[comp.sys.amiga.emulations] A-MaxII harddrive w/o WB 1.3 roms

jimmy@uhunix1.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Jimmy Chan) (03/26/91)

I currently own Amax I and I did get the upgrade offer to Amax II though
I chose not to purchase it then because Amax I was sufficient for my
purposes and I did not have a harddrive then.  Now that I do own a 
harddrive I am considering on purchasing the Amax II.  The problem that
I have is that I have heard from friends that Amax II will not work on
the harddrives unless WB 1.3 roms are installed on the Amiga.  I did not
purchase the WB 1.3 roms because I figured WB 2.0 roms would be available
so, I am currently booting off my floppy disk and reassigning everything
to my harddrive for control.  Has anybody been able to create a Mac partition
and use that mac partition from Amax II without WB 1.3 roms?  If you did, I
would be very grateful if you would tell me how you did it.  Like I said,
Amax I is/was sufficient for my needs but since I have a hardrive w/o 
WB1.3 roms, I would like to know if I could still create and use a mac
partition.

My current setup:

	A2000 w/ 5 megs w/o WB 1.3 roms
	1 meg Agnus
	GVP Series II controller w/ 200 meg harddrive
	Amax I w/ external Mac compatible drive.


If someone can solve my dilemma either e-mail or post is fine.

rbabel@babylon.rmt.sub.org (Ralph Babel) (03/26/91)

In article <34886@mango.athertn.Atherton.COM>,
ericb@athertn.Atherton.COM (Eric Black) writes:

> [To run A-Max, ...]
> You'll need the FAAASTROM firmware for the GVP controller,

That's what ReadySoft wrote in their README file, but it's
not true. If you are using a MountList entry instead of RDB
automounting, "gvpscsi.amhd" does not require any Amiga-OS
driver at all (i.e. you could even remove the driver ROM
completely).

Ralph

ericb@athertn.Atherton.COM (Eric Black) (03/27/91)

In article <12140@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu> jimmy@uhunix1.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Jimmy Chan) writes:
>I have is that I have heard from friends that AmaxII will not work on
>the harddrives unless WB 1.3 roms are installed on the Amiga.

Not true.  I have been using A-MaxII successfully with my hard drive (and
GVP controller) with the 1.2 ROMs; I just boot from floppy, as you do.
The only difference between 1.2 and 1.3 is the autoboot capability.  Once
you have booted, there is no operational difference.  I also am waiting
for the "imminent" release of the 2.0 ROMs.

>                          Has anybody been able to create a Mac partition
>and use that mac partition from AmaxII without WB 1.3 roms? If you did, I
>would be very grateful if you would tell me how you did it.

Yup, no problem.  Just follow the instructions that come with the A-MaxII.
You'll need the FAAASTROM firmware for the GVP controller, but I believe
that all Series II controllers have it.  Check with GVP to make sure; I
had to buy a new ROM for $50 or so.  You'll use the GVP setup utilities
to partition your drive, and make sure your A-Max partition has "AMAX"
as the first four characters of its name.  It's easy.

I've been using my A-MaxII for many months at this point, and am quite
pleased with it.  I much prefer the Amiga or Unix, but where I work we
seem to have settled on using Macs for documentation/drawings/charts/slides,
and it's nice to be able to work late nights at home instead of at the
office.   And with the 68030 accelerator in my Amiga, and a flicker-fixer
on the display, it's quite a bit nicer and faster than the Mac Pluses at
work!

-Eric

-- 
Eric Black	"Garbage in, Gospel out"
Atherton Technology, 1333 Bordeaux Dr., Sunnyvale, CA, 94089
  Email: ericb@Atherton.COM     Voice: +1 408 734 9822

ericb@athertn.Atherton.COM (Eric Black) (03/29/91)

In article <07067.AA07067@babylon.rmt.sub.org> cbmvax.commodore.com!cbmehq!babylon!rbabel (Ralph Babel) writes:
>In article <34886@mango.athertn.Atherton.COM>,
>ericb@athertn.Atherton.COM (Eric Black) writes:
>
>> [To run A-Max, ...]
>> You'll need the FAAASTROM firmware for the GVP controller,
>
>That's what ReadySoft wrote in their README file, but it's
>not true. If you are using a MountList entry instead of RDB
>automounting, "gvpscsi.amhd" does not require any Amiga-OS
>driver at all (i.e. you could even remove the driver ROM
>completely).

Well, it didn't work for me until I did get the new ROM.  Must have
been doing something wrong, and started doing it right, but I don't
know what it was.

-Eric

-- 
Eric Black	"Garbage in, Gospel out"
Atherton Technology, 1333 Bordeaux Dr., Sunnyvale, CA, 94089
  Email: ericb@Atherton.COM     Voice: +1 408 734 9822