AmigaOS 3.1.4 FAQ Revision 1.6 Copyright 2018 Hyperion-Entertainment Please note: This file contains a list of frequently asked questions along with answers, sorted by topics. Before trying to contact support, read through this FAQ and check whether or not it already contains help for your problem. Installation _____________ * What are the hardware requirement for AmigaOS 3.1.4? 1. Kickstart ROM 3.1.4 (desirable), or a an old 3.1 Kickstart ROM. We recommend the former as it will boot faster, will require less RAM, and also includes fixes in the hardware configuration process - and the latter cannot be replaced by code loaded from disk. 2. 2 MB of total memory. Total memory is calculated by adding up ChipMem and FastMem altogether. 3. 5 MB of free hard disk space. And of course, an Amiga is needed. We cannot ensure that Os 3.1.4 operates correctly under emulation since we cannot control these environments. We tried, however, our best to keep it as compatible as possible. * Why won't AmigaOS 3.1.4 boot with 512 KB of ram? Well, we all heard the dummy phrase "512 KB ought to be enough for anyone", but today is 2018 not 1985. Along with all the relevant OS core improvements we made, especially to Workbench, it is not reasonable to have the expectation of running it in such a bare bones system. In other words, big changes require more ram. It is the price of progress, embrace it! * Ok, I get it, 512 KB is not enough anymore, but can I get my way with less than 2 MB of RAM? This is how we break down memory usage. We have rounded up the numbers to be on the safe side, and also because after all, this is a round update. ;) 0.6 MB just to boot + 0.5 MB for loading ROM modules + 0.9 MB for free memory. Of course, a system with a physical Kickstart ROM, 3.1.4 will work nicely with just 1.5 MB of RAM, but as said before, we needed a blank statement that will work under all systems, so 2 MB is a good bet to stay on the safe side. The most intense OS memory hungry process is when you run the 3.1.4 installation; the installer script compilation procedure is what requires most RAM. Taking it to the extreme, a system which has been installed using UAE can be transferred to an Amiga where it could even work with just 1MB of RAM, provided the Amiga has a physical Kickstart 3.1.4 ROM chip installed. * I get a "Please insert a volume containing workbench.library..." during start-up. What is going on? You installed manually, right? Just do as requested. The Install3.1.4 disk contains the requested library, so just put that in place. And for next time, please use the installer. Or at least, copy both workbench.library and icon.library from the Install3.1.4 disk to LIBS:, such as follows: copy df0:libs/workbench.library to LIBS: clone copy df0:libs/icon.library to LIBS: clone * Why are workbench.library and icon.library no longer in ROM? Because these components became much larger than before, and they simply do not fit. So we had to find some other place. The nice file requester you see is the ROM looking for its missing sources. * But why didn't you make the ROM larger then? Because not all models support larger ROMs, and even those that do may fail to identify a larger ROM. It is just too risky. We couldn't come up with a better solution this time. * I purchased the disk-based installation, and installed all the files in the right places, but the OS does not seem to pick them up. Instead, I just get the OS 3.1 Workbench back. What's wrong? You installed manually, right? Well, in that case, chances are that the file permissions are wrong. It is important that the files containing the replacement ROM components have their "p" bit set, which stands for "pure". You can now do the following two things: 1. Copy all the files from the modules disk fitting to your Amiga model again, making sure that the "P" bit is set this time, for example by using: copy ... TO ... CLONE instead of just "COPY", or, as a workaround, 1. Edit the Startup-sequence of your installation and replace C:LoadModule ROMUPDATE with C:LoadModule AUTO which will ignore the "P" bit. As a side effect, it may probably pull some modules into RAM that you wouldn't expect. * Some file permissions on my installation look really weird. Is that normal? You mean, as in "p-r---"? Yes, that is normal, and intentional for all ROM module replacements. "p" stands for "pure" and is required for LoadModule as it otherwise does not pick up the file. "r" means that the file is readable, because LoadModule needs to read it. The files are intentionally not writable, executable or deletable as removing or altering these files may and will damage your installation. * Why doesn't Shell or Workbench respect the "h" protection bit and hide the files away whose "h" bit is set? Because "h" does not stand for "hide", but "hold". An executable file whose "h" bit is set is automatically made resident by the Shell on its first use. So you save all the "Resident" commands in the Startup-sequence. Hard Disks and file systems ___________________________ * Can I use partitions beyond the 4GB boundary? Typically yes, but... this limitation still applies if you: 1. Did not install a physical 3.1.4 ROM but use a disk-based upgrade only and boot from an old ROM. 2. Or if you boot from a legacy third-party host-adapter that does not support any 64-bit extension. Note that the file system that comes with OS 3.1.4 is smart enough to detect multiple 64-bit extensions and uses them if available. Hence, the limitation may already be gone for you. In particular, NSDPatch is not required anymore to enable such extensions. In either case, this limitation can be worked around in multiple ways: 1. If you boot from an old ROM: 1. Consider a ROM-upgrade. 