Yeah, onboard flash is a great feature - for OS installation and probably some tools like diagnostics/sysinfo, partitioning etc. Really happy with ACA1234, thanks 
ACA1234 - ROMFILE
- Glidewell
- Thread is Unresolved
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Don't Panic. Please wash hands.
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Hi! Still playing with ROMFILE feature of Acatool
I read that rom file must be exactly 524288 bytes. I am trying to boot A1200 to OS1.3, and kickstart 1.3 is half of the required rom size (262144 bytes). If I use it with ROMFILE command it reboots and nothing happens - just black screen (though it could be noticed that it blinks every 5-6 seconds). Is it because of the wrong ROM size? -
Kickstart 1.3 is a 256k ROM that will have to be doubled. On the A500 and A1000, there's just a mirror of $fc.0000 to $ff.ffff that starts at $f8.0000.
You can generate a 512k file by copying the same image twice, for example with the "join" command of the Amiga (part of every WB). However, the current firmware of the ACA1234 is not compatible with Kickstart 1.3. We' still have a problem when Kickstart 1.3 is selected on an ACA500plus (it's a lot easier to flash there), and it seems like the problem is located in the ACA1234's flash ROM.
We need more testing, so if you have an image that works on an A1200 and flash it, your result will be very interesting for us.
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blinking every 5-6 seconds.
Just to be clear: That blinking is on the Amiga power LED, not on the accelerator?
Flashing this doubled kickstart (instead of using acatool romfile command) would not make any difference?
It might make a difference, as much less structures will remain in memory. Autoconfig is happening really early in the boot process.
If you don't have easy access to the jumper, you might want to wait until Timm has implemented a new feature to the flash of the ACA1234, and that's a "disable autoconfig ROM on boot" when a certain condition is met, such as "hold joystick button during cold start". It is very likely that we'll need that for debugging Kickstart 1.3 on ACA500plus, and I see no problems sending that debug-version to you as well.
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Just to be clear: That blinking is on the Amiga power LED, not on the accelerator?
No, I meant the screen is black, but it could be seen that it blinks with a slight shade of gray every 5-6 seconds. I haven't installed the top case part after recapping and keyboard membrane replacement, so the power/hdd/fdd leds are not connected
If the stealth mode could be activated with some key combination during boot, that would make it easy to boot from the internal kickstart and reset mapped rom slot with acatool.
Well, I might shorten the reset jumper pins with a screwdriver - I can access the board from above (lifting the keyboard). Just scared to shorten something extra on the board
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Ok, I applied patches to add scsi.device to KS1.3 (got a 524288 rom image), but now acatool blames bad chesum
Though WinUAE boots fine to the "insert diskette" screen with the patched rom image.How does acatool romfile command count checksum and will it always complain about checksum if an original KS rom is patched? Just curios - is it by design or it's me doing something wrong
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The checksum routine is the same as in all Kickstart images: The sum of all longs must be -1, and that's achieved by changing the long at (end-20) of the image. For 256k images, that's offset $3F.FE8 and for 512k images, it's $7F.FE8.
You should be able to correct the checksum with the "Sumkick" tool, which is part of MKick, an old 1995 package available on Aminet.
Still, I'd expect the Autoconfig ROM of the ACA1234 to add the CF card driver and make the CF card slot of the ACA1234 available. The Autoconfig ROM uses a 4-bit loader, which is already geared towards being Kick1.3 compatible.
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This is not a bug and hence not a "fix", so don't hold your breath for a Kick1.3 acatool.
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Ok, I managed to boot from internal HD to KS1.3+WB1.3 - used A590 setup disk to partition, format and install OS on internal CF-IDE. Works fine if KS1.3 is mapped with acatool romfile command. The only problem with it - warm reset doesn't work, Amiga freezes as soon as Ctrl+LAmiga+RAmiga are pressed. Something's wrong with the KS, I think. I'll leave it for now as is.
Again, the local CF card slot of the ACA1234 should mount any inserted card and boot from it. Did you try that?
I didn't try to map a flashed KS1.3 - as soon as I saw that acatool doesn't work in OS1.3, I reflashed KS3.2 in place of 1.3 - to be safe not to map it accidentally. I wonder, how would ACA1234 mount and boot from its CF? ACA_CF is not visible under KS1.3+WB1.3.
P.S. I think of soldering the wire link while A1200 is still open and ACA1234 is accessible from above (keyboard lifted). I hope it won't void the warranty, will it?
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I wonder, how would ACA1234 mount and boot from its CF? ACA_CF is not visible under KS1.3+WB1.3.
The CF card driver and mounter have nothing to do with the virtual install disk. The install disk is mounted using a totally different device. However, the autoconfig details are geared towards working under Kick 1.3, it's just that the rest of the product (ACAtool, added software) is only good for later OS versions.
