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Path: yoda.hao.ucar.edu!hull From: hull@yoda.hao.ucar.edu (Howard Hull) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.emulations Subject: Amiga HardFile FAQ Rev. 2 Part [2/2] Date: 18 Mar 1996 19:56:06 GMT Organization: High Altitude Observatory, Boulder CO 80303 Distribution: world Message-ID: <4ikf4m$9ps@ncar.ucar.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: yoda.hao.ucar.edu Summary: HardFile FAQ, Spring 1996 Edition Keywords: hardfile support Amiga HardFile FAQ -This is Revision 2.0 Part [2/2] 18-Mar-1996 -Prev is Revision 1.0 03-Nov-1995 -Initially released 20-Oct-1995 /* This is an example of a mountlist entry for using the recoverable */ /* ram disk with the CrossDOS File System for a 1440K MSDOS floppy disk */ DRD0: Device = ramdrive.device FileSystem = L:CrossDOSFileSystem Mask = 0x7FFF Unit = 0 Flags = 0 Surfaces = 2 Reserved = 0 Interleave = 0 BlocksPerTrack = 18 LowCyl = 0 ; HighCyl = 79 Stacksize = 2000 Priority = 5 GlobVec = -1 DosType = 0x4D534400 Buffers = 10 BufMemType = 4 Mount = 1 # /* This is an example of a mount list entry for using the recoverable */ /* ram disk with the CrossDOS File System for a 720K MSDOS floppy disk */ DRD1: Device = ramdrive.device FileSystem = L:CrossDOSFileSystem Mask = 0x7FFF Unit = 1 Flags = 0 Surfaces = 2 Reserved = 0 Interleave = 0 BlocksPerTrack = 9 LowCyl = 0 ; HighCyl = 79 Stacksize = 2000 Priority = 5 GlobVec = -1 DosType = 0x4D534400 Buffers = 5 BufMemType = 4 Mount = 1 # /* Mountlist for a CrossDOS ramdrive hardfile, 1440K MSDOS floppy disk image */ DFV0: Device = fmsdisk.device FileSystem = L:CrossDOSFileSystem Unit = 0 Flags = 0 Reserved = 0 Surfaces = 2 BlocksPerTrack = 18 Interleave = 0 LowCyl = 0 ; HighCyl = 79 GlobVec = -1 Priority = 5 DosType = 0x4D534400 Buffers = 10 BufMemType = 4 Mount = 1 # /* Mountlist for a CrossDOS ramdisk hardfile, 720K MSDOS floppy disk image */ DFV1: Device = fmsdisk.device FileSystem = L:CrossDOSFileSystem Unit = 1 Flags = 0 Reserved = 0 Surfaces = 2 BlocksPerTrack = 9 Interleave = 0 LowCyl = 0 ; HighCyl = 79 GlobVec = -1 Priority = 5 DosType = 0x4D534400 Buffers = 5 BufMemType = 4 Mount = 1 # /* Mountlist entry for `Any Mac' format hardfile for a Macintosh emulator */ /* All units have same mountlist, except that Unit number is sequenced as */ /* additional hardfiles containing newer software revisions are included */ MHD0: Device = fmsdisk.device FileSystem = L:CrossMACFileSystem Unit = 0 Flags = 0 Reserved = 0 Surfaces = 4 BlocksPerTrack = 32 LowCyl = 0 ; HighCyl = 407 Stacksize = 4096 Priority = 5 GlobVec = -1 DosType = 0x4D414300 Buffers = 30 BufMemType = 1 Mount = 1 # /* Mountlist entry for `Any DOS' format hardfile for Emplant DOS emulator */ /* All units have same mountlist, except that Unit number is sequenced as */ /* additional hardfiles containing newer software revisions are included */ PCHF0: Device = fmsdisk.device FileSystem = L:CrossDOSFileSystem Unit = 0 Flags = 0 Reserved = 0 Surfaces = 4 BlocksPerTrack = 32 LowCyl = 0 ; HighCyl = 414 Stacksize = 4096 Priority = 5 GlobVec = -1 DosType = 0x4D534400 Buffers = 30 BufMemType = 1 Mount = 1 # /* Mountlist entry for EMPLANT (proprietary) format hardfile device 25.51Meg */ MACHF0: Device = emphf.device Unit = 0 Flags = 0 Surfaces = 4 BlocksPerTrack = 32 LowCyl = 0 ; HighCyl = 407 Reserved = 0 Stacksize = 4096 Priority = 5 GlobVec = -1 DosType = 0x444F5301 /* created FFS, but Init'd by Macintosh emulation */ Buffers = 30 BufMemType = 1 Mount = 1 # /* Mountlist entry for Emplant MSDOS format hardfile device 26Meg */ /* Bridgeboard or PCTask format file system */ DOSHF0: Device = emphf.device FileSystem = L:CrossDOSFileSystem Unit = 0 Flags = 1 Surfaces = 4 BlocksPerTrack = 32 LowCyl = 0 ; HighCyl = 414 Reserved = 0 Stacksize = 4096 Priority = 5 GlobVec = -1 DosType = 0x4D534400 Buffers = 30 BufMemType = 1 Mount = 1 # PCC: /* Mountfile Entry Created: 27-Dec-95 13:10:18 * for a File as a CrossDOS Disk. * * Disk Size: 1014.4 K * Creator: CrossDOS Install program */ /* Disk size parameters.*/ Surfaces = 1 BlocksPerTrack = 1 Lowcyl = 0 Highcyl = 2028 BufMemType = 0 Blocksize = 512 /* Device driver parameters.*/ Device = filedisk.device Unit = "HD1:HFD/MSDOS0" Flags = 0x00000000 /* File system parameters.*/ Mask = 0xFFFFFFFE Maxtransfer = 0xFFFFFFFF Reserved = 0 FileSystem = L:CrossDOSFileSystem Stacksize = 2000 Priority = 5 Bootpri = -20 GlobVec = -1 Buffers = 5 Dostype = 0x4d534800 Mount = 1 # PCD: /* Mountfile Entry Created: 27-Dec-95 13:23:36 * for a File as a CrossDOS Disk. * * Disk Size: 1014.4 K * Creator: CrossDOS Install program */ /* Disk size parameters.*/ Surfaces = 1 BlocksPerTrack = 1 Lowcyl = 0 Highcyl = 2028 BufMemType = 0 Blocksize = 512 /* Device driver parameters.