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xfs208b.readme
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1998-01-05
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Short: Multi filesys+.device, pc+pcw+minix+more
Author: frans (francis swift)
Type: disk/misc
Replaces: xfs207b2
--------------------------- xfs208b ----------------------------
MINIX FileSystem now working (read-only).
New system for enabling/disabling the mounting of volumes, and
for disabling recognition of certain disks (no more xfsd-ami)
...see mount.xfsd for details
CPM3 Filesystem (well PCW 3.5 inch 720K disks) (read-only)
I have precisely one PCW disk and it works perfectly, so there.
Sorry, the mac handler just recognises that the disk is indeed a
Mac disk, reads the volume name, then just sits there and refuses
to do anything else. Maybe next time.
--------------------------- xfs207b2 ----------------------------
ALL NEW INTRO!!!
Well, just a few extra words.
Ther was a hash clash (try saying that quickly) in the internal
name cache (or should that be hash cache?) between the short names
and the long names. Basically, the dummy short name entries were
displacing the true long name entries, thus losing all the internal
pointers etc, so the directory listings (which don't use the name
cache) showed all the files, but the handler couldn't access them.
I'm still working on the MAC handler, based on code from the
hfsutils package on linux, written by Robert Leslie.
Hopefully, because I'm basing it on working code, it should work
as a complete read/write handler as soon as it's finished :-)
EXTRA BONUS *** x-hfsdir *** EXTRA BONUS
Mount DEV: (you've already got it - see the mount list for details)
then you can get a directory of a MAC disk with
x-hfsdir dev:mfm.device,1
or, if there's a subdirectory called hyper
x-hfsdir dev:mfm.device,1 hyper
and a subdirectory in there called new
x-hfsdir dev:mfm.device,1 hyper/new
you get the picture, just remember the ,1 means drive unit 1 (df1:)
--------------------------- xfs207b -----------------------------
FD.DEVICE and XFSD HANDLER
This is a powerful Amiga device and handler combination which allows
any drive to read more than a dozen formats, all accessed via a single
desktop icon and drive name - regardless of the system that originally
wrote the disk.
This is the product of years of development by the author of
QL_Handler (for Qdos disks) and SP_Handler (for Spectrum disks)
which are included in the Qdos4Amiga and Speculator97 distributions.
Like all Frank Swift's Amiga programs, it is freely distributable.
It is a response to the way icons could proliferate on the desktop
with lots of handlers connected to each drive, in case a particular
format disk was inserted. The recognition of disks became slow and
handlers clashed in their interpretation of the disk format. There
had to be a better way. This is it. It's much faster than multiple
handlers, and more reliable too. It reads more formats than before,
including some - like Windows95 long file names and Archimedes E
format disks - which have not previously been supported by Amigas.
This program is free and supplied without warranty. If it doesn't
work for you, remember how much you paid for it.
As often seems to happen, Simon Goodwin has ended up writing the
documentation. This is a bit of a rush job, so if you'd like
more documentation, send (constructive) comments to:
simon@studio.woden.com
All technical comments and suggestions should go to the author,
Frank Swift, who lives in the pre-modem world, where he can still
get some real work done ;-) His snail-mail address is:
325 Charlestown Road, Blackley, Manchester M9 7ES, UK.
Friendly feedback from users would be much appreciated.
Features
* A single Handler and device that reads the following formats:
Name System Make/Model
Acorn Archimedes E format Acorn Computers
Amiga OFS Workbench 1.x Commodore
Amiga FFS Workbench 2.xx Commodore
Amiga FFS/DC Workbench 3.xx Commodore/Gateway
Atari ST/TT TOS 1, TOS 2 etc. Atari Corporation
BetaDOS Spectrum and +D BetaSoft
Diskspare Amiga custom High capacity format
GDOS Sinclair Spectrum MGT Disciple Interface
G+DOS Sinclair Spectrum MGT/Datel +D interface
MasterDOS SAM Coupe MGT and BetaSoft
MSDOS IBM PCs and clones Microsoft licensees
MSXDOS All MSX disk micros Sony, Toshiba etc.
QDOS QL & clones Sinclair, CST, Miracle
SAMDOS SAM Coupe Miles Gordon Technology
Windows95/NT Intel boxes & clones Anyone with the $$$$$$$
Support for CP/M formats (particularly Amstrad PCW and Plus 3)
and Apple Mac is hoped to follow if you make encouraging noises
to the author. All other suggestions will be considered, as long
as you can provide documentation of the low level and logical
formats you'd like added. The intention is to make fd.device
flexible enough to cope with any format the Amiga can access,
including FM & GCR encodings and multiple sector-sizes per track.
