Re: Q68 direct sector access

pjw · Post by **pjw** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 4:52 pm

Artificer wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:07 pm Hi,

There is direct sector access in smsq/e ie winX_*d2d if I remember correctly. The QXLwin file format has the win file name embedded 6 bytes from the start. Wolfgang Lenerz WinEd program allows access and editing of the hard drive.

No need to remember correctly. Just use my program (above)

Artificer · Post by **Artificer** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 5:14 pm

Per wrote:
Just use my program (above)

Why then are you unable to use your program to rename QXL.win files on the Q68?

Cheers

pjw · Post by **pjw** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 5:16 pm

Artificer wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 5:14 pm
Per wrote:
Just use my program (above)
Why then are you unable to use your program to rename QXL.win files on the Q68?

I dont know. Can you? If you can then I must have been mistaken.. Please let us know.

Artificer · Post by **Artificer** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 6:30 pm

Hi Per,

I have not used your program on the Q68 or any other system.

What I do know is that I have used direct sector access on the FAT16 partitions of the Q68 to browse the full long filenames of files on these partitions, and that WinEd gives direct access to the first sector of the QXLwin drives and could be used to edit Win drive names. I would imagine that WinEd also uses direct sector access.

I don't have time this week to look at the issue myself. What error do you get with your program when using it on the Q68?

Cheers

Derek_Stewart · Post by **Derek_Stewart** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 7:06 pm

Hi Per,

I tried your programme, and it works perfectly on all of the QLWA files I have tried on SD Cards in Q68 Slot 1 and Slot 2.

I had to add open#1,con when running from QD and SBASIC, but works well.

Could this be added to SBASIC in a compiled procedure?

Or maybe a EasyPTR programme to use a GUI programme.

Well done on a really good programme.

pjw · Post by **pjw** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 8:43 pm

Thanks, Derek.

Im not doing any more with that program since I have something much better in the pipeline

So feel free to do with it as you please.

Now for some good news: It was a false alarm I raised! Direct sector access works on Q68 in the same way as on QPC2 and SMSQmulator - ! (At least for the limited, legitimate, purposes I require.)

Im not a complete idiot, so when I say it didnt work when I tried it before I wasnt hallucinating. I just dont know why.

Ive now switched off fast access. That might have had something to do with it? Sometimes my Q68 appears not to initialise properly. One symptom is that every now and again the mouse scroll wheel doesnt work. Usually a reboot cures that..

My sector reads were throwing up gobbledygook, so I assumed that this could have been a partition table of sorts. You see, on Atari when you read sector #0 you dont get directly to the QWA partition. You have to go through the partition table to find the correct sector offset. After that everything looks like normal QLWA.

Anyway, now we know that it works - at least in theory!

Thanks for everyone's input!

Peter · Post by **Peter** » Tue Apr 23, 2024 12:53 pm

pjw wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 8:43 pm Ive now switched off fast access. That might have had something to do with it?

Yes! That overclocks the SD card and is an experimental feature that comes with a huge warning!
It should never have become default on the SMSQ/E website, I keep warning people all the time.
If you have that switched on, everything depends on luck!

pjw · Post by **pjw** » Tue Apr 23, 2024 2:10 pm

All seems to work well now, including the Rename program above.
Sorry about the fuss, but it was worth it

Derek_Stewart · Post by **Derek_Stewart** » Tue Apr 23, 2024 4:26 pm

Peter wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2024 12:53 pm
pjw wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 8:43 pm Ive now switched off fast access. That might have had something to do with it?
Yes! That overclocks the SD card and is an experimental feature that comes with a huge warning!
It should never have become default on the SMSQ/E website, I keep warning people all the time.
If you have that switched on, everything depends on luck!

I keep on moaning at Wolfgang that the Q68 Config defaults are not as agreed. But he seems to.ignorr my comments.

If you look at the binary if SMSQ/E v3.39 the defaults for WIN drives are:

WIN1 = QXL.WIN
WIN2 = SMSQE33Q.WIN

Faster SD Card Access set to: Yes

I have reconfigure every version of Q68 SMSQ/E binary when downloaded to:

WIN1 = QLWA.WIN
WIN2 = QLWA2.WIN

Faster SD Card access is set to: No

The problem is I put the preconfigured QWA Files called QLWA.WIN on to the SD Card, which is what the manual indicates.

If a SMSQ/E is updated, and the defaults are not changed, the Q68 will on start up in 512x256 Mode 4 and not because able to access the WIN drive.

This because the WIN1 drive is configured to be QXL.WIN, which does not exist.

But maybe I am being too panantic, as the SMSQ/E defaults can be changed easily by LRUN WIN8_BOOT this loads up a German version of Menuconfig with English Menu Rext.

This is okay for me, but some people who bought the Q68 and are not aware of Config Blocks and how to use them may have problems.

Maybe I should have a web site for the correctly configured version of the software available and maybe SD Card image files

Peter · Post by **Peter** » Tue Apr 23, 2024 8:59 pm

Derek_Stewart wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2024 4:26 pm I keep on moaning at Wolfgang that the Q68 Config defaults are not as agreed.

His settings are terrible, especially as the WIN8 configuration mechanism won't even work on some cards with the "fast" setting.
Also the french keyboard is super weird to get reconfiguration started.
And the local menuconfig_inf file is useless since his default container name differs from the standard.

But after all, Wolfgang has done so much work for the Q68, we have to allow him some "specialties"