MiSTer FPGA Forum

I have copied several kickstart ROMs from my Amiga Forever bundle over to my SD card.

From Linux, the path appears as /media/fat/games/Amiga/amiga-os-310-a1200.rom and similar.

In the config menu for the Minimig core, every time I go into "Memory" the kickstart is always listed as "KICK.ROM".

I can select my actual ROM, and it shows the partial path next to Memory: games/Amiga/amiga-os-310-a1200.rom. I can hit "Save configuration" and I still see the correct ROM path there. But once I hit "Reset" (which I think is supposed to restart the core with the current config) I still get the "No kickstart / Halted" message.

What's really weird is that I go back into the core menu and everything is the way I set it except the kickstart. The disks are the same as I set up, the memory sizes are the same. The CPU and chipset are what I configured... it's just the kickstart is back to KICK.ROM!

What's going on?

I should add, I've also tried copying my real kickstart to be named KICK.ROM inside games/Amiga and at the root of the card (which Linux shows as /media/fat). When I do the latter, I get "No files" and "Missing directory Amiga". I feel like I'm playing Rubik's Cube with my filesystem... millions of arrangements but only one will work.

Something real strange is going on. If you have a kickstart named KICK.ROM in /media/fat/Amiga it will always be loaded even if you set a different one in the OSD. If you rename KICK.ROM to something else I can set a different KickStart in the oSD and it works.
If you are using a USB drive it get worse: no matter where I put the Amiga directory it does not work. It does not say missing KickStart, it just goes to a black screen.
It has been mentioned that moving /media/usb0/games/Amiga to /media/usb0/Amiga solves the problem, not for me.

jca wrote: ↑Sat Apr 03, 2021 7:59 pmIt has been mentioned that moving /media/usb0/games/Amiga to /media/usb0/Amiga solves the problem, not for me.

when you moved it to /media/usb0/Amiga did you still have games/amiga on the sdcard?

If you amiga forever has rom.key files you may need to run amiga forever once before copying kickstarts over as i believe amiga forever 'unlocks' the kickstart roms using the key

So it may be that mister isnt getting a valid rom, hence the errors you are seeing.

This is a guess, may not work but worth trying

bazza_12 wrote: ↑Sat Apr 03, 2021 9:14 pm when you moved it to /media/usb0/Amiga did you still have games/amiga on the sdcard?

No. I have been experiencing with games on USB and also with "Switch to USB".
I have 3 SD cards and 2 USB HDD so when I run into problems I can easily switch between systems:
1. Everything on one SD card: no problems.
2. One SD card without anything in /media/fat/games except - may be - empty directories, games directory on USB. No problems except Minimig.
3. One SD card "Switched to USB" without anything in /media/fat/games except - may be - empty directories (I think there is not even a games directory), the USB HDD includes almost everything (_Arcade, _Computer, _Console, ..., games ... No problems except Minimig.

Edit
For 2, on the SD card: I had the games directory and all its subdirectories but everything empty. I just deleted the games directory and Minimig still does not work.
For 3, on the SD card I have:
config directory with only device.bin which I suppose is only used at boot time, the config directory with all my configs is on the USB HDD.
linux directory
Scripts directory created by Mr. Fusion which contains the update script, the Scripts directory used after Switching to USB is on the USB HDD
menu.rbf
MISTer
MISTer.ini

ReadyPlayerTwo wrote: ↑Sat Apr 03, 2021 9:23 pm If you amiga forever has rom.key files you may need to run amiga forever once before copying kickstarts over as i believe amiga forever 'unlocks' the kickstart roms using the key

So it may be that mister isnt getting a valid rom, hence the errors you are seeing.

This is a guess, may not work but worth trying

Thank you. You're right that Amiga Forever has to decrypt the roms. I did that previously though, and I'm able to use the same .rom file with FS-UAE so I'm confident in the rom itself.

jca wrote: ↑Sat Apr 03, 2021 7:59 pm Something real strange is going on. If you have a kickstart named KICK.ROM in /media/fat/Amiga it will always be loaded even if you set a different one in the OSD. If you rename KICK.ROM to something else I can set a different KickStart in the oSD and it works.