*/ Device = filedisk.device Unit = "HD1:HFD/MSDOS1" Flags = 0x00000000 /* File system parameters.*/ Mask = 0xFFFFFFFE Maxtransfer = 0xFFFFFFFF Reserved = 0 FileSystem = L:CrossDOSFileSystem Stacksize = 2000 Priority = 5 Bootpri = -20 GlobVec = -1 Buffers = 5 Dostype = 0x4d534800 Mount = 1 # PCRDC: /* Mountfile Entry Created: 27-Dec-95 12:53:11 * for a File as a CrossDOS Disk. * * Disk Size: 1014.4 K * Vendor and drive name: */ /* Disk size parameters.*/ Surfaces = 1 BlocksPerTrack = 1 Lowcyl = 0 Highcyl = 2028 BufMemType = 0 Blocksize = 512 /* Device driver parameters.*/ Device = ramdrive.device Unit = "RAD:MSDOS0" Flags = 0x00000000 /* File system parameters.*/ Mask = 0x7FFF Maxtransfer = 0xFFFFFFFF Reserved = 0 FileSystem = L:CrossDOSFileSystem Stacksize = 2000 Priority = 5 Bootpri = -20 GlobVec = -1 Buffers = 5 Dostype = 0x4d534800 Mount = 1 # ---------- End of Mountlist, cut here ---------- 10. What keywords are known to the AmigaDOS Mount Command? There are bunches of Mount keywords; most are optional. Here are the ones described in the "AmigaDOS Reference Guide" (Fourth Edition) Sheldon Leemon Compute Books (1992): Handler = The name of the device handler file. EHandler = The name of the environment handler file (Release 2 and 3 AmigaDOS). FileSystem = The name of the file system file. Device = The name of the device driver file. Priority = The task priority of the process; 5 is customary for handlers, 10 for file systems. Unit = The unit number of the device. Flags = Flags setting for OpenDevice call (usually 0) (See RKM for details). Surfaces = Number of write surfaces. BlocksPerTrack= The number of disk blocks (sectors) per track (cylinder). Reserved = The number of blocks used for boot block; usually 2. PreAlloc = The number of blocks reserved at the end of a partition; used with a few IBM-style hard drives. Usually set to zero. Interleave = Interleave value (controls DOS interleave, not physical hard drive interleave). LowCyl = Starting cylinder to use for this device. HighCyl = Ending cylinder to use for this device. Total number of cylinders = HighCyl - LowCyl + 1. Stacksize = The amount of working memory to allocate to the process. Buffers = Number of cache buffers to use with this device. BufMemType = Type of memory to use for cache buffers: 0 or 1 = Any 2 or 3 = CHIP 4 or 5 = FAST Originally: Odd numbers were presumed to be public. - or was it the other way around...??? Mount = If this value is positive, MOUNT loads the handler or driver software as soon as the device is MOUNTed, rather than the first time the device is accessed. Workbench 2.1 adds ACTIVATE as a synonym for this keyword. MaxTransfer = The maximum number of blocks transferred at one time; used with fast file system devices. Mask = Address mask that specifies the memory range that can be used for DMA transfers; used with Fast File System. GlobVec = If the handler is written in BCPL, it needs a global vector. A value of 0 sets up a private global vector; anything else indicates that the handler is written in C or assembly language, and no global vector is needed. If this keyword isn't used, the shared AmigaDOS global vector is used. Startup = A string passed to the handler, device or file system on startup; this string is passed as a BPTR to a BSTR. BootPri = The boot priority of a bootable device, expressed as a number between -129 and +127. A value of -129 indicates that the device isn't bootable, as is appropriate for use with the recoverable RAM disk if you don't want to boot from that device on reset. DosType = Indicates the format of the file system used. If the Fast File System is used, this value should be set to 0x444F5301 which is Hex for "DOS1"; other types that were introduced in 2.1 include 0x444F5302 ("DOS2"), an international version of the old file system that allows mixed case accented characters in filenames, and 0x444F5303 ("DOS3"), an international version of the Fast File System. User types commonly found in applications such as use CrossMAC or CrossDOS are 0x4D414300 ("MAC"), or 0x4D534400 ("MSD"), and from Emplant 0x4D534800 ("MSH") for their MSDOS hardfiles. Baud = Serial device speed (in bits per second). Control = Serial device control parameters;- word length, parity, and stop bits (e.g. 8N1, 7E1). ForceLoad = A new 2.1 option; when this value is zero (the default) the system will check the resource list to see if the file system named in the entry has already been loaded. If it has, the system will use that one, instead of loading a new copy. When ForceLoad is set to one, however, a new version will always be loaded from disk. 11. Can I mount Emplant or PCTask hardfiles for access from the Amiga side? If you have the applicable multi-platform software (i.e., CrossDOS for PCs, CrossMAC for MACs), you usually can provide access to the hardfile content from the Amiga in