Hello fellow amigans! Last weekend I tried to install the newest version of our OS but I failed due to a strange problem.

My hardware setup is: PMAC 3.1, 2GB RAM, 120GB HDD IDE WD, Radeon 9200 64MB AGP 2x (the cpu has been upgraded to G4@1,6Ghz, can't remember the exact revision now since I am at work).

My OS/software setup: MorphOS 3.1 with Pack Chrysalis 3.1 (I have skipped 3.2 and waited for the bug fix release).

What I did was to download MOS 3.3 ISO and burn it through Jalapeno (note that afterwards, I redownloaded via PC/Win7Ultimate setup and reburned it, just in case there was a problem with the CD/program, but I got the same behavior).

What has happened: I inserted the CD on the drive and rebooted the machine, holding down the letter "C" on the keyboard. CD was read successfully and after a while (10 secs) my MOS 3.1. splash screen appeared but shortly after followed by an error saying something similar to "Cannot boot, MorphOS boot Image too old".
I rebooted holding "ALT" and choose manually the CD boot option but got the same error.
Then I rebooted in OpenFirmaware mode, wrote "mac-boot", booted via the CD again, and the installation seemed to work for a brief moment since I was able to choose the keyboard layout through the initial installation screen of MOS3.3. but when I clicked for the next screen, I got an error saying something similar to "cannot boot, write in OpenFirmaware boot/pci/cd". Needless to say that when I write the aforementioned command in OF I get and error saying (again, similar to) "can't recognize the word".

My questions:
1) What all the above mean? :P
2) Theoretically, is it possible to update (not clean installation) directly at MOS3.3. from a MOS+Chrysalis 3.1. setup?
3) I have mounted the ISO (and read the CD through my drive) but cannot locate the executable that starts the installation.
4) I am about to switch my graphics card to a flashed 9600XT. Should I replace my current card (9200) prior to MOS 3.3. installation or after I have installed it?

1) Uhm, you have problems getting it booted from CD :P It's weird that it won't boot from it from alt-menu either..

2) & 3) There's recent thread about that https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=9541&forum=11 although I don't know how well that Chrysalis works in that case. Probably ok, but make backup just in case.

4) I'd change it after the installation so that you'll have the latest drivers installed, but basically if card is supported in both versions, it doesn't matter in which order you do it.

:(

I can't understand the reason why the CD boot keeps failing. If I have no other option, I will try to update manually as per instructions posted on the link you mentioned. But before resorting to that method I would like to have more answers/opinions regarding the difficulty I am experiencing.

Nobody has any idea what's going on? Come on guys, I have to upgrade in order to continue writing about MOS programs in Amiga Future and the editor is pressuring with the deadlines xD

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This means that the firmware didn't boot from the CD. Reliability and compatibility isn't what USB is known for. Make sure you connect your keyboard directly to the machine when trying to boot from a CD.

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I have to make sure, are you sure you actually selected the CD and not the HD? See this picture for an explanation. I've never seen Apple's firmware boot a different device than the one selected, but of course that doesn't mean that it isn't possible, so...

To boot completely manually, hold down the OF keys (alt+windows+o+f on a Windows keyboard, command+option+o+f on a Mac keyboard) to get to the open firmware prompt. From there, for booting a G4 Mac type:
Code:

This should very, very definitely either boot from CD or at least give you an error message if it fails.

Hey, I took your advices the last weekend but got nowhere :(

I can't really understand why the problem persists and what is causing it.

Imagine the following: Booting the machine, going to OF, typing the command you wrote, hitting enter, the CD bleeps, but I get for a brief moment the splash screen of my current MOS installation(3.1 - in lower resolution however, it must be something of 800x600 instead of my default 1280x1024 Ambient res.), then the CD bleeps again for 2-3 secs and I am requested to choose country/keyboard layout, I click next and get the same error as i have already described ("cannot boot, write in OpenFirmaware boot/pci/cd").

Could it be a hardware problem? If yes where it should be located in the machine? Is it possible to download MorphOS 3.2 from somewhere? Is it still uploaded somewhere?

I have read some simple instructions for a "dirty" MorphOS installation (copy the proper boot.img, reboot, etc, and then run the CD installer via Ambient). Could this work in my situation or will it lead to even more trouble?