This is what I am experiencing. Are you saying that it's happening the same way to you? If so, I'll find that oddly reassuring... it would mean there's a real problem and not just that I can't follow instructions.

I have tried with /media/fat/Amiga/KICK.ROM. When I go into the OSD, it initially just says "KICK.ROM". If I hit enter on it and pick out the KICK.ROM from my Amiga directory, the OSD entry shows it as "Amiga/KICK". But again, once I reset and go back into the OSD, it's back to KICK.ROM

have you tried keeping the games directory on the SDcard, but deleting all the sub-directorys within it? then on the USB just have the sub-directories on the root?

I have to say i'm sure i kept the minimig files in '/games/amiga' on the SDCard as I did with the a0486 '/games/a0486/' .. this was because I noticed reduced access time when using the hard drive files over USB.. I've since bought a 256gig card, and use my old 128gig to store additional amiga/a0486 hard drives..

mtnygard wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 2:30 am This is what I am experiencing. Are you saying that it's happening the same way to you? If so, I'll find that oddly reassuring... it would mean there's a real problem and not just that I can't follow instructions.

I have tried with /media/fat/Amiga/KICK.ROM. When I go into the OSD, it initially just says "KICK.ROM". If I hit enter on it and pick out the KICK.ROM from my Amiga directory, the OSD entry shows it as "Amiga/KICK". But again, once I reset and go back into the OSD, it's back to KICK.ROM

May be I did not explain correctly (note: this is only when everything is on the SD card, so far I have been unlucky with USB).
I have the roms, disk images, ... in /media/fat/Amiga.
If I have a rom named KICK.ROM in the directory it will always be the one loaded, even if I specify a different one in the settings which I save.
If I delete/rename KICK.ROM I can now specify another KickStart in the settings and after saving the settings it will be loaded properly.

On a USB drive this is another story: whatever I do it does not work but upon booting the core it does not say KickStart missing, it goes further but does not show up the KickStart screen, instead I can see where it would be displayed as this part of the screen is not as black as the surrounding area. It also looks like it is retrying something (may be some kind of rebooting) as I can see this area pulsing from not so black to totally black for eternity.

bazza_12 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 8:28 am have you tried keeping the games directory on the SDcard, but deleting all the sub-directorys within it? then on the USB just have the sub-directories on the root?

I have to say i'm sure i kept the minimig files in '/games/amiga' on the SDCard as I did with the a0486 '/games/a0486/' .. this was because I noticed reduced access time when using the hard drive files over USB.. I've since bought a 256gig card, and use my old 128gig to store additional amiga/a0486 hard drives..

First: without a USB drive and everything on the SD card, which is what the initial poster is dealing with and hope it can solve, I have no problem with the KickStart roms only if there is no KICK.ROM in /media/fat/games/Amiga. It took me a while figuring it out. May be I did not fully understand, mainly because the wiki readme as not be updated in this regard. It says "The Kickstart image should be placed on the root of the SD card with the name KICK.ROM ". This was in antiquity, now you can specify your own KickStart rom with whatever name as long as it ends up in .ROM and I assumed that the KICK.ROM would be the default rom if no other was specified in the settings. In my opinion it has been poorly implemented as KICK.ROM will be always used even if another rom has been specified in the settings. My advice: do not use the KICK.ROM name for your KickStart roms.

Concerning USB I think I tried everything I though of: moving /media/usb0/games/Amiga to /media/usb0/Amiga, moving /media/usb0/games/Amiga to /media/fat/games/Amiga with Amiga being the only subdirectory in /media/fat/games, trying a few other things which I do not remember in detail.
Nothing worked.
At this stage I am just waiting for someone using a USB drive and successfully using Minimig to tell me how they did it.

ok so i've just tried it on my usb drive this works for me.
on the hard drive i have the amiga directory in the root..
on the sdcard i have the kick.rom and rom.key in the root and no amiga subdirectory within games.

my usb is formatted to NTFS.
my sdcard is formatted to exfat.
the amiga directory is case sensitive 'Amiga'

bazza_12 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 4:39 pm ...
my usb is formatted to NTFS.
...

