@billt, Draby

Quote:

billt wrote: @Geri What about asking DCE where they get PLCC plugs for the MiniMegiChip, or whoever else makes such things in our world? The pics of this thing at AmigaKit it looks like a smaller height, possibly more commercial build PLCC plug than the pics I've seen at these other two sources. Are thre other products that have plugs, or is this pretty much it these days?

I already thought about that, but...

Quote:

Draby wrote: @billt @Geri Here's a European source, is this what you're looking for?

...yes, these should work. Unfortunately RScomponents normally only serves companies. Thus I'll have to see, if I can "arrange" something.

Quote:

billt wrote: @Geri What PCB software do you use?

Eagle by cadsoft.de (the freeware version in Debian Lenny).

BTW: I'll post the schematic next week or so for review.

Last edited by Geri on 02-Feb-2010 at 08:46 PM.

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@Geri

Quote:

Eagle by cadsoft.de (the freeware version in Debian Lenny).

Ah, good. Olegil is helping me learn Eagle. I have the pro level schematic and layout modules. Doesn't sound like the autorouter is worth paying for, so I haven't tried to save up for that one. Don't know that more than one of any of us really is needed to work on that part, but I'm glad to help with anything if I can. I'd love to see KiCad ported to AmigaOs too, once we have enough WxWidgets to do it.

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@Geri

Quote:

...yes, these should work. Unfortunately RScomponents normally only serves companies. Thus I'll have to see, if I can "arrange" something.

I'm working on a USA source too. If you can't get them there, maybe I can get a couple extra to ship over.

How many of these gizmos do you think we'll end up building for those interested in helping out?

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@m3x

Quote:

m3x wrote: @billt I use the ELDK 4.2 package, freely available from Denx (ppc-linux-x86 version) About the steps required to build a flash image, as already happens with the Sam version, it will be as simple as typing: "make AmigaOneG3SE_config" "make && make updater"

Good that this hasn't changed!

Quote:

I cannot share any info on the AOS4 dongle-code, apart that IMO, it's not possible to make a flash switcher in the way it was suggested before.

Well, maybe you could answer my question (if it is possible to automatically release OS4 enabled U-boot images on Hyperion's download page)?

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@billt

Quote:

billt wrote: @Geri Ah, good. Olegil is helping me learn Eagle. I have the pro level schematic and layout modules. Doesn't sound like the autorouter is worth paying for, so I haven't tried to save up for that one. Don't know that more than one of any of us really is needed to work on that part, but I'm glad to help with anything if I can. I'd love to see KiCad ported to AmigaOs too, once we have enough WxWidgets to do it.

WOW! I didn't think about buying the pro level schematic and layout modules yet. But your right, the autorouter isn't worth paying for. I would prefer Eagle on OS4.

Quote:

How many of these gizmos do you think we'll end up building for those interested in helping out?

Good question! I planned a prototype series i.e. only 3 to 5 PCBs (to keep the cost low).

Last edited by Geri on 02-Feb-2010 at 09:01 PM.

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@Geri

I now have 4 new blank flash chips and two sample plugs from epboards. These plugs are a bit tall, but I'll look at them in my XE when I get a chance to see how things fit together. I haven't really looked around in there for a long time.

Hopefully we'll be able to get the shorter Winslow things. I inquired to their USA contact from my corporate Forefront Tech email, so hopefully they won't ignore us. If I can get them, I'll try to get some extras for you.

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@billt

Quote:

billt wrote: @Geri Hopefully we'll be able to get the shorter Winslow things. I inquired to their USA contact from my corporate Forefront Tech email, so hopefully they won't ignore us. If I can get them, I'll try to get some extras for you.

Well, I have a friend that could order the PLCC plugs for me. One PLCC plug costs around 30$ here (RScomponents). Maybe you can evaluate, if it is still cheaper when you ship the parts to Europe.

I yet have to draw a new library for the PLCC plug, as I couldn't find it in Eagle. Thus I don't expect to finish a new board layout within the next 2 weeks. I'll also add a simple write protection to the first flash ROM (as suggested) to prevent user mistakes.

However I still plan to post the schematic for review next week.

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@all

This is amusing:

Quote:

Anyway, just wanted to drop a line that the build appears to be broken, and drop a hint that it would be great if someone (Thomas?) would clean up the Amiga #ifdefs that currently are litter a number of common files. Is the AmigaOne port being maintained? Does anyone use it? Can it be removed?

So is this:

Quote:

Changing its code is not easy because the Open Source project is managed by people that don't seem to be very serious. The OS4 team has probably contributed more code than any other. Maybe writing a proprietary solution would be better. Time will tell...

And that was posted at a time when the U-Boot mailing list was seeing 400 posts per month. That's on par with other serious mailing lists, e.g. gcc@gnu.org.

Still waiting to hear from Rogue or Thomas. You guys reading this? Also, webmaster@hyperion-entertainment.biz bounces. Nice. Are there any valid email addresses at Hyperion?

Trev

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@Trev

Quote:

Also, webmaster@hyperion-entertainment.biz bounces. Nice. Are there any valid email addresses at Hyperion?

Yes, see PM.

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@Trev

Quote:

Trev wrote: @all Quote: Anyway, just wanted to drop a line that the build appears to be broken, and drop a hint that it would be great if someone (Thomas?) would clean up the Amiga #ifdefs that currently are litter a number of common files. Is the AmigaOne port being maintained? Does anyone use it? Can it be removed?

