Hello all,

small questions about EFIKA :

- i have a problem with the alimentation of a EFIKA with a PicoPSU. The EFIKA start ant stop after the activation of the harddisk.

Any idea ?

- What is the best graphic card for the EFIKA please ?

Thanks for your answer!

You have read that?

http://www.google.at/url?q=http://powerpc.lukysoft.cz/en/TheEFIKABook_V1.5.pdf&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjIh8j07t7jAhXmQhUIHYdXBc0QFjABegQICRAB&usg=AOvVaw1Z6clTXR0UEAlGu2rlCdjz


Does your HD spin up when power on? What happens exactly? Can EFIKA not load data from HD and stops then in OF?
Can you see DirTree of HD in OF?

> ls hd:0 ---> returns content of 1. partition on HD

If yes, then you may have faulty data on your HD (right boot.img?). If no your HD isn't recognized.

You also may try to boot install.img via Network or USB.

boot USB-Stick: SFS-Partition with install.img on it. Insert stick before turning on power (otherwise EFIKA may not recognize the stick)
in OF:
> boot HD0:0 install.img

This will boot a minimal MOS-System and yo can check your internal HD.

Booting from Net: Setup a TFTP-Server on your PC or other MOS-Computer (http://aminet.net/comm/tcp/tftp-server.lha) and put install.img to the server-direktory and start server.
in OF:

set bootprotocoll=dhcp
boot eth:<servers IP-adress>, install.img

Will also boot a minimal MOS-System.



[ Editiert durch Amigaharry2 31.07.2019 - 11:44 ]

Basically, for Efika you need an AGP card with universal AGP key (2 notches). The fastest one is Radeon 9800XT. However, fitting a full size one can be problematic if you only have the included riser. For low profile ones you can go for 9600, 9100.

Thanks for your return!

@AmigaHarry: the battery turn off after the start of the harddisk...

I think i don't have a good battery...

My battery has <5A, i have bought this one :

Battery for PicoPSU

[ Edité par Papiosaur 31.07.2019 - 17:20 ]

As Efika draws about 20W max I doubt that the power brick is the reason (unless it's really weak), but the one you linked should be right (and with a great margin of spare power). What's the specification of your standard brick?

How about the power LED on PicoPSU? Does it turn off too?

My PicoPSU has 2 led,one green and one red.

When i start the battery 2 leds are lit, after red go out and green stay lit...

> Basically, for Efika you need an AGP card with universal AGP key (2 notches). The
> fastest one is Radeon 9800XT. [...] For low profile ones you can go for 9600, 9100.

Potential issue with 9600 is that many universally keyed cards are 1.5V-only. Btw, he can also ignore the AGP riser and use a newer PCI card in the on-board 66 MHz PCI slot, like the HD4350 (as successfully tested in the 33 MHz PCI slot of the Pegasos II) or even HD5450, albeit with the known driver restrictions as of current MorphOS version.

Although hard drives generally only sit around 8-12 W, their startup surge could be considerably higher. Maybe it's tripping the over-current protection in the PicoPSU.

Edit: And it's also very possible that power brick only does 30 W rather than 60 W. The Chinese are known for...creative use of ratings.

[ Edited by KennyR 31.07.2019 - 17:54 ]

From what I know the green light means PicoPSu is receiving the 12V from the brick.
The red light means the PicoPSU is giving its output. So if it goes off then something's gone wrong.

Thanks for your answer ! I will test tomorrow with news Battery.

Is possible to install a Radeon 9800XT (no low profil) with a Efika ?

Is there mini-box for this configuration ?

Quote:

Everything is possible :) But in your case both PicoPSU and the Ethernet/USB connector will come in your way. Of course you could rise the card a bit, but I don't think that angling the connector is a good idea. You could use some plain PCI riser between the onboard PCI slot and the PCI to AGP riser instead. Like this one. Then you'd only have to find a Molex to supply your 9800 with current (probably your PicoPSU has one). Aaand a good power brick is a must. And a new case :) I believe a 5,25 inch external case wouldn't be high enough to hold such config. Also, you'd need to rethink the cooling of your gfx card (airflow). Quite a lot of things to care about.

Thanks koszer for these informations

I have changed the battery by one 12V and 5A and same problem...

I will change Harddisk with a CF...

