At this point I'm very WARY of buying a card or whatever for the A1 before it's officially released for it. Things always have a tendency of changing, or at least enough that your purchase is superceeded or abandoned. Case and point, I bought one of the last "NTSC" 1200s that software hut had and a tower for it. I towerized it and was waiting for the A1, which at the time was going to hook up to it directly. Then it was going to be a PCI slot solution to hook up to it instead. Then the whole idea was abandoned all together. So I blew $500+ at the time for a towerized 1200 that to date has maybe 10 hours on it and is collecting dust (anyone want it?)
Then it was the "get the SCSI card supported by UBoot". Ok, so I got the SCSI card. I find out that SCSI only partially works because of DMA issues under linux and there was no way of doing a reliable "PIO" mode for it(I know SCSI doesn't have PIO, it was to refer to the fact of turning off DMA so it would run stably). Slowly my linux install corrupted. Of course I also find out that the scsi driver for OS4 is on low priority, which means it won't see the light of day for quite a while. Which means that the SCSI card is also useless. (So much for the 50GB SCSI and DVD SCSI in there).

So I'm going to wait a little before I go rushing out to buy another "this should do the job" product, before it's really the official way to go.

(BTW, I AM a coder, so wouldn't mind trying to get the SCSI driver to work if someone can point me in the right direction for what to port or what's required. I do application programming, not hardware drivers, and I am aware of the difference, but have done some minor low level stuff on the amiga. :) )

Quote:

seriously this cant be for real its goto be some sort of joke the onboard sound not working was not so bad but this its beyond a joke !!!

Remember you did buy a BETA computer (earlybird) intended to developers. Beta HW/SW has bugs.

I also have an A1 G4. So Ih ave to live with the problems if there are any. I will wait for AOS4 beta and AOS 4.0 full version and 4.1 ...

As for sound I already installed a Live 5.1 Soundblaster. I never liked IDE drives and controllers because they take away CPU time. I want SCSI and I'm waiting for that driver as I have many SCSI devices I want to use.

_________________
A computerworld without MS products and Windows!
Connect your Amigas ...
...The Red ONE-A1XE G4 - A3000T- A3000 - A4000 - A2500- A1000 - A600 - CDTV - CD32...
and your PDAs and laptops ...
Psion 5mx Pro - Psion NetBook - Apple iPhone - MacBook Pro

AmigaOS 4 is all looking good, nothing negative you can say about that.

The hardware on the other hand is the opposite. I'm seriously losing confidence in Eyetech and MAI's ability to deliver a solid product, and then sell it properly.

@mbilla
" I never liked IDE drives and controllers because they take away CPU time."

On AOS4 they take away about 3%, as it seems.

(my dislike on IDE is that they lack assynchronous capability, but I think also that it is minimal disadvantage with UDMA133)

_________________
- KimmoK
// For freedom, for honor, for AMIGA
//
// Thing that I should find more time for: CC64 - 64bit Community Computer?

@olegil

Obviously shipping the board around will cost more than 30e. In my opinion, Eyetech should cover the cost of fixing these issues (be it a controller card or jumpwire), but I guess they won't have the resources. Perhaps some sort of a trade-in deal for a board from the newer batch would be in place.

"- Things are currently under more investigation
In the meantime there are 2 options for existing A1 board owners:"

I hope this is not going to delay the update,
I hope they just remove the DMA from the update,

personally I think it's a waste of time trying to fix the problem, move on to some thing you know is easier to fix, like worpup and powerup support, JIT or the Warp3D, then take out that hard VIA686b bug, if it can be solved at all,

one more think way is via686b not conflicting whit the SoundBlasterLive card or the graphics card?

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

A couple of questions:

1. I assume the latest PIO drivers are much faster than in the pre-release?


2. Does the IDE PCI card also work with Linux straight out of the box?


Cheers

1) you'll find it yourself downloading the update. Still a few days to go....

2) you need drivers of course. I don't know if someone can do them.

_________________
Philippe 'Elwood' Ferrucci
Sam460 1.10 Ghz
AmigaOS 4 betatester
Amiga Translator Organisation

@deakman

Not sure about the Si680, but when I tried a Si649-based card under Linux it didn't work because the driver was unable to allocate an IRQ correctly.

_________________
Who do you serve, and who do you trust? - Galen

@mbilla

Quote:

Remember you did buy a BETA computer (earlybird) intended to developers. Beta HW/SW has bugs. I also have an A1 G4. So Ih ave to live with the problems if there are any. I will wait for AOS4 beta and AOS 4.0 full version and 4.1 ...

This whole A1 experience is like watching something break before your very eyes, without any interaction on your behalf and without being able to do anything to prevent it from happening.

However, I hear you loud and clear. I bought my A1 a year ago, before the pre-release was announced, without knowing anything about when I might get my hands on OS4. But I knew that things were progressing from reports here at AW. However, I was very clear on my understanding that shelling out for my XE was a bit of a gamble. But I never had any second thoughts about it.
Then half a year later it paid off, and I'm now runnig OS4, which was what I wanted all along. I'm still happy about my purchase. And, had I known then what is known today, about the current issues as well as the fact that the next production run of XE's that wouldn't have these problems would surface more than a full year later, I don't think I would've acted any differently.

I still think that the pleasure of using OS4 so far makes up for any shortcomings of the hardware, in my most humble and highly personal opinion, and I obviously understand the fact that with the current market, R&D won't get gazillions of dollars anytime soon.
But still, I'm not jumping with excitement about the fact that there's another surprise in the XE bag-o'-tricks. And I won't be having any difficulties suppressing a chuckle if any more issues are discovered.