(CHIEF ENGINEER SCOTT: "mac handler in a couple of weeks, cap'n").
* Currently fd.device understands amiga style tracks (both normal
and diskspare types) and pc style tracks (in most of the common
sector sizes, eg 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048 etc).
* Compatible with ALL Amiga systems from Workbench 1.2 to 3.1,
so you can format OFS disks on an A4000, and read FFS DC ones
on an old A500!
* Compatible with HD (High Density) drives as well as DD ones,
and odd media sizes like 3 inch and 5.25 inch drives.
* Supports Windows95 long file names (and would write them too
by now if Micro$oft hadn't found such an absurd way to add
them to the MSDOS format!)
* Includes FILE0 and FILE1 icons that allow floppy disk images
to be manipulated as files (containing a whole disk's contents)
on other media, e.g. RAM or hard drive. If you can't see the
point of this, you needn't worry about it. Just leave the icons
where they are.
Limitations
Format disk works but always uses the format that the disk is already
in - so you can't use XFileSystem to change the formatting of a disk.
We have yet to work out a good way to indicate the desired format
when there are so many possibilities, including various capacities
for a given format: for instance single sided 360K ST, double sided
720K Mega ST and 1.44 Mb Atari TT formats...
This is the first release. Writing has only been extensively tested
on Qdos format disks (DD and HD) and is not yet supported on Spectrum
and PC formats. If you try it a seek error is the likely result. The
disk contents will not be changed, but don't trust XFileSystem to
your only copy of a file, just in case. You have been warned!
The wonderful CatWeasel disk controller is not supported because its
MultiDisk device requires the user to decide the format of each disk,
rather than letting the sytstem work it out for itself. The original
QL_Handler and SP_Handler do work rather well with CatWeasel, though.
Installation (at last!)
The package is divided in standard Amiga style into two parts - a
'handler', XFSD which recognises the logical format of disks (the
directory and file details) and a 'device', fd.device, which reads
the disk tracks and decodes them into individual data 'sectors'.
There is a special version, XFSD-AMI, which includes support for
the Amiga file structures. Normally this is not needed - you can
use the DF0:, etc. icons as normal - but if you want the FD icon
to recognise Amiga Diskspare, OFS or FFS disks you must copy the
xfsd-ami version to directory L: renaming it to remove the -ami,
in place of the standard xfsd which only reads 'alien' formats.
However, if you use a normal amiga disk with this handler _both_
the normal amiga handler _and_ xfsd would recognise it and try
to mount the volume. Tricky. But see the mountlist for a sneaky
workaround if you want to experiment.
The handler can be manually installed from Shell, Opus, Workbench
etc. as follows;
Open the drawer "L" in the XFS directory and drag the program "xfsd"
to your system "L:" drawer.
Open the drawer "DEVS" in the XFS directory and drag the program
"fd.device" to your system "DEVS:" drawer.
Both files must be in the correct directory or the handler will not
work. This is the most common reason people can't get new devices
and handlers to work.
The procedure to give these programs access to your drives depends
on your version of Workbench. Modern Amigas have a DEVS:DOSDRIVERS
drawer which contains a 'setup' icon for each desktop drive icon.
If you have an old system (such as Workbench 1.3) you'll need to
edit your startup-sequence (user-startup on Workbench 2) file in
the S: directory to 'mount' the devvice and handler on chosen drives.
Procedure for Workbench 2.1 and later
Drag the icons FD0: and FD1: from "Devs/DOSDrivers" to your system
"Storage/DOSDrivers" drawer or "Devices/DOSDrivers" drawer. The second
choice will mount the X handler every time you reboot the system,
allowing relatively instant access.
The handler is manually activated by double clicking the FD0: or FD1:
icon in the Storage sub-directory. This makes the corresponding FD:
icon appear on the desktop. Other programs can read the disk, whatever
the format, by using the drive name prefix FD instead of DF. There are
icons for two drives supplied; you can edit these by changing the name
and UNIT number inside if you have more than two drives, e.g. UNIT=3
for FD3: etc.
If you want the handlers to be activated automatically on start-up then
they should be put in your system "Devs:DOSDrivers" drawer.
Procedure for old Workbenches
Copy the mountlist.xfsd file to DEVS: and add a line to your startup
for each drive you want to connect to XFS, as follows:
MOUNT FD0: FROM DEVS:mountlist.xfsd
MOUNT FD1: FROM DEVS:mountlist.xfsd
etcetera for up to four drives (FD0: FD1: FD2: and FD3: corresponding
to DF0: to DF3: respectively).
