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1.1 root 1: Some Frequently Asked Questions. Please read this carefully if you have
2: problems.
3:
1.1.1.3 root 4: ** COMMON PROBLEMS
1.1.1.2 root 5:
1.1.1.3 root 6: Q: Sometimes, after UAE exits, there is no autorepeat for the keys!
7: A: Do "xset r on" (happens only in X, apparently mainly on Solaris boxes.
8: Dunno why.). [Should be fixed by now. Note that this always happens when
9: UAE crashes]
1.1.1.2 root 10:
1.1.1.3 root 11: Q: When UAE starts up, it says "Illegal instruction: 4e7b". Why?
12: A: That's normal, it's just the Kickstart CPU type test.
1.1.1.2 root 13:
1.1.1.3 root 14: Q: When UAE starts up, it says "Illegal instruction: 00f8" (many times). Why?
15: A: That's because your Kickstart ROM was compiled for the 68020.
16: (could also happen when there's a bug in UAE)
17:
18: Q: When UAE loads <insert your favourite game> it says "Non-standard sync".
19: A: Your favourite game is copy-protected. There are ways to transfer such
20: disks, but it's complicated and I won't help you because it would be much
21: too time-consuming to figure out all sorts of copy-protection schemes.
22: I hope there will be a general solution some day, but for now you're
23: unlucky.
24:
25: Q: While it compiles, it says "xxx illegals generated" or "16 mismatches".
26: Is this a problem?
27: A: No. I can use this information to tell whether there is a problem, and
28: there isn't.
29:
30: Q: How can I produce an @ symbol (or any other sign)? On my PC keyboard it's
31: AltGr+Q, but that doesn't seem to work.
32: A: Look at the keyboard of your Amiga. Use the same combination that you would
33: need on a real Amiga. These combinations differ across countries. Make sure
34: you have loaded the right keyboard translation table for AmigaOS (e.g. in
35: Germany, make sure there's a "setmap de" command in the startup-sequence)
36: You can probably create a @ sign by pressing Alt+2, or Shift+2.
37:
1.1.1.5 root 38: Q: On Linux, the Alt and right control keys aren't working.
39: A: I found out that on my SuSE installation, there's a file called ".Xmodmap"
40: in my home directory which remaps these two keys so that UAE no longer
41: recognizes them. That file has two lines; change those to read
42: keycode 64 = Alt_L
43: keycode 0x6D = Control_R
44: This doesn't seem to be a problem anymore with SuSE 6.4 (or at least
45: they're shipping a different .Xmodmap file).
46:
47: Q: On my Linux system, all the key combinations that involve F12 don't work.
1.1.1.6 root 48: A: Known problem - don't use the window manager that comes with KDE2.
1.1.1.5 root 49:
1.1.1.3 root 50:
51: ** INCOMPATIBILITIES
52:
53: Q: UAE does not work with my Kickstart 1.2 image.
54: A: You may need to turn off the harddisk and fastmem emulation with the "-a"
55: parameter. Kick 1.2 doesn't support the autoboot features that the harddisk
56: emulation requires.
57: You can tell that you are suffering from this problem if UAE gives you the
58: message "filesys_bput called".
59:
60: Q: What do I do if a game/demo/application doesn't work?
61: A: If you're trying to run a game or a demo, enable some slow RAM, and try
62: running it again. Some older software has compatability problems which
63: slow RAM can sometimes fix. If it's an application, check for obvious
64: things like Kickstart version requirements, RAM, etc. Also make sure the
65: software you're trying to run isn't for AGA equipped machines.
1.1.1.4 root 66: You can also try changing various other options, like the CPU type. For
67: games, sometimes "-C0c" will make it work.
1.1.1.3 root 68:
69:
70: ** AMIGA DISKS, DISK IMAGES, HARDDISKS, CDROMS
1.1 root 71:
72: Q: Is it possible to read Amiga disks with a PC?
1.1.1.4 root 73: A: No, and yes. No, with a standard PC it's impossible. However, with some
1.1.1.7 ! root 74: additional hardware (e.g. a new floppy controller or a second floppy
! 75: drive) it is possible. I currently know of four solutions, the AFR
! 76: package which consists of a small parallel port interface that you have
! 77: to build yourself and some software, the Catweasel controller which is
! 78: available as an ISA card and comes with DOS software that can create
! 79: disk files, and the Disk2FDI program (see below). I have a Catweasel
! 80: here, and it does in fact work.
