Amiga Explorer on Mac ( Virtual PC)

[Canyon Matt]

Hey Gang,

Anyone ever get AExplorer to work while being emulated. I have a Mac OS X machine that is running WinXP SP2 through Virtual PC. I have a Null Modem hooked into an ATEN USB to DB9 serial converter. Virtual PC can see the serial converter so I know I am at least getting to the serial port, but I always fail to connect to my CDTV (WB1.3).

I have triple checked all port settings, and even played around with them to see if I can get it to work. The only two oddities I see are that in WinXP Device Manager, there is not option for CTS handshake, only None, XonXoff, and Hardware. The default is none, does that work with CTS? Should it be hardware? Can I set Amiga and Mac(PC) to XonXoff?

The other oddity is that the led on the ATEN converter never lights up. Don't know if that is because I am not getting a connection or if the unit is bad. Anyone ever use one of these?

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Matt

[Amiga1992]

These converters hardly ever work properly in aplications like this... Only a few do, and even then, you might get issues.

I recommend you scoring an old PC for these matters, even though I would recommend even more getting up to date with technology and find yourself a solution for file transfering like, hey, a CD! What you have a CD drive for? :P

[Shadowfire]

Amiga Explorer is actually a damned convenient way to transfer disks/files to/from an Amiga (even if a little slow), and beats the pants off of trying to hook up a CDROM drive to any given Amiga system.

I know how some people around here feel about Cloanto, but you have to give credit when it's due...

Edit: "RTS/CTS hansdhake" = "hardware handshake"

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Shadowfire

Amiga Explorer is actually a damned convenient way to transfer disks/files to/from an Amiga (even if a little slow)

I know how some people around here feel about Cloanto, but you have to give credit when it's due...

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Shadowfire

beats the pants off of trying to hook up a CDROM drive to any given Amiga system.

Uhmmm...

He has a CDTV

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Shadowfire

...and beats the pants off of trying to hook up a CDROM drive to any given Amiga system.

Originally Posted by Akira

Uhmmm...

He has a CDTV

Well spotted!

I hadn't noticed the irony of that. Hence the above edit.

[Canyon Matt]

I set the handshake on the emulated PC to Hardware, and now I see the light blinking on the USB to serial converter. The log file shows a bunch of 1 byte transfers, but the setup process still fails. Anyone have a copy of a successful log file that I could look at to compare to?

Next step is to verify the null modem cable, but it is brand new from a reputable company... so out with the line tester!

Matt

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Canyon Matt

Next step is to verify the null modem cable, but it is brand new from a reputable company... so out with the line tester!

Matt

Hi Matt,

You know that the null modem cable specified for Amiga Explorer is a special one?

Have a look on the Amiga Explorer pages on the Cloanto website for the information, or the documentation that comes with the Amiga Explorer application.

Of course, you will be using a Macintosh port, so you'll have to check that the connections are compatible.

prowler

[Canyon Matt]

I checked out my null modem cable and it is wired correctly. So it is probably a length and signal issue...

I am intrigued by the idea of using a CD to transfer ADF's over to my CDTV. Is there a good utility for unpacking ADF's on the PC (or Mac)? If I burned ADF's themselves onto a CD, is there an Amiga utility that can expand an ADF from the CD to a disk?

Matt

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Canyon Matt

I am intrigued by the idea of using a CD to transfer ADF's over to my CDTV. Is there a good utility for unpacking ADF's on the PC (or Mac)? If I burned ADF's themselves onto a CD, is there an Amiga utility that can expand an ADF from the CD to a disk?

Matt

Hi Matt,

I use TSgui:
http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/tsgui

[straycat]

hey guys.
don't want to duplicate an entire post but just trying to get all the help i can so if anyone cany help, i'm trying to get cables to transfer some files from my amiga to my macbook pro in amiga explorer virtualized by vmware fusion.
thanks.

link

[EDIT] i succeded. i'll post a tut in a couple days.

[straycat]

ok, between this and the other thread i finally made it with amiga explorer.

hardware requirements

- mac (mine is a macbook pro)
- amiga (mine is a good ol' 500)
- serial transfer cable (25-pin to 9-pin): amigakit | belkin
- usb to serial adapter: iogear | aten

software requirements

- windows virtual pc: vmware fusion | parallels | q | virtualbox | openosx
- amiga explorer

note: i use the items in red so i'll refer to them in this tut.

note 2: both the usb to serial adapters use the prolific chip. you don't have to install a mac driver unless you want to use a native mac app instead of pc virtualization.
if you want to use a native mac app, i suggest installing the opensource pl2303 driver, not the one which comes with the cable on cd and using zterm, zoc, minicom, goserial or the built-in terminal screen.
if you plan to buy another usb to serial adapter, make sure it has a prolific chip or that the product webpage states it's mac compatible.

instructions

1. install vmware fusion, fire it up, install a windows system from an iso image (after install is complete, remember to set vmware fusion to detect the original cd drive again, in preferences), fire it up and finally install amiga explorer within windows.

2. connect the cables from the amiga serial port to a mac usb port and insert the driver cd which came with the usb to serial cable. vmware fusion recognizes it and installs the driver from the cd (cancel the installer which pops up on autorun).

