Re: [SLE] Amiga (FFS) filesystem ?

From: Synthetic Cartoonz (synthetoonz_at_bellsouth.net)
Date: 07/12/05

  • Next message: Angus Beath: "Re: [SLE] SuSE 9.3 x64 and SATA II raid" 
    To: suse-linux-e@suse.com
Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 21:08:24 -0400

    On Monday 11 July 2005 19:58, AmigaPhil@ping.be wrote:
    [snip]
    > >> I would like to be able to read Amiga formatted floppies (and later,
    > >> hard disk too), but I think the FFS filesystem is no more included in
    > >> the Suse 9.3 Pro distribution (it used to be).
    [snip]
    > Something I forgot is that Amiga floppies are 880/1760K formatted
    > instead of the common 720/1440K. I'm not even sure my floppy drive
    > is capable of reading those disks.
    [snip]

    Yes, I think it is unlikely that you'll be able to read native Amiga floppy
    disks in a standard PC drive.

    From what I recall, the "controller" for the floppy drive was the Amiga custom
    hardware and the system used DMA to read/write a full track of raw data in
    one rotation. This made the Amiga very flexible, allowing it to vary the
    number and size of sectors.

    So, the normal Amiga format has a different number of sectors from what a
    typical PC floppy controller understands. (Also, there were device
    drivers/filesystems written for the Amiga that allowed it to use a format and
    filesystem compatible with MS-DOS/Atari ST disks. If you happened to save
    files like that, then you should be able to read them in linux.)

    There is (was?) a programmable hardware controller called CatWeasel with linux
    drivers that let you read and write a number of different 3 1/2 and 5 1/4
    floppy disk formats including Amiga.

    You should be able to read Amiga hard drive partitions though. 

    -- 
Check the headers for your unsubscription address
For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com
Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com
Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com
  • Next message: Angus Beath: "Re: [SLE] SuSE 9.3 x64 and SATA II raid"

    Relevant Pages

    • Re: OT: The MOD file format (was: File formats)
      ... module format", or "ProTracker module format" does not have much to do with MIDI music synths as such. ... It is more of a platform-specific digital music format that took advantage of the custom 4-channel sound chip in the Amiga computers. ...
      (uk.rec.video.digital)
    • Re: Macs reading Amiga disks
      ... >> I have an Amiga 1000 and loads of 3.5" disks with photos I'd like to ... >> transfer to my Mac. ... > Another possibility is to format some amiga disks for mac format and ...
      (microsoft.public.macintosh.general)
    • Re: 5.25 Amiga Drive
      ... were in the 5.25" format. ... amount of Amiga disks but they are ... The Amiga floppy format lacks sync marks ... (The Amiga floppy hardware stuffs the raw MFM into ...
      (comp.sys.cbm)
    • Re: Creating Amiga AFFS on linux
      ... How to create and format amiga AFFS parttion under Linux. ... Can't you create it in the real Amiga? ...
      (comp.sys.amiga.misc)
    • Re: mostly dead A500 - the symptoms
      ... I've never owned an Amiga so don't assume I ... On first powering up, the red power led lit up, the floppy led did not, ... I read about leaving it run for a while to see if the chips warm ...
      (comp.sys.amiga.hardware)