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Please note, the information contained on this page relates to AmigaOS 4.0 and may no longer be applicable to later versions of AmigaOS.

Pre-Release Installation

FAQ

Written by Tony Wyatt, Edited by Adam 'Sherwood' Zaparcinski

Before the Installation

During the Installation

After the Installation

Should this work?

Before The Installation

Q: How can I use my old hard drive with OS4? I have a lot of important data stored on it, using "XYZ" filesystem.
A: OS4 supports (out of the box) FastFileSystem and SmartFileSystem. If your XYZ is neither of these, you can still read/write to the partitions using XYZ if XYZ is stored in the RDB of the drive. Use Media Toolbox or HDToolbox to find out what is stored on the drive. Then XYZ filesystem has to work emulated under OS4 PPC (some may try to burrow into the old 68k OS).
For further details on Filesystems and the RDB, read the Media Toolbox documentation.

Q: Can I just over-write my old OS1/2/3 system partition with OS4?
A: Not quite, the partition has to support the "Long Filenames" feature of FFS2. This means setting the partition type to "DOS\7", rather than the "DOS\1" or DOS\3" that it is now. You can do this either of two ways:
  1. Re-format the partition using OS4's Format (on the Installation CD), with "Long names" selected - this will destroy any files stored in that partition already.
  2. Use Partition Wizard's "Convert" mode to convert an existing Old File System (OFS) or Fast File System (FFS) to the new long name format. Refer to the documentation for Partition Wizard, and make sure you have a complete backup, just in case.
If you want to be able to remove the drive and use it in another Amiga (like a Classic), you will have to save the new FastFileSystem in the RDB of the drive. This is not necessary (or desirable) for the boot drive on an AmigaOne. Note that it must be a 68k version of the FFS, not a PPC version.

Q: What do "DOS\1", "DOS\3" etc mean?
A: They are shorthand to describe the way a disk partition is formatted. The 4-byte word contains the three letters in ASCII and a single binary byte for the type, eg "DOS\3" = 0x44, 0x4F, 0x53, 0x03.
  • "DOS\1" or "DOS\01" means plain Fast File System.
  • "DOS\3" or "DOS\03" means Fast File System + International mode.
  • "DOS\5" or "DOS\05" means Fast File System + Directory cache (for floppies, obsolete).
  • "DOS\7" or "DOS\07" means Fast File System + International Mode + Long file names.
Other file systems use different codes, for instance, Smart File System is "SFS\0".

Q: How can I be sure of my IDE chain?
A: The IDE devices in your AmigaOne may require some careful connections to ensure proper operation. If you are having trouble with some (but not all) drives, and you are sure the Master/Slave jumpers are set correctly, check these points:
  • Only use 80-wire UDMA cables, do not use 40-wire cables.
  • Ensure that the cables are connected the proper way round - the end of the longest segment of the cable has to connect to the motherboard.
  • Put the Master device at the far end of the cable.
  • If you are using a Slave device, connect it to the connector in the middle of the cable.
  • Set the jumpers on the drives explicitly as Master or Slave - do not use Cable Select.

During the Installation

Q: I can't boot the CD. It just says "Bad Magic Number".
A: You are using the wrong U-Boot command. This is not a Linux CD. Try "boota".

Q: I can't boot the CD. It just says "** No disk inserted in drive 0 **"
A: Make sure that your boot device is the CD or at least that the CD is the first bootable device it finds. Type "menu", then interrupt the countdown with the space key and select "Boot Sequence" from the list. Now make sure that "Boot Device 1" says IDE CDROM. You can have "Floppy" for device 1 and "IDE CDROM" for device 2, if there is no floppy disk in the floppy drive, otherwise U-Boot will try to boot from the floppy first.

Q: I can't boot the CD - I've checked the boot device and "Boot Device 1" is set to "cdrom". But when I enter "boota", U-Boot just returns with a prompt. What's wrong?
A: Are you sure that you have the correct U-Boot firmware installed in your machine? Type "ver" at the U-Boot prompt to check. To match the pre-release, it should say "U-Boot 1.0.0 (Apr 12 2004)".

Q: I put the Install CD in the drive, checked that "Boot Device 1" is set to "cdrom" and typed "boota", but nothing happened. U-Boot just returned with a prompt. What is wrong now?
A: U-Boot is not smart enough to detect a new CD in the drive. Type "ide reset" to make U-Boot recheck the drives, then try again.

