Using Xdftool with LHA archives..

[bugsymalone666]

Ok so recently I have been learning how to get stuff from Aminet and turn it into a Disk that my amiga can read in the form of an ADF file, using xdftool.

I have however hit a snag that I dont understand.

So mainly this relates to my use of software for CDroms, so I downloaded idefix97, which inside the LHA there is a folder that contains the disk contents, then there is also a .info file. So with xdftool the .info file is used to generate the disk and it inserts the folder contents. Thats fine, where I have become more lost is with other LHA's where essentially inside the LHA is just the contents of the disk, and the only .info file relates to the program in there, not the disk.

Can someone lay it out for me?

[Pat the Cat]

There can be a couple of ways of reading your post.

On the Amiga, a .info file is the file containing the icon data for an executable program, or a directory, or a project file like a data file or an archive, or a trashcan (are there any other types of icon?).

So the included .info could refer to any of those for the package, or it could be it's there to double click on to unpack the archive without using the command line.

The reason why an archive sometimes contains it's own info file is so the resulting directory from extracting it has something to click on and manipulate it properly without resorting to the CLI or using "Show All Files" from Workbench 2 onwards, which displays files and directories even if they don't have an associated .info file (filename is same but ends .info).

I hope this gives some idea of why it's difficult to read your post and give a definite clue as to what it's there for and why it was included with the content.

You CAN use a different looking icon for the same purpose (if it's of the same type, ie application, project (data file), folder or trashcan, by copying the .info file so it matches the project, application, folder or trashcan filename. However, the "new" icon probably won't have the same project information (like default tool to open a data file with, and the path to reach it). So it may well not work properly when double clicked on.

[Amiga1992]

This has nothing to do with icons.

Why are you using such a tool to create ADFs?
http://lallafa.de/blog/amiga-projects/amitools/xdftool/

Are you extracting files on your hard drive and then injecting them into an ADF one by one?
The docs, again, don't seem to say you require to have .info files to create anything. You just put the files in whatever fashion you want.

If you see the archive of idefix 97, it's obviously been created to be replicated into a floppy, hence it has commands and an install script. This is not the norm anyway.

Can't you just use WinUAE to copy the archive contents to a fresh floppy disk image? What system are you running (PC/Mac/Linux)? What Amiga specs?

[bugsymalone666]

I think maybe sometimes I'm not very clear as I always remember to post this stuff near the end of my lunch time (like now lol)

So heres an example I was working from for making an lha into an adf file

jope@jope-e7270:~/Downloads/amiga/temp$ lha x  ../setpatch37.lha
SetPatchUpdate.info    - Melted   :  o 
SetPatchUpdate/Check2090    - Melted   :  o 
SetPatchUpdate/SetPatch_37.38    - Melted   :  o 
SetPatchUpdate/SetPatch_ReadMe    - Melted   :  o 
SetPatchUpdate/SetPatch_ReadMe.info    - Melted   :  o 
SetPatchUpdate/Update_SetPatch    - Melted   :  o 
SetPatchUpdate/Update_SetPatch.info    - Melted   :  o 
jope@jope-e7270:~/Downloads/amiga/temp$ xdftool test.adf format test 
jope@jope-e7270:~/Downloads/amiga/temp$ xdftool test.adf write SetPatchUpdate 
jope@jope-e7270:~/Downloads/amiga/temp$ xdftool test.adf write SetPatchUpdate.info  
jope@jope-e7270:~/Downloads/amiga/temp$ xdftool test.adf list test                                            
 VOLUME  --------  20.02.2017 16:02:10 t00  DOS0:ofs  
SetPatchUpdate                                    DIR  ----rwed  20.02.2017 16:01:49 t00       
Check2090                                       220  ----rwed  20.02.2017 16:01:49 t00       
SetPatch_37.38                                 7252  ----rwed  20.02.2017 16:01:49 t00       
SetPatch_ReadMe                                4323  ----rwed  20.02.2017 16:01:49 t00       
SetPatch_ReadMe.info                            317  ----rwed  20.02.2017 16:01:49 t00       
Update_SetPatch                                2726  ----rwed  20.02.2017 16:01:49 t00       
Update_SetPatch.info                            525  ----rwed  20.02.2017 16:01:49 t00    
 SetPatchUpdate.info                               632  ----rwed  20.02.2017 16:02:10 t00   sum:            45   22Ki         23040 data:           36   18Ki         18432  80.00% fs:              9  4.5Ki          4608  20.00%   

BOB IS YOUR UNCLE

When the first command is entered it unpacks the lha archive, I have just been using a regular archiver to do this rather than command line, and you'll see in the example the first file is .info, followed by the all the other files in a directory, containing a program and another .info file with matching name.

