NOTE!!!! This driver only works with the ancient Linux-2.4 kernel
It will not run on anything recent.
Plans are to make a FUSE-capable driver, see the ../dos33fs-fuse directory
Apple II DOS 3.3 Filesystem for Linux
by Vince Weaver (vince@deater.net)
http://www.deater.net/weave/vmwprod/apple
based on ProDos filesystem code
Copyright (c) 2001 Matt Jensen (mjensen@obvion.com)
http://www.obvion.com/matt/prodos/
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Background:
In January of 1978, Apple Computer demoed the DISK ][ drive,
arguably the first inexpensive 5 1/4" floppy drive for a personal
computer. It was a very clever hack by Steve Wozniak, and was
welcomed by Apple ][ users who until now had to make do with
a casette tape interface.
Dos 3.1 was released in 1978. Dos 3.2 and 3.2.1 were released
in 1979. While both worked, neither were integrated very well
with the Apple ][ computers of the time and had their share of bugs.
In August of 1980 Dos 3.3 was released. It required not only
an OS upgrade, but also a hardware one as well. Older DOS's
could read 113.75k (35 tracks*13 sectors*256bytes). Under
Dos 3.3 the disks could hold 140k (35tracks*16sectors*256bytes).
Dos 3.3 was the standard disk OS on Apple ]['s for a long time,
but it was limited to only 5 1/4" disks. Eventually it was
replaced by ProDos, which was a weird combination of Dos 3.3 and HFS+.
[------------------------------------------------------------------]
Technical Info:
* Partition size: 140k (in theory the filesystem can support more,
but I doubt it ever did it most cases).
* sector [block] size: 256bytes. Which makes it fun trying to make
Linux deal with it properly.
* Filenames: up to 30 characters in length, 7-bit ASCII.
First character had to be > 63. No commas or colons.
Padded on the right with spaces.
Besides that, anything goes [including control characters,
NULL's, and \, which make it interesting as a Unix filesystem]
* 7bits of metadata: Indicate file type [binary, BASIC, text, etc]
* "Lock": possible to "LOCK" files, that is make read-only
* holes: filesystem supports holes in files [though Linux support of
this a bit troublesome because of 256 byte block issues].
* Timestamp: no timestamp possible. The driver assigns an arbitrary
date of 13 February 1978 to all files. [2 1/2 years
too early for DOS 3.3, but it is my birthday....]
[---------------------------------------------------------------]
Usage:
You need to be running a 2.4.x linux kernel. Older versions
not supported currently.
The easiest way to do this is get a "disk image" of the type
used for Apple II emulators.
Various web pages can help you make these from your old Apple Disks,
assuming you have a working Apple II, a modern PC, and a serial
connection between the two.
First, be sure your Linux kernel has "loopback filesystem support"
Then, set up the disk image you want as a loopback device as root:
/sbin/losetup /dev/loop0 ./green.dsk
Where "green.dsk" can be any image you might have.
Next, compile the included driver [ "make"]. As root, install
the dos33.o module
/sbin/insmod ./dos33.o
Next, mount the filesystem
mount -t dos33 /dev/loop0 /mnt
And if all went well, you can now do an "ls /mnt" or wherever,
and get the file listing.
You can use the "asoft_detoken" program in the ./util
directory to dump Applesoft basic programs into plain text
asoft_detoken < /mnt/HELLO
[----------------------------------------------------------]
Future plans:
Make the driver read/write. Right now it is read-only.
Maybe add some more utilities.
Handle the file-type metadata somehow.
Far-out-there.... write a linux block-device for the DISK ][
drive, so you can actually hook the old drives and disks up
directly to your linux box....
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References:
http://apple2history.org/ -- great history site
http://ground.icaen.uiowa.edu/apple2/ -- treasure trove of apple][ info
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Added note:
if anyone has a copy of "Inside Apple DOS" they'd be willing
to part with, please let me know....
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