an error saying that there is not enough memory, but I have 8 MB of RAM. What is happening?
2.10 * Should I defragment my drives?
2.11 * What is a "SuperFloppy"?
2.12 * How do I mount a SuperFloppy?
2.13 * How do I properly create CrossDOS mount file? I have no clue.
2.14 * Why is it that HDToolBox does not allow me to use my CF (Compact Flash) card?
2.15 * Is there a way to completely dismount a device?
2.16 * Is it possible for AmigaOS to use Mac drives?
2.17 * Should "SCSI Direct Transfer" always be enabled in HDToolBox?
2.18 * What is the problem in using different DOSType partitions?
2.19 * Why does my existing SmartFilesystem (SFS) partitions show up twice?
2.20 * Why does HDToolBox limit partitions on A2091/A590 to 4 GB?
2.21 * Why did my 4x IDE adapter stopped working when I installed 3.2?
2.22 * My CD-ROM drive does not work on my SCSI/IDE bus when it is set to unit 0. What is the problem?
2.23 * I have issues partitioning my Ultra Wide SCSI disks on my CyberStorm PPC/CyberStorm Mk3 accelerator. What can I do?
3. CPU Support and SetPatch
3.1 * I manually installed (and now get a warning from) SetPatch on unknown options.
3.2 * Where did the extended functionality of SetPatch go?
3.3 * Does my 68060 work out-of-the-box now or do I still have to hack the ROM?
3.4 * When booting the system, the Startup-sequence stops and gives me a warning about an incomplete installation. What is missing?
3.5 * Where do I find the CPU libraries, and how do I install them?
3.6 * ...but I lost my original support disk of my accelerator board!
3.7 * Where do I find a 68030.library? My board did not come with one.
3.8 * Couldn't you just package the CPU libraries with the OS?
3.9 * Couldn't you just ship the Commodore 68040.library?
3.10 * What about the dummy 68040.library? My old turbo board manual mentions that I have to install it, and rename it.
3.11 * I get a note from the CPU command on CPU errata. What should I do?
3.12 * Why is it that when I use the 68030.library, 68040.library or 68060.library from the MMULib package some extra megabytes of memory are consumed?
4. Performance and compatibility
4.1 * The Pointer and/or Locale Prefs render incorrectly on my screen.
4.2 * Why is SetPatch so slow?
4.3 * OS 3.2 is terribly slow!
4.4 * The system crashes as soon as I play a stereo 8SVX audio file.
4.5 * What about all those widely used system patches? Can I use them?
4.6 * Can I use the FBlit patch with AmigaOS 3.2?
4.7 * I am using Picasso96 with the "Native" driver, both downloaded from Aminet, and I get some issues displaying transparent images.
4.8 * How can I display HAM or EHB animations on my graphics card?
4.9 * Is there a way to speed up CDXL animations?
4.10 * How can I make anims go faster?
4.11 * Why is an AmigaGuide that has built-in images consuming so much Chip RAM?
4.12 * ClassAction and IconEdit from 3.9 do not install/work under AmigaOS 3.2. What is the problem?
4.13 * Final Writer 3 does not work on my system. What can I do?
5. Intuition Library V47
5.1 * What is the V47 intuition.library?
5.2 * Why is my Amiga exhibiting graphic glitches and corruption?
5.3 * Some windows display a weird new gadget. What is this?
5.4 * I don't like the new mouse pointer behavior where it changes its image when it finds window resize gadgets. Is there a way to go back to the old way of doing things?
5.5 * Pointer over windows is noticeably slower changing the pointer. How do I solve this?
5.6 * Why is it that my opaque solid window moving patch does not work anymore?
6. Printers
6.1 * Which printer drivers do I need, and which driver supports which printer?
6.2 * I have a printer that is not listed, but was supported with OS
3.1. What should I do?
6.3 * My OS 3.5/OS 3.9 printer drivers refuse to work with OS 3.2. Where is the problem?
6.4 * I have an unsupported printer. What can I do?
6.5 * Where is the "print to file" printer driver?
6.6 * Do I still need TurboPrint?
6.7 * Is there a way to use other device than the parallel port with my printer?
6.8 * Can I use multiple printers in AmigaOS 3.2? How?
7. CLI/Shell and Console
7.1 * Where is the PIPE program? I want to use pipes in my Shell.
7.2 * I cannot interrupt pipes from the Shell, or programs continue to run if I interrupt a piped command sequence.
7.3 * Why doesn't Shell or Workbench respect the "h" protection bit and hide the files whose "h" bit is set?
7.4 * Where is C:Execute? It still works but it is not there.
7.5 * I 've heard of a new command called "history"; what is this?
7.6 * Are there any other new fancy Shell features in 3.2?
7.7 * How do I include a forward slash "/" or backwards slash "" in the window title of a console?
7.8 * Is there a way to debug commands being executed by the Shell?
7.9 * How do I debug or trace Shell scripts?
8. Tools, utilities and commands
8.1 * ShowConfig is missing hardware expansion details and even then, my MMU is not detected.
8.2 * Are there any new command line arguments I should know of?
8.3 * Where are Lacer, MEmacs, HDBackup, Bru and MagTape?
8.4 * Is C:AssignWedge what I think it is?
8.5 * What can I do with the Mounter Tool?
8.6 * What is DefIcons? How do I use this?
8.7 * Is there an easy way to mount Amiga ADF files?
9. DiskDoctor
9.1 * What is DiskDoctor?
9.2 * What can it do for me?
9.3 * What are DiskDoctor's limitations?
9.4 * How do I use it to diagnose my drive?
9.5 * How do I salvage files in a damaged disk?
9.6 * I seem to be running out of memory when using DiskDoctor. But I have 4 MB of Fast RAM and an 8 GB partition.
10. ReAction
10.1 * What is the history of ReAction? How did it come to AmigaOS?
10.2 * But wait a minute... What is ReAction?
10.3 * What are its features?
10.4 * And how do I install and run it?
10.5 * What programs do you know that use ReAction?
10.6 * What is the difference between ReAction offered in AmigaOS 3.5/3.9 and the currently available ReAction V47?
10.7 * Where can I get development information for ReAction V47?
10.8 * Why is it that all Prefs programs, tools and utilities in AmigaOS 3.2 don't use ReAction?
10.9 * Why doesn't my ReAction program work under AmigaOS 3.2?
10.10 * Which ReAction classes are included with 3.2?
10.11 * Why did you choose ReAction and not MUI or other third party toolkit to integrate within AmigaOS 3.2?
11. OS 3.2 and OS 3.9
11.1 * Can I mix OS 3.9 components with OS 3.2?
11.2 * I'm using the OS 3.9 ReAction GUI for Preferences, but the GUI contains unreadable strings.
11.3 * IControl Preferences of OS 3.9 had a setting to render window gadgets in 1:1 aspect. Where is it?
11.4 * The background image of my Workbench now uses dithering, even though I'm using a true color screen mode. What's wrong?
11.5 * How do I set/change picture.datatype settings?
11.6 * How can I make the Euro symbol?
11.7 * Why didn't you base your work on OS 3.9 and instead used OS 3.1.4.1 as a basis?
11.8 * How can I load icons into Fast RAM? There's no program or Preference setting for it.
12. ROM Modules
12.1 * Can I use the modules from the modules disk to build my own custom Kickstart ROM?
12.2 * But why doesn't LoadModule load the modules into Fast RAM in the first place?
12.3 * I get a "Please insert a volume containing workbench.library..." during start-up. What is going on?
12.4 * Why are workbench.library and icon.library no longer in ROM?
12.5 * I installed all the files in the right places, but the OS does not seem to pick them up. Instead, I just get the OS 3.1 Workbench back. What's wrong?
12.6 * Some file permissions on my installation look really weird. Is that normal?
12.7 * Which ROM Modules are now required to have the "p" bit set?
12.8 * Are there any completely new ROM modules I should be aware of?
12.9 * I get new alerts that I have never seen before. What is going on?
13. Miscellaneous
13.1 * What are the issues with PCMCIA cards?
13.2 * Can I get the guru back?
13.3 * I have now 28 KB less Chip RAM; where did the RAM go?
13.4 * Where can I find the env-handler/happy-env feature I read about? How do I use it?
13.5 * WBPattern offers an option to interpolate a background picture. What does "Interpolated" mean in this context?
13.6 * Is it somewhat possible to use multiple input devices simultaneously?
13.7 * Where can I find font sensitive programs?
13.8 * How can I customize the text message on the Workbench title bar screen?
13.9 * How can I Change the "Release 3.2" text that appears both on my Workbench title bar and the About requester?
13.10 * Some files/drawers are displayed on Workbench with an underlined label. Why does this happen?
13.11 * How do I achieve a Kickstart/Workbench 1.x look?
14. The Amiga CDTV, CDTV-II (CDTV-CR), A570 and CD32
14.1 * What does this "Experimental Amiga CDTV and Amiga CD32 support" means?
14.2 * What are the CDTV, CDTV-II (CDTV-CR) and A570?
14.3 * How can I differentiate a CDTV from a CDTV-II (CDTV-CR)?
14.4 * Which types of ROMs do these CD-ROM-based machines use?
14.5 * which are the known CDTV Extended ROM versions?
14.6 * Where can I get a newer CDTV Extended ROM set for my CDTV?
14.7 * Why does Workbench's About menu requester display a weird Kickstart ROM version number?
14.8 * Can I use accelerators and fast RAM on my CDTV
14.9 * What is the CD32?
14.10 * Are there any hard drive size limitations for all these Amiga CD-ROM based models?
14.11 * Are there any restrictions regarding AmigaOS usage?
14.12 * How do I create and burn an AmigaOS 3.2 CD32 ROM?
14.13 * Which chips do I need to burn the CDTV Extended ROM set?
15. Support, Documentation, and Future
15.1 * Why didn't you support feature XYZ, World Domination, etc.?
15.2 * Speaking of support--where can I get any for this product?
15.3 * Will there be more updates?
15.4 * Are there any Easter Eggs in OS 3.2?
15.5 * Is there any other AmigaOS 3.2 documentation available?
15.6 * What is the origin of the AmigaOS 3.2 motto?
1. Installation
_______________
1.1 * What are the minimum hardware requirements for AmigaOS 3.2?
A) Kickstart ROM 3.2 (recommended), or a 3.1.4 one, or older 3.1
Kickstart ROM. We recommend the former as it will boot faster, require
less RAM, and also includes fixes in the hardware configuration
process, the latter of which cannot be replaced by code loaded from
disk.
B) 2 MB of total memory. Total memory is calculated by adding
Chip RAM and Fast RAM. Consider an additional half megabyte if you are
not using a physical Kickstart ROM 3.2.
C) 10 MB of free hard disk space.
And of course, an Amiga is needed. We cannot ensure that OS 3.2
operates correctly under all the different types of emulation since we
cannot control these environments. We tried our best, however, to keep
it as compatible as possible.
1.2 * Why won't AmigaOS 3.2 boot with 512 KB of RAM?
Well, we all heard the dummy phrase "512 KB ought to be enough for
anyone", but we are in 2021; not 1985.
Along with all the relevant OS core improvements we made--especially
to Workbench--it is not reasonable to expect to run it in such a bare
bones system. In other words, more changes require more RAM. It is the
price of progress; embrace it!
1.3 * Ok, I get it; 512 KB is not enough anymore, but can I get my way
with less than 2 MB of RAM?
This is how we break down memory usage: We have rounded up the numbers
to be on the safe side.
0.6 MB just to boot + 0.5 MB for loading ROM modules + 0.2 MB for
WBStartup components (AssignWedge + AutoArrangeIcons + DefIcons +
AsyncWB + MenuTools + RAWBInfo) which leaves 1.3 MB of free memory
on a 2.5 MB system.
Of course, in a system with a physical Kickstart ROM v47 (from AmigaOS
3.2), it will work nicely with just 2 MB of RAM.
The most intense, OS-memory hungry process is when you run the 3.2
installation; the installer script compilation itself is what
requires the most RAM.
You also need to consider that FastFileSystem partitions
require RAM to properly validate themselves. So the bigger the
partitions, the more memory they will require (see section 2.8 for
further information).
To reduce the memory footprint of AmigaOS you can disable some of the
new functionality by moving out of the WBStartup drawer all visible
icons (These icons take care of starting some of those new features).
This will aid in systems that are running extremely tight on RAM.
1.4 * How can I verify whether I correctly installed AmigaOS 3.2?
To verify whether you are running the updated AmigaOS 3.2, just open a
CLI/Shell and type:
version shell
If the result is lower than 47, it means that AmigaOS 3.2 has NOT
been correctly installed.
1.5 * Do you have any tips that can help me with 3.2 using my current
hardware and software combination?
Yes, here is a list that we compiled for you:
a) To use AmigaOS 3.2 with the Vampire V2 accelerator, despite the
fact that you are using an Amiga 500 or Amiga 600 machine, you should
utilize the Amiga 1200 AmigaOS 3.2 options. Installation information
and support if any, should be available at:
b) To use AmigaOS 3.2 together with an Elbox Mediator PCI busboard,
make sure you change the Mediator jumper settings to make your
system functional. Further support should be obtained through the
hardware manufacturer, which is available at http://www.elbox.com
c) When using a WarpEngine accelerator, please remember (from within
HDToolBox) to edit the partitions, select the "Direct SCSI" check box,
save the partitions, reboot, and all will be fine.
d) If you have the ACA500plus accelerator from Individual Computers,
it is recommended that you flash the 3.2 Kickstart ROM using the
manufacturer's included utilities.
e) When using a Commodore A2630 accelerator, you will find its RAM
expansions are sometimes not recognized. This is because the RAM was
set by Commodore in a non-standard way. The workaround is to use the
AddMem command available from Aminet.
f) If you are using a Fúria accelerator, please contact its vendor or
manufacturer to make sure you are using the latest firmware. Old
firmware seems to be the cause of multiple faults and issues. Also,
this accelerator seems to be extremely picky on what flash storage
media brands it will work with.
g) On the Wicher 500i series of accelerators, for the WicherBootMenu
to work, you must use:
C:LoadModule >NIL: DEVS:WicherBootMenu
placed at the beginning of Startup-sequence. More support should be
available from its manufacturer at https://www.7-bit.pl/
h) The Vampire 1200 V2 has technical issues that prevents both
the Indivision MK2 scandoubler and some PCMCIA expansions from
actually working. This is not an AmigaOS-related issue. A solution, if
any, should be available from https://www.apollo-accelerators.com
i) Some hardware expansions emulate the Gayle Amiga custom chip to be
able to provide storage features. The machines containing such
expansions will most of the time be detected as another machine type
during installation because of this. So please follow the Install
process suggestion on Module installation even if it seems wrong at
first sight, because if not, you may end up with a non-working storage
media controller. This is particularly the case with expansions such
as Apollo-Computers Vampire 500, IrixLabs Classic 520, most of the
Terrible Fire product line, among many others.
j) Please note that if you will be using a CDTV-based Amiga, you will
require an additional CDTV Extended ROM set which must be from the
year 1992 or later (earlier, or 1.0 and 2.9 beta versions won't work,
while 2.7 and 2.30 versions will do just fine). Please refer to the
AmigaOS 3.2 FAQ (section 14) for further details.
k) Please be aware that test reports have shown that the TF536
accelerator requires the MMULib package to be installed for the IDE
interface to work at correct speed (The MMULib package is available as
an AmigaOS 3.2 installation option).
1.6 * The Help subsystem fails, it seems it is not available anymore.
What happened?
The Help subsystem is localizable, so if you switched your locale
settings to another without installing or upgrading that new language
from the AmigaOS Install3.2 disk, the system will not find it as it
has not been installed.
So the solution is simple, if you switch to another language and the
Help subsystem seems not to be available, just insert the Install3.2
disk and start the AmigaOS installation procedure and choose the
"Update Languages" option, and select the language you are currently
using and proceed. After this process ends and you restart your
system, the Help subsystem in under this new language setting should
be available.
1.7 * What are GlowIcons? Should I choose to install them?
GlowIcons are a special kind of Amiga icon implementation that
features up to 256 colors and usually has its alternate image
represented with an added glow surrounding its depicted objects.
Planar or standard Amiga icons can only display up to four colors and
are more historically common.
If you have an Amiga that does not have a graphics card, please
consider that GlowIcons occupy much more Chip RAM than planar icons
and they only make sense if you use a screen mode with 16 colors or
more.
