some BeOS noob questions

[headseed]

New to BeOS, want to run it on my bp6, should I go for the BeosMAX, openBeos, yellowtag, or something else?

Also, is there a voltage monitoring app for BeOS? My bp6 sometimes reboots with vcore reset to default, and the cpus won't run the overclock I have at 2.0 volts, it still boots, but is unstable. I don't want to run stock if I can help it, as the 66 fsb is much slower than the 92 fsb I run.

My config, please point out any hardware probs you forsee for me and bp6 BeOS lovin'!

2 x 400 @ 552 (92fsb)
gf2 mx400 personal cinema (won't hookup tv tuner box if incompatible, but tv watchying/recording in beos would be a plus!)
promise tx200 ata100 controller
creative vibra 16 isa sound
realtek pci nic, but I have others
optical drives, hard drives etc...

I had a gf3 ti200 in this box, but my main computers gf4 ti4200 shit the bed, and I had to pull the gf3 for it. Going to see if I am still under warranty on the gf4.

Damn, I just sold my radeon 9000 to my neighbor last month.

[headseed]

Off topic sorry (still looking for replies on BeOS queries).

Well, put gf3 in main machine and installed windows. Wile installing drivers, etc, the machine corrupted screen and then locked, then tried to reboot, infinite loop.... gah! time to dig out my old ECS K7S5A board and say goodby to my overclock for now... while tearing the box down I saw the atx mobo power connector (antec samrt power 300, came with case) was all toasty brown on the red wires (12v?).

Hopng no further damage was down, I started putting the box back together with a trupower 330 I had on hand.

Windows is installing now, with my gf4, and all looks well. We'll see.

This is good, it means my gf3 goes back into the bp6, and I'll have tv out if I want it on that machine. If I want tv, I think I have an old tuner card around here somewheres. whew!

[InactiveX]

I would give BeOS Max a spin. It is the final release Be did, with some added extra drivers.

You may need to use this boot floppy to install BeOS onto your HDD attached to the Promise: http://www.bebits.com/app/2625 Once it is installed, you should be able to use the regular driver from the same page and do away with the floppy. This is how I install my regular BeOS r5.

I suspect the GFX card is supported by the extra drivers on the Max edition. If not, the OpenBeOS Nvidia driver is excellent. I use it on my TNT2Ultra and it is the only NV driver that supports hardware overlay that I know of. Find it here http://www.bebits.com/app/3636

This is a great voltage, fan-speed and CPU activity monitor tailor-made for the BP6 http://www.bebits.com/app/825

Good luck. You'll have a lot of fun with BeOS. Any problems let me know. I may be able to help.

[headseed]

I thought BeOSMax only was for P4s and Athlons. If I can use it on the bp6 I will. I have a drive I can use on the bp6 onboard IDE if that will ease installation.

The beosmax cd creation instructions say you have to have a boot image to burn the cd, they only provide P4 and athlon boot images. Any ideas? I'll download like crazy when I get back from rehearsal at lodge (around 8:30ish EST) if steam is done updating.

Loving the DSL, can't wait to test it to see how it compares with the cable connection I used to have. I'm not going to test it until steam is finished. Could be a while!

Thanks for the help, I'll be posting my progress/questions as I work with this tonight/tomorrow.

[InactiveX]

I thought BeOSMax only was for P4s and Athlons. If I can use it on the bp6 I will. I have a drive I can use on the bp6 onboard IDE if that will ease installation.

Should be fine on the BP6. The Max edition contains extra support for P4s and Athlons, which BeOS r5 does not offer. I would, however, recommend you use the boot floppy to use your Promise card and install the stand-alone driver when you're in.

The beosmax cd creation instructions say you have to have a boot image to burn the cd, they only provide P4 and athlon boot images. Any ideas?

It should work fine. If in doubt, use this link: http://bebits.com/app/3148

Thanks for the help, I'll be posting my progress/questions as I work with this tonight/tomorrow.

Have fun!

