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{subhead} OS update{def}{p}
Article by Mark A. Tierno
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Well, they've released the first update/bugfix to the OS3.5 release,
just like we all knew they would, and here's the big changes I've found
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First off they've improved the Setpatch and the associated "AmigaOS ROm
Update" file. Now the scsi.device patch seems to work, in that my
computer can boot up without it having to be disabled. what this means
to the rest of you is that yes, it is now compatible with the
cybscsi.device and an A4000 setup. The filesystem is still bugged
though; not only do diskspare disks need a "diskchange" run everytime a
new disk is inserted, but just normal FFS disks need a REBOOT everytime
the disk is changed or the OS will keep complaining about read errors on
perfectly good disks (and that first disk had better be in the drive on
bootup). I even tried disabling the NSD patch line in the config file
but to no avail.  Oh well, at least with the scsi.device wotrking I can
disable the filesystem patch and without having to relocate the entire
ROM patch file over to Storage.
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A note though; the ROM patch is apparently no longer recident.  After a
simple keyboard reset it goes through the "run setpatch then reset
machine to reboot again" thing.  Pity; it'd probably make for faster
resets if it stayed resident.  Also that interminable delay during
bootup in which the machine just sits and stares at itself for a long
while is also gone; at least when the "AmigaOS ROM Patch" file is in
Devs:.
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A couple of prefs programs improvements here. First the Workbench Prefs
program which took interminably long periods of time just to come up
after running (about 3-5 minutes!) now comes up in a snap lilke it's
supposed to. Also, the GUI for the Font prefs program has been improved
a bit.  The WbPattermn prefs program STILL needs a "Center" option like
the FastIPrefs version does; oh well, can't have everything (oh, but why
not?!)
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The new HDToolbox doesn't crash anymore for cybscsi devices.  This means
I can actually review it and tell you that it's a nice color-coded easy
to use setup that even gives the Names of the available filesystems
instead of just mysterious identifier hexcodes.
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And finally the big addition. Now you can have animated gifs on your
workbench. Yes, imagine animated appicons and backdrops, all with the
help of the new tool "AnimatedIcon".  Add some snaz to your screens, all
nice and easy to sue.
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Or so I'm told. On my machine I keep getting back "unable to load file",
be it the included gifanims or some of my own I had in storage.  Hmm,
sounds like they've fixed the old bugs just to introduce some new ones.
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Well, that's it for now; maybe the next upate will see a working
AnimatedIcon.