2. Or create a small (<1GB) boot partition as for OS 3.9 which loads the upgraded operating system. All extended partitions will then become available after the first reboot. 2. If none of the above is feasible, or you boot from a third-party host-adapter that does not support any 64-bit addressing, the following procedure will also allow you to use partitions beyond the barrier described above: 1. Insert the "Install3.1.4" disk into any drive. 2. Double click on the disk icon. 3. Double click on "HDTools". This drawer contains a program named "HDToolbox". 4. If you are using a third-party host-adapter, HDToolBox needs to know the name of the host-adapter. For that, 4.1 Remove the disk again and slide the drive-protection notch in the closed position, enabling writing to the disk. 4.2 Re-insert the disk. 4.3 Click on the icon ONLY once. 4.4 Select "Information" in the Workbench menu by clicking the icon with the right mouse button. 4.5 In the Information window, identify the line saying "SCSI_DEVICE_NAME=scsi.device" 4.6 Edit this line according to the host adapter you are using. The information on the correct device name can be found in the documentation that came with your host adapter. 4.7 Save the changes back. 5. Now double-click on HDToolBox to start the program. 6. Identify your installation drive, and click on it. 7. Click on "Partition Drive". 8. On the new window, select the first partition, then click on the "Advanced Options" check box. 9. A new check box labeled "Direct SCSI Transfer" appears. Ensure this check box is CHECKED. Enable it if not. 10. Repeat this procedure for all other partitions on the drive. 11. Click on "Add/Update". A list of currently-installed file systems appears on the screen. This list may be empty. 12. If there is already a file system on the list, click on "Update". Accept the default choice and click on "OK". 13. If not, click on "Add New File System", then accept the default choice for the file system, and click on "OK". 13.1 A list of file system options is now shown. Ensure that the version says "46". If not, you did not boot from an OS 3.1.4 disk. 13.2 Accept or modify the file system type accordingly. For most installations, the default type shown as 0x444f5303 is fine. 13.3 Click on "OK" to go back to the list of file systems. 14. Click on "OK" to go back to the partition list. 15. Click on "OK" to go back to the drive list. 16. Click on "Save changes to drive". 17. These changes will not erase any data on your drive, do not worry about the requester. This will reboot your machine. 18. Open a Shell window. 19. Type "version DH0:" (assuming that your boot drive is DH0:). 20. Verify that the version is 46. If not, go through the procedure above again, carefully verifying that you follow the steps precisely. * How do I setup a new drive with HDToolBox? I do not see the drive in the selection box at all, what is wrong? HDToolBox is a little bit old-fashioned, we know. To configure a new drive, 1. Click on "Change Drive Type" 2. A list of known drive types appears. Here click on "Define New". 3. Now click on "Read Configuration", 4. Click on "Continue", 5. then click on "OK". Now you are ready to partition the drive. * Long file-names - I was promised long file-names! How do I use them? Yes, indeed; you can get them, though you need to reformat your hard disk. Select "DOS\7" as the file system. The identifier for this is 0x444f5307 in HDToolBox. Or, just select the button for "long file-name support". A similar check mark will also appear in the Format program. This will allow you to use file-names as long as 106 characters. And no, it will not work without re-installation. * But Workbench still limits my file-names to 30 characters! Please check the Workbench preferences, in SYS:Prefs. You can set a limit there. Of course, in the end, it's the file system that decides whether to refuse or accept a file-name. * I read something about a setting called "Max Transfer", which is a value which I need to manually adjust according to my system. How do I set it up? We decided to make things simpler for you, with AmigaOS 3.1.4 you don't need to touch this setting for the built-in scsi.device. No guarantees for third-party firmware, of course. * When mounting the CD file system on an XSurfIDE device, reading large DVDs results in an error -3 being shown. Unfortunately, the XSurfIDE neither speaks TD64 nor NSD64, and hence cannot access files beyond the 2GB barrier without a bit of help. For this little help, open the mount list of the CDFS, and add the following tool type to the CD0 icon: SCSIDirect = 1 Then reboot the machine. This instructs the CD file system to use SCSI commands rather than trackdisk commands to address the disk, and with that, the XSurfIDE can access data beyond the barrier. * What is a "superfloppy"? It is a removable medium like a floppy, but just larger. Examples are the ZIP disk, the Jaz drive and the LS-120 superdisk. Like floppies, superfloppies do not use partitions, the entire medium stores data. They do not make use of the "RDB", the rigid disk block. They may also come in variable sizes. And like floppies, the Amiga file systems, when we use the ones we prepared, are smart enough to adapt themselves to the size of the medium. * How do I mount a superfloppy? You need to use a mount list. In particular, the following entries need to be set: LowCyl = 0 ; there is no RDB Device = Unit = Flags = 0 ; typically, depends on the device SuperFloppy = 1 ; This turns on superfloppy support DosType = 0x444f5303 ; for FFS INTL FileSystem = L:FastFileSystem Mount = 1 Activate = 1 The file system will figure out all remaining parameters from the device. CPU Support / ROM Modules / SetPatch ____________________________________ * I manually installed, and now get a warning from SetPatch on unknown options. The OS 3.9 SetPatch included additional functionality that is no longer present in OS 3.1.4 and have been outsourced to other programs. The line in the Startup-sequence calling SetPatch should only read as follows: SetPatch >NIL: You need to fix your Startup-sequence accordingly. In particular, NOROMUPDATES, NONSDPATCH are no longer options SetPatch supports. * Where did the extended functionality of SetPatch go? OS 3.9 SetPatch included a ROM-Updates functionality to install new ROM modules on top of the old ones. This functionality is now implemented by a separate program, namely "LoadModule". It is included in the C directory of the Modules disk, or available from Aminet: http://aminet.net/util/boot/LoadModule.lha You also need this tool to load Intuition V45 (see below). OS 3.9 SetPatch also included "NSDPatch," a feature to patch-in a Commodore-only command set for addressing large devices, while most third-party devices supported the earlier TD64 specification. This extension is no longer necessary; see above. If you want continue to use the NSDPatch approach, you find the NSDPatch program in the C: directory of the Install3.1.4 disk. Copy the program to the C directory of your boot disk, and insert NSDPatch into your Startup-sequence right after SetPatch. However, as stated above, this step is (typically) no longer necessary. * Does my 68060 work out-of-the-box now or do I still have to hack the ROM? You don't have to hack the ROM, but you still need to install a proper CPU library. See below. * When booting the system, the Startup-sequence stops and gives me an error on an incomplete installation. What is missing? The CPU support library is missing. In particular, 68040- and 68060-based systems need to have the 68040.library or the 68060.library in LIBS: Without them, the system cannot work correctly. Some systems have the 68040.library or 68060.library in their accelerator ROM. On such systems, no installation is necessary, and you will not get any warning then either. For 68030 based systems, we recommend a 68030.library as well, as otherwise the system can deadlock in a couple of situations. This is due to a hardware errata/specification change of Motorola. Installing this library will also allow you to enable the data cache when using bridge boards. * Where do I find the CPU libraries, and how do I install them? They came with the support disk from your accelerator card vendor. The installation procedure is depending on the vendor, but typically requires you to copy the CPU library from the install disk to LIBS: with a command such as the following: copy df0:libs/680?0.library to LIBS: We also suggest to check the FAQ of your vendor. In particular, we include a FAQ for GVP boards in the distribution. * ...but I lost my original support disk of my turbo board! Oh well. There is a generic replacement in Aminet that works, in general, quite well. You'll find it here: http://aminet.net/util/libs/MMULib.lha Simply install it via the installation script that comes with it. * Where do I find a 68030.library? My board did not come with one. See above for where to find one. Boards didn't usually come with one because the errata was only found years after the introduction of the 68030. * Couldn't you just package the CPU libraries with the OS? We would love to, but the libraries are in general vendor specific, and most vendors are out of business today. While the generic replacement mentioned above works fine in general, it may not work for your particular board. And note that we do not have CPU libraries for all vendors on file, let alone the permission to redistribute them. However, a web search can often help in locating missing CPU libraries, as well as notable Amiga hardware reference websites. Also check the vendors' or 3rd-party FAQs. * Couldn't you just ship the Commodore 68040.library? See above. It may not work for your board, and we don't want to damage your installation. However, for the boards that were originally delivered with it, the generic replacement available from Aminet works fine without any further tweaks. * What about the dummy 68040.library? My old turbo board manual mentions that I have to install it, and rename it. Disregard this. OS 3.1.4 does not require any dummy 68040.library. It detects the right CPU library itself and does not require a dummy. In particular, for a 68060 processor, the 68060.library is sufficient (plus, the mmu.library if you use a MuLib-based processor library). * I get a note from the CPU command on CPU errata. What should I do? Erratas are known defects in the CPU, typically found after introduction to market. Unfortunately, not all CPU libraries are able to work around all errata. You did install a CPU library, didn't you? For the 68030: Install a 68030.library. This will avoid the "CIIN disabled on write" errata. For the 68060: If you cannot use the generic 68060.library mentioned above, add the following command to the Startup-sequence: CPU DISABLELOADSTOREBUFFERBYPASS Performance and compatibility _____________________________ * Pointer preferences renders incorrectly on my screen. Yes, we do test programs before delivering them. What you see here is not a bug in the pointer preference program, but a bug in CyberGraphX not implementing the "minterms" correctly. The same program works nicely on a native or