Furthermore, the overall resource overhead is significantly higher
when using GlowIcons. So slow CPUs and low throughput storage media
access are certainly not a good match for this choice.
In addition, the IconEdit program located in the Tools drawer cannot
edit GlowIcons.
That said, GlowIcons undoubtedly present a visual aesthetic enhancement
for those systems that have enough power to properly afford them.
1.8 * How can I verify the integrity of my AmigaOS 3.2 CD-ROM?
You can now check the integrity of the AmigaOS3.2CD volume's files by
entering from a Shell/CLI
Execute AmigaOS3.2CD:S/CDIntegrity
A report will be displayed and saved onto RAM:CDIntegrity.log. Be
aware this is both an extreme CPU and disk demanding process that will
calculate MD5 hashes from the files contained in the AmigaOS3.2CD:
volume and compare them against a built-in database.
Its purpose is to detect and diagnose any media transfer or storage
anomalies that could eventually occur right when the user is about to
roll out AmigaOS 3.2.
1.9 * My Greek/Russian/Polish/Turkish fonts are not being properly
displayed. How can I fix this?
Download ReplaceTopaz from Aminet and install it in C:.
Open with any Text editor your Startup-sequence and add the following
line just below the SetPatch one.
If you are using Greek add:
ReplaceTopaz topaz_ISO-8859-7.8
If you are using Russian add:
ReplaceTopaz topaz_Amiga-1251.8
If you are using Polish add:
ReplaceTopaz topaz_ISO-8859-2.8
If you are using Turkish add:
ReplaceTopaz topaz_ISO-8859-9.8
Then save the edited file, and reboot your system. Remember to have
topaz font selected and saved in FontPrefs for the changes to apply.
ReplaceTopaz will make sure that most topaz hardcoded programs also
get to use the new replacement font.
Take the time to read ReplaceTopaz documentation to properly finetune
your system more adequately to meet your needs and expectations.
Please be aware that you need to have Greek/Russian/Polish/Turkish
languages installed for these options to work. All these language
installation procedures also install many more non-latin customized
fonts. If you haven't done that when you installed AmigaOS 3.2, you
can do it by inserting the Install3.2 disk, and start the installation
procedure, and select the "Update Languages" option.
1.10 * When I boot from my AmigaOS 3.2 CD-ROM, I am being welcomed to
the "AmigaOS Preinstallation Environment". What does this mean?
The AmigaOS Preinstallation Environment (AmigaPE) is a small Operating
System subset used to install, deploy, and repair AmigaOS
installations.
AmigaPE is only available in the AmigaOS 3.2 CD-ROM as a bootable
medium.
Its goal is not to be a full-fledged nor a general-purpose Operating
System, but help on installation and maintenance tasks. So don't use
it for productivity purposes, or you will sooner than later get to
meet its limitations.
AmigaPE supports many AmigaOS features:
- Storage management including disk partitioning and formatting
- File system diagnostics and salvage operations with DiskDoctor
- AmigaDOS command set
- ED as a text editor
- More as a text file viewer
- Has a graphical user interface (a minimalistic Workbench)
- Is able to manipulate ADF files
- Can automate tasks using Shell scripts
AmigaPE does not support any of the following (just to name a few):
- ARexx
- Compugraphic fonts
- Data Types
- Printing
- Adjustable Preferences
- Keymaps
- Clipboard functionality
- Only supports large drives (bigger than 4 GB) on systems that have
Kickstart ROMs versions from 2018 or later (3.1.4, 3.2, etc.)
Hardware requirements for AmigaPE:
- Any Amiga with at least Kickstart ROM 3.0 (CDTV/A570/CDTV-II and
CD32 are also supported)
1.11 * What is the optimal ADF images/floppy disk ordering for a full
AmigaOS 3.2 installation?
The floppy request order that may also help user flash media setup
optimization on Gotek-like devices is the following:
Modules-[Machine] (Only required for 3.1 ROMs to support large drives)
HDSetup3.2 (Optional)
Install3.2
Workbench3.2
DiskDoctor
Locale
Local-[Language]
Extras3.2
Classes3.2
Fonts
Storage3.2
Backdrops3.2
GlowIcons3.2 (Optional)
Modules-[Machine] (Only when there is no physical 3.2 ROM set)
MMULibs (Optional)
1.12 * LoadModule fails for some unknown reason when trying to update
my ROM modules. What can I do?
LoadModule tries to make sure the system is in a stable condition to
be able to load ROM modules and update the system. For that purpose it
checks that all volumes are properly validated.
So, if you have a damaged volume or one that failed to validate,
LoadModule will quit without doing its intended work.
Be aware that this will also happen when there are foreign file system
volumes, such as Macintosh, or VlabMotion audio/video partitions.
In those cases the safest solution is to use HDToolBox to disable the
"Automount this partition" option on those particular volumes. You
may later use a proper mount file for mounting them.
A temporary workaround for the issue is to add the LoadModule
IGNOREVERIFY option to the Startup-sequence, which of course, prevents
LoadModule from performing any stability checks.
1.13 * I installed without selecting appropriate keymaps and/or printer
drivers. Is there a way to fix this without reinstalling?
Yes, you may follow the following procedure to install all keymaps:
A) Insert your Storage3.2 floppy disk (or double-click on its .ADF
image). Wait till the floppy icon shows up in Workbench.
B) Open a CLI/Shell and enter:
copy Storage3.2:keymaps/#? SYS
evs/Keymaps
C) Go to your Prefs drawer and double-click on the Input icon.
D) Select the keyboard type from the list displayed and press SAVE.
For printer drivers you should follow this other procedure:
A) Insert your Storage3.2 floppy disk (or double-click on its .ADF
image). Wait till the floppy icon shows up in Workbench.
B) Open a CLI/Shell and enter:
copy Storage3.2
rinters/#? SYSevs/Printers
C) Go to your Prefs drawer and double-click on the Printer icon.
D) Select the printer type from the list displayed and press SAVE.
2. Hard disks and file systems
______________________________
2.1 * Can I use partitions beyond the 4 GB boundary?
1. To be able to use large drives (over 4 GB), consider any of
these options:
a) Using either a 3.1.4 or 3.2 Kickstart ROM.
b) Alternatively, you can create a small (less than 1 GB) boot
partition, inside the first four gigabytes of your drive, which will
load the upgraded operating system (either AmigaOS 3.1.4 or 3.2 can be
used for this purpose). In this way all extended partitions will then
become available after the first reboot.
c) Another option is to boot from the "Modules" disk that belongs to
your specific Amiga model, and after Workbench loads, you can
double-click on the "Modules" disk icon and then on to the
"SYStoInstallDisk" icon. This will, after some disk swaps, properly
transfer the SYS: assign to your Install3.2 disk.
For this purpose, make sure you have your Install3.2 disk inserted,
and slide the drive-protection notch to the closed position, enabling
writing to the disk. Double-click the Install3.2 disk icon, and then
on the HDTools folder.
d) You may also use your AmigaOS 3.2 CD-ROM disc if you have it
already accessible and you are also using either a 3.1.4 or 3.2
Kickstart ROM with it.
In such a case you can use the "CopyToRAMandRun_HDToolBox" script
located in the "Install" drawer by double-clicking its icon, which
will copy HDToolBox to RAM: and launch it from there. If you need to
adjust tool types you can easily do that by quitting HDToolBox and
opening your RAM: volume to make those changes and then run it again.
2. Make sure the host adapter is correctly set. For this purpose,
select the HDToolBox icon, then holding down the right mouse button,
select the 'Icons' -> 'Information...' menu item. The SCSI_DEVICE_NAME
Tool Type is "scsi.device" by default (without the quotes), and will
work on most of the factory built-in Commodore Amiga controllers. Be
aware that each disk controller has one, and they are sometimes named
differently. Be sure to adjust its name to match the name in the
controller's manual.
3. Double-click the 'HDToolBox' icon to run the program. If it opens,
select the 'Continue' gadget.
4. All the drives connected to scsi.device (or the host-adapter name
you set in step #2 should appear. Only select the one you are
going to install.
5. Click on 'Change Drive type'.
6. Click on 'Define new...'.
7. Click on 'Read configuration'. If a dialog box opens, select
'Continue'.
8. Exit the Define/Edit Drive Type window by clicking 'Ok' and yet
again on the other 'Ok'. If a dialog box opens, select 'Continue'.
9. Now, in the main HDToolBox window, click on the 'Partition Drive'
gadget.
10. Now adjust partition sizes as desired. Be aware that by default,
HDToolBox presents you with a two-partition predefined scheme for new
drives, which you can modify at will.
11. While in the 'Partitioning' window of HDToolBox, click
on 'Advanced Options'.
Check the 'Direct SCSI transfer' check box for each partition.
However, if your hard drive controller is a Commodore A2090, or the
one that comes with the Phase 5 CyberStorm MK3/PPC, or was
manufactured before the year 1990, then leave the box unchecked.
12. If your controller was manufactured by Commodore (CBM) or GVP
(Great Valley Products), skip directly to the next step (step #13).
If the above does not apply to you:
Click 'Change...'. For each partition (to be used as an
AmigaDOS device), you will need to set the 'MaxTransfer' value.
Please consult your controller manufacturer's manual for the
appropriate value.
If unsure, a safe value for MaxTransfer is '0x1FE00' (without the
quotes).
Remember to press the RETURN key on your keyboard when done entering
this value or the changes will not be saved.
Finalize by clicking once on 'Ok'.
13. Click on 'Add/Update'. A list of currently installed file systems
appears on the screen. This list may be empty.
14. If there is already a file system on the list, click on 'Update
File System...'. Accept the default by clicking on 'OK'.
15. If there is no file system on the list, click on 'Add New File
System...', then accept the default choice for the file system, and
click on 'OK'.
16. A list of file system options is now shown. Ensure that the
version says '47'. If not, you did not boot from an AmigaOS 3.2 disk.
17. Click on 'Ok' to accept, or modify the file system type (DOSType)
accordingly. For most installations, the default type shown as
0x444f5303 is fine.
18. Click on 'OK' to go back to the list of file systems.
19. Click on 'OK' to go back to the partition list.
20. Make sure at least one partition has the 'Bootable' check box
selected. When finished, click on 'Ok'.
21. Click 'Save Changes to Drive'. A warning may appear; if
that happens, click on 'Continue'.
22. Click on 'Exit', and if a message appears, click the 'Continue'
gadget. A reboot may occur.
23. Now the new partition(s) should appear on the desktop as
unformatted/un-initialized.
24. Click once on the corresponding disk icon to select it, and then
from within Workbench (holding the right mouse button) select the
Icons menu to choose the "Format disk..." menu item.
From the Format window make sure to check the options you prefer, and
click "Quick Format". A warning requester will appear. Click "Format".
Please note that if you booted from a "Modules" disk, you may be able
to format volumes by double clicking on the "SYStoInstallDisk" icon
and after several disk swaps with the "Install3.2" disk you will be
able to successfully perform the procedure outlined above.
25. Now the partition is ready to store files.
2.2 * How do I setup a new drive with HDToolBox? I do not see the
drive in the selection box at all; what is wrong?
HDToolBox is a little bit old-fashioned, we know. To configure a new
drive:
1. Check the tool types. There should be one reading
SCSI_DEVICE_NAME=scsi.device
2. Verify that scsi.device is the proper driver interface name that
that your disk controller uses. If not, adjust it accordingly.
3. Click on "Change Drive Type".
4. A list of known drive types appears. Click on "Define New".
5. Click on "Read Configuration".
6. Click on "Continue".
7. Click on "OK".
Now you are ready to partition the drive.
2.3 * Long filenames--I was promised long filenames! How do I use them?
Yes, indeed; you can get them, though you need to reformat your hard
disk. Select "DOS\7" as the file system. The identifier for this is
0x444f5307 in HDToolBox. Or, just select the check box for "long
filename support". A similar check mark will also appear in the Format
program.
This will allow you to use filenames as long as 107 characters; and
no, it will not work without re-installation.
2.4 * But Workbench still limits my filenames to 30 characters!
Please check Workbench Preferences, in SYS:Prefs. You can set a
limit there. Of course, in the end, it's the file system that decides
whether a file name is shortened.
2.5 * I read something about a setting called "Max Transfer", which is
a value I need to manually adjust according to my system. How do
I set it up?
After some back and forth trying to solve this issue, fortunately
enough, the HDToolBox "max transfer" value is no longer required on
the built-in scsi.device driver of 3.2, and also on drive interfaces
made by the manufacturer formerly known as "GVP".
In the case of other third-party drive interface hardware, please
consult the corresponding manual to determine the recommended max
transfer setting.
That said, please bear in mind that we also publicly made available
two vendor specific FAQs (GVP-FAQ.readme and PP&S-040-FAQ.readme)
which address this and many more issues.
2.6 * When mounting the CD file system on an XSurf IDE device, reading
large DVDs results in a "-3" error being shown.
Unfortunately, the XSurf IDE neither speaks TD64 nor NSD64, and hence
cannot access files beyond the 2 GB barrier without a bit of help. For
this little help, open the mount file of the CDFS, and add the
following tool type to the CD0 icon:
SCSIDirect = 1
Then reboot the machine. This instructs the CD file system to use SCSI
commands rather than trackdisk commands to address the disk, and with
that, the XSurf IDE can access data beyond the barrier.
2.7 * My Amiga now takes about 10 minutes to boot my new 3.2 64 GB
partition. What is going on?
For media of this size, on a system that is slow, it is generally
advisable to use larger block sizes (i.e. not 512 bytes/block which
was the default, but at least 4096 bytes per block, i.e. one block is
8 sectors). This not only helps to speed up the process, but it also
helps flash media organize memory in larger blocks, in addition to
help modern hard disks which may have physically larger blocks as
well, while providing only an emulation of 512-byte blocks to the
outside world to keep legacy systems happy.
2.8 * How can I make HDToolBox estimate the block size of my new
drive?
With OS 3.2, HDToolBox now comes with the ability to estimate block
size defaults which are better suited to the size of the drive.
Please always remember on any new drive to first activate this
estimation procedure by following these steps:
1. Click on 'Change Drive type'.
2. Click on 'Define new...'.
3. Click on 'Read configuration'. If a dialog box opens,
select 'Continue'.
4. Exit the Define/Edit Drive Type window by clicking 'Ok'
and yet again on the other 'Ok'. If a dialog box opens,
select 'Continue'.
2.9 * I am trying to format and/or validate my 32 GB drive and I can't;
the system gives me an error saying that there is not enough
memory, but I have 8 MB of RAM. What is happening?
The error message says it all: Not enough memory. To validate a 32 GB
volume you may need around 16 MB of memory. That's not new--it's
always been this way, with all flavors of FFS. What's new is that it
gives an actual error message instead of just sitting there with a
non-validated partition.
With an Amiga emulator (e.g. WinUAE) you can see the magic: just add
the memory. You don't even need to reformat the partition, it will
validate automatically.
After that, you can use the card in your Amiga with less memory. But
beware of invalidating the partition, in which case you will once
again get the same error message.
A permanent workaround is to reformat the partition with a larger
block size. Unfortunately, this requires copying all data from the
affected partition to some other place, tune the block size with
HDToolBox, reboot, format the partition, and copy the data back. There
is unfortunately no non-destructive mechanism.
To estimate the amount of free memory required to validate a volume,
you can perform the following equation:
((S / B) / 32) * 8 = Free memory required for validation
S is the volume size in bytes
/ is the division sign
* is the multiplication sign
() are parentheses required to solve the expression inside first
B are the bytes per block as set by HDToolBox. Sizes start at 512
and are capped at 65536 bytes
Make sure that you round up the numbers before dividing as we don't
want floating point numbers getting in the way.
Examples:
A 500 MB partition with 512 bytes per block = 256 KB of RAM required
A 1 GB partition with 4096 bytes per block = 64 KB of RAM required
A 1 GB partition with 512 bytes per block = 0.5 MB of RAM required
A 64 GB partition with 512 bytes per block = 32 MB of RAM required
A 64 GB partition with 4096 bytes per block = 4 MB of RAM required
So always use the bigger blocks you can afford as you will save more
RAM at the expense of storage space.
2.10 * Should I defragment my drives?
