AmigaOS 3.9 to 3.1.4

Categories: Amiga, Computers

Or: My Amiga DownUpGrade Journey

A1200 Tower

A1200 hardware specs:

  • Rev 2B A1200 Board (all timing fixes carried out)
    • Clip over PCMCIA fix (Gayle)
    • Indivision AGA Mk2CR
    • EZ-DF0 PC to Amiga Floppy drive adapter
    • Cocolino PS2 Mouse adapter
  • Blizzard 1260 @ 50Mhz
    • 128MB EDO SIMM
  • Mediator TX (6 PCI slots and ATX power supply support)
    • 3DFX Voodoo 3 2000 (16MB)
    • Creative SoundBlaster PCI128
    • Realtek 100Mbps Fast Ethernet
    • Elbox Spider II (NEC) USB 2.0 Card
    • Bigfoot Networks K1 NIC (Used as PPC co-processor)
      • 333Mhz PowerPC processor
      • 64MB RAM
  • Power Computing Power Tower
    • Seagate Barracuda 80GB
    • Toshiba DVD-RW Drive
    • Iomega Zip 100
    • Corsair CMPSU-400CX 400W ATX PSU
  • Iiyama ProLite E1902S
    • 1280×1024 native
    • DVI x 1 (Indivision) |  VGA x 1 (Voodoo) | Audio x 1
  • A4000 Keyboard
  • Microsoft Basic Optical Mouse

A1200 software specs (Before):

  • AmigaOS 3.9
    • IDEFix (via LoadIDE in startup-sequence)
    • BB1/2/3/4 applied
    • Picasso96
    • So many other small tweaks on top it’s not funny …

A1200 software specs (After):

  • AmigaOS 3.1.4
    • IDEFix (via LoadIDE in startup-sequence) [Kept for easy ZIP drive use]
    • Picasso96
    • Less small tweaks than before! Woohoo!

Hardware Changes

Besides installing the ROMs themselves, there was only one other change needed. On the Mediator I needed to change the CONFIG jumper from OPEN to CLOSED – note that this is the exact opposite of what is needed for 3.1 ROMs.

ROMs in place, here we go …

Software Changes

Being inherently lazy, the last thing I wanted to do was a start from scratch install. I had the system in a place where I really liked my setup, and so decided to see what I needed to do in order to get things going by mixing the 3.1.4 release into my current 3.9 install.

From the Workbench disk (or ADF) I copied the contents of the C folder to my current SYS:C folder, overwriting any older versions I already had with those from the 3.1.4 release. I then copied LoadModule from the Modules disk (or ADF) C folder to SYS:C. This means I would now be using the new 3.1.4 versions of LoadModule and SetPatch.

I also copied over the new intuition.library (the file on the Modules disk is called intuition-v45.library) from the Modules disk (or ADF) into LIBS: – this new version allows offscreen windows. This seems a small thing, but makes a huge difference in workbench usability!

Note that it’s also worth grabbing the rest of the libraries, there are small bugfixes throughout many of them. I moved these over (checking version numbers to ensure they were newer) one at a time. So far, the only issue encountered is that the new workbench.library uses rexxsyslib.library to read, set and modify script variables. So make sure you bring both libraries over when copying.

In my S:startup-sequence I edited the SetPatch line to read:

  C:SetPatch >NIL:

as per the FAQ provided with 3.1.4 – I also removed MuMove4K and PoolMem from the SS – as MuMove4K was no longer needed, and PoolMem seemed to cause issues on boot.

I then edited my LoadModule line which was, admittedly, huge – this was simply due to the amount of components I was updating on the fly from disk. The new LoadModule line is a lot simpler:

  C:LoadModule >NIL: LIBS:intuition.library NOMEMFKICK REVERSE

NOTE: The NOMEMFKICK argument I’m using is to prevent LoadModule putting things into Chip RAM – I suspect this may only be required in conjunction with my Blizzard 1260. I would suggest that if you do not have a Blizzard, you try this without the NOMEMFKICK first.

Finally I switched the machine off, and left it for a minute or two, as I wanted to make sure any reset-resident patches were definitely gone. And then, crossing my fingers, I started the machine – perhaps cheering slightly as it booted up without error, this process giving me a functional and incredibly pleasant to use system.

It’s Alive!

Finally, here’s a listing of my current Startup-Sequence:

; Graham's Startup-Sequence for hard drive systems
;Set Echo On

FailAt 20

C:LoadModule >NIL: LIBS:mathieeesingbas.library LIBS:mathffp.library LIBS:intuition.library NOMEMFKICK REVERSE
Run >NIL: C:CopyMem060
C:LoadIDE START QUIET
C:wildclick
C:SetPatch >NIL:

C:CyReq
C:SaferPatches INSTALL >NIL:

C:StackAttack

C:Version >NIL:
C:AddBuffers >NIL: DF0: 15
FailAt 21

C:MakeDir RAM:T RAM:Clipboards

C:env-handler

Resident >NIL: C:Assign PURE
Resident >NIL: C:Execute PURE

Assign >NIL: T: RAM:T
Assign >NIL: CLIPS: RAM:Clipboards
Assign >NIL: REXX: S:
Assign >NIL: PRINTERS: DEVS:Printers
Assign >NIL: KEYMAPS: DEVS:Keymaps
Assign >NIL: LOCALE: SYS:Locale
Assign >NIL: LIBS: SYS:Classes ADD
Assign >NIL: HELP: LOCALE:Help DEFER

BindDrivers
C:Mount >NIL: DEVS:DOSDrivers/~(#?.info)

C:LoadMonDrvs

SetEnv Language "english"
SetEnv Workbench $Workbench
SetEnv Kickstart $Kickstart
UnSet Workbench
UnSet Kickstart

C:AddDataTypes REFRESH QUIET

C:MCP
Run >NIL: C:titleshadow
C:OutlineIconText

C:IPrefs
C:FPPrefs
C:ConClip

Path >NIL: RAM: C: SYS:Utilities SYS:Rexxc SYS:System S: SYS:Prefs SYS:WBStartup SYS:Tools SYS:Tools/Commodities

SYS:System/REXXMast >NIL:

IF EXISTS S:User-Startup
  Execute S:User-Startup
EndIF

Resident Execute REMOVE
Resident Assign REMOVE

C:StackAttack AUTO

C:DiskSafe REBOOT df0: Storage: Games: Work: AmigaOS:

; Make Workbench Pretty
Assign THEMES: SYS:Prefs/Presets/Themes
Run >NIL: "AmigaOS:VisualPrefs/VisualPrefs"
Run >NIL: C:birdie ? <ENV:Birdie.prefs

C:LoadWB
EndCLI >NIL:
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