My *.hdf drive wont boot after latest update

[xFlesk]

hello there
i was so excited to see new update of minimig jumped right into it and then ... my workbench wont start :/
have no idea what happed, minimig starts to boot screen and thats it. any help ?
i have created my hdf file and installed my workbench using winuae, and everything was working flawless until now :/
help
regards

[breiztiger]

Hi
Same here
Some of my hdf doesn’t boot anymore

[Chris23235]

I have another issue, the second hdf file of the MegaAGS HDD doesn't work any more. I opened an issue in Github already. I would suspect all these cases are caused by the same error.

[jca]

See: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2861

[Chris23235]

This sorted it out for me on the MegaAGS second hdf file. Don't know what you have to do if your boot HD doesn't work any more.

[rsn8887]

It looks like "geometry type" hdf doesn't work anymore, only "rdb" type. In addition, on my rdb hdf, I had to install idefix, otherwise many Workbench programs would show software failure on start. After installation of idefix, and ensuring my hdf are "rdb" type, it now all works again for me.

[Sorgelig]

New IDE code doesn't deal with Amiga specific pseudo-images. So it needs *FULL* hdd image including RDB header (same as ao486 needs MBR header).

[Sorgelig]

To confirm everything i've installed WinUAE.
Opened CD & Hard drives settings, then "Add Hardfile".
Pressed "Full Drive/RDB mode", then below entered size and pressed "Create" button.
Then closed it and opend again, selected created file in "Path" field, then bellow again pressed "Full Drive/RDB mode", then in HD Controller selected "Commodore A600/A1200/A4000 IDE".
Then pressed "OK".
Did the rest configs and started the Emulation. I've used install3.2.adf and CD from OS 3.2.
So, i've booted A1200 config then went to HDToolBox to make sure HDD is visible there. If visible then press "Change drive type." in new dialog press "Define New type." Then in another dialog press "Read configuration" then press "OK", then again "OK", then save changes, reboot. You can optionally re-partition HDD, change primary partition name to standard HD0: (instead of UAE specific UHD0) and make it occupy a whole HDD (remove secondary partition if you don't need it).
Then i've installed OS 3.2 to new HDF, then copied this HDF to MiSTer and successfully booted on MiSTer.

[Sorgelig]

Actually, you don't need WinUAE at all.

Here is (from my point of view) much simpler option to create a fully working HDF directly on MiSTer:
1) Create an empty HDF file of required size on PC.
2) Copy it to MiSTer
3) Mount it as HDF on OSD, and also mount some adf with HDToolBox (for example install3.2.adf from OS3.2)
4) Boot that ADF
5) go to HDToolBox, then Change Drive Type -> Define New -> Read Cobfiguration. Then Ok, Ok. Then Save Changes to Drive.
6) Press Partition Drive. Optionally delete MDH1 partition, expand MDH0 to full drive. Rename MDH0 to standard DH0 name, mark it as Bootable. Then OK, then Save Changes to Drive.
7) Exit, reboot.
8) After booting you will see DH0:Uninitialized. Format it from Workbench menu. You can use Quick format option.
9) Install required OS.

[Solskogen]

You can even create the file on mister with either dd or truncate.

[xFlesk]

thank you very much for quick answer
it turned out that indeed hdf files must be prepared and partitioned in sworkbench
everything works perfect now
cheers

[Sorgelig]

the problem comes from UAE which encourages to use headerless images.

[killersquirel]

I can't get my hdf files working on this core. I keep getting the screen that tells me to place a disk in the drive. The prior core works, but this one does not.

[xFlesk]

hmmm, but now (after i prepeared and formated my 8gb hdf file) im getting this info when im choosing an image

20210701_205816.jpg (4.09 MiB) Viewed 8141 times

is this can be a problem ?
8gb is my media hdf with whdloads, saves, modules etc. i would like to be sure im not going to lose my data
im using amigaos 3.2

ps
when i actully set "safe" paramereter from warning popup, my drive shrinked to 2gb
is 2gb maximum for mister ?

[bbond007]

is 2gb maximum for mister ?

up to 4GB is not a problem, however, going beyond that is determined by the following:

• Kickstart ROM and Wokbench

• ROM patches

• Filesystem (FFS, PFS, etc.)

[akeley]

I've been using a self-made hdf as the main one. It still boots up and some things works, but some don't - games throw up error messages. It also doesn't recognise hdfs in other slots, where previously it would.

