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Amix on Amiberry

Amiberry 8.x is a full Amix target — you can both install and run Amix on it. ✅ Amiberry's A3000 on-board SCSI controller emulates a hard disk at SCSI ID 6 and a tape at SCSI ID 4 — the two devices the Amix kernel and installer require. First-hand on Amiberry 8.1.6 (2026-06): an installed Amix 2.1 boots to login from the A3000 SCSI hardfile ✅, and the GUI's Hard drives / CD page shows both devices mounted — A3000 SCSI:6 → HDF and A3000 SCSI:4 → TAPE — with a dedicated "Add Tape Drive…" button ✅.

This supersedes the long-standing "Amix can't install on Amiberry" status: the feature request BlitterStudio/amiberry #1376 ("Add A3000 SCSI controller and tape support for Amiga UNIX") has been implemented in current Amiberry. Older 5.7.x / 7.x builds genuinely lacked it (and reportedly crashed with an A3000 config); use 8.x. 🟡 (older versions)

What works (Amiberry 8.1.6)

Capability Status Tag
Boot floppy / install kernel loads Yes ✅
A3000 SCSI disk at ID 6 (scsi6_a3000, RDB hardfile) Yes ✅ (GUI + booted)
A3000 SCSI tape at ID 4 (scsi4_a3000) Yes — "Add Tape Drive…" in the GUI ✅ (GUI)
Full tape install completes Yes — confirmed by a live from-tape install ✅
Run a pre-installed Amix Yes — boots to login from the HDF ✅ (first-hand)
Real A2065 networking (LAN host) Yes — TAP/PCAP backend in 8.x ✅ (LAN guide)

The storage IDs that matter (and how to set them)

Amix has firm expectations about its storage hardware:

  • The tape must be at SCSI ID 4 — the install scripts hard-reference the literal /dev/rmt/4h and look nowhere else. The disk is ID 6 by convention ✅/🟡: the installer prompts for the disk target and builds BPART=/dev/dsk/c${SCSI}d0s${BOOTPART} from it, so use 6 (it's baked into the device names once installed). See root.adf anatomy and filesystems & disks.
  • The standard install streams the distribution from the tape at ID 4 ✅ (dd if=/dev/rmt/4hn bs=256k | cpio -imdcu).

In Amiberry, set these in the machine .uae (or via Hard drives/CD → Add Hardfile / Add Tape Drive):

scsi_a3000=true
hardfile2=rw,DH0:/path/to/Amix.hdf,32,1,2,512,0,,scsi6_a3000
uaehf1=tape0,rw,:/path/to/amix_21_tape.zip,0,0,0,512,0,,scsi4_a3000,SCSI1

Minimum machine config

Same as any Amix target ✅ — and the CPU/MMU settings are mandatory or it won't boot:

  • 68030 with MMU on (cpu_model=68030, mmu_model=68030) + a 68881/68882 FPU
  • JIT off (cachesize=0) and "More compatible" off (cpu_compatible=false)
  • 4–16 MB Fast RAM (16 MB hard ceiling) and an A3000 Kickstart 2.04 ROM
  • scsi_a3000=true

See hardware & requirements and the WinUAE config table for the shared requirement list.

Networking

Amiberry 8.x added a real A2065 Ethernet backend (TAP / PCAP), so an Amiberry-hosted Amix can be a genuine host on your LAN — static IP, gateway, DNS, internet. Full verified recipe: Putting Amix on your real LAN.

Running an A4091 under Amiberry

Amiberry 8.x can also emulate the A4091 — Commodore's Zorro III SCSI-2 host adapter built on the NCR/Symbios 53C710 — which Amix did not originally support. Pairing it with the native 53C710 driver lets Amix detect, use, and even boot root from an A4091 disk. ✅ (reproduced locally in Amiberry on Amix 2.1c)

Expose the card with a4091_rom_file= pointing at the A4091 autoboot ROM (amiga-boot-a4091.rom, from the a4091-software repo) plus one or more scsiN_a4091 hardfiles. A disk attached at target 6 (scsi6_a4091) becomes a c6d0s1-class device when the A4091 is the only SCSI card (card index 0) ✅:

a4091_rom_file=scsi/amiga-boot-a4091.rom
hardfile2=rw,DH0:/path/to/Amix-a4091.hdf,32,1,2,512,0,,scsi6_a4091
uaehf0=hdf,rw,DH0:/path/to/Amix-a4091.hdf,32,1,2,512,0,,scsi6_a4091

The product id the driver matches is 0x02020054 (Commodore 0x0202, product 0x54); the board AutoConfigs at physical base 0x40000000 ✅. See the A4091/53C710 driver page for the device-numbering scheme (when both an A3000 SCSI and an A4091 are present, the A4091 sorts to card 1 and its disk shows up as c8d0s0-class).

Licensing. The Amix HDFs and the A4091 ROM (amiga-boot-a4091.rom) are not committed to this repo — supply your own. Get the A4091 autoboot ROM from the a4091-software project (it ships the ROM image and the ncr53cxxx SCRIPTS assembler), and your Amix disk image from your own install or amigaunix.com.

