Updating the Firmware on a ACA500+

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Don't Panic. Please wash hands.

    Hi Timm,

    Thanks for that it works, but.

    This is actually what I did with a 16gb card in Post 34 Photo 6.

    But of course I had no 3.1 WB to install.


    Here is the but.

    It does no use the full functionality of the ACA500plus because :-

    1. That WB3.1 as it currently stands will not support WHDLoad, because no "Installer in C" and No "LHA in C"

    2. Also missing Kickstarts for the 500 in Devs. "kick34005.A500" and "kick34005.A500.RTB"


    I am not sure what else is missing.


    My concern is :-

    > That the automatic installer did work initially on a 16gb card. Than it would not work on the same card again.

    > Is there going to be something else that goes wrong ?

    > I am not getting the full funtionality of the board.


    I love the ACA500plus, but in its current situation I am not 100% satisfied.


    Regards


    John


    I will try one of these cards also for the Automatic installer

    Any suggestions on which one please

    Quote from Postmaster

    2nd scenario. Success The disks are upacking and at the finish it says "No a DOS disk in Unit 0.

    Looks like it trying to write to DFO floppy disk. Is that correct as I have a CF in the boot drive

    This is not using "trackdisk device" and real floppy disks, but virtual floppy disks. The unit number 0 refers to the device driver that "pretends" to be a floppy.


    I suspect that the install partitions have been damaged in your flash. We have a repair archive in our Wiki:


    http://wiki.icomp.de/w/images/b/b1/ACA500p_OS_flash.zip


    Please download this to your PC, and unpack it to an otherwise-empty and PC-formatted card. Insert into the AUX slot and boot with bothing inserted in the boot slot (press F1 in the startup menu) - this will re-flash the parts of the flash that contain the OS installation files.

    Hi,

    Update the ACA500plus OS.Flash

    Download the flash unzipped to a FT32 CF card

    Placed in Aux Slot with nothing in the Boot Slot

    Pressed F1 in the Main Menu.

    Results in Photo.


    Still will not do the Automatic installation.

    Goes to the WB3.1 Screen as in Post 26 Photo 2.

    Did a Virtual disk Install again as per Timm post no 40.

    The Virtual Disk worked no worries and was the same as my post no 41.


    But still not loading all the files that the Automatic install did. As stated in my post no 41

    Quote

    "It does not use the full functionality of the ACA500plus because :-

    1. That WB3.1 as it currently stands will not support WHDLoad, because no "Installer in C" and No "LHA in C"

    2. Also missing Kickstarts for the 500 in Devs. "kick34005.A500" and "kick34005.A500.RTB"


    Regards


    John

    Of course it is not satisfactory that the automatic installer doesn't start on your computer.

    I have written the automatic installer for precisely the reason that the OS 3.1 installation is too much hassle and the result leaves too much to be desired. I may be as sad as you that it doesn't work for you yet.

    With all the effort we have now at least excluded several possible causes, and you have an OS3.1 installation, while we need to discuss internally what may have gone wrong here, and to possibly come up with a remedy or fix.

    Thank you.

    I really do appreciated that.

    Today I actually did this to see if it would make any difference.


    I remove the automatic DFO/DF1 switch from the board and put the chip back in its original place instead of on the switcher.

    Unfortunately it did not make any difference.


    I removed the ACA500+ and clean the contacts on the A500 with APA.

    Unfortunately it did not make any difference.


    All the card I have have been able to be read by the ACA.

    The two 16gb cards I have not tried to write to via the virtual disk as Timm mentioned only use upto 4gb

    The two smaller card I have were no problems and installed WB3.1, but without the options for WHDLoad etc and othr fiels.

    These two smaller cards will still not work on the Automatic Install.

    Can please have a look at my post Number 41 and suggest which maybe the best card to use. (Timm did suggest Transcend) Extermely hard to come by in Australia.


    Regards


    John

    Transcend "industrial" has never caused a problem for me so far. Of course that doesn't mean that it's infallible, and others (such as Kingston 4GB with a flower printed on them) haven't failed for me either on the ACA500+.


