How to use CPM Drive

[DJ Sures]

Here's a new utility for the NABU Computer that allows dynamically creating a drive on demand. This will generate a D: based on the files in your Internet Adapter Store folder. So, rather than copying files using Cloud GUI, RNCMD, or PIP, you can now just put files in the folder on your PC, and they are magically available on the NABU PC.

This makes copying files much easier than any other method. So, if you have many files and want to create a custom drive, here you go. You do not need CPMTOOLS or fiddle with any utilities and files. This makes it super easy to access large file collections or try out new programs on the fly.

Type CPMDRIVE from the A: User Area 0, and it will create a drive for you based on the files in your RetroNET store folder. Watch the video for more information.

*Notes:
- Internet Adapter v2023.05.15.00 or greater is required

- Known bug is there isn't a friendly message if you exceed the 8 MB limit. It'll say something about out-of-bounds for the array. I'll fix that another day.

- The CPM drive configuration has a maximum of 512 directory entries. But that number doesn't correlate to file counts. Each directory entry can reference a file of 32,768 Bytes. That means you can have 512 x 32k files. Or 256 x 64k files.

[LeoBinkowski]

I'm glad you made this. I was getting pretty tired typing rncmds.

[DJ Sures]

I'm glad you made this. I was getting pretty tired typing rncmds.

Ha well the other option was to add wildcard multi file support to rncmd. But I liked this idea better. Besides, it was a good learning experience of how cpm2.2 filesystem works. Gotta say, it’s pretty weird but I’m sure they had reasons for doing it that way.

While the directly entries and extent references makes sense and similar to fat16. I was struggling to understand the why they separated the hi/lo bytes in different places for extent sizes.

I also noticed that cpmtools has a performance bug. I only noticed this because I was comparing my cpm disk utility to the output of cpm tools as a sanity check. There’s a directory index value that is 0 if it’s the only entry, but set to 1 if there will be more than one entry. The thing is, cpmtools sets the value to 1 if the file size is larger than 16k no matter what. Even if it’s less than the maximum directory entry’s extent length. By setting it to 1 when there’s only one directory entry, it tells the cpm OS to continue searching the directory entries for any other related entry. But since it’s the only one, it search’s for no reason. Cpm tools should be setting that value to 0 unless there are more entries.

So it’s not the end of the world, but it does cause a performance hit for file activity indexing that user area and drive.

[DJ Sures]

Oh one more thing. The “eXtract” isn’t completed yet. I got distracted with sunshine and figured I’ll do that another day. It’ll simply extract all files and overwrite with what’s on the pc.

This will actually work with any drive… I just hid that option from the command line until I finish the extract option.

[intangybles]

Can't wait to give it a bash! My NABU has hit Sydney.. so not far off metal now!

[DJ Sures]

Can't wait to give it a bash! My NABU has hit Sydney.. so not far off metal now!

Noice - not long now and you'll be Nabu-ing with us!

[MagnumPEI]

I won't be NABU-ing until I can get an Internet Adapter that works on OSX 10.9.5 - or a Windows version that works in 10.9.5 compatible WINE. The last Internet Adapter that runs - through WINE - is 2022-12.13.2. Anything after that fails to start. Is the source code on the nabu.ca somewhere? Am I totally NABU-ed?

Ah, "The Starlost"... "2001 A Space Odyssey" on a "Three's Company" budget. Even watching it back in the 70's, I thought it seemed cheap - even compared to Doctor Who!

[DJ Sures]

I won't be NABU-ing until I can get an Internet Adapter that works on OSX 10.9.5 - or a Windows version that works in 10.9.5 compatible WINE. The last Internet Adapter that runs - through WINE - is 2022-12.13.2. Anything after that fails to start. Is the source code on the nabu.ca somewhere? Am I totally NABU-ed?

Ah, "The Starlost"... "2001 A Space Odyssey" on a "Three's Company" budget. Even watching it back in the 70's, I thought it seemed cheap - even compared to Doctor Who!

Why can’t you upgrade the os? And what happens when you run the newer adapters?

[MagnumPEI]

Why can’t you upgrade the os?

That's a long story... long and tedious. It's a story so long and tedious that you'd be bored to death before you even finished reading about it. The "gist" of it is that I can't upgrade.

And what happens when you run the newer adapters?

Here's the OSX version error:

Code: Select all

Dyld Error Message:
  Symbol not found: _CCRandomGenerateBytes
  Referenced from: /Users/USER/Downloads/*/NABU-Internet-Adapter-84
  Expected in: /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
 in /Users/USER/Downloads/*/NABU-Internet-Adapter-84

Here's the WINE error when using newer Windows versions:

(Clicking "Show Details" crashes WINE - so no details. At least it's "sorry for the inconvenience". That's nice of them.)

And here's the 2022.12.13.2 running in WINE - last version that runs (though not sure if it actually works):

[superbenk]

And now I have to go down the rabbit hole of finding Starlost on Youtube & watching some serious cheese... Thanks!