Shared folder discussion

[tontonkaloun]

Shared folder discussion

[Cebion]

So where is your question? We know that the file exists

[tontonkaloun]

You are probably right !! I erase

[kathleen]

@Cebion, yes, you're right but do you know how to use it ? I've seen that there is an executable to get the benefit of it but except if I missed it, I did not see how to use it. Have you already tried it ?

[NML32]

@Cebion, yes, you're right but do you know how to use it ? I've seen that there is an executable to get the benefit of it but except if I missed it, I did not see how to use it. Have you already tried it ?

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/ao486_M ... v/releases
Scroll to the bottom of the list.

From DOS type misterfs.exe d
A d: drive will be created in dos
A folder called shared will be created in your ao486 folder

MiSTerFS.exe is hit and miss for me.
I can switch to D: but most of the time it hangs if I try Dir or Dir D:

[kathleen]

Thank you @NML32 for this clear information, I will try this on my side

[shimian]

@Cebion, yes, you're right but do you know how to use it ? I've seen that there is an executable to get the benefit of it but except if I missed it, I did not see how to use it. Have you already tried it ?

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/ao486_M ... v/releases
Scroll to the bottom of the list.

From DOS type misterfs.exe d
A d: drive will be created in dos
A folder called shared will be created in your ao486 folder

MiSTerFS.exe is hit and miss for me.
I can switch to D: but most of the time it hangs if I try Dir or Dir D:

same. a DIR will always hang my system when trying to use MisterFS.

[NML32]

I'm making some progress.
I deleted the "shared" folder in the a0486 folder and ran misterfs.exe D in DOS 6.22. Now it seems to be working. The odd thing is it hangs with some of my other DOS VHD images. I'm not sure what is making it hang.
Is anyone else experiencing this?

[tontonkaloun]

I'm making some progress.
I deleted the "shared" folder in the a0486 folder and ran misterfs.exe D in DOS 6.22. Now it seems to be working. The odd thing is it hangs with some of my other DOS VHD images. I'm not sure what is making it hang.
Is anyone else experiencing this?

no it doesn't work better, you had to make another modification. I had already tested with or without the shared folder. Moreover in the error messages of the source code, it is not foreseen the test of the directory if I looked well..

Either way, the misterfs.exe software creates the folder itself if it doesn't exist

[NML32]

MiSTerFS.exe v1.0 seems to work on some of my DOS VHDs and hangs on others.

Update:
First Test https://youtu.be/IoLYCMDFZDA
Second Test: https://youtu.be/woPz6waZuMU

Second test:
Tested with Win3.11 VHD Failed (Same results in YT video 1)
Booted off MS-DOS 6.22 Floppy with Win3.11 VHD mounted mapped D: (Worked)

Update 2:
Win 3.11 VHD is working with misterfs.exe after making a change to the Config.sys
From: DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS X=a000-c7ff i=c800-efff
To: DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE auto x=a000-c7ff i=c800-efff
Apparently changing "noems" to "auto" fixed my issue.

[Caldor]

It wont work for me at all. Tried DOS 6.22 and 7.1. Same thing with both, tried NOEMS and Auto. It creates the drive, then freezes when I try to access it.

[Sorgelig]

make sure CE00-CFFF segments range isn't used by memory managers.

[tontonkaloun]

make sure CE00-CFFF segments range isn't used by memory managers.

Hello,

I checked, this memory range is excluded, and it doesn't work

thank you for all this work on the Core ao486

[summer]

I have the same problem with DOS 6.22.
My DOS knowledge is pretty rusty. Do I need to remove himem.sys from config.sys?
Apologies if this is the wrong place to ask for this.

[Caldor]

make sure CE00-CFFF segments range isn't used by memory managers.

I guess I did use this range, so I will try again.

[Caldor]

Okay, on my DOS 7.1 setup, I have it set to:
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE AUTO RAM FRAME=e000 d=256 x=a000-c7ff i=c800-efff

I guess I will try to move i to a higher area and see if that helps.

Tried
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE AUTO RAM FRAME=e000 d=256 x=a000-c7ff i=d000-efff
Still freezes. I will try DOS 6.22.

Tried DOS 6.22 and it has the same issue. Freezes when I try to go to the drive. I can run the command misterfs E and it says MiSTerFS v1.0 installed as E: and then when I try to go to E: it freezes. I do not even get to try a DIR command. I tried two configurations. The auto configuration would not let me run misterfs at all, and froze when trying to run it. My EMS configuration could mount the E drive, but does not let me go to it.

Maybe the problem is some of the other stuff I am doing in my boot. I am using 4DOS, loading some MIDI driver, SmartDRV and a mouse driver. Maybe one of those things go in and use that memory area. I think I will try a simpler boot.

[tontonkaloun]

Great !!
With the new version of the Master branch, Sharing works !!!

[summer]

I can confirm that it now works. I didn't do anything to my setup except updating the core.

