Hi all,

I've an A1 G3 XE and installed a Vantec SATA SIL3114 card but the system can not boot from SATA drives at all..

Anyone here have any idea how to solve this?

@rumbler

you need the unreleased version of uboot to boot from sii3114.
You could boot kickstart from a1ide.device then boot workbench from sii3114ide.device but that requires 2 harddrives.

_________________
A1200T 603e 330Mhz - Mediator TX OS4.1 F.E.
CDTV 8MB Fast, OS3.1, SCSI, MicroSD SCSI & CD32 FMV
X5000, X1000, A1XE with OS4.1F.E.

I've got a SIL3112 and that works fine. Maybe just get the two port version instead?

@JurassicC

Hi,

How can I find that image to burn on my board?

@rumbler

I take it you set the boot source to be Serial SII IDE Disk? As can be done in UBoot Prefs. On Boot tab.

@Hypex

This setting implies the use of a 3112 SATA controller, IIRC.

_________________
A1SE: G3@600MHz, 2GB, 1GBit network card
A1XE: G4@933MHz, 2GB, refitted AC'97 codec
microA1: G3@800MHz, 1GB

- A1 Linux support -

@Geri

The docs aren't clear at all. When ever this subject comes up I go through them and see nothing about what UBoot supports. After some digging I find UBoot looks for 3114 and 3512 SATA cards but not sure what version that is.

@Hypex

Quote:

Hypex wrote: @Geri The docs aren't clear at all. When ever this subject comes up I go through them and see nothing about what UBoot supports. After some digging I find UBoot looks for 3114 and 3512 SATA cards but not sure what version that is.

True, the docs aren't clear. But that's probably because v1.1.4 was never officially released.

U-Boot v1.1.1 only has "SII Serial Disk/CDROM" options, which work at least for a 3112 controller (I'm not sure, if they also cover the 3512). U-boot v1.1.4 on the other side also provides "SII 4-port Serial Disk/CDROM" options. These work with the 3114 controller, but still only support booting from 2 of the 4 ports of the 3114 controller. I suppose all options build upon the same code in U-Boot, but the latter simply looks for the PCI ID of the 3114 controller.

_________________
A1SE: G3@600MHz, 2GB, 1GBit network card
A1XE: G4@933MHz, 2GB, refitted AC'97 codec
microA1: G3@800MHz, 1GB

- A1 Linux support -

@Geri

Quote:

True, the docs aren't clear. But that's probably because v1.1.4 was never officially released.

That's the thing. I'm just looking at docs for IDE drivers. So this only covers OS4. Not even SLB or loading Kickstart would be relevant.

UBoot doesn't get a mention as either a help guide or what it can boot from.

Quote:

I suppose all options build upon the same code in U-Boot, but the latter simply looks for the PCI ID of the 3114 controller.

Yes it would all be about PCI ID codes and what controllers UBoot supports internally.

I wonder if booting SLB/Kickstart from USB would be possible to load OS4 SATA drivers to boot off a SATA HD? Of course the Kickstart may need to be moved to USB and then linked to from the HD Kickstart like a multi boot setup.

@Hypex

Quote:

Hypex wrote: @Geri That's the thing. I'm just looking at docs for IDE drivers. So this only covers OS4. Not even SLB or loading Kickstart would be relevant. UBoot doesn't get a mention as either a help guide or what it can boot from.

The U-Boot pages on intuitionbase.com are the only real docs for the A1 firmware I know of. OS4 only mentions it as far as it concerns the IDE/SATA drivers, as you say.

Quote:

I wonder if booting SLB/Kickstart from USB would be possible to load OS4 SATA drivers to boot off a SATA HD? Of course the Kickstart may need to be moved to USB and then linked to from the HD Kickstart like a multi boot setup.

Yes, the question is, if the slb_v2 supports kickstart loading from a USB drive. Booting off the SATA drive afterwards should be a matter of setting boot priorities accordingly (naive thinking ).

_________________
A1SE: G3@600MHz, 2GB, 1GBit network card
A1XE: G4@933MHz, 2GB, refitted AC'97 codec
microA1: G3@800MHz, 1GB

- A1 Linux support -

Thank you very much for your replies.

I also appreciate if any of you have any experience with USB 3.0 or at least 2.0 cards to share. :)

@rumbler

Quote:

rumbler wrote: Thank you very much for your replies. I also appreciate if any of you have any experience with USB 3.0 or at least 2.0 cards to share. :)

USB3.0 for your AmigaOne? AFAIK OS4 doesn't support USB3.0 resp. XHCI controllers. Even if you would find a USB3.0 card for a standard PCI slot, it would likely not work because U-Boot doesn't initialize it correctly (I don't know of any USB3.0 controller with a legacy PCI interface, so the card would for sure have a PCI to PCIe bridge on it and that would be simply ignored by U-boot).

Regarding USB2.0: make sure you find a card with a NEC/Renesas controller on it. The cards that come with a VIA controller don't work well in the AmigaOne.

_________________
A1SE: G3@600MHz, 2GB, 1GBit network card
A1XE: G4@933MHz, 2GB, refitted AC'97 codec
microA1: G3@800MHz, 1GB

- A1 Linux support -

@Geri

Quote:

Yes, the question is, if the slb_v2 supports kickstart loading from a USB drive.

