If booting from a pendrive is problematic, use TFTP boot from another computer, which always works (the best variant is using a crossover cable connecting the two machines directly and static IP setup). It is also much faster than USB boot.

If you have problems with slow download of ISO, you can download it earlier and store on a pendrive or host it locally on another machine.

Here is a direct link to the MorphOS 2.2 iso. Hope thet helps.

Does the problem with booting from a CF still occur after deleting and replacing the morphos-2.2-efikainstall.img with a new one?
You boot from a CF connected to IDE through CF->IDE adapter, or to USB via a card reader?

Interesting. I had zero problems booting from a thumbdrive. If you copy the iso image to the cf card you should be able to point it so you don't have to redo the download.

@crumb

32mb of gfx ram is enough for the hungry osx and for morphos is not enough? i dont think so.

OK thanks to a LOT of good info I now have a functioning MorphOS install! Thx folks..

Now that I have this puppy up and running, is there any documentation available for this OS? Questions I currently have include:

How to setup to boot automatically. ?
How to move files back and forth between Mac and Windows machines... ?

Any recommendations that you guys have when setting up a new MorphOS installation?

(And sorry for not replying back in a decent time frame, but I had a "Mishap" on my MX bike on Sunday and spent some time strapped to a backboard... ) Anyway, all is well and I am back working on this toy!




[ Edited by outlawal2 on 2009/5/20 10:22 ]

Welcome to Morphos. You can get some info at:

http://www.efika.org/joomla/

There you can find The pegasos book, as well as The Efika book. You might find some interesting things there.

@outlawal2

You should be able to find the info you need on auto booting at http://morphos.de/faq.html . I believe, as was previously mentioned, that the Efika book also has information on setting up the auto boot.

How to setup to boot automatically?

'setenv auto-boot? true' in Open Firmware screen.

How to move files back and forth between Mac and Windows machines... ?

I guess the easiest way is to use a pendrive formatted with FAT32 (usual format). You can set up a FTP server on one of machines (I use this solution). You can also install Samba and try "Windows neighbourhood".

I would like to load Samba, but I don't know where to find the Morph version and I am also hoping for some documentation on the setup of it...

???

Samba configuration can be a nightmare. That is why I prefer to setup an FTP server on Windows (I recommend FileZilla).

I've always found samba to be somewhat of a pain no matter what system it is on. That is probably why I haven't installed it on my Efika yet. Regaurdless I did a quick search and I found a link to samba on aminet.
I also found this article for the 3.2.0 version of samba. I hope this helps.

OK thanks to tips from you guys I now have the auto boot function working correctly... Or at least it worked a handful of times until I moved the computer and tried again. Now it never gets past open firmware. Just hangs at a black screen. I have tried unplugging it over-nite twice and it still will not boot. <sigh> Also, once I DO get this thing to boot again, I would like to load a few apps but I have no idea how to load them and everything I have downloaded has no instructions. Is there some kind of installer that needs to be loaded? (And if there is, HOW do I load THAT?)

Whew! Haven't been this much of a newb in a very long time!
Thanks!

i quess the black screens are a hardware bug, as i excperience same issue here.
But by using the reset buttom and reseting 2-3 times, it boots.
Atleast here it does.

As for the installer part, only thing you need is to dubble click the icon of the app. seen it does not need a mount or something in that order.
But most MorphOS apps don't have installer, you just need to copy them to the drive you prefer.

Drag & Drop if you will.

X

So I don't need a separate installer? That is interesting as I have seen several installers mentioned in different places so I assumed one was required... I will have to experiment if I can ever get this darn thing to boot again! Thx for the info...

OK now i am just ticked off.. I have kept an open mind, but this Efika is a complete POS... It now completely refuses to boot no matter what I do and leaving it unplugged for an hour or more does not help either. I certainly hope that the Morph team hurries up with their MAc Mini port because if they are hoping to attract more customers with this Efika friggin TURD they will completely go out of business. What a friggin buggy piece of crap.

I wish to thank all of you that have taken the time to help me out. I really appreciate it. I was unaware that a "Hobbyist" machine means that it boots for several days and then QUITS.

Anyway, sorry for the bitching, but if this is the best hardware that they can come up with, I am going to pass...

