PFS3aio and Workbench 3.1 format question

[Gaula92]

THIS IS NOW SOLVED THANKS TO THOMAS: This line creates the HDF, puts the filesystem into it, etc:

rdbtool -f -p DH test.hdf create size=512Mi + init rdb_cyls=4 + fsadd pfs3aio dostype=PFS3 + add size=98% name=DH0 fs=PFS3 bootable=true automount=true pri=1 Bla max_transfer=0x0001fe00 mask=0x7ffffffe num_buffer=30

OLD MESSAGE ASKING FOR HELP:

Hi there,


I have installed the PFS3aio driver on an HDF using amitools, and created a partition on it.
I know I can format that partition using the FORMAT option in Workbench 3.1, but it asks me if I want to format it using the Amiga FFS. Should I use the Amiga FFS if I have installed PFS3aio on the disk?
How do PFS3aio and FORMAT and FFS relate?


I'd prefer answers based on true knowledge of the question: there's a LOT of superstition regarding PFS3 installation etc.



Thanks!

[daxb]

Format quick should work (at least up to 4GB) but I would recommend to use PFSFormat that comes with PFS3 (documentation included). With PFSFormat you can format, set deldir and filename size in one go.

[paul1981]

I'd use PFS format. Also, you will know when PFS is actually being used because a requester will appear telling you the version of PFS when you attempt the actual format.

[thomas]

Originally Posted by Gaula92

How do PFS3aio and FORMAT and FFS relate?

You cannot format a PFS partition with FFS, no matter what you set in the Format program. The Format program does not initialize the partition, it just tells the file system to initialize itself. If the Format program tells PFS to initialize a partition with FFS, PFS just ignores this information and uses PFS anyway.

As paul1981 mentioned, the best indication that PFS is correctly installed is that during initialization of a partition the requester about PFS appears.

Whether the FFS checkbox is visible depends on the version of the Format program. Most versions are so intelligent to not offer FFS, Intl and DirCache checkboxes for foreign file systems. So if you see the FFS checkbox it might indicate that PFS is not installed correctly.

[Gaula92]

I am creating the HDF, installing filesystems and partition exactly like this using amitools:

rdbtool -f -p DH test.hdf create size=512Mi + init rdb_cyls=8 + fsadd FastFilesystem dostype=DOS7 + fsadd pfs3aio dostype=PFS3 + add size=98% name=DH0 fs=DOS7 bootable=true automount=true pri=1 Bla max_transfer=0x0001fe00 mask=0x7ffffffe num_buffer=30

Then under WB3.1 I see that the FORMAT window doesn't show FFS/INTL options anymore! That means that PFS3 is then installed correctly!

The problem is that, after formatting completes (using the WB 3.1 FORMAT program) I get a "Not a valid DOS disk" error...

If I format using PFSFormat like this:

PFSFormat DEVICE DH0: NAME Amiga NOICONS

...Formatting also completes with no errors, but after that I get a DH0:NDOS icon on my desktop.
What am I missing? I must be missing something that needs to be installed on the WB side of things so AmigaDOS can access this PFS3 partition. But what?

[thomas]

name=DH0 fs=DOS7

Change this to PFS3. It also works the other way round, you cannot format a FFS partition as PFS.

Also

fsadd FastFilesystem dostype=DOS7

remove this alltogether. It makes no sense if you want to use PFS. And to use DOS7 you need 3.1.4 or above. 3.1 FFS only supports up to DOS5.

[Gaula92]

@Thomas

Thanks A LOT. This is the line that works:

rdbtool -f -p DH test.hdf create size=512Mi + init rdb_cyls=4 + fsadd pfs3aio dostype=PFS3 + add size=98% name=DH0 fs=PFS3 bootable=true automount=true pri=1 Bla max_transfer=0x0001fe00 mask=0x7ffffffe num_buffer=30

Then I can format with WB 3.1 and I get a confirmation about using Tony's PSF3aio at the end. Now it's all solved! Thanks, really! You are my reference Amiga FS expert from now on.

[cyberhead97]

Just want to share that Hst Imager can do the same and format the PFS3 partition without having to format the partition through emulator with following commands:

hst.imager blank test.hdf 512mb
hst.imager rdb init test.hdf
hst.imager rdb fs add test.hdf pfs3aio PFS3
hst.imager rdb part add test.hdf DH0 PFS3 98% --bootable
hst.imager rdb part format test.hdf 1 "Workbench"

The resulting test.hdf looks like this

>hst.imager rdb info test.hdf
[23:20:20 INF] Hst Imager v0.1.0 (12/01/2022 20:37:42)
[23:20:20 INF] Henrik Noerfjand Stengaard
[23:20:20 INF] [CMD] rdb info test.hdf
[23:20:21 INF] Reading Rigid Disk Block information from 'test.hdf'
[23:20:21 INF] Info read from 'test.hdf':

Rigid Disk Block:

Product | Vendor   | Revision |     Size | Cylinders | Heads | Sectors | Block Size | Flags | Host Id | Rdb Block Lo | Rdb Block Hi
--------|----------|----------|----------|-----------|-------|---------|------------|-------|---------|--------------|-------------
test    | HstImage | 0.1      | 511.9 MB |      1040 |    16 |      63 |        512 |     7 |       7 |            0 |         2015

File systems:

# | DOS Type          | Version | Name    |    Size
--|-------------------|---------|---------|--------
1 | 0x50465303, PFS\3 | 19.2    | pfs3aio | 57.7 KB

Partitions:

# | Name |     Size | LowCyl | HighCyl | Reserved | PreAlloc | Block Size | Buffers | DOS Type          | Max Transfer       | Mask                   | Bootable | No Mount | Priority
--|------|----------|--------|---------|----------|----------|------------|---------|-------------------|--------------------|------------------------|----------|----------|---------
1 | DH0  | 501.5 MB |      2 |    1020 |        2 |        5 |        512 |      30 | 0x50465303, PFS\3 | 0x0001FE00, 130560 | 0x7FFFFFFE, 2147483646 | True     | False    |        0

[23:24:14 INF] Done

Hst Imager implements the same formatting routine as Toni's latest pfs3aio and automatically sets filename size to 107.