The Unofficial Classic Amiga OS 4.1FE FAQ

Updated: 17 December 2022

Hardware

1. What hardware can I run on AmigaOS 4.1 on?

You can run Amiga OS 4.1 Classic on one of the following models: Amiga A1200, A3000(T) or A4000(T) with a Phase 5 or DCE BlizzardPPC and Cyberstorm PPC accelerator card.
Another version of Amiga OS 4 or 4.1 can run on the AmigaOne motherboards formerly made by Eyetech.
Amiga OS 4.1 is available for the SAM 440EP , SAM 460 and Pegasos II PowerPC systems.
The new A-Eon AmigaOne X1000, X5000 and A1222+ will also be able to run AmigaOS 4.1 update 3, see YouTube for videos.

2. Can I use AGA as well as RTG (Retargetable Graphics)?

Yes, you can use ECS or AGA native graphics as well as compatible graphics cards such as Picasso, Voodoo, Spectrum, Merlin, Permedia based graphics cards.
AMD Radeon cards can be used on the new PPC computers using latest drivers, updates are available in the Enhancer Software.

3. Can I install AmigaOS on other PowerPC computers such as the PPC Apple Mac?

No, AmigaOS 4.1 will only work on Classic PPC accelerated Amigas, AmigaOne, SAM, Pegasos or A-Eon systems.
However, MorphOS, an Amiga OS alternative, can run on PowerPC Macs.

4. Can I use my PCI Expansion boards?

Yes, you can use expension boards such as the Mediator, Prometheus, Infinitive and RBM Onboard expanson cards. There are limitations with some peripherals
which use DMA to access memory and onboard cache, which will not work on Amiga OS 4. For full compatibility list , see ACube Systems list. New drivers can
be downloaded from Elbox.

5. Does the Mediator LT version work with AmigaOS 4.1?

The Mediator 1200 LT4 does work with Amiga OS 4.1

6. I have graphics corruption problems with my Amiga OS 4 install?

Try installing and select native ECS or AGA graphics first then try your graphics card later.

7. Which hard disk controllers can I use?

All IDE controllers should work fine. SCSI controllers including the Cyberstorm SCSI, DKB Rapidfire, Yamaha and Impact A4000 cards work.
It is now possible to use Compact Flash (CF), Secure Digital (SD) and SSD (Solid State disk) disks on the Amiga. Further information available on abime.net.
The A3000, A4000T built in SCSI, A1200 Blizzard and any PCI SCSI cards do not work.

Software

1. Can I run my old 680x0 software on PPC based Amiga OS 4?

Yes, although AmigaOS 4 uses PowerPC natively and turns off the 680x0 processor, it can still emulate 680x0 code using an emulator and you will not notice the
difference. You can run not only 68k programs but also install and use 68k libraries.

2. Does Amiga OS 4 still look and feel like Amiga OS 3.x?

Yes, it still retains the Amiga OS look and feel, although the icons are much improved using wide range of colours and 3d look. It still has the same fast Workbench
screen and menus as before. See these screenshots for a taste.

3. Can I upgrade from AmigaOS 3.x or do I have to install from scratch?

Since AmigaOS 4 is totally PowerPC (PPC) based, you have to install AmigaOS 4 cleanly on a fresh hard disk partition, you cannot upgrade from an existing Amiga OS installation.
See the manual or these instructions on on how to install AmigaOS 4.

4. When I use DVPlayer I can get sound but no video?

Select the DVPlayer program, select Icon, Information and add the following Tooltype: NOOVERLAY and save.

5. Can I dual boot between OS3 and OS4?

Yes, you can use the BootLoader feature to dual boot between OS3.x and OS4. Remember that you may have to reboot twice to remove the OS4 kickstart from memory to allow it to use the OS3 Kickstart. Documentation is on the CD in Documentation/c/BootLoader.doc. You can select the boot partition using the Early Startup menu (press both mouse buttons when booting up).

