Regression: BlueSCSI v2 firmware breaks boot on Amiga 2000 with GVP HC+8 Series II

[AmigaCoding]

Hi,

I’m experiencing a regression with newer BlueSCSI v2 firmware on the following setup:

Amiga 2000
GVP Impact A2000-HC+8 Series II (SCSI controller)

Working firmware
2024.12.08-rel → works correctly (system boots)

Failing firmware
2026.03.01 or 2026.04.27 → system does not boot. After a while, I get the kickstart screen.

Configuration (bluescsi.ini)

[SCSI]
System="Generic"
EnableSCSI2=0
PrefetchBytes=0
WiFiSSID=Andromeda
WiFiPassword=mypass

[SCSI0]
Vendor=Blue
Product=Bluedrive
Version=1.0
SectorsPerTrack=32
HeadsPerCylinder=1

Do I need to adjust any new parameters in bluescsi.ini for compatibility with the aforementioned GVP controller?

Log from the working version:

Platform: BlueSCSI
FW Version: 2024.12.08-rel Dec  8 2024 22:19:03
I2C Supported
Flash chip size: 2048 kB
 
=== SD Card Info ===
SD card detected, FAT32 volume size: 3764 MB
SD Name: SD   , MID: 0x1A, OID: 0x50 0x51
 
=== Global Config ===
Reading configuration from bluescsi.ini
Active configuration (using system preset "Generic"):
---- WARNING: Your SD Card Speed Class is 4.  Class 10 or better is recommended for best performance.
-- EnableSCSI2 is off
 
=== Finding images in / ===
== Opening /HD0_1080MB.hdf for ID: 0 LUN: 0
---- WARNING: file /HD0_1080MB.hdf is fragmented, see https://github.com/BlueSCSI/BlueSCSI-v2/wiki/Image-File-Fragmentation
---- Read prefetch enabled: 0 bytes
---- Image ready

=== ROM Drive ===
Platform supports ROM drive up to 1692 kB
---- ROM drive image not detected
 
=== Configured SCSI Devices ===
* ID: 0, BlockSize: 512, Type: Fixed, Quirks: None, Size: 1105920kB
 
Initialization complete!
INFO: Pico Voltage: 3.299V.

Log from the non-working version:

Platform: BlueSCSI (Pico1/W)
FW Version: 2026.04.27-rel Apr 28 2026 00:33:46
Flash chip size: 2048 kB
I2C Supported
=== Bootloader Log ===
[0ms] Bootloader version: Apr 28 2026 00:33:33 BlueSCSI
[0ms] Looking for firmware: BlueSCSI_Pico_DaynaPORT*.bin
[116ms] Bootloader continuing to main firmware
=== End Bootloader Log ===
Reclock RP2040 & Pico 1/1W based boards to standardized speed
Initial Clock set to 125MHz
Reclocking the MCU to 203MHz
Setting the SDIO clock to 41MHz
After reclocking, system reports clock set to 203MHz
 
=== SD Card Info ===
SD card detected, FAT32 volume size: 3764 MB
SD Name: SD   , MID: 0x1A, OID: "PQ" (0x50 0x51)
-- WARNING: Your SD Card Speed Class is 4. Class 10 or better is recommended for best performance.
-- EnableSCSI2 = No
-- PrefetchBytes = 0

=== Global Config ===
Reading configuration from bluescsi.ini
-- EnableSCSI2 = No
-- PrefetchBytes = 0
Using system preset "Generic"
-- WiFiSSID = Andromeda
-- WiFiPassword = [set]

=== Finding images ===
[SCSI0]
-- SectorsPerTrack = 32
-- HeadsPerCylinder = 1
-- Vendor = Blue
-- Product = Bluedrive
=== Finding images in / ===
[SCSI0]
-- SectorsPerTrack = 32
-- HeadsPerCylinder = 1
-- Vendor = Blue
-- Product = Bluedrive
== Opening /HD0_1080MB.hdf for ID:0 LUN:0
---- INFO: Image file is fragmented (2 fragments), FastSeek enabled for best performance.
---- Configuring as disk drive
---- Read prefetch disabled
== Opening /Am4.hda for ID:4 LUN:0
---- Configuring as network based on image name

== Platform supports ROM drive up to 800 kB
 
=== Configured SCSI Devices ===
ID: 0, BlockSize: 1080, Type: Fixed, Quirks: None, Size: 1105920kB
ID: 4, Type: Network
 
=== Network Initialization ===
Wi-Fi MAC: 00:80:19:88:63:2F
Connecting to Wi-Fi SSID "Andromeda" with WPA/WPA2 PSK

Clock set to: 203MHz
Initialization complete!
Disabling status LED
INFO: Pico Voltage: 3.276V.
Successfully connected to Wi-Fi SSID "Andromeda"

My BlueSCSI-v2:

[AmigaCoding]

Update:
A different HDD (OFS) image works fine on the new FW. The one that doesn't work on the new FW is my 1080 MB image with partitions formatted as PFS3. As mentioned in the previous post, this image works fine on FW Version: 2024.12.08-rel.

