Amix in WinUAE

[Toni Wilen]

I guess your index.tape can be as simple as "00<lf>01<lf> and so on.."

WinUAE does not sort files alphabetically, it just reads then in whatever order system returns the directory and usually it isn't sorted.

No ideas for corrupted packages. It is always possible that there are some corner case in tape emulation. But first I'd like to know if we even have 100% confirmed original intact tape install packages for 2.01 and 2.03.

[Noth]

I've tested all three available tape archives ( 2.01 2.03 & 2.1 ) by simply unarchiving to a directory, doing a ls -1 > index.tape in that dir, then booting the relevant boot + root floppies and following the instructions, always with the same 950M HDF. Here are the results:

2.01: install gets to the point of extracting packages but cpio dies when dearchiving "Public domain utilities". Complains about a bad header, which I guess means it's a gzipped cpio but not announced as such in List. It does continue on to the end though, and patches the kernel with the boot files before writing it to c6d0s3 boot partition. This gives you a fully working basic AMIX install.

The tape archive is made of cpio packages that actually have names, unlike the 2.03 & 2.1 ones.

2.03: same as 2.01 but dies at "Networking commands & demons". Does complete install to give a working installation.

2.1: install script gets to the point where it needs to read the package list on the tape and barfs complaining that it can't open the List file.

So what does all this mean? Either the install script is rubbish at it's work, or the tape dumps we have are screwy (the fact that amigaunix.com's tiki was non-working for a week may have something to do with it). Or it's WinUAE.

Toni, this obligation of having the list.cpio and core.cpio as the first two entries certainly appears needed in 2.01 but 2.03 manages to install with packages just named 00.cpio, 01.cpio, etc... So what's final answer do you think?

I do know, because I've done it, that renaming the various packages in the 2.1 tape extract to relevant according to the List file (cpio -icdmu < 00 will produce this file, and it's 00.cpio for 2.03 and list.cpio for 2.01) will let the installer go a fair way along. The BIG issue is that this is guess work since there are more packages in the tape archive than listed in List! The ultimate thing to do of course is to manually cpio / gunzip & cpio each archive to know which is which. That takes a while but it looks like the only valid path. I'll give it a go tonight (doesn't have to be done in AMIX, luckily). I can also post the winuaelogs if necessary.

I'm going to contact Failure on amiga.org's forum to see if he can md5 check the tape archives so we can try and isolate the fault here.

[Toni Wilen]

Name of files is irrelevant. Emulated Amiga won't see them. 100% important is exact order of files in tape and this information is not always available (or not guaranteed correct). index.tape is used to re-create this missing information.

It seems Amix simple reads first entry from tape and dies if contents are unexpected (wrong file). First file must be the "list" file. Not sure if other files also needs to be in exactly right order.

Image file downloadable from amigaunix makes no sense, it is single big file and I don't see how it can work when installer expects separate files with tape filemark between each file.

EDIT: Remember that tapes are sequential access, data ("file") is separated by file marks that only tell "data ends here". There is no directory, data is unnamed, even size of data is unavailable without actually reading it until next file mark and counting number of blocks.

[Noth]

For 2.03 I can confirm that i_10.cpio, i_17.cpio, i_21.cpio, i_23.cpio, i_24.cpio, i_25.cpio (which also complains of invalid headers after gunzip+cpio extraction) and i_27.cpio all are actually gzipped and must be renamed with the .cpio.gz instead of .cpio suffix.

01 & 02 contain respectively the list and contents/bill of materials of the other archives. Here's what the other numbers correspond to:

03 = core
04 = bsd
05 = Cdev
06 = lp
07 = man
08 = network
09 = public
10 = sysadm
11 = terminfo
12 = text
13 = uucp
14 = Xcore
15 = Xbasic
16 = olcore
17 = Xtras
18 = Xdev
19 = oldev
20 = conf
21 = emacs
22 = games
23 = amigasrc
24 = emacsrc
25 = gnusrc
26 = pubsrc
27 = Xsrc

2.1 is MUCH more messed up. Since the install script can't figure what's what, you have to rename each xy file to a relevant name, here's the list (all according to what the List in 00 contains):

00 = list.cpio
01 = contents.cpio
02 = core.cpio
03 = bsd.cpio
04 = Cdev.cpio
05 = lp.cpio
06 = man.cpio
07 = net.cpio
08 = public.cpio
09 = sysadm.cpio.gz
10 = terminfo.cpio
11 = text.cpio
12 = uucp.cpio
13 = Xcore.cpio
14 = Xbasic.cpio
15 = olcore.cpio
16 = Xtras.cpio.gz
17 = Xdev.cpio
18 = oldev.cpio
19 = conf.cpio
20 = emacs.cpio.gz
21 = games.cpio
22 = amigasrc.cpio.gz
23 = emacsrc.cpio.gz
24 = gnusrc.cpio.gz
25 = gnusrc2.cpio.gz
26 = pubsrc.cpio.gz
27 = Xsource.cpio.gz
28 = X11r5src.cpio.gz (yes, that's a small r in r5).

