AmigaDOS errorcodes
For those of you who've tried in vain to find an explanation for an error message in your user's manual, only to give up once you realise it either isn't listed or is insufficiently explained, here is a comprehensive list of the Amiga's most hated system messages!
Contents
- 1 Error 103: Insufficient Store
- 2 Error 105: Task Table Full
- 3 Error 120: Argument line invalid or too long
- 4 Error 121: File is not an object module
- 5 Error 122: Invalid resident libary during loading
- 6 Error 202: Object in use
- 7 Error 203: Object already exists
- 8 Error 204: Directory not found
- 9 Error 205: Object not found
- 10 Error 206: Invalid Window Description
- 11 Error 209: Packet Request Type Unknown
- 12 Error 210: Invalid Stream Component Name
- 13 Error 211: Invalid Object Lock
- 14 Error 212: Object not of required type
- 15 Error 213: Disk not validated
- 16 Error 214: Disk write protected
- 17 Error 215: Rename across devices attempted
- 18 Error 216: Directory not empty
- 19 Error 218: Device not mounted
- 20 Error 219: Seek Failure
- 21 Error 220: Comment too big
- 22 Error 221: Disk Full
- 23 Error 222: File is protected from deletion
- 24 Error 223: File is protected from writing
- 25 Error 224: File is protected from reading
- 26 Error 225: Not a DOS Disk in unit
- 27 Error 226: No Disk in drive
- 28 Error 232: No more entries in directory
Error 103: Insufficient Store
This error occurs when you click on an icon or try to run from CLI a program which the Amiga knows it hasn't enough free memory to handle. It will most often afflict owners of unexpanded A500s.
Try closing as many windows as possible and ensure that nothing is running as a background task before attempting to run the program again. If this doesn't work it may simply be that you will have to purchase a memory exapnsion before being able to use the program in question.
Error 105: Task Table Full
This error will only occur if you are pushing the Amiga to its limits. The machine can run up to 20 CLI tasks at once, so if you try to open task number 21, you will get error number 105. If you succeed in running 21 tasks at once, let me know so I can inform the Guiness Book of Records!
Error 120: Argument line invalid or too long
Another error code you shouldn't run into too often. This one alerts you to the fact that you had "bad args" or that you tried to input an extremely long series of CLI commands at once. If you're faced with this command, truncate your CLI line or carefully check the syntax of whatever you've typed in.
Error 121: File is not an object module
You have typed in the name of a program or file as if it was an executable object. In other words, you have led the computer to believe that "thingy" is a program when it is in fact a text file.
You will also get this error if a script file's name was typed in when its script bit was not set.
Error 122: Invalid resident libary during loading
This will happen if your program looks for a library file in the LIBS: directory when loading, but finds a library of the wrong type. You could have a corrupted library file, or perhaps a different file which has been given its name. In either case, the best course of action is to sort out exactly what libraries a program needs, then make sure the correct files are in the LIBS: drawer.
Error 202: Object in use
Your program tried to access a file which was already being altered by another program. Obviously, two programs cannot carry out two operations on the same file at the same time, so you get error 202 and must wait until the other program is finished before going on.
Error 203: Object already exists
You have tried to create or rename a file using the same name as that of an existing file in the current directory. To avoid the clash, either delete or rename the older file.
Error 204: Directory not found
You have tried to DIR or CD to a directory which is not in the current directory. You're either hallucinating, in which case the directory you're trying to access doesn't exist at all, or you're in the wrong disk or directory.
Error 205: Object not found
Oh no! It's that one again! Error 205 is the bane of many a beginner's existence. In simple terms, it means you have tried to access a file which the machine cannot find, but in REAL terms it means a great deal more.
For example, you might get error 205 when clicking on an icon. This doesn't mean that the program to which the icon is attached has been erased - it might just mean that the icon or program is trying to utilise something else. Our coverdisk document icons are a case in point. They have the default tool type :c/ppmore, which means the icon directs AmigaDOS to read the file through the program PPMore in the current disk's C: directory. If you have copied the document to another disk without the corresponding PPMore program, you're going to get error 205.
Error 206: Invalid Window Description
When a CLI or Shell window is opened, the icon tool types contain information on the size and positioning of the window. If this is incorrect or inconsistent, error 206 is the result.
Error 209: Packet Request Type Unknown
More technical than the average boob, error 209 occurs if a device handler was asked to do something it wasn't designed to do, or an incoreect code was passed to an Input/Output device such as the printer.
Error 210: Invalid Stream Component Name
You have used an invalid character in a file or device name. Control characters such as the apostrophe must not be used in file names, and the names must not be longer than 30 characters. Simply rename your file or device to avoid this error.
Error 211: Invalid Object Lock
This error is of interest only to programmers, and states that a lock code was not recognised by the AmigaDOS call. In other words, if this error pops up, you will already know what it means!
Error 212: Object not of required type
AmigaDOS recognises several types of object, including directories, devices, and files. Error 212, another of the more common errors, warns the user that an AmigaDOS command was issued which expected to operate on one type of object but which encountered another.
Error 213: Disk not validated
Argh! This means your disk is 'unvalidated'. This can come about for several reasons, but the most common is that two files are trying to occupy the same part of a disk. The 'bitmap' (a sort of snapshot of the disk's layout) is therefore confused and invalid. FixDisk 1.2, which we gave away on our March 1991 cover disk, will cure most disk validation problems.
Error 214: Disk write protected
You have tried to write to a disk who's write protection tab is set to write-protect. Flip the tab to the write-enable setting to continue.
Error 215: Rename across devices attempted
The RENAME command will only work as long as you keep the renamed file in the same device or disk. In other words, if you try to rename a file from df1:text.doc to df0:text.txt, you will get error 215. You must copy the file to the new device before renaming it.
Error 216: Directory not empty
When working from CLI or Shell (this doesn't apply to programs like SID), you cannot delete a drawer until it is completely empty. In other words, you must go into the directory and type DELETE #?, then CD out of the directory and delete it.
Error 218: Device not mounted
If you try, for instance, to CD to a device or disk which has not been mounted, the Amiga will return error 218. It is relatively common, and can be very annoying when working with a single floppy drive. As errors go, this isn't the one to melt your hard drive, but if it pops up often enogh it could well melt your patience.
Error 219: Seek Failure
Another one for the programmers to worry about, but which shouldn't affect the blood pressure of the average owner. It signals the failure of a low level AmigaDOS function called SEEK, which in this case would have attempted to SEEK beyond the end of a file.
Error 220: Comment too big
You have tried to attach a comment (or 'filenote') of more than the maximum 80 characters to a file.
Error 221: Disk Full
Probably the most obvious and yet the most infuriating errors of them all. How many times have you tried to copy a 200k file to another disk only to find that after 199k, the disk is full and you'll have to start again?
Error 222: File is protected from deletion
Error 223: File is protected from writing
Error 224: File is protected from reading
These three errors are easily corrected using the PROTECT command to reset a file's flags. Every file has a set of 'flags' which determine whether it can be read from, written to, deleted, and so on. These flags are important to the way in which a file is allowed to behave. See page 2-21 of your Software Enhancer Manual for a fuller description of the PROTECT command.
Error 225: Not a DOS Disk in unit
The disk in question is not formatted as an AmigaDOS disk. Either it has become corrupted, or it was never an AmigaDOS disk in the first place.
Error 226: No Disk in drive
Switch you brain on!
Error 232: No more entries in directory
For programmers only, this error means that a low level AmigaDOS command tried to continue examining a directory after it had looked at all its entries.