    Attached is lha and a lha archive that contains a few of the ACA500+ extras that would be installed by the automatic installer. (not much - mostly lha itself, the Kickstart files, and modernized filesystems. The tricky part is to actually install and use the modernized filesystems.)

    I thought those kickstart files are never in a proper WB3.1 installation. It has to do something with the copyrights.

    A1200 Rev2B OS 3.2| SanDisk CF64GB | Blizzard 1230 IV 64MB FPU 68882/50 | Indivision AGA MK3 | CA-PSU | Eizo S1933 | Bose Companion 2 series III

    A500 Rev6A OS 3.2| SanDisk CF16GB | ACA500+ V2 / Blizzard 1230 IV 32MB | Indivision ECS V3 | ACE2b | CA-PSU | Eizo S1933 | Bose Companion 2 series III

    A1200 Rev2B OS3.2.2 | Black Edition | SanDisk MSD32GB | PistormLite32 | Indivision AGA MK3 | RTG Picaso96 1280x1024| CA-PSU | Eizo S1933

    iAmiga 27" | OS 3.2 FS-UAE | SDD 1 TB | RTG Picaso96 2560x1440

    What the installer does include is the relocation files for Kickstart, and since we have licensed the older Kickstart versions with the ACA500plus, it would not be a problem to also extend the installer to create these Kickstart files from data that is available in the ACA500plus flash. That, however, is feature-creeping for a future update.


    What remains now is to find out why the automatic installer does not launch on a card that was tested good when it left here - at this point, we have to include just everything into the search. Can you please take high-res pictures of the CF card slots without any card inserted? I'd like to see if all pins are properly aligned.

    Quote

    Hi just received my ACA500+ Current version of Menu is ..146 and my version is .126

    Q1 Does it matter if I have actually Loaded 3.1 to the CF Card via F7 just need to do it again I suppose ?

    I am reading the info on the site and it talks about updating the installer also Quote

    "The newest version will break the old OS installer, so it's strongly recommended to also update the OS installer, to at least version 1.5 (see below)."

    Hi,

    This is my post in "POST 1" This is where I have successfully loaded the 3.1 on a CF card via the Auto Installer.


    Quote


    If you plan to run OS 3.2, or have an ACA1234, or if you want to install to a 32GB compact flash without accelerator, then the update is for you

    This is the quote from TIMM No "2 post"

    Quote

    Hi Timm,

    Getting a bit frustrated with this ACA500+


    Since updating the installer and try to use another CF card I now get this screen asking me to pout in 3.1

    What can I do now ???

    This is the quote from me NO "7 Post"

    So in summary as as mention before. It did successfully Auto install a 16gb CF card and worked fantastic.

    After advice from TIMM (No2 Post) In regard to a 32gb CF card was to update the Firmware (Menu and Installer)

    After doing that the Auto installer would not work. (Post 7)

    I than tried the 16gb card (The Previous one that worked and I formatted it 1st) That did not work. So I had no WB3.1 at all

    So in summary :-

    >The Auto installer did work before the firmware update.

    > The Auto instalaller did not work after the firmware update.


    I am very aware on how to insert a CF card as I have an Canon EOS camera.

    I have had a look at the pins and they all seems normal.

    Cards do install from the Boot slot using "Virtual Disk"

    Cards will not Auto install from the AUX slot as advised to try from TIMM


    I have included some Hi Res photo I have had to send by email to forum-support@icomp.de

    The attached photos are only low resolution because of the size limitations


    Cheers


    John

    Quote

    I thought those kickstart files are never in a proper WB3.1 installation. It has to do something with the copyrights.

    I think if you look in the "C" and "Dev" mentioned after you have done. F1 for WB3.1 it will have those files.

    Quote

    It does no use the full functionality of the ACA500plus because :-

    1. That WB3.1 as it currently stands will not support WHDLoad, because no "Installer in C" and No "LHA in C"

    2. Also missing Kickstarts for the 500 in Devs. "kick34005.A500" and "kick34005.A500.RTB"

    Hi Fellas,

    Here is the latest.