The warm boot, however, is something that reminds me of the current problem that we have with the ACA500plus. Here's where I should really hand over to Timm, as I don't remember enough details about the problem we're looking for in the A500/ACA500plus/ACA1234 configuration. Timm, does this remind you of anything, could Glidewell do any more tests to help us?
P.S. I think of soldering the wire link while A1200 is still open and ACA1234 is accessible from above (keyboard lifted). I hope it won't void the warranty, will it?
If you have soldered such things before and didn't destroy anything (aka if you feel fit to do the job), it won't affect your warranty. However, please understand that I can only exclude these solder spots from the warranty checks - if something gets destroyed in the process, I can't be held responsible. To any experienced hobbyist, this seems like a very simple patch, especially because there is no cutting traces, no SMD parts and only 2.54mm-pitch solder spots involved.
So you might think "piece of cake!", but it should still be executed with "this is expensive gear!" in the back of your head
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The CF card driver and mounter have nothing to do with the virtual install disk. The install disk is mounted using a totally different device. However, the autoconfig details are geared towards working under Kick 1.3, it's just that the rest of the product (ACAtool, added software) is only good for later OS versions.
Well, when I romfile ks13ide (patched with the scsi.device, checksum corrected) Amiga boots from the internal IDE-CF and shows its partitions and DF0:, but neither ACA Install disk nor ACA-CF card are detected/mounted. So I don't understand how would this work if I flash and map the ks13ide:
Again, the local CF card slot of the ACA1234 should mount any inserted card and boot from it. Did you try that?
As for warm reset problem, I suspect it's still the patched KS problem: if I romfile the stock KS13 (256K), then warm reset works fine, but if I romfile the patched KS13IDE - then warm reset will crash Amiga to colored screens (yellow, red - they sometimes change) or to totally dead video signal (TV shows that there is no input signal at all). Power-cycling reverts Amiga to the stock or a flashed-mapped kickstart of ACA1234.
I did recapping myself and didn't destroy this Amiga :), hopefully I will not damage the board with the wire-link
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but neither ACA Install disk nor ACA-CF card are detected/mounted.
ACA-CF *should* be mounted if you insert a card at boot time. It certainly does when we run 1.3 on ACA500plus, it's just that 1.3 is acting up if 3.1 has been booted before - that's our current headscratcher.
You might want to try a plain original 1.3 and a formatted CF card in the ACA1234 CF slot. You wrote that you already tried this, but was there a 1.3-bootable CF card inserted when you tried?
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Yes, I installed a 4Gb CF (Kingston) in ACA1234 and don't take it out - not easy given very little space to grab it without taking the board out. Currently it has 3 bootable partitions with OS3.2.1, OS 3.1 (installed from the onboard flash) and OS 3.0 (backed up with all stuff from the original hard drive).
I configured OS1.3.3 on a separate CF in the internal IDE port using the A590 setup disk. aca1234.device is not available using the A590 HDToolbox (OS1.3 version), and somehow the newer HDToolbox (from OS 3.0, 3.1 or 3.2) is not suitable for setting up the CF for OS1.3 - it didn't boot from the drive partitioned with the newer HDToolbox.
So, in my case no matter if the plain original or patched KS1.3 is loaded - the aca1234.device is not visible. DF0 is bootable with both KS1.3 version, and DH0 is bootable with the patched KS1.3IDE. If I take out the internal IDE-CF and the floppy, then after I romfile KS1.3 (any version) and reboot it will ask for the WB diskette. That's a good usable config for me, except for not working warm reset under KS1.3IDE, but perhaps something was patched wrongly (tough I checked the checksum beforehand - it's patch-able and scsi.device is correct version).
Well, if the ACA-CF is expected to be visible and bootable under plain original KS1.3 what partition would it boot from? First available? There is no early boot menu to choose a volume. And first partition in my case is OS3.2 - I doubt that it will boot with KS1.3
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it's just that 1.3 is acting up if 3.1 has been booted before
In my case 1.3 is not working at all if 3.2 was booted before (black blinking screen), and it at least loads WB if 1.3 is "romfiled" under KS3.0 or KS3.1.
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Thanks for your effort. I believe we now have enough data points to continue working on the flash contents.
Once again, please note that Kick1.3 was originally not in the specs for the ACA1234, and still isn't. It's just on the "nice to have" list, and as Timm already pointed out, there will most likely only be commandline tools, specially compiled for Kick1.3 use.
With the big Buddha Installer update out of the way (released today), Timm might have time to continue working on this. The findings for compatibility of the OS3.1 installer, especially when Kickstart 3.2 is in the machine, will also be ported to the ACA1234 installer, so the setup will be on Timm's table anyway.
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Thanks, Jens! A command line version of acatool for KS1.3 would be great
I still might try to flash KS1.3 and try to map it with acatool GUI. Just in case the KS loads differently this way than with the romfile command - curious to check if warm reset will work then
I guess I'll have to use JP1 to revert to KS3.1.PS wire-link soldered successfully, now the icache in chip-ram option is available.
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