If you are using flash media you should not defragment those volumes
at all. This applies for example, to Compact Flash cards (CF), Solid
State Drives (SSD), Secure Digital cards (SD), MicroSD cards (TF), etc.
This is because flash media has a limited write lifespan due to its
nature. In addition, flash storage media uses random access, and this
means that it really does not make any difference where data blocks
are physically located; they will all take the same time to be
accessed, whether they are contiguous or not.
On magnetic storage devices like traditional hard disks, defragmenting
makes sense, and provides performance improvements, but you have to be
careful that the tool you are using is both compatible with the file
system and the size of drive to which you are going to apply that
operation.
Please carefully read the defragmentation's program manual to
understand its limitations in this regard, because otherwise you will
risk destroying your precious drive data.
In particular, many (dated) programs will not be able to work on
partitions that exceed the 4GB limit.
2.11 * What is a "SuperFloppy"?
It is a removable medium like a floppy disk; just larger. Examples are
the ZIP disk, the Jaz drive and the LS-120 SuperDisk.
Like floppies, SuperFloppies do not use partitions; the entire medium
stores data. They do not make use of the Rigid Disk Block (RDB). They
may also come in variable sizes. And like floppies, the Amiga file
systems, when used with the ones we prepared, are smart enough to adapt
themselves to the size of the medium.
2.12 * How do I mount a SuperFloppy?
You need to use a mount file. In particular, the following entries
need to be set:
LowCyl = 0 ; there is no RDB
Device = <name of the exec device, e.g. scsi.device>
Unit = <unit number, e.g. the SCSI ID>
Flags = 0 ; typically, depends on the device
SuperFloppy = 1 ; This turns on SuperFloppy support
DOSType = 0x444f5303 ; for FFS INTL
FileSystem = L:FastFileSystem
Activate = 1
The file system will figure out all remaining parameters from the
device.
2.13 * How do I properly create CrossDOS mount files? I have no clue.
The following entries need to be present in the mount file:
FileSystem = L:CrossDOSFileSystem
DOSType = <see below>
The DOSType can be one of the following:
DOSType = 0x4D534400
This is a "FAT SuperFloppy" (see also below) meaning that there is no
partition table on the device, and the entire device is used for the
file system. For those of you that use Linux, this is equivalent to
mounting on top of "/dev/hda" or "/dev/sda" or the like.
DOSType = 0x4D534800
This is a "FAT partition", meaning that there is a partition table on
the device CrossDOS should interpret. It also means that CrossDOS
needs some information on "which partition it should use". Here
CrossDOS follows a rather unusual convention of using the last letter
of the device name, with "C" as the last letter indicating the first
partition, "D" the second and so on. So if the device has the above
DOSType, and is named "DH0C", then that is the first partition on the
target device.
For those of you who know Linux, this DOSType is equivalent to
mounting on top of "/dev/hda1" or "/dev/sda3" or the like.
DOSType = 0x4D534800
SuperFloppy = 1
This is, by convention, the same as "DOSType = 0x4D534400", i.e.
disabling the partition interpretation and running CrossDOS on top of
the device directly.
DOSType = 0x46415401
This is a legacy DOSType that should not be used, following the
(unfortunately broken) convention by FAT95. It indicates a partition
mount (same as 0x4D534800) where the last digit of the above code
indicates the partition.
Why should this not be used? Very simple: It creates 256 different
"DOSTypes", and hence for every partition requires loading another
copy of CrossDOS in memory. Hence, *avoid*.
Note: CrossDOS supports long file names, the mount flags "EnableNSD",
"DirectSCSI", Fat32, Fat16, Fat12 and Fat8.
Additional hints:
*) Typical USB sticks (a.k.a. "flash drives" or "thumb-drives") are
usually shipped with a partition table on it. That is, you need to
use:
DOSType = 0x4D534800
SuperFloppy = 0
and a device name that ends with "C" (as there is usually only one
partition on it).
*) Typical floppies do not have a partition table, hence:
DOSType = 0x4D534400
However, as MS-DOS floppies also use a different encoding on the
hardware level, the "trackdisk.device" will not do. Instead, use the
"mfm.device":
Device = mfm.device
Flags = 1
Surfaces = 2
SectorsPerTrack = 9
SectorSize = 512
Reserved = 1
Interleave = 0
LowCyl = 0
HighCyl = 79
2.14 * Why is it that HDToolBox does not allow me to use my CF (Compact
Flash) card?
If the HDToolBox Tool Types are properly set, then this is not an
issue with HDToolBox. It happens because the host adapter does not
report the card as a "random access device". This is the only device
type that allows RDBs.
Simply find another CF (Compact Flash) adapter that supports it. This
feature is sometimes referenced as "True IDE" by some manufacturers.
2.15 * Is there a way to completely dismount a device?
A user can now completely and *cleanly* dismount a device by following
the example below:
MOUNT HD5: SHUTDOWN && ASSIGN HD5: DISMOUNT
The ASSIGN DISMOUNT command will typically leave the handler running,
while MOUNT SHUTDOWN attempts to shut it down. Note that not all
handlers can be shut down, though those coming with 3.2 should
support it, including CrossDOS, CDFS, the FFS, the port-handler, the
queue-handler, the aux-handler and the con-handler.
2.16 * Is it possible for AmigaOS to use Mac drives?
Intel, PowerPC and Classic (68k) Macintosh computers used a file
system called Hierarchical File System (HFS). The AmigaOS 3.2
CDFilesystem now includes support for mounting HFS CD-ROMs, which
makes it an ideal partner for Mac emulators and also for owners of
these vintage systems.
We have already included a mount file for this purpose in:
SYS:Storage/DOSDrivers/MACCD0
2.17 * Should "SCSI Direct Transfer" always be enabled in HDToolBox?
The SCSI Direct standard has been in place since the release of OS 2.0
and the Commodore A2091/A590 controller interfaces. Therefore, most
third party disk controller products updated or (after that time)
added support for the standard in their provided driver.
Although there are newer controllers which may also support the later
TD_64 or NDS 64-bit API extensions, this SCSI Direct communications
method enjoys the widest support. It is therefore recommended to be
enabled for use with the OS-provided FastFileSystem (FFS) in AmigaOS
3.1.4 from 2018 and later updates.
2.18 * What is the problem in using different DOSType partitions?
If you are using several partitions and these have different DOSType
values, then the additional file system entry must be ADDED and NOT
UPDATED for the other DOSTypes. Please be careful and use the
correct operation, which is ADD, or otherwise you will risk losing
data.
2.19 * Why does my existing SmartFilesystem (SFS) partitions show up
twice?
That is a bug of SmartFilesystem that causes ghosted "DHx:SFS\0" icons
on Workbench when using modern AmigaOS versions. A patch to fix this
can be found at: http://www.doobreynet.co.uk/amiga.html
2.20 * Why does HDToolBox limit partitions on the A2091/A590 to 4 GB?
This happens because even the latest version 7.0 ROM for the
A2091/A590 controller does not support partitions greater than 4GB.
HDToolBox will automatically limit the allocable drive capacity to
4GB. This is to protect users who may not have a file system
supporting "SCSI Direct Transfer", or who don't know how to enable
this SCSI Direct option with the FastFileSystem.
However, if you feel confident that you have both, then you can
override this protection by setting "LIMIT_4GBYTE=OFF" in the
HDToolBox's Tool Types. Another option is to purchase the latest
version of the third-party GuruROM upgrade for the A2091/A590.
2.21 * Why did my 4x IDE adapter stopped working when I installed 3.2?
AmigaOS always supported 2 devices on the IDE port. To be able to
use 4, a third-party software patch called IDEFix was often used. The
problem is that the IDEFix software does not work correctly under many
OS versions. In fact, on many scenarios, it will most likely fail.
A possible solution involves downloading "AtapiMagic" from Aminet:
Unarchive it, and place it in LIBS:modules. To be able to use it, just
open your Startup-sequence with a text editor where you will find:
If Exists C:LoadModule
C:Version exec.library version 47 >NIL:
If Warn
C:LoadModule ROMUPDATE
EndIf
EndIf
Just modify those six lines with the following ones:
If Exists C:LoadModule
C:Version exec.library version 47 >NIL:
If Warn
C:LoadModule LIBS:modules/AtapiMagic ROMUPDATE
Else
C:LoadModule LIBS:modules/AtapiMagic
EndIf
EndIf
Save the Startup-Sequence and reboot your machine for the changes to
take effect.
If everything went fine, you should now be able to use 4 IDE
interfaces without the need of any third-party software.
2.22 * My CD-ROM drive does not work on my SCSI/IDE bus when it is set
to unit 0. What is the problem?
Avoid this configuration. Scsi.device will just shoot itself in the
foot (and then aim higher) trying to get an RDB off the CD-ROM drive.
The problem is with the approach the scsi.device code takes to find
devices, coax these into producing useful information about
themselves, observing funny timeouts along the way, retrying
operations if necessary and somehow booting the system off an RDB
before the user's patience runs out.
We advise to always put your boot disk on unit 0 (this should be a
hard disk, a SD/CF card adapter, or similar fixed disks), and if you
have to have more of the same kind of mass storage devices attached,
put them on units 1, 2, 3, etc. in consecutive order. Removable
devices such as CD-ROMs should be last. Make sure that the HDToolBox
settings are such that the scsi.device stops scanning after it has
found the last of such fixed disk devices.
2.23 * I have issues partitioning my Ultra Wide SCSI disks on my
CyberStorm PPC/CyberStorm Mk3 accelerator. What can I do?
The CyberStorm PPC and CyberStorm Mk3 series of accelerators have a
built-in Ultra Wide SCSI controller based on the NCR 53C770 chip.
Their built-in firmware uses a custom API to be able to manage their
Ultra Wide SCSI capabilities. Therefore, we suggest you avoid
HDToolBox and instead use the tools which were provided by its
manufacturer, Phase 5, which are available from:
https://aminet.net/package/driver/me...-SCSI-Tools-31
3. CPU Support and SetPatch
___________________________
3.1 * I manually installed (and now get a warning from) SetPatch on
unknown options.
The OS 3.9 SetPatch included additional functionality that is no
longer present in OS 3.2 and has been moved to other
programs. The line in the Startup-sequence calling SetPatch should
only read as follows:
SetPatch >NIL:
You need to correct your Startup-sequence accordingly. In particular,
NOROMUPDATES and NONSDPATCH are no longer options SetPatch supports.
3.2 * Where did the extended functionality of SetPatch go?
OS 3.9 SetPatch included a ROM-Updates functionality to install new
ROM modules on top of the old ones. This functionality is now
implemented by a separate program called "LoadModule". It is included
in the C: directory of the Modules disk.
There is also a new ROM module called "System-startup" that alleviates
LoadModule of some its loading duties.
OS 3.9 SetPatch also included "NSDPatch," a feature to patch-in a
Commodore-only command set for addressing large devices, while most
third-party devices supported the earlier TD64 specification. This
extension is no longer necessary; see above.
If you want to continue using the NSDPatch approach, you'll find the
NSDPatch program in the C: directory of the HDSetup3.2 disk. Copy
the program to the C: directory of your boot disk, and insert NSDPatch
into your Startup-sequence right after SetPatch.
However, as stated above, this step is (typically) no longer
necessary.
3.3 * Does my 68060 work out-of-the-box now or do I still have to hack
the ROM?
You don't have to hack the Kickstart ROM from 3.1.4 nor 3.2, but you
still need to install a proper CPU library. See below.
3.4 * When booting the system, the Startup-sequence stops and gives me
a warning about an incomplete installation. What is missing?
The CPU support library is missing. In particular, 68040 and
68060-based systems need to have the 68040.library or the
68060.library in LIBS: Without them, the system cannot work reliably.
Some systems have the 68040.library or 68060.library in their
accelerator ROM. On such systems, no installation is necessary, and
you will not get any warning.
For 68030-based systems, we recommend a 68030.library as well, as
otherwise the system can deadlock in a couple of situations. This is
due to a hardware errata/specification change of Motorola. Installing
this library will also allow you to enable the data cache when using
bridge boards.
3.5 * Where do I find the CPU libraries, and how do I install them?
Please remember: Never install your CPU libraries during the
AmigaOS installation procedure. Do that before or afterwards.
These CPU libraries should have come with the support disk from your
accelerator card vendor. The installation procedure depends on the
vendor, but typically requires you to copy the CPU library from the
install disk to LIBS: with a command such as the following:
copy df0:libs/680?0.library to LIBS:
(Please note that the ? in the filename above is not a literal value)
We also suggest checking your vendor's documentation or FAQ. In
particular, we included a FAQ that covers general MC68020-MC68060 CPU
generic environments (CPU-FAQ.readme), another one for GVP boards
(GVP-FAQ.readme) and one for the PP&S A2000 68040/28 board
(PP&S-FAQ.readme). All of them are placed in the "FAQs" folder of the
AmigaOS 3.2 CD-ROM.
3.6 * ...but I lost my original support disk of my accelerator board!
Oh well. There is a generic replacement that is offered when going
through the AmigaOS installation procedure that works, in general,
quite well.
3.7 * Where do I find a 68030.library? My board did not come with one.
See above for where to find one. Boards didn't usually come with one
because the errata was only found years after the introduction of the
68030. Some legacy MMU tools also inadvertently prevented the issue.
3.8 * Couldn't you just package the CPU libraries with the OS?
We would love to, but the libraries are (in general) vendor specific,
and most vendors are no longer in business. While the generic
replacement we have included as an installation option works fine in
general, it may not work for your particular board.
Please note that we do not have CPU libraries for all vendors on file,
let alone the permission to redistribute them. However, a web search
can often help in locating missing CPU libraries, as well as notable
Amiga hardware reference websites. Also check the vendors' or
third-party FAQs.
3.9 * Couldn't you just ship the Commodore 68040.library?
See above. It's old, may not work for your board, and we don't want to
damage your installation. However, for the boards that were originally
delivered with it, the generic replacement we have included as an
optional installation alternative works fine without any further
tweaks.
3.10 * What about the dummy 68040.library? My old turbo board manual
mentions that I have to install it, and rename it.
Disregard this. OS 3.2 does not require any dummy 68040.library. It
detects the right CPU library itself and does not require a dummy.
In particular, for a 68060 processor, the 68060.library is sufficient
(plus, the mmu.library if you use a MuLib-based processor library).
3.11 * I get a note from the CPU command on CPU errata. What should
I do?
Erratas are known defects in the CPU, typically found after
introduction to market. Unfortunately, not all CPU libraries are able
to work around all errata. You did install a CPU library, didn't you?
For the 68030: Install a 68030.library. This will avoid the "CIIN
disabled on write" errata.
For the 68060: If you cannot use the generic 68060.library mentioned
above, and must use your OEM provided library, add the following
command to the Startup-sequence:
CPU DISABLELOADSTOREBUFFERBYPASS
Which disables the most common errata/issue with earlier 68060 CPU
masks.
There is also an (F6) Errata that applies to the earliest 68060 CPU
mask which has no resolution option. It is a flaw that was found with
a unique sequence of floating point instructions, and it produces an
incorrect mathematical result. Most software makers with inline
floating instructions have coded around it. Common 680x0 program code
never encounters it. It is suitable to add >NIL: to the CPU command
to skip the error in most cases.
3.12 * Why is it that when I use the 68030.library, 68040.library or
68060.library from the MMULib package some extra megabytes of
memory are consumed?
Whether it is 5 MB or some other number that gets used, depends on how
much main memory you have. The 5 MB are for the MMU tables the 68040
or 68060 CPU require. The "CPU Checkinstall" in the Startup-sequence
should actually detect the case when the 68040.library or
68060.library are not loaded.
Less memory goes away for the 68030, though. Its MMU has a feature
called "early termination page descriptors" that can save quite a bit
of memory by avoiding duplicated table descriptors. Unfortunately,
Motorola stopped supporting them with the introduction of the 68040.
4. Performance and compatibility
________________________________
4.1 * The Pointer and/or Locale Prefs render incorrectly on my screen.
Yes, we do test programs before delivering them. What you see here is
not a bug in either the Locale or the Pointer preference program, but
a bug in CyberGraphX not implementing the "minterms" correctly. The
same program works nicely on a native or Picasso96 screen.
So if you depend on this particular RTG system, you'll have to live
with it or request a fix to CyberGraphX from its vendor(s).
Note: Do not install two different RTG systems on the same system, as
this will most likely cause conflict between them.