If you just want to try it, without changing your startup, put the XFSD
and fd.device files in the required directories (L: and DEVS:, remember)
and type one of the above 'Mount' commands into a shell, or into the
Workbench 2 'Execute Command' window (if you've got it).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
EXTRA EXTRA ............ fd.device / file.device ............ STOP PRESS
Disk recognition
As if all this was not enough, fd.device inserts an input stream handler
to allow you to force it to re-read the disk, at the same time sending a
disk change interrupt to whatever dos handler is using it.
The key combination(s) for fd.device are
left_alt + numeric_pad(unit#)
ie left alt with numeric pad 0 would force a disk change on unit 0.
The same is true for the file.device, although in this case it also allows
you to select another disk image file for access, via a requester.
The key combination(s) for file.device are
left_alt + left_shift + numeric_pad(unit#)
ie left alt plus left shift plus numeric pad 1 would force a disk change
on unit 1.
NOTEZ BIEN
This key usage may change - especially the particular key combinations
(because they may clash with other programs).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
POWER XL
The current fd.device doesn't work with the Power XL high density drive,
but I'm pretty sure it's fixable. In the meantime I've included an
earlier version (fd.device.old) that seems to work ok. If you need it,
just rename it to fd.device and put it in devs:
Unfortunately the geometry command doesn't work with this version :-(
RAWPATCH / MFM
--------------
Two utilities to experiment with raw disk data. So obscure as to be
almost unusable. Use rawpatch to read in raw track data, then mfm to
decode it.
Hint: ALWAYS use -I -W with rawpatch (index sync & word sync). At the
very least mfm likes its input wordsync'ed, and you can only get an
idea of the sector skewing if you read starting from the index pulse.
Hint: use -v on mfm to get a verbose output (or even -vv ).
GEOMETRY
--------
This program sends a TD_GETGEOMETRY command to any device to find out
the media layout AND with fd.device it gets some hidden extra
information about the interleave, skew factors etc.
CRC
---
Just a simple program to generate CRC's for files, but I've added an
option to generate a CRC for each block (by using eg -b512), which by
default is the one used on disk sectors (pc MFM that is, not amiga style).
Frank Swift and Simon N Goodwin, Manchester and Oldbury, UK, August 1997.
============================= Archive contents =============================
Original Packed Ratio Date Time Name
-------- ------- ----- --------- -------- -------------
12108 8275 31.6% 14-Nov-97 20:51:26 +crc
85 85 0.0% 13-Mar-97 05:31:50 +DEV
481 263 45.3% 05-Jul-94 21:38:14 +DEV.info
5728 3304 42.3% 21-Sep-97 17:41:54 +devd
17364 9931 42.8% 23-Sep-97 00:07:32 +fd.device
16404 9392 42.7% 07-May-97 07:15:18 +fd.device.old
789 446 43.4% 16-Nov-97 17:09:58 +FD0
492 274 44.3% 13-Jan-95 00:38:04 +FD0.info
780 438 43.8% 16-Nov-97 17:10:08 +FD1
492 271 44.9% 13-Jan-95 00:38:04 +FD1.info
17384 10182 41.4% 14-Sep-97 17:39:00 +file.device
501 297 40.7% 16-Nov-97 17:11:42 +FILE0
492 274 44.3% 13-Jan-95 00:38:04 +FILE0.info
501 297 40.7% 16-Nov-97 17:11:50 +FILE1
492 271 44.9% 13-Jan-95 00:38:04 +FILE1.info
8728 5054 42.0% 23-Sep-97 00:02:38 +geometry
21020 11730 44.1% 11-Apr-97 07:07:26 +mfm
915 487 46.7% 16-Nov-97 17:02:04 +mount.dev
1577 389 75.3% 09-Nov-97 16:54:00 +mount.file
5211 1349 74.1% 14-Dec-97 17:38:18 +mount.xfsd
13764 8070 41.3% 31-Mar-97 18:35:12 +rawpatch
42088 22060 47.5% 30-Nov-97 16:55:22 +x-hfsdir
12489 5606 55.1% 14-Dec-97 18:02:52 +xfs208b.readme
67476 36795 45.4% 14-Dec-97 17:50:52 +xfsd
58804 32004 45.5% 30-Nov-97 17:57:32 +xfsd-ami
-------- ------- ----- --------- --------
306165 167544 45.2% 20-Dec-97 16:36:44 25 files