I thought long filename support was enabled as standard on OS3.9? I've no such luck with one of my aFFS partitions! Will I need to reformat it to enable that?! It is such a limitation without it!

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@BigD

That’s a strange one! You could use WinUAE, attaching the drive to a Windows PC (no luck attaching real drives in WinUAE on my Linux PC so I resort to Windows for this). First you obviously need a clean OS3.9 setup on WinUAE & then boot from that. At least that may help you see if it’s something odd going on specifically with your current OS3.9 setup/the partition or if the problem is actually OS3.9 itself.

Once OS3.3 arrives personally I’ll say goodbye to OS3.9 on my 040/Mediator Setup (& also install openpci68k). 3.9 has got its good points but I much prefer 3.2 (never got around to installing it on my Mediator setup). 3.3 is looking good & is just around the corner (well coming this year anyway) so as I've been so slow at getting around to popping 3.2 on it I may as well wait for 3.3 now!

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Just to add:

Fired up my OS3.9 Mediator system to reminded myself if there's a long file name Support option listed when you select format & as I thought there isn't.

Just remembered I had to install Cross Dos 7 to get long file name support in OS3.9 on PC formatted discs including CD's but that's not really relevant with your FFS partition issue I guess.

Last edited by Tpod on 08-Jan-2026 at 12:54 AM.
Last edited by Tpod on 08-Jan-2026 at 12:19 AM.
Last edited by Tpod on 08-Jan-2026 at 12:17 AM.

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@BigD

You need 3.2, or possibly 3.1.4, for long filename support with FFS

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@Mobileconnect

That wouldn't appear to be right. There is a long filename option on HD Toolbox when formatting partitions in OS3.9. I assume that you just need to remember to tick it?

...hmmm, maybe tour right. It is very odd to see the long filenames on a PC formatted Zip Disk and then not be able to copy it onto the FFS partition under OS3.9! How did CaffeineOS get around this? That is based on OS3.9!

Last edited by BigD on 08-Jan-2026 at 10:42 AM.

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"Art challenges technology. Technology inspires the art."
John Lasseter, Co-Founder of Pixar Animation Studios

@BigD

Only with PFS and SFS I think.

@BigD

Quote:

BigD wrote: @Mobileconnect ... There is a long filename option on HD Toolbox when formatting partitions in OS3.9. I assume that you just need to remember to tick it?

No such box for me to tick (that I can see) on my HDToolBox (I have Boing Bag 2 installed). I guess as hotrod says "Only with PFS and SFS I think" (I guess the box only appears if you have one of those installed).

Quote:

... It is very odd to see the long filenames on a PC formatted Zip Disk and then not be able to copy it onto the FFS partition under OS3.9! How did CaffeineOS get around this? That is based on OS3.9!

Pretty sure OS3.9 can't see long file names on any type of PC formatted disks unless you install a newer version of CrossDos (like I did with Cross dos 7 about 20 years ago) or alternatively install fat95. The popular choice was fat95 so I guess you probably installed that at some point.

Last edited by Tpod on 08-Jan-2026 at 12:36 PM.

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@Tpod

Yep, agree on both counts. I have installed CrossDoss 7 and I think i'm thinking about OS3.2 regarding the HD Toolbox option....hmmm that's quite a limitation for OS3.9! I can't believe I've lived with it for so long.

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"Art challenges technology. Technology inspires the art."
John Lasseter, Co-Founder of Pixar Animation Studios

@BigD
Quote:

I thought long filename support was enabled as standard on OS3.9? I've no such luck with one of my aFFS partitions!

FFS? Forget it. It supports up to 30 chars IIRC.

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@Mobileconnect

Quote:

Mobileconnect wrote: @BigD You need 3.2, or possibly 3.1.4, for long filename support with FFS

I would agree this is correct. I think long filenames were added for OS4, so they won't be in 3.9.

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Avatar is Tabitha by Eric W Schwartz

You could just... install the OS 3.2 version of FFS on your hd using hdtoolbox

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@Mobileconnect

So that's comaptible with HDToolbox on OS3.9 then? That would be a cool little hack! Thanks!

_________________
"Art challenges technology. Technology inspires the art."
John Lasseter, Co-Founder of Pixar Animation Studios

@BigD

I have a vague recollection there may even be a 68k version of the OS4 version (for RDB compatibility reasons).

It's worth upgrading to OS3.2 properly, rather than just using the newer FFS from it.

Last edited by Chris_Y on 10-Jan-2026 at 11:44 PM.

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"Miracles we do at once, the impossible takes a little longer" - AJS on Hyperion
Avatar is Tabitha by Eric W Schwartz

@Chris_Y

Thanks for the advice but OS3.2 doesn't generally feel like an "upgrade" in my view although yes, under the hood a lot has been streamlined and bug fixed.

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"Art challenges technology. Technology inspires the art."
John Lasseter, Co-Founder of Pixar Animation Studios

@BigD

If OS3.2 doesn't feel like much of an upgrade, watching walkero’s AmigaOS 3.2 – Next steps series on YouTube may help. Various useful improvements the OS offers are revealed.

OS3.9 comes with some nice extra software that you don’t get with OS3.2, but OS3.2 is the clear winner under the hood. By installing OS3.2.3 then adding the bits of software you like from your OS3.9 CD you’ll end up with the bests of both worlds (I'm looking forward to making use of my OS3.9 CD too, when I install OS3.3).

Last edited by Tpod on 13-Jan-2026 at 10:35 PM.

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@Tpod

I concur, OS3.2.3 + those extras from OS3.9 is the best of both worlds.

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A1200, Power Tower, TF1260 128MB RAM, 68060 Rev 6, OS3.9 BB2, HD-Floppy, Mediator TX+ PCI, Voodoo 3 3000, Soundblaster 4.1, TV Card, Spider USB, 100MBit Ethernet, 16GB CF HD, 52xCDRom.

@Amiboy

Agreed.

OS 3.9 is the 3.1 ROM with a bunch of hacky patches, and a few third party tools that were never really finished or are not even very relevant in 2026.

3.2 on the other hand has been developed by many of the same people who worked on those earlier versions, but with the added benefit of another 20 years of testing and thinking about the proper way to fix things, and time to refactor the code properly, as well as also benefitting from much of the learning from OS4 too at least in terms of understanding how to refactor the code into proper C and so on.

That it doesn't come with all the bells and whistles of 3.9, is easily fixed - Gulliver (anyone heard from him lately? he seems AWOL) even put together some scripts to automate merging the two while avoiding overwriting anything important in 3.2.

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