U-BOOT 1.1.1 or 1.1.4 or 1.2.0 ?!

A forum for AmigaOne XE and MicroA1-C specific issues.
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artblink
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U-BOOT 1.1.1 or 1.1.4 or 1.2.0 ?!

Post by artblink »

Hello,

I have MicroAone with UBoot 1.1.1, can i install Uboot 1.1.4 or 1.2.0 on my MicroAone?

I use Amiga OS 4.1 only, not linux, are you sure that Uboot work qith Amiga OS 4.1 ?

If yes, where can i download this Uboot 1.1.4 or 1.2.0?

Thanks
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Raziel
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Re: U-BOOT 1.1.1 or 1.1.4 or 1.2.0 ?!

Post by Raziel »

iirc 1.1.1 was the last update for Micro and XE

The newer versions were done for SAM line of hardware and don't add any functionality to the AmigaOnes
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tonyw
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Re: U-BOOT 1.1.1 or 1.1.4 or 1.2.0 ?!

Post by tonyw »

The newer versions won't work on any other platforms, either. There was a move some time ago to update U-Boot, but it did not have the backing of the Hyperion developers and I don't know how far it got.

U-Boot is open-source firmware, but the Flash ROM in the A1s contains other stuff that make it unique to OS4 and the platform. That "other stuff" is not publicly available.
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nzv58l
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Re: U-BOOT 1.1.1 or 1.1.4 or 1.2.0 ?!

Post by nzv58l »

It seems a shame that there have been no updates to uboot for over 10 years. Uboot is a pretty important part of the AmigaOne, and it is far from perfected. It seems to me that there are lots of compatibility issues with sata cards as far as I can tell. I have a SIL3112 card that is unrecognized and a SIL3114 that does not allow more than two devices even though it has 4 ports. My particular sil3114 card I can not boot from as it never finds the SLB, even though I have tried copying it myself to L: . I also have a SIL0680 IDE that actually works...so it looks like I am forced to use the ancient IDE as it is the only reliable interface I have.

If uboot also has something to do with memory, I think it does a fairly bad job of being very forgiving. I have 4 x one GB memory sticks that look physically identical with the same type and arrangement of chips on them , but some are much more reliable than others and I currently am using the 512mb stick because it works more reliably than any of the others. It seems that this is the only computer I have ever known that actually works better with less memory. 2GB is not that large when you consider the size of media these days and I am glad to see support for more than 2GB in the OS even though I will not see it on an AmigaOne XE.

I have heard that it is very hard to get anyone to move on the uboot side of things(10 years is proof). I know it is kind of a pipe dream, but Is there any possibility of moving to something that would be better supported or could it be moved in house and dump uboot alltogether?

Being honest, I love the Amiga, and I love the OS, but I really hate the AmigaOne XE hardware and not particulary fond of uboot. I suppose that after 10 years it should be time to get new hardware. However, I would like to see this A1XE work like it should.
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tonyw
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Re: U-BOOT 1.1.1 or 1.1.4 or 1.2.0 ?!

Post by tonyw »

I don't remember the version now (my machine died), but my XE had no problems using all four sii3114 ports (and booting from one of them). The U-Boot I had was a beta version that was never released because it killed something else (don't remember what, but it no longer booted from some other device). The version numbers were never properly sorted, either. My version was from about 2005 IIRC.

U-Boot does not have any effect on your memory DIMMs. It only ever turns on the lower one (if you have two). It comes down to AmigaOS (the kernel) to switch on the second DIMM. The XEs are very finicky with memory, as I'm sure you know. Depending on the machine (they are not all the same) and the DIMMs (you have seen the differences yourself), some combinations will work and some won't. Some boards will run with two DIMMs, but most will only take one. My guess is that it's a limitation of the bus drivers in the Articia chip.

The problem with "support" of this old platform is that there is little to be gained by spending time and money on it. Those that make the decisions might prefer to spend time and money on support for new platforms, which encourages those with older platforms to upgrade. Consequently, we are all working on new platforms.
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nzv58l
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Re: U-BOOT 1.1.1 or 1.1.4 or 1.2.0 ?!