_________________
A1G4XE, OS4-pre

I too am happy with my A1 and OS4 Pre.

Concerning the current DMA issue; I look forward to some "official" options being made available to us. Whether that be to add a new IDE card, solder some wires to the board or live with the improved PIO driver.

Personally I will seriously consider getting a newer uA1 board to run along side my XE board as long as it is known that the DMA issues and on-board peripherals are working 100% with OS4.

Cheers,

Bean.

_________________
OS4.1 + SAM Flex
RIP my A1XE.. that used to have an appetite for batteries!

@rossv

thanks ill give doug a ring today and organise the 3 of them

I clearly remember voicing my disappointment when it was announced the new Amiga would be using VIA chipsets.

I had so much trouble with Via on an ASUS board that I had to buy another MoBO Even though that board was brand spanking new.


VIA suck dead dogs #####

Death is too good for them.

They need the HomDAI

_________________
******************************************
I dont suffer from Insanity - I enjoy it

******************************************

@The_Editor

Quote:

VIA suck dead dogs #####

AAAARGH! The visuals! The visuals! Them be hurting my mind! My eyes they be a bleeding! My ears be fallen off me 'ead! The visuals! AAAARGH!


Note: Original message censored during quotation.

_________________
A1G4XE, OS4-pre

I'd much rather do the hardware mod to the mobo (apparently only the earlybird models have this problem), even if the resulting performance is less than for a separate card. The board is out of warranty and I could do the work, if only I knew what to do.

Just remember - when buying a PC mobo, you don't choose one with on-board sound and video if you want performance - you get a basic one and add high performance cards.

Frankly, I'm impressed that these XE boards have now been out for two years and this is the first wiring fault discovered on them.

tony

_________________
cheers
tony

Hyperion Support Forum: http://forum.hyperion-entertainment.biz/index.php

@DrBombcrater and Deakman

I've managed to run a sil0680 card successfully with Mai's ydl kernel.

@tonyw

I'm with you on doing a patch myself. (Note: I posted this on the ann
thread, too). My case only has 2 slots:
1-Radeon 7000
2-Soundblaster Live! (required due to the @#*& 686B)

I've got nowhere to put an IDE controller, and DMA would be nice on a
machine with broadband internet access.

I did the INT2 fix on my 3000, I should be able to do a rewire on the
A1. (Finding the right pin on that CPU connector wasn't fun.
Quadruple checking included)

On the plus side, U-boot 1.0 no longer hangs on the "invalid opcode"
error with the Radeon 8500DV, but it still doesn't initialize the
card. Here's hoping for U-boot 1.1!

_________________
Tony T.

People who generalize are always wrong.


1989 - 500 / 1991 - 3000 / 1997 - Genesis Flyer 1200T / 2003 - A1XE

Quote:

it is very easy - Stick into PCI slot - from uboot setenv ide sii - saveenv -reset.. From now on A1 start use Si680 as default IDE.. on AmigaOS4 si680ide.device.kmod takes care of IDE I can use udma70 mode on my A1SE with Si680 PCI board...

Is the command "setenv ide sii" (well the sii part I mean) going to be supported in the new UBOOT that comes with the OS4 prerelease update?

Then I guess its just a matter of booting off the OS4 cd, running mediatoolbox, then selecting si680ide.device? Or something like that?

Quote:

Uncharted wrote: AmigaOS 4 is all looking good, nothing negative you can say about that.

I fully agree. It was the reason why I bought the AmigaOne. And I think it's still a good decision.

Quote:

The hardware on the other hand is the opposite. I'm seriously losing confidence in Eyetech and MAI's ability to deliver a solid product, and then sell it properly.

I'm not losing confidence, but in my humble opinion, they should provide a fix for the motherboard. I will do it myself, if the fix is easy to do. But I don't want to buy a PCI UDMA controller card, even if it has a better performance, as my drives don't support UDMA133 at all. I want to use the free PCI slots for other cards.

@Eyetech: If the fix is easy to do, then please publish an instruction manual or something else.

Thanks!

Geri

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

- A1 Linux support -

Quote:

Uncharted wrote: AmigaOS 4 is all looking good, nothing negative you can say about that. The hardware on the other hand is the opposite. I'm seriously losing confidence in Eyetech and MAI's ability to deliver a solid product, and then sell it properly.

Hi Uncharted and all,

I ALWAYS think this about the situation:

ibum and motoscum <<--links to stockmarket quote.


ibm $ 142,357,816,160
mot $ 041,557,096,190
Tot $ 183,914,912,350

Two corps worth $183 bil. couldn't be arsed to make a controller chip so that their CPUs could be used in desktop computers? And yet they want to beat intel's and AMD's CPU numbers and sales values?????? (moto, just the other day announced SEVEN new CPU's, but NO controller chip!!!)

They're letting the chips fall where they MAI?

Yep, made in the good ol' U.S. of A.


It's time to circle the wagons, boys.

How many test boards do you think Eyetech could have made, before producing a "working board" to mass produce (the first 1000, or whatever amount they made)?

It comes down to, THIS, what we have, or NO AMIGA at all!

Hey, I bought one of the developer boards so that you could have a revised one, does that make your day a little better?

AND REMEMBER:

Maybe, when Eyetech sells its' 500,000th motherboard, they'll remember us and might offer THE ONLY approx. first 1000 users a really big discount on the first G5 motherboards that come out!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!



You guys missed the MOST IMPORTANT PART!!!!

Quote:

sg2 wrote: At the end, I had many fair questions to which I answered; my feeling is that the audience really appreciated the effort behind what I shown, and was conscious that we are not far away from a releasable 4.0.

AmigaOne! AOS4.0! Another bump in the road on one hell of a trip!!!!!