4.2 * Why is SetPatch so slow?
Since AmigaOS 3.2, SetPatch has many more jobs than ever before. It
doesn't just load the corresponding CPU libraries and builds MMU
tables.
Also, there is an IDE bus scan that is necessary for some hardware to
ensure its proper operation.
So all these factors result in a perception that the performance has
been negatively impacted, while in reality we are favoring both
reliability and flexibility.
Please consider that both the Prometheus and Mediator PCI busboard
expansions occupy 512 MB of address space. Assembling MMU tables for
such a huge address range takes time, since the hardware does not log
on to the system with the size it really needs, so the maximum size
is used.
To overcome this, follow the MMULib package documentation to modify
your ENVARC:MMU-configuration file to limit the address used to the
really necessary size for the cards installed. So in this way, no
excessive MMU tables will be built by your MMULibs and the system will
boot considerably faster.
4.3 * OS 3.2 is terribly slow!
You are using a disk-based installation, right? Well, LoadModule needs
to load the updated ROM modules into some reset-resident memory. In a
worst-case scenario, this is done via Chip RAM, and yes, access to
Chip RAM is slow.
However, you can do the following:
1. Buy a physical ROM and install it, thus eliminating the need for
replacing ROM modules by RAM modules.
Or, in case your system is equipped with an MMU:
2. Install the MMULib option and add the following
command below SetPatch in the S:Startup-sequence:
MuProtectModules ON REMAP
This will remap the ROM modules from their current location to the
fastest available RAM and give you some extra speed. Bear in mind
though, that using this option will use RAM which you won't be able to
free.
If you still feel certain Workbench operations are slow, you can
additionally move out components of the WBStartup drawer to some other
drawer and reboot your amiga. The firsts candidates for this should be
RAWBInfo and AsyncWB. Doing this will of course remove features
associated with those components.
4.4 * The system crashes as soon as I play a stereo 8SVX audio file.
Please check whether or not you have the svx.datatype (yes, really
"svx", not "8svx") installed. Unfortunately, this data type is not
compatible with the way 3.2 and OS 3.9 sound data types handle stereo
data. Just remove it. 8svx will play stereo data perfectly fine now.
4.5 * What about all those widely used system patches? Can I use them?
At the time of this writing, we are proud to tell you that many of
those hacks are no longer necessary!
Among these patches you will find:
RamLibFix, PatchRAM, StackAttack, AmberRAM, PrepareEmul, RsrvWarm,
SwazInfo, RomFixes, AssignWedge, AssignP, AssignZ, HappyENV,
Env-Handler, ZShell, PowerWindows, PowerWindowsNG, IconifyGadget,
wIconify, FastLayers, Quicklayers, HideWBTitle, KillTitle, FreeWheel,
IntuiWheel, bk_rangercheck etc.
Of course, many of these programs also contained hacks to do things the
OS was not programmed to do in the first place (Like MCP, SystemPatch,
MultiCX, etc.). We did not implement some of these hacks, because they
do not follow proper Amiga coding rules and do their stuff in a
"dirty" way, causing potential harm to the system. You are welcome to
try them, but don't complain to us if they end up crashing your
machine.
And also be extremely careful not to activate a patch for a fix,
because most patches don't do proper checking and will probably end up
putting your system in an unstable condition. Being cautious and
conservative is always a wise choice.
4.6 * Can I use the FBlit patch with AmigaOS 3.2?
Yes you can; however we don't recommend you use it because it does not
follow the Amiga development guidelines, which results in an unstable
system.
Instead, we suggest you use Picasso96 together with the "Native"
driver (both available on Aminet). This will bring the benefits that
FBlit provided, but on a clean, AmigaOS-friendly manner. And not only
that, but it will also enable you to use applications that only worked
with Retargetable Graphic Cards (RTG), despite not having one.
4.7 * I am using Picasso96 with the "Native" driver, both downloaded
from Aminet, and I get some issues displaying transparent images.
This is a known issue of older Picasso96 (P96) software, where
bitmap.image will not work correctly for transparent images on non-RTG
screens.
The solution is simple: upgrade to latest P96 (available from
Individual Computers) and everything will be fine.
Note: Do not install two different RTG systems on the same system, as
this will most likely cause conflict between them.
4.8 * How can I display HAM or EHB animations on my graphics card?
Setting the env variable "classes/datatypes/animation/NoHAMorEHB"
to 1 enables the conversion of HAM and EHB animations to a standard
mode on the fly.
4.9 * Is there a way to speed up CDXL animations?
The CDXL data type has a couple of environment variables that can
be configured to make the most out of it:
Prefs/Env-Archive/Classes/DataTypes/animation/cdxl/cdspeed
Sets the playback speed in CD-ROM speed units.
From 1 to 63. x1=150KB/s. When not set, it defaults
to the more common 300 KB/s or x2 (Amiga CD32)
Prefs/Env-Archive/Classes/DataTypes/animation/cdxl/speed
Sets the playback speed in KB/s. This value when set
overrides the previously mentioned 'cdspeed' variable.
Prefs/Env-Archive/Classes/DataTypes/animation/cdxl/fps
Sets the playback speed in frames per second.
From 1 to 60. Setting it to 12 will probably play all CDXL files.
For slow machines, playback on a custom screen is significantly faster
than in window mode.
4.10 * How can I make anims go faster?
The anim.datatype, has the following environment variables to
configure its playback:
Prefs/Env-Archive/classes/datatypes/animation/anim/fpslimit
Limits the max FPS for slower machines to prevent frame skipping.
Prefs/Env-Archive/classes/datatypes/animation/anim/fps
Forces user defined FPS for playing the file at given speed.
It overrides its 'fpslimit' variable.
4.11 * Why is an AmigaGuide that has built-in images consuming so much
Chip RAM?
The new features of amigaguide.datatype allow the display of pictures
in AmigaGuides. This novel feature uses the system-installed
data types for this purpose. And some data types don't make efficient
use of the system memory. This is especially the case for images that
have transparency set. So either removing the transparency and/or
replacing the affected data type may be viable solutions.
Also pay attention to the dimensions and amount of colors that each of
these images contain, as they need to be factored in the performance
equation when displaying these pictures.
4.12 * ClassAction and IconEdit from 3.9 do not install/work under
AmigaOS 3.2. What is the problem?
These are AmigaOS 3.5/3.9 exclusive programs. Both the file manager
named ClassAction (please do not confuse it with ClassAct) and the
IconEdit program from AmigaOS 3.9 do not work with AmigaOS 3.2 because
they require the third-party resource.library which seems to be only
available in both AmigaOS 3.5 and AmigaOS 3.9.
But if you manually copy that library to LIBS: you should be able to
use these two programs without issues.
4.13 * Final Writer 3 does not work on my system. What can I do?
It is a known fact of life that some programs are buggy due to
questionable design choices made by their developers. This is the case
for Final Writer 3 where a custom-made dialog is used to save files.
Unfortunately, this procedure is buggy as it tries to access memory in
an illegal way.
The workaround is to update that software to "Final Writer 97". We
also had several reports of other versions of Final Writer, which do
not have this custom save dialog and seem to work just fine.
5. Intuition Library V47
________________________
5.1 * What is the V47 intuition.library?
It is an update to the system library responsible for the GUI that
includes a couple of new features.
Among them, there is a feature to allow you to drag windows out of the
screen. It is now installed by default.
Still, it should be activated by the Preferences editor IControl
that now has a toggle option for out-of-screen window dragging, a
feature introduced in Intuition with the previous OS 3.1.4 update.
That said, window moves now "stick at screen borders", i.e. you have
to move "harder" if you want to move them across the screen boundary.
"How hard" is resolution dependent such that you should always travel
approximately the same distance with the mouse.
Courtesy of the new Intuition, by keeping the SHIFT key depressed
and clicking on the window zoom gadget, that window will be maximized.
Furthermore, it is now possible to resize windows by dragging any of
their borders. Additionally it is now possible for gadgets to specify
a mouse pointer when over a window. Note that all of these new
features first need to be enabled in IControl Prefs.
And last, but not least, Intuition allows windows to be iconified and
hidden by clicking on the new Iconify gadget.
5.2 * Why is my Amiga exhibiting graphic glitches and corruption?
This is neither a hardware nor an AmigaOS issue. It is the fault of
the CyberGraphX RTG driver software that handles your graphics card.
Unfortunately, this piece of software depends on the precise layout of
undocumented intuition internals, and it fails to work when these
change. So please avoid using CyberGraphX and use Picasso96 instead.
However, if you still want to keep using CyberGraphX you can, but
limitations may apply.
Note: Do not install two different RTG systems on the same system, as
this will most likely cause conflict between them.
5.3 * Some windows display a weird new gadget. What is this?
Intuition now has the ability to iconify and hide windows. Be warned
that it is currently not VisualPrefs-friendly.
Shell, Clock and MultiView make use of this new iconification feature
(Multiview’s window, but not its file requester). Also, all Prefs and
Commodities are equipped with this function too. In the particular
case of Commodities, their "iconify gadget" works a bit differently by
actually closing the window down, and not just hiding it.
The ICONIFY keyword, compatible with the ViNCEd Shell-console
replacement program will give new console windows an iconify gadget.
You can request it with a path like this:
CON:leftedge/topedge/width/height/title/CLOSE/ICONIFY
Be aware that iconification only works in CON: mode (but not in RAW:
mode).
For this purpose, C:ConClip has been updated to accommodate for the
loading of the icon that is used by the console for its iconification.
This is ENV:sys/def_shell.info, or SYS:Shell.info, or
SYS:System/Shell.info, or SYS:System/CLI.info, in this order, using
the first match. If none is found, the con-handler will not be able to
install an iconify gadget.
5.4 * I don't like the new mouse pointer behavior where it changes
its image when it finds window resize gadgets. Is there a way to
go back to the old way of doing things?
We know that old habits are hard to kill. If you want to quickly
restore the mouse operation to be exactly like the 'good old times'
then open a Shell/CLI and type:
rename envarc:sys/Pointer.prefs Pointer.bak
Then reboot your machine, and you will be able to have the vintage
pointer operating at its former glory.
5.5 * Pointer over windows is noticeably slower changing the pointer.
How do I solve this?
This happens because Intuition tries to avoid using all of the Amiga's
time reflecting pointer changes. If you have a powerful CPU you may
want to tell Intuition to wait shorter periods between testing for
pointer changes.
To modify this, open IControl and adjust the slider "Pointer Hover
Max Lag:" (Low uses more CPU) to the desired position where you feel
there is an adequate balance between CPU usage and pointer change
reaction time.
5.6 * Why is it that my opaque solid window moving patch does not work
anymore?
Patches which implement a real-time solid window moving and resizing
hacks, are incompatible with the new intuition.library v47.
Those patches are built upon assumptions in terms of rendering speed,
on how Intuition reacts to the changes, with further effects down the
line in the Operating System components which Intuition builds upon.
They work well enough most of the time, but there's more than one
obstacle in the Operating System's architecture to spoil the fun.
When you resize or drag a window in this manner, every mouse movement
winds itself through the Intuition event handling state machine,
generating refresh and size change events on the fly, which in turn
cause window refresh work to follow. These events tend to be out of
sync with your mouse movements, because that's how Intuition is
designed.
This is slow going and there are side-effects, e.g. memory needs to be
allocated for the underpinnings of the windows (layers and their
clipping/hidden portions) and some applications may end up spending
more time rebuilding/refreshing previously hidden areas than they
ought to.
An alternative is to use the included intuition-old.library to replace
the new one. However, you must have in mind that downgrading to the
old intuition means losing all fancy new features like off-screen
windows, iconification, TextEdit, resize windows from all corners, set
border aspect ratios, between many other things. Furthermore, with
this old library you will have to deal with various bugs we have
already fixed in V47.
If you have already installed the OS, you can still go back to the old
intuition.library by selecting the "Execute command" from the
Workbench menu, and entering the following series of commands:
rename LIBS:intuition.library to new-intuition.library
rename LIBS
ld-intuition.library to intuition.library
And then, power cycle your Amiga for the changes to take effect.
6. Printers
___________
6.1 * Which printer drivers do I need, and which driver supports which
printer?
The following printer drivers are part of 3.2:
NEC_Pinwriter: NEC P5,P6,P7,P9 and P2200
EpsonX_Old: Epson EX,FX,JX,LX,MX and RX
This driver is deprecated. Use only if the regular driver does not
work. It is recommended for the old MPS 1230 made by Commodore.
EpsonX: Epson EX,FX,JX,LX,MX and RX
This is the preferred driver. Try the "old" variant only if this
one does not work.
EpsonQ: Epson LQ-800,LQ-850,LQ-1000,LQ-1050,
LQ-1500 and LQ-2500
Postscript: Any PostScript printer should work with this.
HP_LaserJet: HP LaserJet, HP LaserJet+, HP LaserJet II,
HP LaserJet 500 and HP LaserJet 2000
This printer driver supports resolutions up
300x300 dpi, in grayscale only.
HP_LaserJet_III: HP LaserJet II+ and HP LaserJet III
This printer driver also supports resolutions
up to 300x300 dpi in grayscale, but enables
compression of graphics for faster printing.
HP_LaserJet_4: HP LaserJet 4, HP LaserJet 5, HP LaserJet 6,
HP LaserJet 1100 and HP LaserJet 3100
This printer driver supports resolutions up
to 600x600 dpi in grayscale with compression
enabled.
HP_LaserJet_2100: HP LaserJet 2100, HP LaserJet 4000,
HP LaserJet 5000 and HP LaserJet 8000
This printer driver supports resolutions up to
1200x1200 dpi in grayscale with compression
enabled.
Newer HP LaserJet printers supporting PCL might work as well.
Available at the time of writing is the HP LaserJet Pro M402 series,
which prints fine using the HP_LaserJet driver and probably other
driver variants as well. You'll need a USB expansion or network card
plus lpr.device from Aminet to connect to these modern printers. Make
sure to redirect parallel.device to either usbparallel.device or
lpr.device. Our current preferences program has been updated to allow
selecting a custom target and unit number.
HP_DeskJet: HP Deskjet, HP Deskjet+, HP DeskJet 310,
HP DeskJet 320, HP_DeskJet_500,
HP_DeskJet_510, HP_DeskJet_520
Resolutions up to 300x300 dpi grayscale
with compression.
HP_DeskJet_340: HP Deskjet 340/340CM/340CBi, HP_DeskJet_550C,
and HP_DeskJet_560C
Resolutions up to 300x300 dpi in color or
grayscale with compression. These printers
print with four types of inks (CMYK).
HP_DeskJet_400: HP_DeskJet_200C, HP_DeskJet_400,
HP_DeskJet_400L, HP_DeskJet_420C,
HP_DeskJet_500C, HP DeskJet 540C,
HP_DeskJet_550C, HP_DeskJet_560C,
HP_DeskJet_670C, HP DeskJet 672C,
HP_DeskJet_1200C
Resolutions up to 300x300 dpi in color with
compression. These printers print with three
types of ink and use color ink to mix up black.
HP_DeskJet_600: HP Deskjet 600, HP DeskJet 610C/610CL,
HP DeskJet 612C, HP_DeskJet_660C,
HP DeskJet 680C, HP DeskJet 682C,
HP DeskJet 690C, HP DeskJet 692C,
HP DeskJet 693C, HP DeskJet 694C,
HP_DeskJet_695C, HP DeskJet 697C,
HP DeskJet 810C, HP_DeskJet_812C,
HP_DeskJet_815C, HP_DeskJet_830C,
HP_DeskJet_832C, HP_DeskJet_850C,
HP_DeskJet_855C, HP_DeskJet_870C,
HP_DeskJet_880C, HP_DeskJet_882C,
HP_DeskJet_890C, HP_DeskJet_1600,
HP_DeskJet_1600C and HP_DeskJet_1600CM
Resolutions up to 600x600 dpi in grayscale and
300x300 dpi in color, with compression. These
printers use four ink types.
HP_DeskJet_895C: HP_DeskJet_895C, HP_DeskJet_970C,
HP_DeskJet_1100C and HP_DeskJet_1120C
Resolutions up to 600x600 dpi in color or
grayscale. These printers print with four ink
types.
Generic: An ASCII only, text-only printer without
graphics support you may try if everything else
fails.