Post by nzv58l »

tonyw wrote:The problem with "support" of this old platform is that there is little to be gained by spending time and money on it. Those that make the decisions might prefer to spend time and money on support for new platforms, which encourages those with older platforms to upgrade. Consequently, we are all working on new platforms.
After over 10 years, that is understandable. I actually owned this machine before OS 4 was released and I do plan on upgrading which is going to take a while, so probably looking at the x5000. However, I will keep this machine as it is part of my collection (I still have a Commodore PET amungst others) and I am still trying to figure out what the capabilities of the A1 xe are and I have two questions:

1.)It seems that under uboot 1.1.1 a SIL3114 card can be used, but not all ports?

2.)Under uboot 1.1.1 SATA devices can not be used as boot devices?

I originally had planned to have a CD/DVD writer, a SSD system drive and a larger Hard Disk with a SWAP file partition and other partitions. I wanted to keep the cd/dvd on IDE and the other two on SATA. However, Since SATA is not an option for the boot device, I will have to use IDE. One problem with this arrangement is that IDE is going to be limiting the speed of the SSD by a good margin. The other is that I wanted to get a hot swap trayless drive enclosure. I would not really hot swap, but I wanted to have several boot drives that I could exchange to perform different functions. Like a development system, a fun system and a no frills test system. Besides the speed of SATA, I think the connectors have less issues when pulling out and pushing in(no pins to bend). Perhaps, I could just use the SIL0680 IDE card and get an IDE to SATA converter for it. It would be a good deal slower, but I think it should at least work. My big plan is to actually build multiple computers into my desk and use a KVM switch box to use the same mouse, keyboard, and monitor on the AmigaOne, PC and Mac Pro. If I can find a good USB share switch then I may be able to share the printer, scanner etc...
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Re: U-BOOT 1.1.1 or 1.1.4 or 1.2.0 ?!

Post by corto »

nzv58l wrote:
tonyw wrote:The problem with "support" of this old platform is that there is little to be gained by spending time and money on it. Those that make the decisions might prefer to spend time and money on support for new platforms, which encourages those with older platforms to upgrade. Consequently, we are all working on new platforms.
After over 10 years, that is understandable.
I agree. I would be nice to see improvements for old machines but it is not really possible.
My big plan is to actually build multiple computers into my desk and use a KVM switch box to use the same mouse, keyboard, and monitor on the AmigaOne, PC and Mac Pro. If I can find a good USB share switch then I may be able to share the printer, scanner etc...
On my MicroAOne, U-Boot version is 1.1.1 (built in 2005).

I use this machine with others (AmigaOne X1000 and MacMini / Debian) with a KVM switch box (Trendnet TK-409). To see my MicroAOne working with the USB keyboard and mouse, I have to keep a PS/2 keyboard and mouse plugged in.
OldAmigan
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Re: U-BOOT 1.1.1 or 1.1.4 or 1.2.0 ?!

Post by OldAmigan »

Just catching up on my reading since I got my A1XE back working again.

Doesn't one of the AmigaX1000 or X5000 also use U-boot?

If so, are there big differences between the two versions?

Just wondering as there is an open source ppc laptop effort going (to run Linux), which is also intending to use U-boot, so if it takes off, there would be more developers improving it, something which could do NG Amiga's a bit of good, perhaps.
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tonyw
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Re: U-BOOT 1.1.1 or 1.1.4 or 1.2.0 ?!

Post by tonyw »

Yes, the X-5000 also uses U-Boot, but it bears little resemblance to the U-Boot in the XE.

You must remember that U-Boot itself is a huge (because it came from Linux) program with dozens of conditional compilation switches as well as run-time conditionals. Most of it is only there to provide basic BIOS-style support for the real stuff that is written by Hyperion. The "real stuff" in an X-5000 may be a lot closer to that in an XE (I've never seen the old XE code), but the main U-Boot BIOS is tailored to the machine and unique.

The "real stuff" uses U-Boot as a library and calls BIOS functions to allocate memory for booting, read the devices, etc. Every U-Boot so far (SE, XE, Sam 440, Sam 460, X-5000) is unique to the machine.

The X-1000 uses CFE or OpenFirmware, similar to that in the Pegasos. Again, the "real stuff" calls the BIOS functions to boot the system.
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