    I sent my 16gb Sandisk to a fellow Amigan, who also runs an ACA500+ on an A500.

    Here is his quote :-


    "I just ran the 3.1 auuto installer on your card on my aca500+ and it installed and booted just fine

    so the card is not the issue"


    "This is his quote on what he did :-


    Just to verify, this is what I did.
    1. Popped the card in the boot slot.
    2. Turned on amiga
    3. Hit f7 for installer
    4. Hit F1 for auto 3.1 installer
    Ran it
    Selected english Installed fine.
    Rebooted
    Hit F1 (or f2) whatever the 3.1 boot option is

    And it booted to workbench"


    He confirmed that he does no have the lastest Firmware upgrade


    I have been insisting all along that it is a faulty ACA500+, because once I upgrade to the latest firmware, it becasue faulty.


    I just need to know where we now go with this.


    Regards


    John

    The CF cards are not at fault - we know this since the automatic installer didn't start even with no CF card inserted, and also because the manual installation of OS3.1 worked. The software updates are also not the direct cause, since they work elsewhere, and after reverting to the old firmware the problem remained. I suspect that something went wrong during the updating process itself. We are investigating.

    Quote

    he CF cards are not at fault - we know this since the automatic installer didn't start even with no CF card inserted, and also because the manual installation of OS3.1 worked. The software updates are also not the direct cause, since they work elsewhere, and after reverting to the old firmware the problem remained. I suspect that something went wrong during the updating process itself. We are investigating.

    Hi,

    Its a pity the above was not conveyed to me as than I would not have gone to the trouble and cost of getting 4gb cards and send my card 16gb to another person to look at.


    In hindsite if I had know that the new firmware updates were going to cause trouble. I would not have done it.

    (Reference Posts 1 to 6)


    Please resolve this soon as I wish to use the card for what it was designed for.


    Regards


    John

    Sorry for the misunderstanding, I wrote already on Tuesday that it's unlikely that the CFs are at fault, and all tests successively provided the evidence, the most striking being that the installer didn't start with no card inserted either - while at the same time you could perform firmware updates and install OS3.1 manually.

    Okay no worries. I should have read between the lines.

    So what is the situation now ?

    I agree I can do the manual install, but as stated it does not load the Kickstarts - Installer or LHA and it is very limited on the size of DH0.

    Also you cannot partition a 16gb CF card.

    What persuaded me in regard to the purchase was the seemingless intregation of WHDLoad.

    Quote

    It does no use the full functionality of the ACA500plus because :-

    1. That WB3.1 as it currently stands will not support WHDLoad, because no "Installer in C" and No "LHA in C"

    2. Also missing Kickstarts for the 500 in Devs. "kick34005.A500" and "kick34005.A500.RTB"

    Honestly this seems to be going around in circules.

    First it was possibly the CF cards

    Second it was trying all the installing again with the firmware etc.

    Third Photos of the Boot and Aux slot to ensure pins are properly aligned.

    I really think its about time to admit their is a fault with the ACA500+ card and that it need to be replaced.


    I was setting up the A500 and the ACA500plus for my sons birthday, but the way things are progressing this is unlikely to happen.


    So you can say at the moment I am not a happy customer as this has been going on since the 5th July

    We have already tried resetting the configuration to defaults in the "F9 - Cloaking Device Mode Expert Menu" and "F10 - Normal Mode Expert Menu", haven't we?

    Could you please reset all configurations, also "F8 - Global configuration and flash update", press "D" for resetting to defaults, "S" for saving to NVRAM, and the same with F9 and F10 if you haven't tried that before.

    Quote from Postmaster

    So you can say at the moment I am not a happy customer as this has been going on since the 5th July

    With the amount of work we've put into this case, you should of course see that we're doing all we can to help you.


    We've verified that the hardware is not at fault, and you can do flash updates. The final step is to reset the NVRAM settings as Timm described. After that, I'd like to continue remote debugging if you have the required tools: A Nullmodem cable. Since what we're looking at is a software error (software deciding to not unpack the install files), we may get to the bottom of it with the debug output. This will require a second computer near the A500 - do you have that?

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