From: crash@ckctpa.UUCP (Frank "Crash" Edwards)
Subject: Re: AMIGADOS <=> UNIX problems
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 17:30:29 GMT
Reply-To: crash%ckctpa@tct.com (Frank "Crash" Edwards)
Organization: Edwards & Edwards Consulting

jea@prodigal.psych.rochester.edu (Joanne Albano) writes:
>I have been trying to go between AMIGADOS and AMIGAUNIX
>
>1. DNET: So far I have found that DNET works nicely between
>SUN UNIX and AMIGADOS but unfortunately I have a
>ATT unix machine. Is there a DNET that goes between
>ATT unix and ADOS?

Well, this is probably a good time for an update.

I've tried out the bsd-emul library from Markus on DNet on my Amix
2.1 machine.  The initial attempt didn't go.  Dnet itself started but
none of the servers would start.  One problem appeared to be that dnet
was trying to access port number 9492 on the Unix side, and it
shouldn't have been.  Tracking down the call to startserver() I found
that reading the port number from the AmigaDOS side was pretty basic
stuff, and so I have no explanation for this one, but I'll look into
it more later.

The second problem was that the pty code still needs to be the SVR4
method instead of the BSD method, even with the emulation library, and
my ifdef's (compiling on "svr4" but without that #define) was causing
the wrong pty code to be used.  I have since rebuilt that version, but
have lost my beta tester over the holidays.

I have heard from a few people who would like to try out any changes.
So I'm going to be sending source code to these two folks:

    Dan Shein <rehab1!rehab2!dan@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com>
    Joel Justen <crpi!joel@uunet.UU.NET>

Also, on Monday I'll post a uuencoded binary for the bsd emulation
library.  My gcc doesn't have the PIC patches installed so I can't
generate a shared object; hence they will be link libraries.

I will be posting binaries for dnet here as well, zoo'ed and uuencoded.  
These should be considered beta versions; they may work, and they may
not.  They do allow connections and the STERM appears to work fine.  If
the above port number and pty problems have been corrected by my latest
changes, then there should be little left to do.  (Although I still
have high hopes of doing the POSIX conversion, but if the emul library
works it won't be quite as critical anymore.)

>2. Floppies: If I use the UNIX format that is documented
>to AMIGAdos format, then I get error messages when I try
>to read the floppy under 1.3. If I try to BRU to a 1.3
>formatted floppy I also get error messages. The messages
>indicate that the floppy is not recognized as a AMIGADOS
>floppy. (My machine at home is still 1.3)

You're confusing a low-level format with a high-level format.  This is
common given that people use one command to do both things on most
home computers, ie. AmigaDOS, MessyDOS, MacOS, ...

The Unix "format" command is a low-level format -- it prepares the
media to accept data laid out in 11 sectors, 80 tracks, double-sided.
It does not write directory entries or any of that on the floppy.  That's
what the high-level format does.  There is currently no high-level format
for the AmigaDOS filesystem(s) under Amix.  (Although my virtual
filesystem under Amix will soon have the equivalent "mkfs" command
which will do what you want.)

>Does BRU work for 1.3 <-> 2.0?

Yes.  And it is typically what I use, when I need to write to the
AmigaDOS side (although I use bru on tape instead of floppy).

Those folks that are using the VFS:  what's happening?  Should I go
ahead and release the code?  Has anyone had problems reading AmigaDOS
files from Amix?  (Besides the fact that it's sloooow -- I know about
that one. :-)
-- 
Frank "Crash" Edwards          Edwards & Edwards Consulting
Fax:  813/786-6526             crash%ckctpa@myrddin.sybus.com, but please
Home: 813/786-3675             don't ask UUNET to route it -- it's sloooow.
    Very few profundities can be expressed in less than 80 characters.
Xref: sparky comp.unix.amiga:2567 comp.sys.amiga.hardware:21610