#3.1 Upgrade Report
Just to report my experiences on the 3.1 upgrade for the Amiga 2000.
The upgrade kit from Expert Serivces came complete with 3 manuals (DOS,
Workbench, and ARexx), a quick reference sheet, a 40-pin ROM (no depression,
apparently a real ROM), and an instruction sheet that instantly confused me.
"Older machines are maked on the left side with *1989 COMMODORE AMIGA 2000
and MADE IN GERMANY". Mine was marked 1988, burned in in West Chester, so I
assumed it was older yet… "For these boards the ROM IC must have Pin 1
connected to Pin 31".
Out with the magnet wire. Hmmm. If I try soldering directly to the pins,
I'll have a heluva time removing it if needed. Oh well, try the poor man's
wire wrap. "The operating system ROM, U2, is located just to the right of the
68000; pin 1 faces forward". Hmmm. Nothing to the right of the 68000, nothing
marked U2 (no band, no spy plane, no chip there). Chip below looks like it is
marked HN62102, right number of pins, nothing nearby. Make the pin 1-31
connection, plug it in, power up. Nothing. Remove the pin 1-31 connection,
plug it in again, power up. Works. Workbench disk gives me a recogniable 3.1
system.
OK, in with the Install disk, and start clicking. 89% through the Install
operation, I'm told to put in a disk called BOOT. No such disk. Try again,
booting from the isntall disk. 89% through the Install operation (this stuff
takes time), it sez "Disk Workbench is FULL".
Hmmm. The Workbench partition is 2.2 megs; seems like it should fit. No
suggestions in the manual, system requirements or anything.
Go in on floppies, and with a little klooging, clean everything from the
Workbench HD partition except PC (Bridgeboard stuff). Do Install AGAIN. At
the 89% point it tells me my HD is full. Grrrr.
At the current installation stage, the system still will not recognize my
main HD partition. Likely, Install mops that up in the last 11% of its
operation. Well, if I can just get WORK: in play, I can move out most of TOOLS
and make a little room. OK, fabricate an appropriate MountList and gum a
couple of extra commands into the startup. Oh boy: Ahlstrom's gonne be REAL
MAD at me when he finds out I've tampered with s:startup-sequence.
Well, it's in there and working now. No space for FONTS in my Workbench
partition; I'll think about that part another day.
Wonder if I should repartition my hard drive and start over?
–Jim