Picasso96 screen. * The Locale preferences renders incorrectly on my screen. See above. This is a known bug in CyberGraphX, so if you depend on this RTG screen format, you'll have to live with it or request a fix of CyberGraphX from their vendors. The same program works nicely on a native or Picasso96 screen. * OS 3.1.4 is terribly slow! You are using a disk-based installation, right? Well, LoadModule needs to load the updated ROM modules into some reset-resident memory. In a worst-case scenario, this is Chip RAM, and yes, access to Chip RAM is slow. However, you can do the following: 1. Buy a physical ROM and install it, thus eliminating the need for replacing ROM modules by RAM modules Or, in case your system is equipped with a MMU: 2. Install the MMUlib archive from Aminet and add the following command below SetPatch in the S:Startup-sequence: MuProtectModules ON REMAP This will remap the ROM modules from their current location to the fastest available RAM and give you some extra speed. Keep in mind, that using this option will occupy ram which you won't be able to free. * But why doesn't LoadModule load the modules into FastRAM in first place? Because the available Fast RAM may not be reset-resident, i.e. the modules would go away after a reset. LoadModule can only use what is available to the system. What MuProtectModules does is create a mirror of this memory via the MMU, but this mirror disappears after a reset, unlike the original module image. * The system crashes as soon as I play a stereo 8SVX audio file. Please check whether you have the svx.datatype (yes, really "svx", not "8svx") installed. Unfortunately, this datatype is not compatible with the way how the 3.1.4 and also Os 3.9 sound datatype handles stereo data. Just remove it. 8svx will play stereo data perfectly fine now. * What about all those widely used system patches, Can I use them? AmigaOS 3.1.4 is a bug-fix update, this means that we focused on fixing the vast majority of bugs that have been known for decades and even then some more that were hiding for many years despite our prying eyes. :-) So at the time of this writing, we are proud to tell you that they are not necessary anymore! Among these patches are: RamLibFix, PatchRAM, StackAttack, AmberRAM, PrepareEmul, RsrvWarm, MuMove4K, SwazInfo, RomFixes, etc. Of course, many of this programs also contained hacks to do things the OS was not programmed to do in the first place (Like MCP, SystemPatch, MultiCX, etc). We did not implement most of these hacks, because they do not follow proper Amiga coding rules and do their stuff in a "dirty" way causing potential harm to the system. You are welcome to try them, but don't complain to us if they end up crashing your machine. And also be extremely careful not to activate a patch for a fix, because most patches don't do proper checking and will probably end up putting your system in an unstable condition. Being cautious and conservative is always a wise choice. * I tried to install a Demo/Game which uses WHDLoad and the Installer warns me that it is outdated! The install scripts depends on new features introduced in the Installer delivered with OS 3.5. While the version delivered with Os 3.1.4 is 45.6, it is derived from OS 3.1 and therefore misses the extensions of the OS 3.5 release. The version of the Installer reported to scripts is 43.xx. You may either ignore this warning: the installation will still work without using the features of the OS 3.5 Installer, or you may get the Installer from OS 3.5 which will work on the OS 3.1.4 system too - though it still includes some bugs we were able to address in 3.1.4. The missing features of the Installer may appear in a future release of the OS. Intuition Library V45 ______________________ * What is the V45 intuition.library? It is an update to the system library responsible for the GUI that includes a couple of new features. Among them is a feature to allow you to drag windows out of the screen. * Why isn't the V45 intuition.library enabled by default? Because it is incompatible with the cybergraphics.library which depends on the precise layout of undocumented intuition internals. Unfortunately, we do not know the details and we did not want to break existing CyberGraphX installations. If you do not use CyberGraphX, or run Picasso96 instead, then no such incompatibility exists. * How do I install the V45 intuition.library? 1. For the ROM-based installation process, you first need to copy the new system component to your system. For that, insert any of the modules disks into the first disk drive, then select "Execute command" from the Workbench menu, and enter the following command: copy df0:libs/intuition-v45.library to LIBS:intuition.library clone 2. In case you installed from a physical 3.1.4. ROM, LoadModule has to be installed manually. For that, download the archive http://aminet.net/util/boot/LoadModule.lha from Aminet and copy the LoadModule command from this archive into the C directory of your boot disk. 3. The Startup-sequence of your system requires a modification. To perform this installation, select "Execute command" once more from the Workbench menu, and enter the following command: Ed S:Startup-sequence A window containing the startup script of your system will open. The first lines on the screen should read as follows: If Exists C:LoadModule C:Version exec.library version 46 >NIL: If Warn C:LoadModule ROMUPDATE EndIf EndIf Replace them with the following: C:LoadModule ROMUPDATE Then save the result back to disk by pressing the ESC key, then the X key, then press return. Then reboot. * I purchased a ROM upgrade option, but