This article gives basic information on installing Amiga UNIX in WinUAE emulator. Users of Mac OS X and Linux can also run WinUAE with WINE.

Videos: Amix install in WinUAEFirst boot (installing patch disk

• WinUAE emulator, at least version 2.7.0 (http://www.winuae.net)
• ADF disk images of the AMIX Boot and Root floppies
• ZIP-archive of the original Amix 2.1 installation tape

Configure WinUAE to use the following options. Options not listed explicitly should be left at their defaults.

• CPU and FPU: 68030, CPU More Compatible, MMU, 68882, FPU More Compatible, CPU Emulation Speed: Fastest Possible (or “Approximate A500/A1200 or cycle-exact”)
• Chipset: Full ECS, Chipset Extra: A3000, Wait for Blitter, Collision Level: Sprintes and Sprites vs Playfield
• ROM: “KS ROM v2.04 (A3000) rev 37.175 (512k)” or another appropriate A3000/A3000T (“ROM v3.1 (A3000) rev 40.68 (512k)” works, too)
• RAM: Chip: 2 MB, Motherboard Fast: 16 MB (see note below)

AMIX kernel is hard-coded to recognize only 4-16 megs of Fast RAM. RAM cards will not work since the kernel seems to map the memory address of the SCSI drive wrong with any more than 16 MB RAM. Apparently you can add 32-bit memory to your config: AMIX will ignore it. This might be useful if you go to install a dual-booting system (install AMIX, leave space for AmigaDOS partition and then later install Workbench as usual). See: Amix in WinUAE on English Amiga Board.

• Floppy drives: Attach amix_2.1_boot.adf as DF0
• CD & Hard Drives: Add SCSI Tape Drive → Select Archive or Plain file → browse path to tape image ZIP, attach as HD Controller: SCSI4 (see note below)
• Add Hardfile → New hard disk image file → 450-900 MB (or less, see note below)→ Create. Attach as SCSI6 (see note below), Device name: DH0, Read/Write enabled, Enable RDB mode. This will be your AMIX operating system install hard disk.

The minimum installation of AMIX 2.1 takes less than 70 MB of space, installing everything on the tape takes about 300 MB. Do not attempt to use too big hard disk image, you are likely to run intro trouble! The SCSI addresses are critical, they are hard-coded into the installation and the script won't look anywhere else than SCSI4 for the install tape. If the installation script complains that it's not seeing any hard disks, check the SCSI address'.

• CPU: CPU Emulation Speed: “Approximate A500/A1200 or cycle-exact”. Fastest possible will keep your CPU at 100% load, so this option might be a better choise.
• Chipset / External Display Hardware: A2024.
• Expansions: A2065: an Ethernet card supported by AMIX that can be used to connect AMIX to a real network under WinUAE. Windows users will also need to install WinPCAP if they wish to connect AMIX to a real network (note: WinPCAP does not and cannot work under WINE).

Go to the configuration page and select 'Save as“ to save your configuration. Each time you start WinUAE you may need to “Load” this configuration.

You are ready to go - Start!

Power the system on, and the floppy will begin to boot. Once the drive light goes out it may take a few seconds for the next prompt to appear, so don't be too concerned if nothing happens right away. Note that if you have an Amiga that requires a superkick floppy you do not need to load kickstart before loading AMIX. In fact it just takes up RAM, so don't load it unless you want to run AmigaOS. After boot has completed, you will be prompted to insert the root floppy. Remove the boot floppy and insert the root floppy. This contains the root filesystem used for AMIX installation. You may be familiar with this concept from Linux or some other UNIX. If not, don't worry about it. More time will pass, and you will enter the installation script.

First prompt is for language. Select wisely (the default is what most people will want). Then it's going to ask you “do you want to install or repair”? In all options, the selection shown in square brackets is the default option, pressing return will select that. To select other option, type it and press return.

The next prompt will be to insert the UNIX install tape. If you attached it earlier to SCSI4, just proceed, otherwise do it now! If the install fails on the tape, you'll need to restart it. The script will check for a suitable UNIX partition table on the attached drives. If it finds one that's suitable — great! If not, you will need to create one. Be sure to read the notes located in this document regarding large drives and partition sizes (it's on page 3). Most importantly, keep your partitions in the neighborhood of 1GB, max. And make swap. Lots of swap.

Once that's all set up, you'll be prompted to choose the filesystem type. Default is the s5 filesystem. Choose the ufs filesystem. Trust me.

After the filesystem type has been selected, you are prompted for the type of installation. Unless you are short on drive space, it's highly recommended you choose the option to install everything on the tape. It takes longer, but it's much faster than digging up what you want off the tape later on. That being said, knock yourself out if you'd like to try manually adding packages later on.

Filesystems are created. This will, like the script says, take some time. Next the script helpfully retensions the tape, which takes even more time. Then it reads the tape and installs the packages, which takes freaking forever so go do something else for a while (manual: The standard installation takes about an hour; installing all the packages takes longer.)

After the package installation is complete, the kernel will be patched and you will be prompted to reboot the system. Use CTRL-Amiga-Amiga to reboot into your new system and begin the post-installation phase.

Immediately upon reboot you will be given a series of prompts to finish configuring your system.

First prompt is for nodename of the machine. This is the same as the hostname, for example “amixbox”. It doesn't really matter what you call it as long as it is unique on your network (if you have no network, it doesn't matter at all). The next prompt is for domain name, you can take the default or put in bogus.com or whatever you like.

Next it will ask if you want to create a hosts file. You may only get this prompt if you have a network card. If you do have a network card, say yes to this prompt and assign the values requested.

Timezone is next. The default is Eastern time. Pick your time zone. You will be asked to set the date. At this point you can't set it beyond 1999, so don't try. Just enter like 123199 for the date for now. You can fix it later. You'll be asked for the time, go ahead and set that to the correct time.

Password assignment is next. You should set a password to all the accounts prompted for, otherwise they will be blank! You can create a user account here, this is recommended as well.

Finally, you will be asked if you are using a high resolution monitor. If you are not useing an A2041 board, at this point always answer NO to this and to the following “X windows for a color graphics card” question. If you're running 2.1 you will be prompted about Netnews…answer appropriately (probably no). At this point configuration of the system is completed and it will finish booting to a login prompt.

Congratulations, you have now a working Amix setup! However, before you begin you'll probably want to install the 2.1 patch disk.