Posts by Timm

I was testing myself what I suggested, and I actually found a CF medium with which the installer did not start, but this was after unpacking the installation disks. The Boot LED didn't go out and the screen remained black. I could not reproduce this during another attempt, and I successfully installed onto this medium using the latest menu and installer. Conclusion: so there is indeed some possible interaction with "drama CFs", or perhaps with how carefully they were inserted or the cleanliness of the CF slot.

Some more ideas (unrelated to each other and the above):

- Insert medium to be installed not in Boot, but in the Aux slot. The installer supports this, maybe this helps getting further. (However if installation is successful, you'd have to move the CF to the Boot slot for booting.)

- Enter "F9 - Cloaking Device Mode Expert Menu", press "D" for resetting all settings to defaults, press "S" to save. Then, likewise, enter "F10 - Normal Mode Expert menu", press "D", press "S". All settings should be at defaults now. Power-off. Retry.

Screenshots look good.

It's hard to imagine that the CF medium causes failure of the installer coming up in the first place. I haven't seen this yet. Also if you can update the firmware from such a CF card, then it can't be completely unsuitable for installation.

But ok, if you can now get hold of a card from a different vendor, try this first. Preferrably try a medium not bigger than 4GB.

We need a successful starting point. My suggested plan for testing now would be:

- Try to run the installation on 256MB (or another untested, not bigger than 4GB) medium first.

- If that fails, downgrade the Menu system to v0.141 (keeping the installer), retry.

- If that fails, also downgrade the Installer to v1.1, and retry.

- If that fails, retry with yet another medium.

Of course you can later upgrade Menu and installer again. The differences are not huge, this shouldn't be a major concern.

(I've seen a SanDisk medium fail, but I wouldn't expect the problem here at this point. The ACA500+ is quite tolerant with regard to the CF card quality, I've been using "foto equipment quality" cards here for a long time without failure. CF cards that have never failed for me in any Amiga context are "industrial grade" Transcend CF170.)

Thank you for your patience and effort.

First, could you please post a screenshot from the main menu, then pressing the Tab key, to display all versions.

Please note that a 256MB compact flash is not too small at all for an AmigaOS installation.

It is possible to go back to the previous firmware, by flashing the old versions Menu system v0.141 and Installer 1.1 from the ACA500plus firmware page (both would have to be flashed). However the recent update was precisely for supporting bigger CF media.

So it might be a good idea to temporarily revert to a working scenario with the previous firmware and a small compact flash.

I'm not sure. What do you mean by W10? Did you enter the expert menu?

(Or any other menu - if so, why and what did you adjust there?)

The minimum sequence would be:

1. Insert to be installed CF in Boot. Remove any CF from Aux.

2. Power on.

3. press F7.

4. press F1.

5. press Return.

Wait until installation disks are unpacked.

ACA500Plus installer is started.

6. Then click Install to install.

and you should see all the steps as in the screenshots above.

Don't enter any other menu - just F7 and F1.

You must've seen the procedure before...

Edit: On the next attempt, please write down a protocol of the steps you have taken in their exact order.

In any case, the next time please do not enter the Cloaking Device Expert Menu after power-up and before running the installation.

Not saying that this fully explains it, but I think I've just seen an interconnection there.

Edit: If I enter Cloaking Device Expert Menu, return to the main menu, and then start the Installation, all sorts of issues are creeping up. Please, for the time being, until this is completely settled: Do NOT use "F9 - Cloaking Device Mode Expert Menu" at all. This is a very special menu for compatibility, and not helpful at all in a discussion about installation.

If you say that installation (pressing "F7 - Installer menu" in the main menu and "F1 OS 3.1 Auto Installer") goes straight to the insert WB 3.1 disk screen, and you don't see the install disks unpacking either, then there's something wrong beyond my comprehension. Is that what you want to say?

The other question: The main menu can be a bit confusing with regard to switched profiles when you enter a special menu (like installation) and return to the main menu. Don't worry about that and don't switch to the mainboard ROM. After the next power-up, the settings saved in the expert menu will be back again.

Edit: Your screenshot was once again taken in the "Cloaking device Mode Expert Menu"- just to emphasize, this is not needed/helpful with regard to installation.

1. Yes, could be the card.

2. Yes, could be the installer, but in combination with a too big card.

To remove any doubts about what the procedure is supposed to look like, and for reference, this is with a 16GB card:

Is installation successful with a 16GB card? Did you see all steps?

I'd suggest to try the 32GB card and report back if it worked.

On the other hand, mounting big partitions needs more memory - 32GB is truly gigantic for an Amiga 500 with just a 68000 CPU, you will hardly ever be able to fill it with software.

Bigger media make more sense with an accelerator card, because the accelerator usually brings a large amount of its own memory, and you would be able to use more software which is also suitable for higher CPUs.

