Using downloaded software

[Tomas]

I'm a little confused about this. Say for example, I download a disk copying utility from Aminet. How can I move the program from my PC to my Amiga? I would imagine you can't do it via floppy, since the two computers use different floppy formats. What other options are there?

WB 2.1 or higher can read 720k formatted dos floppies as it comes included with a nice software piece called crossdos. For wb 1.x you have some freeware called messydos, which basicly does the same thing as crossdos. The only problem with 1.x, is that you first need to transfer it over to you amiga using a pc+software and a null modem cable. If you are going the null modem cable route, then i strongly recommend this software: http://www.amigaforever.com/ae/
AmigaExplorer is also included in the amigaforever package if i recall correctly.

The best way would of course be to have a cdrom or similar.

[Tomas]

BGary335 wrote:
I'm using an A500 with Workbecnh 2.4.

I believe that the crossdos driver is located on the storage floppy if you have it. You should copy this file to your devs to enable crossdos.

[Tomas]

CrossDos in Storage in 2.4? hmmm. Gotta look at it when I get home.

It should be included in 2.1 and higher. I have honestly not heard of 2.4? did you mean 2.04? if so, then it is indeed sadly not included.

[Tomas]

Then your only options is to either get someone to give you a floppy with messydos or similar or going the null modem cable way + something like amiga explorer.
Or buying a new set of wb 2.1 or higher.

[Tomas]

The one labeled AS contains a drawer enititled Scorched Tanks, which is the name of the program I'm currently trying to take from the PC to the Amiga. However, there is nothing inside the drawer! Am I missing a step somewhere?

You need to set WB to show all files. The files are hidden because they lack a file icon.

[Tomas]

This brings me to my next quesiton: how do you open an lha file on the Amiga? I've got it on the floppy, but when I click on the file, it says it isn't executable. Is there a certain command i have to enter?

You need to install lha first. LHA is like the amiga answer to compressed zip and rar files. Get lha from aminet and just copy the lha file over to the c drawer.
Then just type lha from shell/cli. I think the command for extracting is "lha x filename.lha"

[Tomas]

BGary335 wrote:
They are not hidden. I have it set to show all files. Please reread my explanation.

I was a bit quick to press reply.

[Tomas]

I enter the command line you provided and it keeps telling me that it cannot open the archive. One thing that got my attention is that the archive is called SCORCH`1.LHA, which tells me that either the filename was truncated, or there's something wrong with the flopppy.

Just rename the file.

[Tomas]

BGary335 wrote:
I tried that, but it still gave me the same message. Instead of bringing the lha file over, I've tried another method-opening the lha on the PC and putting the contents on the floppy instead of the entire lha archive. This method seems to work, except that once I move the files from the floppy to my HD on the Amiga, I click on the executable and it gives me a mesaage saying "your tool Scorched1.85 could not be opened". Anyone know what the problem is now?

The problem is most likely that the filenames got changed, which is why you must compress it in lha, zip or similar anyways.

Did you rename it on the amiga after you copied the file over?? Try renaming it to scorch.lha and then type lha x scorch.lha in shell/cli. Make sure that you are in the same directory as the scorch.lha file is. This should work unless you did something wrong or if the floppy is corrupted.

[Tomas]

BGary335 wrote:
Ok, trying to extract from the lha file, but I must've installed the LHA program incorrectly. Here's whats happening: I take the LHA file from the floppy and drag it to the the hard drive. I go into the hard drive and install lha there, since that's where my lha files are. It installs fine, except that the three icons that appear are named lha_68k, lha_68020, and lha_68040. The last two don't work atall...when I type in the command and try tp use one of those two, I get some kind of pop up saying there was some kind of error, and to wait for disk activity to finish, and giving me the option to suspend or reboot. When I try to use lha_68k, it goes into the program but then tells me that the archive Scorch.lha could not be opened. Why is that? Have I installed LHA incorrectly?

Uou have indeed installed it incorrectly. What model of Amiga do you have? If you have the a500, then you basicly rename lha_68k to lha and move it to the C drawer on your HD. You must select show all files as this drawer is hidden.

Then you just go into shell/cli into the folder where you copied Scorch.lha and write: lha x Scorch.lha

[Tomas]

BGary335 wrote:
Tomas, I am indeed using an A500. I have moved all of the files extracted from the LHA archive into the C drawer as you instructed. I then went back into the hard drive drawer, which is where Scorch.lha is, and clicked on the Shell icon which is also in the hard drive drawer, and it still says that it cannot open the archive.

But did you rename lha_68k to just lha? You should only just copy one file into the c drawer and that must be the lha_68k renamed to lha or it wont work. The other files are the executable for other cpu architectures.

Then press the shell icon and cd into the dir where scorch.lha is located... type so the command lha x scorch.lha and it should extract.

[Tomas]

What do you see if you type dir? Do you see the scorch.lha file there.

I tried the lha x Schorched.lha sys: command and got the same error.

I thought you said it was named scorch.lha?

[Tomas]

BGary335 wrote:
Yes it is called Scorch.lha, sorry for the typo. I do not see it when I type dir...why would that be?

It sounds to me like you are in the wrong directory. This is a good thing, as it explains why it is not working. Where did you copy scorch.lha?

[Tomas]

 :-D

[Tomas]

You can use a program called adf2disk to write them back onto a real amiga floppy. I think most will fit on the floppy if you compress them with lha or zip. You can use winace for files bigger than 720k and split them up and use unace on the amiga.

You can find both unace and adf2disk for free on aminet. You basicly do this on amiga side: adf2disk filename.adf and then insert a empty floppy.