> Is it possible to download MorphOS 3.2 from somewhere? Is it still uploaded somewhere?

It's where it has always been:
http://www.morphos-team.net/morphos-3.2.iso

I'd really recommend booting from USB... the CD drives in Apple computers suck.

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Hey, thanks man, I am already downloading it :)

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Ok, how do I do this? Is there any tutorial somewhere about this?

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https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?forum=3&topic_id=9280&post_id=101739&viewmode=flat&sortorder=0&showonepost=1

Thanks, it looks easy :)

Still, since the onboard usb 1.1 doesn't work I have replaced it with a working PCI NEC USB 2.0 (4 ports) that works just fine. Will it be a problem to boot from there?

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I have no idea whether the card works under OF - you tell me. If you can get into OF using a kb attached to the port on that card, it should be fine. The usb0.. path might be different though, which typing

Code:

should reveal.

I finally resorted to a "very dirty" installation method (mount iso, copy new img.boot, rename old, reboot, run installer and update over MOS3.1+Chrysalis 3.1, remove old img.boot, mount/install new Chrysalis, update via Grunch). So far seems everything works right (Ambeint loads faster, OWB brows faster, my net speed is around 200kb/s faster). Still, I haven't found the time to replace my old GFX with the newer Jim sent me. Gonna try it in the weekend and play some demanding games to test as benchmarks. Also, the cpu temperature module doesn't work (it's stuck at -0,3c). However, the biggest problem I have recently (it was present in 3.1 as well plus it was discussed here in moszone) is that MANY of YT videos have stopped working properly (I only hear the sound). YT downloader works. FYI, I have the most recent plug in enabled but no video :(

Cool_amigaN,
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Make sure you have the latest scripts for youtube and youtube full screen.

http://fabportnawak.free.fr/owb/scripts/

Next make sure to use the latest flash (swfdec) plugin.

http://fabportnawak.free.fr/owb/plugins/

Even though you will be using HTML5, having the flash plugin in place will start the videos better so you do not have the problem mentioned here. At worst you may have to refresh the page once.

[ Edited by redrumloa 02.10.2013 - 08:12 ]

> it was discussed here in moszone

The whole story has been told on another site:

http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=38197&forum=46#717990

Found some time last weekend to play with my MorphOS machine. So, here are my experiences so far:

Right after the installation I described above, I started toying with my (new) system.

The good: Network speed is truly heavily optimized and I managed to top my network connection. Just to give you an example, before (with MOS 3.1) I was downloading at ~250-300kb/s and now I was able to achieve speeds of 500-750kb/s (max adsl speed in my home). Test was conducted through same serves/files, so it's kind of official to me, network speed is faster at least 2x :P I played with SCube, Drago, moving windows in general seemed a bit faster.

The Bad: When playing an mp3 and launching OWB, I have an instant lag (the music stops for a brief second). This is the first time I experience this (and I made several boots and reboots to assure that it wasn't - just - for one time, but it did occurred repeatedly). YT in OWB is broken (and I made sure I had the scripts/plugins drawer up-to-date) . 9/10 videos that I tried (which were uploaded in the last 2-3 months could not be played (ok, this is irrelevant to the MOS3.3. installation, but hope you understand my point).

Then I decided it was time to take out the old 9000 64MB and put the new and shinning 9800 MAC PRO 256MB (I think it's flashed with the XT core, I have to check with Jim in this one).

The Good: Jesus Christ, the speed of the card! I can finally open an unlimited amount of windows, screens, games, whatever the hell I wanna, without keeping a constant eye to the fucking GFX VRAM usage! Damn, that's sweet. Then I launched Q2. Whoa, another holy shit moment :) Finally, the game can be played without even a thought of wrapping or lagging or frame drop regardless the scenery and/or amount of enemies. Blender also benefits from having such a little beast to your system ;) and btw the card was automatically recognized, I didn't had to choose anything to make it work :)

The Bad: Unfortunately I also experience the trashed graphics thingy, which seems to haunt MorphOS users same way the BSOD did for the WinPC ones :( The first time it happened was when I visited Prefs/Screens and tried to pick up the 9800 1280x1024 instead of the old 9000 1280x1024 option (not that it had any practical impact since the system was already running normally). The second was when I called ScummVm to run on fullscreen. The third time was when I exited Q3. Also, SCube stopped working (as it was described in another thread here in moszone). Giga-Lo-Mania, stopped working as well (it loads but you cannot move the pointer anywhere - same behavior as it was observed by some PBOOK users around here, some months ago). Furthermore, I did get a sudden Ambient lag that needed a reboot to get it fixed (also, this has been described in the past as well).