1.1 root 81:
82: Q: Couldn't I attach an Amiga floppy drive to the PC somehow, and use that to
83: read Amiga disks?
1.1.1.7 ! root 84: A: In theory Amiga drives and PC drives are identical, so you can attach them,
! 85: but this doesn't buy you anything, because the problem is not the drive,
! 86: but the PC floppy controller. It has also been reported that Amiga drives
! 87: don't behave very well when attached to the PC, so trying it is
! 88: discouraged.
1.1 root 89:
1.1.1.3 root 90: Q: But the PC can read 11-sector formats!
91: A: Yes, but those sectors look a little different to the hardware.
92:
93: Q: But the Amiga can read PC disks!
94: A: So what?
95:
96: Q: But the PC can read Atari ST disks!
97: A: So what?
98:
1.1.1.7 ! root 99: Q: What if I use two disk drives?
! 100: A: What an odd question. Interestingly, you can read Amiga disks with a
! 101: program called disk2fdi, provided you have two 3.5" floppies connected
! 102: to the same floppy controller in your PC. See the "Links" section.
! 103: It still doesn't allow writing, though.
1.1.1.3 root 104:
105: Q: How can I use DMS images?
106: A: Run DMS under UAE and use it just like you would on a real Amiga.
107: Decompressing a DMS file to DF0: will overwrite the .adf file that is
108: currently used to emulate df0:.
1.1 root 109:
1.1.1.2 root 110: Q: How can I transfer non-DOS disks that are used by many demos?
111: A: With transdisk. The fact that they are unreadable by AmigaDOS does not
1.1.1.7 ! root 112: mean they are unreadable by transdisk.
1.1.1.2 root 113: Long explanation: There are two things to consider when talking about the
114: "format" of a disk. First, the low-level format which divides each track
115: into sectors in a special way. Most Amiga disks are in the standard Amiga
116: format which has 11 sectors with 512 bytes each per track, with a total of
117: 880K per disk. There's also some extra information outside the sectors so
118: that the floppy controller can find the sectors. PC disks use a different
119: format, which is the reason why a PC controller can't read Amiga disks.
120: If a disk is formatted this way, it can be copied with the normal AmigaDOS
121: diskcopy program or the Workbench equivalent, and transdisk can handle it.
122: Copy-protected disks have a different track layout (sometimes, they don't
123: divide the tracks into sectors at all, or use more sectors, or put
124: different things between the sectors. This type of thing can't be handled
125: by diskcopy or by transdisk.
126: Now, the second part of the "format" of a disk is the filesystem. If you
127: want to put files and directories on a disk, you have to write some special
128: information into some of the sectors on the disk. That information includes
129: (for example) the name of the disk (e.g. "Workbench1.3"), and what files it
130: contains. This information is called a "filesystem". The Amiga knows about
131: several filesystems: There is the original filesystem (called OFS), and the
132: newer Fast Filesystem (FFS) which was introduced with Kickstart 1.3.
133: If you don't put a filesystem on the disk, the data in the sectors can still
134: be read by programs like transdisk or diskcopy, but the data makes no sense
135: to them. The point is, it doesn't have to. It only has to make sense for
136: the Workbench which tries to determine what files there are on a disk. If
137: the Workbench can't find a filesystem it knows about on the disk, it will
1.1.1.3 root 138: be marked as a non-DOS disk (as opposed to an "unreadable" disk which you
139: get if the low-level format is different from the standard).
1.1 root 140:
141: Q: How can I change diskfiles?
1.1.1.2 root 142: A: Your version of UAE may have a user interface (the X11 version does) which
143: enables you to do this. Read your system-specific README file for details.
1.1.1.3 root 144: You can also use the "uaectrl" programs from the "amiga" subdirectory.
1.1 root 145:
1.1.1.3 root 146: Q: Why is the floppy emulation so slow, after all the disk image is on a
147: harddisk?
148: A: Because the disk rotation is emulated. This is necessary. Use the harddisk
149: emulation wherever possible.
150:
151: Q: <insert your favourite problem with the hardfile emulation here>
152: A: Don't use the hardfile. Use the filesystem emulation ("-m" option).
153:
154: Q: How can I read Amiga CD-ROMs?
