Hi,
Can anyone advise please how to copy a LIF formatted floppy into a LIF image file? I normally use LIFUTIL.EXE for DOS, this has a a facility to copy a LIF disk to a hex extract but this is ASCII text, but not a binary file.
I've downloaded the LIF utils for Linux which have this ability, but I don't have a Linux box at home.
http://www.hpcc.org/datafile/hpil/lif_utils.html
Any advise for a PC/DOS user appreciated!
Regards,
John
Making a LIF image file under DOS?
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05-18-2006, 06:18 AM
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05-18-2006, 07:16 AM
Is the format of the hex image file documented anywhere? It might be possible to write a program to convert that to a binary image.
05-18-2006, 09:00 AM
Here is a python program to do that
import string Olivier ▼
05-19-2006, 07:56 PM
I don't know much about Python, but is this program merely producing a hex dump of the binary input file? In this case why is the output file declared as a binary file ('wb')? **vp ▼
05-22-2006, 02:07 AM
No it's the reverse, it produce a binary translation of an hex dump :
import string % import string library ▼
05-22-2006, 02:00 PM
Hi, Thanks very much Olivier, this little program worked fine! It created an image file of about 264k bytes which loaded into your emulator without any problems. A solution for us DOS users! BTW I found a Linux machine (Xeon 3G or somesuch), I ran the 'make' for the Linux lifutils, these compiled OK but the machine / software didn't recognise the LIF floppy.
lifdir gave the error: This is not a LIF disk I think the machine needs to be compatible with single density floppies. LIFUTIL makes a lot of strange disk access noises when starting up, seems to calibrate the drive perhaps? Anyway, I can read the floppy fine with DOS and LIFUTIL though so I'm happy.
Regards,
05-20-2006, 12:12 PM
Thanks, I'll try this.
Regards,
05-18-2006, 10:55 AM
I'm not sure what you are asking? Can you be more specific. I know that LifUtil can do the following: 1) Take a program or image of a ROM, on an HP-IL device, and transfer it to a 9114B floppy, that LifUtil can then transfer it to DOS file. 2) You can also use LifUtil to copy that DOS file back to 9114B that is accessible by HP-IL computer.
Is that what you are asking? I'm a bit confused about your use of the term "image". Can you give a step by step description of what you want to do, and what you hope to have, when done? Why do you need a binary file on a DOS computer? Edited: 18 May 2006, 10:56 a.m. ▼
05-20-2006, 12:10 PM
Hi,
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05-21-2006, 07:07 AM
Ok, now its a bit more clear. First let me say that I do not have an exact answer for what you want, I avoid DOS/Windows because I do not like them. So I'll describe (or point to) a bunch of alternative techniques here: a) Why not use your Series 80 computer to read the floppy and xfer the entire floppy image to your PC over the serial link (http://www.series80.org/Articles/uploading-disk-images.html) b) Read the HOWTO "Transfer data from HP85 to DOS or UNIX" by Greg Goebel (http://www.series80.org/Articles/xfer-to-dos.txt) c) Assuming you have an old 720kb drive for your PC (or can get one on eBay) check the programs mentioned in http://www.series80.org/Articles/downloading-disk-images.html d) Use another HP computer that can connect to both Ethernet and HP-IB (I use an HP9000 Model 300/345 running OpenBSD). **vp ▼
05-22-2006, 02:08 PM
Hi vp, Thanks for your response.
Quote: Because it is slow and fiddly to set up.
Quote: Thanks, I tried the fdimage utility but that was unsucessful. I think LIFUTIL must perform some additional commands before reading data to somehow prepare the disk drive and controller.
Quote:
(I didn't know they ran OpenBSD BTW, I was looking for just the RM Basic version). Lastly vp, some of your links are broken: http://www.series80.org/Articles/xfer.html is 404, should this be http://www.series80.org/Articles/uploading-disk-images.html or http://www.series80.org/Articles/xfer-to-dos.txt?
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05-22-2006, 02:37 PM
Quote: Strangely enough there are a load of these on eBay:
Regards,
05-22-2006, 09:20 PM
John wrote:slow is an understatement, it takes forever, but then who cares, you start the process and go to the pub. If you have multiple disks, and you have multiple drives (e.g. most 9121s have two drives) you can set up the program to switch to the next drive until you run out of drives. The "fast" version (that does compression) is signigficantly faster, though it needs more RAM.
> > Assuming you have an old 720kb drive for your PC [...] This is the setup I used to prepare all my Integral PC floppies (though these are double sided, i.e. require the built-in Integral PC floppy drive or an external 9122 drive).
> Yes a HP9000 Model 300 is on my wish list [...] I have both (one is a standard 9000 Model 300/345, while the other is a 19 inch rack mountable monster with built-in CRT, HD, floppy, and a keyboard that folds to cover the screen). I haven't managed to do a lot with the RM Basic one, though (you can spend hours trying to do the simplest tranfer. The OpenBSD is much easier to use, but this may be because I use OpenBSD for my everyday work. Do note, however, that OpenBSD does NOT support the 68010 models of the 300 range (IMHO the 310), and some Apollo ones. **vp
PS thanks for the briken links tip, the site is down at the moment, but I'll fix them as soon as it comes back up (tomorrow hopefully). Edited: 22 May 2006, 9:23 p.m. |