addition to that provided through the emulator via its file handling software. Just as instructions are provided with the Aminet program PCDisk for mounting a PC partition on the Amiga side, instructions can be generated for mounting a PC or MAC hardfile - with a little work: For example, lets suppose we want to generate an EMPLANT hardfile using the hardfile creation utility in the Emplant software drawer. After invoking the hardfile creation utility via the HardFileSetup icon, proceed with the default "EMPLANT" entry in the "HardFile Type" gadget; use the mouse to place the text entry cursor in the "File Type" gadget, and enter the string "L:CrossMACFileSystem" terminated with a carriage return (less the quotes, of course). Similarly, set into the "Unit Number" gadget an appropriate value - i.e., "0" for the first hardfile created, "1" for the next one, etc. Consistent with the presentation contained in this FAQ list, select "Mountlist" in the "Mountlist Type" gadget so you can find it in the devs directory after you're done. Set the size gadgets to whatever capacity is needed for the hardfile, and then proceed to create the file by clicking the "Create HardFile" button. When it's done, click the "Create Mountlist" button. Follow through by entering an appropriate filename for the new Mountlist (i.e. device MHD0 and "Mountlist_MHD0" for the first one), and SAVE the file to devs. Of course, if you already have a hardfile you have created, formatted, and loaded with software then you don't need to do any of this; you can edit the Mountlist or Mountfile so as to provide the FileSystem entry. In addition to the FileSystem entry, you need to provide a DosType entry. Invoke a text editor on the mountlist created in the devs directory to add "DosType = 0x4D414300" replacing the 0x444f5301 entry provided by the mountlist creation utility. You can leave the device as emphf.device if you put the hardfile at the root of a partition, or you can edit it out and enter "fmsdisk.device" if you want to put the hardfile in a directory. Next you need to make an appropriate symbolic assignment so that the device driver can find the file. Use "Assign EMPHF: HD1:" for example for the emphf.device, or Use "Assign FMS: HD1:HFD" if you are using the alternative fmsdisk.device. Also, if you use the fmsdisk.device, you will need to move the EmpHardFile0 file from HD1: to HD1:HFD changing the filename to "Unit0" to re-construct a proper link to the file. If you want to mount this file for future reboots, you should put the Assignment in the s:User-startup file along with the Mount command. The Mount command is invoked after the above Assignment has been made: Use "Mount MHD0: from devs:Mountlist_MHD0" for this if it is the first (e.g., the 0th) unit. The same mount command works for either the fmsdisk or the emphf devices; with the fmsdisk.device or the emphf.device for a mountlist that contains the CrossMAC file system and MAC DosType entries though, a CrossMAC icon will appear on the Workbench after the first command that references the file. For the emphf.device used in a mountlist without the CrossMAC entries, the AmigaDOS-side links will not be created. With the Emplant MAC emulator software (Rev => 4.5) one can create floppy image hardfiles (i.e., FloppyImageX where X = 0 for the first unit), or if you don't have Emplant, you can do it using the fmsdisk.device, as follows: Mount a floppy image hardfile as device MHF0 (as in the mountlist section). Format the hardfile via the command "Format drive MHF0: name MHF0 noicons" for instance (this is the first reference for new files - otherwise you can use any command that requests data from the file in order to access it and bring up the Workbench icon for the volume). Note that an initial formatting done immediately after creation of the hardfile may not produce a format usable by the emulator. In that case, the volume will be mounted and presented to the emulator, and the emulator will then usually have the capacity to properly format the volume. However, in most cases it is possible to mount and format the volume with CrossDOS or CrossMAC (making it accessible on the Amiga side) and then discover that the emulator also has access to the volume after it has been mounted. For such instances, do be aware that the emulator has no idea what state AmigaDOS has stored for the content of the volume, and neither does AmigaDOS have any idea what the emulator's stored state for the volume happens to be. For these circumstances, only one system may write to the volume at once without corrupting it; so as soon as a writer has finished, the reading system needs to perform an internal update of it's own record of the volume content. With AmigaDOS, use the command "diskchange"; for the Mac it will be necessary to drag the