For WHDLoad purposes, 32GB is crazy much. It's increasingly difficult to find smaller CF cards, and if you find them, they are not proportionally cheaper, so people tend to simply buy the bigger cards.

Your expert options suggest these are tuned for maximum compatibility (7M Fast RAM disabled), but you need maximum fast memory for operating big CF partitions. The cloaking device expert options are also for compatibility and not needed here. Launching the system with F1 should be fine.

Your results suggest that something is shaky, but it's difficult to pinpoint. I may have been overly optimistic with regard to a 32GB card (not tested), but installing a 16GB card should be no problem when there's no AUX card present at the same time.

I may have to rethink the installation procedure for even bigger cards in the future...

Another note: I haven't tested with a 32GB CF myself, 16GB is the biggest medium I have, so there is a chance that it doesn't work with >16GB.

If you should find the installer bailing out prematurely, please remove any CF from the AUX slot, or deselect "1 AUX CF Slot activated" in the ACA500+ installer menu. If that doesn't help, you must try with a smaller medium, or use an accelerator that delivers the required extra memory to deal with such a huge medium. But in any case you need to make sure that both updates of menu (v0.146) and installer (1.5) went successfully.

The installer won't start installation automatically.

The screenshot of the installer coming up shows that the installer was not updated, because no version number is shown. It should read something like 1.5, build...

You said earlier you installed 3.1 successfully, why are you installing it again, because it's not on the target 32GB media yet?

Please try updating the installer again.

When the purple start screen comes up, then there's no bootable media or drive. On the ACA500+ the media is expected in the right (boot) slot.

Edit: Oh, and don't worry: The Installer will use PFS3 when needed, and not use FFS if it's unsuitable for the partition size.

To update the installer, download http://wiki.icomp.de/w/images/1/14/Aca500%2Binstaller1.5.zip, unarchive, copy UPD500P.ADF to a PC-formatted compact flash card, insert the CF into the AUX slot on the ACA500+, in the ACA500+ menu use F8 to enter the flash updater, press "f" to run the flash updater. The same procedure is required for all updates - so chances are that your other updates didn't go well either! To check the menu version, press the Tab key in the menu's main screen. "ACA500p ROM: v0.146..." is expected here!

I'm not Jens and I don't remember exactly, so take this with some grain of salt, please.

The idea is to use such an extension as an enabler for the ACA1234. We've talked about other possible uses, but at best it's in pre-planning.

No, not as of yet.

I wouldn't be spilling the beans if I revealed that we are "thinking about" something for the A600.

Ah ok, if you don't see it when launching the installer, then it hasn't been updated yet.

Because the old installer didn't show its version - the new version does, although very shortly, after writing "Starting ACA500plus installer ..." (Press L-AMIGA m to get back to the shell window if it vanished too quickly.)

1. No, you don't need to install 3.1 again.

If you update the Menu to 0.146, then please also update the Installer to v1.5.

You can launch the installer without actually starting to install, to check the version.

2. Not that I'm aware of

3. On an Amiga

4. You can of course also update the network installer, if you're interested in adding an X-Surf-500.

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. If you might want to install an X-Surf-500 some day and you are running OS 3.2, then the update is for you.

There are also smaller unnamed bug fixes and corrections, so the general recommendation is to update.

Regarding 3.1 installation: If you install OS 3.1 with our new installer, it will also be "aware" of OS 3.2, which wasn't the case before.

Our general recommendation is to install OS 3.1, and to install OS 3.2 over the existing system, if you so wish.

Das wird gewiss kein Problem sein, wir haben nur gerade Sommerpause. Es kann sein, dass es ein bisschen dauert, bis es bearbeitet wird.

The problem is not directly OS3.2 related. The problem is that OS3.2 tries to annoy people into submission to MMULib.

MMULib sometimes solve problems that you wouldn't have without MMULib, but sometimes it doesn't.

There is some issue in the combination of ACA500 (not ACA500plus), X-Surf-500, and MMULib.

OS3.2 strongly urges you to install MMULib, but it's not needed with a 68030 CPU.

We have added support to the X-Surf-500 driver to interface with MMULib, but the problem persists.

For the time being, the best option is to not install MMULib and remove the line from OS3.2's startup-sequence that does the complaining.

For the record:

I can't confirm issues with OS3.2. Tested with 47.96, Workbench 47.2, ACA1234, IndivisionAGAmk3 config tool 1.10.

No problems whatsoever even with MMULibs installed.

Please note that there has been an important bug fix (possibly related to crashing) in config tool 1.10. Maybe check that you are running 1.10.

This is not a bug and hence not a "fix", so don't hold your breath for a Kick1.3 acatool.

I see no apparent reason what the GUI would have to do with that, but we can have a look.

Of course a /23 network is totally valid and in order, I wouldn't know why I would restrict anything to /24.