Hi guys.

I'm giving it a serious thought.
I'm mainly interested in using MorphOS.

I'd probably buy only the motherboard, CPU, memory, and MorphOS, as I have everything else ready. How easy it is to install MorphOS from scratch? What does a newbie need to know before venturing into a Pegasos II purchase? What useful software is available for MorphOS?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If U are an ex-AmigaOS user, it's not so difficult to install MOS,
it's only PURE FUN!!
Feel free to ask here at MZ for any problem!
What are u waiting, go and let's buy a peg!
Aloha

Installing MorphOS is very easy. You practically boot from the CD, then use SCSITools (the same software which was available for p5 SCSI cards, but you can use HDInstTools as well) to partition the hard disk. Just like you did on Amiga before. Even the hard disk structure is the same: MorphOS and the Pegasos uses RDB by default. After that, you simply copy the files to the newly created partition, but there is an install script which will do that for you, if you don't want to do it by hand. Then you need to modify two OpenFirmware variables to make your system boot from the HDD without typing. It's all well documented, and very similar like it was on classic Amigas, except the OF stuff.

The Pegasos 2 has no known hardware faults, and (nearly:) everything works as expected with recent Firmware. Of course, you still need to buy quality memory modules, and use 80 pin IDE cables to avoid all possible problems.

The biggest caveat i think is that, when installing MorphOS, that it has no built-in TCP/IP yet, so it's handly to prepare a CD with MiamiDx or Genesis on it, to make networking possible. Also, by default MorphOS has no working ARexx interpreter so if you had a classic Amiga before, you might want to use the Rexx library from there.

MorphOS runs most of classic Amiga software (including WOS/PUP) with great compatibility, and also it can run a few AmigaOS4 software through a third-party add-on (that's OS4emu). The built-in 68k emulation has JIT for more than two years now, it's very mature, and very fast.

Personally i'm using the following software often: IBrowse (68k), YAM (PPC), Jabberwocky (PPC), sometimes Simplemail (PPC), Aminetradio (68k, with MOS-specific extensions), AmIRC (68k), Dopus4 (68k). There's also a native PDF viewer (Apdf), and a the best picture viewer ever done for Amiga-like platforms: ShowGirls. There's also a native, MUI-fied version of SnoopDOS, called Snoopium. Scout works as well. Apart from these usual stuff, there are quite a lot of very nice & tiny utilities, actually too many to name them, there are also a lot of game ports from Linux, thanks to the great SDL implementation (PowerSDL).

The new 1.4x Ambient is quite useful, but if you want, you can run Workbench from classic Amiga after a bit of hacking, or DOpus5, or Scalos as well. If you liked MUI on classic Amiga before, you just gonna _LOVE_ PPC-native MUI in MorphOS, which got some nice eye-candy addons, and also a better Prefs stuff.

As you can read above, having a Pegasos with MorphOS, is just like having an Amiga, which is much faster, and the OS looks better. Okay, that's it for now. If you've questions, feel free to ask. :)

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Hi!

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Good thinking!

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Do as you please! However, this temporary $799 price for a full system (with *good* specs) might be hard to beat? And there is also the convenience factor!

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"copy cd0: dh0: all"
"copy env:sys/def_disk.info dh0:"
"copy dh0:boot.img bi0: move"

... or use the supplied install script! But really, for a *full* "from the scratch" description of how you do it, go to the morphos-news.de site:

http://www.morphos-news.de/beta2help/

However, this will only give you a *bare-bone*, basic system up and running (pretty much the same as when you had installed the AmigaOS 3.1, if you remember?). But since you are an Amigan (and since you want to use your system for other things than enter shell commands) you will want to move on in your own direction from this point!

Feel free to return with any kind questions. There are always lots of helpful people online, either on IRC or here ...

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It's a great system if you are an old Amigan! What more can I say? Feel free to ask more specific questions, or browse the websites yourself. All aspects of the history and evolution is documented online for the interested researcher, but if you know exactly what you want to know, then simply ask! There are hordes of people who have threaded down all kinds of paths for you to follow *in their own* MorphOS exploration, before you, throughout the years. Much knowledge online!

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Again, either do some searching yourself, or ask the people here (or elsewhere) *exactly* what you are interested in knowing!

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I'm sure you'll get all the help you need and want!

PS.
I'm thinking back when I first purchased my Pegasos 1, April 1 (from the first quite limited April 1 batch that was produced, I think it was 2002). Boy, did I spend a fortune on that machine? I bought it at the *original* price tag, from GGS Data (in Sweden, we also have a 25% VAT). But did I ever regret it? Not for a single day. I later upgraded it for one of the first Pegasos 2's (the first batch), but I bought a Pegasos 1 April 2 to keep as some kind of collector item. I later bought another Pegasos 2. Hadn't I had 3 Pegs allready, then I would have jumped on this temporary price offer right this instant, it's a great offer compared to what I paid back in 2002!

Its easy, just like installing AmigaOS or real close to it. Its once its installed you have fun. You get the screen modes all made, change icons ect. Fun fun fun!

Thanks for the help and suggestions guys.

The offer on pegasosppc.com site is indeed sweet.

copy CD0: DH0: ALL CLONE

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Only if you want to have everything on a ffs partition and that ffs device is called DH0:

and b4 installing you must prepare the hd.