I still need to reboot twice to get the new V45 intuition library. Why is that? We decided not to include the V45 intuition.library in ROM because it is not compatible with CyberGraphX. Please try to contact the CyberGraphX authors for a fix so we can (hopefully) include it in ROM in the next release. * How can I load icons into Fast RAM? There's no program or Preference setting for it. Because it's not needed. In fact, please do not use WBCtrl anymore. Workbench is smart enough to detect cases where it can put icons into fast, and it will do so automatically whenever it is able to. * I have now 28K of Chip RAM less, where did the RAM go? It's reserved. Actually, the lower 32K is reserved now for Mac emulators. The benefit of this is that you no longer need MuMove4k or PrepareEmul. Just start Mac emulations right away. * But I need the 28K back - really! Watch Aminet. We will supply a program that will, through a second reset, deliver the missing RAM. It's kind of "MoMuve4k backwards". But, seriously - what's 28K among friends? Printers _________ * Which printer drivers do I need, and which driver supports which printer? The following printer drivers are part of 3.1.4: NEC_Pinwriter: NEC P5,P6,P7,P9 and P2200 EpsonX_Old: Epson EX,FX,JX,LX,MX and RX This driver is deprecated. Try only if the regular driver does not work. Recommended for the old MPS 1230 made by C=. EpsonX: Epson EX,FX,JX,LX,MX and RX This is the preferred driver. Try the "old" variant only if this one does not work. EpsonQ: Epson LQ-800,LQ-850,LQ-1000,LQ-1050, LQ-1500 and LQ-2500 Postscript: Any postscript printer should work with this. HP_LaserJet: HP LaserJet, HP LaserJet+, HP LaserJet II, HP LaserJet 500 and HP LaserJet 2000 This printer driver supports resolutions up 300x300 dpi, in gray scale only. HP_LaserJet_III: HP LaserJet II+ and HP LaserJet III This printer driver also supports resolutions up to 300x300 dpi in gray scale, but enables compression of graphics for faster printing. HP_LaserJet_4: HP LaserJet 4, HP LaserJet 5, HP LaserJet 6, HP LaserJet 1100 and HP LaserJet 3100 This printer driver supports resolutions up to 600x600 dpi in gray scale with compression enabled. HP_LaserJet_2100: HP LaserJet 2100, HP LaserJet 4000, HP LaserJet 5000 and HP LaserJet 8000 This printer driver supports resolutions up to 1200x1200 dpi in gray scale with compression enabled. Newer HP LaserJet printers supporting PCL might work as well. Available at the time of writing is the HP LaserJet Pro M402 series, which prints fine using the HP_LaserJet driver and probably other driver variants as well. You'll need a USB expansion or a network card plus lpr.device from Aminet to connect to these modern printers. Make sure to redirect parallel.device to either usbparallel.device or lpr.device. While the printer.device supports printing to other devices, our current preferences program does not allow to select another target. The Os 3.9 prefs program does, and the printer.device supports it. Alternatively, use the tool "OpenDevicePatch", see lpr-dev package on Aminet for instructions: http://aminet.net/comm/tcp/lpr-dev.lha HP_DeskJet: HP Deskjet, HP Deskjet+, HP DeskJet 310, HP DeskJet 320, HP_DeskJet_500, HP_DeskJet_510, HP_DeskJet_520 Resolutions up to 300x300 dpi gray scale with compression. HP_DeskJet_340: HP Deskjet 340/340CM/340CBi, HP_DeskJet_550C, and HP_DeskJet_560C Resolutions up to 300x300 dpi in color or gray-scale with compression. These printers print with four types of inks (CMYK). HP_DeskJet_400: HP_DeskJet_200C, HP_DeskJet_400, HP_DeskJet_400L, HP_DeskJet_420C, HP_DeskJet_500C, HP DeskJet 540C, HP_DeskJet_550C, HP_DeskJet_560C, HP_DeskJet_670C, HP DeskJet 672C, HP_DeskJet_1200C Resolutions up to 300x300 dpi in color with compression. These printers print with three types of ink and use color ink to mix up black. HP_DeskJet_600: HP Deskjet 600, HP DeskJet 610C/610CL, HP DeskJet 612C, HP_DeskJet_660C, HP DeskJet 680C, HP DeskJet 682C, HP DeskJet 690C, HP DeskJet 692C,HP DeskJet 693C, HP DeskJet 694C, HP_DeskJet_695C, HP DeskJet 697C, HP DeskJet 810C, HP_DeskJet_812C, HP_DeskJet_815C, HP_DeskJet_830C, HP_DeskJet_832C, HP_DeskJet_850C, HP_DeskJet_855C, HP_DeskJet_870C, HP_DeskJet_880C, HP_DeskJet_882C, HP_DeskJet_890C, HP_DeskJet_1600, HP_DeskJet_1600C and HP_DeskJet_1600CM Resolutions up to 600x600 dpi in gray scale and 300x300 dpi in color, with compression. These printers use four ink types. HP_DeskJet_895C: HP_DeskJet_895C,HP_DeskJet_970C,HP_DeskJet_1100C and HP_DeskJet_1120C Resolutions up to 600x600 dpi in color or gray-scale. These printers print with four ink types. Generic: An ASCII only, text only printer without graphics support you may try if everything else fails. * I have a printer that is not listed, but was supported with OS 3.1. What should I do? Just copy the printer driver from OS 3.1 to DEVS:Printers, and select it from the preferences editor. OS 3.1 drivers will continue to work fine with OS 3.1.4. * My OS 3.5/OS 3.9 printer drivers refuse to work with OS 3.1.4. Where is the problem? The problem is a common bug in the OS 3.5/3.9 drivers that stops them from working in OS 3.1.4. In particular, the drivers return an incorrect result code from their initialization function, and the 3.9 printer.device never cared about whether initialization succeeded or not. This had been fixed in 3.1.4, with the side effect of OS 3.9 drivers no longer working. Note, however, that all models supported in 3.9 are also supported by native 3.1.4 drivers, so no harm done. * I have an unsupported printer. What can I do? Well. Write a printer driver, for example. (-: Or, at least, try to get a