6. Where can I download Amiga OS 4 software?

You can find AmigaOS 4 software on DiscreetFX, Digital Universe, Hollywood, PPaint, Alinea (StormC, AmigaWriter, Pagestream, ArtEffect), OS4Depot, Aminet and other places.
Games, demos, SDK and firmware (U-Boot) updates can be found on the Hyperion Downloads pages.

7. I am having problems installing OS4 on my existing Hard disk?

You need to reformat the hard disk using DOS/7 format. This is the Fast File System (FFS) with International mode support and Long Filenames. You can change the format using OS4's Format command or use the Parition Wizard to convert the existing partition. You can also use the Smart File System (SFS) as well. Also, the boot partition must be less than 4GB in size.

8. Where can I get a Software Development Kit?

You can download the SDK from Hyperion ftp server. SDK has now been updated for Amiga OS 4.1 Final Edition.
The SDK includes GCC compiler, VBCC compiler, Python, Perl, MUI, MiniGL, tools, libraries and documentation.
Developer documentation is also available on the AmigaOS Wiki site.

9. What games are there for PowerPC based Amigas?

A number of PPC based games have been released recently, see Amiga-News for new releases e.g.Shogo, Reshoot, Spencer, BOH, Santa's Monster Shootout, Equilibrio.
Older 3D games can be found here: Heretic II, Quake, Quake II, Wipeout 2097, Shogo, Freespace, Nightlong, Gorky 17 , Sin.
Some may or may not work with Amiga OS 4 or will require Amiga OS 3.x and Powerup or WarpOS/WarpUp.
To run WarpOS applications on Amiga OS 4 you can download the WarpOS wrapper from OS4Depot.

10. What is in the original AmigaOS 4.1 release?

Amiga OS 4.1 will be out from 6 August of 2008 for Amiga 4 systems.
* Intelligent memory paging
* Hardware compositing engine
* "Cairo" 2D rendering engine
* Picture Transport Protocol for cameras
* JXFS filesystem to support terabyte disk systems
* Improved Workbench functionality
* Improved DOS functionality including 64 bit support
* 3D hardware accelerated screen dragging
* Reworked AmiDock and Warp3D Radeon drivers

Update 1,2 and 3 for 4.1:
* See Hyperion Website for these updates.

A review of AmigaOS 4.1 can be found on ARS Technica.

11. What is in the latest AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition release?

• Release date: 27 October 2014
• Extended memory functionality
• Powerful console
• New features for Initution, Workbench, DOS
• New unified graphics library with RTG support
• Updated Python port
• Doesn't require a previous install of AmigaOS 4.x
• Update 1 for FE, released Dec 2016 with various system updates.
• Update 2 (53.14) for FE, released Jan 2021 with numerous updates.
  

12. What is the best Web browser to use on Classic PPC Amigas?

Currently the best ones are Odyssey, Origyn Web browser (owb), Netsurf, Timberwolf (Firefox) and now Aweb APL Lite.

13. What is the best graphics program for the Classic PPC Amiga?

You can try ImageFX from Vesalia or Personal Paint 7.3.
Other packages include Gimp, EasyPaint, and HollyPaint.

14. What is the best and easiest programming language for AmigaOS?

GCC is the official programming language but for quickly developing multimedia applications try Airsoft's Hollywood app.
Other languages available include Basic (various versions), Free Pascal, Perl, PHP, Python,and Ruby.

15. How do I install AmigaOS 4.1 on my Classic PPC Amiga?

See the installation instructions from this Hyperion Blog.

16. Can I run AmigaOS 4.x on an Amiga emulator?

The Winuae 3.0 or later and FS-UAE release supports the Blizzard PPC and Cyberstorm PPC expansion boards.
For AmigaOS 4.0 Classic installation, try this installation guide. For AmigaOS 4.1 FE, try this other installation guide.

Please note, if using Winuae, you need a boot floppy. There is a boot.adf on the AmigaOS 4.1 CD. Otherwise, to create one, create a blank
Standard ADF and insert it into DF0:, load Workbench 3.1 and insert the AmigaOS 4.1 CD and run the 'Make BootFloppy' program to create it.

