CompactFlash.device how-to?

[RedWarrior]

Hey guys-
I searched compactflash.device on this site, as I imagine this is a fairly common subject, but the search engine returned zero results... so I apologise if this is a regular question!

"Amiga... where nothing is simple." is my new proposed tagline for these machines.

This "I'm almost finished" feeling has been dragging on for weeks- I'm now trying to get my CF PCMCIA reader to read... on my a600 this was a reasonably simple process, but my 1200 isn't cooperating so far.

I have the Fat95 file in the L: folder, and the CF0 file in the Devs: folder... I had hoped that simply clicking CF0 in devs would make the PCMCIA card appear on Workbench... but no.

I tried copying my old Mountlist file from my a600 to the 1200, but that hasn't helped. I get the feeling I'm going to have to wrestle with block sizes, baudrates, binddrivers and a bunch of weird things I don't understand...

Do I need to do something special to the mountlist to make it work on this system? Does Fat/Fat32 make a difference? (fat16 no longer an option in Windows7)...

My brain hurts.

Input greatly appreciated. thanks guys =)


I'm guessing the error message after "mount cf0:" is significant?

[amiga1260]

The Compactflash.device file can by found in this packed file:

http://aminet.net/disk/misc/cfd.lha

You have to copy the compactflash.device in the DEVS: directory.

[RedWarrior]

I already have that...
Nothing is showing up on Workbench... not even NDOS:

Please take a look at the images attached above?

[amiga1260]

Does your Amiga 1200 has an Accelerator card in it?

Then you have to change the mask transfer value to 00x1fe00 with HDToolbox.

If the value is higher then, the files wil be corrupted.

[RedWarrior]

Does your Amiga 1200 has an Accelerator card in it?

Then you have to change the mask transfer value to 00x1fe00 with HDToolbox.

If the value is higher then, the files wil be corrupted.

No accelerator, this is a stock standard A1200. HDToolbox isn't showing anything other than the internal (CF) drive. Nothing detected related to the PCMCIA slot...

Shouldn't I have the basics here to at least get an icon showing up in Workbench? I tried running the Install95 command from a cli window... no idea if it did anything or if I did it correctly...

Anything obvious I'm missing? :/

[Thomas]

- device names are case sensitive. It should be compactflash.device, not CompactFlash.device.

- you can use either devs:mountlist or devs:dosdrivers, you should not mix both.

If you use devs:mountlist (deprecated), the entry should look like this:

Code: [Select]


CF0:
FileSystem    = l:fat95
Device        = compactflash.device
Unit        = 0
Flags        = 0
LowCyl        = 0
HighCyl        = 0
Surfaces    = 1
BlocksPerTrack    = 1
BlockSize    = 512
Buffers        = 20
BufMemType    = 1
BootPri        = 0
Stacksize    = 4096
Priority    = 5
GlobVec        = -1
DosType        = 0x46415401
#


Mountlist entries begin with the drive name and end with a #.

If you use devs:dosdrivers (recommended), you should just copy the CF0 file from cfd.lha to devs:dosdrivers. The contents is like this:

Code: [Select]


/* compactflash.device $VER: 1.21 (19.10.2002) */
/* fat95 file system by Torsten Jager */

FileSystem    = l:fat95
Device        = compactflash.device
Unit        = 0
Flags        = 0
LowCyl        = 0
HighCyl        = 0
Surfaces    = 1
BlocksPerTrack    = 1
BlockSize    = 512
Buffers        = 20
BufMemType    = 1
BootPri        = 0
Stacksize    = 4096
Priority    = 5
GlobVec        = -1
DosType        = 0x46415401


Dosdrivers files must not contain the drive name and must not contain #.

- with the mount command, you mount the drive, not the driver. Therefore it should be mount cf0: or mount devs:dosdrivers/cf0, not mount compactflash.device. A double click on devs:dosdrivers/cf0 or a reboot should be sufficient.

[RedWarrior]

Brilliant - thank you!!

I did just try the DosDrivers instructions there... not sure if I accidentally missed something, but now I'm getting a boot to workbench and a "Wait" mouse cursor that never goes away....

I'm not sure if this counts as progress... but at least something different happened! =)

[Thomas]

Your second screenshot above shows "compactflash.device: already mounted". Where is that compactflash.device and what does it contain?

The original compactflash.device from the cfd.lha archve is a program and belongs to devs:. It can neither be edited nor mounted. So if you somehow used an editor to create a text file called compactflash.device, delete that and copy the original driver from cfd.lha to Devs:.

