On Wed, Jan 30, 2002 at 11:20:22AM -0000, P Witte wrote:

> 2) I cant get Linux to read my floppy. It is recognised in the boot screen
> as /dev/fd0 HD 2880 but mounting it, eg:
> 
> mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /a
> 
> throws up errors - wrong format, IO error, etc. Tried from fd0D720 to
> fd1H1440, msdos to vfat, various disks, but no joy. uQLx also complains
> that it is the wrong format - same whether Qdos or msdos disks are used.
> SMSQ recognises it, ie it is not a hardware issue.

most likely wrong cable. SMSQ does not use certain features of the floppy 
so it does not show up there. Typically this happens when you attach a
floppy that was previously used with QL hardware, you need a twisted
PC cable.

> 3) Is there a TK2, or clone, available that will allow Minerva to MAKE_DIR,
> SET_FUPDT, etc ?

a real TK2, version 2.10 or 2.11 will work fine, other versions are less
tested. There are other toolkits available which provides similar 
functionality.

> 4) Is there a program that will scan all partitions on the hard disk for bad
> sectors (SMSQE or Linux)?

there used to be something but it is no longer useful with modern drives.
There is an ide-smart diagnose tool which isn't extremely usefull either.

qxl_fschk will test integrity of SMSQ filesystems.

> 5) How can I run atari-fdisk on a live system (to check that my partition
> tables are ok)? Can it be compiled to run under Qdos/SMSQ/E ?

'atari-fdisk -l' will always list it, to change the partition table 
use atari-fdisk -f, needs a reboot for the changes to become effective.
The partitions are also listed in /proc/partitions

> 6) Where can I find documentation or information on the QWA partion
> table(s)?

information about physical QWA fs layout is badly scattered around, 
uqlx/docs/qxlwin.html describes the basic idea of it. If you need 
more detailed knowledge just ask.
Of course the sources of atari-fdisk, qxl_fschk and uqlx are available.

*NOTE* QWA fs layout is not identical on QXL/QPC/Q40.

The partition tables used by SMSQ and Linux-Q40 are Atari-ST like
with XGM extension, and a few quirks in SMSQ. The format is pretty
well described in the README that comes with atari-fdisk sources.

> 7) Can uQLx be made to run machine code natively under Qdos?

needs some more work.

Bye
Richard

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