6.2 * I have a printer that is not listed, but was supported with OS
3.1. What should I do?
Just copy the printer driver from OS 3.1 to DEVS:Printers, and select
it from the Printer Preferences editor. OS 3.1 drivers will continue
to work fine with OS 3.2.
6.3 * My OS 3.5/OS 3.9 printer drivers refuse to work with OS 3.2.
Where is the problem?
The problem is a common bug in the OS 3.5/3.9 drivers that stops them
from working in OS 3.2. In particular, the drivers return an
incorrect result code from their initialization function, and the 3.9
printer.device never cared about whether initialization succeeded or
not. This has been fixed in 3.2, with the side effect of OS 3.9
drivers no longer working. Note, however, that all models supported in
3.9 are also supported by native 3.2 drivers, so no harm is done.
6.4 * I have an unsupported printer. What can I do?
Well. Write a printer driver, for example. (-: Or, at least, try to
get a technical description from its vendor, and forward it to us.
Unfortunately, most consumer printers today are GDI-printers that use
a closed, proprietary protocol to communicate with the operating
system of a large US company only, so good luck. And no, we do not
have better access to technical manuals either.
Note, however, that most printers nowadays fall into four categories:
PCL-based printers, mostly from HP. These should work fine with one of
the HP printer drivers.
PostScript-based printers. These work fine with the PostScript driver.
EscP-based printers. They work fine with the Epson or EpsonQ drivers.
GDI printers. They don't work on anything but Windows, and their
vendors do not care about niche products like AmigaOS anyhow.
6.5 * Where is the "print to file" printer driver?
We don't have one, but none is needed either. Just run the "CMD"
program which you can find in Sys:Tools. It will redirect printer
output to a file. It will now also give you a file requester as soon
as you start printing.
6.6 * Do I still need TurboPrint?
No; at least not for the printers supported by 3.2. But, if you have
it, you can surely use it. With the exception of the bugs 3.2 fixed,
the printing system did not change.
6.7 * Is there a way to use other device than the parallel port with
my printer?
The Printer Preferences editor in AmigaOS 3.2 allows the user to enter
a custom output device for the printer and select a unit number.
6.8 * Can I use multiple printers in AmigaOS 3.2? How?
Yes, you can have as many printer units as you want, there is no
restriction in 3.2 compared to what 3.9 had to offer. Just proceed as
follows: Copy the printer preferences, open the information window on
the copy, and add the Tool Type "UNIT=1" (or whatever). This icon then
sets the preferences for the printer.device unit 1. Continue with as
many units as you want to have.
Also The printer.device now also reads printergfxN.prefs and
PrinterPSN.prefs for consistency when using multiple printers. For
this purpose, the PrinterGfx and PrinterPS preferences editors now
support the UNIT Tool Type and the UNIT command line argument.
7. CLI/Shell and Tools
______________________
7.1 * Where is the PIPE program? I want to use pipes in my Shell.
Nowhere. You no longer need it. Shell version 47 natively supports
pipes. The | symbol pipes the output of the left program into the
input of the right program, || merges the output of two programs
together, and ( ) group programs.
In 3.2 there is also a new Shell operator && in addition to ||. While
|| is the concatenation operator, && is the "and" operator from bash.
It first executes the first command, and if this fails, it aborts. If
not, it executes the second command.
Note the binding: "||" and "|" are "left to right associative", and
bind stronger than &&. That is.
a && b | c
means a && (b | c)
whereas
a || b | c
means (a || b) | b
i.e. "||" and "|" have a higher priority as operators.
Also error handling has been improved. We now have a functional stderr.
So that means we can specifically redirect error streams. For example:
list >blah
will redirect error and regular output to "blah", just because this is
how it always worked, but
list >blah *>errors
will redirect regular output to "blah", and error output to "errors".
If you want errors on the console, but regular output on a file, use
list >blah *>*
Note that *> is the error redirection operator and * is the console.
7.2 * I cannot interrupt pipes from the Shell, or programs continue to
run if I interrupt a piped command sequence.
Make sure the OS 3.2 Queue-Handler is in L:. Many third-party
variants do not operate correctly, or cannot interrupt pipes. The
3.2 Shell depends on the features of the 3.2 Queue-Handler.
7.3 * Why doesn't Shell or Workbench respect the "h" protection bit
and hide the files whose "h" bit is set?
Because "h" does not stand for "hide", but "hold". An executable file
whose "h" bit is set is automatically made resident by the Shell on
its first use. So you save all the "Resident" commands in the
Startup-sequence. No, we did not invent this for 3.2, just included
a compile time option in the Shell that was disabled for ROM size
limitations before.
7.4 * Where is C:Execute? It still works, but it is not there.
The "Execute" command is built into Shell now. Hence, there is no need
to make this command resident anymore. The benefit is that Execute can
share some code with the Shell, saving some space.
That said, we have included the old version in several special places
for backwards compatibility purposes (Install3.2 disk, DiskDoctor
disk, and the AmigaPE that is contained in the CD-ROM).
7.5 * I 've heard of a new command called "history"; what is this?
The "history" command is another new built-in Shell one. This command
lists the contents of the Shell history buffer, you can use the up and
down cursor keys to search within the history. Of course, this only
works if you use the built-in Shell, which works with the new v47
con-handler.
Once you reach the end of the history, the Shell signals that (by
flashing the screen and/or generating a sound). You can use the Sound
Preferences editor to configure the type of signal the OS will
generate.
7.6 * Are there any other new fancy Shell features in 3.2?
Yes, Shell now has achieved the very handy TAB auto completion skill.
This means that you can type a partial name of a program, variable or
path when using the CLI/Shell, and if you press the TAB key the system
will try to guess and complete it and add a space. If there is no
match the screen will flash/beep.
Now if there are multiple matches found for, a series of actions will
take place depending on the TAB expansion modes of operation currently
selected by setting the Shell variable 'SHELLCOMPLETION':
The Default Mode
If multiple matches are found, you can click on TAB a second time to
get a list of possible matches. After that you need to edit the string
by hand (like adding the next letter in what you want to write) and
then the next TAB will start the process over.
The CYCLE Mode
If multiple matches are found, you can click on TAB a second time to
get a list of possible matches. After that you can click on TAB many
times and the completion will cycle through the alternatives. By
pressing [Shift] + [TAB], you can cycle through the list backwards, until
the first element is reached.
The EARLYLISTING switch can be applied to any of the above modes. When
multiple matches are found it directly displays them without the need
for another TAB press.
Now when the TAB expansion happens, icon (.info) files will be
displayed grouped by appending the "(+info)" to the corresponding
file or directory.
Also the Shell ignores icon (.info) files during completion, unless it
is the only match or unless ICONSASFILES is given in the COMPLETION
Shell variable.
So for example, typing into a CLI/Shell:
SET SHELLCOMPLETION CYCLE, EARLYLISTING
Will enable cycle mode with early listing and exclude .info files from
being selected unless explicitly suggested.
By the way, ConClip/the con-handler now also allows dropping multiple
icons into a con-window.
7.7 * How do I include a forward slash "/" or backwards slash "" in
the window title of a console?
The new Con-handler includes now "ViNCEd-Style" escaping in the window
title. That is, if the window title should include a forwards slash
"/", you can escape it with a backwards slash, i.e. "\/". The
backwards slash is escaped by itself, i.e. "" results in "". This
allows window paths like:
CON:////6\/2=3/AUTO/CLOSE
7.8 * Is there a way to debug commands being executed by the Shell?
For AmigaOS 3.2 we have added the "debug" variable that, if it
is set to "on", pushes executed commands through the serial output.
So, to activate it, in a Shell/CLI type "set debug on" (without
quotes). All executed commands are then printed through the serial
console at 9600-8N1 (it means that the unit connected to the serial
port must be configured to deal with 9600 bauds, 8 bits data, no
parity, and 1 stop bit).
Alternatively, you can activate this debug feature if you press either
ALT key while booting, generating the output described above.
from the bootmenu, you can also select the "Syslog" option to redirect
the serial output to a file (further information on Syslog is
available in section 12.
.
7.9 * How do I debug or trace Shell scripts?
One particular nice feature of the Shell is Interactive debugging,
and tracing of Shell scripts. Tracing means that the Shell shows you
which command it is about to execute, and you may run the command,
skip over it or stop tracing.
To enable tracing, use the following command in the Shell:
set interactive on
If this is put top in a Shell script, for example into the
Startup-sequence (with an editor of your choice), the shell will
prompt you for each command it is going to be executed. If you press
RETURN, the Shell will run the command. If you press N or DEL, the
Shell will skip over it. If you press ESC, the Shell will abort
tracing and execute the rest of the script without bothering you
further. If you press [Ctrl] + [D], the script will be aborted.
Alternatively, you may also activate the Shell´s interactive features
by accessing the bootmenu, in particular the "Boot Options..." page
that got extended by a new check-mark "Trace Startup-sequence", that
allows users to enable the tracing of the Startup-sequence script.
8. Tools, utilities and commands
________________________________
8.1 * ShowConfig is missing hardware expansion details and even then,
my MMU is not detected.
ShowConfig shows the basic board configuration information for
troubleshooting efforts. The ever-changing and expanding board and CPU
detail is outsourced to third parties like MMULib and BoardsLib.
You can fortunately get ShowConfig to display them, as we have now
included the publicly available boards.library in your Libs drawer,
which you can always update from:
And speaking of MMU, we can detect it with the aid of mmu.library
which is available as an installation option.
8.2 * Are there any new command line arguments or Tool Types since the
release of the old AmigaOS 3.1 that I should know of?
Yes, there are plenty. What follows is the list, with a brief
description of each. This list is not complete though, and to some
commands, we added features without adding options.
ADDDATATYPES LIST
This will list all data types descriptors currently in memory by
descriptor name.
ASSIGN DENIED
The DENIED option displays a list of all volume requests that have
been denied by the user while using ASSIGNWEDGE
ASSIGNWEDGE
This is a new command. Allows the user to create an Assign or
permanently deny the requested volume until next reboot. Further
information can be obtained in question 8.6 of this FAQ. For more
information about it, type on a Shell HELP ASSIGNWEDGE and press the
RETURN key.
ASYNCWB
Is a new multiple Workbench enhancement Commodity. For more
information about it, type on a Shell HELP ASYNCWB and press the
RETURN key.
AUTOPOINT KEEPSTRINGS
The new KEEPSTRINGS option prevents AUTOPOINT from automatically
stealing focus from a window with an active string gadget.
BREAK NAME
Can abort a named CLI process. Please note that this wills only
work for command line environments such as Shell, and not for
arbitrary tasks or processes. This is intentional. NAME also takes
wildcards.
CHANGETASKPRI NAME
Can change the priority of a named CLI process. Please note that this
wills only work for command line environments such as Shell, and not
for arbitrary tasks or processes. This is intentional. NAME also takes
wildcards.
CLICKTOFRONT TOBACK_QUALIFIER
Allows to select a qualifier for sending windows to back (with a
single click). Defaults to LEFT_ALT. If set to NONE, or to the same
value as the regular QUALIFIER option, the "send to back"
functionality is deactivated.
CMD DEVICE
The user can now specify a concrete device name.
COPY FORCE
Overwrites protected targets.
CPU CHECKINSTALL
Tests for the presence of a CPU library on affected CPU models.
CPU CPUTYPE
Prints only the CPU information for scripting purposes.
CPU FPUTYPE
Prints only the FPU information for scripting purposes.
CPU MMUTYPE
Prints only the MMU information for scripting purposes if it can. The
mmu.library is required for this to work.
CPU TO
Switch to redirect the output of the CPU command.
There are plenty of other switches of the CPU command to fiddle with
some of the internals of the CPU. You don't need them, unless we say
so. Really. They can only make your system go slower, or less stable.
And we don't want this to happen, right?
DACONTROL
This is a new command. It loads, mounts, ejects or creates an Amiga
Disk File (ADF). For more information about it, type on a Shell
HELP DACONTROL and press the RETURN key.
DEFICONS
This is a new command that associates default icons with files that
don't have any. For more information about it, type on a Shell
HELP DEFICONS and press the RETURN key.
DISKDOCTOR
This is a new command. It diagnoses and salvages data from
FastFileSystem volumes. For more detailed DiskDoctor information,
please refer to section 9 of this FAQ. For more information about it,
type on a Shell HELP DISKDOCTOR and press the RETURN key.
EVAL ^
It now interprets "^" as "binary xor". The same was available before
as "xor".
FIND
Is a new Workbench tool that searches for files. For more information
about it, type on a Shell HELP FIND and press the RETURN key.
FORMAT LONGNAMES
Formats the selected volume with (DOS/6 or DOS/7) and enables the use
of the new long name feature of the Fast File System which allows for
filenames with a size of up to 107 characters.
FORMAT NOLONGNAMES
Formats the selected volume with (DOS/6 or DOS/7), but disables long
filenames use, in order to preserve backwards compatibility.
GROUP
This is a new command. Changes the access rights of a file or
directory. More information about it is available in the Help
Subsystem.
HDTOOLBOX LIMIT_4GBYTE
Which can be ON/TRUE or OFF/FALSE. Artificially recreates the 4 GB
limit.
HDTOOLBOX MIN_SECTOR_SIZE
Overrides minimum sector size. Value must be a multiple of 512 bytes,
and it must be a power of two.
HDTOOLBOX MAX_SECTOR_SIZE
Overrides maximum sector size. Value must be a multiple of 512 bytes,
and it must be a power of two.
HDTOOLBOX MASK
Overrides the default values used by the RDB settings written to disk.
They must all be in hexadecimal notation, just as you would in a mount
file.
HDTOOLBOX BUFMEMTYPE
Overrides the default values used by the RDB settings written to disk.
They must all be in hexadecimal notation, just as you would in a mount
file.
HDTOOLBOX MAXTRANSFER
Overrides the default values used by the RDB settings written to disk.
They must all be in hexadecimal notation, just as you would in a mount
file.
HDTOOLBOX SKIP_WRITE_PROTECTED
Can be set to YES/ON/TRUE or NO/OFF/FALSE. If enabled, will pretend
that any drive definition file updates were written to disk just fine
if either the respective file is write-protected, or the volume on
which it resides/would reside is not writable.
HELP
This is a new command. It opens up the built-in help subsystem that
comes with AmigaOS 3.2. For more information about it, type on a Shell
HELP HELP and press the RETURN key.
HISTORY
This is a new internal command that displays the command line history.
For more information about it, type on a Shell HELP HISTORY and press
the RETURN key.
INTELLIFONT NODISKSCAN
Disables the initial automatic disk scan.
LIST FLAT
Does not enter directories even if the argument is a directory. Also
if the command line argument is a softlink, List no longer attempts to
enter it as a directory.
LIST SORT
Sorts the directory entries before displaying them, based upon certain
criteria.
LIST USERS
Attempt to resolve the name of the 'owner' of a file.
LIST GROUP
Attempt to resolve the name of the group the 'owner' of a file.
LIST LFORMATQUOTE
changes how the output of LIST is produced by the LFORMAT option so
that it may be more suitable for use with script files.
LOADMONDRVS
Simplifies and speeds up monitor driver’s initialization.
LOADWB LEGACY
Allows you to launch older versions of Workbench.
LOADWB SIMPLEGELS
Uses simpler shapes for dragging icons on the Workbench.
LOADWB SKIP
Skips starting programs in the WBStartup drawer.
MAKEDIR ALL
Creates directories recursively.
MAKELINK SOFT
Creates soft links.
MD5SUM
This is a new command. Calculates and compares checksums of files.
For more information about it, type on a Shell HELP MD5SUM and press
the RETURN key.
MOUNT SHUTDOWN
Attempts to shutdown handlers (without destroying the device node).
MOUNTER
This is a new tool that interactively mounts partitions. For more
information about it, type on a Shell HELP MOUNTER and press
the RETURN key.
MOUNTINFO
This is a new command. Creates Mount files for file systems.
For more information about it, type on a Shell HELP MOUNTINFO and
press the RETURN key.
MULTIVIEW REPEAT
Indicates whether the animation/audio should loop. It defaults to
"don't loop".
MULTIVIEW IMMEDIATE
Indicates whether the animation/audio should immediately begin playing
after calling MultiView. Default is to "don't start immediately".
MULTIVIEW PRTUNIT
Configures the printer.device unit used for printer dumps.
MULTIVIEW WINDOWLEFT
Defines the horizontal coordinate of MultiView's window.