155: A: With the harddisk emulation. Give UAE the parameter "-M CD:/cdrom" if you
156: are using a Linux system with the CD mounted at /cdrom, or "-m CD:D:\" if
157: you are using DOS and D: is your CD-ROM drive (and if you have a different
158: system you should be able to figure out what to do)
1.1 root 159:
160: Q: Is it possible to read Amiga harddisks with a PC?
161: A: Yes. Linux 2.0 has an Amiga filesystem that can reportedly read Amiga
1.1.1.2 root 162: OFS/FFS harddisks. Please don't ask for details, I didn't write the thing,
1.1.1.3 root 163: and I don't use it (yet). I did use it to read .adf disk images, though.
1.1 root 164:
165:
1.1.1.3 root 166: ** FUTURE PLANS
1.1 root 167:
1.1.1.3 root 168: Q: When will the next version come out, and what will be in it?
169: A: It will come out when it's done.
1.1 root 170:
1.1.1.3 root 171: Q: Will there be a shareware version or some registration fee for future
172: versions of UAE?
173: A: No.
1.1 root 174:
1.1.1.3 root 175: Q: Couldn't you use ARDI's CPU emulation to speed it up?
176: A: UAE is free software. It comes with sourcecode. ARDI's Executor is
177: proprietary and sold commercially. ARDI has no reason at all to give away
178: their code for free, because they wouldn't make any more money if they did.
179: (yes, I really get asked this kind of thing! I don't know where people take
180: these ideas from).
1.1 root 181:
182:
1.1.1.3 root 183: ** UAE SPEED
1.1 root 184:
1.1.1.3 root 185: Q: I don't get steady sound output! I only have a 486DX40, could this be
186: related?
187: A: Try a Pentium-II-300, these things are reported to do better.
1.1 root 188:
189: Q: Would it be possible to speed it up by emulating the CPU native on, say,
190: a 68k Mac?
191: A: I doubt it. UAE needs to be able to interrupt the CPU emulation anytime to
1.1.1.2 root 192: perform tasks necessary for emulating the hardware. So you can't just let
193: it run all by itself.
1.1 root 194:
195: Q: Would it be possible to speed it up by using graphics accelerator boards
196: for example by using the blitter in S3 chips?
1.1.1.2 root 197: A: I doubt it. I'm no PC graphics card expert, but probably the only thing the
198: S3 blitter and the Amiga blitter have in common are seven lowercase
199: letters. Even if they were similar you'd have to keep all Amiga chip
1.1 root 200: RAM in the graphics memory and that would most likely make everything
201: painfully slow.
202:
1.1.1.3 root 203: Q: How about adding special support for the GUS/other wavetable boards that
204: uses hardware features to speed up the sound emulation?
1.1.1.2 root 205: A: Again, due to the differences in Amiga and PC (in this case: GUS) hardware,
206: this isn't really feasible. You _might_ get something like this to work in
207: some special cases (ProTracker modules might be a case that could be made
208: to work), but I don't think you can come up with something that emulates
209: all of the Amiga sound hardware.
210: The problem is that by just examining the values a program writes into the
211: audio hardware registers, you can hardly figure out what a program is
212: trying to do, and what it is going to do in the future. In contrast to
213: that, it's easy to write a SoundTracker module player for GUS cards because
214: you know exactly what you are playing, and how you have to do it.
215: (That doesn't mean you can't use the GUS for sound output; you just can't
216: use it to _speed up_ the sound output)
1.1 root 217:
218: Q: Emulating all the hardware is a bad idea. Why don't you just emulate the
219: OS? After all, that's what makes the Amiga the Amiga.
220: A: Short answer: I disagree.
221: Long answer: The OS is half of what makes the Amiga the Amiga. It is a very
222: nice OS, and there are some features that I miss in any other OS, but it is
223: also severely lacking in terms of (for example) memory protection and
224: filesystem performance.
225: The other thing that made the Amiga special back in the 1980s is the custom
226: chip architecture. If you look into old (1985) computer magazines, you will
227: find that the capabilites of the Amiga OS are only mentioned as a side
228: note, because people were not aware that it was revolutionary for a home
229: computer. They were aware, though, that the Amiga could display 4096 colors
230: at the same time and that it had a blitter and a copper that could do all
231: sorts of stuff, like bouncing balls for instance. And I think it was the
232: superiority of the hardware that made the Amiga a success.