Best is to use a *small* (some MB) ffs partitition and put the boot.img there (nothing more, that partition does not need to be mounted anyway so it stays invisible in normal day usage) and 2 to n partitions with sfs. (1 for the system and (n-1) for data and programs.

But all this installation stuff is mentioned in the readme anyway.

All in all the basic installation takes really only a few minutes. But until you get a matured system it will be some work. Anyway, it's not complicated but fun - and if you have questions you'll get proper support here or on #morphos.

Just do it - I am sure you won't regret it.

BTW the Pegasos is coming with a guide (in several languages) with the installation process.
For the rest (Genesis, installer, amigaguide, Arexx) there are plenty information on Morphzone.

Where do you get a peg in Europe or, more specifically, in the U.K. these days? The European dealers seem a bit thin on the ground these days.

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It may sound easy to someone who already used AmigaOS (and not only an "Amiga"), but any recent (x86) Linux distribution, MacOS, Windows are all certainly a lot easier for someone who never played with AmigaOS...

Leo.

[ Edited by Leo on 2005/6/10 21:24 ]

@!!!!! Colin_Camper (?!)

Oh my!

If you buy an ODW we will pay the duty and customs fees. We will even priority ship it to you!

R&B

@Genesi:

Would you do it for a Canadian order as well? My main concern in regards to placing an order is UPS slapping an extra $100-$200USD charge on brokerage fees, upon delivery.

There's no escape. They will definitely charge me.

NO!



"There is no escape."

R&B

Hi Colin_Camper,

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Hm, I can't confirm this one.

I ordered 3 pegs last week and they arrived yesterday (Germany - Austria).


Bye HAK

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UPS is like the postal shipper Mob boss. They charge those fees even when they shouldnt. Not they even charge you for the fuel to get the package to its destination. I went to use them to ship a iBook to poland and they wanted $347 to ship it! US Postal Service for the same speed was only $87.

Last week I sent a warrenty repair item in I fixed back to Canada and it was marked as such. Guess what, UPS charged the customer $200 to pick it up! I will never use them again.

Well back on topic

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@x56h34 & Colin Camper

Go for it! I just got mine on Thursday evening!

I forget if my peg1 (phoenix offer) was shipped by UPS, but anyways I do remember that the company who shipped it forgot taxes so instead of fixing the problem themselves they defered to a collection agency which sent me threatening letters (you know the usual one saying your property could be seized, bad credt rating, etc). I was not impressed.

On the other hand, when I was receiving a package sent from the USA to Canada by FEDEX, when there was a mistake with the added taxes one of the fedex reps phoned me and explained the error and very nicely offered to fix the problem. They acknowedged their mistake and fixed it.

I consider FEDEX to be really professional in Canada, but these other guys like UPS are a joke.

What are the cost differences between FEDEX and UPS?


[ Edited by Darth_X on 2005/6/11 4:37 ]

It was still a lot here, but nothing like USPS. I think they are real close in the costs with UPS. DHL charges the most here.

@genesi

Do you plan to use any other shipping methods sometime in the future?
Customs fees are guaranteed which ever shipping company is used, however if the package were to go out by let's say USPS instead of UPS, I'd probably have to pay as much as $100 in customs fees, which would be significantly less than when using UPS.

[ Edited by x56h34 on 2005/6/11 13:23 ]

UPS and FedEx are expensive as hell. I suppose they
only work in USA, where you have a whole other culture
when it comes to sending packages. Having a company
picking it up on your doorstep and homedelivery is the
standard over there. However, in Sweden at least,
we go to the Post office instead, both sending and picking
it up. Home deliveries costs almost a fortune.

I remember when I bought these two Disk-on-Chips from a company
unwilling to use USPS. Almost 60 USD to have them Fedex'ed
to my doorstep (+430 SEK customs and VAT) and they
came in those cool envelopes with a string.. USPS would
have charged around 15 USD..

I have bought Cobalt RaQ servers from USA and total
insured shipping with USPS Priority Airmail was ~65 USD.
I've bought two this way.
UPS and FedEx wanted almost three times that figure..

I agree with the rest here - Genesi - Please take
on USPS as an alternative.

By the way.. Do you accept Paypal aswell?..

[ Edited by ironfist on 2005/6/11 20:18 ]

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I agree, USPS is also good.

Paypal works great here.

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Hehe - strange times indeed! You know, even Pink Floyd have made the peace and will be performing in Hyde Park, London.

Seriously, I am interested in a PegII board. Primarily for PPCLinux but I will DEFINITELY try Morphos as well. Don't worry I still have my uA1-C but outside OS4 the PEG is certainly an impressive board. Any UK/EU dealers for boards?

@ Colin_Camper

You could look at Vesalia - http://www.vesalia.de
They have a special offer week now for Pegasos.

[ Edited by DJBase on 2005/6/14 2:59 ]

@All

All this talk of UPS "brokerage" fees is confusing me -- what's this all about?

I've bought things from overseas before and don't remember paying anything like this?

I live in the US -- are you saying that if I ordered a Pegasos from Genesi, UPS would "tack on" another $200 or so?!?