MULTIVIEW WINDOWTOP
Defines the vertical coordinate of MultiView's window.
MULTIVIEW WINDOWWIDTH
Describes the complete width size of the window instead of the inner
dimensions (without border).
MULTIVIEW WINDOWHEIGHT
Describes the complete height size of the window instead of the inner
dimensions (without border).
MULTIVIEW AUTORESIZE
Makes MultiView resize its window when you open a new image.
NUMERICPAD
This is a new commodity that remaps numeric pad keys to the keyboard.
This can be particularly useful on machines such as the Amiga 600,
which don't come with a numeric pad. For more information about it,
type on a Shell HELP NUMERICPAD and press the RETURN key.
OWNER
Changes the ownership of a file or directory. For more information
about it, type on a Shell HELP OWNER and press the RETURN key.
PROTECT USER
Only modifies the 'user' protection bits (default).
PROTECT GROUP
Only modifies the 'group' protection bits.
PROTECT OTHER
Only modifies the 'other' protection bits.
PROTECT CLONE
Changes the 'group' and/or 'other' protection bits to the same value
as the 'user' protection bits.
PROTECT CLEAR
Clears all protection bits.
PROTECT FILES
Only changes the protection bits of the files found.
PROTECT DIRS
Only changes the protection bits of the directories found.
RAWBINFO
This is a new commodity that enhances and replaces the Workbench icon
information. For more information about it, type on a Shell
HELP RAWBINFO and press the RETURN key.
REBOOT
Directly restarts your Amiga. It has no arguments and no template.
Unlike many similar programs, before rebooting it makes sure that it
waits for any ongoing drive write operation to be finished in order to
prevent file system validation issues.
REQUESTCHOICE SET
Copies the selected choice into a Shell variable.
REQUESTFILE SET
Copies the selected file (or files) to a Shell variable.
RX SCRIPT=NAME/K
Defines the script to be executed. This must be explicitly given if
the script name is enclosed in quotes; otherwise RX attempts to
interpret the enclosed string as a series of REXX commands to be
executed directly.
RX CMD
Explicitly requests a command (not a script) to be executed. For this
option, Shell quoting rules (and not REXX quoting rules) apply, so
"rx cmd" can be used also in Shell scripts where the Shell
(or execute) applies its escape mechanism. That is, a quote must be
escaped with an asterisk if the CMD argument is given.
RX "..."
Defines an ARexx command or ARexx file to be executed. If in double
quotes, a direct command is assumed, otherwise a file. This is
backwards compatible to the V36 release of RX.
In addition, the RX command can also be invoked from Workbench and
then accepts the following additional Tool Types:
CONSOLE=<pathname> or WINDOW=<pathname>
Defines a pathname where output should go to. The default is a
console.
STARTUP="cmd"
Defines an AmigaDOS command to startup the REXX host in case it is
not running. This is by default "RexxMast".
SEARCH CASE
Case-sensitive searching. Note that this switch is INACTIVE when
searching for files.
SETDATE FROM
Copies the date from another file.
SETPATCH NODRIVELEDPATCH
Fixes the IDE LED bug that occurs with some ATAPI devices, especially
the CD-ROM drive of the A4000T, that makes the LED drive light stay
constantly lit.
SETPATCH CONTENTS
Lists all patches contained in the current SetPatch release.
SHOWCONFIG GUI
Brings up the user interface when called from the Shell.
SORT DESCENDING
Reverses the sort order.
SORT SKIPBLANKS
Ignores leading blanks.
SORT NUMERIC
Sorts numerically, not lexicographically.
TEXTEDIT
As its name suggests, TextEdit is a new multi-document text editor.
For more information about it, type on a Shell HELP TEXETEDIT and
press the RETURN key.
TYPE AUTO
Will examine the first 256 characters of the file. If non-printable
characters are found, TYPE will show the file as if the HEX option had
been specified.
TYPE TEXTONLY
Will replace unprintable characters before output. Any unprintable
character will be replaced with '.'.
TYPE WIDTH
Controls how long each line in HEX mode form should become.
TYPE BUFFER options.
Controls how much data is read and output at a time (default is 204.
WAIT FILE
Waits for the existence of a given file.
WBLOAD
Loads Workbench programs from the CLI/Shell. However, it does not
require the Workbench. Hence, it is safe to use in the
Startup-sequence before LoadWB, and it operates synchronously, i.e. it
does not return until the started program returns. For more
information about it, type on a Shell HELP WBLOAD and press the RETURN
key.
There are also a couple of hidden features and improvements, such as
DIR being able to adjust its output to the size of the console, LIST
showing hard- and soft-links and COPY copying them correctly. Also
IPREFS no longer triggers visually annoying multiple screen refreshes.
It just piles up changes and applies them in one instance and also, it
now prints the titles of the windows that block the screen from
closing (with up to four window names, otherwise, it includes the
window count).
8.3 * Where are Lacer, MEmacs, HDBackup, Bru and MagTape?
For good reasons we decided to phase out these archaic components.
"These belong in a museum", as Indy would put it.
8.4 * Is C:AssignWedge what I think it is?
Well, we are not fortune tellers, so we don't know what you were
thinking about. But let's not make a fuss about it, shall we?
AssignWedge is, as the name suggests, a clean re-implementation of the
popular AssignWedge patch that extends the standard AmigaDOS volume
request ("Please insert volume...") with additional features that
allows the user to create an Assign or permanently deny the requested
volume until next reboot.
To make it work, we already placed it for you in the WBStartup folder.
AssignWedge can be terminated by sending a CTRL-C to its process.
8.5 * What can I do with the Mounter Tool?
It helps you to mount partitions that have no mount file defined in a
quick manner. These partitions are required to conform to the Rigid
Disk Block (RDB) standard in order for Mounter to do its job.
8.6 * What is DefIcons? How do I use this?
DefIcons is a program that based on a configuration file, attempts to
figure out the type of file and applies a default icon for it if that
file does not already come with one.
DefIcons is started automatically every time Workbench loads. For this
purpose, an icon for it is available in the WBStartup drawer.
DefIcons comes already preconfigured but can be fine-tuned using the
DefaultIcons Preferences editor located inside you Prefs drawer.
More information can be obtained by opening a CLI/Shell and typing:
HELP DEFICONS
8.7 * Is there an easy way to mount Amiga ADF files?
DAControl is a new command that is already built into AmigaOS 3.2. It
can load ADF (Amiga Disk File) image files and make them available to
the system in a very similar way to how physical floppy disks are
handled. DAControl works together with the new trackfile.device to
load, eject, change and create ADF files.
More information can be obtained by opening a CLI/Shell and typing:
HELP DACONTROL
9. DiskDoctor
_____________
9.1 * What is DiskDoctor?
It is a CLI/Shell program located in C: that is designed to diagnose
and salvage your volume data.
9.2 * What can it do for me?
It will diagnose your Amiga file system and let you back up files, and
that makes it handy if the file system becomes unreliable. It has no
problems supporting volumes bigger than 4 GB in size. But bear in mind
that large volumes require more free RAM for DiskDoctor to do its job.
9.3 * What are DiskDoctor's limitations?
Currently, it can only diagnose and salvage files, but it cannot
perform any repair operations. Though this may change in the future.
Also it only works on the Amiga Original File System (OFS) and the
FastFileSystem variants (FFS and DCFFS). So third party file systems
like the Smart File System (SFS) and Professional File System (PFS)
are not supported, and that is also the case for the undocumented and
rarely seen DOSType 8 variant of FFS.
9.4 * How do I use it to diagnose my drive?
Just open a CLI/Shell and type:
DiskDoctor examine DH0:
Of course, you can replace DH0: with any other volume name.
9.5 * How do I salvage files in a damaged disk?
If you find out that your precious data is at risk, and you want to
perform a backup you can open a CLI/Shell and type:
DiskDoctor COPY DH0: TO RESCUED:
Here DH0: is the source volume and RESCUED: is the safe destination
volume which will have all the files copied to it.
9.6 * I seem to be running out of memory when using DiskDoctor. But I
have 4 MB of Fast RAM and an 8 GB partition.
The original Disk Doctor needed about 1.5% the size of the volume as
working memory (RAM). For example, in order to "repair" a 20 Megabyte
hard disk partition, you would have to have at least 330 Kilobytes of
free RAM available. This would not fly on the original Amiga
500/1000/2000. Now imagine how the math would work out for a 1
Gigabyte hard disk partition.
For the new Disk Doctor there is a special type of data structure
which lowers the memory requirements to around 0.1% of the volume
size. Which means that about 1 Megabyte may be sufficient to deal with
a 1 Gigabyte partition, and 8 Megabytes for an 8 Gigabyte partition.
So, with 4 MB of fast memory you will not be able to work with
DiskDoctor on an 8 GB partition. You need about 4 more MB of RAM.
10. ReAction
____________
10.1 * What is the history of ReAction? How did it come to AmigaOS?
ReAction started life on the Amiga in 1996 as a third-party GUI
toolkit called ClassAct. It was later incorporated with a few
enhancements into AmigaOS 3.5 and subsequently to 3.9 where it was
renamed to ReAction.
When the PowerPC AmigaOS project started, it was a no brainer
that ReAction had to be the building block on which to deliver a
better user interface experience. There, it was further refined and
greatly extended to provide all sorts of cool features.
And now, with AmigaOS 3.2 we decided to port it back to its origins,
bringing along the improvements that it had during all these years of
absence from the classic 68k platform.
10.2 * But wait a minute... What is ReAction?
ReAction is a collection of graphic user interface elements grouped
into several libraries (also known as classes) according to their
functionality. It is the natural progression of what Commodore
delivered way back in 1992 with gradientslider.gadget,
colorwheel.gadget and tapedeck.gadget.
ReAction supports everything from simple buttons to an advanced list
management class, and includes a complete set of window GUI layout
system classes that let's programmers create font-sensitive and
resizable interfaces quickly and easily, including any
preference-based window backfill pattern loadable via the system
data types.
ReAction is a powerful and time-saving choice for software developers,
and an aesthetically pleasing and convenient one, for end users.
10.3 * What are its features?
Since ReAction classes are BOOPSI, which means that they extend the
AmigaOS windowing system in a standard way with an object-oriented
subsystem, they automatically support all kinds of great features such
as window resizability, help, notification, and interconnections with
other BOOPSI classes (which do not necessarily have to be ReAction
classes).
ReAction classes are built for power, efficiency and compatibility.
ReAction is an expanding project, providing you with the graphical
user interface tools needed to use and develop applications.
ReAction v47 currently has 39 different classes, and the list is
growing!
10.4 * And how do I install and run it?
No action is needed as an AmigaOS 3.2 user. Everything is ready to go:
ReAction is installed by default and is sitting there waiting to be
called into action by programs that support it.
Yes, it is that simple!
10.5 * What programs do you know that use ReAction?
Well, Aminet is literally filled with them, you just need to properly
search its database using the terms "ReAction" or "ClassAct" (without
quotes obviously!).
Also, most AmigaOS 3.5 and 3.9-compatible programs use ReAction.
And even then, there are many third-party programs available elsewhere
that harvest the benefits that ReAction brings.
10.6 * What is the difference between ReAction offered in
AmigaOS 3.5/3.9 and the currently available ReAction V47?
There is a huge difference: AmigaOS 3.5/3.9 reached its end of life
back in the year 2002, and that was the last we saw of ReAction on
68k.
From there onwards, on the PowerPC AmigaOS platform, it received a ton
of bug fixes and an incredible wide range of extensions that made it
the powerhouse it is today. And all of this came with backwards
compatibility.
The current V47 ReAction we included in AmigaOS 3.2 is a direct
descendant from the highly evolved version developed on the PowerPC
AmigaOS platform. This eases and seriously opens up portability back
and forth from the AmigaOS PowerPC project to the Classic 68k one.
All of this makes the current V47 ReAction present in AmigaOS 3.2, the
most advanced one to this day for the Classic 68k Amiga platform.
So there is absolutely no reason to look back.
10.7 * Where can I get development information for ReAction V47?
Release 1 of the Native Developer Kit for AmigaOS 3.2 is contained
within the AmigaOS 3.2 CD-ROM and it includes:
- Autodocs in text and AmigaGuide format telling you how to use each
class.
- C includes that you will need for writing programs that use ReAction.
- C example programs that showcase usage of the different ReAction
classes.
10.8 * Why is it that all Prefs programs, tools and utilities in
AmigaOS 3.2 don't use ReAction?
Please don't underestimate the amount of work that went into making
ReAction a reality:
Classes were in OS 4.x style, so they needed to be reviewed, broken
down to a 3.x interface, tested, and someone still had to write the
development material, documentation, and the tools for them.
You get the picture: it's a long road, and we had only little man
power.
So for 3.2 we opted to adapt the current GadTools GUI to become font
sensitive without any toolkit extensions. This has the side benefit of
being able to work properly even in the most modest Amiga
configurations, yet still concurrently provide ReAction support for
programs that can take advantage of it.
10.9 * Why doesn't my ReAction program work under AmigaOS 3.2?
For AmigaOS 3.2, we made ReAction operable on 68000-based Amigas.
This was not the case for 3.5 and 3.9 where ReAction required at least
a 68020 CPU.
That said, many of those 3.5 and 3.9 ReAction programs were
specifically compiled and optimized for 68020 processors, so if your
system has a 68000 processor, it will most likely not work when a
program demands a 68020 to be present.
Furthermore, you must also consider that having a more complex visual
interface, with much more details, requires more RAM than what the
traditional GadTools user interface demanded, so if you are running
AmigaOS 3.2 with the bare minimum of RAM, don't expect miracles.
It is also important to understand that many ReAction classes are
property of third parties, so if the documentation of a program states
that a specific class is required, please check that it comes with
AmigaOS 3.2, and if that is not the case, you should (most likely) be
able to download it from Aminet.
10.10 * Which ReAction classes are included with 3.2?
arexx.class requester.class window.class
button.gadget checkbox.gadget chooser.gadget
clicktab.gadget colorwheel.gadget datebrowser.gadget
fuelgauge.gadget getcolor.gadget getfile.gadget
getfont.gadget getscreenmode.gadget gradientslider.gadget
integer.gadget layout.gadget listbrowser.gadget
listview.gadget palette.gadget radiobutton.gadget
scroller.gadget sketchboard.gadget slider.gadget
space.gadget speedbar.gadget string.gadget
tabs.gadget tapedeck.gadget texteditor.gadget
virtual.gadget
bevel.image bitmap.image boingball.image drawlist.image
glyph.image label.image led.image penmap.image
10.11 * Why did you choose ReAction and not MUI or other third party
toolkit to integrate within AmigaOS 3.2?
The decision was taken over twenty years ago, and now we have a legacy
of Amiga Operating Systems which used ReAction, starting with 3.5,
followed by 3.9 and then 4.0 and all its sucessors (on the PowerPC
platform).
ReAction was chosen due to several factors. For starters, it closely
follows the BOOPSI design which was originally implemented under
AmigaOS 3.0 by Commodore. This was way back in 1992.
Secondly, ReAction is more leanient towards systems with a low amount
of RAM.
Thirdly, ReAction is easily extensible, in a much easier AmigaOS
conformant manner than other counterparts. So future expansions are
much easier to be carried out without having to rework it to a major
degree due to its modular design nature.
So given the above, it made absolutely no sense to take another route.
11. OS 3.2 and OS 3.9
_____________________
11.1 * Can I mix OS 3.9 components with OS 3.2?
Typically, yes. There are a couple of caveats, though.
You need to ensure that you use the OS 3.9 "prefs.catalog"
instead of the one that comes with OS 3.2. But please bear in
mind--and this goes for all programs within AmigaOS--3.9 catalogs are
somewhat incompatible with both 3.1 and 3.2. Mixing components
requires careful consideration when using languages other than English,
or you will end up with misleading translations.
AmigaOS 3.9 mount files will be overwritten by 3.2 default
counterparts, so some of them may need to be readjusted to meet your
needs. This is clearly the case in CD0: (your CD-ROM device), as
AmigaOS 3.2 has its own new CD-ROM file system, which by the way,
won't work with the previous 3.9 CD Prefs program called CacheCDFS.
Be warned that if you customized the Tool Types of some 3.9 programs,
when installed, AmigaOS 3.2 will overwrite them with its default new
settings.