So, I really need to know, is the R300 driver finished or someone is going to address the above issues? Because all the above did not happened only to me but to many other users as I have read here in moszone :(
And no, going back to 9000 is not an answer. Whoever is exposed to a MOS system with a fast GFX and plenty of VRAM, cannot look back not even for a glance! ;)

Some other observations:

The boot problem, which caused me to start this thread, is finally gone. I think this happened after I copied manually the mac_ppc32 to the boot partition and deleted the old one. Previously, BigFoot's advise (write in OF boot cd:,\mac_ppc32\boot.img) did not work either.

Long story short, I have a hardware little trouble: One of the 9800 ram hitsinks does not fit well and I want to remove it. I have google for an answer bu got nowhere. How can I do this?

Sorry for really long thread, but this kind of stuff happen when you leave someone with a very fast MOS system for 48 hours :)

[ Edited by Cool_amigaN 07.10.2013 - 11:25 ]

I just play TWO games on MorphOS. I like them a lot.

Quake 3 and Hurrican.

But no one of them works with the "new drivers" for the "new cards".

Tested on a PowerMac G4 MDD dual 866 with an 9800 Radeon card Mac Edition.
Also tested on a PowerMac G4 MDD overclocked 1.4Ghz with a Radeon 9700 tapped on the correct pins.

In simple words: TOTAL CRAP.

ps. Same games work great @ Pegasos 1, Pegasos 2 / Radeon 9250 and Mac Mini.





[ Edited by CountRaven 07.10.2013 - 15:11 ]

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Which program are you using to play MP3s? MP3 playback skipping basically indicates that the music player fails to give itself a sufficiently high priority.

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Have you got any screenshots of that you can share? A camera shot (of a decent resolution) would be fine too if you can't take a screenshot without 'clearing' the corruption.

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Feel free to file bug reports through the MorphOS bug report tool for things you find not working, but please give a slightly more detailed report if you do so.

Sorry, I know that I sound like the bad guy here and like an end user that wants to have it everything plug n play and complains about two silly games. But that is not the case. I really had ENOUGH with all this Amiga madness, including MorphOS. And I am getting really mad when simple things are simply not happening. I have ended up using BOTH MorphOS and AmigaOS for just some basic things that would expand my retro passion but even when those SIMPLE things are NOT happening, well I am seriously thinking that it is not worth to be on the ship anymore, no matter the flavor.

I got LOTS of hardware because I was and still I am a passionate MorphOS user. With each individual machine I can narrate a full adventure to you, full of blood, sweat and tears and LOTS LOTS of money wasted. But anyway I decided to stay. And not only this I am reading that MorphOS is going to the next level with this Apple PowerMac Gx hardware and I decided to follow. But look:

It is better NOT to release any kind of upgrade only to expand your supported hardware list of machines and / or cards if it is not 100% tested and working. Forget the PowerMac support, delete it and release it again when all the basic stuff is fixed. Forget the Radeon cards support, stick to the old good 9250 if this is the one that only works. And bring any kind of upgrade back when it is fully working.

I know that I am speaking without be an insider and that there is a lot of hard work needed for every single update I am getting with every release. OK I understand it. So? Expand your beta testing crew and do not let the user base to become beta testers releasing semi-working stuff!!!

So I am getting those G4 to go to the next level.. yeah OK. Well, example? I just want to SIMPLY listen to some music. The simpler task on earth and the bloody audio does not work. YEAH OK the volume slider of MacOSX is HIGH. But look folks, I want those machines for MorphOS, so I got to install an operating system THAT I WOULD NOT USE, to increase an audio volume bar with the hope that the audio would work. And of course it does not work.... And the official community solution is "go and get a sound blaster live it costs nothing". WHY? Why??? Why?????????? MORE money? Just to listen to some crappy mp3s? I got it ok. AND THE CARD DO NOT WORK in both machines. https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=9589&forum=11
Yeeeeeeah the card is bad. OK OK............ No the card is working great on other machines.

