User avatar
McTrinsic

Posted Wed Feb 14, 2018 10:54 am

Let me dig out my startup-sequence to boot into 4 different KSes.

May take a day or two.
Effectively you check for the version of e.g. exec and set the 'sys' partition accordingly.

User avatar
McTrinsic

Posted Thu Feb 15, 2018 10:30 am

OK, here it is.
I have 4 partitions named hdh1...hdh4.

The fourth ROM is a custom ROM with an updated exec.
Therefore it has the highest version number.

The only caveat: you need to rename your original 1.3-SS into startup-13.
Or whatever you like, you just have to match the entry for KS1.3.

Have fun :)

Cheers,
Erasmus

; startup-sequence "WB-allSYS" (06.01.2008)

c:version >nil: exec.library 44
; Kick 3.5+
if not warn
;echo "ROM 3.5"
assign sys: HDH3:
skip boot
endif

c:version >nil: exec.library 40
; Kick 3.0+
if not warn
;echo "ROM 3.x"
assign sys: HDH2:
skip boot
endif

c:version >nil: exec.library 37
; Kick 2.0+
if not warn
;echo "ROM 2.x"
assign sys: HDH1:
skip boot
endif

; Default
execute s:startup-13


lab boot
assign c: sys:c
assign s: sys:s
assign libs: sys:libs
assign devs: sys:devs
assign fonts: sys:fonts
assign l: sys:l
execute s:startup-sequence

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Feb 15, 2018 2:35 pm

@Erasmus - thanks! This is super helpful. I'm going to experiment with this on the Phoenix first for sure since I've already got the 2 Kickstarts running there. Very cool! I'll just need to create an extra partition over there.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Tue Mar 20, 2018 1:15 pm

@McTrinsic

I'm finally in a position to get my 2nd Kickstart ROM in a workable situation on the Phoenix. Funny: no matter where I look online for this process I can't seem to locate single step-by-step guide on setting up multiple Kickstarts.

There are plenty of places that talk about adding the Kickstart ROM chips or switchers, but nobody (that I've been able to locate) explains how to set up the drives. Even the old manuals I've read only talk about the hardware; they never explain the hard drive setup, which I find completely baffling. I don't have a ton of stuff for OS 2.0, but I do have some programs I really want to run and just can't on 1.3, unfortunately.

Naturally once I figure out the hard drive side of things I'm going to have to create an article here and make it a Sticky. :)

In any case, my Kickstarts are all set and ready to go. Here's my current setup:

1.3 is my boot KS.
I have 2 (current) HDD partitions: DH0 (System) and DH1 (Programs)
DH0 (50MB) has Workbench 1.3 installed on it.
DH1 (200MB) has programs I've moved over (Terminals, a few other odds and ends - nothing critical). It was going to be where I installed most everything.
I have 2.04 as my secondary KS.

Here's what I was going to try and do. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Step 1: Partition
I was going to re-partition DH1 into 2 drives.

So I'd have 3 drives.

DH0: (1.3 Workbench) (50MB)
DH1: (Programs) (190 MB)
DH2: (2.0 Workbench) (10MB)

Step 2: Install Workbench 2.0

I would install 2.04 onto DH2:
I assume I have to boot the Phoenix using the KS 2.0, with the Install WB 2.04 disk in FDD, and go through an install from FDD - and manually tell it to install to DH2: (I've not done that before, so that'll be my first challenge).


This next step is where I find things to be a bit confusing... assuming I've got the previous steps correct

Step 3: Modify Old and Create New Startup Sequence

I know this has to do with boot sequences (I think?) but when I flip the switch to KS 2.0, it will hit my main system's Startup-Sequence. You've shared yours, which I really appreciate. I would take your code (where applicable) and insert it ... where? At the top of the Startup Sequence?

Also, once it hits that statement about which WB to load, won't I technically have two startup sequences now? One "main" one on 1.3, which determines what to hit (and loading the newly named SS which used to be my "real" SS, right?).

I think I have it right in my head, but it sounds strange.

1) Load your custom SS, which is really just a SS chooser. Then it will either hit my original (which has a new name) or the one over on DH2:.

Does that make sense?

My "Chooser" startup-sequence will look something like this:

Code: Select all

; startup-sequence "WB-Chooser" (20-Mar-2018)


c:version >nil: exec.library 37
; Kick 2.0+
if not warn
;echo "ROM 2.x"
assign sys: DH2:
skip boot
endif

; Default
execute s:startup-13 ; THIS LOADS MY OLD (Current) STARTUP SEQUENCE - WITH EVERYTHING IN IT, BUT FILE RE-NAMED

lab boot
assign c: sys:c
assign s: sys:s
assign libs: sys:libs
assign devs: sys:devs
assign fonts: sys:fonts
assign l: sys:l
execute s:startup-sequence ; THIS IS MY *NEW* STARTUP SEQUENCE, WITH JUST *THIS* CODE (ABOVE) IN IT, RIGHT?
And do I need all of those assigns? I'm wondering if I can eliminate those or if they're needed for this process? I mean, they aren't bad per se, just trying to remove variables in case something goes wrong.