technical description from its vendor, and forward it to us. Unfortunately, most consumer printers today are GDI-printers that use a closed, proprietary protocol to communicate with the operating system of a large US company only, so good luck. And no, we do not have better access to technical manuals either. Note, however, that most printers nowadays fall into four categories: PCL-based printers, mostly from HP. These should work fine with one of the HP printer drivers. Postscript-based printers. These work fine with the postscript driver. EscP-based printers. They work fine with the Epson or EpsonQ drivers. GDI printers. They don't work on anything but Windows, and their vendors do not care about niche products like AmigaOs anyhow. * Where is the "print to file" printer driver? We don't have one, but none is needed either. Just run the "CMD" program which you can find in Sys:Utilities. It will redirect printer output to a file. It will now also give you a file requester as soon as you start printing. * Do I still need TurboPrint? No, at least not for the printers supported by 3.1.4. But, if you have it, you can surely use it. The print system did not change. Except for the bugs we fixed. CLI/Shell and Tools ____________________ * Where is the PIPE program? I want to use pipes in my Shell. Nowhere. You no longer need it. The V46 Shell supports pipes natively. The | symbol pipes the output of the left program into the input of the right program, || merges the output of two programs together, and ( ) group programs. * I cannot interrupt pipes from the Shell, or programs continue to run if I interrupt a piped command sequence. Make sure the OS 3.1.4 Queue-Handler is in L:. Many third-party variants do not operate correctly, or cannot interrupt pipes. The 3.1.4. Shell depends on the features of the 3.1.4 Queue-Handler. * The menus of the Ed editor look all white on black. Why didn't you adapt this to the black-on-white style? Essentially, because the console the editor runs in did not set the right flag for that, and Ed just cannot do anything about it. We haven't had the manpower to update the console this time. However, there are alternatives in Aminet that, among other things, will also correct Ed's menu colors. * ShowConfig is missing hardware expansion details and even then, my MMU is not detected. ShowConfig shows the basic board config information for troubleshooting efforts. The ever-changing and expanding board and CPU detail is outsourced to 3rd parties like MMULib and BoardsLib. You can get ShowConfig to display them, if you include the publicly available boards.library in your Libs drawer. And speaking about MMU, we did the same as we can detect it with the aid of mmu.library which is also publicly available. Both libraries can be downloaded from http://aminet.net/util/libs/MMULib.lha and http://aminet.net/util/libs/BoardsLib.lha . * What does this new WBLoad command located in C: actually do? It is a sort of replacement for the more known WBRun command. It loads Workbench programs from the CLI/Shell. However, it does not require the Workbench. Hence, it is safe to use in the Startup-sequence before LoadWB, and it operates synchronously, i.e. it does not return until the started program returns. If this bothers you, place an "&" as last argument to the program. * Are there any new command line arguments I should know of? Yes, there are plenty. What follows is the list, with a brief description of each. This list not complete, though, and to some commands, we added features without adding options. ADDDATATYPES LIST This will list all DataTypes descriptors currently in memory by descriptor name. CMD DEVICE The user can now specify a concrete device name. CPU CHECKINSTALL Tests for the presence of a CPU library on affected CPU models. CPU CPUTYPE Prints only the CPU information for scripting purposes. CPU FPUTYPE Prints only the FPU information for scripting purposes. CPU MMUTYPE Prints only the MMU information for scripting purposes if it can. The mmu.library is required for this to work. CPU TO Switch to redirect the output of the CPU command. There are plenty other switches of the CPU command to fiddle with some of the internals of the CPU. You don't need them, unless we tell so. Really. They can only make your system go slower, or less stable. And we don't what this to happen, right? HDTOOLBOX LIMIT_4GBYTE which can be ON/TRUE or OFF/FALSE. Artificially recreates the 4 GB limit. HDTOOLBOX MIN_SECTOR_SIZE Overrides minimum sector size. Value must be a multiple of 512 bytes, and it must be a power of two. HDTOOLBOX MAX_SECTOR_SIZE Overrides maximum sector size. value must be a multiple of 512 bytes, and it must be a power of two. HDTOOLBOX MASK Overrides the default values used by the RDB settings written to disk. They must all be in hexadecimal notation, just as you would in a mount file. HDTOOLBOX BUFMEMTYPE Overrides the default values used by the RDB settings written to disk. They must all be in hexadecimal notation, just as you would in a mount file. HDTOOLBOX MAXTRANSFER Overrides the default values used by the RDB settings written to disk. They must all be in hexadecimal notation, just as you would in a mount file. LOADWB LEGACY Allows to start older Workbench versions. LOADWB SIMPLEGELS Uses simpler shapes for dragging icons on the Workbench. LOADWB SKIP Skips starting programs in the WBStartup drawer. MAKEDIR ALL Creates directories recursively. MAKELINK SOFT Creates soft links. MULTIVIEW REPEAT Indicates whether the animation/audio should loop. Defaults is to "don't loop". MULTIVIEW IMMEDIATE Indicates whether the animation/audio should