When space is small you do stupid things (both PCI cards, Voodoo 3 and PPC board connected to the Prometheus Resurrector).
A bad idea…
Category Archives: Amiga models
SMB2FS setup on AmigaOS 4.1
I got an WIFI adapter for my Sam440EP last year. Since then I have wanted to get SAMBA shares up and running on the Amiga for easy file transfers and accessing data that lives on my workstation from my Amiga.
I played around with SAMBA for Amiga as early as 1998 when I bought an Amiga 3000 with an ASDG LanRover card (for 50 euro). I never got it going though as the SAMBA archive on Aminet was confusing to follow.
How I got SMB2FS working on AmigaOS 4.1
First of all, a small disclaimer – this is how I got access to PC SAMBA shares on AmigaOS 4.1 working, it might not be the default way of doing it but it worked for me. I tried a lot of different configurations until this one worked.
Before doing the installation I recommend to double check that both machines can see each other on the network. That is done by pinging the PC from the Amiga and vice versa. To find out the IP number on the Amiga, I typed inshownetstatus in CLI. Once ping confirmed both computers shaking hands with each other, I decided to continue.
Step 1 – Download and install SMB2FS
The first thing I did was to download SMB2FS from OS4Depot. Once download I clicked on the install icon. Unlike the SAMBA installations of old on Amiga SMB2FS is much easier to setup and lets you add shares on the Amiga only. Seems like you do not have to be a Unix expert or MCSE geek to get it going anymore.
Step 2 – Adding a dosdriver for the share
The next thing I did after installing SMB2FS was to copy a dosdriver in sys:storage/dosdrivers. I renamed the dosdriver to SMBShare. Then I opened the dosdriver in notepad and added:
Handler = L:smb2-handler
StackSize = 65536
Priority = 5
GlobVec = -1
Startup = "smb://username:password@ipnumber/share-on-pc VOLUME=volume-name"
Where:
- Username = The username for logging in to my workstation running Windows 11.
- Password = The local password I use to log into my workstation.
- Share-on-pc = The name of the folder that I shared on my workstation.
- VOLUME = The name the shared volume should have in AmigaOS4
Some notes here that I would have been glad if they were specified somewere.
- The username is the name you see when you open a command line on Windows.
- The password has to be a local password, it wont work with a Microsoft password (the password you use for you Microsoft account).
As I understood it you should then add a default tool “c:mount” to the icon and add “activate=1” to the tooltype of the dosdriver. If you drag it over to sys:devs/dosdrivers/ and reboot then you would see the share on the desktop. But it did not for some reason work for me.
Note:
What worked was setting tooltype “activate=0” and then activating device in shell like typing in “smbshare:” (if that is what it was named to). But I wanted the share to auto mount during startup.
Step 3 – Starting the share
I got it the share to mount if I kept the dosdriver in sys:storage/dosdrivers and mounted the dosdriver from CLI by running “mount replace dh1:storage/dosdrivers/smbshare” (if you wonder why sys: is dh1:, that was an error by me during installation, off course it should be dh0:).
So I added that line to Network-Startup inside S: (not sure if you have to add run >NIL: but did not try without). During testing, I had to add replace to the mount command. Not sure why, but that is why I added it to the line here.
Step 4 – Trying out Windows 11 SAMBA share on AmigaOS 4.1
After a reboot the share popped up on Workbench! The share from the PC is the bottom device “MP3”. I have added an icon to the share otherwise it defaults to the regular AmigaOS 4.1 HDD icon. The share can be snapshotted wherever I want it on the desktop.
I have two drawers from the share open here on my AmigaOS4.1 desktop. One showing the top level of the SAMBA share and one of a sub folder. Opening folders in the share can take some time if there are many files inside them, but it is not that bad.
I have dragged an MP3 file to AmigaAMP that plays the tune from the share over the network. Occasionally there is some lag. I think that is because I am running a wireless adapter, but it is not that bad.
Next steps
- Install SMB2FS on my 68k Amiga systems. DONE, it was almost exactly the same procedure.
- I would also like to share the full Amiga partitions to my workstation, that way I would for example be able to edit s:user-startup or restructuring partitions or add/remove files from my PC.
N2630 Amiga 68030 CPU card metal bracket
N2630 is a great 68030 CPU card you can build yourself for the Amiga 2000 or A2000EATX project. You can find more information about the N2630 project on the website here.
There is a model for a bracket for the N2630 that you can 3D print. I did that but it was too flimsy and eventually broke in two pieces.