I'm not 100% sure what 02 should really be renamed to. Going to test a 2.03 and 2.1 install with modified names on files to see how far I get and will post results later.

[Noth]

Well none of those modifications worked... of course you could uncpio all this manually but that denies you package management which is a pain if you want to patch to 2.1p2a.

Let's see what Failure comes back with...

[mark_k]

Originally Posted by Noth

For 2.03 I can confirm that i_10.cpio, i_17.cpio, i_21.cpio, i_23.cpio, i_24.cpio, i_25.cpio (which also complains of invalid headers after gunzip+cpio extraction) and i_27.cpio all are actually gzipped and must be renamed with the .cpio.gz instead of .cpio suffix.
...
I'm not 100% sure what 02 should really be renamed to. Going to test a 2.03 and 2.1 install with modified names on files to see how far I get and will post results later.

As Toni said, the names of the files on your PC are completely irrelevant. What matters is that you create an index.tape text file listing the files in the order they appear on the emulated tape. It doesn't matter what you rename i_02.cpio to, as long as the second line of index.tape has the new name.

Your index.tape file (assuming you don't rename any of the files) should look like this:

i_01.cpio
i_02.cpio
i_03.cpio
... etc. until ...
i_26.cpio
i_27.cpio

Also, the compressed files are not compressed with gzip. They're compressed with the UNIX compress program. The usual filename extension used for compressed files is .Z. You could rename the compressed files to end in .cpio.Z to make that clear, but it doesn't matter as far as WinUAE's tape emulation is concerned. (You'll need to edit index.tape if you do rename any of the files.)

[Toni Wilen]

Friend found complete 2.03 and 2.1 (newer than 2.03, not 2.01) Amix install tape and disk images. Not yet sure where to upload it.

[Noth]

Be best to contact the admins of www.amigaunix.com since it's the main repositary of AMIX software... I've managed to crack the method for creating true AMIX packages so I'm rebuilding the software on the site. Waiting for Failure to send me a passcode so I can access over there.

Hadn't realized there's a compress option for cpio (I never used to use this command, relied more on tar...).

Anyone worked out how to mount AMIX partitions from a HDF in Linux? Tried

losetup -o 129 --sizelimit 1415168 /dev/loop1 /mnt/Documents\ and\ Settings/Public/Documents/Amiga\ Files/WinUAE/tapeamix.hdf
mount -t ufs -o ufstype=sun,ro /dev/loop1 /mnt2

Unfortunately neither sun nor old options for ufstype work. Non urgent, just could be useful on occasions... I need to build an ftp client that will do passive mode too so I can upload what I've compiled + packaged so far.

One last thing, the termcap for amiga doesn't seem to work fully in WinUAE, AMIX in console mode doesn't have working arrow keys which is a bit frustrating. in X everything works fine. Any ideas?

[mark_k]

Why the strange offset and sizelimit arguments? Aren't they supposed to be specified in bytes, not (512-byte) sectors?

[Noth]

Originally Posted by mark_k

Why the strange offset and sizelimit arguments? Aren't they supposed to be specified in bytes, not (512-byte) sectors?

Yeah they have to be in bytes (of kbytes or mbytes... just use K or M or G at the end of the statement). Thanks for that, too much late night activity. I'm able to mount the root partition doing this:

losetup -o 65536 --sizelimit 724566K /dev/loop1 /mnt/Documents\ and\ Settings/Public/Documents/Amiga\ Files/WinUAE/tapeamix.hdf

mount -o loop -o ufstype=old,ro -r -t ufs /dev/loop1 /mnt2/

For those who don't know the AMIX disk structure, the first 128 blocks are reserved for the RDB (Rigid Disk Block), hence the 65536 bytes offset, then you have your UNIX_Root partition (in this case mine is 724556K large), then the UNIX_Swap partition, then the UNIX_Boot partition that is always 2048k big. Anything after that are user created partitions, made after firstboot.

[Noth]

Oh and now we have tape support, we can use BRU in both AmigaDOS and AMIX to access files on the tape drive so it's a decent way of exchanging data between both if you have neither network services nor linux. I've just tested ftp again, looks like it's a no no for the usual reasons (it's being NAT'ed by WinUAE so you can login, but forget about doing anything that needs PORT. However there is openssh + openssl + prngd on the amigaunix.com site. Only problem is ssh is linked to zlib 1.2.2 and it's not on the site, only 1.2.3. I managed to compile 1.2.2 but it just doesn't see it . We really need a new ld ...