[headseed]

Alrighty, jumping right in with both feet. Beosmax will be down in about 25 minutes, got the generic boot disk for promise, but this one has no active mirrors.

I'll keep checking to see if its back up, in the meantime, this is my plan:

Rename the beosmax iso as per their instructions. Create boot floppy for promise disk controllers, boot floppy then cd, install beosmax, then (when I have it) install the promise driver. Sound good?

Since I've no experience in beos, are there any tricks to installing drivers? Installing software? Do I just click them? I'm sure its pretty easy, beos seems like they thought of everything when designing this OS.

Again, a thousand thanks to InactiveX!

[headseed]

Ok, installed BeosMax and used the IDE replacment driver boot floppy then installed that driver from the beos desktop. So far so good.

I had to force 640x480 for install because of an old monitor I am using. It will do 800x600, but only at 60hz. When I try to change to 8x6 60hz beos won't let me because I am using safe mode to boot. Is there command line options for this, or a way to do it within beos?

I still have to find the promise drivers, they should be there somewhere because I used the max v3 and it said they added them in v2.

I haven't put it on the network yet, so I didn't play around with bp6 monitor or anything else yet. Does it or any other hardware monitor's show vcore or just the 12 and 5 volt values? I need vcore to make sure I booted with 2.1 vcore, my board is flaky in that respect, a few reboots usually fixes it, and once up at 2.1 it is very stable. I can live with that.

[InactiveX]

Nice one!

Regarding the IDE driver, don't use the one that you linked to, that has been superseeded by the IDE replacement driver which is on the same BeBits page as the boot floppy. It's the driver I use. The one you linked to hasn't been updated since late 2001.

About the monitor, I think you'll just have to dig deep and get a new one.

I know of no way of monitoring VTT in BeOS. BP6Mon certainly doesn't. This app http://www.bebits.com/app/1714 may do it, but I've never tried it. Is your BP6 in the habit of changing VCore then? That's odd.

BTW, when you get on the internet, be sure to install BeShare. http://www.bebits.com/app/1330 It's not just a file sharing app; you can chat to other BeOS users who are always willing to help out. I'm in there occasionally.

Keep on keeping on!

[headseed]

Ok, I'll stick with the IDE replacment driver. Too bad about the monitor, I just gave away an older (but still good) generic 17"!!! Doh!

Is your BP6 in the habit of changing VCore then? That's odd.

Yes, its odd, and kind off frustrating. It sometimes boots with 2.0 vcore on both procs verified by MBM, even when vcore is set to 2.1 in the bios. I can't figure it out. Derek and I were trying to diagnose the reason a while back. I have the newest bios, etc. Also, and I think somehow related, is that my bp6 sometimes doesn't reboot when I tell it too, I am forced to cycle the power, because it just sits at a black screen after booting down. It also doesn't always exit the bios gracefully, same thing, just black screen and I have to cycle power.

It also does this sometimes when starting up from off... I have to try a few times (usually two) to get it to post. I might be hallucinating, but it seems to work better if when I power up I push and hold the power button for 1-2 seconds.

It also down't power down on its own, I get the windows message "it is now safe to shut off your pc". This is ACPI related, IIRC.

I am going to be rma'ing one antec 300 smartpower psu that fried, but I also have one in my bp6, and I think I'll send that one back also. If I put the slightest (and I mean slightest) pressure on the rocker switch when I go through all these power on and offs, it cuts power, without actually engaging the rocker switch! This I am hoping is the cause of the problems. But unlikely, because I seem to remember it doing all these things with a generic 400w duro PSU also.

Back to topic, beos seems very fast, and I can't wait to have a better monitor to play with it some more. 640x480 is just too painful, especially since I know the monitor can do 800x600, at 60hz. When I used this monitor for Knoppix (single CD bootable debian linux), I could set the resolution and refresh rate when booting with command line options. Surely Beos has something similar. I hit space when it boots and I can see that it lets you enter arguments for the boot. Maybe I'll google around a little for it later.

Thanks again!