The same with the gfx support. Yeah ok I am gonna take it one of those 9700 or 9800 cards but look man they got to be the Mac edition -lots of cost- or otherwise you got to tape them, flash em, cut pins, make voodoo and black magic................... yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah AND THEY ARE STILL NOT ABLE TO PLAY THE ONLY TWO GAMES THAT I LIKE TO PLAY.

Yeah yeah bug reports.................. OK OK.

Hurrican is booting but it stacks on the intro screen or manages to go on the loading screen just to stick in there. Quake III bring a black screen on boot. Same symptoms in both cases -9800 9700-.

I just mess with this kind of stuff to have some happy hours but this is a no go.

UNTIL you decide to expand your beta testers and not having the end users to go through all this, until you decide to release stuff that is really supported. I will stick with the trusty Pegasos and the Radeon 9250.

Sorry for sounding so negative....... But...........





[ Edited by CountRaven 08.10.2013 - 08:49 ]

@bigfoot

Hello, here's what I did yesterday evening:

Boot from the MorphOS 3.3 CD. format my System partition (DH1), perform a clean installation, reboot, place my MorphOS registration key in devs and choose the correct settings at Prefs/Monitor, reboot, mount latest Chrysalis iso, full install with default options, final reboot, played around with the backdrop and skin only, launched Grunch in order to check if my system was completely up-to-date (which it was) and then launched OWB from poly_net bar, it initialed the fonts, loaded its pub screen and I started moving around the window, suddenly my CPU reached 100%, the process gadget revealed that TaskLayerInfo was causing the problem, Ambient was lagging and after 5 seconds, here's what it looked like:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/17/yyjn.jpg/

I rebooted by ctrl+cmd+cmd, went to my work partition and launched Speed Dreams. As you can see from the below screenshot some parts of the screen are trashed (mirror and map area):

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/542/wgg2.jpg/

(Note that I got the exact same trashed parts of the game's screen in TORCS as well, last weekend. After making the format/clean installation yesterday TORCS was lagging even in its Menu screen, thus I was unable to launch any game session in order to check and report).

Furthermore I tested ScummVm 1.4.1 & 1.6 which was lagging in its Options/Menu screen (but not in the excess of TORCS I described above) and when I launched "FOTAQ talkie" I got a black screen though I could here game's sound normally.

The lagging in Ambient continued reboot after reboot and I 've given up when it started happening even when I was double clicking a simple TXT file.

I can test even more games and/or applications if you want me.

Please note that same system configuration with different GFX card (9000 64MB) works flawlessly. However all the problems described above have been described by fellow users in MorphZone (from trashed graphics to artifacts and from general Ambient lagging to individual games' lagging such as Giga-Lo-Mania) from time to time, so it can't be the card's problem each time.

CountRaven,

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I have duly noted that you do not wish to file a bug report and that furthermore you're no longer using the affected hardware.

Cool_amigaN,

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This one looks like the Radeon chip is crashing (which could be due to anything from overheating to a driver bug). This is with a Radeon 9800, right? Can I ask you to please check and make sure that the Radeon fan is operating properly and not making any weird sounds? If it is operating properly, then please use the MorphOS bug report tool (if I remember right, it's located in the Ambient menus under 'About MorphOS') and send this bug report that way. Please include the link to the picture.

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This one is a known problem of the R300 TinyGL driver. It will hopefully be fixed for MorphOS 3.4.

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This one sounds more like an application problem of some sort. Does it use SDL by any chance?

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So it is something that after a while starts happening more and more frequently? It sounds like it is working fine at first, but then after running for a while it almost completely stops working?

@bigfoot

On the line bellow the one that you are ussing as a quote, I am describing the problem on both the games.

The last weeks I have opened at least two threads discribing very similar cases as the ones of Cool_Amigan only to take almost no replies at all.

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=9535&forum=11#105024


https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=9589&forum=11

In both cases this is not a bug, this is a total no go.

So what would you advice me to do in both cases? Report the "bugs" through your report system? Would this have ny problems solved in any case? Hope so....



[ Edited by CountRaven 08.10.2013 - 16:41 ]