MiSTer FPGA Forum

Has anyone succeeded getting Amiga Forever's Workbench 3.x working on MiSTer? I bought the Plus package and have it running in Windows, and I was able to find a 6 MB Workbench 3.1 disk I got running on the MiSTer, but what I'd really like to do is bring over the complete 3.x setup.

Eisengrim wrote: ↑Mon Dec 25, 2023 12:59 am

Has anyone succeeded getting Amiga Forever's Workbench 3.x working on MiSTer? I bought the Plus package and have it running in Windows, and I was able to find a 6 MB Workbench 3.1 disk I got running on the MiSTer, but what I'd really like to do is bring over the complete 3.x setup.

Which Kickstart are you trying to use?

rhester72 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 25, 2023 1:17 am

Eisengrim wrote: ↑Mon Dec 25, 2023 12:59 am

Has anyone succeeded getting Amiga Forever's Workbench 3.x working on MiSTer? I bought the Plus package and have it running in Windows, and I was able to find a 6 MB Workbench 3.1 disk I got running on the MiSTer, but what I'd really like to do is bring over the complete 3.x setup.

Which Kickstart are you trying to use?

I'm using amiga-os-310-a1200 from Amiga Forever, renamed to Kick31a1200. This gets me into a Workbench 3.1 environment.
I don't know what Kickstart is used to get to the "3.x" Workbench (x is not a placeholder; it's literally called 3.x)

I know about the 'odd' naming, it's because it's an amalgam of several different pieces all calling themselves 3.something.

Alright - my first suspicion was that the encrypted Kickstart wasn't loading, but clearly that's not it.

What is the exact behavior you get when you try?

rhester72 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 25, 2023 4:42 am

I know about the 'odd' naming, it's because it's an amalgam of several different pieces all calling themselves 3.something.

Alright - my first suspicion was that the encrypted Kickstart wasn't loading, but clearly that's not it.

What is the exact behavior you get when you try?

Thanks for helping me figure this out.
I can't try the Workbench I want on the MiSTer because I can't find the source files.
After installing Amiga Forever in Windows it gives me a playlist in the Systems menu, for example:
-Amiga 100
-Amiga 500
-Amiga 2000
...
-Workbench 1.3
-Workbench 3.x

If I launch "Workbench 3.x" in Windows it runs a Workbench called "3.X ROM" when I check the About... from the Workbench menu. It looks like Workbench 3.9, with 256 colors.
But if I dig into the Amiga Forever files I can't find this Workbench. I can find a 3.1 Workbench with a 6 MB HD that I can put on a MiSTer.
What I'm wondering is if there's any way to get this "Workbench 3.x" working on a MiSTer.

I wonder if the 'installation' of Workbench is using the filesystem versus a HDF...as far as I know, MiSTer will only support the latter.

If you look under All Users/Documents in Windows, is there anything in there that looks like files from Workbench 3.x?

The only clue I can find is this from the Readme inside Documents/Amiga Files:
"The "dir" subdirectory contains directories that are mounted "as is"
in the emulation, like the "System" and "Work" partitions of the
Amiga OS 3.X environment. The "local" subdirectory contains the shared
drive that can optionally be mounted across different systems (unless
a cloud storage option is selected for the same)."

Your suspicions are likely correct; it does look like there's a filesystem in Shared/dir/System, with folders like Devs and C and L.

Right. That'll need to get "inserted" info volumes that MiSTer can see as hardfiles.

You can give it a go yourself or I'll take a swing at it next week, but it should be possible to replicate effectively 1:1.

rhester72 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 25, 2023 8:46 pm

Right. That'll need to get "inserted" info volumes that MiSTer can see as hardfiles.

You can give it a go yourself or I'll take a swing at it next week, but it should be possible to replicate effectively 1:1.

It'd be great if you took a look; I've only had my MiSTer a few days and am still learning the basics.

The easiest way to move that 3.x workbench installation is to:

1. Start the WinUAE plugin in Amiga Forever

2. Load the configuration for Workbench 3.x

3. Create an empty 3GB hdf and mount it as hd1

4. Boot that 3.x workbench and format your hd1

5. Show hidden files in your System drive (hd0)

6. Select and copy all files to your hd1 drive

7. Shutdown your amiga emulated environment

8. Copy the hd1 drive to your MiSTer and the necessary kickstart

9. Configure that installation to use a 68020, no Data Cache, 2MB chip RAM, 384 Fast RAM and the correct kickstart

10. Boot and enjoy

That's how I got mine running.

