PFS3 is soon to become FREE and opensource

[rare_j]

Michael has released a distribution with the 5.3 patch applied. What a very nice thing to do!
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=57447

[Retroplay]

I finally got around to installing this on my 1200.
Backing up the WHDLoad partition took forever to do but boy it was worth it.
Bye bye FFS I won't be missing you.

[Hewitson]

Originally Posted by rare_j

Michael has released a distribution with the 5.3 patch applied. What a very nice thing to do!
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=57447

Unfortunately that package is incomplete, it doesn't include PFS3DS for 68000. Refer to this thread:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=59254

Originally Posted by Bamiga2002

It would be nice to have a HDToolBox version which has all the fixes of the 3.9 version and still it would work on WB 3.0 or even lower versions.

That would be brilliant.

[rare_j]

Originally Posted by Hewitson

Unfortunately that package is incomplete, it doesn't include PFS3DS for 68000. Refer to this thread:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=59254

Oh dear thats a bit of a shame for unexpanded a600 owners who want to go large.
Could we contact the author and get a copy of pfs3ds 68000 v5.3 sorted? Gulliver?

[NovaCoder]

I tried to use it on my new 1200 build-up but after spending about 4 hours with it I'm giving up and going back to SFS.

For some strange reason I couldn't get it to see my partitions beyond 4GB (I'm using a 16GB drive). After formating (using the PFS3 utility) I could see the partitions and everything looked fine but as soon as I restarted they would come back as unrecognized?

Maybe I just missed something or did something silly?

[thomas]

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

I tried to use it on my new 1200 build-up but after spending about 4 hours with it I'm giving up and going back to SFS.

For some strange reason I couldn't get it to see my partitions beyond 4GB (I'm using a 16GB drive). After formating (using the PFS3 utility) I could see the partitions and everything looked fine but as soon as I restarted they would come back as unrecognized?

Maybe I just missed something or did something silly?

You need TD64-compliant device driver or use the PFS3ds variant.

Note that OS3.9 is not TD64-compliant, so you need to use the ds version.

[NovaCoder]

Thanks for that Thomas, I'll give it a try sometime...

[Toni Wilen]

KS 1.3 compatibility is the only missing "feature" but perhaps it isn't too difficult when sources are available. (at least I am going to try..)

I finally felt lazy enough to attempt this..

It compiles, all KS2.0+ routines replaced with wrappers (mainly using AROS library code). PFS3 even detects PFS3 formatted hardfile under 1.3 but thats all before whole AOS crashes (probably due to some memory corruption, crash is due to bogus values in some unrelated OS structures.. difficult to debug)

After some more debugging, I noticed PFS3 compiled under AROS amiga-m68k compilation environment does the same even if running under KS3.1. So there must be some kind of incompatibility somewhere.

I am using AROS compilation environment because it allows tricks like hiding all 2.0+ function prototypes, allowing 1.3 support with minimal changes to PFS3 source files.

[Toni Wilen]

It works! PFS3 hardfile boots and seems to work fine under 1.3 now (both standard and direct scsi version).

Some kind of public version will be released soon.

[cosmicfrog]

corrr nice one toni,

[Toni Wilen]

KS 1.3 (probably all 1.x version compatible if booting is not needed)/68000 compatible PFS3/PFS3DS is now available for testing: http://www.winuae.net/files/stuff/pfs3ks13.zip

WARNING: As usual, data loss possible if things go wrong.. Tested on emulation and real A500 + Supradrive 500XP (ROM version 3.8 = AMAB6)

NOTE: Stupid drivers (like Supradrive 500XP boot ROM) only load RDB filesystems that have dostype "DOSx" where x can be anything. (I used "DOSP" instead of correct "PFS\3" or "PDS\3"). Anything else and driver simply ignores the RDB filesystem... I hope this is not common problem. (also 500XP does not support Direct SCSI. SCSI controller without Direct SCSI support. Perfect..)

Technical details:

All features supported. Uses original rom dos routines if v37 or higher OS. Uses wrappers when running under OS older than v37.
All requesters are disabled if running under 1.x. (1.x has only crappy and stupid requester routines, I didn't bother to add requester wrappers)

(source patch will be also available soon)

EDIT:

Files updated.
- Direct-SCSI fix (TD64 should not be defined when building DS). Works on my Supradrive 500XP now.
- Minimum allowed buffer changed to 10 buffers.

[Dwyloc]

@Toni Wilen
I think I asked some were before, but would it be possible to have a low memory 68000 build that supports just having 50 buffers like FFS?

For us really limited memory users how are stuck using FFS on our hard drives as less than 2MB of RAM is just to limited to use 150K as a hard disk buffer :-)

[Toni Wilen]

Updated, see above. (includes also smaller minimum buffer size)

[lifeschool]

Really encouraged to see threads like these. I grabbed the PFS update ZIP above and it comes up with 2 handlers. I'm guessing I have to rename those and place the appropriate one in the L directory? I'm looking at the PFS3 archive now and I can't see an 'L' or any 'handlers' on there. Perhaps I should wait until it becomes part of the main executable UAE package?

Thanks for this supported feature Toni!

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by lifeschool

Really encouraged to see threads like these. I grabbed the PFS update ZIP above and it comes up with 2 handlers. I'm guessing I have to rename those and place the appropriate one in the L directory? I'm looking at the PFS3 archive now and I can't see an 'L' or any 'handlers' on there. Perhaps I should wait until it becomes part of the main executable UAE package?

Thanks for this supported feature Toni!

Name or location is irrelevant. Use hdtoolbox/hdinstools to install the handler to RDB, configure partition(s) to use new filesystem, the usual.

[lifeschool]

Thanks again Toni!

With the help of this thread and the one about 'setup and install' I finally got around to installing a new (and faster!!) PFS3 hardfile on my PC. Works like a charm! I had it crash once on me already (copying way too many files with extra long path locations makes my DOpus v4 hang sometimes), but the drive stayed 'validated' and with zero data loss or corruption. So you see, installing this has saved me a large amount of time rescuing duff disks already.

In an attempt to make this BREAKTHROUGH available to the general amiga community, I made this video today which hopefully shows an installation of PFS3 via WinUAE for newbies. It comes in two parts: installing the 020 (DS) version, and installing the new KS1.3 handlers you made. Feel free to link to this if you think its good enough. The video also contains some of the essential posts from these EAB threads in case they get 'lost-in-the-heap' in years to come.

[ Show youtube player ]

EDIT:

Originally Posted by Retroplay

Worth mentioning is that you have to change SCSI.device to UAEHF.device in icon info in HDToolbox and HDInstTools (what I use) if using WinUAE and HDF files.

^ What he said!

[AmigaFriend]

Brilliant video lifeschool. I think that will make any newcomer configuring PFS3 easily with that guide!

[cosmicfrog]

Indeed Nice videos Lifeschool perhaps you should make a thread about em
heres part 1 just to make it easier to find

[ Show youtube player ]

[Toni Wilen]

http://www.winuae.net/files/stuff/pfs3ks13.zip updated. Handlers converted to single hunk executable. Perhaps this helps with ancient boot roms that only worked with FFS.

FFS is single-hunk and boot rom developers may have been lazy and didn't implement full executable loader..

[tom256]

Any progress with PFS3 for OS3.x??