Can it be that SectorsPerTrack=32 and HeadsPerCylinder=1 are no longer correct for this image? The image that works on any FW is 50 MB in size (OldFileSystem).

[erichelgeson]

You might try just leaving CHS off - we will now calculate on the fly a "more correct" CHS setting based on your image size (your overrides still take precedence if set)

Your .ini looks fine, but honestly you can probably get away with just:

[SCSI]
System="Generic"

More settings isn't always better.

What SCSI Chip is on that SCSI Card? Using EnableSCSI2=0 may have been masking some out of spec behavior of certain SCSI chips.

It's encouraging that one image is working but the other is not - likely not an issue with the firmware or BlueSCSI, but some setting the Amiga doesn't like or agree with. We've really turned up the spec compliance in the last few updates but it does bring with it learning some oddities of some systems.

[AmigaCoding]

Leaving only System="Generic" as you recommended leads to this:

Someone else had the same issue. The topic can be found here.

The SCSI chip on the card:

Observation
The log says:

=== Configured SCSI Devices ===
ID: 0, BlockSize: 1080, Type: Fixed, Quirks: None, Size: 1105920kB

Shouldn't the BlockSize be 512 instead of 1080?
I tried to force it to 512 by adding BlockSize=512 to the ini under [SCSI0], but it's ignored.

[AmigaCoding]

This is the log from the 50 MB file, and it confirms the BlockSize is detected as (or set to) 512:

=== Configured SCSI Devices ===
ID: 0, BlockSize: 512, Type: Fixed, Quirks: None, Size: 51200kB

Another log from a few hard disk images successfully mounted and booting on the new FW:

=== Configured SCSI Devices ===
ID: 0, BlockSize: 512, Type: Fixed, Quirks: None, Size: 51200kB
ID: 1, BlockSize: 512, Type: Fixed, Quirks: None, Size: 20480kB
ID: 2, BlockSize: 512, Type: Fixed, Quirks: None, Size: 512000kB
ID: 3, BlockSize: 512, Type: Fixed, Quirks: None, Size: 1025430kB

So my bet is that the new FW wrongly sets the BlockSize for that 1080 MB image.

PS: EnableSCSI2=0 ; Off must be in the ini. Otherwise, it doesn't work with my GVP card.

[AmigaCoding]

You won't believe this. It's working now. What helped? I renamed the file from HD0_1080MB.hdf to HD0_A2k.hdf!
Apparently, 1080MB in the name forced the FW to set the block size to 1080 (how's that even possible?).

Working log:

=== Global Config ===
Reading configuration from bluescsi.ini
-- EnableSCSI2 = No
-- PrefetchBytes = 0
Using system preset "Generic"
-- WiFiSSID = Andromeda
-- WiFiPassword = [set]

=== Finding images ===
=== Finding images in / ===
== Opening /Am4.hda for ID:4 LUN:0
---- Configuring as network based on image name
== Opening /HD0_A2k.hdf for ID:0 LUN:0
---- Configuring as disk drive
---- Read prefetch disabled

== Platform supports ROM drive up to 800 kB
 
=== Configured SCSI Devices ===
ID: 0, BlockSize: 512, Type: Fixed, Quirks: None, Size: 1105920kB
ID: 4, Type: Network

My bluescsi.ini for the GVP Impact A2000-HC+8 Series II (see the chip version in the picture in the previous post):

[SCSI]
System="Generic"
EnableSCSI2=0 ; Off

[AmigaCoding]

I experimented a bit more, and I can tell now that putting any number after HD0_ will make the FW set the BlockSize to that value:

New file name:

HD0_1024_IBM_1080MB.hdf

Log:

=== Configured SCSI Devices ===
ID: 0, BlockSize: 1024, Type: Fixed, Quirks: None, Size: 1105920kB

And the system does not boot. The BlockSize must be 512.