The second command entered creates a blank adf disk file with a name

The third command entered writes the contents of the folder to the adf disk you just created.

Then there is the forth command which writes a .info file, this is where I get confused. maybe the forth command is not actually needed if the contents of the LHA are just in a folder with no additional files/structures.

obviously command number 5 lists whats on the adf disk file.

I guess I just wanted to understand the command properly as I read through the website and its hard sometimes when you are working from an example like that.

[Amiga1992]

First, unpacking on your PC will lead to troubles wit protect bits and other file attributes that are Amiga-only. You shouldn't do it, especially with system files like SetPatch.

The fourth command writes the folder's icon file to disk. .info files are Amiga icons. it is optional, but if you want to launch from Workbench, it's needed.

SetPatchUpdate.info is the icon for the SetPatchUpdate folder.

You are basically injecting one file at a time into the ADF and that is just another file. It isn't "needed" and no information is taken from it to build the disk.

I also see that you have everything in duplicate. You have both the SetPatchUPdate folder and the contents of it in the root. Or worst case scenario teh files from teh SetPatchUpdate folder have been moved to teh root of your disk and an installer script will probably not work.

Again, I read another one of your threads and you seem to have WinUAE or access to it, you should just unpack LHAs within WinUAE with a proper Amiga LHA extractor and copy them to an ADF from within the emulated Amiga environment. I think it'd be easier and less prone to issues.
You never told me what Amiga setup you have, but writing to floppy becomes tiresome too, if you are installing Idefix I assume you have an IDE interface to which you can put a CF card and be done with floppies. Not really sure why you are installing idefix, CD-ROM support is what you want to add?

[bugsymalone666]

OK basically forget any reference to a particular disk within the thread, the example I gave is not what I was doing its the example someone else posted on another one of my threads.

basically theres all kinds of software on aminet as LHAs and I was trying to understand about making adf files which are then put on a USB stick for my HxC Gotek drive contraption.

IDEfix97 is one piece of software which I have successfully unpacked on a PC (I use Linux Mint/Ubuntu) and turned into an ADF file using the XDFTool.

To answer a couple of other questions:

My Amiga setup is an Amiga 500 with 512kb stock memory and 512kb of additional ram that sometimes works(I think it may actually be to do with the workbench version as to how its seen, I did an upgrade with sockets on the main MB and potentially a bad connection somewhere), A590 Scsi unit with 2mb ram and 1gb IBM HD, a stock internal floppy drive thats questionable sometimes, external floppy thats good as gold, HxC Gotek USB. Trying to add a few more scsi devices which has lead me to needing more software.

IDEFix97 has the ability to scan for Scsi drives too.

I dont have winUAE because its linux its FS-UAE, however I thought it would be easy to pop the amiga HD in this machine (has scsi adapter and caddy for HD) and use FSUAE to to do all the work where I have internet infront of me, however it doesnt work for me/doesnt see my Amiga drive.

[idrougge]

You might avoid some troubles by just copying the LhA archive to the ADF and unarchive it on the Amiga instead.

I haven't used FS-UAE on Linux, but I have done it on the Mac, which works in a similar way. In order to mount an Amiga drive on FS-UAE, I first make the drive both readable and writable (this is a must, even if you don't intend to write to it) by issuing:

sudo chmod 777 /dev/your_disk

Then you add /dev/your_disk as one of your hard drives in FS-UAE Launcher. On the Mac, this meant manually editing the FS-UAE config file, but I gather that you can do that via the GUI on Linux.