Hi,

Since a week I've got a multiport router/modem/thing/device so I unleashed my µA1c (OS4 final) on the big bad internet.

After making an ethernet connection with my router the boot time of my amiga is increased with 5 seconds.
A cold reboot without network connection takes ~28 secs.
A cold reboot with network connection takes ~33 secs.
A warm reboot without network connection takes ~9 secs.
A warm reboot with network connection takes ~13 secs.

Times are measured from releasing buttons (ctrl A A, power) till workbench is loaded.

It doesn't matter if I use DHCP or static IP addresses.
It also doesn't matter if I use the wizzard of not (of course, but you never know!) to make the connection.

Is this normal? After using the search I know I'm not the only one with this 'problem'...
I don't know why this should be a normal behaviour of an OS, so it must be some setting or something.

Tomorrow I'll try to make a network trace between router and the amiga to see what kind of network traffic is between them.
Maybe that will point some things out.

By the way,

Wet is a nice program!

Maurice

_________________
µA1c OS4.1 (with a dead powersupply (powersupplied))
A500

@Mopemen

The delay is normal as bootup is stopped until you get a net connection. You can speed up boot time by changing a line in startup-sequence, but you will have about a 5 sec delay to get a net connection after bootup. Either way, you get the delay, but you have a choice as to when.

Run >NIL: C:AddNetInterface QUIET DEVS:NetInterfaces/~(#?.info)

_________________
Hate tends to make you look stupid...

@Mopemen
Quote:

Tomorrow I'll try to make a network trace between router and the amiga to see what kind of network traffic is between them. Maybe that will point some things out.

Please do. It is best to fully understand why it is taking so long to make that network connection. Hold off on any "run" tricks until you know what is going on.

_________________
ExecSG Team Lead

@Mopemen

Maybe you could check your UBOOT settings and see if network is in your boot sequence.

_________________
X5000 / microA1(OS4.1 FE U2) / CodeBench / Imagine / Blender
Lightwave 2019 / Microsoft Visual C++

@thinkchip

Ok, I didn't checked the UBOOT settings. When I'm at home I'll check this.

@sundown

The startup-sequence has
Quote:

C:AddNetInterface QUIET DEVS:NetInterfaces/~(#?.info)

in it. But without
Quote:

Run >NIL:

in front of it, as far I can remember.

What difference does this make?

Your declaration of the delay sounds reasonable. Because it seems like OS4 adds the network connection at the end of startup, but the screen remains black until this is done. That's quite annoying. I don't mind waiting for a network connection after workbench is loaded. But that's my opinion.

@ssolie

I won't change the startup-sequence before I did some network investigation.
I hope to do this this evening.

_________________
µA1c OS4.1 (with a dead powersupply (powersupplied))
A500

@Mopemen

The AddNetInterface command waits until the net interface has been added before it continues. That's your 5 seconds delay. The Run command moves the processing into the background. Every command started with Run is executed in the background and the script can continue in the meantime. The >NIL: sends Run's output into the trashcan. Otherwise a console window would open and a "process 2 created" message or something similar would be displayed.

Bye,
Thomas

_________________
Email: thomas-rapp@web.de
Home: thomas-rapp.homepage.t-online.de

@thomas

Ok, so if I add Run >NIL: in front of the
Quote:

C:AddNetInterface QUIET DEVS:NetInterfaces/~(#?.info)

command and I move this line to the beginning of the startup-sequence, the command will be executed while the rest of the startup-sequence is executed.

Sounds good, but I don't understand why this isn't the default setting in the OS4 final startup-sequence file.

I will try it later. Thanks for the explanation!

_________________
µA1c OS4.1 (with a dead powersupply (powersupplied))
A500

@Mopemen

Don't move the line (as AddNetInterface may not like getting run before everything else), just add the run >NIL: part...

@all

Well, I used a sniffer (Ethereal 0.99) to do some network investigation this evening.
The network behaviour is normal, just like any other network-computer traffic.

I did 3 traces:
1. A1 with a static IP address and Wet loaded at WB startup.
2. like 1, but without Wet at WB startup.
3. A1 with a DHCP provided IP address (without Wet).

So, if somebody is interested in the sniffer files, let me know.

A funny thing to see is that the sniffer shows no network activity (except broadcast traffic of course) until the network interface is loaded.
This happens in the extended (approx. 5 secs) 'black screen'-moment before Workbench is fully loaded. Well, just as expected but still nice to see and understand how it works.

Let's edit the startup-sequence file.

To be continued....