Is there any way to make it ok again? I did try the method described in the MegaAGS-saves thread. I mounted my drive as secondary hdf, with MegaAGS as primary, and used the HDToolbox, but it doesn't seem I can do anything like with the "MegaAGS-saves" hdf. The drive status shows as "Not Changed" and drive type as "UAE".

[robinsonb5]

Is there any way to make it ok again? I did try the method described in the MegaAGS-saves thread. I mounted my drive as secondary hdf, with MegaAGS as primary, and used the HDToolbox, but it doesn't seem I can do anything like with the "MegaAGS-saves" hdf. The drive status shows as "Not Changed" and drive type as "UAE".

The method shown in the MegaAGS saves thread is purely to make a secondary HDD show up, if it's not being detected.
Because scanning a SCSI bus for attached drives can be slow, the Amiga RigidDiskBlock (MBR-equivalent) has a flag which means "There are no more drives in the chain, don't bother looking any further" - if this flag is set on the primary drive, the secondary drive won't show up.

The firmware used to have the ability to patch this flag in the RDB (inherited from MiST) - which I'm assuming has been ripped out along with the RDB-generation (which pre-dates even MiST - that feature goes back to 2012!).

That's why some disk images now need this flag manually unset with HDToolbox.

It's unrelated to any reliability issues, and I'd guess if those are surfacing then the refactoring has either woken up latent bugs or even introduced new ones.

[akeley]

The method shown in the MegaAGS saves thread is purely to make a secondary HDD show up, if it's not being detected.
Because scanning a SCSI bus for attached drives can be slow, the Amiga RigidDiskBlock (MBR-equivalent) has a flag which means "There are no more drives in the chain, don't bother looking any further" - if this flag is set on the primary drive, the secondary drive won't show up.

The firmware used to have the ability to patch this flag in the RDB (inherited from MiST) - which I'm assuming has been ripped out along with the RDB-generation (which pre-dates even MiST - that feature goes back to 2012!).

That's why some disk images now need this flag manually unset with HDToolbox.

It's unrelated to any reliability issues, and I'd guess if those are surfacing then the refactoring has either woken up latent bugs or even introduced new ones.

Ok, but in layman's terms, does it mean I should make a new system.hdf because the old one can't be easily fixed (or at all)?

[robinsonb5]

Ok, but in layman's terms, does it mean I should make a new system.hdf because the old one can't be easily fixed (or at all)?

Honestly, I'd sit tight and wait to see if any bugs get fixed. Making a new HDF in the meantime can't hurt, but I wouldn't throw the existing one away just yet.

The changes we're talking about here shouldn't make an HDF flaky - it should either work or not be recognised at all. Anything in between suggests something's buggy. It's worth double-checking your HDF partitions' MaxTransfer with HDToolBox - make sure it's no higher than 0x1fe00.

[JudgeDrokk]

For someone who has little experience of HDDs on a real AMIGA (mine was KS 1.2 sold in 1988)

I have a gig of HDD demo-scene titles in HDF format - will these still work after the update? Is it 50-50?

[JudgeDrokk]

Ok, but in layman's terms, does it mean I should make a new system.hdf because the old one can't be easily fixed (or at all)?

Honestly, I'd sit tight and wait to see if any bugs get fixed. Making a new HDF in the meantime can't hurt, but I wouldn't throw the existing one away just yet.

The changes we're talking about here shouldn't make an HDF flaky - it should either work or not be recognised at all. Anything in between suggests something's buggy. It's worth double-checking your HDF partitions' MaxTransfer with HDToolBox - make sure it's no higher than 0x1fe00.

I have 800 AMiga scene demos in individual HDFs,,, I hope these changes wont stop them from working. I dont know how they were made - I have no experience of AMIGA HDDs - I left "real" hardware in 1988 having owned an A500 KS 1.2.

[robinsonb5]

It looks like "geometry type" hdf doesn't work anymore, only "rdb" type. In addition, on my rdb hdf, I had to install idefix, otherwise many Workbench programs would show software failure on start. After installation of idefix, and ensuring my hdf are "rdb" type, it now all works again for me.

One of the things IDEFix addresses is the MaxTransfer issue - so again, it's worth checking using HDToolbox that all partitions have this set to 0x1fe00 or less.

[akeley]

Ok, so I've installed the Idefix97, and it seems to have helped - system.hdf now sees other hdfs, and the non-working games are OK again.

But now I have an Idefix97 nag screen when I boot. So I do regret not trying first what robinsonb5 mentioned though - just fixing the MaxTransfer. I did look at it and it indeed was some other value than 0x1fe00, but I couldn't easily change it. Similarly to this thread,, I could've tried using this HDInst tool for that.