I was planning on ordering a 3D metal print of the bracket from JLC but heard of arymanx on Amibay who had made a small batch of metal brackets for the CPU card. In this hobby, you have to act fast, or the chance might never come up again so in less than a week a shiny metal N2630 Amiga 030 CPU card bracket arrived to me from UK.
If you are interested in a metal bracket for the N2630 too, feel free to contact arymanx directly about it on AmiBay.
Its just a bracket, but is a great reminder of that it is the small details that makes a DIY build great.
I mounted the bracket to the N2630 with two screws and nuts. The nuts got a drop of blue Loctite to hold them secure. Fitment was excellent.
Not only does it hold the card better in the case it also looks better.
Pay no attention to the nut wedged between bracket and case. The CPU slot I used when building my A2000EATX motherboard was taller than a regular CPU slot used on the Amiga 2000 making the CPU card sit further out from the motherboard.
Installing 3DFX Voodoo 4 in Amiga 4000D with Firebird PCI daughterboard
Here is my Amiga 4000D with PCI slots. It has an Firebird daughterboard that has PCI slots, Zorro slots and one video slot. More information about the Firebird PCI boards here.
This is an older picture of my Firebird PCI daughterboard with no cards mounted to it to get a better look at it. This was before it was fully built, that is why it only has one PCI slot.
I tried PCI on the Amiga years ago on my A1200 with a Mediator A1200LT – I was not sold on the concept as I felt the performance was lacking. Since then I wanted to give PCI on the Amiga a fair chance again and so I had to get the Firebird to try out PCI on a big box Amiga properly!
Here is a 3DFX Voodoo 4 PCI graphics cad I got years ago, back when they sold for a reasonable sum. It has spent close to 15 years in storage. Along the way it got a capacitor knocked off (that I am pointing on). I replaced the capacitor, added a heatsink and fan to it and hoped that it would still work.
Here is a closeup of the Amiga 4000D with the Firebird PCI board holding the Voodoo4 PCI card and a PMC carrier holding a PPC card. I will make a separate post about the PPC card in the top slot in the future. The other cards you see is a purple Multifix-AGA, GottaGoFaZt3r and a CPLDICY.
…aaaaand surprise, the 3DFX Voodoo4 PCI graphics card worked!! Installation went really smooth even if it was not a simple point and click installation.
There is only so much time on the weekend so I ran out of time installing the PPC card, hopefully I will look into it next time. I will also need to set up an automatic switcher between RTG and scandoubled output. As usual, you are never done in this hobby….
Daily soup of Amiga Custom Chips
Bought a rotten non working Amiga 1200 motherboard recently and spent the evening desoldering and cleaning up the Amiga custom chips. TBH I was only after the Alice chip… hope it works!
Update on the Amiga custom chips: 2026-02-01
Amazingly, all chips was confirmed working! Especially considering the motherbaord that I desoldered the chips from looked like this (warning):
This is how I tested the Amiga custom chipset, I have an ReAmiga 1200 with sockets for the custom chips so I could just swap the chips on it and give it a go in Diagrom. I bought this Amiga 1200 motherboard built by someone else. I do not recommend building it with sockets, but for testing purposes it is fine.
Some Amiga activites I have worked on in December
I have worked on some small things here or there on my Amiga computers. Here are some noteworthy things that has kept me busy.
Installation of an 2.5″ angled CF adapter in my backup A1200
I found angled 2.5″ CF adapters on AliExpress. I have been looking for these for quite some time. They can not work if you have an Indivision AGA in your A1200 but if you do not have one they offer a great reliable way of running an internal compact flash drive in your Amiga 1200. There was only one problem:
They came with one pin blocked. I used a small drill to drill into the blocked pin and realised that it was only the top layer that was blocked. Next step: try it out in my backup A1200.
My backup A1200 has 3.1 Kickstart roms so I had to upgrade the Kickstarts before trying an Workbench 3.2 installation. So the next step was to flash some roms with AmigaOS 3.2.
Here are the FlashROMs. I decided to flash DiagROM and Kickstart to them as they can hold two ROM images. It is very handy to have DiagROM availble if needed.
My backup Amiga 1200 looks like a regular A1200 on the outside but inside it is a white ReAmiga 1200 that I built a couple of years ago.
Here the FlashROMs installed. But it failed to boot into the Kickstart screen, DiagROM worked though. So out came the T48 programmer and FlashROM adapter again. It was impossible to flash the FlashROM again. After 30 minutes of fail checking I realized that I used the wrong USB-A cable for the T48. After swapping cables the correct ROM image was flashed and everything worked.