volume to the Trashcan (possibly it will be necessary to re-mount it after doing this). On a PC, issue a "CHKDSK" command for the volume. Needless to say, these procedures do not support automatically maintained access from both sides... Also, FYI only, Macintosh partitioned hard drives connected to the EMPLANT SCSI bus can be mounted on the Amiga side via the empscsi.device prior to invoking the MACII emulator, thus allowing the same type of self-policed only-one-writer-at-a-time-please mode described above for hardfiles. As an example, assume you have an old Quantum 105S you didn't know what to do with, and you put it on the Emplant SCSI bus. After the 2-sequence boot produced by RsrvMem via the SetupEMPLANT script launched in the Startup-sequence invocation, before you do much of anything else, mount the Quantum 105S with this mountlist from the file "Mountlist_MACX": /* Quantum LP105S with Macintosh format, no Amiga Rigid Disk Block! */ /* It is factored to multiples of 13, 16, or 19 blocks per track to */ /* utilize a total of 205,504 available blocks. The Standard Amiga */ /* format for this drive is a multiple of 14 blocks per track, done */ /* as 2097 cyl, 98 blocks per track = 205,506 available blocks. It */ /* is rated at 101 Meg (1 Meg = 2048 blocks) or 105,906,176 bytes. */ MACX: Device = empscsi.device FileSystem = L:CrossMACFileSystem Unit = 0 Flags = 0 Surfaces = 2 BlocksPerTrack = 32 Reserved = 0 Interleave = 0 LowCyl = 0 ; HighCyl = 3211 Buffers = 30 GlobVec = -1 BufMemType = 0 DosType = 0x4D414300 MaxTransfer = 0xffffff Mask = 0x7ffffffe StackSize = 4000 # via Mount MACX: from Mountlist_MACX Note that you cannot use SCSIMounter to mount this Mac formatted hard disk since it does not have an RDB written to the first two cylinders as would an Amiga Amiga sys hard drive or Amiga CD-ROM drive. If you issue the command "cd MACX:" from a CLI, you will get a requester advising that there is no media in the drive. However, if you cancel the requester and issue a "Diskchange MACX:" command, a CrossMAC icon for the drive will appear on the Workbench, and the next CLI command you issue to reference the drive will work to open the volume to the Amiga side. Once the volume is available to the Amiga, you can go ahead and launch the Mac emulator. Note that some Mac apps do timing critical disk accesses. If you gong one of these programs with interleaved disk accesses, you may end up with a messed up MAC file system. It isn't assured that you could mess things up if you wanted to, but it's also not assured that you won't even if you don't want to... 12. Is there a way to mount a file system for A-Max as a hardfile? There is at least one way, but it involves several elaborate procedures: Make a partition on a Syquest 88 Meg removable media hard disk containing an AutoBootPC volume in the upper half of the partition and an A-MaxII file system in the lower half. The AutoBootPC volume is effectively just a large-floppy format MSDOS hardfile. It is then only necessary to overlay the A-MaxII file system by a file which is allocated to AmigaDOS. This is done by generating a file named "RESERVED" formatted by the AmigaDOS v1.3 Fast File System. The v1.3 Fast File System did not have any dispersed file list blocks such as are interspersed within the otherwise contiguously formable file blocks of the AmigaDOS 2.0 and higher file system revisions. This Mac file system system can be created in the following manner: 1} Copy the v1.3 FastFileSystem from an AmigaDOS v1.3 Workbench into your v2.+ AmigaDOS Workbench L: directory as "OFFSFileSystem" and copy the v1.3 Workbench Format command to sys:System as "Formit" using either the v1.3 icon or a duplicate of the sys:Format.info file; correct the Tool Types to be the same as are used by the v1.3 version of Format. 2} Build overlapping mountlists for the 64 megabyte DH1 partition. Inspect and plan to use the "-->" entries in the mountlists below: /*SyQuest SQ5110 BBA CFA ADDR 0 LUN 0 CYL 2710 HD 2 BPT 32 */ RES0: Device = scsi.device Unit = 0 Flags = 0 Surfaces = 2 BlocksPerTrack = 32 Reserved = 0 Interleave = 0 LowCyl = 0 ; HighCyl = 1 Buffers = 1 BufMemType = 0 # /* SCSI AmigaDOS File System partition */ DH0: Device = scsi.device Unit = 0 Flags = 0 Surfaces = 2 BlocksPerTrack = 32 Reserved = 2 Interleave = 0 LowCyl = 2 ; HighCyl = 659 Buffers = 32 BufMemType = 0 # /* SCSI Fast File System partition */ *--> DH1: Device = scsi.device FileSystem = L:OFFSFileSystem Unit = 0 Flags = 0 Surfaces = 2 BlocksPerTrack = 32 Reserved = 2 Interleave = 0 LowCyl = 660 ; HighCyl = 2709 Buffers = 384 GlobVec = -1 Mount = 1 BufMemType = 0 DosType = 0x444f5301 StackSize = 4000 # /* SCSI A-MaxII Macintosh system partition */ *--> AMAX: Device = scsi.device FileSystem = L:OFFSFileSystem Unit = 0 Flags = 0 Surfaces = 