Category Archives: amiga

amiga, linux

AmigaOS4.1 (PPC) under FS-UAE and QEMU

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I recently purchased AmigaOS 4.1 with a plan to familiarise myself with the OS via emulation before purchasing the Freescale QorIQ P1022 e500v2 ‘Tabor’ motherboard. In particular, I wanted to investigate the ssh and X display options, including AmiCygnix.

OS4.1 running under FS-UAE & QEMU, showing config and network status

However, despite being familiar with OS3.1 and FS-UAE I still managed to hit a few gotchas with the OS4 install and configuration.

Installation of the QEMU module was simple using the download and simple instructions from: https://fs-uae.net/download#plugins. In my case this was version 3.8.2qemu2.2.0 and installed in ~/Documents/FS-UAE/Plugins/QEMU-UAE/Linux/x86-64/ (your path may vary).

I then tried multiple FS-UAE configurations in order to get the emulated machine to boot with PPC, RTG and network support. A few options clash resulting in a purple screen on boot. Rather than work through the process from scratch, it’s easier to simply list my config here:-

[fs-uae]
accelerator = cyberstorm-ppc
amiga_model = A4000/OS4
gfx_card_flash_file = /home/snetting/Documents/FS-UAE/Kickstarts/picasso_iv_flash.rom
graphics_card = picasso-iv
graphics_memory = 131072
hard_drive_0 = /home/snetting/Amiga/SteveOS41.hdf
kickstart_file = Kickstart v3.1 rev 40.70 (1993)(Commodore)(A4000).rom
network_card = a2065
zorro_iii_memory = 524288

I used FS-UAE (and FS-UAE-Launcher) version 2.8.3.

Things to note:

  1. See http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=75195 for install advice regarding disk partitioning and FS type. This is important!
  2. Shared folders (between host OS and Emulation) are *not* currently supported when using PPC under FS-UAE. Post install, many additional packages were required, including network drivers which resulted in a catch-22 situation. I worked around this by installing a 3.1.4 instance and mounting both the OS4 and ‘shared’ drives here, copying the required files over then booting back into the OS4 PPC environment.
  3. For networking, UAE.bsdsocket.library in UAE should be disabled but the A2065 network card enabled. The correct driver from aminet is: http://aminet.net/package/driver/net/Ethernet
  4. The latest updates to OS4.1 (final) enable Zorro III RAM to be used in addition to accelerator RAM; essential for AmiCygnix. Once OS4.1 is installed and network configured, use the included update tool to pull OS4.1 FE updates.

The documentation at http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=75195 is definitely useful as a reference but don’t rely on it; it’s dated (2014) and not necessarily accurate.

Whilst I’ve written this from memory, I’ll happily recreate my install from scratch if anyone has any specific questions or issues.

Good luck!

ROMs are available from Cloanto: https://www.amigaforever.com/
OS4.1 and updates from Hyperion: https://www.amigaos.net/

amiga, atari

Atari ST and Amiga Desktop Wallpapers

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I couldn’t find any good quality 1920×1080 (so called ‘full HD’) desktop wallpapers featuring either Atari ST GEM or Commodore Amiga Workbench 1.3. So, assembled from parts taken from various images on google, scaled with correct aspect ration maintained, tidied and assembled to fill the full resolution and with no JPEG compression artifacts – here we are:-

Atari GEM Desktop, 1920×1080 PNG
Commodore Amiga Workbench 1.3 + Boing Ball, 1920×1080 PNG

You’re welcome 🙂

amiga

AmiTCP and Configuration of cnet.device

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This is something I’ve rarely needed to do, but on occasions when it is needed I’ve found myself re-learning the process.

amitcp

AmiTCP4 is not supplied with cnet.device drivers. In my case I have an NE2000 based PCMCIA network card which is supported by the cnet device.

Firstly, I download the cnet package from aminet and install. Be careful to pay attention to the version you copy (difference between 68000 and 68020+ versions). I copied the Network/* directory to DEVS: (so network sits alongside Datatypes, DOSDrivers, Monitors, Printers etc).

Secondly, install AmiTCP v4. Depending on options selected at install time, startup may or may not be added to the startup-sequence; no worries either way. Note, cnet is not supported out of the box so I simply select another device (for example A2065), we’ll clean up any configuration later.

Once installed, you should have an AmiTCP: assign configured. If not, check your installation! From here onwards I assume the assign is pointing at the AmiTCP installation directory.

We have a few things to change:-

1) Edit AmiTCP:db/interfaces
Find the device you selected at install and edit the line(s)
I edited the A2065 line as follows:
cnet DEV=DEVS:Networks/cnet.device UNIT=0

Note the DEVS:Networks path to the cnet.device, this should be set to wherever you copied the network devices to during cnet install (logically DEVS:Networks).
Also note only one line should exist in the interfaces file pointing to that specific (cnet) device.

2) Edit AmiTCP:db/hosts
Add the IP you configured at install time (also the IP configured in AmiTCP:bin/startnet, should you later wish to change it) to AmiTCP:db/hosts, for example:-
192.168.0.10 a600 a600.track3.org.uk
Note: Best to enter both the short name and FQDN

3) Edit AMITCP:bin/startnet
Here we need to edit the line starting with AmiTCP:bin/ifconfig, for example:-
AmiTCP:bin/ifconfig cnet {IPADDRESS} netmask 255.255.255.0
Note: It is probably also safe to comment out the AmiTCP:bin/login line (to save requiring login at boot), for example:-
;AmiTCPLbin/login -f steve

4) You should now be good to start AmiTCP using the ‘startnet’ command. First things first, try pinging a local machine such as the gateway. If that works, try ping an internet host by name. All being well, you should now be online!