Apple II Support

[nerydf]

I'm testing my system right now, and I swear that last month I converted a .do file to .hfe with your software and it worked perfectly. Now I am trying to do the same thing, but when I drag the .do file to the app, it imports it as a 56 sector disk instead of 35, and the resulting .hfe files won't load. I probably messed up a setting somewhere, what am I doing wrong?
Thank you

[Jeff]

I'm testing my system right now, and I swear that last month I converted a .do file to .hfe with your software and it worked perfectly. Now I am trying to do the same thing, but when I drag the .do file to the app, it imports it as a 56 sector disk instead of 35, and the resulting .hfe files won't load. I probably messed up a setting somewhere, what am I doing wrong?
Thank you

Does the do file has the .dsk extension ? if so change it to .do - i think that another loader was used to load the file.

In fact this is something i need to improve : how to reliably recognize a do and a po image from a standard dsk ? Is there something standard into some kind of boot sector to check ?

If not i will probably add a switch to pass the software into apple mode to make the apple formats priority

[nerydf]

Does the do file has the .dsk extension ? if so change it to .do - i think that another loader was used to load the file.

In fact this is something i need to improve : how to reliably recognize a do and a po image from a standard dsk ? Is there something standard into some kind of boot sector to check ?

If not i will probably add a switch to pass the software into apple mode to make the apple formats priority

Ah, yes, I had forgotten that detail. It should have occurred to me since .DSK is used for so many different systems, not just Apple II. Once I renamed to .do or .po, it correctly imported it as 35 tracks.

From my research, it seems that there is no foolproof way to determine if a .dsk is a .do or .po, and it is usually left up to the user to tell it which way to go. Most software seems to be checking the file extension, and if it contains "p" then treat it as ProDOS, otherwise treat everything else as DOS. The .WOZ files do include this distinction so they are easier to parse.

In this video, Chris Torrence talks about disk encoding for his Apple II emulator program. He basically takes every disk image and converts it to a WOZ file, and his emulator only uses WOZ files.
https://youtu.be/mmbBN-DkMtY?si=o-ITDaywwvxbx43_&t=52
Here is the code he references that does the conversion: https://github.com/mr-stivo/dsk2woz2

I'm starting to change my mind that WOZ is a "fringe" format, and is looking like it could become the defacto standard for Apple II files in the future. There are already projects to convert all of the .dsk and .po repositories online to .WOZ.

I hope this helps.
Thank you

[Jeff]

I'm starting to change my mind that WOZ is a "fringe" format, and is looking like it could become the defacto standard for Apple II files in the future. There are already projects to convert all of the .dsk and .po repositories online to .WOZ.

yes i have the same felling ...

In this video, Chris Torrence talks about disk encoding for his Apple II emulator program. He basically takes every disk image and converts it to a WOZ file, and his emulator only uses WOZ files.
https://youtu.be/mmbBN-DkMtY?si=o-ITDaywwvxbx43_&t=52
Here is the code he references that does the conversion: https://github.com/mr-stivo/dsk2woz2

yes the hxc is able to do the same (do/po -> woz) - but you ended up to convert the images anyway

[Jeff]

New HxC firmware version for Apple II :

20 March 2024 : Firmware STM32/AT32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v5.2.1.6a

- Apple II Support : Drives conflict issues on machines with more than a drive fixed.

https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_dri ... rmware.zip

https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_dri ... _notes.txt

[Jeff]

Still some points to finish, but the dsk/po/do direct support is almost there !

Here is some Apple II sectors generated by the gotek seen by the Pauline dumper :

Screenshot at 2024-05-30 00-38-12.png (87.19 KiB) Viewed 244 times

[Jeff]

New HxC firmware version for Apple II :

30 May 2024 : Firmware STM32/AT32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v5.2.2.1a

- Apple II Support : Direct .dsk, .do, .po files images support.

SAM_0574.JPG (100.68 KiB) Viewed 188 times

https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_dri ... rmware.zip

https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_dri ... _notes.txt

[Verault]

I knew with continued support and interest we would get there!

Just curious how does the .WOZ format support go? Is that something we will see down the road as well?

And in its current state is it supporting both 5.25" and 3.5" disk formats?


Great work!

[nerydf]

Great work Jean-Francois! This is definitely good news. Unfortunately I can't test it yet because I have the SFRKC30.AT2 Gotek with the small QFN32 AT32F415, and need to create a custom firmware. But the Custom Firmware page is still using v5.2.1.6a. Will that be updated soon? Thank you!

[Jeff]

Just curious how does the .WOZ format support go? Is that something we will see down the road as well?

This seems to be a "must have" according to the returns

Some feebacks i got :

(on applefritter)

- Apple II Support : Direct .dsk, .do, .po files images support.

Unfortunately these formats are very rudimentary and gradually are phasing out. They are emulated even by the simplest ancient DISK II emulators. Unless woz or a2r is implemented there won't be significant reason for using gotek/hxc with apple2's.

On facebook :

Is the FloppyEMU sold out? - They just work, No need to reinvent the wheel.

It also appears that some apple guys seems are (in fact only one so far... ) very confused by the different flashing guides available on youtube, flashfloppy github, and so on ...

For example this one didn't managed to find a working procedure on his mac.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/5251478 ... 776008677/

(i suspect that his gotek is just not detected at all cause of some hardware issue...
... but this can also be a kind of trolling - to discredit the whole gotek thing on apple - if i remember some previous comments from this user... not sure yet but ... i wouldn't be surprised. Some Apple guys don't seem to like the gotek and seem to somewhat protect the current apple floppy emulators ).

J.A. R wrote:
[...]
We need a comprehensive guide that doesn’t involve steps that send you to other steps or download weird software.

(the weird software is the needed artery software... )

J.A. R wrote:
[...] by now I’ve read most guides, watched 5 videos and am more confused than ever. In the past I flashed an Amiga and Atari goteks, but this is completely different.

(more i am reading him ... more i have some doubts ... )

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Anyway i agree that the global informations about the gotek flashing that can be found all over the web is a total mess today, many procedures are incomplete, obsolete and this can confuse a lot of peoples, especially the non-technical persons. And the other issue is that flashing the gotek from a Macintosh is not well documented / supported...

I will try to fix this, at least for the HxC firmware !

[Verault]

Jeff if you havent noticed by now. The Apple Community at large (if you were to make an easy broad generalization) is mostly made up of whiny little crybabies. And Apple Fritter seems to have no shortage of these types. They like to make demands and the majority have no real technical skill (I doubt a significant percentage of them could use a soldering iron). You know the same type of people who would pay tons of money today to own something with an apple logo.

And this is a real shame as I really like the OLD Apple II computers. They were what I had in school when I was young.

I own MOST of the Apple II based floppy emulators. And I can say they all work fine with .PO and .DSK files. .WOZ would be nice but these devices work completely fine without them.

If they cant understand how to connect up a TTY device for flashing (and I have seen this a bunch.. There are a ton of videos and websites so there is no excuse) The gotek is not for them. Its for real hardware people or anyone willing to use some intelligence and figure things out for themselves.

Honestly I flashed my first gotek with HXC firmware years ago to use in a CP/M based Kaypro computer and I found the info at the time to do it relatively easy.

I didnt know about MAC OSX flashing being an issue. I use windows or linux. Im sure you know this by now but you cant make everyone happy.

With that said, Kudos on all the progress. Using .HFE formats was never a stopper to me but now having direct access to common Apple disk formats is great.

Again just curious, is the current firmware working for 3.5" disk images and if not is there work/progress on that?

Mick