The ReAmiga 1200 has a nice Kickstart switch feature that you can enable. If enabled you can chose between two different ROM images through a jumper. If you do this with a FlashROM you do not need to jumper the FlashROM. As you can see, I never bothered to solder on the fan headers.
Here is the CF adapter mounted on the internal 2.5″ port of the ReAmiga 1200. Booting off of a WB 3.2 installation it worked fine.
Making the ReA4091 work with a BFG9060 clocked at 100 MHz
I had problem with my ReA4091 SCSI card when running my BFG9060 68060 turbo card at 100 MHz. The Amiga 4000TX worked fine if the BFG was clocked at 50 MHz but at 100 MHz the system refused to run stable giving me filesystems error instantly in Workbench.
This is not a new problem as many other has had it. But at the same time, many have gotten A4091 and a BFG with a 060 clocked at 100MHz working without trouble.
I got a heads up about a thread on github discussing possible solutions to this problem. You can find it here. One suggestion there is to reprogram U305 with the file from here.
Apparently this fixed the problem for the user who suggested it on github with a drawback of 10% less SCSI performance.
I did not have anything to lose so I decided to give it a go by flashing the little PLCC chip with the file suggested. To my surprise it actually made my hardware setup stable again at 100 MHz! Now that I have put in a few hours in my system I can confirm that it runs stable (and now more than 6 months later I can confirm that it has been working great).
This particular build consists of an A4000TX, BFG9060 with a rev.6 68060, ReA4091 with a ZuluSCSI compact, there is also a ZZ9000 graphics board in the setup. It is my main setup.
Solas + ISA board installation in my A4000TX
I have a Solas LED controller in my A4000TX, it is hooked up to an ISA carrier and is connected to the clock port on the Zorro-LAN-IDE card. It took a while to figure out how to connect them together and to get sound into the Solas. But after tinkering with it for a few hours it is working fine now.
The sandwich card of the Solas carrier and Solas is too thick though, making it difficult to run a full size Zorro card over it, I am thinking of soldering them together to decrease the height of the card sandwich. It could either be the greatest thing ever or the greatest disaster ever, I will need to flip a coin on how to proceed with this idea.
Second A2386SX board built and tested
I like to build things I like in pairs that is why I did not hesitate when I was given the opportunity to build a second A2386SX clone again. You can see some more pics in the previous link. I do not think I will build more of these boards as they have given me a tough time both in getting them working and in sourcing components for them.
A4000T AT case mod
I did not hesitate to jump on the train when an A4000T replica PCB was offered for sale on Amibay a few years ago. Building it was a lot of fun and also fascinating. The A4000T is after all the final official 68k Amiga computer released.
I was too naive expecting a case to show up by itself. Now I realize it might never show up so I decided to look for solutions. There are ATX options but I wanted to try an old AT case first.
The universe was aligned with my third eye and suddenly an AT case manifested itself on a local trading place. But the struggle is real, nothing comes without pain and struggle. The A4000T motherboard is huge, it wont fit this case without some cut fingers on old sharp PC case sheet metal edges and serious case modding. And I hate hardcore sheet metal case modding and cutting my fingers on old shitty PC cases.
But once modded though, the 5.25 bays the case has wont be usable any more. It wont be able to take an AT or ATX PSU anymore either. But hey, when it is fully modded, at least I got a case for the A4000T where the daughter boards line up perfectly on the back of the case. I just need to figure out how to mod this case in the simplest way possible.
Mini-ITX case for Alicia 1200
I built my Alicia 1200 last month. It was time to decide what case to use. Alicia 1200 is an Amiga 1200 clone in a Mini-ITX form factor so it was only natural to try and find a suitable ITX case to mount it in. It is difficult to chose a case when you don’t know future configurations of the machine. I am expecting to add a CPU card in it but do not expect it to grow that much in height. Thats why I went looking for a low Mini-ITX case.
I chose to install the motherboard in a Morex 557 Mini ITX case. It is small case just slightly longer and wider than a 17 x 17 cm Mini-ITX motherboard. In these kind of cases you have to use a Pico PSU with an external adapter. Where I am from a genuine Pico PSU is quite costly but I was happy to find a reseller in EU who had genuine Pico PSUs for a very reasonable sum of money. I got two, one for the Alicia and one for the Denise in case I would need a better Pico PSU for it in the future instead of the cheap knock off.
The Pico PSU sits very tight against the case but it fits with a millimetre to spare!
I don’t think you can find a smaller size case than this and that is why I like Mini-ITX. The case is also well ventilated, perfect for passive cooling.