[RedWarrior]

The compactflash.device has a line of text:
$VER: compactflash.device 1.25 (17.07.2004)

and then a bunch of garbled (compiled?) code after it. The file size is 7656 bytes.

[Thomas]

Seems like you have an old version. Try the latest one: http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/cfd

To ensure that you have all the right files in the right places, open a dos window and enter this commmand:

list sys: all files lformat="%8l %d %t %p%n" p="(fat#?|compact#?|cf0#?)"

The result should look like this:

Code: [Select]


3> list sys: all files lformat="%8l %d %t %p%n" p="(fat#?|compact#?|cf0#?)"
    8280 31-Dec-80 23:00:00 sys:Devs/compactflash.device
    2431 19-Apr-02 15:48:48 sys:Storage/DOSDrivers/CF0.info
     420 19-Oct-02 21:43:40 sys:Storage/DOSDrivers/CF0
   26868 01-Mar-80 04:19:38 sys:L/fat95
3>

[RedWarrior]

Seems like you have an old version. Try the latest one: http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/cfd

To ensure that you have all the right files in the right places, open a dos window and enter this commmand:

list sys: all files lformat="%8l %d %t %p%n" p="(fat#?|compact#?|cf0#?)"

The result should look like this:

Code: [Select]


3> list sys: all files lformat="%8l %d %t %p%n" p="(fat#?|compact#?|cf0#?)"
    8280 31-Dec-80 23:00:00 sys:Devs/compactflash.device
    2431 19-Apr-02 15:48:48 sys:Storage/DOSDrivers/CF0.info
     420 19-Oct-02 21:43:40 sys:Storage/DOSDrivers/CF0
   26868 01-Mar-80 04:19:38 sys:L/fat95
3>

I typed that in as best as I could... the drive light flickers for a while, but nothing comes back.

To update the CF0 file means i have to open my machine again and use Winuae again etc...?

no other possibilities with existing files?

[RedWarrior]

I mis-copied your text there- I thought it was an "l", but it was a "1"...

I have a lot of files with similar names. what do you make of all this? =) (image attached)

[paul1981]

I have a DosDrivers folder in Devs, as well as Storage... might that make a difference I wonder. Will try and copy your setup...

CF0 - drag the icon (from the archive that Thomas linked to) to Storage/DOSDrivers.
fat95 goes in L:
compactflash.device goes in Devs

Things in Storage don't activate or mount - giving you the freedom to click on them when required, or to move them for permenant activation by moving them to their corresponding drawer in Devs. It's all in the Workbench User Guide.

http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/CardPatch
http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/CardReset

CardReset is required on A1200's unless you have a hardware fix. Otherwise it won't work unless you coldboot with card removed and then insert card (iirc), but putting those in your Startup-sequence will solve that problem (or run CardReset manually if you like once in Workbench). CardPatch - this may be the reason for your busy pointer. Read the docs on cfd, cardpatch and card reset, and also fat95.

Amiga's are actually very elegant in how they work, the simplest most elegant OS in existance. It's so easy to do things that most don't bother writing installation scripts for their programs etc - once you learn the basics you'll realise this yourself.

[RedWarrior]

CF0 - drag the icon (from the archive that Thomas linked to) to Storage/DOSDrivers.
fat95 goes in L:
compactflash.device goes in Devs

Things in Storage don't activate or mount - giving you the freedom to click on them when required, or to move them for permenant activation by moving them to their corresponding drawer in Devs. It's all in the Workbench User Guide.

http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/CardPatch
http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/CardReset

CardReset is required on A1200's unless you have a hardware fix. Otherwise it won't work unless you coldboot with card removed and then insert card (iirc), but putting those in your Startup-sequence will solve that problem (or run CardReset manually if you like once in Workbench). CardPatch - this may be the reason for your busy pointer. Read the docs on cfd, cardpatch and card reset, and also fat95.

Amiga's are actually very elegant in how they work, the simplest most elegant OS in existance. It's so easy to do things that most don't bother writing installation scripts for their programs etc - once you learn the basics you'll realise this yourself.

I'm sure I'll love this machine again once it's working... but I'm not a coder by any means, so this is really pushing my limits of technical ability (and patience!) ;-)

Should I delete the dosdrivers/keymaps/datatypes/moitors/printers folders from Devs? I seem to have duplicates in Storage as well as Devs...

[Thomas]

Delete storage/dosdrivers/compactflash.device.

I mis-copied your text there- I thought it was an "l", but it was a "1"...

It should be an l (lower case L). %8l will print the file size with 8 digits. %81 will print %81, completely pointless.