This started out as an informal IRC channel formed by number6, then we collected questions and invited people to ask additional ones, so we could write them up as a single list for the AmiWest guys.

Meanwhile, we were joined by m3x, Rigo, MangaClub, and joerg, who collectively answered most of our questions. Note: A few questions were unable to be answered by them, and Hyperion may of course make changes that invalidate some or all of these, but this is what we know right now. Thanks to all who participated.

1. Is Grex support planned, iether in the initial or future release/update?
- not in initial release, unknown for future at this time.

2. Will AmiUpdate be available for the classic version? What are the main differences if any, compared to the A1 version of OS4?
- AMiUpdate is already available, and works on both A1 and Classic versions of OS4. Both classic and A1 versions come from the same code base, although when released, the classic version may include some new features as it's a later build than the latest A1 release yet available.

3. Will OS4 classic sales and/or support be forthcoming from Acube or Hyperion or both?
- no response given.
- It appears ACube will either be distributing to dealers, selling themselves, or both.
http://www.acube-systems.com/eng/news.php?id=16

4. Will you be able to do an update to the existing AOS version, keeping files and filesystems, or it must be a fresh install to a new partition?
- A clean install is required at this time, per Thomas and HJF. An 'upgrade install' will not be supported and can have many issues.
- Trying to upgrade a 3.9 install is madness and should never be attempted. The first thing I will ever ask when someone has trouble whether he has installed on a clean partition, and if the reply is "no" I will just say "go and reinstall on a clean partition" and be done with it.

You can chose FFS or SFS, both are supplied on the CD as 68k file systems and both support long file names. The ROM FFS doesn't.

5. When will we see a new OS4 updated SDK?
- The SDK is being worked on as we speak

6. Is virtual memory enabled in the build for classics?
(UPDATED, info provided by Rogue)
- The classic kernel will not support paging as of the current release, and whether it will do in the future is as of yet undecided.

7. Can the custom chipset be accessed from OS4 on classics?
- Yes, it's possible for example, to run OS4 on AGA screens
Yes, native screen modes are accessible from OS4 on Classics

8. Does Coccolino Mouse adapter be supported?
- Should work out of the box with no issues.
you can use wheel with coccolino too, but only with application which supports both "OS4 way" and NEWMOUSE way as well. Uses 68k driver to use mouse wheel. NEWMOUSE is supported via IPrefs.

9. Will Elbox FastATA 1200MK-III ior other FastAta controllers be supported when installing on a fresh drive?
- IDEFix ATA or Elbox FastAta are supported. FastATA is much faster because of PIO 0-5 modes.
- IDEFix is only supported on the primary channel during installation, so the HD and CD have to be on primary channel.

10. Minimum RAM required/system requirements?
- A1200, A3000, A3000T, A4000, A4000T with PPC
- 64MB is minimum RAM, higher recommended. 70ns RAM speed recommended.
- 200 meg free space minimum is needed on a hard drive partition for install
- Cyber/BlizzardVisionPPC supported
- Voodoo 3/4/5 + Permedia video work
- Zorro gfx cards supported by P96 can be used as well.
- will run on AGA as well
- dma is not supported on PCI busboards for the classic, so anything that requires it will be either crippled, or not working. If a device will work without DM
A, it may work, if unable to run without DMA, it won't.

11. Is the 68k CPU totally disabled with an OS4 install?
- 68k is disabled entirely.

12. is there anything on a CPU level (if we consider that we have MMU and FPU on 68k) that would stop some of the more advanced OS4 features from working on 68k, IF OS4 were ver to be ported (re-ported) to 68k? Any chance?

13. What about networking?
- Roadshow is available, as with the A1 version of OS4.
rtl based cards, eth3com based and Zorro based with 68k drivers, but see compat list forthcoming.

14. How stable is OS4 on a classic compared to an A1?
- As stable as the hardware it runs on. There is no 'added inherent instability' in the code base versus OS4 on A1s.

15. If WinUAE gets a PPC cpu emulation option will it be "legal" to buy and run a copy of AmigaOS4 Classic on emulation?
- unsure this is a question for Hyperion or existing laws, not classic OS4 specific.

16. Will the A1 version of OS4 be updated to bring it to feature parity/same build as the classic OS4 release?
- unknown at this time.

17. How much will Classic OS4 cost? How will it be sold? Packaged in box only, or via download as well? Will a PPC board serial # need to be given?
- unknown at this time.


OS4 was installed at the AmiWest show sucessfully on an A4000 with CSPPC- supports A3k, A4k, A4k tower, A1200 with PPC. Some initial issues with correct RDB on the disk, but then installed OK, and note this is a pre-release still.

edit - 'ass' is NOT 'ask'...sigh. typo fix.
edit 2 - updated info regarding install vs upgrades.

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_________________
Are we not done with the same silly arguments and flames yet??!

@wegster

Great too see this...What is about PCMICA network on OS4? Maybe CNET.device os4 native? or using 68k version?

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Amiga x5000 ı o2o ı 4GB RAM ı RadeonRX580 | SBlaster Audigy Fx - AmigaOS4.1 FInal Edition

A1200 sandwich :)

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@wegster

This is a silly question, but this is like essentially saying OS 4 classic will be available and is pre-announcing. Has the information presented (at AmiWest) and here been given on the authority of Amiga Inc. and Hyperion both or either that there will indeed be a classic release?

It would be nice to get verification that OS 4 "Classic" is really planned and this is not just someone's hack.. I know of many "pre-release" products that don't make it to release. It would be nice if we were to have a "vaporware" announcement if there was some sort of commitment by either organization to say "yes" we plan on having this available to the "classic" users. It would be like going to AmiWest and seeing OS4 running on the Mac mini, and having people get their hopes up..

