A4000T / WB 3.1 problems

Hi,

I have an Amiga 4000T with Cyberstorm MK II / 060 and SCSI module. I have a Quantum SCSI hard disk attached to it and this is able to boot Workbench 3.1.

I also have an external SCSI device with SyQuest drive (which is working) and a Philips CDD3600 SCSI inside. This last one, I don't know if it's working or not :/

Today I received a brand new AmigaOS 3.9 install CD and a IDE CF reader. I opened up my Amiga and connected a brand new IDE cable to the connector which indicated CN650 on the main board. So far so good.

I started to connect a bit more reliable CD drive which actually spins up and seems to be able to read disks. But no matter how hard I try, the Amiga won't boot up from it nor can I see it inside WB 3.1. The light on the front is showing activity...
So, I figured.. maybe bad luck and I connected the CF card reader (without power) and booted up WB again. Again, no sign of a card reader (with inserted card obviously).

The only thing I can think of, is that inside WB 3.1 something is broken or disabled (IDE?) ? It still could be a hardware problem though, although it seems to work if I'm watching the lights go on and off...

It's been years since I used Workbench in any way and I can't boot up a 3.1 original diskette for I'm the lucky one to have an 68060 CPU and not the library-files.

Can somebody help me out what to do so I can install AmigaOS 3.9 on my CF card?

The installed WorkBench is really dodgy because it is missing all kinds of hard drives. Again, it's been years since I used WorkBench and the last 10 years I've been using Linux only.. So, I kinda forgot how everything seemed to work :(

Make sure that the CD device driver in dosdrivers that you are using is pointing to:

2nd.scsi.device


As for what I know this is the one that the 4000Ts use for the IDE port (I may be mistaken as never had an A4000T though).

The same with hdtoolbox to prep that CF card (I assume that it is not partitioned/formatted yet).

Ok, after playing around with the SCSI id's, I managed to get the CD-drive working in the external SCSI thing.

The CF is still not visible, I'll try with the hdtoolbox (if I can find it on the almost broken HD).

AmigaOS 3.9 doesn't seem to boot up (it's now 3rd device, 1st = HD, 2nd = SyQuest drive) but it should be able to boot right?
Also if I start AmigaOS 3.9 installer from the current WB, it ends with error 3. I'll google it anyway..

As I already mentioned, it's been a while since I've used Amiga. It's also a good option to make a backup boot disk I guess, especially since I use an 68060 CPU. Sorry for my bit stupid questions, but how on earth can I make a boot disk in WB 3.1 ??

The boot loader cannot see the external SCSI CD drive so I cannot select it there :/

@WHiZZi :

A normal amiga can not boot directly from CD (never they can, well unless you manage to do some hackery with custom kickstarts or by using a Deneb or some such to load the drivers at the machine start, but that's not the point here) :)

Normally you'll need to make a rescue floppy disk from the 3.9 installer if you can get to that part of the install.

The other option will be make a boot floppy disk by hand from the 3.1 install, but I'll be a bit more tedious, and ATM I've not my Amiga at hand to make a step by step quick guide to do so, maybe someone around can help you if needed.

And the other doubt that you say: normally for selecting a boot device you can do it by pressing the two mouse buttons at the startup to get to the early startup menu, but you'll never see there the cdrom unit as I told before amigas haven't the ability to see them until a proper device driver is loaded for it.

Good luck, at least things are getting in to the right way :thumbsup:

Just another question, have you any in working order amiga for doing those duties, say make a boot floppy from os3.9 install cd or to copy the 68060 libs ?

My advice is to setup OS3.9 within WinUAE, copy to your CF card (again within WinUAE) and then use the ready prepared CF on your A4000T :)

Remember you will also need Workbench.Library in your Libs folder as it is not present on the A4000T Rom and of course copy the Phase5 060 Libs :cool:

Again all work can be done in WinUAE and then just hook it up to the Amiga after and switch that bad boy on!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lostrego

@WHiZZi :

A normal amiga can not boot directly from CD (never they can, well unless you manage to do some hackery with custom kickstarts or by using a Deneb or some such to load the drivers at the machine start, but that's not the point here) :)

Normally you'll need to make a rescue floppy disk from the 3.9 installer if you can get to that part of the install.

The other option will be make a boot floppy disk by hand from the 3.1 install, but I'll be a bit more tedious, and ATM I've not my Amiga at hand to make a step by step quick guide to do so, maybe someone around can help you if needed.

And the other doubt that you say: normally for selecting a boot device you can do it by pressing the two mouse buttons at the startup to get to the early startup menu, but you'll never see there the cdrom unit as I told before amigas haven't the ability to see them until a proper device driver is loaded for it.

Good luck, at least things are getting in to the right way :thumbsup:

Just another question, have you any in working order amiga for doing those duties, say make a boot floppy from os3.9 install cd or to copy the 68060 libs ?

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Unless you have a CSMKIII or CSPPC card. Afaik, these cards can control CDROM's before the OS is loaded.

Also, cards such as the KickFlash 4.0 can be used to pre-load all sorts of drivers before the OS even boots. :thumbsup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by D.B

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lostrego

but you'll never see there the cdrom unit as I told before amigas haven't the ability to see them until a proper device driver is loaded for it.

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Unless you have a CSMKIII or CSPPC card. Afaik, these cards can control CDROM's before the OS is loaded.

Also, cards such as the KickFlash 4.0 can be used to pre-load all sorts of drivers before the OS even boots. :thumbsup:

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Hey yes, I was terribly mistaken here! How I don't realized before that the Walker can also boot directly from CD thanks to the 3.2 ROMs and... ehhhr, wait! it's just a prototype! :p

I'm just kidding a bit, dont take me too seriously ;)

So D.B. , for sure there are some options (third party ones) that can made this possible by pre-loading the said drivers at start (but again, neither the amiga by itself nor their original official stock roms can do that by themselves).

BTW he was asking on how to install an os3.9 and I only was explaining him why his amiga can't boot directly from CD, as It's a very common mistake to think that the amiga behaves like a moderm PC do in this matter.

:)

Thanks for the answers so far.

I don't have another Amiga with CD drive (I do have 2x A500 and one with A530 addon). I'll look into the WinUAE thing which I can only do at work (I don't have a CF reader at home :unsure: and only Macbooks and one Linux server)

I kinda figured that the Amiga won't boot up from CD. I'm not that ignorant ;). I used to have a A600HD and A1200 and the last one had a CDDrive as well. But I'm talking about 10 years ago or so and I found out I kinda forgot how to work with Workbench.

My A4000T has a floppy drive and I'm sure I should be able to startup the AmigaOS 3.9 installer from the CD (within Workbench 3.1). For some reason it immediately gives me an error (Interpreter: Error on line 3.. something like that). So, with my logical thinking I'd say my workbench installation is pretty broken and perhaps if I can boot the machine with some kind of rescue disk or with the startup rescue disk of OS3.9 (?). All I need to know is how I can make a rescue disk (can be both floppy disk or even the 270MB SyQuest drive).

Ok.. I think I managed to get the OS installed on the CF using e-uae under Linux / Ubuntu. The MS Windows within the VirtualBox just didn't work ...

If wanted, I can make a small howto install OS 3.9 under Ubuntu using e-uae. I also figured how to create at least a bootable thing (I think). AmigaOS doesn't need to create a Bootrecord or make a partition bootable (right?).

Only thing left is to find out how to get the CF card reader running, I think I know how.

a quick hint with the installer: Maybe the problem is due to an old version of the install command of that old 3.1 wb, try to replace it with the one supplied by the 3.9 install cd.