Thanks for any clarifications you might remember. Your code is 9 years-old, so I wouldn't blame you if you have trouble remembering. :)

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Wed Mar 21, 2018 9:03 am

I made solid progress on this last night. If all goes well, I'll be done later tonight after work.

Last night I took my 2nd partition and re-partitioned it into two - thus creating 3 total partitions.

Then I flipped my KS 2.0 switch and... the screen went black! I took the entire machine apart (AGAIN) and, out of nowhere, after 26 years, the KS 2.0 ROM decided to die right at the moment I decided to finally put it to use.
IMG_4238.jpg
New partition created for KS 2.0.

Sigh!!!

Luckily I had a spare 2.0 KS ROM I was able to swap in. I have become so crass and brutish with the Phoenix's case at this point. I can open it with one finger with my eyes closed at this point.

Anyway, I then installed WB 2.04. I also have 2.1, but went with the oldest version I have. I don't have 2.05...
IMG_4245.jpg
Installing 2.04 from original disks when worked perfectly and smoothly. Unlike 1.3, it has several disks to install but it's very easy and seamless to do. It even knew which partition I was wanting to put it on. Luck? I don't think so.

I then installed it to my new partition, which I allocated 22MB for. I only have half a dozen 2.0 applications I want to use, so I didn't want to make it very big.

Ironically, the WB icon for 2.0 is gigantic. Here you can see it using WB 1.3 colors.
IMG_4247.jpg
My final step to make this perfect is to attempt the startup sequence mods McTrinsic shared in February. Hopefully I can get that working. I hate mucking with the SS. I always seem to be scrambling for floppies to undo something at some stage... fingers crossed it all works out smoothly!

User avatar
McTrinsic

Posted Wed Mar 21, 2018 12:58 pm

Sorry for missing the post yesterday.

Once you have assigned sys: to e.g. dh2: you can just execute s:startup-sequence.

WB1.3 needs an additional SS as you choose the sys: partition and other assigns with the original SS.

Other than that it should be straightforward.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Fri Mar 23, 2018 3:51 pm

I tried to get this to work this week.

I tried and failed.

I kept getting
EXECUTE: No K directive
execute failed returncode 20

I've since read somewhere that this is sometimes caused by the excessive use of comments. I dunno. At the time no matter what I tried I kept banging into this wall and couldn't seem to execute the command to jump over to the other SS.

Giving up on that for now I suppose. Cool to know that it does indeed work for some, but I'm not an AmigaOS programmer. Might give it another go some other day.

For now, I'll continue to happily boot into 1.3. And when I need 2.0 (which is right now) I'll just flip the switch with 2.0 in the FDD and go from there. No biggie. It's an A1000 after all! :)

User avatar
McTrinsic

Posted Fri Mar 23, 2018 4:49 pm

Do you get this error on KS1.3 or KS2 or both??

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Fri Mar 23, 2018 6:50 pm

That was the error from 1.3.

IIRC 2.0 did something similar. After sniffing out the KS version it acted like it couldn't execute the different startup-sequences, whether it be the original default "startup-13" or the newly installed SS on the 2.0 partition.

User avatar
Shot97
Detroit, MI, USA

Posted Sat Mar 24, 2018 4:56 pm

You made me look into this stuff; mostly just because I had a feeling there was no need for this switcher stuff and I wanted to impress with an unmodified 500. I succeeded. No physical 2.4 ROM or switcher, all done inside of Workbench 1.3 and kickstart 1.3, then switched into kickstart 2.4

Arguably easier to deal with than all of this stuff. I already have plans to get Workbench 2.4 to boot itself if needed. You're going way too complicated for something you're not even going to use that much. Hint; boot disk. Remember DOS? All kinds of configs and games couldn't load on various systems, so they offered you a boot disk.

A floppy that simply points to the appropriate places on your hard drive for the system you're not actually using that much. More soon.


-Edit

For you, Intric8; It's actually very easy indeed. If you've installed Workbench 2.4 onto a separate partition, then you access the built in 2.4 ROM boot screen by clicking both mouse buttons a bunch of times on restart. From here you can set which device to boot, and in fact you can just turn off your 1.3 drives all together if you wanted. When using 2.4, go into the boot menu, tell it to boot DH2 or whatever, done.

It's still going to be a boot disk for me though, I'm not wasting a separate partition on this stuff, so boot disk for me.





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