11.2 * I'm using the OS 3.9 ReAction GUI for Preferences, but the GUI
contains unreadable strings.
Unfortunately, OS 3.9 did not simply extend the OS 3.1 catalogs, but
instead populated the catalog in an incompatible way. If you want to
continue to use OS 3.9, ensure that the following file comes from an
OS 3.9 installation:
LOCALE:Catalogs/<your language goes here>/sys/prefs.catalog
Copy the OS 3.9 catalog on top of the OS 3.2 catalog to get a
working OS 3.9 GUI back.
OS 3.2 tries to be compatible with OS 3.1, 3.1.4 and 3.1.4.1 so it
extended its catalogs in a backwards-compatible way. OS 3.9
unfortunately selected another route and picked incompatible IDs for
its translation. So, we are sorry, but we cannot fix this.
11.3 * IControl Preferences of OS 3.9 had a setting to render window
gadgets in 1:1 aspect. Where is it?
We decided to implement a much more configurable system. If you go to
IControl you will find an "Appearance Settings..." gadget which allows
you to configure aspect ratio settings to make window and screen
borders look more pleasant with nearly or exactly square shapes on any
display device and resolution.
For this, window and screen border aspect ratio can be set to "Legacy
Look" which makes the horizontal borders 2 pixels thick, "18x14 (9:7)"
which makes them 3 pixels thick (much like AmigaOS 3.9 with 1:1 aspect
ratio enabled), "18x16 (9
", "18x18 (1:1)", all of which make them 4
pixels thick like the vertical borders. You can also set a "Square
Proportional Look" as a percentage of the title bar.
Furthermore, there is a new option that allows you to increment the
size (in pixels) of both screens and windows title bars in order to
achieve the desired appearance.
There is also an exception list to exclude programs and screens that
present difficulties when their aspect ratio is modified. To find out
the proper name of a screen for this exclusion list you can use
publicly available utilities such as Scout, XOpa, etc. (most of them
are available on Aminet).
11.4 * The background image of my Workbench now uses dithering, even
though I'm using a true color screen mode. What's wrong?
The syntax of the picture.datatype settings have changed, and if you
had custom settings there, the new picture data type will likely
misinterpret them to enable dithering for many applications. The
easiest remedy is to simply delete the old settings of the picture
data type--see the next point.
11.5 * How do I set/change picture.datatypes settings?
AmigaOS 3.9 came with SYS:Prefs/PictDT. With it, you could explicitly
set which application supports the V43 mode of the data type. This
mode offers support for screens with more than 256 colors. In
addition, you could specify whether pictures should be dithered on
high color screens (65,536 colors) or not. Disabling dithering
decreases image quality on these screens, but improves the speed of
the data type considerably.
In AmigaOS 3.2 the env variable
ENVARC:classes/datatypes/picture/ForceV43 which contains a list of all
programs that should be forced to v43 mode. In particular, this list
should contain the string:
<< IPrefs >>
<< ConClip >>
Include the double angle brackets to avoid dithering on Workbench.
If you leave the environment variable empty, it means that there is a
list of programs to be promoted, and this list is empty.
If the environment variable does not exist however, the known
well-working OS components receive full true color images. So it is
easiest just to delete ENVARC:classes/datatypes/picture/ForceV43.
Dithering of the picture.datatype can be set or unset by the env
variable "Classes/DataTypes/picture/DitherHiColour" which can hold
either a 0 or 1 value (0 = off and 1 = on).
Please remember that each time you change a setting, a reboot is
required for the changes to be applied.
11.6 * How can I make the Euro symbol?
Only Helvetica font sizes 13 and 15 contain the Euro sign. The Euro
symbol and other non-Latin characters will be properly addressed in a
future update.
11.7 * Why didn't you base your work on OS 3.9 and instead used OS
3.1.4.1 as a basis?
In most aspects, 3.1.4.1 is a more solid, robust and enhanced OS than
3.9 ever was. Don't get fooled by the eye candy and focus on technical
merits of it to judge.
However, we would have loved to incorporate some of 3.9's third-party
applications. Unfortunately, we do not have the sources to rebuild
them, nor sufficient rights to redistribute the licensed portions of
many of the OS 3.9 efforts.
Many components you get with 3.2 are new, a few are re-implementations
of 3.9 components, most are more recently updated than the 3.9 ones,
and even a couple of them are backports from the AmigaOS PowerPC
project (OS 4.x).
11.8 * How can I load icons into Fast RAM? There's no program or
Preference setting for it.
Because it's not needed. In fact, please do not use the WBCtrl program
anymore. Workbench is smart enough to detect cases where it can put
icons into Fast RAM, and it will do so automatically whenever it is
able to.
12. ROM Modules
______________
12.1 * Can I use the modules from the Modules disk to build my own
custom Kickstart ROM?
At this point in time we are only able to support a limited number of
Kickstart ROMs (only the ones that are advertised); and this is due to
the unlimited amount of combinations that custom ROMs may lead to. So
sure; go ahead, but don't ask us for support if you take this route.
12.2 * But why doesn't LoadModule load the modules into Fast RAM in
the first place?
Because the available Fast RAM may not be reset-resident; i.e. the
modules would go away after a reset. LoadModule can only use what is
available to the system. What MuProtectModules does is create a mirror
of this memory via the MMU, but this mirror disappears after a reset,
unlike the original module image.
Alternatively, you can try and use the LoadModule command with the
NOMEMFKICK switch. But be warned that this only works on some systems.
12.3 * I get a "Please insert a volume containing workbench.library..."
during start-up. What is going on?
You installed manually, right? Just do as requested. The Install3.2
disk contains the requested library, so just copy that library to
LIBS:. And for next time, please use the Installer. Or at least, copy
both workbench.library and icon.library from the Install3.2 disk to
LIBS:, such as follows:
copy df0:libs/workbench.library to LIBS: clone
copy df0:libs/icon.library to LIBS: clone
12.4 * Why are workbench.library and icon.library no longer in ROM?
These libraries are now much larger than before, and they simply do
not fit in the physical ROM chip. So we had to find some other place.
The nice file requester you see is the ROM looking for its missing
sources.
Not all Amiga models support larger ROMs, and even those that do may
fail to identify a larger physical ROM chip. As of this writing, we
haven't been able to find a better solution, and until one is found,
it is just too risky.
12.5 * I installed all the files in the right places, but the OS does
not seem to pick them up. Instead, I just get the OS 3.1
Workbench back. What's wrong?
You installed manually, right? Well, in that case, chances are that
the file permissions are wrong. It is important that the files
containing the replacement ROM components have their "p" bit set,
which stands for "pure".
You can now do the following:
Copy all the files from the Modules disk (specific to your Amiga
model) again, making sure that the "p" bit is set this time, for
example by using:
copy ... TO ... CLONE
instead of just "COPY".
12.6 * Some file permissions on my installation look really weird. Is
that normal?
You mean, as in "p-r---"?
Yes, that is normal, and intentional for some ROM module replacements.
"p" stands for "pure" and is required for LoadModule as it otherwise
does not pick up the file. "r" means that the file is readable,
because LoadModule needs to read it.
The files are intentionally not writable, executable or deletable as
removing or altering these files will potentially damage your
installation.
12.7 * Which ROM Modules are now required to have the "p" bit set?
With AmigaOS 3.2 things changed a bit compared to previous versions,
due to the inclusion of the new System-startup module. The following
is a list of modules which require the "p" bit to be set:
Devs
trackdisk.device
timer.device
ramdrive.device
keyboard.device
input.device
gameport.device
Devs/A???? (The ???? depends on the Amiga model number you are using)
scsi.device
L
System-startup
FastFileSystem
Libs
workbench.library
utility.library
layers.library
icon.library
graphics.library
dos.library
Libs/A???? (The ???? depends on the Amiga model number you are using)
exec.library
Libs/Modules
syscheck
bootmenu
Libs/Resources
FileSystem.resource
card.resource (Only available on the A600 and A1200)
battclock.resource
12.8 * Are there any completely new ROM modules I should be aware of?
Yes, we now have two new ROM modules. One of them is called
"System-startup". Its job is to make ROM updates easier and alleviate
LoadModule from some of its work. System-startup attempts to load
system components from disk, replacing ROM components. In particular,
if the disk contains any of the following modules, it will load them,
and use them to replace the ROM contents:
L:Con-Handler
L:Ram-Handler
L:Shell-Seg
L:Syslog
DEVS:console.device
DEVS:audio.device
LIBS:mathieeesingbas.library
LIBS:mathffp.library
LIBS:gadtools.library
LIBS:intuition.library (if not yet opened)
So with System-startup there is no need to LoadModule all of them
anymore and it has the advantage that it does not require a reboot to
perform its duty (unlike LoadModule).
Additionally, if your hard disk's Rigid Disk Block stores a version of
the Fast File System that is equal to or more recent than 46.18, then
the floppy drives "df0:" also get the new file system and do not stick
to the ROM file system.
If Con-Handler, Shell-Seg or Ram-Handler are missing from ROM, and
also missing on disk, "System-startup" will put up the same "Please
insert any volume containing XXXXX in any drive" on the screen, the
same type of requester you already know from searching Workbench or
icon.library (which are no longer in ROM).
The bootmenu, in particular the "Boot Options..." page got extended,
and the new check box "Update ROM modules" allows users to disable the
ROM update mechanism of System-startup if left unchecked.
System-startup includes a feature to avoid upgrades. For this, just
place a dummy file on the boot volume of the name of the component you
do not want to have upgraded. System-startup will then stop scanning
other volumes for the missing component.
The other new ROM module is "Syslog", whose purpose is to capture
output that would normally go through the serial port and redirect it
to "RAM:Syslog". Syslog is enabled in the boot menu (a new check mark),
and it will also enable logging of the Shell.
In case you use "System-startup", Syslog can go to "L:Syslog", there
is no need to LoadModule it.
System-startup will pick it up from L: as it is a disk-upgradable
component.
12.9 * I get new alerts that I have never seen before. What is
going on?
There are the two new alerts that may be generated:
8700000f: "I forgot to update dos.library" -or- "failed update shell"
This alert is generated if the Shell and the dos.library are
incompatible with each other.
04000012: "Someone called the obsolete copy of intuition".
This alert is generated if intuition got updated, but some program
still holds a pointer to the older version of intuition and called it
instead.
13. Miscellaneous
_________________
13.1 * What are the issues with PCMCIA cards?
The Gayle chip maps the 4MB PCMCIA memory window at $600000. This is
also the upper 4 MB block of the Zorro II memory space. Some simple
A1200 accelerators map their expansion memory in the Zorro II space to
offer more than just 4 MB of additional RAM, and this causes an
address conflict once the user inserts a PCMCIA card.
Disabling the PCMCIA card interface in a conflict situation is the
only safe way to avoid memory overlapping as the Gayle chip decodes
PCMCIA accesses once a card is inserted.
Furthermore, due to a hardware design flaw that specifically affects
the Amiga 1200, if you insert a PCMCIA network card, and then boot the
machine, there is a chance it might not get detected. There are
currently two ways to overcome this:
On one hand, you can try to obtain a PCMCIA hardware reset fix some
dealers offer.
On the other hand, you can get CardReset.lha from Aminet and just add
it to your Startup-Sequence, just after the SetPatch line.
13.2 * Can I get the guru back?
The Guru comes from an era where the Amiga was not a robust platform
and prone to crashes.
The Guru was the result of an uncomfortable situation that brought
frustration to many users. We don't think that it reflects on the
current state of AmigaOS.
So for the time being, we have decided not to reimplement it.
However the subject is not a closed matter, it may be subject to
reconsideration sometime in the future.
13.3 * I have now 28 KB less Chip RAM; where did the RAM go?
It's reserved. Actually, the lower 32K is now reserved for Mac
emulators. The benefit of this is that you no longer need MuMove4K or
PrepareEmul. Just start Mac emulations right away.
If you really need the 28 KB back, download the following archive
from Aminet:
This is a program that will, through a second reset, deliver the
missing RAM. It's kind of "MuMove4K backwards".
But, seriously--what's 28K among friends?
13.4 * Where can I find the env-handler/happy-env feature I read about?
How do I use it?
The RAM-Disk now supports "external hardlinks". You can create, for
RAM: only, hardlinks to files and directories *outside* of RAM:.
A practical example:
MakeLink RAM:ENV to ENVARC: FORCE
This creates a hardlink from "RAM:ENV" to the ENVARC: assign, which
lives outside of RAM:. Clearly, a contradiction in terms, but wait...
Whenever you now access a file in that "hardlinked" directory, RAM:
will automatically retrieve that file from the external resource.
So what the line above does is that it performs a "copy on demand"
from ENVARC: to ENV:
And that is exactly the purpose: Integrate env-handling features into
RAM, and avoid unnecessary copying of files into RAM: in the
Startup-sequence script.
We already incorporated the changes necessary in the Startup-sequence
to work right out of the box. This feature ends up saving a discrete
amount of memory and makes the system boot a tiny bit faster.
13.5 * WBPattern offers an option to interpolate a background picture.
What does "Interpolated" mean in this context?
The Prefs program WBPattern received some updates. If a picture
is selected as a background, window or screen, it provides layout
options to Scale, Tile, Interpolate, and Center it.
Interpolation in digital imaging, is the process of artificially
increasing the quantity of pixels, so that when you zoom an image, you
will see more detail. Interpolation works by using known data to
estimate values at unknown points.
So, this option is certainly valuable when the chosen picture
background has a smaller resolution than the one you chose to use for
your Workbench screen.
13.6 * Is it somewhat possible to use multiple input devices
simultaneously?
Are you an octopus? No, seriously, we did some changes to input.device
so that it can now manage multiple input events appropriately, and
this means better support for USB solutions. It now interprets
keyboard and mouse events and creates synthetic keyboard events (auto
repeat) if necessary.
This becomes necessary for software that injects events, such as the
Poseidon USB stack. For this purpose there is an updated "hid.class"
for the Poseidon stack that should be obtained from Individual
Computers at https://icomp.de/
13.7 * Where can I find font sensitive programs?
You can find scalable (font sensitive) GadTools GUIs in all the Prefs
programs, as well as the Format, and DiskCopy tools located in the
System drawer. In addition, you will also find that the tools like
IconEdit, PrepCard and Calculator have this same feature too. And
finally we also have added the Clock utility to the lot.
They all properly adjust to different font sizes, so you are no longer
forced to stare at their hard-coded topaz font anymore.
13.8 * How can I customize the text message on the Workbench title bar
screen?
You can now customize the text message on the Workbench title bar
screen by typing into the text gadget provided in the Workbench
Preferences editor. The only restriction is the number of characters
that can fit on a single line across the top of the Workbench, and
this depends on your screen resolution.
You can also include system variables as part of the text.
The final field shown in this section of the Workbench Preferences
editor is "Update Delay" which is used to control how long the default
message is allowed to display before the custom one replaces it, each
time you boot the system and is measured in tenths of a second.
13.9 * How can I Change the "Release 3.2" text that appears both on my
Workbench title bar and the About requester?
To customize this string, just modify within a text editor the
following file:
SYS:Prefs/Env-Archive/Versions/Release
13.10 * Some files/drawers are displayed on Workbench with an
underlined label. Why does this happen?
Don't worry, nothing is wrong. Workbench checks whether an added
object is a link (rather than a file or drawer), and displays it with
an underlined label if that's the case.
It is a faster way to let users visually distinguish a link from an
ordinary file or drawer.
13.11 * How do I achieve a Kickstart/Workbench 1.x look?
PalettePrefs has some color presets built-in which may help you
achieve a specific look without much effort. These are available by
accessing the Edit pull-down menu and by selecting either
"Classic Presets" or "NewLook Presets" submenus.
To achieve a Kickstart/Workbench 1.x look go to the above mentioned
"NewLook Presets" submenu and select "Kick 1.x style". Remember to
"Save" your settings for permanent use.
14. The Amiga CDTV, CDTV-II (CDTV-CR), A570 and CD32
__________________________________________________ __
14.1 * What does this "Experimental Amiga CDTV and Amiga CD32 support"
means?
Instead of sitting idle on this AmigaOS support material that could
have eventually helped some users of these often-marginalized Amiga
models to be able to enjoy the benefits of AmigaOS 3.2, we decided it
was in their best interest to release it to the wild, together with a
big fat warning and a clear disclaimer: WHAT YOU DO REGARDING THE
AMIGA CD32 AND CDTV-BASED MACHINES IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. NO SUPPORT
WILL BE PROVIDED.