I already knew about this case since I use it for my Sam440ep. Maybe I will get a third one for my Denise.
Alicia 1200 – Amiga 1200 AGA clone in Mini-ITX form factor
Alicia is an Amiga 1200 clone in the popular Mini-ITX form factor. It is a nice DIY project you can buy as a semi built PCB. As I had previously built a couple of Denise A500+ clones, deciding to build the Alicia 1200 was a no-brainer and I think I was not alone in that thought as the interest around it has been great! Read more about the project here.
I remember fondly when the Mini-ITX form factor was released to the public around the new millennium. It was a really exciting time in PC hardware and watching the new tiny form factor it grow and become an established platform has been a pleasure to see and experience since I have been on the Mini-ITX train many times since then.
But to be able to see, build and own Amiga systems in this small form factor with real Amiga chips is the icing on the cake – Amazing!
Denise, Alicias little Amiga sister
I have not written a lot about Denise, the A500+ clone, here on my blog even though I have wanted to do that for some time.
I “blame” the beginnings of my interest in this “wallet busting” hobby on this specific project, YOLO. So expect a better post later sometimes. I remember watching plenty of YouTube clips of doing SMD soldering with a soldering iron 5 years ago and asking myself, “can I really do it?”, then I ordered a Denise board and a package from Digikey. Unpacking the first 0805 capacitor, I questioned what I had gotten myself into back then.
Anyway, I think it could be interesting to show off my Denise build before moving on to the Alicia 1200.
The Denise is an Amiga 500+ clone in Mini-ITX form factor, it has all the regular chips the A500+ has and also two “dumb” (as in no Buster) Zorro 2 slots. The PCB is jam packed but everything is beautifully laid out on the board.
Point I wanted to make was that this has been a very stable Amiga and it is awesome to have an Amiga with a small graphics board, scandoubler, NIC and 030/HDD in a standardized small form factor – That it is Mini-ITX is just icing on the cake.
To think this kind of hardware was A2000 territory yesterday is crazy. Anyway, let’s move on to the Alicia Amiga 1200 AGA clone…
Approaching the Alicia 1200 Amiga 1200 clone build, what have I gotten myself into?!
Alicia 1200 is a kit, so one have to build it oneself. I have built a few Amiga kits myself as stated above so I did not expect any problem with the Alicia build. I usually build my projects from scratch, but in this case it has all the passives and common chips mounted. This saved a ton of time.
Lets talk PLCC sockets and chips
I decided to build my Alicia without PLCC sockets. I have a technique that works really well for soldering PLCC sockets without removing the inner part of the socket. In my experience soldering PLCC chips directly to the PCB makes for a more secure connection and eliminates any potential contact issue. I feel hot chips such as Paula, Lisa and Alice runs cooler when soldered directly to the PCB. I do have a few Amiga motherboards with full PLCC sockets for testing purposes.
Soldering the PLCC chips might be difficult if you are not used to doing them. I solder the PLCC chips with a relatively large hoof tip. Not saying the hoof tip is the definitive success factor. My success is probably from doing a LOT of PLCC chip soldering and getting used to a specific technique.
Difficult to find parts aka “ahh shieet here we go again…”
Most parts for the Alicia 1200 can be taken from an Amiga 1200 or can be found on Ebay, Amibay or from the “usual” places.
You will need the full Amiga 1200 chipset, including Motorola 68020, Budgie and A1200 Gayle. You will need an ADV101 or VP101 but you wont need the keyboard MPU. Memory can be taken from an Amiga 1200 too (but pay attention, some revisions come with incompatible memory that physically won’t fit). If you want to run the RTC you need a clock chip.
A 23 pin video connector is not needed and in fact can not be used, instead Alicia uses a regular VGA socket, so you have to make your own RGB cable if you plan to use it with SCART. You will need a PCMCIA connector, but that can also be take from an A1200 motherboard (hot air is your friend).
Everything else can be ordered from Mouser or Digikey.
So lets get the soldering iron warm…
The first parts I soldered was the Budgie and the Motorola 020 CPU, they are both surface mounted chips and where desoldered from an Amiga 1200 motherboard. I actually did not know if they worked or not, but as they are mounted in a good position on the motherboard I could always desolder them and replace them if they failed to work.
Lets add some memory to the Alicia 1200
You may have built a ReAmiga 1200 and struggled with the memory, I have. It is difficult to do a good job when the chips sit so tight together. I am not a fan of using hot air to solder them. Thankfully on the Alicia 1200 the memory chips are generously spaced leaving plenty of space for my preferred hoof tip technique making this task very enjoyable. This shows in the clean result.
