Installing Workbench 3.1 for the Amiga 600 or 1200 to a rdb disk image under (Debian/Ubuntu) Linux

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Installing Workbench 3.1 for the Amiga 600 or 1200 to a rdb disk image under (Debian/Ubuntu) Linux

The floppy drive on my Amiga 600 is broken so I had to work out how to install Workbench onto an SD card so that I could boot and use my Amiga. Every guide I found online was based around either WinUAE or the Windows version of FS-UAE but this guide describes how to install Workbench 3.1 from scratch using fs-uae under Linux.

Whilst it is possible to boot and run Workbench 3.x from a Workbench 3.x floppy using a Kickstart 2.x ROM, the WB installer doesn't let you install WB3.1 to HD without using a 3.x Kickstart. Neither WinUAE nor FS-UAE allow you to use a 3.x Kickstart when emulating a A600 so you have to emulate an A1200 to install WB 3.x.

I downloaded all 6 Workbench 3.1 disks from here:

https://fsck.technology/software/Commodore/Amiga/Workbench%20and%20AmigaOS/Amiga%20Workbench%203.1/Commodore/

Copy them all into ~/Documents/FS-UAE/Floppies/

You need an A1200 Kickstart 3.1 rom.

https://fsck.technology/software/Commodore/Amiga/Kickstart%20ROMs/Kickstart%203.1/Kickstart-v3.1-rev40.68-1993-Commodore-A1200.rom

Copy this to ~/Documents/FS-UAE/Kickstarts/amiga-os-310-a1200.rom

Create a hdf file. Its best to keep it less than 2000 MB:

fallocate -l 488M ~/Documents/FS-UAE/Hard\ Drives/amidisk.hdf

We need to install fs-uae to emulate an Amiga:

apt install fs-uae

We then need to create a file called ~/Documents/FS-UAE/Configurations/Default.fs-uae containing:

[config]
amiga_model = A1200
floppy_drive_0 = Workbench31-disk1.adf
floppy_drive_1 = Workbench31-disk2.adf
floppy_drive_2 = Workbench31-disk3.adf
floppy_drive_3 = Workbench31-disk4.adf
floppy_image_0 = Workbench31-disk5.adf
floppy_image_1 = Workbench31-disk6.adf
hard_drive_0 = amidisk.hdf
hard_drive_0_controller = ide0
hard_drive_0_type = rdb
chip_memory = 2048
fast_memory = 4096

Adjust the file names of the disk images as required. You don't need to specify paths if they're in~/Documents/FS-UAE/Floppies/

When Workbench boots you'll need to prepare your disk before you can install Workbench to it.

Double click on Install3.1 -> HDTools -> HDToolBox

Partitioning your disk with HDToolBox usually goes something like this:

Click "Change drive type" then "Define New..." , "Read Configurtion" and "Continue" then "OK" twice. HDToolBox should detect the size of your .hdf image file / disk and its status will show as "Changed". Next click on "Partition Drive". Click on the right side of the disk that represents the second partition and delete it, then click on the first partition and slide the Size slider to the far right to expand the first partition to fill your disk. Make sure its marked as bootable and change the name if you want then click OK and "Save changes to drive". Push F12 and choose "Reset Amiga".

After rebooting, your newly partitioned disk should be visible on the desktop. Click on the new partition then choose "Format Disk..." from the Icons menu thats visible when you hold the right mouse button down.

To run the WB installer after partitioning and formatting your HD, double click Install3.1 then Install then choose your preferred language to run the installer. Its best to choose the Intermediate installer option. When you are required to swap disks, push F12, eject a disk and then insert the required disk.

After workbench has installed, power off your emulated Amiga then you can transfer the disk image onto your SD card with a command such as:

dd if=amidisk.hdf of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=8M

Use lsblk to check the correct device name for your SD card reader before running dd.