[bry111]

A strange issue - if I place zip files in the shared folder, I can't use them without renaming.

From the DOS dir command, the zip files appear to be present and a normal file with the correct size. But many other DOS commands behave as if the zip files are directories; for instance, the copy command fails to copy a zip file the same way it fails to copy a directory. Also, I can cd into a zip file, and then DOS behaves as if I'm in an empty directory, though the dir command doesn't show "." or ".." special directory entries.

If I rename the zip files from Linux to not end in .zip I can then access the renamed files from the DOS shared folder. For instance in Linux I can run something like

Code: Select all

mv /media/fat/games/ao486/shared/foo.zip /media/fat/games/ao486/shared/foo.zap

Then in DOS I can run

Code: Select all

misterfs d
copy d:\foo.zap c:\
c:
rename foo.zap foo.zip

Then I can use the zip file like normal.

This is with MS-DOS 5.0 in ao486_20200814.rbf if it matters, using the misterfs.exe having md5sum 89d0a6cf1d181dd1848bae5b78b7a720.

[shimian]

That is weird. I noticed that you can't run software from the misterFS drive, you must copy it first to the VHD. It also will appear in Windows if you add it to autoexec.bat, and you can see the drive, but I couldn't copy data from it.

[Bartdesign]

I have issues coping zip files from my MisterFS. Also files with longer filenames are not visible. Some kind of filename truncation would be nice. I've looked at the source code for MisterFS, but it has alot of assembly. I don't think my skills are good enough to fix this.

[Cebion]

That is just a filesystem issue. No way around that.

[Sorgelig]

remember to use 8.3 names in shared folder.
There is no way to truncate it automatically as it's one-way only. Once system will ask for file with truncated name, it's impossible to match it back.

[Sorgelig]

i've pushed the fix for zip files in shared folder.

[Caldor]

That is just a filesystem issue. No way around that.

Hmmm... with this being the case, I guess one way to get around it would be using a USB drive formattet with FAT for the shared folder?

I still have not gotten a shared folder working. Not sure if its because I use a mix of an SD card an USB stick, or if its because I created the shared folders in the AO486 folders... or maybe it expects the AO486 folders to be in a "games" folder instead of in the root?

Edit:
I guess it makes more sense to do what Sorgelig says, just ensure the files match the 8 3 standard.

[Bartdesign]

i've pushed the fix for zip files in shared folder.

Awesome. Thx sorge!

[Caldor]

I'm making some progress.
I deleted the "shared" folder in the a0486 folder and ran misterfs.exe D in DOS 6.22. Now it seems to be working. The odd thing is it hangs with some of my other DOS VHD images. I'm not sure what is making it hang.
Is anyone else experiencing this?

I tried deleting my shared folder, and this worked for me. I guess the folder needs some special settings, for MiSTerFS has to be able to create the folder first time its run? Either way, its working. I have ensured all files I have added to it are having compliant names. Seems its not possible for AO486 to write to it, but that still makes it great for storing stuff like CD images and installation files.

I think I might try to experiment with making a RAM disk. With 256mb RAM, most games could be run entirely from a RAM disk, and I am wondering if that would speed up the load times and such in some games. It will probably take a long time to make the RAM disk though and... save games will be lost unless I make some clever way of backing up setting files and save games.

[Caldor]

I have been trying some different FreeDOS settings, but so far I have not been able to get it working with FreeDOS. Anyone managed to do so? I tried making the settings similar to the DOS 7.1 settings I have been using. I have not tried DOS 6.22 yet, but sounds like that should work as well and DOS 6.22 should be able to use the exact same settings as DOS 7.1.

I had some memory issues while using MisterFS. I tried using it for mounting CDs, but the installation program for the game Dark Legions crashed with some overflow errors or something. Maybe it will help if I use LH to load misterfs.

[rhester72]

Are you excluding the proper memory range in FreeDOS (and thus I'm assuming EMM386)?

[Caldor]

Are you excluding the proper memory range in FreeDOS (and thus I'm assuming EMM386)?

Pretty sure I am not... but I also found something interesting. I was getting a "invalid parameter" error in my boot. I was wondering what caused it, and it turns out to be my X parameter for EMM386.

My setting is

Code: Select all

DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE AUTO RAM FRAME=e000 d=256 x=ce00-c7ff i=d000-efff

Maybe I misunderstood a comment Sorg had made about ce00-c7ff being enough, might have been QEMM specific. But the interesting thing is if I fix this, MiSTerFS stops working again. My fix was to change it to

Code: Select all

DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE AUTO RAM FRAME=e000 d=256 x=a000-c7ff i=d000-efff

So now I do not get the invalid parameter, but misterfs wont let me access the drive. I assume that if the x parameter is invalid, it ignores all the values I put there. I figured the X parameter is what addresses to exclude? Anyway, I might try to do the same in FreeDOS, not having any X parameter and see if that works.