Horror
As you have noticed NTFS is case sensitive which leads to some problems. If you have the Vectrex core with the overlays the overlays won't auto load for example. In the past I tried ext4 and NTFS but now I only use exFAT. Since then my mental health improved by quite a notch.
If I understand it correctly you have /media/usb0/Amiga and /media/fat/KICK.ROM plus the key file in your case. Does it have to be KICK.ROM or can you use another name an select it in the OSD?
I will try it after lunch. Thanks.

jca wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 5:08 pmHorror
As you have noticed NTFS is case sensitive which leads to some problems. If you have the Vectrex core with the overlays the overlays won't auto load for example. In the past I tried ext4 and NTFS but now I only use exFAT. Since then my mental health improved by quite a notch.
If I understand it correctly you have /media/usb0/Amiga and /media/fat/KICK.ROM plus the key file in your case. Does it have to be KICK.ROM or can you use another name an select it in the OSD?
I will try it after lunch. Thanks.

yeah i figured out it was case sensitive, but as soon as i renamed the sub-directories it was fine.. as for vectrex i've not tried that. I've since moved everything to a bigger sdcard, so it should be fine.
as for using another kick.rom i've not tried it in that setup. but you could always rename the new one to kick.rom if it didnt work? let me know how you get on

Thanks,
Regarding KickStart roms MISTer need some serious polishing.

1. When everything is on a SD card there is no problem having the Amiga directory in /media/fat/games and the KickStart roms in this directory. KickStart roms can be selected in the OSD with one exception: if there is a rom named KICK.ROM it will always be loaded regardless of what is selected in the OSD.

2. When using a USB drive with only the games directory the Amiga directory must be in /media/usb0. This is inconsistent with all other cores where the associated directory is usually in /media/usb0/games.
The KickStart rom must be in /media/fat and must be named KICK.ROM, which nullifies the option of selecting different roms in the OSD. This is also inconsistent with all other cores where this kind of rom is usually in /media/usb0/games (another exception is the Spectrum core, even when everything is on a SD card the roms must be in /media/fat).

3. Using a USB drive "Switched to USB" is similar to the previous case but KICK.ROM must be in /media/usb0.

I both cases 2 and 3 with other KickStart roms in the same directory as KICK.ROM and no KickStart rom in the Amiga directory trying to select a different KickStart rom from the OSD pops up the following:
No files!
Missing directory:
Amiga
which is not correct: the Amiga directory exists but does not contains any .rom file.

I may be picky but these problems should be fixed in the future. At least Minimig is usable in all 3 cases.

jca wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 4:11 pm
First: without a USB drive and everything on the SD card, which is what the initial poster is dealing with and hope it can solve, I have no problem with the KickStart roms only if there is no KICK.ROM in /media/fat/games/Amiga. It took me a while figuring it out. May be I did not fully understand, mainly because the wiki readme as not be updated in this regard. It says "The Kickstart image should be placed on the root of the SD card with the name KICK.ROM ". This was in antiquity, now you can specify your own KickStart rom with whatever name as long as it ends up in .ROM and I assumed that the KICK.ROM would be the default rom if no other was specified in the settings. In my opinion it has been poorly implemented as KICK.ROM will be always used even if another rom has been specified in the settings. My advice: do not use the KICK.ROM name for your KickStart roms.

I've just tried removing KICK.ROM from both /media/fat/Amiga and /media/fat/games/Amiga. (I had copied this thing all over the place in an attempt to get it working.)

I still see the same behavior: I select amiga-os-310-a1200.rom in the OSD. It shows up. I exit OSD with either the "exit" menu item or the "reset" menu item.

If I use "exit", I stay on the first black screen with white text... the one that shows the authors' names and the "***Halted***" message I'm learning to hate.

If I use "reset", the screen goes all black (no text) and nothing appears to happen. Eventually, if I hit the OSD button again, I'll get the menu and KICK.ROM is listed again. (This happens even if I save my configuration as the startup config.)

One random thought... is the black screen because the Minimig display is only coming out of the VGA port?

