Congratulations! You have just downloaded the most powerful Kickstart V1.3 for your Amiga 2000 and Amiga 2500 computer. Release number: 34.86 Release date: 17-Apr-89 Features: -------- * Autoboot with Amiga 2000 and 2090 HardDisk controller, OLD AND NEW versions without any hardware modification ! (YES, IT'S TRUE!) * The Fast Filing System (FFS) is now in the KickStart, this allows you to have just one DH0 partition using FFS, it is not necessary to have a small 'slow' partition to boot up from. And you don't have to wait for KickStart 1.4 ... * A virus checker is included which informs you about all currently known viruses or non-standard bootblocks on every disk you insert. You then have the option to kill the virus or to leave the disk unchanged. This keeps your Amiga 100% virus-free! * A powerful debugging monitor called 'ROMCrack' is included in the Kickstart. It is activated whenever a 'Guru Meditation' would appear, and it gives you much more information about the error than the normal guru. You can disassemble, modify memory etc. For detailed instructions read the file 'README.TECH'. * Many of the known bugs of V1.3 have been fixed, including the 512K Chip-memory bug. The boot-up process is now much faster. * The empty drive clicking is eliminated. * The Privilege Exception code has been modified, this allows users of 68020 boards (such as the great A2620) to run poorly written software which uses the 'move ,sr' command in user mode. Hardware Requirements: --------------------- To use the autoboot features of the Turbo Kickstart 1.3, you should have an Amiga 2000 (A or B version) and a Commodore 2090 HardDisk controller (works with both old and new versions!). However, if you just want to use the ROMCrack monitor and the virus checker, you can use this KickStart version with any Amiga model (500/1000/2000). Installation: ------------ This installation requires some knowledge about the Amiga hardware and soft- ware. If you're not familiar with the terms mentioned below, you should ask a friend or your official Amiga dealer :-) First of all, you must bring the Turbo Kickstart into ROMs. There are two possibilities how to do this: * You can get a 16Bit 256 KByte EPROM chip and burn the Turbo Kickstart data into that chip. You then replace the original 1.2 ROM chip in your Amiga with your new Turbo Kickstart 1.3 EPROM chip. * You can buy a 'Kickstart selector board', which allows you to use the original 1.2 Kickstart as well as the Turbo Kickstart, which you have to burn into four '27512' EPROM chips. These 64 KByte chips are available in good electronic shops and are not very expensive. * If you have an A2620 turbo board, you have a third option: Use the Public Domain program 'ChangeKick' to load this KickStart from disk or harddisk. Refer th the ChangeKick docs for more details. You'll probably prefer the second method, since the 16bit EPROMS are very expensive, and not many people own a turbo board (yet). If you have problems getting the 27512 EPROMS or the 'Kickstart selector board', please contact us. When you have installed your Turbo Kickstart, you can try to boot up your Amiga. If you have connected a HardDisk, you then should get a message like 'Not a DOS disk in unit 1'. This is normal, because the Turbo kickstart accesses the whole harddisk with the Fast File System, and the old 1.2 Kickstart used the slow file system. The only solution is to re-format your harddisk, executing the following steps: * Boot up your Amiga with the old Kickstart 1.2 as you always did and copy all your important files from the hard disk to floppy disks. Then switch off your Amiga. * If you have a new 2090A hard disk controller, locate the two 28-pin sockets for the AutoBoot ROM chips. If there are any chips in these sockets, remove them. You will not need them anymore as long as you use the Turbo KickStart 1.3. * Insert a bootable WorkBench disk into drive DF0 and install the Turbo Kickstart 1.3 ROMs. Switch on and wait. * When the requester ('Not a DOS disk in unit 1') appears, select CANCEL. * Open a CLI and enter 'Prep DH0:'. The 'PREP' command can be found on the disk which was enclosed with your 2090 harddisk controller, in the 'HardDisk' drawer. * Answer the questions which 'PREP' asks you. Some of the values are drive specific. Here's an example for a Seagate ST 125 3.5" 20 MB drive. After starting PREP 1.3, select 'user defined' and enter: Number of heads = 4 Number of Cyliders = 615 Sectors per track = 17 Write pre-comp cylinder = 615 Park heads after two seconsd = YES Cylinder to park heads = 2 ¹) Last Cyl used by 1st partition = 614 ¹) Note that setting the park head to 2 speeds up the reset procedure, but is only recommended when your harddisk supports auto parking at power-down. If not, set the park cylinder to 615. * Reset your Amiga, pressing 'Ctrl-Amiga-Amiga', and reboot with the same WorkBench disk as you did before. Cancel all requesters. * Enter a CLI and type 'Format drive DH0: name harddisk FFS'. * When the format is complete, you have one 20 MByte partition called 'DH0' which uses the Fast File System. * Now you can copy all important files from your WorkBench disk and your backup disks to DH0. WHENEVER YOU BOOT UP AND THERE IS NO BOOTABLE DISK IN DRIVE DF0, THE AMIGA AUTO-BOOTS FROM DH0. * If you wish to use the WorkBench, please read the following chapter, because WorkBench requires some installation. Using the WorkBench: ------------------- In order to fit the hard disk driver, the Fast File System and the virus detector into the KickStart, we needed about 25 KBytes of free space. This space was not available, so we threw out the least important module in the Kickstart: The WorkBench task. But don't panic! This does not mean that you'll never see these pretty icons again! We had a really clever idea: We took the Workbench out of the Kick- tart an put it to the hard disk. (Well, that's exactly what 1.4 does, but we were first :-) So whenever you execute a 'LoadWB' command, not the WorkBench in the ROM is activated, but the file 'L:WorkBench' is loaded into RAM and then started. To install the WorkBench on your hard disk, do the following: * You should have a directory on the harddisk called 'L', which contains some DOS handlers (Ram-Handler, Port-Handler ...). Copy the file called 'WorkBench' from this archive to your 'L' directory on the hard disk. * If you speak German, you would probably like a version of the WorkBench with German menus and texts. There is also a Swiss German version available, translations to other languages are possible. Notes: ----- * The ROMCrack debugger, which is called whenever a guru would come, or when the DEL key is pressed during the reset (when the screen is middle-grey), currently only works in PAL mode, which means that it displays 256 rows instead of 200. So the lower part of the picture is not visible on NTSC Amigas. Perhaps this will be fixed in a later release. * If you want to activate the ROMCrack monitor from WorkBench, use 'LoadWb -debug' instead of 'LoadWb' in your startup-sequrnce. There will be another menu to the right of the 'Special' menu, with an empty name. To activate the ROMCrack debugger, select the 'debug' item from this hidden menu. To exit ROMCrack and get back to the WorkBench use the 'x' command. * To get a short description of the commands ROMCrack understands, press the HELP key when ROMCrack is active. * To print this document, type 'Type README to PRT:' in the CLI! * The 'readme.tech' file will be ready in one or two weeks... Enjoy!