Neded U-Boot 1.1.4 or 1.2.0 AmigaOne XE

Please, can somebody share with me unofficial U-Boot versions 1.1.4 and 1.2.0 for AmigaOne XE?

I have last official 1.1.1, but PCI initialization in this firmware is far from ideal. I need it for more special PCIe graphics card testing.
BTW, I have U-Boot 1.2.0 in my Micro A1-C. Please is there some software tool for U-Boot extraction?

Hi Sailor,

I have this:

A1Firmware_ISO_05-Mar-2005.zip

I am not sure which version is this and if this is what you are looking for, and directory within archive is called CD_edition, so you probably have is (not being unofficial)? Please let me know will this work for you and I will place it on the web storage and fwd you the link.

Cheers!

@levellord

this is last official from Hyperion 1.1.1.
But many thanks for offer.

Thanks to all, I got just now U-Boots.

@sailor

That is great, I got an AmigaOne G3-SE myself. . would it be possible to send me 1.1.6 and 1.2.0? I'm very interested in testing it.. have been running on 1.1.4 for 6 years now, since 2017. I am also experimenting with PCI-PCIe and a R7 240 card. :)

My machine is without the DMA-fix, however it has a fix going with two connectors going straight from Articia S to the ethernet chip. I think this was a particular fix that was applied to SE boards, and before the DMA-fix was discovered. Machine can freeze if USB is used..

Also, if anyone has the documentation on how to apply the DMA-fix to the SE board, which is slightly different from the XE board, I would really appreciate it. Consider doing the DMA-fix, but first I wanna test with the PCIe GPU to see if it has any merit for me, increased capabilities that is.

Cheers!

@monomango

I am not know how SE, but on XE is much better leave it DMA-unfixed.
This article is about my testing XE + PCIe graphics cards. It is in Czech language, so please try google.

If you want, make USB-fix, it has no issues. But DMA-fix have other issues, so with DMA-fix is nearly unpossible connect PCIe card.

I suppose SE is very similar, so you really not need DMA on IDE controller.
I have CF card on IDE controller, PIO mode and here is only /Kickstart directory for booting.
Then I have PCI SATA card with all necessary volumes like System: and Work:, all fast in UDMA mode.
This system have another advantage - you can use not only SiI312, but also 3114 and 3512 which cannot boot directly with UBoot 1.1.1., because all kernel modules with drivers are loaded.

If you find it interesting, there all three articles about my testing XE:
AmigaOne XE - first steps
AmigaOne PCIe graphics cards
AmigaOne XE PCI HW interrupts
third article also have info how properly repair UBoot PCI settings for cards behind the PCI bridge. It is also the case with PCIe graphics cards. And also there short UBoot comparison.

@sailor

On my SE not just the IDE is affected by the issue, but also stable USB and onboard ethernet. Thus the fix would probably also solve the USB issues and onboard ethernet.
Weird thing is that even PCI USB card is affected, but not PCI ethernet card. I am looking into a possible software fix, too, that will address the VIA chip responsible for the illegal PCI communication starting all of these issues in the first place (probably). This would be the most elegant and nice solution by far.. though much more R&D is required for that on my part.
Machine is completely stable, most of the time.. if USB and onboard ethernet is not touched. Interesting thing is that this board seems to have only one fix: two cables from the Articia S chip directly to the 3Com chip area. I suppose the SE had some bug related to ethernet that was not DMA-fix related. Then the DMA-fix problem and solution must have been discovered a bit later.

As for U-Boot 1.1.6 and 1.2.0 it would be interesting to test as it is not certain how this particular SE board would respond to it. They all (SE and XE) had their slightly different particularities and behaviours.. depending on board and what fixes were applied, version of U-Boot etc. My goal is to finally address the USB issues (stability issue, less importantly and easy to address is the resistor fix) and also be able to use on-board ethernet in a stable manner. Also the PCIe GFX, importantly.

Could you get the PCIe to initialize and use it in the PCI 33MHz slot on any U-Boot below 1.1.6? On 1.1.4 or 1.1.1?

Great testing :)

On my un-fixed A1XE I was able to get USB working very reliably by sorting the cooling. I replaced the stock cooler and that dramatically improved USB transfers. I would recommend trying that on your SE before a DMA fix.