If you only use a SD card you should just have everything in /media/fat/games/Amiga, I am not sure what happens if you also have a /media/fat/Amiga directory.. I hope that you save your configuration after selecting the KickStart.
I only have an HDMI monitor so don't worry about that.

jca wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 7:40 pm 1. When everything is on a SD card there is no problem having the Amiga directory in /media/fat/games and the KickStart roms in this directory. KickStart roms can be selected in the OSD with one exception: if there is a rom named KICK.ROM it will always be loaded regardless of what is selected in the OSD.

i'm not sure if this is true in every case, I copied over MEGAAGS with which there are several config files that specify different kickstart roms, I have those kickstarts in the games/amiga directory along with the original Kick.rom. as far as i'm aware they dont load the original kick.rom. i'm doubting myself now. hahaha.. i'll need to check that..

jca wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 7:40 pm 2. When using a USB drive with only the games directory the Amiga directory must be in /media/usb0. This is inconsistent with all other cores where the associated directory is usually in /media/usb0/games.
The KickStart rom must be in /media/fat and must be named KICK.ROM, which nullifies the option of selecting different roms in the OSD. This is also inconsistent with all other cores where this kind of rom is usually in /media/usb0/games (another exception is the Spectrum core, even when everything is on a SD card the roms must be in /media/fat).

i found this to be the case UNTIL i did a complete fresh reinstall.. after that i noticed things had changed. now there is no need to put the kick.rom in the root of the SDCard.. this used to be the case for several roms including spectrum and amstrad. the cores now accept the roms from within their subdirectories. I don't have any roms now in the root of my sdcard. again i'm doubting myself with regards to the USB drive however.. I'll need to check that..

jca wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 7:40 pm I both cases 2 and 3 with other KickStart roms in the same directory as KICK.ROM and no KickStart rom in the Amiga directory trying to select a different KickStart rom from the OSD pops up the following:
No files!
Missing directory:
Amiga
which is not correct: the Amiga directory exists but does not contains any .rom file.

sounds like it's looking in the Amiga directory for the .rom file, or have i misunderstood?

the only times those errors have appeared to me, are
1. when i was using an NTFS format and the directories were case sensitive
2. when I had a USB stick plugged in (or other drive) with the same directory structure on as the main SDCard. then came back with that error..

This thing with Minimig and USB is strange:
You must have the Amiga directory in /media/usb0.
The KickStart must be named KICK.ROM and must be in /media/usb0, not /media/usb0/Amiga
I tried to load a KickStart with a different name, if it is located in the Amiga directory it sees it, you can select it but in the end it does not work. If it is located in /media/usb0 similar to where KICK.ROM is with no KickStart in the Amiga directory and try to select it you get this error message.
I think it is a legacy problem: initially the KickStart had to be named KICK.ROM and be in the "root" directory, when the selection of different KickStart in the OSD was implemented it was not done properly when a USB drive is involved. Even when using only a SD card it is not perfect: if you have a KickStart named KICK.ROM good luck trying to select a different one, KICK.ROM will always be loaded.

I decided to Use The Source. Based on https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_Mi ... g.cpp#L351, the behavior I'm experiencing happens when a series of fallback strategies are attempted.

UploadKickstart fails on my chosen config. I think this is the root problem. When the configured value can't be uploaded, the code tries to fallback to "<homedir>/KICK.ROM". I haven't yet investigated what homedir is set to.

When that fails, it tries using "KICK.ROM". As it goes through the fallbacks, it overwrites the configured value for the kickstart with each variation. If they all fail, then the last attempt is left in the config.

Now I just have to figure out why UploadKickstart is failing.

... Some time later ...

OK, so there's something funny about the code. At https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_Mi ... g.cpp#L159 the code checks for a very specific file size: 0x8000b is decimal 524299. That is exactly the byte size of my ROMs. They are the Amiga Forever roms, which are supposedly decrypted from when I ran the AF installer.

However, the code assumes that a 0x8000b byte rom means it's encrypted and it requires the presence of ROM.KEY.

Moreover, ROM.KEY must be in /media/fat/Amiga, not /media/fat/games/Amiga. Oy, vey.

