[mod.computers.apollo] Reading XENIX floppy disks on an APOLLO DN3000

lnz@babel.UUCP.UUCP (04/10/87)

   Path: cernvax!itw
   From: navajo!itw%CERNVAX.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu (itw)
   Newsgroups: mod.computers.apollo
   Keywords: XENIX floppy
   Date: 10 Apr 87 08:54:33 GMT
   Distribution: local
   Organization: CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
   Lines: 5


   Does anyone know an easy way of reading XENIX files TARed onto a 1.2 Mbyte
   floppy disk , on an APOLLO DN3000 workstation ?   The solution must be
   quick and cheap since we are getting a network connection soon.

		  Thanks --  Ian Wilkie /SPS



If Xenis is like MS-DOS in using 512 byte sectors, there is no way currently to
read or write such floppies on a DN3000 except through a PC coprocessor.  The
normal apollo-format floppies use a 1024 byte sector; I've never been able to
make MS-DOS read an APOLLO floppy.  To solve this problem, I wrote a simple
program to transfer bits back and forth between PC-AT's and the APOLLO.  It
uses the BIOS level floppy I/O calls on the PC to read and write 1024 byte
sectors; I don't know if Xenix will give you access to those calls.  If it
will, this program might be able to help in the future, though obviously not on
an existing tar'ed floppy.