Yes, the A1 code in the U-boot repository is broken. And believe me, the U-boot developers would like to see this fixed, too!

Quote:

Changing its code is not easy because the Open Source project is managed by people that don't seem to be very serious. The OS4 team has probably contributed more code than any other. Maybe writing a proprietary solution would be better. Time will tell...

Well, development may have been cumbersome at the time U-boot was still using CVS. But now they adopted the Linux development process, which IMHO works very well. Nonetheless U-boot is probably the best free bootloader on tis planet.

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@Geri

Quote:

Geri wrote: ...yes, these should work. Unfortunately RScomponents normally only serves companies. Thus I'll have to see, if I can "arrange" something.

RS will ship to private users as well - I have an account with them and order from them regularly... If it's different in other countries, I could order them from Ireland and ship them to you?

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@Daedalus

Quote:

Daedalus wrote: @Geri RS will ship to private users as well - I have an account with them and order from them regularly... If it's different in other countries, I could order them from Ireland and ship them to you?

Oh, that new to me! Thanks for the offer.
I'll first ask my friend, if he can order the parts for me.

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@Geri

I see that RS also has an Italian version if that's any help.

Richard

I tried installing the 1.9GB iso image to my virtualbox Kubuntu 9.10 virtual machine (windows XP host). The CD image is mounted, I can look around in it fine. The iso file is mounted in Windows via Daemon Tools Lite to a virtual CDROM drive, btu seems fine, and I installed Kubuntu to the virtual machine that way.

I don't get very far though.

bill@vbox:/media/cdrom0$ sudo ./install -d /opt/eldk_ppc/


Do you really want to install into /opt/eldk_ppc directory[y/n]?: y

Installing cross RPMs

sh: /opt/eldk_ppc/bin/rpm: not found
bill@vbox:/media/cdrom0$
bill@vbox:/media/cdrom0$ lrt /opt/eldk_ppc/bin/rpm
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 2167996 2010-02-03 23:55 /opt/eldk_ppc/bin/rpm
bill@vbox:/media/cdrom0$

I've also tried the other mount points /media/cdrom (without the 0) and /cdrom, all do the same thing. The file is there. But I can't seem to run this rpm file any which way. Even full-pathing to it in shell gives the not found error, while ls -lrt says it's quite happily taking up space in that location.

I even installed the Kubuntu rpm manager package, but that doesn't seem like it'll get called, since things are hardcoded to the ELDK install path instead. As there's a ton of rpms in the CPU dir I looked in, I don't know where to start for a manual install using my rpm myself.

I downloaded this file:
http://ftp.denx.de/pub/eldk/4.2/ppc-linux-x86/iso/ppc-2008-04-01.iso
Am I just dumb and this installs/runs on a PPC host computer, not my x86?

Anyone give me a clue?

Last edited by billt on 04-Feb-2010 at 02:59 PM.
Last edited by billt on 04-Feb-2010 at 02:55 PM.

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@Hans
Quote:

Have a look at the bug list. Having bug number 148 fixed would be great.

Another possible thing to consider:
http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=30785&forum=33

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@billt

Quote:

billt wrote: Anyone give me a clue?

AFAIK ELDK installation went smooth on my Debian Linux. Maybe you should try to mount the ISO file directly in Kubuntu with something like:

mount -o loop -t iso9660 /path/to/iso /mount/dir/

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@All

I have this idea to recover a bad UBoot update. It requires a friends working A1.

You take out your UBoot and replace it with your friends chip. Then boot into OS4. Now there, UBoot is as dead as the 68K in OS4 classic, and you take the chip out! Put your bad one in again and then run the flash utility to flash it back to normal. Assuming it works this time.

Can this work? I think it might be. But is it bad to pull out the UBoot chip and put another in on while the machine is on?

@Hypex

Sure that works! But you will break your A1 sooner or later, if you do a mistake!

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@Hypex

Not sure if it's a good idea to hotswap chips that were not designed for that. Could spark something, now you're worse off than just a bad image inside the chip.

We're really better off having better tools. The uboot switch Geri is working on is I think a great answer. Second to that is an external flash chip programmer. Take out your good uboot chip to back it up to a file on your PC. Then copy it into a new blank chip, and keep your original chip safe somewhere, put the new chip in the motherboard to flash and test, if fail, then take it out, and use the flash programmer to clear it and back up the good image from file, then try again. The switch seems easier.

Hey Geri, can we have this switch detect a write operation, and switch to the selected flash chip? It may be nice to be able to unprotect and write the original chip when a new release image is available. But for the most part, we may need to boot from the original/protected chip and switch to the secondary/testing chip just for the write operation before rebooting, since we likely won't be able to boot sometimes to the secondary image to do a rewrite from there. Sort of an automated version of Hypex's idea here in a more electrically friendly way.

Any comments on best way to boot and rewrite a bad test image?

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@billt

Quote:

billt wrote: Hey Geri, can we have this switch detect a write operation, and switch to the selected flash chip? It may be nice to be able to unprotect and write the original chip when a new release image is available. But for the most part, we may need to boot from the original/protected chip and switch to the secondary/testing chip just for the write operation before rebooting, since we likely won't be able to boot sometimes to the secondary image to do a rewrite from there. Sort of an automated version of Hypex's idea here in a more electrically friendly way.

Well, yes. The board will have to switches/jumpers. One switch selects the flash ROM that is used for booting or programming and the other one protects exactly one of the flash ROMs from being accidently overwritten. Is that what you had in mind?

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