Large Hard Drive Support for Kickstart 1.3

[Jameson]

Hey guys, this is probably a simple problem, but I have been using 3.14 and 3.2 so long now I have been spoilt and cannot remember how to patch older Kickstart versions for larger HDD support.

I have some patched Kickstart 1.3 ROMs from Amigastore.eu which add the scsi.device to the standard KS 1.3 ROM to make those little 8MB Fast RAM + IDE boards autoboot.

This is all working fine, except I am using a 16GB Workbench 1.3 image that I created with all the apps/games etc set up on it, and only the first partition - DH0: is mounted. DH1: is NDOS as the size of this second partition extends beyond that which the KS 3.1 scsi.device can handle, and from what I can understand, Amigastore.eu patches these KS1.3 ROMs with the scsi.device from KS 3.1.

If it makes any difference, the two partitions on the 16GB CF cards are PFS3. I believe there is a PFS3DS filesystem which, I think, bypasses the limitations of the device driver in the KS ROM. If this is the case, is it as simple as using a tool like HDToolbox, and changing the filesystem from PFS3 to PFS3DS? IF so, would this leave the data on the partitions intact (as long as I do not change anything else such as partition size etc)?

I previously often use LoadModule to load in an alternative scsi.device for performance increase - there are several updated patches ones available. Am I able to LoadModule in a new scsi.device at the beginning of my S:Startup-Sequence that can handle the larger partitions?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thx.

 

[fitzsteve]

As an alternative have you considered 3.1 with a 1.3 theme, I used to run the old classic workbench 68k pack on my A500+ with the 1.3 theme.

ClassicWB 68K Versions

 

[Jameson]

Not really for several reasons - 1. Whilst you can make 3.1 etc looks a little like 1.3, it is impossible to make it look and function exactly the same as 1.3. 2 - I already have several dozen Amiga's running 3.1, 3.22 etc, and I really wanted this machine to be a true 1.3 system (for nostalgia) and 3 - Only 1.3 will run several badly written apps that I want to play around with, namely some of the early Atari ST emulators.

Should be easy to add large HDD support to 1.3 - I know it has been done before and I think the direct scsi option of PFS3 (which is KS1.3 compatible) might do this, just cannot remember HOW to.

Oh, and I really dislike ClassicWB - I am a bit of a perfectionist with regards how my WB looks.

 

[fitzsteve]

A quick check, loadmodule requires WB 2.04 so that would rule it out, presumably you're going to need to patch a newer scsi.device into the Rom directly.

Aminet - util/boot/LoadModule.lha

aminet.net

Ps. Direct scsi version PFS3AIO is only up to 8gb support without patching the scsi.device

 

[miggymad]

@Jameson

Patched ROMs are the only way to go in order to use large disk/partition support.

Amigastore.eu, as you have already surmised will help you there. Having patched ROMs won't make any difference to the A500 itself and it's software - unless it specifically checks for a particular scsi.device version, which are very few and far between IIRC

 

[Jameson]

A quick check, loadmodule requires WB 2.04 so that would rule it out, presumably you're going to need to patch a newer scsi.device into the Rom directly.

Aminet - util/boot/LoadModule.lha

aminet.net

Ps. Direct scsi version PFS3AIO is only up to 8gb support without patching the scsi.device

There is actually an older version of LoadModule which apparently is KS 1.2/1.3 compatible, however I am not sure if this is the right avenue to go down. I did some experimentation and was able to get a 16GB CF Card with a 2GB boot partition and a 14GB second partition to boot to Workbench by using the direct scsi version of PFS3AIO.... however it seems to corrupt all partition tables within a few minutes, so not sure what is going on there.

 

[Jameson]

@Jameson

Patched ROMs are the only way to go in order to use large disk/partition support.

Amigastore.eu, as you have already surmised will help you there. Having patched ROMs won't make any difference to the A500 itself and it's software - unless it specifically checks for a particular scsi.device version, which are very few and far between IIRC

Well, the patched KS 1.3 ROMs were purchased from Amigastore.eu, but they seem to be using the standard scsi.device from KS 3.1 ROMs and so the limitations of that scsi.device are in effect at boot up. Is it possible to patch KS 1.3 with a newer scsi.device that does not have the 4GB limitation? If so, I wonder why Amigastore.eu don't just use a newer scsi.device in their patched KS 1.3 ROM's - copyright issues perhaps?

 

[fitzsteve]

There is actually an older version of LoadModule which apparently is KS 1.2/1.3 compatible, however I am not sure if this is the right avenue to go down. I did some experimentation and was able to get a 16GB CF Card with a 2GB boot partition and a 14GB second partition to boot to Workbench by using the direct scsi version of PFS3AIO.... however it seems to corrupt all partition tables within a few minutes, so not sure what is going on there.

Do you intend to fill the full 16gb? Otherwise just stick with an 8gb CF and PFS3AIO with no additional patches needed.

 

[Jameson]

About 15.2GB is already used - it is a pre-made 16GB image for WB 1.3.