immediately begin playing after calling Multiview. Default is to "don't start immediately". MULTIVIEW PRTUNIT Configures the printer.device unit used for printer dumps. MULTIVIEW WINDOWLEFT Defines the horizontal coordinate of MultiView's window. MULTIVIEW WINDOWTOP Defines the vertical coordinate of MultiView's window. MULTIVIEW WINDOWWIDTH Describes the complete width size of the window instead of the inner dimensions (without border). MULTIVIEW WINDOWHEIGHT Describes the complete height size of the window instead of the inner dimensions (without border). MULTIVIEW AUTORESIZE Causes MultiView to resize its window when you open a new image. REQUESTCHOICE SET Copies the selected choice into a shell variable. REQUESTFILE SET Copies the selected file or files to a shell variable. RX SCRIPT=NAME/K Defines the script to be executed. This must be explicitly given if the script name is enclosed in quotes, as otherwise RX attempts to interpret the enclosed string as series of REXX commands to be executed directly. RX CMD Explicitly requests a command (not a script) to be executed. For this option, Shell quoting rules (and not Rexx quoting rules) apply, so "rx cmd" can be used also in shell scripts where the shell (or execute) applies its escape mechanism. That is, a quote must be escaped with an asterisk if the CMD argument is given. RX "..." Defines an ARexx command or ARexx file to be executed. If in double quotes, a direct command is assumed, otherwise a file. This is backwards compatible to the V36 release of RX. In addition, the RX command can also be invoked from the workbench and then accepts the following additional ToolTypes: CONSOLE= or WINDOW= Defines a pathname where output should go to. The default is a console. STARTUP="cmd" Defines an AmigaDos command to startup the Rexx host in case it is not running. This is by default "RexxMast". SEARCH CASE Case-sensitive searching. Note that this switch is INACTIVE when searching for files. SORT DESCENDING Reverses the sort order. SORT SKIPBLANKS Ignores leading blanks. SORT NUMERIC Sorts numerically, not lexicographically. WAIT FILE Waits for the existence of a given file. There are a couple of hidden features and improvements, such as DIR being able to adjust its output to the size of the console, LIST showing hard- and soft-links and COPY copying them correctly. We will report on them later and will provide examples of use. * Where are Lacer, MEmacs, HDBackup, Bru and MagTape? For good reasons we decided to phase them out. Hyperion will be offering a free of charge download option for registered AmigaOS 3.1.4 customers who feel emotionally attached to these archaic components. However, "these belong into a museum", as Indy would put it. OS 3.1.4 and OS 3.9 ____________________ * Can I mix OS 3.9 components with OS 3.1.4? Typically, yes. There are a couple of caveats, though. In particular, if you use the OS 3.9 "Printer preferences" dialog, ensure that you delete ENVARC:sys/printergfx.prefs or the printer system will use the preferences from the OS 3.1.4 preferences editor. You also need to ensure that you use the OS 3.9 "prefs.catalog" instead of the one that comes with OS 3.1.4. But please bear in mind - and this goes to all programs within AmigaOS - 3.9 catalogs are somewhat incompatible with both 3.1 and 3.1.4. Mixing components requires careful consideration when using languages other than English, or you will end up with misleading translations. Also, if you decide to use long file-names, beware that RAWBInfo does not properly behave with them, so better remove it from the WBStartup drawer. AmigaOS 3.9 mount files will be overwritten by 3.1.4 default counterparts, so some of them may need to be readjusted to meet your needs. This is clearly the case in CD0 (your cdrom device), as AmigaOS 3.1.4 has its own new cd-rom filesystem, which by the way, won't work with previous 3.9 cd prefs program called CacheCDFS. Be warned that if you customized the ToolTypes of some 3.9 programs, when installed, AmigaOS 3.1.4 will overwrite them with its default new settings. * I prefer the nice OS 3.9 reaction GUI, but now my printer ignores the printer graphics settings in the OS 3.9 dialog. OS 3.9 expects the printer settings in a different location that is not compatible with the OS 3.1.4 location. To work around this problem, open up a Shell and type in the following command: DELETE ENVARC:sys/printergfx.prefs Then, do not use the OS 3.1.4 PrinterGfx preferences anymore. * WBPattern prefs does not include a "Layout" cycle gadget for Tile, Center, Scale, and Scale Well functions. This feature is not so simple to implement as it involves enhancing IPrefs. We decided to leave it for a future update as there were more important things to resolve first. Priorities are a must when there is such a big to-do list and limited manpower. In the meantime, users should just resize their desktop wallpaper to the resolution they need using third party programs, which exist even on AmigaOS. Between many others, we can safely recommend dtscale24 by Thomas Rapp: https://thomas-rapp.homepage.t-online.de/download.html A pre-scaled background will also decrease loading time a lot and in all cases is the fastest solution.. * The new preferences editors ignore my font settings! The preference editors are based on the sources of OS 3.1, they use topaz.8 as a fixed font setting. We neither have ReAction at this time, which the OS 3.9 prefs require, nor the source code of the latter. That's also why we had to rewrite the editors for ASL and Workbench preferences from scratch. Font sensitivity will return to the prefs in a later release, don't