AmiKit

Convert Windows installer to FS-UAE installer

Why create the installation from the Windows version of AmiKit? Because that is the version most likely to be well-tested and supported.

Steps:

Install AmiKit for Windows (either on a real machine or in a VM).
Do not run any post-installation options for AmiKit, we want the unpacked C:\AmiKit\AmiKit directory to be clean.
Create a new 1 GB AmiKitTransfer.hdf file (RDB mode) and create/format an 1 GB AmiKitTransfer: volume on in.
Set up a new WinUAE configuration with a Workbench 3.x boot floppy or boot HD, the C:\AmiKit\AmiKit directory as a directory hard drive, and AmiKitTransfer.hdf.
Start the new WinUAE configuration, booting to Workbench
Open a shell and execute: copy AmiKit: AmiKitTransfer: all quiet clone.
Shut down WinUAE after the copy operation is done.
Set up an FS-UAE config with a Workbench 3.x boot floppy, add a new empty directory hard drive called AmiKit (it is important that this is not C:\AmiKit\AmiKit, but a separate empty directory), and also add the AmiKitTransfer.hdf you created in step 3. Add the following option to custom configuration: uaem_write_flags = nhsparwed.
Boot the FS-UAE configuration, booting to Workbench
Open a shell and execute: copy AmiKitTransfer: AmiKit: all quiet clone.
Shut down FS-UAE after the copy operation is done.

The main idea of the above steps is to create a AmiKit directory hard drive with correct metadata for a few files with special metadata and/or filenames.

You can now create a AmiKit.zip file with the contents of the new AmiKit directory you created in step 8 to create an archive of the AmiKit installer. After you've created AmiKit.zip, you can delete the directories and configurations you've created as part of these steps.

FIXME: Should probably add some information about using a zip archiver with unicode support.

2 thoughts on “AmiKit”

There is an even easier way than Craziazkowboi ‘s. I just did it and it works. Rather than write it all out I will summarize.

1) Start at Step#16 and create the FSUAE system as described.
2) For the hard drive(s) use the same Amikit hard drive folder(s) that WinUAE is using. There is no need to “copy all quiet clone” anything anywhere.

Optional: Move the AmiKit hard drive folded into your FS-UAE setup and delete the original AmiKit

Disclaimer: This works fine on my Windows Setup, Macs may be different.

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Let’s try and improve those instructions (seriously, the instructions in the link, kinda blow-dog).

So you have an Apple Mac and you want to install AmiKit (which uses WinUAE via Wine) on FS-UAE, who knows why you want to, you just do…because you can.

The speed of AmiKit on a modern Mac is fine, it plays everything great! Previous experiments had shown no noticeable gain upgrading the version of Wine and WinUAE in the AmiKit install. So, I wanted to see if there was a performance improvement by not using Wine.

I am using Amiga OS 3.1.4 (A1200 version) on my Mac Pro, with a Geekbench single-core score of 3854 (to compare these results with what you might expect from your own rig).

Spoiler Alert:
FS-UAE might be faster than Wine, but I’m not convinced you’ll notice:

SysSpeed says yes:

Wine
MIPS. 1813.34
MFLOPS 1484.68

FS-UAE
MIPS. 2475.15
MFLOPS 2079.07

SysInfo shows a slightly different result:

Wine
MIPS 580.21
MFLOPS. 44.39

FS-UAE
MIPS 451.99
MFLOPS. 63.80

FS-UAE + Blizzard 060
MIPS 32.11
MFLOPS. 10.33

Both results are waaaay faster than a stock A4000, and capable of modern computing.

The 060 experiment shows emulating an Amiga 1200 with a Blizzard 060 accelerator card is 1.68 times faster than a stock A4000 040 25Mhz. Not really up to modern computing demands, and much slower than emulating the 020 with very little practical advantage, but still plenty fast enough to run your games.

A note on running WHDLoad games from FS_UAE and AmigaOS- using an Amiga faster than stock causes a bad flickering problem in at least a couple games, Nitro and IK+ (and its not an old .slave file issue). They work fine using FS-UAE with the original speed & config Amiga, or outside FS-UAE using the Wine AmiKit install, but they hiccup with FS-UAE running any AmigaOS and blazing fast (with or without an accelerator). It’s not JIT either, as even with JIT off and using an 040 or 060 the same graphic error occurs. Most games work perfectly with no glitches, but my favs Nitro/IK+ suffer. So I play them using the Quickstart (File & Game database) options in FS-UAE, not from inside the AmigaOS.

Enough, lets move on. Getting an AmiKit drive into FS-UAE then…

You will need a Workbench boot floppy. I used a Workbench 3.0 .ADF file.

1. Install AmiKit on your Mac (no need to start a virtual machine and do the windows version and all that blah blah from the previous instructions)

2. I completed the AmiKit instructions through to the point where I had a bootable AmiKit install, and I let it install all the latest patches etc. I also did the upgrade to Amiga OS 3.1.4 (A1200 version – make a purchase on the Hyperion website http://hyperion-entertainment.com and support your girlfriend (the Amiga)).

3. I could not use the AmiKit install in FS-UAE. I get an error with the initial AmiKit install if I try to run it in FS-UAE, an error ‘CopyReplace failed return code 20’ – which is a fatal software error (at the point where it copies the files from your choice of Amiga OS 3.9 CD, Amiga Forever etc…); and an FS-UAE error about an unimplemented feature 52… anyway, it doesn’t work, so do the initial install all the way using the AmiKit install and follow the AmiKit instructions.

4. Exit AmiKit. If you are using the default install of FS-UAE, then go to “Documents” on your Mac, and navigate to (or create the folders if you have not installed FS-UAE yet)

/Documents/FS-UAE/Hard Drives

create new folder and call it AmiKit_FSUAE (call it anything you want, but don’t call it AmiKit as this is already used by AmiKit..duh)! Don’t close the finder window yet.