3. go to device manager in windows, open up "aten usb to serial bridge" in the ports (com & lpt) section, memorize the port number (ex. com3), confirm the following settings and ok them.

bits per second: 19200
data bis: 8
parity: none
stop bits: 1
flow control: hardware

4. right click on the amiga explorer icon on the desktop, chose "properties", confirm the following setings and ok them.

type: serial
port: port number checked in device manager (ex. com3)
speed: 19200

5. right click on the amiga explorer icon and chose "setup" and follow the instructions on screen to install amiga explorer on the amiga side.

note: the instructions tell you to fire up a workbench floppy, how to setup the amiga serial settings (based on the workbench version) and install the amiga version of amiga explorer into ram, so i won't cover the details here except for the notes below. just remember to write enable your workbench disk and save the serial settings once you're done.

note 2: when the window below shows up and after pressing ok, if the transfer is slow and the led on the usb to serial cable doesn't light up, then cancel it, unplug and plug again the cable from the usb port, connect it again in vmware fusion statusbar and try again from step 5.
remember you don't have to type "Type SER: to RAM:Setup" again on the amiga, just keep pressing ok.

On the Amiga, please open a Shell (or System/CLI) window and enter exactly (including the word "Type"):

Type SER: to RAM:Setup

and press Return (on the Amiga), then select OK in this message window. Please do not press any other key or move the mouse on the Amiga until the next message is displayed.

note 3: when the window below shows up, and after pressing ok, the second transfer seems to never start and returns an error in the end. It worked 3 times out of 20 and i still can't figure out what did the trick. when it worked, i could confirm that "aexplorer", "aexplorer.info", "readme" and "readme.info" were copied to the amiga ram (by clicking on the "ram disk" in workbench).
nevertheless, for the majority of the times it failed, the "setup" file which was already transfered to the ram disk, made it work anyway. so proceed to next step, after ok'ing the error.

In the same Amiga Shell window, enter:

RAM:Setup

and press Return (on the Amiga), then select OK in this message window. Please do not press any other key or move the mouse on the Amiga until the next message is displayed.

6. double click the amiga explorer icon and you have access to your amiga the drag-and-drop way. congratulations, you're done!

note: in the root you should have "ram disk", "workbench" floppy, "kick.rom" and "workbench.adf". if you're saving individual files drag the floppy, if you're saving games or demos, drag the "adf" to the desktop. you can also save your original "kick.rom" to use with e-uae.

note 2: if you're planning to transfer a lot of floppies it will take you days, and you'll eventually have to turn off your amiga. for a quicker method to bypass step 5 each time you want to transfer stuff, go to "program files/cloanto/amiga explorer/amiga" and copy "aexplorer" and "explorer.info" to your workbench floppy (i had to delete "notepad" and "notepad.info" from the utilities folder in workbench to get enough space).
next time just fire up workbench, start amiga explorer on the amiga side and then on the windows side and you're set.

note 3: can anyone make an adf of a bootable autorun amiga explorer floppy?
i spent hours trying to copy settings from other floppies and setting up the startup-sequence file and all but i always got an error. other times i got "disk not validated" when trying to copy the files to a floppy so i eventually gave up. this way it would be even faster to get things running.

any questions, post 'em up.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by straycat

note 3: can anyone make an adf of a bootable autorun amiga explorer floppy?
i spent hours trying to copy settings from other floppies and setting up the startup-sequence file and all but i always got an error. other times i got "disk not validated" when trying to copy the files to a floppy so i eventually gave up. this way it would be even faster to get things running.

Hi straycat,

I have a bootable autorun Amiga Explorer floppy disk based on Workbench 2.1, then I create ADFs on my PC from floppies in an external drive configured as DF1:

I'll post details of the Startup-Sequence and the files you have to copy to the Workbench disk for you tomorrow.

[straycat]

thanks a lot, prowler.

[prowler]

Okay, I've checked the Workbench 2.1 disk I use for autobooting my A1200s into Amiga Explorer against the box-standard Workbench 2.1 disk I based it on and the method of achieving this is very simple:
Just copy AExplorer and AExplorer.info into the WBStartup directory of the boot disk - that's all you have to do!
BTW, I use Amiga Explorer 4.1 in this way. Later versions of the utility are included in Amiga Forever editions that I have, but AE 4.1 is fully functional and I have never felt the need to upgrade it.
This version fits on a standard Workbench 2.1 disk without having to delete other files to make room for it. IMHO, WB2.1 is the best version to use for this, anyway.

[straycat]

i think wb2.1 needs a bigger kickstart version. i have an a500.
i'll try moving those files into the wbstartup folder in my wb1.3 though, and let you know.

[thomas]

There is no wbstartup drawer on WB1.3 and if you create one it has no effect.

You can run AExplorer from the shell, i.e. from startup-sequence

The "disk not validated" message probably means that there is a problem with the disk-validator file on your disk. It should be present in the L directory.

[straycat]

thanks thomas. i really didn't check if it had a wbstartup folder or not.
thing is, running from shell in the startup-sequece file, there's a warning saying it can't connect amiga explorer.
i think the regular wb configuration and ram disk has to be set before amiga explorer can be launched.

the startup-sequence in my wb1.3 has lots of commands. i can try putting aexplorer in the last line and see if it works despite i was looking for a faster solution to load amiga explorer soon as possible without the need for a wb.

[edit] i know about the disk-validator file in folder "l". i format a floppy with x-copy and then validate it with fixdisk. when i start copying several files to the disk by drag and drop in windows virtualization, it eventually says "disk not validated" even though disk-validator was there. big headache. it's random and seems to just happens with many files at once, i don't know.

[Starglider 2]

Thank you for this helpful thread!