worry. Just be reminded: There was little man-power, and so much to do. * I'm using the OS 3.9 reaction GUI for preferences, but the GUI contains unreadable strings. Unfortunately, OS 3.9 did not simply extend the OS 3.1 catalogs, but instead populated the catalog in an incompatible way. If you want to continue to use OS 3.9, ensure that the following file comes from an OS 3.9 installation: LOCALE:Catalogs//sys/prefs.catalog Copy the OS 3.9 catalog on top of the OS 3.1.4 catalog to get a working OS 3.9 GUI back. While OS 3.1.4. tries to be compatible with OS 3.1 and extended its catalogs in a backwards-compatible way, OS 3.9 unfortunately selected another route and picked incompatible IDs for its translation. Sorry, but we cannot fix this. * IControl preferences of OS 3.9 had a setting to render windows gadgets in 1:1 aspect. Where is it? It's currently not available. The code is lost and it was a hack. We haven't figured out how to implement this properly; there are prototypes, but they have compatibility issues with some software. If you have found a working solution without side effects, contact us! * The background image of my workbench now uses dithering, even though I'm using a true-color screen mode. What's wrong? The syntax of the picture.datatype settings have changed, and if you had custom settings there, the new picture datatype will likely misinterpret them to enable dithering for many applications. The easiest remedy is to simply delete the old settings of the picture datatype, see the next point. * How do I set/change picture.datatypes settings? AmigaOS 3.9 came with SYS:Prefs/PictDT. With it, you could explicitly set which application supports the V43 mode of the datatype. This mode offers support for screens with more than 256 colors. In addition, you can specify whether pictures should be dithered on high color screens (65536 colors) or not. Disabling dithering decreases image quality on these screens, but improves the speed of the datatype considerably. In AmigaOS 3.1.4 the env variable "classes/datatypes/picture/ForceV43" holds a list of all programs that should be forced to v43 mode. In particular, this list should contain the string « IPrefs » including the double angle brackets to avoid dithering on the Workbench. If you leave the environment variable empty, it means that there is a list of programs to be promoted, and this list is empty. If the environment variable does not exist, however, the known well-working Os components receive full truecolor images. So it is easiest just to delete ENVARC:classes/datatypes/picture/ForceV43. Dithering of the picture.datatype can be set or unset by the env variable "Classes/DataTypes/picture/DitherHiColour" which can hold either a 0 or 1 value (0 = off and 1 = on). * Why didn't you base your work on OS 3.9 and instead used OS 3.1 as a basis? We would have loved to. Because we do not have sufficient rights, let alone all the sources of OS 3.9. Many components you get with 3.1.4 are re-implementations of 3.9 components. For example, the printer.device is "all new", but despite its version number, not based on the V44 printer.device from OS 3.9. We did not have anything as backup for the OS 3.9 HDToolBox, so we did use the old one and fixed (at least) its most obvious bugs. * Will there be more updates? I'm sick of waiting almost 20 years for OS updates! Well, you can count on bug-fix releases fixing bugs of this bug-fix release. And after that? There's so much to do... the future of this product also depends on you. Miscellaneous _____________ * Why didn't you support feature XYZ ...as in "TAB Expansion", "Magic Menus"... you name it. Note the revision number. This is a clean-up and bug-fix release of OS 3.1. We had more than enough to do to get all its bugs fixed (and possibly added a couple of new ones, for your entertainment and our embarrassment.) * Why is the "Find..." entry shadowed in the Window item of the Workbench menu? This is done on purpose, and only occurs if Workbench doesn't detect a Find program in the System folder. So if you put one there, and name it appropriately, you will get that menu item enabled automatically. * Can I use the modules from the modules disk to build my own custom Kickstart ROM? At this point in time we are only able to support a limited number of Kickstart ROMs (only the ones that are advertised), and this due to the unlimited amount of combinations that custom ROMs may lead to. So yes, sure go ahead, but don't ask us for support from us if you follow this route. * Can I get the guru back? Sure; crash a program. We're certain we left a couple of bugs for you to find. Oh, you mean, instead of "Software Failure"? No, you cannot. See the next point. * Talking of support - where can I get any for this product? Official support will be provided on the forums at: http://forum.hyperion-entertainment.biz * Will there be more updates? I'm sick of waiting almost 20 years for OS updates! Well, you can count on bug fix releases fixing bugs from this bug fix release. And after that? There's so much to do... the future of this product also depends on you. * Are there any Easter Eggs in OS 3.1.4? No, there are no traces of humor in us that we're aware of. No, seriously, no Easter Eggs this time. It's not Easter anyway. * Will there be more updates? I'm sick of waiting almost 20 years for OS updates! Well, you can count on bug fix releases fixing bugs from this bug fix release. And after that? There's so much to do and the future of this product also depends on you, of course: Tell us about your wishes and preferences concerning an even further updated classic AmigaOS.