Is the shareware version of Idefix the only one available? Can I uninstall it somehow?

[robinsonb5]

But now I have an Idefix97 nag screen when I boot. So I do regret not trying first what robinsonb5 mentioned though - just fixing the MaxTransfer. I did look at it and it indeed was some other value than 0x1fe00, but I couldn't easily change it.

Just to clear, other values are OK as long as they're lower than 0x1fe00.

Disabling IDEFix is certainly possible - I don't have it to hand right now, but I'd expect that it adds itself to s:startup-sequence or s:user-startup - so simply removing or commenting out the relevant line would do it.

[JudgeDrokk]

New IDE code doesn't deal with Amiga specific pseudo-images. So it needs *FULL* hdd image including RDB header (same as ao486 needs MBR header).

As many people have large HDF sets that are now incompatible with Minimig is it possible to forward-port the RDB-faking code to the new IDE system. A friend suggested this - I'm not experienced enough to even understand what that means.
Hopefully something can be done to 'give' without 'taking away' for other users.

[killersquirel]

I have upgraded the main MiSTer and I can still run the older minimig core that is compatible with all hdf files. Is it possible for a future update to have the new features and still be compatible with all of the hdf files. I have a large collection of hdf files that are single games that work great and would love to keep that going forward.

[SuperFrog]

I am sure you probably are better off to create script that will replace HDFs with new RDB one. Something similar was done long time ago to pack KillerGorilla's packs into HDFs that you are probably using today. (I still might have somewhere that WinUAE setup)

Why keep all games as separate HDF files?? This might works great for RetroPie and similar front ends. On minimig you are better off running games from workbench.

I am running single HDF - 6 GB divided into 2 500MB partitions for Workbench and Work (programs) and 5GB for data, including most of games and some MOD files. All of this runs on OS 3.2 with some little tweaks + shared folder + RGB.

As many people have large HDF sets that are now incompatible with Minimig is it possible to forward-port the RDB-faking code to the new IDE system. A friend suggested this - I'm not experienced enough to even understand what that means.
Hopefully something can be done to 'give' without 'taking away' for other users.

If you have HDF that is not properly setup with RDB in amiga and you don't have one of OS versions that support large HDF files, then you better off trying to stay with smaller partitions. So far from my experience, bellow 4GB - WB 3.1. Bigger HDFs either 3.1.4 or 3.2. I did not try OS 3.5, 3.9 or 4.1. I am not sure how well they would work on minimig. Those would work bad on regular 68020 without accelerator. I can't remember every running one of them on real Amiga. (Used ClassicWB a lot)


All you have to do - setup WinUAE with your current HDF, and create new HDF with the same size - use HDFTools to create partitions and format them once created. DIR Opus would be best visual option to copy content between partitions. Amiga will allow you to copy all disks, including running OS. Just make sure OS (system / workbench) is set to autoboot.

Here is good explanation how to setup OS 3.2: https://amigadventures.tumblr.com/post/ ... essions-so

Created image will work great on minimig.

[akeley]

IWhy keep all games as separate HDF files?? This might works great for RetroPie and similar front ends. On minimig you are better off running games from workbench.

Not necessarily. Single-program hdfs are great if you just want to quickly fire up a favourite without going the WB route. There are also more hdfs than WHDloads, which do not cover the entire Amiga gaming library after all, and hdf demo packs too.

I do mostly use WB+other custom vhds myself, but would appreciate if it was possible to use the old hdfs as well. If it can't be fixed then I'll just keep the latest version which has worked for hdfs as secondary Minimig core and use it when needed. It was already compatible with most software anyway.

[Chris23235]

Not necessarily. Single-program hdfs are great if you just want to quickly fire up a favourite without going the WB route. There are also more hdfs than WHDloads, which do not cover the entire Amiga gaming library after all, and hdf demo packs too.

Are there games in hdf format not based on WHDload? Every Amiga game running from a hdf I have seen so far was a WHDload.

[JudgeDrokk]

I have upgraded the main MiSTer and I can still run the older minimig core that is compatible with all hdf files. Is it possible for a future update to have the new features and still be compatible with all of the hdf files. I have a large collection of hdf files that are single games that work great and would love to keep that going forward.

This would be the perfect comprimise for me.
I have a set of over 4000 individual game HDFs and 800+ demoscene HDFs (not made or compiled by myself) Being able to direct boot straight into an individual title is great. I may be being selfish wanting this lost ability back but i'm sure I am not the only one.