Re: [Ql-Users] R: QxlwinReader

2017-06-21 Thread via Ql-Users
By the way, if someone actually attaches a raw Qubide IDE harddisk 
to a PC in order to extract an image file with DD:

Since 68K CPU's are big endian, while x86 is little endian, it might 
be required to do some conversion. Not sure about the QL, but on 
Q40/Q60, access to the IDE data registers is big endian!

It might be required to swap every pair of bytes of input data, for 
which DD has the "swab" commandline option.


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Re: [Ql-Users] R: QxlwinReader

2017-06-21 Thread via Ql-Users
Hi Davide,

> The DD Unix utility might be of course an interesting option but
> maybe it could be more useful for SD cards written with the QL-SD
> interface rather than a Qubide hard disk (especially if it has
> more than one partition)

There might still be a misunderstanding, because the DD utitly is 
completely useless for QL-SD.

DD can convert a raw media (Qubide formatted in this case) to an 
image file. 

But QL-SD already has the Qubide partitions in an image file! It 
does *not* have Qubide raw media, although that would have made it 
easier to get a working driver.

The whole reason I initially wrote the QL-side FAT32 code, is to 
save the step of converting raw media to image files. Or in other 
words, the basic concept of QL-SD is *not* to need tools like DD.

On QL-SD you can directly read the Qubide image file from a PC, for 
instance with QxlwinReader or an emulator. 

By the way, the same approach could also be taken for Qubide IDE 
harddisks! The IDE harddisk (or compact flash, etc.) could be 
formatted in FAT32, and then have Qubide inside an image file like 
QL-SD. That way, DD would no longer be needed. Now that the QL-side 
FAT32 code is there, it could be re-used. Maybe Alain could comment 
on this?

The only remaining issue would be to convert old "raw" Qubide 
harddisks once. 

> I think maintaining compatibility and support of native QL
> hardware should have some priority.

I agree, insasmuch retro-computing becomes pointless if it lives 
only on emulation. Whereever I saw people returning to the QL in the 
recent years, it was hardware-related.

All the best
Peter

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Re: [Ql-Users] R: QxlwinReader

2017-06-15 Thread Wolf via Ql-Users

Hi Davide,

I'm not sure I understand what you want. You want to be able to read a 
physical Qubide formatted disk, not just an image file?


Perhaps the best way would be to copy (via "dd") the disk to an image 
file and work off that.


Regards

Wolfgang


On 11/06/2017 10:16, via Ql-Users wrote:

Hi Wolfgang,

Very nice, that was indeed one of my "most wanted" utilities. I am almost
over recovering the content of a hard disk from a Sinclair QL-Qubide system
to a WIN file via QXL. This took quite some due to the file numbers and
sizes with the bottleneck of the network speed which in any case proved to
be extremely reliable. Of course it is not so easy these days to find a QXL
and even more a host PC with ISA bus. The only other alternatives without a
QXL would have been floppy disks or sernet which however looks not as easy
as the network port to be configured also on the hw side (cables, wiring
etc).

Having a utility which could read/write WIN files and read (which for me
would be more then sufficient) Qubide formatted hard drives on a standard PC
would be really great.

Regards

Davide


-Messaggio originale-
Da: Ql-Users [mailto:ql-users-boun...@lists.q-v-d.com] Per conto di Wolf via
Ql-Users
Inviato: sabato 10 giugno 2017 19:56
A: ql-us...@q-v-d.com
Oggetto: [Ql-Users] QxlwinReader

Hi all,

I've released QxlwinReader, a small java program that allows you to
read/write qxl.win type container files directly.

There is also experimental support for Qubide formatted ("BDI") container
files.

www.wlenerz.com/QLstuff.

Have fun!

Wolfgang
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