About graphic card, i've found a 9600 low profile "passive", no problem of cooling

Wait and see...

[ Edité par Papiosaur 01.08.2019 - 13:17 ]

Quote:

Do you have the hdd installed directly on the Efika with the shortest possible IDE cable? I'm trying to remember what my Efika IDE connector looked like, but I know that it would not work with longer IDE cables for some reason, and the hdd had to be installed as close as possible to the IDE connector, or it would not work. You can search for forum threads regarding the IDE limitations of the Efika IDE controller, and should find some info about the problem.

Thanks amigadave for these information too! but the HD is connected directly

I have resolved the problem!

My EFIKA is into a EFIKAZ box from Tcheko and there are two push button on the front.

When i switch on the battery, it start the PicoPSU then the PicoPSU stop after the thart of the HD..

I have put on the push button on the left of the EFIKAZ and the hardware has restart!

Now, when i switch on the battery, the PicoPSU don't start directly and wait the press on the push button "Power".

The push button on the right is "Reset" i think.

MorphOS Rulez!!!!


[ Edité par Papiosaur 01.08.2019 - 16:03 ]

So basically the solution for your problem was: "Press the Power button"? I wouldn't think of that :)

Yes

Papio specialist of the EFIKA now

Quote:

I have this card - HD4350 PCI (R71PL, Powercolor). I confirm, that it works on Pegasos2 33MHz PCI. OpenFirmware is not visible, but with auto-boot it boots to MorphOs. But with the use of PCI SATA I/O operations the work is not smooth with this card. I want to test it in AGPx1 slot, but I don't finish the riser yet.

I expected, that this card will be work with Efika. But it doesn't work. Neither OF, neither in MOS. What may be the reason?
Now I have Efika on testbed, with PSU650W, so current is not the case.

>> he can also ignore the AGP riser and use a newer PCI card
>> in the on-board 66 MHz PCI slot, like the HD4350

> I have this card - HD4350 PCI (R71PL, Powercolor). [...] I expected,
> that this card will be work with Efika. But it doesn't work. Neither OF,
> neither in MOS. What may be the reason?

Sorry, I have no idea why MorphOS doesn't work with this card on Efika or how to debug this issue. My reasoning was pure conjecture based on the fact it works in the Pegasos II.

Kernel for EFIKA seems to be very different to PEG (no 2nd IDE-channel, no serialport, etc.). I think, your question can only be answered from MOS-team (Frank?).

Bootscreen in OF: That is strange at both cards: OF uses standard VESA-specifications, which should be implemented in every (PC) graphic-card. EFIKA supports 33/66MHz PCI (3.3V).
When booting to OF-console, try to press F6-F9 - EFIKA shoud change to higher resolutions (notice: does'nt work with every keyboard and it must be connected directly (no hub) and can take some seconds to react)
If card is not recognized by OF, Quark-Kernel may also have problems. To veryfy that, connect a second PC to serial-port and check EFIKA-Boot-Strap (Bootstrap serial Port 115200 8N1). Then something like this should appear:

Bootstrap serial Port 115200 8N1


EFIKA 5K2 Boot Strap [RELEASE BUILD] (c) 2002-2007 bplan GmbH (BUILD 20070122 84
240)
Running on CPU PVR: 0x80822014
Running on system SVR: 0x80110022
BIOS Code position: 0xFFF040D0
Setup System Config... Done.
Setup Memory Config... Done.
Setup PCI... Done.
Setup ATA... Done.
Setup USB... Done.
Setup ETH... Done.
Setup AC97... Done.
Testing 08000000 Bytes, Pass: 00000000 Failed: 00000000
RAM TEST (fill random)... Done.
cpu0: PowerPC,G2 CPUClock 396 Mhz BUSClock 132 Mhz (Version 0x8082,0x2014)
channel 0 unit 0 : ata | TS8GCF133 | 20140106
ATA device not present or not responding
EMULATION INT HANDLER ENTERED WITH:
INT NO: 15

EAX=0003 EBX=1111 ECX=2222 EDX=3333 ESP=0000 EBP=5555 ESI=6666 EDI=7777
AX=4E08 BX=C905 CX=0007 DX=102A SP=6C08 BP=5555 SI=6C16 DI=9BB6
DS=C000 ES=BAD0 SS=C000 CS=F000 IP=FE15 NV UP -- PL ZR NA PE NC
CS:IP = F4 FS=BAD4 GS=BAD5C9F6 C000 0244 3000 0000 01B4 ABC6 0200
UNHANDLED INT 10 FUNCTION 0007 WITHIN EMULATION
VM using 4354726 x86 cycles for GFX init
running....

