How to install Picasso96

1. Deactivation of the current graphics system

First, you will have to disable any other graphics system. Please read its documentation about what to do for that purpose.

For example, to deactivate CyberGraphX you just have to remove the monitor driver for your card from SYS:Devs/Monitors.

2. Installing Picasso96 using the installer script

Really, if you want to save yourself from lots of trouble, please use the installer script supplied. Just follow the instructions of the script and use the suggested defaults if possible. The defaults are usually the best choice allowing maximum reliability and easy updating.

At some stage, the install script will present you with a list of supported graphics cards where you can choose for which board types drivers should be installed. The install skript automatically selects the board types it found in your system. If your graphics boards has no check mark automatically then there is probably something wrong with your hardware setup.

The only exceptions should be if you reassign SYS: during the system boot or rearranged your startup-sequence completely. In this case a manual installation might be better for you.

3. Manual installation (not recommended)

If you insist on installing Picasso96 manually, then you have to copy and configure quite a few files.
• The monitor driver
  • Copy the Picasso96 monitor driver and its icon from the devs/monitors directory of the distribution to your monitors drawer in SYS:devs.
  • You should now rename the driver to the name of your card, e.g. "PicassoIV".
  • Add a tooltype "BoardType=<your_card_name> to the driver icon
  • If your settings file is not "SYS:Devs/Picasso96Settings" then add the tool type "SettingsFile=<path_and_name_of_your_settingsfile>".
• The libraries
  • Copy the contents of the libs drawer of the distribution to your SYS:libs. Note: the subdirectory Picasso96 is mandatory, it will not work without it.
  • You might now delete all card and chip drivers that you do not need for your configuration from the libs/Picasso96 directory.
• The settings file
  • Copy one of the supplied settings files in the devs directory of the distribution preferably to SYS:devs.
  • Rename it to Picasso96Settings. If you use another path or name for the file you will have to set the appropriate tool types of the monitor driver and Picasso96Mode.
  • If you don't have a PicassoIV, you will have to attach the settings to your graphics board after the first reboot of your system, because the supplied settings files are configured for the PicassoIV. You will have to use Picasso96Mode for this purpose.
• Picasso96Mode
  • Copy Picasso96Mode and its icon to your SYS:Prefs drawer or where you want to put it.
  • If you did not install the settings file as SYS:Devs/Picasso96Settings you will have to set the tool type "SettingsFile=<path_and_name_of_your_settingsfile>".
• The picture.datatype
  • Copy the v43 compatible picture.datatype from the classes/datatypes directory to the classes/datatypes directory of your system partition.
• Other stuff
  • Copy the documentation and the application drivers to appropriate places...
If it does not work now, you should know why you should have used the installer script... :-)

4. Trouble shooting

Picasso96 does not work now? Ok, this can have a number of different reasons:
1. Immediate crash during boot phase: please examine your startup-sequence for any non-standard programs that might cause incompatibilities and remove them. This is almost certainly a problem of your specific system and not a Picasso96 problem. Otherwise we would probably get hundreds of complains which we don't, so...
2. There are no Picasso96 screen modes available:
   • Do you have a PicassoIV? If not, you might have forgotten to attach the supplied settings file to your particular board type. Start Picasso96Mode, which should have been installed in your SYS:Prefs directory, select the menu "Attach setting to" and choose your board (should be the last line of the menu). If your board does not appear, the monitor file has not been started or is misconfigured (check tool types of Sys:Devs/Monitors/<YourBoardName>). Note: the supplied settings files are configured for a PicassoIV.
   • Maybe something went wrong with your installation. You have some choices:
     • Run the supplied CheckBoards program (should be installed on your harddisk as Picasso96:Debug/CheckBoards) from any Shell, with the "Execute Command" menue of the workbench or directly by starting it from workbench. It will either list your board(s) or complain about running the monitor driver first. In the first case it is probably a problem of a not yet attached settings file.
     • Boot up keeping the right mouse button pressed until workbench shows up. This will keep Picasso96 from being launched. Now, run a utility like SnoopDos and activate at least the output of Open and OpenLibrary. Now start Picasso96 by running the Picasso96 monitor driver manually. If it complains that it could not successfully open a file or library it is an indication of a misconfigured Picasso96 installation. If all works well and you have Picasso96 screen modes when running the monitor driver now, your workbench configuration is incorrect, probably the install script got confused because you reassign SYS: during boot. You might want to install manually...
     • If all your other tests fail, you should try to install Picasso96 on a plain and fresh workbench installation without any additional tools or tricks. A spare partition (e.g. on a Zip disk) might do the trick.
3. Some pictures (e.g. backdrops) do not look right: make sure you have installed the picture.datatype from the Picasso96 distribution and matching v43 compliant picture sub-datatypes (like the AK* datatypes from Aminet:/util/dtype/AK*.lha, but others work, too).
4. Some images are incorrectly rendered: make sure you don't use one of those infamous memory patches that force the use of fast ram only. This is currently not entirely compatible and is being worked on. Note: as you read this, this topic might be out-of date, please read the history section of Picasso96 for any comments on this topic.
5. Some specific programs do not work correctly: there are lots of old programs that do not adhere to programming guide lines or make illegal assumptions about the internal layout of graphics data. They are incompatible and should only be used on screens using the native Amiga chip set.