On the A1-XE the "DMA-fix" is breaking more than it fixes, don't do it, or if already done undo it (there are instructions available for that as well).
On the A1-SE AFAIK there is no DMA fix possible at all, because of an even older and more broken MAI chip used, just like on the Pegasos 1, which is basically just a bad copy of the A1-SE.

Using newer U-Boot versions might help a little, but of course they can't fix the hardware bugs.

@daveyw Interesting, you mean the CPU cooler here?!

@joerg Thanks for the insights. My SE only had two wires from Artica S to the 3COM ethernet area. Some Ethernet fix I guess. Seems PC's with same VIA south-bridge chip also had PCI and DMA issues.. https://forums.tomshardware.com/thread ... ate-vias-686b-bug.496615/
Correct settings in U-Boot VIA register configuration could have helped maybe. I'm on U-Boot 1.1.4 now.. interested in testing 1.1.6 and 1.2.0 in this regard.

@monomango

Quote:MAI, the company which created the Artica-S north-bride chip, released an open source reference board implementation. The A1-SE is basically just that, without (next to no) modifications.
IIRC the Pegasos 1 is using a different south-bridge, but from VIA as well (unlike the one used in the A1-SE incl. IDE PATA, and maybe USB, support). But that didn't help at all, it has exactly the same hardware bugs as the A1-SE.

The Pegasus 1 and 2 are using an OpenFirmware port instead of the U-Boot firmware used by the A1-SE/XE, Sam4[46]0 and X50[24]0, therefore using newer U-Boot versions are unlikely to help.

@joerg

Interesting, thanks. It seems to me that the bugs are in the choice of the south bridge, and that VIA was giving very little information to Mai Logic on how to set up undocumented registers. Maybe it was never initialized correctly, and as Eyetech wrote it sent out illegal PCI communication that they could never disable.. With that little information from VIA and with the test board based on it (probably the only one they designed to test it), it seems to be a difficult task for Mai Logic to know if the problems were in the Artica S north bridge or due to the combination of the Artica S and the probably tricky VIA south bridge that needed careful initialization for correct operations. Maybe VIA looked upon Mai Logic as an upcoming competitor and hampered their success by not sharing vital information on their south bridge paired with the Artica S. What exactly is the Artica S known to do wrong, if anything? :)

That exact same south-bridge had issues in PC's too.. of similar nature. Seems software solved it.

Might you know about the fix by two cables going from Artica S to the 3Com chip area, on the SE board?

Is the same behavior observed if running Linux on the boards? That would be interesting to investigate.

Another interesting thing about my SE machine is that it has the VIA 686A (VT82C686A) chip, not the 686B (VT82C686B) as found in most SE's and all XE machines.. so this is a very early SE board.
And maybe the reason it has some USB PCI issues even if onboard IDE and USB are deactivated. I suppose VIA corrected some issues going from 686A to 686B. Trying to find the errata that was hopefully published regarding the 686A revision.

I found the VIA 686B datasheet here:
https://www.alsa-project.org/files/pub ... uthbridge%20datasheet.pdf

VIA 686A (VT82C686A) is here:
https://www.alsa-project.org/files/pub ... datasheet%20rev%201.8.pdf

@monomango
Quote:

Yep. Bear in mind I am talking about the XE not SE, but I would recommend at least thinking about it. I don't know too much about the SE but I'm guessing its broadly similar to the XE but with a G

The A1XE shipped with a terrible CPU cooler that was not well installed. Replacing it with something better resulted in a dramatic improvement in stability. The first choice of most of us was the Valman VF900.

I think this was the site I used as a guide - I'm not sure, it was about 10 years ago! https://amigaone.wordpress.com/kacik-a ... e/zalman-vf900-cu-review/

The problem is getting hold of the Zalman VF900 these days will be virtually impossible - you'd need to find something similar. And the trick is to look for GPU not CPU coolers, they will be more compatible with the AmigaOne CPU module.

@daveyw

Thanks for the advice there :)
Yes, the cooler and fan on the 600MHz is very small.. and I overclocked it to 667MHz.. seems to be very stable, upped the voltage slightly. I could probably use a better cooling by now. Would be interesting indeed to underclock it and see if that affected USB stability.