Re: [Ql-Users] R: QxlwinReader
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. ___ QL-Users Mailing List
Re: [Ql-Users] R: QxlwinReader
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 ___ QL-Users Mailing List
Re: [Ql-Users] R: QxlwinReader
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 ___ QL-Users Mailing List ___ QL-Users Mailing List ___ QL-Users Mailing List