ADF's files appearing as Tool icons. How do i write them back on WB2.1?

[clitosa]

Hi - we are having problems with files taken from our pc to amiga using a FAT32 CF.

We can take any adf or lha file from aminet on to our pc and then onto our 1200 by the pcmcia and CF.

Problem is once there, they appear as tool icons on our WB2.1. once transfered

We hear that this is to be expected as adfs are floppy disk images and that we need to write them back. However, our floppy drive is unreliable at times.

Apparently they are other ways around it, such as mounting them in a virtual drive. (like a .iso file image of a CD/DVD). So maybe we could do it this way, but currently have no knowledge to so.

We are unable to download any internet files for the amiga to help with this problem as we will only find ourselves again with more tool icons.

Could someone tell us how to open and use these tool icons within WB2.1 using either the shell or workbench?

Thank you

[Amiga1992]

You have to use the Shell and not Workbench, with a program like transadf.
If you can't write them back you can't play them. Use WHDLoad. Virtual drives WILL NOT WORk. you need a working floppy drive or, as I said, use WHDLoad installs.

[ajk]

If I understood the earlier thread right he is trying to install WB3.1, not play games.

One option would still be to unpack the ADFs within WinUAE and then transfer them as files (or a single .lha archive). Installing Workbench is basically just copying the files to the hard drive anyway, so you don't necessarily need to run the actual install program.

[mark_k]

Originally Posted by clitosa

Hi - we are having problems with files taken from our pc to amiga using a FAT32 CF.

We can take any adf or lha file from aminet on to our pc and then onto our 1200 by the pcmcia and CF.

Problem is once there, they appear as tool icons on our WB2.1. once transfered

We hear that this is to be expected as adfs are floppy disk images and that we need to write them back. However, our floppy drive is faulty so we will not be writing them back to physical floppies. It's strange though because lha files also appear as tool icons too...

Apparently they are other ways around it, such as mounting them in a virtual drive. (like a .iso file image of a CD/DVD). So maybe we could do it this way, but currently have no knowledge to so.

We are unable to download any internet files for the amiga to help with this problem as we will only find ourselves again with more tool icons.

Could someone tell us how to open and use these tool icons within WB2.1 without downloading more software.

In order to display proper icons for files, Workbench needs an associated ".info" file. For files which don't have a .info file, you can get Workbench to show a dummy icon by selecting Show All Files. But that's generally not very useful. You can work with iconless files using CLI commands.

If you don't already have LhA on your hard disk, first download it from http://aminet.net/package/util/arc/LhA_e138. Copy that file to the CF card. On your Amiga, open a CLI window and type something like this:

MakeDir DH0:LhA
CD DH0:LhA
CF:path/to/file/LhA_e138.run

(Replace the last command with the full path to the LhA_e138.run file.) That will unpack LhA to your hard disk.

Once you have LhA you can try out the various disk-image-mounting programs. Those should allow you to access files from ADF image files. Some you might like to try:
http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/diskimage
http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/fmsdisk
http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/adf2fms
http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/VirtualFloppy

There's also UnADF which allows extracting files from ADF images without needing to mount them.

For easier management of files, I recommend you install Directory Opus. (I'm not sure whether that's the latest version but it should be sufficient.) You'll probably find Directory Opus much easier to use for copying, renaming, moving files than CLI commands.

[clitosa]

Originally Posted by mark_k

In order to display proper icons for files, Workbench needs an associated ".info" file. For files which don't have a .info file, you can get Workbench to show a dummy icon by selecting Show All Files. But that's generally not very useful. You can work with iconless files using CLI commands.

Thanks Mark, That's the best answer we've had yet.

We shall try that and let you know. Appreciated

[Arnie]

Hi mate,

Try this.....


EDIT: Damn, just realised WB2.1 has no requestfile so the scripts wont work.....

You will need requestfile from the WB31 disk.

[clitosa]

Originally Posted by Arnie

Hi mate,

Try this.....

Hi Arnie,

That's great thanks. Will try that and get back to you once 3.1 is installed.

Appreciated

[clitosa]

Originally Posted by mark_k

LhA on your hard disk, first download it from http://aminet.net/package/util/arc/LhA_e138. Copy that file to the CF card. On your Amiga, open a CLI window and type something like this

Originally Posted by clitosa

We shall try that and let you know.

Hi, That worked great thanks mark. We did as instructed and used the Code in Shell:

MakeDir DH0: Lha
CD DH0:Lha
CF1:mark/LhA_e138.run

We can now have LHA on our HD. Thank you!

Much Appreciated

[clitosa]

We have now managed to extract the archived .lha files from our CF on pcmcia to a named directory on our work (DH1) drive using the following commands:

CF0:
lha x -e filename.lha work:directoryname/

[Retrofan]

Originally Posted by clitosa

We have now managed to extract the archived .lha files from our CF on pcmcia to a named directory on our work (DH1) drive using the following commands:

CF0:
lha x -e filename.lha work:directoryname/

And have you already installed OS3.1 in DH0?

[clitosa]

Hi mate, were all done now thanks.

We still need to learn how to install those previously archived programs from their unpacked destination.

That said, have just learned that by using the following command in shell, it is possible to list the archive to see if an installer is present:

(Archived file within a directory on drive DH0 for example)

cd dh0:
directory:
lha v archivedfilename.lha

Thanks,

[ajk]

A lot of the time no particular installation is needed, eg. for the LhA tool you just copy it to a suitable location (such as SYS:C, the default directory for programs you usually run in the shell). If things do need to go into particular locations, there will usually be an install script with an icon, or a mention in the readme.text/guide file.

[clitosa]

Originally Posted by ajk

A lot of the time no particular installation is needed, eg. for the LhA tool you just copy it to a suitable location (such as SYS:C,

Thanks ajk - that's very useful to know. Much appreciated

[Arnie]

I find it's worth extracting to Ram: (if you have enough memory) or a temp folder. Some archives have no directory structure and you could end up filling the C: dir with all sorts of files.

[clitosa]

Thanks Arnie. Will be extracting to the ramdisk in future


Through using shell, here's the files as they currently appear on our HD. Having been upacked and moved to DH2: (pic 1)

The programs .device file(s) has been moved from the unarchived directory to DH0: Devs and the executable files (ie DiskimageCTRL, TransADF & UnADF) has been moved to DH0:C. Also, library files have been moved to DH0: Libs. shown in pic 2. (No handler files have been found but should be placed with DH0: L when installing.)

DirSize has its own installer. Having changed the default tool to C:Installer the program has been installed to C: (pic 3)