Fdutils June 2005

fdutils@fdutils.linux.lu

5 participants
2 discussions

Re: A Bizarre FD Format - the Ensoniq Mirage
by Craig A. Vanderborgh 30 Jun '05

30 Jun '05

Alain Knaff wrote: > On Thursday 30 June 2005 12:02, Simon Owen wrote: > > >> cat > track_data >> 00 00 01 03 >> 00 00 99 00 >> 00 00 99 00 >> 00 00 99 00 >> 00 00 02 02 >> 00 00 99 00 >> 00 00 03 01 >> ^D >> >> fdrawcmd format 0 2 7 0x2b 0xf6 track=0 < track_data >> > > > Just pointing out a minor error: fdrawcmd takes binary input, not > ASCII. So your track data file would need to be filled with binary > charachers, as follows (where echo is bash's or zsh's builtin echo > command): > > > echo -ne '\x00\x00\x01\x03' >track_data > echo -ne '\x00\x00\x99\x00' >>track_data > echo -ne '\x00\x00\x99\x00' >>track_data > echo -ne '\x00\x00\x99\x00' >>track_data > echo -ne '\x00\x00\x02\x02' >>track_data > echo -ne '\x00\x00\x99\x00' >>track_data > echo -ne '\x00\x00\x03\x01' >>track_data > > fdrawcmd format 0 2 7 0x2b 0xf6 track=0 < track_data > > > > Regards, > > Alain > > > Hello Again, First - thanks a lot for Alain and Owen for the replies. Next - an answer the obvious question of "why". Many Mirages including my own are now over 20 years old. The floppy disk drive is the thing that always fails, usually by refusing to format disks. Thus I have decided to write some public-domain utilities to format, read, and populate Mirage floppies on Linux. There is one other thing that I did not mention, which is that the Mirage appears to need zero-based track and sector numbering. I have taken your proposed solution, and expressed it in the form of the following 2 scripts: #!/bin/bash echo -ne '\x00\x00\x00\x03' > track_data echo -ne '\x00\x00\x99\x00' >> track_data echo -ne '\x00\x00\x01\x03' >> track_data echo -ne '\x00\x00\x99\x00' >> track_data echo -ne '\x00\x00\x02\x03' >> track_data echo -ne '\x00\x00\x99\x00' >> track_data echo -ne '\x00\x00\x03\x03' >> track_data echo -ne '\x00\x00\x99\x00' >> track_data echo -ne '\x00\x00\x04\x03' >> track_data echo -ne '\x00\x00\x99\x00' >> track_data echo -ne '\x00\x00\x05\x02' >> track_data This creates the track data file, with zero-based (I hope) sector numbering. Then, the following one-liner does the formatting: #!/bin/sh for i in `seq 0 79` do fdrawcmd format 0 2 11 0x2b 0xf6 track=$i < track_data done I believe that this is what you suggested, right Owen? The floppy appears to format, but the Mirage doesn't like it (I can't save to it). So the next question is this: What kinds of things can I do using fdutils to compare this "new" format to a real Mirage format? What could I look at to begin to determine what is going wrong? Please advise if possible. Thanks a lot to all!! craig vanderborgh voxware incorporated > _______________________________________________ > fdutils mailing list > fdutils(a)tux.org > http://www.tux.org/mailman/listinfo/fdutils > > > _______________________________________________ fdutils mailing list fdutils(a)tux.org http://www.tux.org/mailman/listinfo/fdutils

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A Bizarre FD Format - the Ensoniq Mirage
by Craig A. Vanderborgh 30 Jun '05

30 Jun '05

Hello, I just joined the fdutils list, hoping to figure out how to make use of fdutils to create a command-line utility to format, read, and write 3.5 DD disks for the Ensoniq Mirage on Linux. The Mirage is a strange, wonderful instrument - it's an 8-bit sampler from the 80's cursed by a limited amount of storage on a very strangely arranged 3.5" DD disk. Mirage disks are formatted this quite weird way: o single-sided o 80 tracks o each track contains five type 3 sectors (1024 b) + one type 2 sector (512 b) So the real problem here is that the each track contains 2 sector types. I have successfully *read* these disks, by dumping out each sector. Here is a bash loop that dumps out the Mirage disk data: do fdrawcmd read 0 $i 0 0 3 6 0x1b 0xff \ length=5120 rate=2 need_seek track=$i \ > $REPERTOIRE/d$i.dmp 2> /tmp/mirage-data.err fdrawcmd read 0 $(($i)) 0 5 2 6 0x1b 0xff \ length=512 rate=2 need_seek track=$i \ > $REPERTOIRE/s$i.dmp 2> /tmp/mirage-small.err cat /tmp/mirage-data.err | xargs echo cat /tmp/mirage-small.err| xargs echo done So we have gotten to the point where we can use some rustic "fdrawcmd" invocations in a script to dump out the sample data. I have examined the results. THIS DOES WORK. So at least we understand the disk format to the point where we can dump out the wavesamples and other data using a script. What I'd like to do now is to be able to read, write, and format these disks (cp, fdformat, etc.). I understand that the out-of-the-box fdutils will probably not do what is needed for this disk format that has 2 sector sizes on each track. The question is this - what is the best way for me to proceed? Do I need to write a program that does "fdrawcmd"-type stuff, or can I do some driver/kernel level work to accomodate the Mirage format, and then use the standard Linux utilities?? Please advise - I am ready to do some hard work on this and just need some direction. Thanks in advance, craig vanderborgh _______________________________________________ fdutils mailing list fdutils(a)tux.org http://www.tux.org/mailman/listinfo/fdutils

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Fdutils June 2005