Can Amiga Explorer work without a WB disk?

[Starglider 2]

Hi, I have Amiga Explorer, my basic A500, a working null modem cable... but no Workbench 1.3 disk. I do have just one bootable floppy disk, which gets me to Workbench, but doesn't include the Shell or CLI program. This means I'm unable to enter the commands that Amiga Explorer requires.

I'm in a time crunch to do with leaving the country, and the WB disks I ordered on eBay have been delayed by the seller.

Q: Is there any other way to get Amiga Explorer working? My end goal is to convert some Amiga floppy disks to ADF files for use with an emulator.

[emufan]

i have winuae with kick 1.3 here. when you see the AmigaDOS window " copyright ..." press CTRL + D - it stops here the booting and you get the shell/cli prompt.
you can enter now "loadwb" to start workbench and the cli will still be open, until you enter "endcli"
i hope this works on real amiga too (thinking of a winuae feature), just test it .

[Starglider 2]

Thanks. That does work, but the problem is Amiga Explorer needs me to type the following, including the word 'Type':

Type SER: to RAM:Setup

But when I enter that I get an error:

1> Type SER: to RAM:Setup
Unknown command Type

1> Type
Unknown command Type

I think my disk doesn't have the full CLI commands in it, so it doesn't understand "Type". Any ideas anyone?

Thanks!

[emufan]

Originally Posted by Starglider 2

I think my disk doesn't have the full CLI commands in it, so it doesn't understand "Type". Any ideas anyone?

Thanks!

hmm, too bad. on amiga explorer website, I read about installation and they write "ae can self-install":

Once installed on the Windows side, Amiga Explorer can self-install to the Amiga over the serial cable without requiring any additional software, but the Amiga must be able to boot first (e.g. with a Workbench disk, at least version 1.2)

so you could transfer these missing files from a workbench13.adf image to you real-floppy.
never used amiga-explorer - cannot say how this works.

do you have any other amiga disks, install disks of application - those may have some of the commands you need.
i think devs:serial.device is also one of the missing things. maybe a devs:mountlist with entry for SER:
if you find those, insert them and try in the cli:
df0:c/type or df0:c/copy
if they exists copy them to ram-disk and later on your bootdisk. something like:

df0:c/copy df0:c/copy ram:copy

change to your boot-disk

ram:copy ram:copy df0:c/copy

this is somehow at risk, since you can destroy your only boot-able floppy disks. but i have no clue, what else you can do.
thats all not funny, but otherwise i've no idea, atm.

[Starglider 2]

Thanks. I only have one disk.

Where and how can I ensure the required commands aren't hiding somewhere on the disk? I'm not sure how to search for them.

[emufan]

Originally Posted by Starglider 2

Thanks. I only have one disk.

Where and how can I ensure the required commands aren't hiding somewhere on the disk? I'm not sure how to search for them.

they should sit in c: or root directory. try:
c:type
df0:c/type
df0:type

other usefull commands, if available: dir list

edit: a bit OT but related, did you saw the usb-floppy emulator? no more disk problems, never ever

[Starglider 2]

Really appreciate your help. I'll try the commands.

The emulator won't help as I need to get some files off old floppies.

Any other people's ideas also welcomed in the meantime.

[emufan]

Originally Posted by Starglider 2

Really appreciate your help. I'll try the commands.

The emulator won't help as I need to get some files off old floppies.

*argh* ok, i already forgot
kind of deja-vu - i hope it wasn't you, i've told about adfread. old pc with two 3.5" disk-drives on same cable. makes successfully copies of standard amiga filesystem disks.

[Starglider 2]

Sadly I get:

"Unknown command dir"
"Unknown command df0:type"
"Unknown command c:type"
etc.

I don't have an old PC, only laptops.

Any other ideas how to get Amiga Explorer working so I can convert an Amiga floppy to an ADF?

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by emufan

hmm, too bad. on amiga explorer website, I read about installation and they write "ae can self-install":

It does Did that myself quite a few times.

It does that in a clever way, it gets the raw input from the SER: device and converts it to "text" using Type. That "text" is just executable code

It obviously needs Type to exist as it uses that to get the input from the serial device, and I suspect that without the Serial prefs the SER: device won't even be configured properly and without a SER: mounted that it won't even be enabled at all!

I'm no WB guru, so I might be missing some awesome-ultra-1337 way of doing that just with a paperclip and a rubber band, but for now it seems that Starglider 2 needs to get his hand on a WB1.3 floppy.

Looks like he'll either need to source one locally or go with a floppy emulator JUST to get a working WB1.3.
Usually bootable floppies include the BARE essential to make it run (that's why there's on Type on there) to save precious kBytes.

As Emufan said, adfread might be an option, but it requires a slightly old PC which supports two floppy drives.

[Starglider 2]

Thanks guys. I now have the required WB disk. :-)

[rogersyd]

Inquiring minds want to know... what was on that disk?
;0

[Starglider 2]

Workbench 1.3 with the required CLI command "Type" on it.

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by Starglider 2

Workbench 1.3 with the required CLI command "Type" on it.

I think he's referring either to the bootable one, or the one containing the files you wanted to rescue

[rogersyd]

LOL, right i was curious about the data you were tyring to recover. Don'f feel obligated to answer, i was just being nosey.

[Starglider 2]

Ha! Sorry. I thought your question was a bit odd. That explains it! I had an old Amiga hard disk backup taken with ABackup, and I wanted to convert those 50 disks to ADFs, to restore onto a virtual HD in UAE :-)

[rogersyd]

wow that is ambitious! god speed in your quest!

not long ago i had to buy an iomega parallel port 100 mb zip drive, and an ancient win95 laptop to recover some old photography... media obsolescence will always get ya!

[Starglider 2]

Thanks!

There will always be emulators :-) Amiga Forever...