After the Installation

Q: The installation went OK, but the installed system won't boot when I take out the CD. When I type "boota", U-Boot says "Second level bootloader is too old; please upgrade it".
A: The version of slb that is installed in the RDB of the boot disk is too old for the version of U-Boot that you are using. See the answer to the next question.

Q: The installation went OK, but the installed system won't boot when I take out the CD. When I type "boota", U-Boot just returns with a prompt. What could be wrong?
A: U-Boot can't find the "Second-level booter" on your hard disk.
  • Replace the Install CD in the drive and reboot.
  • Cancel the Input and Locale requesters and the Installation script so that you just have the WB screen with the CD backdrop picture.
  • Click once on the Media Toolbox icon in the AmiDock (bottom of screen).
  • Select "Normal" mode and "a1ide.device" in Media Toolbox, then "Start".
  • Select your AmigaOS drive where you installed the system.
  • Click on "Edit/Reinstall RDB", then look at the bottom of the window where there is a frame around some requesters and the title "AmigaOne boot code". If you selected "Expert" mode, you will see a panel on the right of the window that says "Drive Initialisation code" This is NOT where you install the Second Level Booter.
  • If there is an "Installed AmigaOne booter" already, you will see its source (where it came from) and size listed in the lower right hand box. The two buttons above ("Remove AmigaOne booter") and left ("Save booter back to file") of that box will be unghosted.
  • If there is no booter installed, you will see the message "" in the lower right hand box and only the top left button ("Install AmigaOne booter" will be unghosted. If a booter is installed, but it is the wrong file or an old version, you can delete it by clicking on the "Remove AmigaOne booter" button.
  • To install a new booter, click the "Install AmigaOne booter" button. A requester will appear, from which you can select the proper file. The file is called "slb_v2" and should be in the "L:" drawer of the installation CD.
Q: What is "slb"?
A: "SLB" stands for the Second Level Booter that is stored in the RDB of the system boot disk. There is no equivalent in the Classic 68k system. SLB finds the Kickstart directory and starts the loading process.

Q: When I finish the install and reboot, I can't see the display. It all appears wonky/shimmery/unreadable/ does not appear at all. What did I do wrong?
A: Probably you chose an unsuitable screenmode. Some graphics cards and TFT screens are particularly critical. You will have to repeat the installation, but this time select a different screenmode at the end of the procedure. Did you try the "Default" mode? If you have problems, try that first, you can always change it later in the running system.

Q: I've got it to boot the installed system, but I can't get a high resolution screenmode. What can I do?
A: In the Devs: drawer are some Picasso96 settings files - "Picasso96Settings-Radeon" and "Picasso96Settings-Voodoo". You can copy some or all of the modes from these files to your active "Picasso96Settings" file, using Sys:Prefs/Picasso96Mode. Read the documentation for Picasso96Mode first.

Should this work?

Q: My USB mouse does not work. Why?
A: USB is still experimental and has not been distributed in the pre-release.

Q: What about my printer: can I use it?
A: Printer support is still experimental and has not been distributed in the pre-release.

Q: What about my dial-up modem: can I use it?
A: The serial port is not available for general use in the pre-release.

Q: Why does the serial port not work?
A: It works well, but currently (in the pre-release) it is reserved for diagnostics and debug messages.

Q: Why can't debug messages (or my modem) use the second serial port?
A: It's not yet supported by U-Boot.

Q: I was playing with the menu in U-Boot and now my A1 does not boot any more.
A: When you enter the "Boot Select" menu by pressing Enter during the menu countdown, U-Boot clears the variables "boot2" and "boot3" and sets "boot1" to "floppy".
There are two ways of fixing this:
  1. Go into the Preferences Menu/Boot Sequence and set "Boot Device 1" to "IDE" (and the other devices if you wish). Then exit with Esc (twice) and select "Save Settings and Exit".
    OR
  2. At the command prompt, type "setenv boot1 ide" (in lower case, without the quotes), Enter, then "saveenv" and Enter. You can set boot2 and boot3 the same way.
Q: I made my own "Interface" script using "eth3com.device", but when I run it, it says "Device failed to open".
A: The best place for "eth3com.device" is where it is distributed - in "Devs:Networks". If a "device" is in that drawer, it can be referenced directly in a Roadshow script without needing a path. If you move the "device" into "Devs:", you will have to add the path in the script, eg "Devs:".

Created: 01/06/2004
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