233: I see UAE as a program that is similar to C64 emulators: it allows you to
234: run some old games and other programs that you can't replace with better
1.1.1.6 root 235: equivalents on the PC. UAE is not (primarily) meant for the Amiga PowerUser
236: who is running high quality applications on his A4000 with a 68060 board,
237: but for people like me who switched from an A500 to the PC a few years ago
238: for whatever reason.
1.1 root 239: Besides, emulating an OS is far more difficult IMHO. Especially if the
240: platform you are emulating it on is completely different than the platform
241: that is being emulated. You'd have to mess with endianness conversions and
242: other nightmares. The AmigaOS wasn't designed with portability in mind
243: either.
244:
1.1.1.2 root 245: Q: How fast is it?
1.1.1.3 root 246: A: It depends.
247: For crunching files with PowerPacker, UAE is 17 times faster than my A500
248: on my K6-233.
249: For playing Turrican I, it's running at about full speed (with sound).
250: For playing Turrican III, it is slightly slower than the A500.
251: For some (not many) demos, it's a fair bit slower than the A500.
252: Rule of thumb: Sound emulation really takes time; so do copper effects and
253: scrolling. If you don't need either, you're fine.
1.1.1.2 root 254:
255: Q: How can I make it faster?
256: A: Run the emulator in the lowest screen mode (320x200), set it to 256 colors,
257: make sure aspect correction is disabled, and set the frame rate to every 3rd
258: frame. Finally, disable sound (if you have a version that lets you compile
259: your own executable, set "DONT_WANT_SOUND" in config.h). It won't look very
260: nice, but it will run as fast as your machine allows.
1.1.1.3 root 261: If you are running the X version, make sure you use the "-T" option. Not
262: using this option is "safer", but makes the emulator very slow. Even better,
263: when you run configure, say "configure --enable-dga" if your X server
264: (XFree86 3.2 or higher) supports it.
265: It's especially important that you don't use 24 bit or 32 bit color modes.
1.1.1.2 root 266:
1.1.1.3 root 267:
268: ** MISCELLANEOUS
269:
270: Q: Do I need a real Amiga to use this program?
271: A: Yes, unless you have some other way of legally getting ROM files and system
272: software, such as the Cloanto Amiga Forever CD.
273:
274: Q: Where can I download a Kickstart ROM/Amiga games?
275: A: Read the docs again. You can't. It would be illegal to put a ROM image or
276: other copyrighted software on the net (yes, even if you once bought a
277: specific Amiga game and sold it together with the computer, downloading the
278: same game now would still be illegal. Sorry.)
279:
280: Q: Does UAE run on the DEC Alpha/Sparcstations/SGIs/whatever?
281: A: UAE should run on all Unix systems that have at least X11R5 and a decent
282: C compiler installed. So the answer is probably yes. Just use the generic
283: Unix source and follow the instructions in README.UNIX to compile it.
1.1.1.4 root 284: However, using GCC and the GNU binutils can improve your chances.
1.1.1.3 root 285:
286: Q: Why is there a blank area on the left side of the screen?
287: A: The Amiga can display graphics there, but usually doesn't because this
288: would disable some sprites. The area is only used by some overscan demos.
289: Normal screens are off-center. I'm not going to do anything about that.
290: If you can't stand it, you can try to use 320x200 or 640x480 resolution,
291: which will attempt to center the screen. This is near impossible to get
292: right for every program. If your screen doesn't fit in lower resolutions,
293: use 800x600.
294:
295: Q: Where is a complete summary of all command line switches ?
296: A: In the README files. You can also generate it yourself by typing:
297: uae -h > uae-help.txt
298:
299: Q: Benchmark program <insert your favourite benchmark> gives weird results.
300: A: Amiga programs run by the emulator think the Amiga timers can be used to
301: measure real time. But in UAE, they only measure "emulation time". Sysinfo,
302: for example, gives the same results on all machines. So don't run
303: benchmarks to test the emulator speed.
304: Some benchmarks also use tight loops of DIV or MUL instructions to measure
305: CPU speed, and in "emulation time" these instructions take as much time
306: as any other instructions, and you'll get much too high values.
307: If you enabled the "HAVE_RDTSC" option, running benchmarks makes some more
308: sense. Still not a lot, since there is a minimum speed that the benchmark
309: will report on every machine. The faster the machine, the more accurate
310: will your results be.
311:
312: Q: Wasn't this called the Unusable Amiga Emulator?
313: A: Yes. But no one thought the name was very fitting anymore, though. It was
314: only really appropriate for v0.1, which couldn't even boot.
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