17. Where can I buy AmigaOS 4.1 Classic Final edition?

You can buy the classic edition from Vesalia for just 29.99 Euros. This includes AmigaOS 4.1 on CD which can be booted as
a Live CD or installed to hard disk. Extras include 20th Anniversary Pack, AISS, AmiDVD, AmiFTP, Catweasel, Cinemaware Games,
Disk Image, Disk Master2, Dopus 4, DvPlayer, OWB, RuninUAE and other programs.

18. Are there any updates for AmigaOS 4.1?

You can find new updates using the AmiUpdate tool, and check for news for software on Amiga News.

19. What is in AmigaOS 4.1 Update 2?

Update 2 for AmigaOS has been released on 23rd Decemeber 2020.

• Kernel (exec) has been updated to v54.28.
• Kickstart with updates for bootst.resource, CDFileSystem, env-handler, loader, pasemi_dma.resource, string, xena.resource.
• Libraries updated for application.library, asl.library, camd.library, codesets.library, diskio.library, elf.library, expat.library, filesysbox.library, gadtools.library,
  icon.library, iffparse.library, lzma.library, mounter.library, newlib.library, nonvolatile.library, mathieeedoubbas.library, popupmenu.library, pthreads.library,
  screenblanker.library, timesync.library, timezone.library, workbench.library, z.library.
• AmigaDOS commands updated for AddDataTypes, Append_cmd, Assign, Copy, CountLines, Date, Delete, Dir, DiskChange, DiskDoctor, Dos, Edit, FileSize,
  ForEach, Group, IDETool, Info, IPrefs, Join, List, MD5Sum, Mount, More, Owner, Protect, Reboot, Rename, SATAControl, Search, SetDate, SetPatch,
  Smartctl, Sort, Type, Version.
• Datatypes updates for datatypes.library, animation, ascii, picture, sound, text and tiff datatypes.
• Utilities updated for FileCompare, Installation Utility, LogViewer, Multiview, Notepad and ShowConfig.
• Devices updated for various IDE devices, clipboard, CMI8738, cs4281, p5020sata, p50x0sata, vsata, printer, rtl18139, rlt18169, serial, timer.
• Other changes are listed in the ChangeLog.guide file with the update.

20. What is in the latest Enhancer software update?

Also, you can buy the Enhancer Software pack, released on 17 Oct 2021, from Amiga retailers which includes updates for AmigaOS utilities.

• Amiga command line tools (11)
• Commodities: ClipViewwer, Exchanger, InfoWB, TimeGuard
• Classes: 17 classes added or updated.
• Datatypes: 14 datatypes added or updated.
• Devices: A1222eth, HDAudio, px50x0_eth and usbadm8511
• Kickstart: Diskcache, RadeonHD, RadeonRX, SFS
• Handlers: SSH2-Handler
• Libraries: 16 libraries added or updated incl.OGLES2, Radeon, Warp2D/3D
• Preferences: Amisphere, CANDI, Datatypes, Notifications, Power, Sound and Time
• SDK: 19 utilities, classes or datatypes added to SDK.
• System: AmisphereServer, Format, NotificationServer, Updater tools
• Utilities: 12 utilities added or updated

21. What is the latest Software Development Kit (SDK)?

• GCC: Different version of GNU C Compilers: 6.4, 8.4, 10.3 and 11.2 which can be selected during installation
• SPE optimized binaries can be generated from 6.4 GCC
• VBCC compilter included
• SimpleGit and Subversion tools included
• Profyelr 1.1 and Hieronymus 0.50 tools
• Latest headers and autodocs
• AmiSSL 5.3 SDK included
• Newlib and Clib libraries updated
• ExecSG SDK updated

Additional resources on the web:

A-EON X5000
Official AmigaOS 4 Web Site
AmiUpdate Web Site
AmigaKit Store
Amiga Org
AmiCygnix
Hyperion Entertainment Web Site
Official QEmu Site
OS4 Depot
Vesalia store
Wiki on Amiga OS 4
WinUAE emulator

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