🚀 go-pugleaf

>Question #1:  can an Amiga 2000 be made to automatically boot from
>              internal hard disk?  ...
>              BTW, his dealer says you *can't* boot from an internal hard disk,
>              but I assumed that he was just a typical ignorant dealer....

     Yes, a 2000 can boot automatically.  You must have an autoboot controller
and 1.3 ROMs installed.  You didn't say which hard disk controller he has.  If
he has the Commodore 2090, it cannot autoboot.  He needs the 2090A.  Most of
the newer third-party controllers also have this capability.  He will have to
replace his 1.2 KickStart ROMs with 1.3 ones, however.

>Question #2:  what is the magical incantantation you have to put in your
>              startup-sequence script to get it to look at the "Preferences"

     It should load the preferences automatically.  The data is stored in
devs/system-configuration.  Maybe you saved the preferences data on the hard
disk, and when you booted from the floppy, it loaded it off that.  If that
is the case, copy devs/system-configuration from the hard disk to df0:devs/
system-configuration.  This will put it on the boot disk.

>BTW, it is an Amiga 2000 with a Seagate 20Meg non-scsi hard disk, running
>WorkBench release 1.2, version 33.59, kickstart version 33.180.  Is this
>a relatively recent/healthy version of the Amiga o.s.?

     1.3 is the newest version of the OS.  He definatly should install this.
The new Fast File System is many times faster for disk access.  He will have
to back up his hard disk, reformat it, and then put the data back on it.  1.3
is required for auto-boot, as long as the user have an auto-boot controller.


>-Ted
                                                 --Rob.

Robert Silvers.                               rsilvers@hawk.ulowell.edu
Box #1003 University of Lowell.                                   
Lowell Ma, 01854                                                    
(508) 452-5000 ex 2233