2 BlocksPerTrack = 32 Reserved = 2 Interleave = 0 LowCyl = 661 ; HighCyl = 1656 Buffers = 30 GlobVec = -1 BufMemType = 0 DosType = 0x444f5301 StackSize = 4000 # While to start with the RDB will contain only DH0: and DH1:, after all of the partitioning, formatting, and loading of software has been done, the RDB will contain only the DH0: and AMAX: volume mountfiles. The intended run-time operation is as follows: Of the above, RES0: is unopposedly mounted by the hard drive controller (it is the RDB partition); DH0: and AMAX: are then mounted by the hard drive controller as automounting from the RDB, while the upper half of the space described in the DH1: mountlist above is "empty grey" or unallocated, according to the HDToolBox depiction. The lower end of DH1: starts one cylinder below AMAX: and the center of DH1: which contains all of the file list blocks is just above the top of the AMAX: volume. DH1: is mounted after boot at the beginning of the s:User-startup file. Why is all this rigamarole engaged? Well, it's done because A-MaxII will mount ONLY a device whose name begins with AMAX and is also ONLY placed in the RDB! Devices having names that begin with AMAX and are mounted by Exec after the RDB has been read are ignored by the A-MaxII boot sequence. Do not let anyone who has not read this FAQ ever invoke HDToolBox on your Syquest drive, or they will surely not understand everything that is going on, and will mess things up before they get any grasp of the way all this must be done! A procedure needed to make the file systems in the right order is explained as follows: 1) Use HDToolBox to initialize the Syquest DH0: and DH1: partitions. 2) Reboot the system so that the hard drive controller can read the RDB. Format the DH0: partition and load the operating software, including the Bridgeboard and A-MaxII software. 3) Now "formit" the DH1: volume. Formit drive DH1: name DH1 noicons Invoke HDToolBox; delete the DH1 partition and define the AMAX partition in the start and end text gadgets as start cyl 661 and end cyl 1656. Leave everything above cylinder 1656 unallocated. Use the "Advanced Options" to declare the AMAX partition as a "Reserved File System" partition with automount enabled. Again reboot the system to bring this status to current for AmigaDOS. From now on, only the RDB and A-MaxII will need to know about the AMAX: partition. 4) Generate the AutoBootPC file CD DH1: MakeAB AutoBootPC Use 1024 cyl 2 hd 32 blocks per track - get a 33 Meg hardfile, which AmigaDOS will gleefully place entirely in the upper half of the partition (except for the file list blocks, some of which will be written at the top of the lower half of the partition). Edit the sys:PC/System/ABoot.ctrl file to contain the string "DH1:AutoBootPC" sans quotes. 5) Invoke a program that sequentially allocates file blocks and writes a FFS format pattern in them; use it to fill the entire lower half of the DH1 volume. [One such a program, "Reserve" creates one long sequential file named "RESERVED"; the OFFS file system puts the file list blocks just below the root track working downward, while Reserve writes file blocks at block 2 of Cyl 0, working on upward. Note: since A-Max adjusts its AMAX: file system to work upward from (and including) block zero it is necessary to mark blocks 2 through 64 of DH1 as unavailable in the bit map using "Sec" (sector editor). Reserve will then start by allocating two blocks in the root track, one for the file header, and one for the first data block. Reserve will then continue on writing and allocating blocks starting with block 65 (the second block in Cyl 1) right up to the last block available on the disk. When Reserve is done, Sec is used to change the file header block pointer for the one data block in the root track to a pointer to block 64, thus making the RESERVED file start exactly at the beginning of Cyl 1. Then Sec can be used to chop 22 blocks off the tail of the RESERVED file by editing the last file extension block so the RESERVED file ends exactly with block 63807 ($F93F). 6) The RESERVED file header block size word ($51) is next edited to show a file length of exactly 32,636,938 bytes = 996 cylinders. This will leave 22 unallocated blocks just above the last of the file list blocks that begin with block 63808 ($F940). There is thus room there for the disk icon file (Disk.info) if it is written to the disk right after the disk is validated (see procedure below). Now, force the disk validator to process the DH1 volume (clear word 4E in the DH1 root block from FFFFFFFF to 00000000 and invoke the diskchange program to call the validator). By AmigaDOS standards, though, the AMAX partition is rather non-standard, since standard partitions start on an even numbered cylinder and end with an odd numbered cylinder. Don't ever try to get AmigaDOS to format the AMAX partition, as it may format one cylinder higher than intended while thinking it needs to format an even number of cylinders... 