Flavio

flavio wrote: ↑Fri Dec 29, 2023 9:53 pm

The easiest way to move that 3.x workbench installation is to:

1. Start the WinUAE plugin in Amiga Forever

2. Load the configuration for Workbench 3.x

3. Create an empty 3GB hdf and mount it as hd1

4. Boot that 3.x workbench and format your hd1

5. Show hidden files in your System drive (hd0)

6. Select and copy all files to your hd1 drive

7. Shutdown your amiga emulated environment

8. Copy the hd1 drive to your MiSTer and the necessary kickstart

9. Configure that installation to use a 68020, no Data Cache, 2MB chip RAM, 384 Fast RAM and the correct kickstart

10. Boot and enjoy

That's how I got mine running.

Flavio

I appreciate the attempt to help me, and I have made some progress. I got into what looks like WinUAE configuration by right-clicking the 3.x entry and choosing edit. This gave me access to configuration, media, etc. I made a 3 GB hd1, formatted it from within the 3.x environment, and showed all System drive files and copied them over. After shutting down 3.x I can now see the hd1 listed in my Media, and it shows as bootable Yes(0). I changed the new hd1 to External from Embedded and that gave it a Windows file path to the Shared/hdf folder. I made a new Amiga4000 folder on MiSTer card and copied over the new hd1 and two Kickstarts (but they kept their names as amiga-os style roms). I went into my minimig config in the MiSTer and configured what you said above (68020 etc). MiSTer looks like it changed the internal name of the rom to KICK.ROM and it tried to boot, but I get a System Request message saying "Not a DOS disk in device hd1" and I can't get past that.

To troubleshoot the issue, configure that hdf file as your hd0 in WinUAE and see if it boots. If it does, then the issue is with the ROM/core configuration in the MiSTer. If it doesn't, then it's probably missing some files (did you make sure to show all files before you copied them?). Also, it may be better to run WinUAE standalone by starting it from Tools->plugins->WinUAE 64 bits.

I got the Tools menu to show the plugin by going into Tools/Options, thanks.
When I set the new .hdf as Pri. Master Fixed/HDD in MiSTer config, is that the same as setting it to hd0? If so, that's where I'm getting the "Not a DOS disk" when it tries to boot.
When I built the hdf I made sure to Show All from the System volume and copied everything over (things like Classes, Libs, C, T, L, S)
Does the new .hdf have to have a special name? Right now it's just called WB3X and all those files that were copied are at the root level.

When you add the hardfile in WinUAE, you can define the device name in that menu. The name of the file itself doesn't matter (wb3x.hdf would be fine). Make sure that it's marked as bootable and try to start the environment in WinUAE (don't forget to set the correct kickstart rom).

In the Media tab it's listed as Yes(0) under Bootable, while the original 3X System volume is marked as Yes(127) under Bootable.
I'm doing all this through the Edit function in Amiga Forever since I originally didn't have access to the plugin until I added it to the Tools menu recently. When I go through the plugin there's only one "Default UAE configuration"; I can't see a 3.X configuration there.

The default configuration should be fine. Just select a 68020 with no FPU, 2MB of chip RAM and 384MB of FAST RAM (Zorro card). Otherwise, you can check the configuration for the 3.x and just copy the relevant settings. But mostly anything with a 68020 and enough RAM should boot your drive. Once the drive boots there, you can transfer it to the MiSTer and try there.

For my latest attempt I made a copy of the Workbench 3.X from the Systems Playlist in Amiga Forever. I then edited this new copy and removed the DHO built in disk named System and made my WB3X disk hd0 with boot priority 0. It boots up, and there's no System disk on the workbench. The WB3X disk is there instead, although it does not have a boing ball badge like the System disk. The problem is that this is the same WB3X.hdf that does not boot in MiSTer, I get that "Not a DOS disk" error when I try.

Very good! Then the issue is on the MiSTer side. Check that you have the correct kickstart referenced in the MiSTer menu and that the CPU is correctly set as a 68020 with data cache in OFF. It should work fine once you configure that image as DH0.