At the last lines you see the result of virtual X86-machine, binding the graphiccard.

@Amigaharry2
Many thanks for hints. I will try it and let know the result.

> Bootscreen in OF: That is strange at both cards

The RV710 on the HD4350 is a PCIe chip, so the PCI variant of the card has a bridge chip on it. SmartFirmware on Pegasos and Efika doesn't support looking behind bridge chips, so it cannot see the GPU on the card, that's why the SmartFirmware cannot show on this card, or any other card with PCIe chip (RV370 and above, except R420 and R481) plus bridge chip. That's completely expected behaviour.

> If card is not recognized by OF, Quark-Kernel may also have problems.

I have doubts about this, as MorphOS on Pegasos II works fine with cards that are not recognized by the SmartFirmware (see link in comment #7).

Unfortunatelly for my case, R420 and R481 are AGP 8x chips, and all cards I found is only 1.5/0.8V versions, so unusable with Efika and Pegasos2.

The only difference I found in MOS graphics setup between Efika/Pegasos2 is Double/Triple buffering. I don't think that it is the case, but I will check it also.
And of course, I will try the serial debug.
And last thing what I want to test is to setup autoboot directly to usb MorphOS 3.15 hdimage. And check if default image have some more tolerant graphics setup.



[ Edited by sailor 14.01.2021 - 07:43 ]

Serial port gives you following info during starting quark-kernel:

ABox 1.30 (2.7.2018) © 1999-2018 by Ralph Schmidt, Emmanuel Lesueur, Teemu Suikk
i, Harry Sintonen
PPC5200 ATA/ATAPI Driver@0: PIO Mode 4
ide.device@0: ATA-HD TS8GCF133 <DIRECT_ACCESS>
ide.device@0: Mount <Boot>
ide.device@0: Partition <Boot> DosType 0x53465300
ide.device@0: Mount <Sys_OS>
ide.device@0: Partition <Sys_OS> DosType 0x53465300 BootPri 0
ide.device@0: Mount <Work>
ide.device@0: Partition <Work> DosType 0x53465300
ide.device@0: Mount <Temp_Data>
ide.device@0: Partition <Temp_Data> DosType 0x53465300
usbscsi.device@0: Mount <UMSD0>
usbscsi.device@0: Partition <UMSD0> DosType 0x4d534400
Radeon: Failed to allocate CCE AGP memory
usbscsi.device@0: Notify Partition <UMSD0>
myFreeClass : Mousemeter.sbar objectcount =1

At this point, MOS overtakes EFIKA hardware and serial port is'nt aktive any more. Even rds boot-argument does'nt give more info, because MOS does'nt support EFIKA's serial port.
But you see in the 3rd-last line a hint, that MOS recognizes a Radeon-Card. In my case its a Radeon 9200, which starts properly, nevertheless the error-message.
Maybe thats a hint to find out, whether your Card is recognized by MOS, or not.


[ Editiert durch Amigaharry2 14.01.2021 - 09:31 ]

@Amigaharry2

many thanks for serial log. I will check it on my side. I hope I'll make it on the weekend.
At least I have Radeon 9200, 9250 and 9800Pro which I can compare too, and this cards works fine with Efika.

I have an Efika fitted on an external HDD case. And I have been coming through a similar problem since ages.

The effie gets power through a small (Pcio?) PSU which is fitted inside the case.

It has a power on off switch.

When I switch the machine on sometimes it will start and boot normally, but there are times that I would switch on the Power button - the fans will start - but the blue led on the front will not light and the board will not start, the powering on process actually stops -I guess that this stopping is actually happening right before -or after?- the hard disk spinning, but I am not sure-.

I am switching off the Power button and switching it on again and then the board will start.

Apart from that strange behavior the board works perfect on MOS and Linux.


A similar behavior was noticed on my A1 XE but after I changed the small coin battery on the board, everything went back to normal.

Does Effie has a similar coin battery? If I would change will the problem be solved?

Reading this topic again, I remembered this little problem. Have you got any ideas?