7) Place the command "Mount DH1:" in the s:User-startup file and reboot the system. Having done all this, bring up the Bridgeboard and use FDISK to initialize the 33 Meg AutoBootPC hardfile, format its internal partitions (if you created an extension using FDISK) format all the PC volumes and load the PC software. When done with that, invoke A-MaxII; it will find the AMAX: partition mounted by the hard drive controller from the RDB. A-MaxII will ask that the hard disk be initialized; given your approval, at the end of that operation a 31 Meg Mac hard drive will be available for loading all those cheap 128K mac programs you've always wanted to fool around with! In addition, the DH1: file "RESERVED" is effectively an A-MaxII hardfile which can be transferred as an AmigaDOS file to any other similarly formed Syquest 88 Meg platter. It can also be mounted on the Amiga side, but not simultaneously with operation of the A-MaxII program, however; as Dave Haynie once declared, "A-MaxII is not a well behaved Amiga application - it's a `hostile takeover' program." Following is a CrossMAC mountlist: /* SCSI A-MaxII system hardfile on an 88 Meg removable Syquest hard disk */ MACX: Device = scsi.device FileSystem = L:CrossMACFileSystem Unit = 0 Flags = 0 Surfaces = 2 BlocksPerTrack = 32 Reserved = 2 Interleave = 0 LowCyl = 661 ; HighCyl = 1656 Buffers = 30 GlobVec = -1 BufMemType = 0 DosType = 0x4D414300 StackSize = 4000 # With AMAX: / RESERVED mounted as a CrossMAC volume, you can do with it as you please in so far as file transfer to your other networked Amigas and their Mac emulator packages is concerned. As an exercise in extreme file system perversion, this is a good one; as "hardfile support" well, it's just not. Of course, you could avoid all this by just doing the RDB allocation of an entire 64 Meg AMAX partition to A-MaxII, or even by making two 32 Meg partitions, DH1 with PCDisk for the Bridgeboard, and AMAX for A-MaxII. You could the copy the AMAX partition mountlist to devs as a MACX partition with FileSystem and DosType entries as above, and use CrossMAC to mount the MACX: volume to access it from the Amiga side when A-MaxII is not running. Far simpler, but then you wouldn't have a RESERVED hardfile you could mess with, either, would you... 13. Can I use my Mac-2-DOS MAC floppy adapter cartridge to load hardfiles? CrossMAC reports this cartridge as a "Non Amiga-standard Mac drive" and subsequently ignores it. Emplant ignores either the Mac-2-DOS cartridge or the AMAX cartridge for anything except the "Converter" program. The Mac-2-DOS software itself is Mac <--> Amiga oriented and does not possess the multi-platform mentalitity it would need to have in order to transfer files into MSDOS file systems, for instance, in a convenient way. Each direction of a Mac-2-DOS transfer comes with certain assumptions about vendor & product name, resource & data forks, and the handling of icons. The DOS-2-DOS software package (also produced by Central Coast Software) was intended to address the intracasies of MSDOS <--> Amiga transfer in an independent way. The tools provided with these packages are oriented to black & white graphics for the most part. So while it might be that these packages are good companions for the A-MaxII emulator and the CBM XT and AT Bridgeboards, they are not as useful in the current programming context as they need to be. 14. Can I use my A-MaxII ROM / MAC floppy adapter cartridge to load hardfiles? Yes, you can. Connect the cartridge to the DF2: 23-pin D Connector on your Amiga, and you can read, write, format or [accidentally?] destroy any write-permitted 880K real Macintosh variable speed drive floppy you can get your hands on. You can use either A-MaxII or CrossMAC to read disks on a Mac 880K drive plugged into this cartridge. You can use the CrossMAC utilities to convert 880K Mac format disks to 880K AMAX format disks, as described earlier in this FAQ. 15. Can I use my Emplant AMIA MAC floppy adapter cartridge to load hardfiles? Yes, and a Fujitsu 800Kb floppy drive is available from Utilties Unlimited. Can't say as how it would work with HD disks in a Mac SuperDrive, though; connecting one up might be a fun project to try... 16. How can I make IMAGE file copies of floppy disks and hardfiles? With CrossMAC any disk you copy from one unit to another may end up with the date set to the current date on the copy. Thus it won't be a "real" copy in so far as some Macintosh install programs are concerned. If you are depending on backup floppys, and you have a source floppy disk error in the middle of processing disk 14 of a 16 disk set, and your backup is not