So by experimental, we imply that both installing and using
AmigaOS 3.2 may or may not work on these machines, but that it also
requires an additional effort and skill from you. It is not a straight
forward process, and you will probably find problems along the way for
which we cannot offer support.
14.2 * What are the CDTV, CDTV-II (CDTV-CR) and A570?
The CDTV is essentially a Commodore Amiga 500 computer with a CD-ROM
drive and remote control, presented in a VCR-style case as a home
multimedia entertainment system. With optional peripherals it can
function as a regular Amiga.
The CDTV-II, also known as CDTV-CR, is an improved and cost-reduced
CDTV. It was never released, but many prototypes were sold after
Commodore's liquidation. While it shares most of the functionality of
the standard CDTV, its hardware has some differences.
The Amiga A570 is a single-speed external CD-ROM drive for the
Amiga 500. It was designed to be compatible with Commodore CDTV
software as well as being able to read ordinary CD-ROM discs.
The AmigaOS 3.2 CD-ROM can boot an AmigaOS 3.2 Preinstallation
Environment on the CDTV, CDTV-II (CDTV-CR) and A570, as long as
Kickstart 3.1 or newer is properly installed.
14.3 * How can I differentiate a CDTV from a CDTV-II (CDTV-CR)?
There are multiple ways to distinguish a CDTV from a CDTV-II
(CDTV-CR). You can quickly do it by performing a simple visual
inspection.
CDTV CDTV-II (CDTV-CR)
Front case: no 3.5" floppy drive built-in 3.5" floppy drive
Back case: D-sub serial connector round mini-din serial connector
14.4 * Which types of ROMs do these CD-ROM-based machines use?
The CDTV uses a standard A500 Kickstart ROM in socket U13. It also
comes with an additional pair of ROMs in sockets U34 and U35
containing CDTV specific code (these are called the
"CDTV Extended ROM" set).
To be able to use an AmigaOS equal or higher than 3.1 you will also
need to make sure you have a CDTV Extended ROM set version 2.7 or
2.30. Higher versions than 3.0 might work too, but only on selected
prototypes (so be extremely careful as they rely on hardware that does
not exist on the retail CDTV). In any case, we have included the new
CDTV Extended ROM 47.1 in the AmigaOS 3.2 CD-ROM, which should work
just fine on your standard CDTV.
You can check your CDTV Extended ROM set version by booting your CDTV
without any disc to let it display the spinning CDTV logo boot
animation. In that boot image, in a tiny font on the lower left
portion of the screen, where rocks/mountains are displayed, you will
be able to read the CDTV Extended ROM set version number.
The A570 external CD-ROM drive for the Amiga 500 already comes with a
properly updated CDTV Extended ROM set. Of course, the attached Amiga
500 has a traditional Kickstart ROM in socket U13 that needs to be
separately considered.
The CDTV-II uses a standard A500 Kickstart ROM in socket U101 which
can be easily upgraded. On the other hand, it is not suggested to
change the Extended ROM set of the CDTV-II at all.
On the Amiga CD32 game console, its single specialized ROM should be
inserted in the socket labeled as U6A.
14.5 * which are the known CDTV Extended ROM versions?
2.9 beta - Avoid like the plague.
0.1 Gamma - Does not work with Kickstart ROMs v2 or higher, so avoid.
1.0 - Does not work with Kickstart ROMs v2 or higher, so avoid.
2.0 - Does not work with Kickstart ROMs v3 or higher, so avoid.
2.7 - Works for updating the Kickstart ROM.
2.30 - Official release from Commodore for the A570. This version
is usable on CDTV too, but not recommended for it as it
generates some memory conflicts. Works for updating the
Kickstart ROM.
3.?? - Used only in the CDTV-II also known as CDTV-CR, which is
an unreleased prototype. Its hardware differs from a stock
CDTV. Use it only if it came with your CDTV-II unit. Do
not use it on stock CDTVs. Works for updating the
Kickstart ROM.
47.1 - Included in the AmigaOS 3.2 CD-ROM. It is the recommended
CDTV Extended ROM set for AmigaOS 3.2 usage.
14.6 * Where can I get a newer CDTV Extended ROM set for my CDTV?
The CDTV Extended ROM set contains the firmware that lets CDTV-based
Amigas control the built-in CD-ROM drive specific functions (do not
confuse it with the Kickstart ROM).
We have not reviewed the CDTV Extended ROM code because our manpower
is still limited and priorities, out of necessity, shifted elsewhere.
However, you will find in the "ROM" directory of your AmigaOS 3.2
CD-ROM a functional CDTV Extended ROM v47.1 that works as an update
for your CDTV, and properly enables it for AmigaOS 3.2 use.
That said, everything you do is at your own risk. We highly recommend
you to contact a specialized technician to properly carry out this job
for you.
14.7 * Why does Workbench's About menu requester display a weird
Kickstart ROM version number?
This only happens on CDTV-based machines. The revision number (which
are the numbers displayed after the dot symbol in the version string),
adopt a change to reflect the current CTDV Extended ROM set version
being used. Otherwise, no harm is done, so there is nothing to be
worried about.
So, for example, if you are using Kickstart 3.2 and a CDTV Extended
ROM set v2.30 it will display "Kickstart version 47.30".
If on the other hand, you are using Kickstart 3.2 and a CDTV Extended
ROM set v2.7 it should display "Kickstart version 47.999".
The new v47.1 CDTV Extended ROM should display matching 47.1 version
numbers.
14.8 * Can I use accelerators and fast RAM on my CDTV
You can use accelerators on the CDTV but you must be aware of the
memory expansions they use.
There is a bug in the DMA controller (DMAC custom chip) inside the
CDTV that causes an issue regarding RAM support.
This prevents you from using AutoConfig based FastMem in the 32-bit
(Zorro III) address range in a compatible way. If you still insist on
using this memory anyway, you will have to pay the cost of having to
live without CD-ROM drive support or in most cases not being able to
boot at all.
In any case, CDTV Fast RAM mapped in the 24-bit (Zorro II) address
range can be used without any problems or loss of functionality.
An alternative is to open the CDTV's motherboard jumper labeled
as "JP15" (or disconnect its solder pads) to effectively turn this
model into a sort of standard Amiga 500, disabling all CDTV's CD-ROM
specific functions.
14.9 * What is the CD32?
The Amiga CD32 is a 32-bit home video game console. It uses CD-ROMs as
its storage medium. It shares some specifications of the Amiga 1200
and by using third-party devices it is possible to upgrade the CD32
turning it into a sort of functional equivalent of an Amiga 1200.
The AmigaOS 3.2 CD-ROM can boot an AmigaOS 3.2 Preinstallation
Environment on the CD32.
14.10 * Are there any hard drive size limitations for all these Amiga
CD-ROM based models?
These Amigas never came with a hard drive controller from factory so
any hard drive support will depend on the controller and driver the
user selected for their machines.
Whether any third-party hardware expansions support more than 4 GB of
storage space will depend largely on their particular implementation
and driver interface as provided by their respective manufacturers.
Note: Some hard drive controllers may be able to use drives larger
than 4 GB by reusing the new scsi.device for the Amiga 1200 which is
present in the ModulesA1200_3.2.adf disk image. You may have to
manually copy it and give it a try with LoadModule.
14.11 * Are there any restrictions regarding AmigaOS usage?
The CDTV and CD32 have two common limitations:
1) Only the vintage CDFS that resides in ROM will be available for the
built-in CD-ROM drive unit (this means no HFS, no long file names,
etc.). This is the price we pay for legacy compatibility.
2) When there is no CD-ROM disc in the built-in CD-ROM drive, Format
displays a requester complaining about the lack of such disc. This
requester can be easily dismissed and Format operations will resume
without problems. This is only just a minor inconvenience caused by
the vintage built-in CDFS in ROM.
14.12 * How do I create and burn an AmigaOS 3.2 CD32 ROM?
The CD32 also has two ROM images much like the CDTV, a Standard CD32
Kickstart ROM image and an Extended CD32 ROM image. The CD32 Extended
ROM image is also designed to handle all the built-in CD-ROM specific
functionality. But unlike the CDTV, both ROM images are built together
resulting in a single physical ROM unit (just one chip).
Burning a new AmigaOS 3.2 CD32 physical ROM is a complex job that
requires advanced skills. It implies selecting the adequate 1MB ROM
chip and generating the proper 1MB ROM image.
To generate this 1MB ROM image you would have to mix the Standard CD32
Kickstart ROM image with the Extended CD32 ROM image in a custom
interleaved manner.
All CD32s come with the same CD32 Extended ROM built-in. So extracting
it is a matter of finding the appropriate software tool that can grab
it from your existing CD32 unit.
You may also grab your built-in Kickstart 3.1 Standard CD32 ROM image
and later update it with the contents of the ModulesCD32_3.2 disk by
using specialized software.
Despite we have provided you with the general guidelines on how to
proceed to generate this elusive physical CD32 ROM, we have decided to
currently not supply any CD32 ROM images to avoid a multitude of
issues that will eventually arise. Also further support following this
complex procedure will not be provided. Instead, we suggest you to
just stick to using the ModulesCD32_3.2 disk along with LoadModule,
just like the AmigaOS 3.2 install procedure defaults to.
14.13 * Which chips do I need to burn the CDTV Extended ROM set?
All CDTV extended ROMs are composed of two units of 128 KB EPROMS with
32 pins (1 M-bit) each.
A good advice is to always double check the datasheet from the
particular manufacturer of your chips for the pinout confirmation.
CDTV Extended ROM expected EPROM pinout:
Vpp 1 +-v-+ 32 Vcc
OE/ 2 | | 31 PGM/
A15 3 | | 30 nc
A12 4 | | 29 A14
A7 5 | | 28 A13
A6 6 | | 27 A8
A5 7 | | 26 A9
A4 8 | | 25 A11
A3 9 | | 24 A16
A2 10 | | 23 A10
A1 11 | | 22 CE/
A0 12 | | 21 D7
D0 13 | | 20 D6
D1 14 | | 19 D5
D2 15 | | 18 D4
GND 16 +---+ 17 D3
Compatible EPROM chips: 27C1000, 27C100, TC571001, 27C301.
WARNING: The Macronix MX27C1000 has a different pinout!
However, there are a few EPROM chip replacements that require minor
workarounds, and maybe used with little effort.
Semi-compatible chips that require workarounds: 27C1001, 27C010,
27C101, TC571000 and
MX27C1000.
The only difference seems to be that 2 pins are swapped, so you could
easily hack them using a pair of 32 pin DIL sockets or some jumper
wires.
Pinout of semi-compatible EPROM chips:
Vpp 1 +-v-+ 32 Vcc
A16 2 | | 31 PGM/
A15 3 | | 30 nc
A12 4 | | 29 A14
A7 5 | | 28 A13
A6 6 | | 27 A8
A5 7 | | 26 A9
A4 8 | | 25 A11
A3 9 | | 24 OE/
A2 10 | | 23 A10
A1 11 | | 22 CE/
A0 12 | | 21 D7
D0 13 | | 20 D6
D1 14 | | 19 D5
D2 15 | | 18 D4
GND 16 +---+ 17 D3
15. Support, Documentation, and Future
______________________________________
15.1 * Why didn't you support feature XYZ, World Domination, etc.?
We wanted to commence with the habit of releasing more often, and this
means less time to allocate to other tasks. It is certainly better
this way than having to wait for twenty years, don't you think?
15.2 * Speaking of support--where can I get any for this product?
Official support will be provided on the forums at:
15.3 * Will there be more updates?
We hope we have already delivered a stable and bug-free OS. However,
we are human, and mistakes do happen, and also some unforeseen
circumstances may require us to deliver an update to address them.
And after that? Tell us about your wishes and preferences concerning
an even further updated classic AmigaOS.
15.4 * Are there any Easter Eggs in OS 3.2?
Who knows?
15.5 * Is there any other AmigaOS 3.2 documentation available?
AmigaOS 3.2 comes with a built-in Help subsystem that covers the
entire AmigaOS 3.2 set of components, serving as a reference manual
easily accessible to users.
It can be activated by either pressing the HELP Amiga keyboard key
(PAGE DOWN key on Amiga emulators), by double clicking on the "Help"
icon located in the "System" drawer, or even by simply typing HELP
and a program name on a CLI/Shell window.
That said, you can also find the following documentation included in
the AmigaOS 3.2 package distribution:
1. A comprehensive AmigaOS 3.2 installation guide
(Installation.readme).
2. A FAQ that covers general MC68020-MC68060 CPU generic environments
(CPU-FAQ.readme).
3. A FAQ that covers GVP Accelerators, Disk, and I/O Interfaces
(GVP-FAQ.readme).
4. A FAQ that covers the PP&S A2000 68040/28 accelerator board
(PP&S-040-FAQ.readme).
15.6 * What is the origin of the AmigaOS 3.2 motto?
Some context on where the phrase "Nothing that's really good ever gets
really lost" came from: it's from one of the conversations in the
"Coders at work" book, with Dan Ingalls.
Dan Ingalls is one of the designers and implementors of the Smalltalk
language, which survives to this day. It was one of the first dynamic
object-oriented languages, originally intended to be used as
educational tool "for children of all ages".
This goes way back to the late 1960'ies/early 1970'ies when you were
still allowed to have dreams such as these. Naturally, this project
evolved at the Xerox PARC facility in California, where the future of
computing was invented. We're living in the world which PARC created
As for Smalltalk: we are all familiar with the concept of just-in-time
compilation. It's being used in dynamic languages such as JavaScript,
with Java itself being one of the first adopters (it was still close
to unusably slow when it shipped in the late 1990'ies, look at where
we are today). The concept of JITs, however, was designed for
Smalltalk to make use of it. Few people know what.
Smalltalk, warts and everything, still is an interesting technical
dream which its implementors had a hard time bringing it to reality
and furthering its adoption. That opportunity passed, and then we got
C++ instead with practical dynamic languages following it (Python
ical dream of Smalltalk.
The quote we use as motto, refers to technology which seems to get
left behind as competing ideas appear to overtake it. Smalltalk as a
language, a platform and so much more was overtaken by C++ in the
1980'ies, or so it seemed. Funny enough, its core ideas were never
adopted by C++ or more modern dynamic languages.
These ideas are still being rediscovered and applied, though. This is
what is meant by "Nothing that's really good ever gets really lost".
The evolution of Smalltalk is worth looking at (check out its
Wikipedia page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smalltalk). Reading
about "Squeak" and "eToys" makes me wonder if this tech could find a
home on the Amiga.
A small part of this is already part of the Amiga: Intuition's BOOPSI
model is based upon the Smalltalk message/object/class model.
---------------------------- End of FAQ ------------------------------
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Přijde mi, že změn a vylepšení je obrovské množství. Jen namátkou, co mě zběžně zaujalo:- ReAction GUI
- Podpora ADF formatu (čtení i zápis), adfko je dostupné po dvojkliku
- Výrazně vylepšený shell
- Nové i vylepšené příkazy shellu (reboot např.)
- Integrovaná nápověda
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AmigaOS 3.2
Hyperion dnes pro nás a naše milenky vydal AmigaOS 3.2. Nová verze operačního systému obsahuje přes 100 novinek a desítky nejrůznějších updatů a oprav. Na vývoji, který trval přes dva roky, se podílelo přes šest desítek vývojářů. AmigaOS 3.2 bude k pořízení na fyzickém CD-ROMu a disketách, i jako elektronický download. Pro používání bude potřeba do našich amig dodat nový kickstart, který bude k dispozici jako softkick, i jako samostatný čip. Kickstart bude různý pro různé verze amig.
AmigaOS 3.2 je určen pro modely amig: 1000, 500, CDTV, 2000, 600, 1200, CD32, 3000, 3000T, 4000D or 4000T a jejich drobné variace. Systém vyžaduje 2 MB paměti a pevný disk, na kterém zabere 10 MB místa.
AmigaOS3.2 bude možné zakoupit na stránkách Hyperionu, případně u jeho partnerů.
Tiskovou zprávu s přehledem všech novinek naleznete taktéž na stránkách Hyperionu.
V čase publikování této novinky nákup ještě není možný a aktuálně ani není známá cena. To se během večera změní, předpokládám.Přiložené soubory -
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