Installing 2.04
8 messages in this thread
Perhaps (Hopefully) someone here can seer me in the right direction. I have
an A2500/20 and I have just purchased the 2.04 Enhancher Kit. Before
installing the 2.0 rom, I have a few questions which I need answered. I
have read the Release 2 Getting Started manual which has prompted me to ask
these questions.
1.) The manual states that the UpdateWB script will copy the necessary
2.0 files to my SYS: partition, and that this partition should be
at least 2-3MB in size. Because I have an early 2500, I have an
2090a hard disk controller which requires an old filesystem
partition to boot from. I have the Boot: partition set to 922K,
durning startup, I assign SYS: to a larger partition on my
harddrive. Should I have the UpdateWB script copy the files to the
large SYS: partition, then copy the necessary directories to the
Boot: partition? What are the necessary directories under 2.0?
2.) If I reformat my harddrive under 2.0, do I still need the old
filesystem boot partition with the 2090a? If not, how will system
know which partition to boot from (all partitions, except the Boot:
partition, are mounted from the mountlist)?
Thanks in advance for any help you may give,
Versia Hilliard
– via Whap!
Versia,
Note that you'll need the updated ROMs for your 2620 board before you can
install your 2.0 ROM. There's a file in the libraries here that will let
you run Kickstart 2.04 from a disk file until those ROMs are available
again (they're backordered right now).
To answer your questions:
(1) You're right. Copy the files to the large SYS partition and then copy
the other files to your boot partition. Not having a 2090a, I'm not sure
exactly which files are needed, but this is a directory dump of my Xetec
oldfilesystem BOOT: partition, which should give you a general idea. Files
peculiar to my setup are marked with an *:
c (dir)
assign binddrivers
cd *defdisk
echo else
endif Execute
failat if
*mempri *prefs
run setpatch
*Tick_Northgate version
l (dir)
disk-validator FastFileSystem
devs (dir)
*2.0-configuration *system-config
system-configuration
s (dir)
startup-sequence *startup1.33
*startup2.0
T (dir)
libs (dir)
*68040.library *arp.library
icon.library version.library
Expansion (dir)
.info harddisk
harddisk.info *v1.40driver
.info
Disk.info Expansion.info
(2) Good question. Since FFS is now in ROM, it seems to me you could make
your BOOT: partition a large FFS drive now, and just mount any other
partitions from it.
Denny,
Thanks for your reply and your BOOT: partition directory listing. I
am planning on using the Kickstart from disk program/mod until the new rom
for my 2620 arrive. I think I'll play it safe and not reformat my drives
until I have the 2620 roms in place, but I would like to plan ahead. If it
is possible to format the BOOT: partition as FFS under 2.04, and if my
upgrade to QuarterBack ever arrives, I will reformat my drives and make the
BOOT: partition a 10MB (or more) OFS partition which will be used as my
WorkBench: drive. When the new 2620 roms show up, all I'll have to do is
reformat drives as FFS.
Thanks for you help,
Versia
Versia,
I am running the same setup (2500/20/2090A) with 2.04, booting off the
1.3 ROM and loading an image of the 2.04 ROM from disk with SETCPU. I'm in
the same position of waiting for QB upgrade before reformatting, so I have
not tried booting a FFS partition yet. SETCPU.LZH is in LIB 11 of
Amigatech. The ready-to-run code to make an image of the 2.04 ROM is
26X0_F.LZH in AmigaUser (don't have the lib number).
I used the MultiStartII to make the ROM image, since you have to have the
2.04 ROM installed to copy it to disk (would be easier if you know someone
already running 2.04).
One of the problems I've run into with using "setcpu kickrom" is the
amount of CHIP ram left. The 2.04 ROM is 512K, so you must have at least
1Meg CHIP for it to work. I end up with approx. 268K of CHIP left after
booting 2.04, which means I still have to run 1.3 for graphics intensive
software to work and find myself running the machine out of chip ram all
the time if I'm not careful. Sure hope the -6 ROMs for the 2620 don't take
too much longer.
Peter
Peter,
Thanks for your information. I have the 26x0_F.lzh, I currently run
SetCPU 1.5 (it has a neat feature which stops the clicking in my external
floppy drive). If I decide to run with the kickrom, I will download
SetCPU.lzh (this contains SetCPU 1.6 right??). I'm especially grateful for
your insight on the amount of chip ram used by the kickrom process. After
reading your message I may decide to bypass the A2620 and run my system in
68000 mode until the -6 roms are available. I do have 2mbs of fast ram
which is not on the A2620 (I scavenged the MicroBotics StarBoard-II from my
A1000), so I could have an effective, but slower system, with the 2.0 rom
installed, and a full meg of chip ram. This would also relieve of the need
to pull my 1.3 rom, install the 2.0 rom, dump the kickstart code, pull the
2.0 rom, then reinstall the 1.3 rom which would be replaced (by the 2.0
rom) when the -6 roms for the A2620 arrived. I was hoping to, but have not
yet found anyone around here (Vallejo Ca. / SF Bay Area) who will let me
dump the rom from their machine. Most of my friends don't have 2.04 yet
because the dealers sell out as fast as it comes in. Most people, including
dealers, don't know about the kickrom solution. I know because I've asked.
Well, I have some decisions to make.
Thanks for you information,
Versia
Versia,
Yes, you need SetCPU 1.6 to load the larger ROM image for 2.0. Please
disregard what I said about the CHIP ram usage (unless you only have 512K).
This morning I read through the SetCPU docs again (in preparation for
switching over to straight 2.0 boot, my dealer called this morning to
inform me that my -6 ROMs are in) and discovered that I had misinterpreted
the part that said you can only 'KICKROM' into FAST RAM if the disk image
is the same as what's currently running. Once the image is in CHIP you can
'setcpu KICKROM <filename>' again and move the ROM image into FAST RAM,
freeing up the CHIP RAM. This second move does not reboot the machine.
May I suggest that you make an image of your 1.3 ROM before pulling it so
that you can boot 1.3 when needed for software which doesn't function well
with 2.0. I have a few such programs which I am not ready to upgrade (I
don't use them enough to justify the expense, but they still come in handy
occasionally). The 1.3 version of the OS doesn't take up all that much room
on the hard drive after all.
Hope your 2620 ROMs arrive soon. My mistake is yet another example of why
one should RTFM (read the fine manual) ;^).
Good Luck.
Peter
Peter,
I finally installed the 2.04 rom. I also took your advice and made a
disk based copy of the 1.3 rom before removing it. Organizing my system
under 2.04, and learning 2.0 has been consuming most of my time therefore
I've decided to wait until the Thanksgiving Weekend to perform the 2.04
kickfile setup. My system runs well under 2.04 and the 68000, so there is
really no rush in getting the A2620 working. I'm also hoping the -6 roms
will show up before then (after all, you received your roms). The
installation was easy and straightforward.
Thanks for all of you help and for answering my questions. I'm going to
spend some time pruning the software on my hard disks (got too much stuff
I'm not using).
Versia Hilliard
Oops, I forgot something. You need to change the kickfile program from
26X0_F.LZH to copy the 1.3 ROM. change the start address to 0xfc0000 and
the size to 0x40000L. If you don't have a C compiler to rebuild the file I
can Email you the modified program if you like (it's only 6704 bytes long).
Peter