The Kickstart matrix that matters

Which machine profile + Kickstart combination boots is not about Amix itself — it's about whether the ROM supports the chipset. ✅

Machine profile chipset= Kickstart ROM Amix boots?
A3000 ecs KS 2.04 (A3000) or KS 3.x ✅ yes
A4000 aga KS 2.04 ❌ white screen — KS 2.04 has no AGA support
A4000 aga KS 3.0 (A4000) r39.106, or KS 3.1 A4000 ✅ yes

So for an A4000/A4091 profile use chipset=aga plus an A4000 3.x ROM (KS 3.0 r39.106 or KS 3.1). The earlier "Amix won't run on AGA / white screen" belief was a Kickstart limitation, not an Amix one — with an A4000 3.x ROM, Amix boots on AGA and its console works. (KS 3.0 also runs on the A3000, so one KS version spans both machines.) 🔴/✅

The project's working configs (in the A4091 repo; ROM/HDF paths point at user-supplied images):

Config file Machine Purpose
amix-a4091-boot.uae A3000, chipset=ecs, KS 2.04, A3000 SCSI off A4091-only boot (root on the A4091)
amix-a4091-boot-aga.uae A4000, chipset=aga, KS 3.0 r39.106 A4000/AGA + A4091 boot
amix-dbg.uae A3000, chipset=ecs, scsi_a3000=true A3000 root (scsi6_a3000) + A4091 as a second card (scsi0_a4091) — the build/diagnostic environment

Headless / LLM-driven Amiberry

For automation — CI, AFK agents, or an LLM driving the Amix console without a visible window — Amiberry can run fully headless. There are two complementary pieces: a way to run and drive the emulator with no real display, and a way to screenshot it that survives Wayland. (This recipe also underpins the LAN networking guide, which uses it to bring up aen0 over the console.)

Run + drive under Xvfb

Start a virtual X server, launch Amiberry into it under software rendering with a controlling TTY, then drive the Amiga console with xdotool: ✅

# 1. virtual display
Xvfb :77 -screen 0 1280x1024x24 -nolisten tcp &

# 2. launch Amiberry into it. `script -qfc … /dev/null` gives it a controlling TTY
#    (Amiberry misbehaves without one); software rendering avoids needing a GPU.
DISPLAY=:77 SDL_RENDER_DRIVER=software \
    script -qfc "amiberry -f /path/to/amix-a4091-boot.uae" /dev/null &

# 3. find the Amiberry window id, then type / press keys into it
WID=$(DISPLAY=:77 xdotool search --name Amiberry | head -1)
DISPLAY=:77 xdotool windowfocus "$WID"          # focus BEFORE every XTEST burst
DISPLAY=:77 xdotool type --window "$WID" 'root'
DISPLAY=:77 xdotool key   --window "$WID" Return

# 4. screenshot the whole virtual root
DISPLAY=:77 import -window root /tmp/amix.png

Gotchas. ✅ - Controlling TTY required. Launch Amiberry through script -qfc "…" /dev/null (or another PTY wrapper). Started bare under Xvfb it can refuse to run or behave oddly. - Focus before XTEST. Run xdotool windowfocus <id> immediately before each type/key burst. Synthetic key events go to the focused window, and focus can drift — unfocused bursts silently land nowhere.

Screenshot via the IPC socket (Wayland-proof)

Under Wayland/GNOME the usual capture tools (grim, gnome-screenshot, the Shell D-Bus screenshot API) are blocked, so import -window root is not available outside an X server. Instead ask Amiberry itself to render the shot through its IPC socket — this works regardless of display server. tools/amishot.sh sends the protocol command to the socket: ✅

tools/amishot.sh /tmp/shots/amix.png      # -> "OK  /tmp/shots/amix.png"

It connects to /run/user/<uid>/amiberry.sock and sends SCREENSHOT\t<abspath>\n (tab-separated, absolute path); Amiberry replies OK\t<path> or ERROR\t<msg>. The path must be absolute — the wrapper absolutises a relative argument and mkdir -ps its directory before sending.

See also

Sources

  • First-hand, 2026-06, Amiberry 8.1.6: an installed Amix 2.1 boots to login from the scsi6_a3000 hardfile; the GUI Hard drives/CD page shows A3000 SCSI:6 → HDF and A3000 SCSI:4 → TAPE mounted (RW) with an "Add Tape Drive…" button; a full from-tape install completes on Amiberry 8.1.6 (confirmed first-hand, 2026-06). Working config: scsi_a3000=true, hardfile2=…,scsi6_a3000, uaehf1=tape0,…,scsi4_a3000.
  • BlitterStudio/amiberry #1376 — "Add A3000 SCSI controller and tape support for amix" (the requested support is present in 8.x).
  • Research brief §2 (tape ID 4 hard-coded; disk ID 6 by convention) and §9 (dd … /dev/rmt/4hn | cpio install flow).
  • BlitterStudio/amiberry project repository.
  • The A4091-on-Amix project — NOTES.md §9 (A4091-in-Amiberry config + the A3000(ECS)/A4000(AGA) Kickstart matrix) and §10 (the amishot IPC-socket screenshot tool), reproduced locally ✅. Config files amix-a4091-boot.uae, amix-a4091-boot-aga.uae, amix-dbg.uae; A4091 product id 0x02020054 verified in src/a4091-blk.c. Screenshot wrapper: tools/amishot.sh.
  • A4091/a4091-software — the A4091 autoboot ROM (amiga-boot-a4091.rom) and the ncr53cxxx SCRIPTS assembler.