Test reports

2. Addition to the BoingBag 3.9.1 review (by Christian Aichinger)

Well, what shall I say? One day after I mailed the BoingBag-review to Carsten, there was a reworked BB1 available on the server at Amiga. If there hasn't been a message at amiga-news.de, perhaps no-one had noticed it, because neither the versionnumber was different from the first BB1, nor there were large differences in the archive size. This shows once again the "funny" information policy of Amiga. On the other hand, one has to praise the fast reaction to bug-reports and the fast release of BB1 (or not praise: read the reports of readers who wrote me).

Unfortunately, I made a mistake, too. The shown command line to copy utilities.catalog on the os3.9-cdrom to fix the IconEdit-bug was wrong. It must be:

"copy amigaos3.9:OS-Version3.9/Locale/Catalogs/deutsch/Sys/utilities.catalog
Locale:Catalogs/deutsch/sys/"

Meanwhile, because of the reworked BB1 this bug should be gone.

To the new BB1:

The mentioned problems with the german utilities.catalog and IconEdit have been fixed and also some updated Commodities have been accommodated in the new BB1.

No-one has reported anything about the mentioned problems about integrating AMPlifier into Voyager and I had not enough time to wrestle with that problem. As soon as I find any time for that and maybe find a solution (or an attentive reader sends me all necessary information), I will keep you informed.

The second mentioned problem with HDToolBox has been discovered by me now: As my SCSI-hostadapter (Blizzard-1230IV-SCSI-Kit) broke down last month and I had to remove it, there was a wrong (better: non-existing) device-driver (1230scsi.device) entered in the tooltype-settings of HDToolBox.

After deleting this tooltype, HDToolBox worked properly. I cannot say if it was a bug in HDToolBox or a wrong configuration done by me. A little information from HDToolBox, that the entered device-driver is not available, would have been nice. There is no reason for making things more complex than they must be.

Some readers have reported their experiences with BoingBag1 for OS3.9 and I should pass them on to you:

Andreas Franz (Andreas.Franz@arcormail.de) wrote:

>Unfortunately, Boingbag1 triggered bigger problems with FastFileSystem (V45.9!!):
>
>- there were files named "" and size 0 Bytes, date 01.01.1978
>
>- after a crash whilst surfing some directories were "vanished" or had checksum errors
>
>- of course I did not have a complete backup...
>
>Now I have installed the SmartFileSystem and I am happy. -> my recommendation: delete
FFS, install SFS!
>
>ASyncWB is quite nice, but on my configuration it "froze" (mouse pointer completely
pinned, no graphics-output)
>the computer a couple of times.

For the slow ASyncWB I have to say it needs a fast harddisc-controller. With a zorroII-IDE-controller or the internal IDE-adapter for the A1200, the cpu will be busy with ASyncWB a lot. I discovered that when I had to do without my SCSI-adapter and only had a 2.5"-IDE-harddisc on hand. On the other hand with a working SCSI-adapter ASyncWB's speed is absolutely satisfactory. That the whole system freezes because of ASyncWB is not correct anyway. Perhaps increasing buffers for the different partitions using the AddBuffers-command or with HDToolBox may help. Numbers around 1000 should lead to a noticeable performance increase.

Michale Wilde (Michael.Wilde@stud-mail.uni-wuerzburg.de) wrote:

> I have had strong crashes at starting (I have EASys installed).
> Testing the AmigaOSUpdate-file (seems to be an lha-archive), one can see which programs
are silently
> installed. By replacing one of these files with the older ones, the error does not
occur anymore. On my
> system it was the "rxlib" in "sys:rexxc"-drawer. Now everything runs successfully...
;-)

Thanks for that hint! Users having problems with ARexx and/or EASys after installing BoingBag1 should try this hint. By the way, the amigaOSUpdate-file is a password-protected ZIP-file. Why it is protected so that you cannot decompress these files with ZIP or UnArc is obscure. Amiga Inc. does not place much trust in amiga-users.

Gernod Schomberg (G.Schomberg@t-online.de) wrote a whole experience-report:

> This is my experience/opinion:
>
> My attitude towards AmigaOS3.9 is not very friendly, so it doesn't surprise me that
another fix, or whatever you want > to call it, has been released > so fast. Of course I
downloaded the archive immediately and after > decompressing it gazed with amazement on
4,5 MB of locale-files. I am not bothered about > these files, as I am an alien to,
nearly everywhere, but there should have been a preselection for the languages > one
wants to have beside english. We would have saved a lot in download-costs!
>
> Just to rub it in, I noticed the message from 5.April:
>
> *BoingBag3.9-1
> At the OS3.9-support-site there is an actual BoingBag3.9-1 archive available with
little changes since
> 04.04.2001. The actual file size is 5.254.174 bytes. All of us who already downloaded
BoingBag3.9-1 before,
> have to download it again.
> The following changes have been made:
>
> 1. german localization of IconEdit now correct
> 2. commodities Blanker, CrossDOS, Exchange and FKey are now included in their latest
versions*
>
> Because of these sundries I had to download the whole package again!
>
> Since OS3.9 I installed (as recommended) FBlit to save some chipmem for the GlowIcons
(it did not save
> much). After that, I had problems cutting brushes in "DPaint" and "PPaint". In FBlit I
deactivated these > > programs within preferences and that worked.
>
> With BoingBag there came "ASyncWB". And now there is the same error as mentioned
before, when trying to > cut a part of the screen with TurboPrint and copy it to RAM. In
the cut area black lines appear. Solution:
> Use "FBlit" OR "ASyncWB". I decided to do the first.
>
> The new WBRun does not work on my configuration. I cannot start any program with Icons
out of a script or from > the shell. I installed the older WBRun V2.2 and everything
worked well again.
>
> Gernod Schomberg
> g.schomberg@t-online.de

Gernod even wrote an addendum. Please read on:

> Addendum:
>
> I was worried that if I installed BoingBag1 step by step > I might miss something
important being overwritten.
>
> Therefore I copied my SYS:-Partition, that is always under 100 MBytes, to a bootable
ZIP-disc and installed > BoingBag there. At startup of that disc I got this message twice
:"WBRUN: OUT OF MEMORY", but the > booting continued. In fact, WBRun is used at least 4
times in user-startup.
>
> And now I have to correct myself, I can start programs from scripts, and that works on
my real SYS:-partition > too, but saving out of those programs, say configurations or
saved games, does not work. The saves start > with "WBRun" opening a requester with a
message that just says that is not possible. I cannot say which > programs are affected
in general as I don't want to endanger important programs and did not make any further >
tests.
>
> G. Schomberg

Well it seems there are still some bugs left in the AmigaOS3.9-update despite reworking. Those of you who want to comment on the problems mentioned and the reports may get in touch with me or have your say on the amiga-aktuel-forum.

Christian Aichinger <christian@aakt.de>