_________________
µA1c OS4.1 (with a dead powersupply (powersupplied))
A500

Update

I edited the statrup-sequence and put the mentioned 'Run >NIL:'
before the AddNetInterface line.

Results?

The delay is gone!!
The boottime now back to normal:

Cold reboot: ~29 seconds
Warm reboot: ~9 seconds

Another step in understanding OS4.



@all
Thanks a lot for your help!!


Maurice

_________________
µA1c OS4.1 (with a dead powersupply (powersupplied))
A500

@Mopemen

Just one more thing, if like to boost speed even more you can edit the kickstart layout file, remove all drivers you do not need for ATA controllers.

And also, you should disable all Unit you do not use on your ATA controller,
If you do not the ATA controllers will way for hard drives, until it times out and continues.

The CDROM and hard drive should be on different IDE cables, to limit any bandwidth problems.

CDROM = Master,
Harddrive = Secondary master.

And you can set all kinds of delays in uboot to 1, this will help as well.

_________________
http://lifeofliveforit.blogspot.no/
Facebook::LiveForIt Software for AmigaOS

@NutsAboutAmiga

Thanks, I might consider this for further tweaking.

At the moment the CDROM and HD are on the same IDE cable.
I know that it is not the prefered situation.
Burning data to DVD tooks ages.

The µA1c unfortunately have just one 40 pin and one 44 pin connector, so I bought an SATA controller and HD last month to seperate the CDROM and HD from each other.
Maybe it will speed things up. If it's not, bad luck. But a nice try after all.

Maurice

_________________
µA1c OS4.1 (with a dead powersupply (powersupplied))
A500

@Mopemen

Quote:

The µA1c unfortunately have just one 40 pin and one 44 pin connector, so I bought an SATA controller and HD last month to seperate the CDROM and HD from each other.

Two things I want for my micro is a fast IDE controller card & a better gfx card. I'm not so sure any cards work in the micro yet except those with newer uboot firmware & only beta testers have it. Please let us know how you get on the the new card.

_________________
Hate tends to make you look stupid...

@sundown

I bought the SATA (SII 3112) controller at amigakit.com.
It comes with a install guide with all sorts of UBOOT voodoo commands.
I don't expect any trouble installing the card and HD. In theory.

At this moment I use FFS as a filesystem.
I'm going to try to install/enable SFS as a filesystem.
I am not confident about that...

But first things first.

_________________
µA1c OS4.1 (with a dead powersupply (powersupplied))
A500

@Mopemen

Quote:

At this moment I use FFS as a filesystem. I'm going to try to install/enable SFS as a filesystem. I am not confident about that...

All my partitions are set to SFS, the speed difference is to great to go back to FFS. Start with 1 partition that you use a lot, back it up & make the change as you need to re-format. Like others, I'm sure you'll be amazed at the speedup.

_________________
Hate tends to make you look stupid...

@Mopemen
Quote:

So, if somebody is interested in the sniffer files, let me know.

Please send me a copy of the logs (ssolie at telus.net) so I can take a look at them.

Quote:

A funny thing to see is that the sniffer shows no network activity (except broadcast traffic of course) until the network interface is loaded.

The "AddNetInterface" command is actually two in one. It adds the network interface and it configures it at the same time unless told not to. The ConfigureNetInterface command is the one that really configures the network interface.

_________________
ExecSG Team Lead

Is there a way to reduce the delay itself? It's about 6-9 seconds on my system.

_________________
'unfixed' A1XE, 512mb RAM, plug-in USB card, Sil 0680 IDE card, Radeon 9250, built-in sound, OS4.1 update 5.

Or would it be feasible for UBoot to configure the Ethernet in the background while it's doing other things?

_________________
'unfixed' A1XE, 512mb RAM, plug-in USB card, Sil 0680 IDE card, Radeon 9250, built-in sound, OS4.1 update 5.

@RacerX

I don't think so.

There is not much network stuff to configure in Uboot AFAIK.
The only thing I saw is the networkboot (in combination with a TFTP server) option in the Uboot menu.

Like thomas and sundown explained in post #2 and #6, editing the startup-sequence will do the trick.

_________________
µA1c OS4.1 (with a dead powersupply (powersupplied))
A500

@RacerX

Quote:

Is there a way to reduce the delay itself? It's about 6-9 seconds on my system.

Use static IP addresses (no DHCP). I have no delay at all.

Bye,
Thomas

_________________
Email: thomas-rapp@web.de
Home: thomas-rapp.homepage.t-online.de