QUESTION: can x86 Linux write ATARI TOS boot image?

From: J. Maynard Gelinas <jmg_at_iac.net>
Date: Thu Feb 19 09:48:58 1998

> Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 21:46:58 -0800
> From: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh_at_ix.netcom.com>
> To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" <classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
> Subject: Re: QUESTION: can x86 Linux write ATARI TOS boot image?
>
> > I'm about to pick up an ATARI with 5 1/4" 1050 floppt drive,
>
> If it's got a 1050, it's not using TOS. AFAIK TOS floppies are nothing but
> a FAT filesystem. However, I think you're interested in Atari DOS
> floppies, and I'm afraid I can't help much there. But I'm pretty sure the
> answer is no.
        OK, I'm pretty clueless about these old ATARI 8bit boxes. The
crux of the issue is wheter they used standard SS/DD drives of the
era, or used some nonstandard head tracking or somesuch. If it's just
a standard drive a PC _should_ be able to write out a boot image. dd
would be my tool of choice for this, but I suppose rawrite would work
just as well.

        So, is anyone here educated on the innards of these old 1050
drives? Also, what about FTP archives? None on the net? And are
there any logical hard drive drivers which I could use to then hook
the ATARI up to my PC via a serial or parallel port and use the PC as
a virtual hard disk (sort of a mini serial NFS to an ATARI client)?

>
> > If so, does anyone have a boot/OS image for this thing? And
> >where do I find old DD floppies these days?
>
> Best place is probably a swap meet, but if you've got any place like "Fry's
> Electronics" around you can try there. I know they've got the 3.5" DD
> floppies. Of course if you are truely desparate, Radio Shack probably will
> sell you some at about $2 a disk.
>
        God, I used to have _thousands_ of these things. I can't
believe these are unavailable in bulk via mail order... wasn't there
some discussion of this a few weeks back? Is there a Classiccomp
message archive somewhere?

Thanks!
J. Maynard Gelinas
Received on Thu Feb 19 1998 - 09:48:58 GMT