[Noth]

New info: tapes represented as directories do not seem to work if they're on a network drive, and compressed archives fail no matter what. Basic AMIX is installable from tape but anything else requires importing stuff as a tar archive via /dev/dsk/c5d0s1/ or similar...

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by Noth

New info: tapes represented as directories do not seem to work if they're on a network drive, and compressed archives fail no matter what. Basic AMIX is installable from tape but anything else requires importing stuff as a tar archive via /dev/dsk/c5d0s1/ or similar...

Sorry but this is completely useless info without actually explaining what you do, what kind of files you used, what you expected to happen (and what if this is correct behavior? It is Amix, anything is possible!) and without including logs and so on.

"it does not work" = It does not work as a bug report either.

[Noth]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

Sorry but this is completely useless info without actually explaining what you do, what kind of files you used, what you expected to happen (and what if this is correct behavior? It is Amix, anything is possible!) and without including logs and so on.

"it does not work" = It does not work as a bug report either.

Absolutely, sorry for that. So, what I meant was:

When installing AMIX with floppies + tape method, if you get WinUAE to present a directory as a tape, that directory must be local, not on a network drive. AMIX fails to read the tape if it was provided externally from the lan. If you create say a tarball containing the tape contents and tell WinUAE to use that as a tape, it hardcrashes WinUAE. I can successfully read from tape using the program amixpkg both upon install and within a running full OS, but there's a problem beyond a certain length (the first 12 packages in the list provided by amixpkg will install, but anything beyond won't). I can reproduce all this systematically.

I'll try and post a few screenshots + logs later on.

In other news, binutils-2.10's ld won't link what I try to compile... lovely.

[Toni Wilen]

2.03 and 2.1 Amix install files uploaded to eab file server (uploads/twilen). Original files, only modification is tape index file.

Do not ask here where are the files and/or how to access them.

[Amiga_CDTV]

Thanks for the install files, Toni. If you have original tapes and/or covers for the media, could you scan those? I'd love to see more of the original packaging.

I have just setup a WinUAE installation with Amix 2.1 and Workbench 3.1 (on one hard disk, dual boot). Really cool!

What is the easiest way to transfer files from/into the emulated Amix system? Can I mount a local folder (how can I mount it in Amix?) or use some sort of network emulation?

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by Amiga_CDTV

Thanks for the install files, Toni. If you have original tapes and/or covers for the media, could you scan those? I'd love to see more of the original packaging.

Images are not dumped by me (and don't even attempt to ask). I have A3000UX tape drive but no tapes

What is the easiest way to transfer files from/into the emulated Amix system? Can I mount a local folder (how can I mount it in Amix?) or use some sort of network emulation?

I guess network (A2065 emulation) is easiest but I don't really care how Amix works except that it runs under emulation

[mark_k]

I have a couple of original AMIX tapes which I could scan.

As for transferring data, one way would be to create a tar archive of whatever files you want to transfer. For transferring to the AMIX side, just add the archive as an HDF in WinUAE, then un-tar it in AMIX. You could also use the tape drive emulation, but it's probably simpler to just add the archive as an HDF.

The same could be done in the opposite direction, just make sure the empty/dummy HDF you add (where you'll write the tar archive to) is large enough.

With A2065 emulation it might be possible to build Samba/smbfs in AMIX, then share a folder on the host and mount it that way. I guess making an NFS share on the host would work (and support for that might be built into AMIX). It's not something I've tried though.

[Amiga_CDTV]

mark_k (or somebody): could you provide a quick guide on how to access a tar archive from AMIX? I am a total newbie on UNIX-side of things but I'd love to try some more things on it.

[mark_k]

Originally Posted by Amiga_CDTV

mark_k (or somebody): could you provide a quick guide on how to access a tar archive from AMIX? I am a total newbie on UNIX-side of things but I'd love to try some more things on it.

I'll try to write up something shortly. Been trying to get AMIX (2.1) installed in WinUAE, but for some reason the installer doesn't detect the emulated SCSI hard drive. Need to play around with that some more.


In other news, I have created a PDF file of the Installing Amiga UNIX manual, which as far as I know hasn't been available online until now. I took a pic of each page using my phone, so the quality sucks compared to what a proper scanned version would look like and the file is very large (~84MB). But everything should be legible and it's better than nothing. 4-s-h-a-r-e-d link

I've adjusted the link because the EAB forum mods decided to silently break links to various file-hosting sites . Copy and paste it into your browser, remove all - symbols from the site name and change hxxp to http before pressing enter.

I would upload it to amigaunix.com but the maximum file size there is around 16MB.

Amiga_CDTV: I've also uploaded some pics of two AMIX tapes to The Zone.