Freemint basic installation

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rubber_jonnie
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Freemint basic installation

Post by rubber_jonnie »

I have had some conversations over the last week on FB about how to install Freemint, and have an earlier thread where I'd tried to install on Hatari but had made some fundamental errors. I had meant to come back to it and correct that, but never did.

What this post intends to correct is my failure to revisit that post and give a step by step guide on how you can easily get Freemint running on your ST or above.

What this post is NOT here for is to provide you with any technical answers regarding Freemint. It will help you get it installed, that's it.

I do not have any deep technical knowledge of Freemint and if you want more than to just install Freemint, then I'd suggest you visit Atari-Forum where there is now a dedicated Freemint Q&A section.

I'd also warn you that you will need at least 4MB RAM, and that if you are running on an MSTE or below, even with 4MB, then you should expect disappointment.

Whilst the base OS runs just fine with 4MB, in my experience it leaves precious little left to run programs, and you will find that means you won't be able to do very much with it at all. If, like me, you have an MSTE, you will also find that at stock 8Mhz speeds it is really quite sluggish, and you really need some sort of acceleration to make it behave. In my case that meant installing some basic control panels to allow me to turn on 16Mhz mode and enable the caches.

Ideally you will want a TT or Falcon to run this properly. If you can get an Alt RAM upgrade for your ST it may well make it usable, otherwise it is simply a demo of what you could expect on a machine with more resources.

There will be two options to install covered here:

1. Install using CosmosEx with a network connection to copy the files over.
2. Install by copying the files over on a Windows PC.

I'm including both options, since the CosmosEx is much harder to get than something like an Ultrasatan, and option 2 works fine for that with the driver caveats mentioned next.

Note, this install uses HDDRIVER throughout, however provided you use a driver that will similarly allow Atari/Windows access to the partitions, like PPeras driver, then option 2 will work just as well with that. If you have a driver that does not support use under windows, then you are a bit stuck and need to find an alternative way to build your drive image, possibly using an emulator.

The Freemint files can be found here:https://bintray.com/freemint/freemint/s ... 9-066b29f6 and there are separate versions for ST/STE/Mega/MSTE and TT/Falcon/Aranym, simply download the version that is for your target machine.

Ok, so that's all the boring stuff done, lets get on with how you do it.

Disk Preparation

First thing I'd suggest is that any SD card you intend to use is wiped. This step is optional, but I like to be sure my SD is clean before starting.

Under Windows use DISKPART to do this.

1. Open a Windows Command Prompt. Type DISKPART and hit return.
2. Type list disk and hit return noting which disk number is your SD card.
3. Type select disk X and hit return, where X is the number you found in step 2.
4. Type list disk again and ensure your SD card has a * next to it, indicating it is the selected drive.
5. Type clean and hit return, this will wipe all of the partitions on the SD card.

The image below indicates the steps shown above:
Disk_Clean.JPG
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Next put the SD card into your drive, in my case a CosmosEx, but an Ultrasatan or similar will work just as well. Power on the drive and then your Atari Computer.

At this point, your drive is unprepared so it will not boot, here I will boot with a floppy disk containing HDDRIVER so that the CosmosEx/Ultrasatan is detected.

Next we need to set up the SD card with partitions. I am using this one:
SD.jpg
SD.jpg (28.55 KiB) Viewed 3439 times
I find them very reliable and cheap.

The partitioning scheme you use is up to you, but I will split mine into 4 since Freemint can easily use 2GB partitions.

Partition your disk as follows:

1. Start HDDRUTIL and select the SD card from the list of devices.
2. Select Partition from the Medium menu
Select_SD.jpg
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Then click the compatibility button:
Select_Compatibility.jpg
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And set your disk to be compatible for Windows and TOS, choosing which version of TOS you need as a minimum:
Select_Compatibility_2.jpg
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Split the drive into the number of partitions you need, 4 in my case:
Split.jpg
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Then resize the 1st partition to be TOS compatible:
Resize_1st_Partition.jpg
Resize_1st_Partition.jpg (107.58 KiB) Viewed 3439 times
Then click OK.

Then click Proceed:
Select_Proceed.jpg
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Then click Continue:
Select_Continue.jpg
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Finally click yes:
Select_Yes.jpg
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And you will see the device is partitioning:
Partitioning.jpg
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And restart when requested:
Restart_to_Activate.jpg
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Once rebooted, and HDDRIVER is reloaded, start HDDRUTIL again.

1. From the list of disks, select C:
2. From the File menu, select Install HDDRIVER. Confirm the dialog boxes as they open.

Quit HDDRUTIL and restart the machine, you should now be able to boot from the SD card.

Installing Freemint - CosmosEx method

The next steps are relevant ONLY if you have a CosmosEx. Prior to completing these steps take a copy of CE_DD.PRG from the CosmosEx O: drive and place it on a floppy disk ready to install onto the SD card.
You should have previously configured the CosmosEx to connect to a network share where the Freemint files have been unzipped to.

1. In the root of C:\ make a folder called Auto.
2. Copy the CE_DD.PRG folder into the Auto folder created at step 1.
3. Restart the machine.

On restart you will now have access to your CosmosEx shared drive.

You will likely have to select 'Install Devices' from the options menu before the shortcuts to any drives other than C:\ will be visible. Note that whilst you will see the drives that were partitioned earlier and are larger than 512KB, you won't be able to access them under TOS at this point.