At this point I do have a working Minimig though! Getting everything else set up to my liking is on much more familiar ground.

Thanks all!

Good to see that you got it working but it required you a lot of effort digging in the source code.
In any case something has to be done, in particular when using USB as I can only use KICK.ROM which seriously limit the usefulness of having multiple configurations. There is also the case of the Amiga directory which must be in /media/usb0, not /media/usb0/games.
I will also check the size of my roms as I have one which does not work even under the KICK.ROM name.
Good job.

jca wrote: ↑Tue Apr 06, 2021 7:35 pm Good to see that you got it working but it required you a lot of effort digging in the source code.
In any case something has to be done, in particular when using USB as I can only use KICK.ROM which seriously limit the usefulness of having multiple configurations. There is also the case of the Amiga directory which must be in /media/usb0, not /media/usb0/games.
I will also check the size of my roms as I have one which does not work even under the KICK.ROM name.
Good job.

I didn't look to see why those are occurring, but it can't be too far from the files I was looking at. At this point, I know enough about the project to read the code but not enough to fix anything.

At some point I will open an issue on Github as I want to check what is the problem with one of my roms; it is exactly 512K so it is not the problem of the key file. It is likely an error on my part: I tried so many things with different SD cards (one for everything on SD, one for games on USB, one for Switched to USB) that I likely messed up at some point. Regarding homedir it has to be /media/fat when running from SD and /media/usb0 when using USB. I did not look at the code as I am learning FPGA, VHDL to start, and I have enough on my plate so for the time being I totally ignore the part dealing with FPGA <-> ARM.

It as been a long time. I got busy, completely forgot to open an issue on Github and Minimig has still a nasty attitude regarding USB drives but I have a solution.
Symlinks to the rescue!
It all started with something totally unrelated to the Amiga: I was using "Switch to USB" on my MISTer but as per Sorge "Actually switch to USB is kind of obsolete option, you may use symlinks from specific folder to USB and use both locations without hard switch."
I did that and when everything was working I got an idea, tested it and it worked.
Now you can have your Amiga game directory in /media/usb0/games/Amiga, your Kickstart roms in the same directory and select them. Good bye KICK.ROM.
How do we do that? By fooling nasty Minimig.
And now, as any Youtuber without any imagination would say:
Let's get started! (Whoa! I am sure I got a 1000 new subscribers saying that! What! No Thumb up emoji, that would have been a 1000 more new subscribers. Mama mia! No emoji sporting a baseball cap! A 1000 more potential subscribers down the drain.

Note: I have been doing this using WinSCP but you can proceed the way you want as long as the end result is the same.

First you may have 1 or more configurations for your Amiga. They will all be using /media/usb0/KICK.ROM but will use different hard drive images. Make note of the Kickstart roms you want to use with these configurations, use meaningful names like MegaAGS-Kickstart.rom, Kickstart-v3.1-rev-40.68-1993-Commodore-A1200.rom or whatever and make a note of the hard drive images these configurations use.
Move /media/usb0/Amiga to /media/usb0/games/Amiga, place the Kickstart roms you plan to use in the same directory. They cannot be in a subdirectory in order to be selectable. Kick out KICK.ROM from /media/usb0 and any other location, you are sick of seeing it and you don't want it to get in the way at any time in the future.
Now the moment everyone has been waiting for: time to fool nasty Minimg.
In /media/fat make sure you do not have a games directory or a file of that name. Create a symlink named games pointing to /media/usb0/games.
At this point I rebboted my MISTer just to be sure.
Now when you start the Minimig core nothing will run as you no longer have a KICK.ROM (finally!). You can load your configurations, select the appropriate KIickstart rom, reselect your hard drive images as they are now in a different location, save your configurations and live a happy life thereafter.

I use only "Amiga" folder in my microsd card's root, with kickstarts into it named kick12.rom, kick13.rom, kick20.rom, kick30.rom, kick31.rom, kick314.rom and kick32.com, and have many configurations saved (for reproducting all my real Amigas: A500 KS1.2 red led up, A500 KS 1.3, A600 KS2.0 and A1200 with KS 3.2 rom)