Lets add some PLCC chips
Now its time for some PLCC chips. I have nailed the technique for soldering PLCC chips. But the challenge is getting them aligned correct on the solder pads so the joints form a straight line. I got successful with the first chip at the top left, Gayle. If you fail to align the chip it will still work but may look a bit off. Depending on your level of OCD this might be totally acceptable though.
Here are all the PLCC chips soldered to the Alicia 1200 PCB. I think this was around 4 hours of work in total. No idea if it works and no way of testing it yet. Let’s hope it works.
And lets add some ports and connectors
I am not alone when I say there is an universal curse around BOM orders. It is an unofficial rule more than an exception that it is derigeur to miss to order some small part or important part. In this case, it was a small chip on the bottom of the PCB and the ATX power socket.
First test run of Alicia 1200 A1200 clone
Once I got the missing parts I was eager to try Alicia 1200 out and see if it was working. And it was here I stumbled upon a problem, I did not have a suitable screen or RGB-SCART cable to test it. I thought I could use a 23 pin to VGA converter and hook up my old RGB-SCART cable with a 23 pin connector, but it did not work.
Just to verity that it worked I opted to do a testrun with a temp solution: using my Indivision MK3 that I have in my Amiga 1200 so I could get HDMI output.
Update: I have since built a VGA to SCART cable according to the instructions in the manual and I recommend everyone to do that to test that the port is working.
And it works!!
DiagROM boots and all tests checked out fine! The image above does not do justice to the image quality of the Indivision MK3, I was almost ready to fork out cash for a second one! This is a beautiful hardware combo if you want AGA only.
Sound played fine on the Alicia 1200 when testing channels in DiagROM. I think the sound circuit is the same on the Alicia 1200 as on the Denise as i recognice a few of the parts on the motherboard here.
I would descibe the sound on the Denise as slightly tinny, metallic or a bit more clean than a regular Amiga 500 or Amiga 1200, it is an interesting attribute of these motherboards and adds another dimension to the sound output of the Amiga. Cant wait to try it out with the Sound Enhancer.
Lets finalize the Alicia 1200 Amiga A1200 clone build
Once Alicia 1200 was fully tested I could go ahead and add the final connectors including the PCMCIA slot (that I cut down to make it shorter since it sticks out a lot).
So let’s end this post with some features that Alicia 1200 has that a genuine Amiga 1200 does not have. First it has a real time clock. Then it has a video slot on top left side. There are no devices to connect here today, but there are rumors of scandoublers and other exciting stuff. Lets see what the future holds. I have suggested a 3DFX card numerous times lol.
The larger slot is the Tornado slot, as you can see on the image above it is converted into the Amiga 1200 slot. Hopefully someone will release a direct mount CPU card for the Alicia 1200, if not, we can just use the converter above and run our TF1260s or PiStorms or whatever will be available directly on that.
Next steps!
Let me follow up in the future what case I will chose and what CPU card I will use. I am leaning towards PiStorm, but the beauty of a 060 in this little system is very tempting, almost too tempting to resist. And with the way the CPU card is mounted, there is plenty of space to run a badass heatsink over the 060 unlike in an Amiga 1200… you can be sure I will follow it up here in the future!
Great work with this project everyone involved!
Don’t order the BOM in the night…
…because you will accidentially miss ordering a part in the BOM – As is derigeur whenever order a BOM anyways.
Updating AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition to Update 3 on my Sam440ep
There was a new update to AmigaOS 4.1 Final edition released recently, Update 3 for AmigaOS 4.1. I run AmigaOS 4.1 on an old Sam440ep and thought it could be a good idea to run an update updating it from 2 to 3.
Installing AmigaOS 4.1 Update 3
The update is shown in AmiUpdate once you log into the updater.
Once the update is downloaded it goes into an installation dialoge. Both the download and the installation went smooth and quick. I did not bother to do a backup before doing the installation.
After a reboot I was greeted with a new title bar text, it says “Final Edition Update 3” now. There is also an AmigaGuide in sys: that goes through all the changes.
Most changes seems to be technical of nature but I did find the system to feel a bit snappier and quicker in use (or maybe that was just my imagination). I also think I read somewhere that network speed has been improved. As I have the slowest next gen systems, that is good info! Read more about improvements and changes here.
Conclusion
It was nice to see an update for AmigaOS 4 being released, hopefully we will see more updates in the future and also new high end cheap hardware to run it on.
I also wanted to do a quick test of the AmigaOS 4 port of VIM, and here it is in full glory and running great:
