Can you have hard drives under wb1.3 in WinUAE?

[Bloodwych]

I've got the Workbench 2 and 3 hard drive directories working a treat, but I'm trying to create an Amiga 500, 1.3, OCS hard drive set-up for some older games and software.

When I create a directory and copy the WB1.3 disk onto it using shell, everything boots up fine just as on WB2/3. All the icons from the wb1.3 disk show up fine.

However, when I try to install any software onto the 1.3 harddrive, the icons don't appear. The files are there as shown by shell (including the .info icon files) but the darn things don't show up.

This means I have to use shell and "execute" the files in order to get software to work, rather than double click on the icons.

Do I have to create a hardfile instead with 1.3, then mount it in the startup-sequence?

Is there a method of successfully using hard drives with WB1.3?

Do I have to change the 1.3 startup-sequence in any way?

Thanks for the advice!

It's been discussed here before. Just copy the contents of your WB1.3 into a dir. You need nothing else but you'll recieve some error messages saying "pure bit not set" .The way to solve this is also covered in that thread.

[Bloodwych]

Sorry Burseg and others, I must be blind missing those threads.

The only excuse I have is that I posted this in a rush because I was watching something on TV.

Thanks for the pointer, I'll give it a go.

[Bloodwych]

Hmm, I've read the threads and they don't help.

If you read my original message I've already created a bootable hard drive directory, but it's not working correclty.

When I create a directory and copy the WB1.3 disk onto it using shell within WinUAE, everything boots up fine just as on WB2/3. All the icons from the wb1.3 disk show up fine.

However, when I try to install any software onto the 1.3 harddrive, the icons don't appear. The files are there as shown by shell (including the .info icon files) but the darn things don't show up.

This means I have to use shell and "execute" the files in order to get software to work, rather than double click on the icons.

I get no error messages on boot-up, just this strange behaviour.

Hmm I know I'm not helping much but you need to understand if it's caused by the emulator or your workbench. You should recieve this errors with a regular unmodified wb 1.3

I advise you to try an alternative wb 1.3 disk and an alternative WinUAE version

[Bloodwych]

Thanks for the advice, I'll look into it and report back - strange problem though

FInding another 1.3 disk is going to be hard, so I'll try a different emu version first........

[RetroMan]

The Problem is that Kick 1.3 natively does NOT support Hard Drives .... The support for HD´s with Kick 1.3 was done by the HD Controller, so that may cause all those problems ....

But why didn't other people experienced this? I don't include myself because I never used wb 1.3 in a session longer than 5 minutes

I take it, the only way to solve this is by patching the emulator to simulate a HD controller right?

[Exodus]

Burseg, I have the same problem when I install software on my hard drive, the icons won't show up. The way I solve it is open up a shell, go to the directory when I installed the program, and just type the command in to load the program.

To give you an example, I just get my hands on one of the coverdisks of CU Amiga (can't remember the number) which included the full version of PageStream 2, which is a desktop-publishing program. After I installed it on my WB 3.1 hard drive, the drawer that I installed it to was invisible. So the only way I could run the program is to open up the shell, and run it by going into the drawer then typing the command.

As for making future WinUAE versions simulate a HD controller, have you asked Toni yet?

It's unbelieveable this hadn't been fixed before. I wonder if winfellow behaves differently. I've not talked to Toni naturally but I expect him to see this thread.

[Exodus]

WinFellow also acts the same way.

[Bloodwych]

Originally posted by Exodus
After I installed it on my WB 3.1 hard drive, the drawer that I installed it to was invisible.

You did mean WB 1.3 hard drives didn't you Exodus?

The WB 3.1 hard drives work fine.

[Bloodwych]

Here is an interesting reply off UAE discussion board where I posted a similar thread:

I've had the same problem, and eventually I figured out that to make my icons appear, I had to go into the directory that I was expecting to see the icons in and delete the file ".info", after which the new icons that had been added to that directory would show up under Workbench. I haven't yet gotten around to seeing if the same problem would exist if I used a hardfile.

Now the other WB (2x onwards) don't create .info files without accompanying filenames and therefore don't have issues.

Since files named with only an extension (ie .XXX) like found in WB 1.3 are incompatible with MS-DOS, this might be the route of the problem with 1.3 directory hard drives.

Therefore a hardfile should solve this problem if you can get the thing mounted and setup ok. If not get deleting those .info files!

A similar incompatibility exists with the .backdrop files, or any other similar .XXX files sometimes used in WB 2/3, as I found while trying to copy Amiga HD directories within Windows. Explorer would crash or backup programs simply ignore these files with MS-DOS incompatible names.

Conclusion - The problem with using harddrive directories is that incompatibility issues arise from the windows file system primarily due to:

.backdrop files.

On Workbench 2.0 or greater machines, this tells the Workbench which icons have been dragged out of a drawer and onto the Workbench.

.info files.

These files Contain some information about the current directory.

[Toni Wilen]

I've not talked to Toni naturally but I expect him to see this thread.

I am not familiar with Amiga->Windows filesystem translation code. (same with audio code) Sorry, can't help..

[Exodus]

No, I did mean WB 3.1 hard drives, Bloodwych. If you're saying that WB 3.1 hard drives have no problem with drawers being invisible after you instal software, then perhaps I needed to create a drawer prior to the installation, then install the software to that drawer. I don't think I did this. My fault.

Thanks anyway, Toni. I remember reading in a thread that Bernd is responsible for the filesystems. Maybe you could ask him to add support for harddrives under WB 1.x.

[Bloodwych]

I found a solution!!!!!

Looking through Aminet I found this neat program that solves all my issues with wb1.3 directory drives. It's also useful for higher systems as well.

no.info on aminet

Place it in your c directory and add the line "no.info" to your startup-sequence file, just before "loadwb". That's all there is too it, problem solved!

Read the above info at the link for details.

[Exodus]

I copied No.Info to the C directory, but what exactly do you type in the S:Startup-Sequence file? I'm sure you can't just type No.Info in the file.

[Bloodwych]

That's all you need to add, but make sure it's before loadwb and on a line by itself. It executes itself like explained by the help file:

"No.Info is merely a CLI command, copy it into your C directory and add No.Info to your S:Startup-Sequence, before your LOADWB. It's completely OS friendly and doesn't require any extra libraries or devices. Start it before any program which may read icons."

For instance, when I'm booting WB1.3 it comes up "no.info version xx by xx" showing that it's working. And now all my icons show up in wb1.3 when I install software.

Read the documentation provided in my previous post above, it explains exactly what it does.

[Exodus]

Thanks. I just didn't know that you could include .info files in S:Startup-Sequence, but only AmigaDOS commands.

Thanks for the info as well. I was wondering why drawers were invisible when I opened my root drive.