Posts by Timm

This has been tested already.

Our findings are that all our current cards, ACA1233n, ACA1221lc, ACA1211, do work with OS3.2 in an A1200 including PCMCIA network adapter. I am constantly testing PCMCIA networking because I use it myself.

There are issues with PCMCIA with the ACA1211 under OS3.1.4. The obvious remedy here is to insert the card during the first boot-up, or to re-insert it later.

Also there is a certain degree of finickiness in different PCMCIA cards - they can behave slightly different, even if they are the same model. The "best" cards I have always go online instantly at power-up - a few others sometimes require that I start the network a second time.

I use cnet, cnet16 and 3c589 based cards for testing.

Sure, if you want to run software that depends on MMUlib.

I see no compelling reason for using MMUlib with a 68030 card just for the sake of it.

Both should be fine. Both the latest ACATool and ACAInit (from MMULib) should take care of it.

No, I always have the left mouse button in my reach. I remember having played around with wakeup packages, but I think I haven't seen anything like that working. There were factors that made it unfeasible in practice, but I don't remember the details.

Would it be acceptable if we first check if we can both get to a working PAL interlace + vsync-enabled configuration?

You might want to save your current config to a backup file first. I did the following with the Eizo Flexscan S1933 on a non-interlace PAL Workbench:

- Invoked Menu 'Settings/Restore to Defaults'

- Copied "(Pre 640x512 PAL)", renamed it to "1280x1024 PAL vsync"

- Picked VGA mode "Pre 1280x1024 50Hz vsync"

- Clicked 'Test/Adjust' and accommodated it to the monitor

- Selected Test Mode: "PAL: HighRes Interlace"

- Clicked 'Test/Adjust' - interlace was fine, too

- Clicked 'Save & Apply'.

This config now works for me with the Workbench in PAL non-interlace and interlace, as well as with games and demos.

The VGA settings are slightly different from those in your screenshots.

I think the issue for you is just that you do not really have different 'profiles' for games and the Workbench.

(With an IndivisionAGAmk3 it's possible to switch live between different configurations that match the same criteria - but not with the IndivisionECSv2.)

If HiGfx is not an option for you to differentiate between games and Workbench, how about for example SuperPlus, NTSC, or some other modes?

Oh yes, of course. Sorry. I'm always using .img and .adf synonymously. (It's just a raw device image, containing the disk's payload data, so it's even debatable if 'Amiga disk format' is really a 'format'.)

Here's a bootblock that I hope works better and fixes more titles.

It shouldn't crash anymore, and it should also coerce the system a bit more into PAL.

There are numerous tools to install this, one would be bb20 from Aminet.

Jens: We did not have a "case" yet for publishing devicetool. It has no GUI, but instead numerous options to destroy your media, various bugs, and incomplete documentation.

We have such a bootblock, but we somehow lost interest in it. I don't have NTSC hardware to test with. You find it attached. Please report back if it works for you. It's supposed to be installed on one disk. Boot with this disk to switch to PAL. Then remove the disk, then insert the disk that you actually wish to boot. It's supposed to continue booting with the second disk in PAL mode.

Quote from aradeshForum

I made a disk on another a500 and no change, its not working... screen says „invalid flash signature“ same with gotek.

any ideas?

Not really. I have just made sure (again) that both the rescue disk from the WIKI as well as the one created with the IndivisionECSv2 config tool (version 2.5) do work under Kickstart 1.3 and with just 512k of memory.

"Invalid flash signature" is indicative of a hardware problem in my opinion. Maybe Jens has another idea.

You do not need software to get an ACA1221lc to run. ACATune is not needed. You can use acatool to control the ACA1221lc functionality. It should open a window when the card is found, or report "Board not found" in case of a problem. But this is optional. There is no direct interaction with boot order, startup-sequence, etc.

In any case, please do a power cycle (turn the computer off and on) after flashing.

Which Kickstart version are you using?

Low memory is a very unlikely cause, as flashing also works with 512k.

I'm very sorry, I can't find any issue with exactly the config you have provided. Left: VGA, right: HD*I

It's a bog-standard config, I can use it without issues. Could you tell us the name of the game that causes problems, or some demo perhaps?

Quote from lokz

Dear Timm, then it is time to update your Acatool wiki with this information.

I suspected that PCMCIA booting issues are caused with "slowmem" region (since it boots fine with plain expansion), but no way to do it right now.

Can support for this type of management be expected in some ACA firmware updates for this card?

Done, updated in the WIKI. At your service.

No, to my knowledge the ACA1221lc hardware doesn't support switching the CPU.

Quote from lokz

Dear Timm, basically you say I cannot select memory modes with ACA1221lc?

Exactly. You can change the CPU clock, and with the 14MHz clock you get synchronous operation, but the CPUPON, CPUOFF, and MEMMODE options are not for the ACA1221lc card. The memory in the "slow mem region" is not really slow on the ACA1221lc, it's fastmem that just happens to be in that region.

Quote from lokz

Please write me correct line of code, how do I select this "1 fastmem but no $C0 memory" and save to flash.

This is not getting written to flash. The documentation may be scarce here, but at least it says: "when switching CPUs" and "This option is useful in combination with the CPUOFF and CPUON options". The ACA1221LC does not support switching the CPU.

If you don't switch the CPU, it's not being considered, and the tool behaves as if no command was given, so it brings up the GUI.

So, for example, this would work, if you had a ACA1233n:

# acatool cpuoff mm=1

Admittedly, some feedback from the tool would be nice in that case.

Quote from Warty

Anyway... does anyone have a ScreenMode/Overscan/Indivision config combination that would do what I want, which is 1280x1024 integer scaled workbench?

In theory the very first Indivision mode from the preset list, "Pre 640x512 PAL" should do just that, as it uses the VGA mode "Pre 1280x1024 VESA". But by default it's deactivated and wouldn't be selected. A double-click on the mode or unchecking the "Disabled" checkmark, and it should do. Please test the mode before using "Test/Adjust".

Sorry Jens, on ECSv2 we're counting differently than on AGAmk3.

On ECSv2 it's usually Min. Lines 286, Max. Lines 287 that selects a mode for a PAL screen.

If you want to give it a try, here's a release candidate of version 2.4 of the ECSv2 config tool:

http://wiki.icomp.de/w/images/…divisionECSv2-2.4-rc1.lha

There are no FPGA changes yet, but chances are that this and some other issues may go away with this update.

Quote from Jens

I'll keep silent for now - Timm will find a solution

Oh really?

As for the rescue disk, the beginning of the file 'flashtool' is overwritten with garbage. That's why it isn't recognized as an executable.

Regarding the requester, I'd suggest to take out the cosmos patch. But when the problem still persists when booting without startup-sequence, I'm out of ideas for the time being.

As you said, config tool 1.6 didn't give you these problems. As a workaround you can use config tool 1.6 and flash the firmware from 1.7.1.