Does anyboby managed it to port the programs inside the "LIF Utilities for linux" sources mentioned in Tony Duell's article liffile - HP9114 LIF disk image file into a Windows console program?
I tried to compile them with MinGW and with Cygwin, but in both packages the include files /Linux/fd.h and /Linux/fdreg.h are missing. Maybe that there are some more files missing.
Christoph
I tried as well a long time ago. I think it's more than just missing files, but its really a different way of accessing the floppy. I think you are going to have to breakdown and figure out how to write a Windows driver for this.
I am trying to remember if I had any luck with using lif images. The utilities can operate on /dev/fd0 as well as lif images. I think I got that to work, but I do not recall. However, JFG's tools for lif image manipulation to support the PIL-Box would be a better source to start with.
I just check my backups and I cannot find my build directory for the lif utils under Windows. I abandon Windows 3 years ago, I just couldn't take it any longer.
The tarball for those utilities is currently located at http://www.hpcc.org/datafile/hpil/lifutils.tar.gz (the link in your linked-to page above is not valid anymore)
The "Readme" file in the archive file says:
Quote:
These programs should build on a standard linux system by simply unpacking the archive and typing 'make'. Porting to other unix-like OSes will be difficult owing to the direct access to the floppy disk controller. At least lif_phy.c will need major changes.
I'd venture to guess that the code in the current Linux sources might be different-enough to require some patching to get this stuff to work. It certainly wouldn't work under Windows, at least directly, even if you fetched pertinent linux headers to make the compiler happy.
Maybe fetch an historic version of Slackware from back when this package was put together, and install it into a virtual machine (i.e. VirtualBox) under your Windows. "Boot" the machine, compile the code, and run it from the command-line in a terminal window. Maybe?
Whenever I have to use Windows I get done what I need in a virtual machine under GNU/Linux. Then go take a shower...
No matter how you tackle this you'll have to roll up your sleeves a bit.
Christoph, my CASsette I/O Utilities contain a module to access a Casio MD-100 floppy directly from windows. I'm using the windows package LibDisk by John Elliot. Here is my win32/readme.txt file with some links and explanations:
Quote:
The program md100 in this package makes use of LibDsk by John Eliott.Please visit his site at http://www.seasip.demon.co.uk/Unix/LibDsk
For Windows NT and above, an auxiliary driver, written by Simon Owen,
is needed by LibDsk:http://simonowen.com/fdrawcmd/
The install subdirectory of this folder contains the driver.
Install it by starting FdInstall.exeOn Windows 9x/ME, you should start the program LDSERVER.EXE before you
access the disk. This server is a 16 bit program which can do some tricks
with the floppy controller that a 32 bit program can't. The program and
its dll can be found in the win95 subdirectory of this folder.Marcus von Cube
You should be able to adapt the respective module in my project (libdisk.c) for LIF disk access under Windows.
Hi Egan,
Quote:
However, JFG's tools for lif image manipulation to support the PIL-Box would be a better source to start with.
Sorry, which tools do you mean? I only know VLif.exe from JFG's Emu71 package.
Christoph
Sorry, I should be more precise next time.
I'm especially looking for a tool to manipulate files in the "HP9114 LIF disk image file format". In my main focus are HP-71B related files inside LIF images handled by ILPer.
Interesting features would be:
dir : print a directory of a LIF image
create : create an empty LIF image
put : put a file to a LIF image
get : extract a file from a LIF image
purge : purge a file in a LIF image
So I thought that the "LIF Utilities for linux" would be a good entry.
Christoph
Perhaps these two articles are helpful (if you not already read them):
HP-IL Files: Where, What, Why, How, etc.
liffile - HP9114 LIF disk image file
The LIF utilities ARE a good starting point. You may also be interested in the HPDir tool from hp9845.net, there is some documentation about LIF file format, too:
Background: The LIF File System
Hope this helps,
Juergen
ILPer from http://www.jeffcalc.hp41.eu/hpil/index.html.
It can read/write lif images but not lif disks in A:.