a "real" copy, the Mac will just keep asking for the one who's date it has memorized, for instance. However, it is the situation that for CrossMAC, anyway, that if you use their "DiskCopy" program and issue the the command from some unit to a hardfile device with the same format, i.e., DiskCopy MAC0: TO MHF0: you will get an IMAGE disk copy - identical disks! If the Mountlist for a hardfile is the same as is used for the mounted real Mac drive connected to your A-MaxII cartridge (or ZorroII board) you can issue the command: DiskCopy MAC2: TO MHF2: To obtain a hardfile image of the original 880K Mac format floppy disk. Similarly, you can use: DiskCopy MHF2: TO MAC2: and make reliable backups of your Macintosh system installation disks. Using a Mac (or mac emulator for that matter) and opening the source and destination disks to windows, then dragging the files and folders from the source disk window to the destination disk window may not work. This can lead to some difficulty, i.e., icons, such as the Install icon itself may not appear when you insert the copy in the target AMAX floppy drive. Making AMAX format backups of these disks is, though, a substantial task. With a standard DD Amiga floppy DF1: and an AMAX 800K Mac floppy DF2: Instead of this: "1> DiskCopy MAC2: TO MAC1: DiskCopy Failure: Disks in devices MAC2 and MAC1 are not of the same size and cannot be copied to one another." which evidently doesn't do what we want, can be circumvented, believe it or not... Try this: From a fresh boot-up, double click the CrossMAC MAC2 and MAC1 icons in the DOSDrivers drawer to mount the hardware disks. If you have files named Unit1 and/or Unit2 in your HFD: directory and you want to keep them, you can temporarily rename them U1 and/or U2 so they won't be erased and replaced with content from the following procedure. Having saved Unit1 and Unit2, enter commands as follows: 1> Assign FMS: HD1:HFD 1> Mount MHF2: from devs:Mountlist_MHF2 1> Format drive MHF2: name AMX2 noicons Insert disk to be formatted in device MHF2 [Sokay - hardfile's in there!] Press RETURN to begin formatting or CTRL-C to abort: [<CR>] Formatting/Verifying cylinder 0, 0 to go Initializing disk... The previous procedure makes a MAC format hardfile HFD:Unit2, 819200 bytes. Place the Macintosh format 880K source disk in the Mac drive connected to the AMAX ROM / Mac Floppy drive cartridge, and place a blank disk in the DF1:/MAC1: floppy drive. The following command will want to allocate about 1.6 Meg ram in order to copy the Mac floppy to the hardfile: 1> DiskCopy MAC2: TO MHF2: Insert disk to copy from (SOURCE disk) in device MAC2 Insert disk to copy to (DESTINATION disk) in device MHF2 Press RETURN to begin copying or CTRL-C to abort: Reading/Verifying cylinder 0, 0 to go As we are finished with the source Mac floppy, you may now eject it. If you wish to have a different date on the target floppy, leave the Mac floppy in the drive, and CrossDOS will subsequently allow redating the target disk via a requester asking if you want to redate the target. It is now necessary to disassociate the hardfile from the MHF2: definition, so you need to rename and remount the hardfile as MHF1, then format the target AMAX floppy: 1> Assign MHF2: DISMOUNT 1> Rename HFD:Unit2 HFD:Unit1 1> Mount MHF1: from devs:Mountlist_MHF1 1> Format drive MAC1: name MAX1 noicons Insert disk to be formatted in device MAC1 Press RETURN to begin formatting or CTRL-C to abort: [<CR>] Formatting/Verifying cylinder nn, mm to go Initializing disk... Now all that remains is to copy the hardfile to the target AMAX floppy: 1> DiskCopy MHF1: TO MAC1: Insert disk to copy from (SOURCE disk) in device MHF1 Insert disk to copy to (DESTINATION disk) in device MAC1 Press RETURN to begin copying or CTRL-C to abort: Writing/Verifying cylinder mm, nn to go If you did not remove the source disk from the Mac floppy drive, this is the time the requester will pop up asking if you want to redate the target. If you wish to manufacture an IMAGE copy, you should click the "Ignore" box, then remove both source and destination floppy disks as soon as possible after the copy is done. If you want a current date for the target disk, click the "SetDate" box. Having finished these procedures, it is advisable to reboot the machine, if for no other reason than to release the lock on the file HFD:Unit1 so that you can delete it and rename the U1 and U2 hardfiles back to Unit1 and Unit2 to make them available for mounting, if need be. 17. Will we have any trouble with the advice in this FAQ? You can bet we will. Therefore, this disclaimer: The information in this file, while as accurate as I can make it, is offered for entertainment use only; neither I nor any subsequently posting site is responsible for damage done to data, programs, computers, or