On the back of the cardboard folder you will wee that there is a small white sticker with your OS4.0 license number printed on
it, in the format XXXXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXXX, where X is an alpha-numeric value. In order to obtain further updates, you
must create yourself a login to the Hyperion website and register
your license.
Inside there is the OS4.0 CD and some brief Installation Instructions:
In order to install AmigaOS 4.0, your AmigaOne needs to be flashed with the latest firmware. You
can find this firmware on the CD in the "Firmware"directory. You need to select the appropriate
update (either "from_0.1" if you have U-Boot 0.1, or "from_1.0" if you have a beta U-Boot 1.0;
use the 'ver' command on the U-Boot prompt to find the version number).
After the firmware upgrade, you can boot this CD. From the U-Boot prompt, enter
> ide reset
If you have any trouble installing AmigaOS 4.0, you will find an extensive installation guide on the
CD in the directory "OSInstallGuide" on this CD."
That's it. Wasn't that simple. Well, with hindsight, not really......
We seriously suggest that you print the OSInstallGuide BEFORE you attempt any part of the installation, or copy the files to
another PC and refer to that during the installation process, or preferably both. The reason for the latter is that while the
hard copy has a number of useful pictures, they are rather small and difficult to read. If you click on the images using your
browser an enlarged image is displayed which is full size and much easier to read.
Section 1. Updating your Firmware
However, before you can do this you will need to use another computer to burn the appropriate ISO image of the file from the
"Firmware" directory first. You could try creating a bootable floppy using RawWrite but we kept getting checksum errors,
so we decided to burn the CD instead, which incidentally worked first time. Further information about updating the firmware is
available here.
If you are not sure how to do this, check your CD burning software for an "ISO" option - in the version of Nero we used
it was buried in the "other" category; later versions of Nero have it under "Copy & Backup".
Section 2. Configuring U-Boot Parameters
Section 3. Installation CD
Section 4. Locale Preferences / Input Preferences
Section 5. OS4 Installer
Section 6. Configuring Your Hard Drive
Section 7. Installation
Section 8. Booting to OS4
The next step is to copy the remaining files from the AmigaOS 4.0 Installation CD. The first of these is 'Contrib', which is
a drawer containing a number of other drawers containing useful software developed by third parties, and you can simply drag
this across to your System disk, or wherever you want to put it. The second is a drawer called 'IBrowse2.3' the contents of
which need to be installed, so we suggest you first copy this to the 'Contrib' drawer created above, and then click on the
'Install-IBrowse' icon within it to install it somewhere - we suggest 'Utilities'. Finally, if you intend to do any program
development you will probably need the third drawer called 'SDK', that you can copy wherever you wish.
Section 9. Oh no! It didn't work
In Section 3, the instructions say:
"Once the kernel (kickstart) has loaded, your screen will go blank and your monitor may go
Subsequent to this another member with an ATI Radeon 7000 card has experienced a different problem at the same place, except
the screen was all wavey with jagged lines down each side and showed the Amiga Insert disk screen - after much trial and error
this was traced to a problem CDROM drive, which although it was used to install Debian and OS4 can now read files using it, it
would not work during the OS4 install.
Pre-Release AmigaOS 4.0 Update 4 Installation
While updates 1, 2 and 3 required AmigaOS 4.0 to already be installed, update 4 could be installed to a new system or used to
update an existing system. It should be noted that any issues we identified above have long been resolved, so as long as you
follow the instructions in the accompanying PDF file everything should go according to plan, and even if it doesn't the PDF
file should help you determine what is wrong and how to rectify it, although the delay discussed above seems to take even
longer on some systems, so please be patient even if you don't see the disk light flashing.
AmigaOS 4.0 Final Installation
The OS 4.0 Final Update is a complete re-install and will overwrite any existing system so
make sure that you take a backup of your existing system first or that you install to a new partition. Some of the issues
encountered during previous updates may still be encountered such as ADSL setting where only a modem is used - the install
assumes that a router is being used. Swedish users may also have a slight problem but there is a simple fix for that. And
if you're expecting to find a Tools directory you won't because the contents have been split between System and Utilities.
The re-install takes about an hour, and then you spend the next few hours or more reinstalling the additional software, some
of which need to be updated from OS4depot, and sorting out why tings don't work as before. While most programs seem to work
some do not, such as Final Writer, VistaPro 3, etc. Others that you would expect to work, having been written for OS4, and some of
the 68K programs, require the 'ADDCHIPRAM=x' parameter to be added to the SETPATCH command in the Startup-Sequence. For
details on this and other topics, see here.
When you receive AmigaOS 4.0, what you get is a nice cardboard folder printed in bright orange, clearly labelled Developer
Pre-Release as you can see from the picture on the left, and that is it. Nothing else. Everything you need is on the CD so you
must have a working machine of some type in order to get started.
Installation Instructions
> setenv bootl cdrom
> boota
As it states in the Installation Instructions above, the first step is to update the Firmware.
Here it is simply a matter of following the instructions - this is where the browser version was most useful being able to
enlarge the pictures to read the parameter values, except that some of the instructions have changed since it was released.
In summary these values are:
On the Integrated Peripherals Menu:
If you require further instructions on how to change these values see U-Boot Boot Preferences Menus.
On the Boot Sequence Menu (for U-Boot 1.1.1 prior to 05-Mar-2005):
On the Boot Sequence Menu (for U-Boot 1.1.1 after 05-Mar-2005):
On the PCI/AGP Menu:
This involves loading the CD and typing the information supplied. If you are not familiar with the U-Boot parameters, the
"setenv boot1 cdrom" statement sets the first boot device to "cdrom", so "boot1" should be read
as "boot one" not "boot ell".
While this may seem like useful stuff, it's really only important if you want to use a language other than English. If English
is your choice, simply click on "Proceed" or "Use" and don't bother setting values at this time. That can
all be done later.
This covers the initial screens displayed by the Installer - simply follow the instructions.
This covers setting up the DH0: and DH1: partitions for OS 4.0 - simply follow the instructions.
This is where you eventually get to install OS4.0. After the reboot, the Locale Preferences / Input Preferences screens are
repeated and can just be ignored for English. Otherwise, simply follow the instructions.
When you get here you have finished the initial installation and hopefully OS4 will boot by itself.
As with any installation process, there can always be variables that haven't been allowed for that can cause things to go wrong.
onto standby. The CD drive is still being accessed at this point, after about one minute
you will be presented with a welcome message on a White background"
.
Disclaimer: Amiga Auckland have prepared the above information for the use of its members based on our experiences and as such is subject to revision at any time. Amiga Auckland cannot guarantee any of the information and cannot be held accountable for any issues that may result from using it.