5. Right click on AmiKit and choose “Show package contents”. Then navigate to:

/Contents/MacOS/AmiKit/drive_c/AmiKit/WinUAE

and copy a Workbench boot disk in ADF or DMS format here. I used a Workbench 3.0 .adf image, I don’t think it will matter which WB you use for this next step. Keep it simple.

6. Navigate to:
/Contents/MacOS/AmiKit/drive_c/AmiKit/AmiKit

Copy the RabbitHole folder to /Documents/FS-UAE/Hard Drives
Copy the Dropbox folder too, if you use that. I don’t, so I left it out and it has not caused me any grief.

7. Relaunch AmiKit and choose ‘Configure’ – do not hit ‘Launch’. Click on Floppy Drives, and put a Workbench disk into DF0: I put a Workbench 3.0 .adf disk image in DF0: to boot from. Do not start WinUAE yet.

8. Click on ‘CD & Hard drives’ and then on “Add Directory or Archive”. Click on “Select Directory”. Click on ‘My Documents’, ‘FS-AUE’, ‘Hard Drives’ and ‘AmiKit_FSUAE’ (or whatever you named the folder from step 4 above – from here on, I just assume you have used AmiKit_FSUAE) and click the ‘open’ button. Click OK.

9. (Give thanks to your favourite Deity), and click the start button in WinUAE.

10. If your Mac shows a message asking for Wine to control your computer, hit ‘Deny’. it doesn’t need sh.t.

11. Hopefully your workbench boot disk has started your amiga, and the familiar desktop shows up (looks fugly these days, heh?). Hopefully you see an ‘AmiKit’ and an ‘AmiKit_FSUAE’ icon.

12. Open WorkBench disk, open the System drawer, and open the Shell application in the Amiga you just booted up. In the Shell window type:

copy AmiKit: AmiKit_FSUAE: all quiet clone

Give your machine time to copy the almost 1Gb across. The Shell won’t show you much love, if you want to see some action, just ask your Deity to grant you patience, but could they hurry-up.

….still waiting… My Mac has an SSD drive (not the bottleneck here) and took about 8 minutes before the command prompt reappeared in the Shell window. You can see it’s doing something by the flashing “HD” icon at the bottom of the emulator window, or right clicking the AmiKit_FSUAE folder and choosing ‘Get Info’ (or select the folder and press CMD+i)- and watch the folder size grow before your very eyes.

13. With that done, close WinUAE, don’t save anything – then you can go back to using AmiKit has designed should you wish.

14. Install/Open FS-UAE. I use the latest stable version, which at time of writing is v2.8.3.

15. If you have not already done so, copy your Kickstart rom to
/Documents/FS-UAE/Kickstarts

If you purchased a digital copy of Amiga OS 3.1.4, the correct ROM is under AmigaOS-3.1.4-A1200.zip/ROMs/unsplit_unswapped/kick.a1200.46.143

16. I assume you know your way around FS-UAE to a basic level here. The FS-UAE website has good help if you need it. Create and save a config as follows:

a. Amiga Model A1200, using a 3.1 ROM and 68020 CPU, High Accuracy (as above, any other CPU will actually be slower, or not provide the right features to make this work). Nothing in the Floppy Drives.

b. Set Amiga Joystick to your gamepad or Joystick of choice (you need a gamepad/joystick connected to your Mac before it will be available in the drop down list here)

c. Set your first hard to the folder /Documents/FS-UAE/Hard Drives/AmiKit_FSUAE
d. Set your next Hard Drive to /Documents/FS-UAE/Hard Drives/RabbitHole
e. If you have a folder with unzipped WHDLoad files ready to use, then add that hard drive in as well.

f. Set your Kickstart ROM: to a 3.1 ROM, or if you have upgraded to Amiga OS 3.1.4, set this to the kick.a1200.46.143

g. Set Chip RAM to 8Mb (woohoo!), 0Mb Slow RAM, 0Mb Fast RAM, 0Mb Motherboard RAM, 0Mb Accelerator RAM

h. Tick the checkmark boxes for Zorro III Fast Memory and Graphics Card RAM and set both to 256Mb (go higher if you want – but what the heck are you doing that needs that much, and really – should be using an emulator for that work??)

i. Under Expansions, do not have tick in the Accelerator or Blizzard SCSI Kit checkmark boxes
j. Put a tick in the checkmark box for Graphics Card and set this to UAEGFX Zorro III
k. Put a tick in the checkmark box for UAE bsdsocket.library, and set this to Enabled

l. Put a tick in the checkmark box for CPU and set to 68020 (not the EC model)
m. Put a tick in the checkmark box for JIT Compiler and set this to Enabled
n. I also put a Put a tick in the checkmark box for Floppy Drive Speed and set this to 800% – potentially a problem for loading disks, but I have not had an issue yet.

o. Click the Custom Configuration button and add the following lines:
uae_cpu_speed = max
uae_fpu_model = 68882
uaem_write_flags = nhsparwed

This tells FS-UAE to use a math co-processor (the 68882), and to run the 68020 at the fastest speed possible by your rig. The uaem_write_flags is from the previous instructions, and here for safety, but likely unneeded as the default for FS-UAE is to have all these turned on anyway.

17. Give your new config a name and hit the save button!

18. You can tweak other settings in FS-UAE by clicking he Amiga logo icon in the top left of the FS-UAE config window, and from the drop-down, select Settings. You can set the location to search for games (folder on your Mac, zip files OK to use) using the File Database options, and download the latest Game Database from her

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FS-UAE Amiga Emulator

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AmiKit

Convert Windows installer to FS-UAE installer