I think it does. At least you can specify USB as a boot source. But now I don't recall if I tested slb_v2 or ub2lb. AFAIK it works on a Sam. Which has similar booting routines.

Quote:

Regarding USB2.0: make sure you find a card with a NEC/Renesas controller on it. The cards that come with a VIA controller don't work well in the AmigaOne.

I haven't heard of this Renesas controller. But VIA cards are a hit and miss affair. I gave up on my VIA when I came into possession of an NEC card. I don't know what is wrong with the OS4 driver, since USB2 on a VIA card works perfectly fine under the now old 2.6.31 Linux kernel, nor if they checked Linux sources for VIA quirks. And there are developers who have a VIA card with same PCI ID as mine that does work!

Last edited by Hypex on 11-Feb-2017 at 05:31 AM.

@Hypex

Quote:

Hypex wrote: @Geri Quote: Yes, the question is, if the slb_v2 supports kickstart loading from a USB drive. I think it does. At least you can specify USB as a boot source. But now I don't recall if I tested slb_v2 or ub2lb. AFAIK it works on a Sam. Which has similar booting routines.

I would have assumed that slb_v2 treats USB sticks like harddisks.

Quote:

Quote: Regarding USB2.0: make sure you find a card with a NEC/Renesas controller on it. The cards that come with a VIA controller don't work well in the AmigaOne. I haven't heard of this Renesas controller. But VIA cards are a hit and miss affair. I gave up on my VIA when I came into possession of an NEC card. I don't know what is wrong with the OS4 driver, since USB2 on a VIA card works perfectly fine under the now old 2.6.31 Linux kernel, nor if they checked Linux sources for VIA quirks. And there are developers who have a VIA card with same PCI ID as mine that does work!

Renesas is the merger of NEC's and some other japanese companies' semiconducter businees. The USB2.0 controllers were still developed by NEC, while the USB3.0 controllers are already labeled Renesas".
Regarding the VIA controller: maybe there are several revisions of this controller with the same PCI ID. If so, it would be good to have an errata sheet for it. But VIA isn't known for easy-to-find documentation.

_________________
A1SE: G3@600MHz, 2GB, 1GBit network card
A1XE: G4@933MHz, 2GB, refitted AC'97 codec
microA1: G3@800MHz, 1GB

- A1 Linux support -

@Geri

Quote:

I would have assumed that slb_v2 treats USB sticks like harddisks.

I think it does. Well I did a test, again. I prepped a USB stick, that's being used a lot for ISOHYBRID PC images lately; with an RDB, slb_v2 booter and bootable FFS partition using MediaToolbox.

Rebooted. Set USB as first boot source. Did a "usb scan" from UBoot and issued a "boot" command to boot it. The FLB found the SLB on the stick and proceeded to boot it. Unfortunately I soon realised what I had done and had to wait around 2 minutes for Kickstart to load. Why would I suggest doing this?

So, with UBoot setup to auto boot over USB, yes, you can boot off a USB stick on an AmigaOne.

Quote:

Renesas is the merger of NEC's and some other japanese companies' semiconducter businees. The USB2.0 controllers were still developed by NEC, while the USB3.0 controllers are already labeled Renesas".

Okay I see. Doesn't sound too Japanese. I think so.

Well except for Linux a USB3.0 controller won't be used to full cpacity in an A1. If it can be plugged in.

Last edited by Hypex on 21-Feb-2017 at 03:44 PM.

@Hypex

Quote:

Hypex wrote: @Geri Quote: I would have assumed that slb_v2 treats USB sticks like harddisks. I think it does. Well I did a test, again. I prepped a USB stick, that's being used a lot for ISOHYBRID PC images lately; with an RDB, slb_v2 booter and bootable FFS partition using MediaToolbox. Rebooted. Set USB as first boot source. Did a "usb scan" from UBoot and issued a "boot" command to boot it. The FLB found the SLB on the stick and proceeded to boot it. Unfortunately I soon realised what I had done and had to wait around 2 minutes for Kickstart to load. Why would I suggest doing this?

Cool!

Hopefully loading a single Linux kernel boot image is faster than loading a Kickstart.

Quote:

So, with UBoot setup to auto boot over USB, yes, you can boot off a USB stick on an AmigaOne.

So "all" that is missing is a mocked RDB, which points to an Ext2 formatted partition embedded within an ISO9660 filesystem.

Quote:

Okay I see. Doesn't sound too Japanese. I think so.

Not really. But NEC neither.

Quote:

Well except for Linux a USB3.0 controller won't be used to full cpacity in an A1. If it can be plugged in.

I only found one PCI USB3.0 controller card so far. But it comes with a PCI-to-PCIe bridge and thus won't be initialized correctly.

_________________
A1SE: G3@600MHz, 2GB, 1GBit network card
A1XE: G4@933MHz, 2GB, refitted AC'97 codec
microA1: G3@800MHz, 1GB

- A1 Linux support -

@Geri

Quote:

Hopefully loading a single Linux kernel boot image is faster than loading a Kickstart.

And old 1.8MB kernel image would be.

The Kickstart is around 9MB so anything smaller will be faster. But right now the boot image is 15MB.

Quote:

So "all" that is missing is a mocked RDB, which points to an Ext2 formatted partition embedded within an ISO9660 filesystem.

Yes that's one way about it. It could also be appended to the end after the ISO9660 image. Being able to mount and read a single image from both ub2lb and Linux would help.