Here are all the drives post reboot, the O: drive being the CosmosEx configuration tool drive, and the P: drive being the shared network drive.
Drives.jpg
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Then Open C:\ and your network drive, in my case P:\, and locate the Freemint files you extracted earlier:
Ready_to_Copy.jpg
Ready_to_Copy.jpg (88.71 KiB) Viewed 3439 times
Next, delete the Auto folder from C:\

Then select the folders named Auto, Guides and Mint, in your network drive, P:\ in my case and copy them to C:\

Once the files have been copied to C:\ (This may take a while), simply reboot and Freemint will boot complete with the Teradesk multitasking Desktop replacement.

Installing Freemint - Ultrasatan method

Since Ultrasatan does not have any networking capabilities, we need an alternative method to get the files onto the C:\drive.

Well this method is quite simple if you have first followed the partitioning process described above.

Once you can boot to TOS and can see C:\, simply skip the step of creating an Auto folder, and just create either a file or folder called C_DRIVE.TXT. This will help you identify the partition you need on your Windows machine.

Then do the following steps:

1.Power off your ST and Ultrasatan, and remove your SD card.
2.Insert it into your Windows PC, and copy the Auto, Guides and Mint folders to the root of the SD card C:\ drive, now identifiable using the file or folder you created earlier.
Windows_Copy.JPG
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Once copied, eject the card from Windows, reinsert into the Ultrasatan and power it on, followed by your ST. You should now boot into Freemint.

I have on occasion had a problem whereby after copying the folders over under windows, the SD card no longer boots. Reinstalling HDDRIVER again usually remedies this problem and I don't know why it occurs.

After booting for the first time

You will see 2 errors on first boot.

1. The system reports it cannot access xaaes.inf. This is because the file doesn't exist.
2. An error is reported reading teradesk.inf because it doesn't exist.

You can fix both of these errors.

First, from the Options menu simply save settings to create a teradesk.inf file, this will clear the Teradesk error.

The xaaes.inf file is more complicated, but the delay caused by the missing file can be reduced by creating an empty file called xaaes.inf. Copy it to this directory:
XAAES.jpg
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This is a bit of a hack, and at some point I may look at what directives can be used in xaaes.inf, but to get you going, this will do the trick.

Summary

I hope this helps somebody take their first steps down the Freemint road.

As I've said, this should work well with either HDDRIVER or PPs driver. Personally I wouldn't recommend using anything else.

Please DO NOT ask for Freemint technical help here, there is none, this is just a very basic get you going guide.

If you decide you want to revert back to TOS, simply rename the AUTO folder to AUTO.BAK and reboot. You will boot to a standard TOS desktop, but you won't be able to access any of the large drive partitions you have.

Good luck.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
czietz
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Re: Freemint basic installation

Post by czietz »

Well-made guide. That'll surely help someone.

Minor note. I would not link to a specific snapshot, but the the link that always points to the latest snapshot:
https://bintray.com/freemint/freemint/s ... estVersion
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Re: Freemint basic installation

Post by stephen_usher »

Just for completeness, MiNT will run OK on a 4MB machine as long as you want to use it purely in command line UNIX style, though it can get tight when using GCC with optimisation. In fact I did the initial development of my init(8) and helped with the MiNT kernel using my 2.5MB 520STM before I got my TT. (GCC 1.95 was a lot more compact than 2.7.2 too, so that helped.)

Of course, these days, unlike when MiNT was being put together in the early 90s, if you want a UNIX-like system you can just boot Linux on a PC. At the time MiNT with the GNU utilities was a definite advance on Minix, which was incredibly basic.
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Freemint basic installation

Post by rubber_jonnie »

czietz wrote: Sat Jan 30, 2021 6:11 pm Well-made guide. That'll surely help someone.

Minor note. I would not link to a specific snapshot, but the the link that always points to the latest snapshot:
https://bintray.com/freemint/freemint/s ... estVersion
Thanks for the praise and the link 😊
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Freemint basic installation

Post by rubber_jonnie »

stephen_usher wrote: Sat Jan 30, 2021 6:47 pm Just for completeness, MiNT will run OK on a 4MB machine as long as you want to use it purely in command line UNIX style, though it can get tight when using GCC with optimisation. In fact I did the initial development of my init(8) and helped with the MiNT kernel using my 2.5MB 520STM before I got my TT. (GCC 1.95 was a lot more compact than 2.7.2 too, so that helped.)

Of course, these days, unlike when MiNT was being put together in the early 90s, if you want a UNIX-like system you can just boot Linux on a PC. At the time MiNT with the GNU utilities was a definite advance on Minix, which was incredibly basic.
Good bit of background there, very interesting.

With the current version, how would you get it to boot in CLI mode?
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
Steve
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Re: Freemint basic installation

Post by Steve »

edit
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thorsten.otto
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Re: Freemint basic installation

Post by thorsten.otto »

Excellent work. I think something like this should actually be part of the FreeMiNT wiki.
Not sure if it works in just the kernel snapshot Mint due to a lack of Unix utils and such.
I did not try, but the snapshots have a (very minimal) set of unix utilities, so i think this should work.
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stephen_usher
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Re: Freemint basic installation

Post by stephen_usher »

If you really want a minimal command line system set INIT to be /bin/bash The kernel will then boot and drop you straight into the shell without starting any daemons or doing anything in the background.
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Freemint basic installation

Post by rubber_jonnie »

stephen_usher wrote: Sun Jan 31, 2021 9:19 am If you really want a minimal command line system set INIT to be /bin/bash The kernel will then boot and drop you straight into the shell without starting any daemons or doing anything in the background.
Interesting, I may have to give that a try, see if I can make it work.

Even if I bork it, re-installation is trivial.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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thorsten.otto
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Re: Freemint basic installation

Post by thorsten.otto »

BTW, there is also a port of MKSH available (http://tho-otto.de/crossmint.php#mksh) which is a bit less memory hungry than bash.
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