peripheral devices via the content of this FAQ. Some cases in point: Watch out for the EMPLANT file system when working with disk editors; the hardfiles, at least have an even numbered top block. Most Amiga disk editors expect an odd numbered top block, and thus may have problems finding the root directory via a simple offset calculation. Even though the "Reserved" Mountlist entry gets set to 2 for AmigaDOS file systems or 0 for Macintosh and MSDOS file systems, that won't help the tools any. You may need to set Reserved to an odd number to get disk virus scanners and other tools to work very well. Additionally, the CrossDOS/CrossMAC floppy device Mountfiles refer to something AmigaDOS might see as an unknown keyword, "Activate" I think it is. It's probably an aggressive "Mount". Another one: Emplant's launch screen comes up with an initial configuration with the NO CLICK option set to "YES" - too bad for your ancient CBM 1010 external drive if you forget to turn this puppy off. It may de-calibrate your old drive by repeatably stepping the heads into the track 0 mechanical stop if set to do the NO CLICK thing! One more item: Don't expect to be able to read at least the older AMAX format floppy disks made by the ReadySoft product A-Max[whatever] using the CrossDOS or Emplant floppy disk software. Be prepared to read the disks using the program that originally created them. The same goes for formatting MAC hard drives. There's no cyl zero prep data on a MAC hard disk, so if you try to mount it on an Amiga hard disk controller, you'll destroy the MAC hard drive root directory when you try to set it up with HDToolBox. Use the correct procedure for doing this, if you try to do it at all. For example, see pages 26 and 27 of your A-MaxII manual. 18. Where can I get FmsDisk? Anywhere Fish Disks are to be found. FmsDisk is on Fish Disk 294. 19. Where can I get CrossMAC and CrossDOS? While there are a few PC# devices included with AmigaDOS >2.0, life will not commence for you until you get the real products from Consultron. You can contact them by email at: consultron@consultron.plymouth.mi.us ; direct the first line in the body of your email to Jay Morgan. The address is: Consultron 8959 Ridge Rd Plymouth, MI 48170 (313) 459-7271 Tech support 20. Where can I get Emplant, etc.? Emplant is a MacII emulator sold by Utilities Unlimited, Jim Drew CEO. The address I have is Utilities Unlimited, Inc. 3261 Maricopa #101 Lake Havasu City, Arizona 86406 (520) 680-9004 (520) 453-3909 BBS (602) 453-9767 Orders It would be best that you verify this information, since it is six months old. Mac ROMs, by the way, dump ok as 27C64 devices, creating four files which then must be merged. This may be accomplished with the Unix binary editor "bed" or an equivalent Amiga binary editor. 21. Where can I get A-MaxII, A-MaxII+ or A-MaxIV? Supposedly you can get them through ReadySoft, Inc. in Canada. Be aware that as of the issue of A-MaxIV, the designers of A-MaxII may not be a part of ReadySoft or the makers of A-MaxIV. So A-MaxII upgrades may be impossible to acquire via the original source. This section of the FAQ may need considerable updating itself; send me update information if you have current knowledge, please. Until such updates are in hand, though: You can reach ReadySoft at (905) 731-4175 from 9-5 Eastern time Monday through Friday, or FAX at (905) 764-8867. Their mail address is: ReadySoft Inc. 30 Wertheim Court, Unit 2 Richmond Hill, Ontario Canada L4B 1B9 22. Where can I get Shape Shifter? As of September 1995 it was: ShapeShifter3_2a at the official ftp-site: 131.188.170.4 or server.biologie.uni-erlangen.de/pub/shapeshifter/ This has no doubt changed since then. I do believe that Shape Shifter was deleted from Aminet after the discovery of someone else's proprietary code in the SS distribution file set. It may also, however, yet be possible to obtain SS from the Author: Christian Bauer, Langenaustr. 65, 56070 Koblenz, Germany EMail: bauec002@goofy.zdv.uni-mainz.de 23. What additional information needs to be added to the FAQ? Certainly, it needs a section to cover the Emplant 586 emulator hardfile support. There probably is enough in the FAQ to help a user limp by (and even with a 586, limp is what a hardfile will do...). There also ought to be additions to the tables for what the Shape Shifter users are doing with hardfiles, and what they're using for support. 24. What address can we use for the FAQ maintainer? These days you can yet use email - hull@hao.ucar.edu or - hull@ncar.ucar.edu or you can send snailmail to me: Howard Hull PO Box 952 Nederland, CO 80466 Tel: 303-258-3402 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: kanep@mcs.com (Kane Peterson), for response to question number 4 above. ---------- end of Part 2 ---------- -eof-