@DonnieA2

I obviously can't answer this officially, as I'm not even involved in beta-testing. However, considering the news release and AmiWest annoucement was made as a 'Hyperion announcement,' we can at least assume that right now they are planning on releasing.

Considering the people who helped out in answering the questions..I'd say it's likely the answers are 'correct,' regardless of any specific release date...so, I do understand what you're saying, but OS4 classic has been confirmed in the works for some time, with several classic OS4 beta testers on AW and elsewhere, such as Ryu..

So, not too sure what else to say here, other than - I hope it's released.. ?

_________________
Are we not done with the same silly arguments and flames yet??!

@wegster

3. Will OS4 classic sales and/or support be forthcoming from Acube or Hyperion or both?

What happened to the answer?

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www.loriano.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

@TheDaddy

No answer given by the people answering questions. Hyperion will need to answer this, or ACube..if/when they want to.

_________________
Are we not done with the same silly arguments and flames yet??!

@wegster

Do i smell censorship?
Just kidding.

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Power Mac DP 1.8 GHZ, 4 Gb Ram and still trying to get EUAE in full speed

@DonnieA2

Rogue has commented on the details here and at amigans, so while it's not official (neither Bill Borsari, who announced it, nor Rogue speak officially for Hyperion) at least it's not an outright hoax.

@wegster

Removed per request - wegster

Last edited by wegster on 21-Oct-2007 at 10:48 PM.

_________________
Thomas, the kernel guy

"I don't have a frigging clue. I'm norwegian" -- Ole-Egil

All opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily represent those of Hyperion Entertainment

@wegster

EDIT - removed part of post per Entilzhas' request.

Quote:

- A clean install is preffered. It can be installed/upgraded, but must be installed to a partition supporting long fielnames, so no classic FFS..SFS only. Several fonts use long filenames, possibly others. AHI is also supported on Classics.

No, actually a clean install is mandatory. Trying to upgrade a 3.9 install is madness and should never be attempted. The first thing I will ever ask when someone has trouble whether he has installed on a clean partition, and if the reply is "no" I will just say "go and reinstall on a clean partition" and be done with it.

You can chose FFS or SFS, both are supplied on the CD as 68k file systems and both support long file names. The ROM FFS doesn't.

Last edited by wegster on 21-Oct-2007 at 10:49 PM.

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Seriously, if you want to contact me do not bother sending me a PM here. Write me a mail

@EntilZha

Can you tell us whether there will be an "OS4 November 2007 update" for AmigaOne owners to bring us to parity with the (obviously newer) Classic codebase?

Also, any idea when the new SDK will be coming out? (pretty please? )

@EntilZha

Quote:

I would really appreciate if things like that, which are confidential, would be kept confidential. Giving out this information is a breach of NDA.

Err, we had the people who made the statements proof-read and OK to publish, so I find it pretty unlikely that they thought this was an issue.

Updated posts to remove possibly 'problematic' content from Entilzha and Rogues posts, and updated QnA section with corrected info.

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_________________
Are we not done with the same silly arguments and flames yet??!

@DonnieA2

OK, it looks like (based on this post by Rogue) the announcement was official. Bill Borsari was acting as an ad-hoc spokesman for Hyperion when he made the announcement:

Quote:

I was asked by the management of Hyperion to find someone willing to make the announcement on Amiwest, which I did. As such, for this specific occasion Bill and Steven where officially asked by Hyperion to announce this. Likewise, there will soon be an appropriate press release on the Hyperion web site.

wegster wrote:

> 10. Minimum RAM required/system requirements?
> - A1200, A3000, A3000T, A4000, A4000T with PPC
> - 64MB is minimum RAM, higher recommended. 70ns RAM speed recommended.

And in the Install instructions, 200 meg free space minimum is needed on the hard drive partition.

Back from the AmiWest Show,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

Quote:

15. If WinUAE gets a PPC cpu emulation option will it be "legal" to buy and run a copy of AmigaOS4 Classic on emulation? - unsure this is a question for Hyperion or existing laws, not classic OS4 specific.

hmmm. Would PPC emulation actually be NEEDED as such if UAE were running on a Mac or a SAM, on top of a very stripped-down linux, for example?

Last edited by Pleng on 22-Oct-2007 at 09:10 AM.

Will classic OS4 work with PFS3 filesystem also? What memory does the PCI cards use in A1200 Mediator if no graphics card memory is used? Does SB128 or any fast-ethernet card work on Mediator?

Last edited by Bamiga2002 on 22-Oct-2007 at 09:56 AM.

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@Bamiga2002

Quote:

Will classic OS4 work with PFS3 filesystem also?

Honestly, I don't know. It should work.

Quote:

What memory does the PCI cards use in A1200 Mediator if no graphics card memory is used?

None at all.

Quote:

Does SB128 or any fast-ethernet card work on Mediator?

No. No DMA-hacks are supported.

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@Pleng

I've been thinking about this. If the emulator set the VM at the same addresses as a CS or Blizzard PPC then no processor translation would be necessary, right? I think there must be much more to it though, or it would surely have been done by now.

@stokey

I have no idea about the technicalities behind it, I'm no coder!

It may be that nobody's done it before because there's been no real NEED to do it. Now we have PPC hardware with no OS4, and OS4 for classics maybe somebody will come up with a way, providing the fear of legal action isn't too high. Don't see how it could be illegal though, providing you have the required Amiga ROMS.

What Kickstart ROM does OS4 require anyway? 3.1?

@Pleng

This isn't really the place to discuss it, but the need has always been there if you run Workbench under emulation, or wanted to run high end games. Emulating a PPC equipped Amiga is no more illegal than emulating a 68k one.

OS4 uses Kickstart modules which are on HD, there is no ROM.

Last edited by stokey on 22-Oct-2007 at 11:07 AM.