Anyone want to test Catweasel Mk4 drivers under OS4?

Hi everybody,

Does anyone out there have a Catweasel Mk4 they could help me test my drivers for? I don't want to release anything until I know they're good and working for people as best they can.

I've taken the code from cw.device on OS4Depot (the source was included which helped massively so thanks for that!) and fixed it up so now, since v1.1:

* code rewrite into multiple c files instead of included c files!
* reads MS-DOS DD and HD disks
* reads, writes and formats Amiga DD and HD disks
* multiple device instances so high density and double density can be mounted at the same time, as can DOS and AmigaDOS disks
* compatibility with the multidisk device using the "flags" field to specify the format

I'm still working on making it nicer though, there are some things that need sorting out, but if anyone wants to help let me know. If they have access to some pretty obscure device formats that's even better as I want to make it work with odd things like BBC 'B' floppies and Spectrum disks and stuff.

Jens Schoenfeld is understandably reticent to give out his source and technical documentation unfortunately so I don't have access to that - but he said he may let me have them if I can prove I can actually write a device driver well enough. Maybe if I can get these drivers up to scratch it'll be enough to get those techincal docs. Eventually I'd like to get the Amiga drivers up to the same level as the Windows one, complete with the disk image reading/writing proggy.

@Spirantho

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Thats interesting how did you do that.

@LiveForIt

It puzzled me for a while too!

I've changed the cw_unit structure to be instead of 2 units, to have 2 * number_of_formats units, so struct cwDevUnit *cw_unit 0 is AmigaDD on device unit 0, cw_unit 1 is AmigaDD on device unit 1, cw_unit 2 is AmigaHD on unit 0 etc. etc.

I've got writing working on MS-DOS disks now, DD and HD. Can't get formatting to work though, yet, and occasionally the DOS writing finds an error.

@Spirantho

thats a good idea, that way the device knows what MFM formats to look for or not.

But it can get confusing, if you have 720kb or 1.44Mb formated Fastfilesystem disks.

@Spirantho
It's really great to hear you are working on this. I can't fit a Catweasel in my Sam's current case, but proper read/write support for Amiga disks would be a really useful for some people.

@Spirantho

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Well the device originly detected the the device MFM format before formating, now you have fixed the MFM format to unit number it should be easier.

@ChrisH

He is not doing to get it to read Amiga disks; it does that already,

but all the other formats like C64, Mac or Atari etc.

@LiveForIt

MAybe you 2 should team up on this and try to improve it together?

@Spirantho
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Contacting you privately...

@Antique

No, I'm not interested in continuing on the driver my self, my work is done.
if Spirantho like to get my leasts source code, or simple like to ask some question about last drivers then I be happy to help, he can contact me on skype.

At the moment I'm more interested doing some thing else what ever that maybe.

@Spirantho

I'd be interested in testing

Hardware in Extra Info, CWIV is installed.

The only thing i cannot provide are those special disks, only PC and Amiga here

I would love to see updated drivers, as the CW is only sitting there collecting dust

@LiveForIt Quote:
I thought he added support for writing & formatting of Amiga disks? At least that is how I interpreted the italics.

I was also under the impression that CatWeasel support was a bit unreliable, and maybe didn't even work with OS4.1 . So anyone working on it is good :)

@ChrisH

At least the drivers I have on my hard drives do work like that, some that have asked me directly have received it, over IRC or Skype.

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This is true, I do not guaranty that every thing works prefect, in my drivers, I fact I think there is buffer problem, I have not found out how to fix.

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I have not revived any comment or feedback that may indicates that it does not work, I have not tested my self, because all my DD disks are now in trashcan for good.

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I really don't mind, but I personally do not have a interest in this project anymore, and I'm proud of the work, It was hard work and it was not fun for me at least, I believe in doing things that is fun or rewording.

@ChrisH

That's right... I have read, writing and formatting on Amiga DD and HD disks working now.
The writing of MS-DOS disks is working but for some stupid reason CrossDOS keeps throwing up error messages even when everything is just fine. I reckon Amiga support is more important as you can't read Amiga disks with a1floppy.device, but I'll sort it somehow.

I did actually start just with the intention of a disk reader/writer but it seems that it is actually easier just to modify the existing source code which LiveForIt included, so that's the way I'm going at the moment.

I've just uploaded my current build for anyone interested - anyone wanting to try it should PM me or email me (ian.gledhill@atinternet.com is the more reliable at the moment, and it's "bt" not "at" in that address).

@Spirantho

Crashlogs sent...

Sorry, should have added, it crashes when mounting the device (either by double-click or on startup)

@Raziel

That's why we need beta-testers. :)

I just tried putting PD0 and TD0 into devs:dosdrivers and rebooted, but it worked fine. Strange.

I'm puzzled why it crashed there, though. I replied to your email but just in case you didn't see it, it basically just said "can you send me the output of dumpdebugbuffer after it's crashed please?" :)

@Spirantho

DebugBuffer is empty... hmmm

CW was dislodged, plugged it in right and ... whooo

Impressive, great work so far.

Reading, Writing and Formatting works, send you an eMail where i described the rest.

Is there polling on the CW? iirc @LiveForIt told me once, no?
Can it be achived by a workaround?
I had to use "diskchange" to see the disks...

Plus is there something i can use to "hide" the non-used disks (PCHD, PCDD, AmigaHD e.g. while using an Amiga DD disk?)

Thanks a lot

on a realted subject, what does multidisk, device do?
the readme in the package is ... insufficient, to say at least

@Raziel

The readme is just something I knocked up - I'll write a real one if/when the drivers are ready. I figured anyone who was willing to beta-test OS 4 hardware knew their way round the shell. :)

Yes, there is polling, but it's not completely reliable. It should find the disk but it'll take longer than a normal classic Amiga. Glad you got it mostly working though!

@Spirantho

Hmm, well i have the four possible disks (PC HD/DD, Amiga DD/HD) mounted and for some 45 minutes an Amiga DD disk in...nothing, no polling at all :-/

@Raziel

I think that's when the polling stops working properly, when you have more than one mounted at once.... I'm looking into it, but at the moment I want to get this wretched CrossDOS to behave in a vaguely sane manner...