Anyway, sorry for the bitching

You should take into account, that problems which one person has with one Efika do not mean much. There can be many reasons for this, not related to Efika itself. Judging about Efika quality after this one case is not only unfair, but (consireding words used) also a bit rude. If your Efika happens to be damaged, you may execute your warranty instead of complaining.

I only may say that my two Efikas behave very well, to say more, one of them, running a WWW, FTP , MySQL and whatever else servers has (at the time of writing) 426 days of uptime.

Perhaps it was faulty. What does the thing exactly do when you start it up?

Quote:

Just a quick guess, but maybe it is worth to try to remove the battery and try again to boot up.
All in all I can say my Efika works quite reliable - but there are known issues with the PIC that handles the clock and some basic things at startup... mybe you traped into this issue.

|||

[ Edited by Velcro_SP 06.07.2011 - 08:11 ]

@Outlwal2:

I have to agree with others here, you did sound very harsh... So much, I would say that, if you want to quit, do so. The fun factor in computers can be understood as pain by many.

You are dealing with something which is not a cunsumer product. Hence the fun factor.

Are you sure you've changed nothing in the operating sysetm, and still it won't start?

Black screens can be caused by a change in the monitor settings. Booting from the original MorphOS image, instead of your current system, doesn't work?

[ Edited by jcmarcos on 2009/5/29 13:23 ]

While I understand it is not a consumer product, spending 3 days trying to get this thing to even reach the firmware screen after doing nothing but moving the machine is ridiculous...

And just for the record, while I am a newbie in the MorphOS world, I am by no means a newbie computer user so I fully understand that some pain in configuring a machine is indeed fun to geeks like us. Not getting the thing to even post is simply maddening.

So before anyone decides that I am totally clueless, I currently make my living as a server build engineer that also handles hardware support for all machines in my location. I am HP APS hardware certified for desktops, laptops, thinclients, servers and printers. I also have some experience servicing MACS and personally own multiple desktops running different versions of Linux, several other machines running all different flavors of Windows as well as 2 macs running Tiger and Leopard.

All of the non-mac desktops are machines that I have built from parts. So believe me I understand that things don't always go as planned...

And for the individual that stated that one Efika having an issue does not mean much... I respectfully request that you actually review the postings before making statements like that. There are others having the exact same issue that I am and so far no real answers...

With all that in mind I am going to move away from vent mode and back to requesting help...
Someone asked if booting from the original image works.. What exactly are you referring to? Are you saying I should try to reboot the system to the original install image and re-install?

Part of my issue is that it often black screens right from the point of turning on the machine and never even shows the firmware screen. Looking at the board itself, the network port looks like it is communicating correctly, but everything else appears to hang indefinitely... So I can't easily boot from ANY media whether it be my original image or my configured system...

??

If you get no display, you could try checking serial debug for any additional clues.

If it even does not show the OF, I suspect hardware problem. Here are some of my guesses:
- Unstable or damaged graphics card.
- PCI -> AGP riser is not stable mounted (leaving it just sitting in the PCI slot is not enough).
- PSU problem. Efika is very sensitive to power supply. There may be a few reasons. Some PSU-s are not stable when loaded with 10% or less of their rated power. It may happen when the PSU is oversized (200 W or more). On the other hand Efika PSU has to handle impulse loads very well. A common problem is using PicoPSU with a weak "power-brick" adaptor.
- It may be PIC/battery issue as well. But AFAIK you've tried it already and it didn't help.
- Finally it is possible, that your Efika is damaged. It happens. It can happen for every electronic product. That is what warranty is for.

well, i have also seen a dead efika... fortunately bPlan fixed it for free... you never know, what happens, moving a machine can make a lot... i remember moving an amiga1200 near to 72 cm tv... and big static flash sparkled... game over... if there is some 'cold connection', or something was badly installed... there is no other possibility, than to send it back to bPlan, and hope it wasn't your fault. i'd be also disappointed, if this would happen with my new hardware... also a cpu card of my pegasos machine died... but after bPlan fixed it, i couldn't regret anything...

bye, MarK.

ps: never give up... :)

@outlawal2:

After all that information about, at least we now fully understand your frustration!
Read Krashan's asnwer, his comments are always extremely useful, he has a very large experience with Efika.
I was thinking about a couple of things, then red his, and now refrain from posting them.