Experience and suggestions: setting up BlueSCSI with my Mac SE.

[LaPorta]

I finally got around to replacing the SCSI2SD in my SE SuperDrive with a BlueSCSI v2 last week. I was initially hesitant because of not having any BlueSCSI experience, but the SCSI2SD starting to flake out changed my mind!

So, the installation physically, using the online instructions, worked very well for me. I made a custom install holder to keep the BlueSCSI in place where the HD usually sits. After a little troubleshooting, I found that the stock SE HD LED worked best with the “brightest” LED pads bridged per instructions. So far, so good.

Next was the not-so-easy part. I wanted to move a bunch of my System 6 stuff onto a new disk image to use with the SE. I used DiskJockey to create a new image…but then realized that these “.hda” images are not mountable normally by a Mac of any sort (that I can see). It took a lot of back and forth, new images, old images, using minivMac, etc, to pull off what was far simpler with the SCSI2SD. One awesome SCSI2SD feature was auto disk mounting over USB: I could hook the device to my G4, and magically the SD-based HD would pop up on the desktop. Copy files from the G4…and done. Even if I had just put the SD card into a reader on the G4, same thing. Incredibly easy. That’s one huge edge I think with how the SCSI2SD works. No emulators or multiple steps to get things back and forth.

I realize this is just inherently how the BlueSCSI works. My question then is: can it be made to work with .dmg images instead of these .hda things? Then I could at least mount the image on the G4 and copy files. Has anyone done this, or any chance someone could somehow implement it?

 

[saybur]

I haven't personally tried it, but their wiki indicates you can mount them in 10.5 and lower if the image files end with .img.

https://github.com/BlueSCSI/BlueSCSI-v2/wiki/Transferring-Files

The Basilisk option is what I use with more modern systems, it works reasonably well. As an alternative, if you just want one-off files you could also load stuff into the image off the card directly with the toolbox apps.

Edit: this thread may be helpful too:

https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?thr...tween-zuluscsi-bluescsi-and-modern-mac.45912/

 

[LaPorta]

Thank you, I vaguely remember that discussion (a lot going on in life at that time). So I’m curious: can the BlueSCSI then use the images if they are named “.img”, or must you keep flipping the extension back and forth?

 

[danny.gonzalez.0861@gmai]

Hey LaPorta,

I don't think a .dmg image can be made to work with the BlueSCSI but what if you make a copy of your image as to not mess anything up and simply change the copy of the image file extension from .dmg to .img and vice versa? Might be worth a try.

On another note, my method for transferring files from one disk image to another has been to load the original image as HD0 and then on the same SD card load the blank image as HD1 for example. Then I boot the SE from the original HDD image and once booted you will probably be asked to format the blank HDD image (HD1). Once formatted, you can simply drag and drop the contents of the original HDD Image from HD0 to HD1 essentially making a bootable carbon copy of the drive. If you want a clean install then just install the OS on the newly created blank image, I do this by using the legacy boot CD on the BlueSCSI, then after the install is done, you can transfer just the files you need from the original image to the newly create done.

Once you are done you can remove the original HD image and emulated CD from the SD card and you should be good to boot off of the new image.

 

[LaPorta]

Thanks for the tip, Dan. My main issue is more that I have a massive stock of software on my RAID drive server, and I need an easy way to transfer that if I do choose. The easiest way is opening the SD card or image natively on my G4 running 10.4. I’ll try your suggestion for renaming as well and see if it works.

 

[saybur]

So I’m curious: can the BlueSCSI then use the images if they are named “.img”, or must you keep flipping the extension back and forth?

It shouldn't matter as long as the file prefix matches the "hdX" syntax and the suffix isn't a known archive format. On ZuluSCSI I use .img as my normal suffix and I think that code is (more or less) identical to BlueSCSI.

 

[Forrest]

BlueSCSI has a transfer utility.
This utility allows you to transfer files from your SD card to and from your Mac.

• Create a folder on the root of the SD card called shared
• Use your modern computer and place files in the shared folder of your SD card. You can try this with files downloaded from such sites as macintoshgarden.org
• Use the Transfer Utility to copy them to your vintage computer.

see https://bluescsi.com/docs/Toolbox

 

[LaPorta]

Did indeed see that, but that’s kind of like a workaround. I can give it a try. I was more wondering why BlueSCSI can’t be made to use modern .dmg images.

 

[finkmac]

probably because dmg is an apple specific image format that doesn't work on other platforms and would be pointless to implement?

 

[saybur]

Doesn't seem like it'd be pointless at all, I think the use case @LaPorta has seems quite reasonable.

The way Wikipedia describes it, it might be technically doable. For sure it would require work on the emulator side to avoid clobbering the metadata and/or update it as needed. Seems like a good opportunity for a feature request.

 

[IPalindromeI]

DMGs have a ton of header bits, usually just include a filesystem (so no partition map, kinda important for SCSI devices), and can be compressed (good luck doing that on the MCU).

 

[LaPorta]

DMGs have a ton of header bits, usually just include a filesystem (so no partition map, kinda important for SCSI devices), and can be compressed (good luck doing that on the MCU).

This is helpful information to know. I suppose then technically that may not work if emulating an entire device with a driver partition, etc. I can now grasp some of the complexities involved. Maybe a nice utility in the vein of disk jockey could be made to mount the .hda s then…or maybe even just allow for file transfer into the images themselves.

 

[Andy]

I've used the HFS Utils package to copy files to and from .hda files. It can also read Mini vMac style "floppy" images. https://www.mars.org/home/rob/proj/hfs/
It works very well, but it's all command line and requires getting used to. There is a GUI app, but it's XWindows, so i don't easily have a way of using it. It would be great to have a modern gui wrapper.

 

[LaPorta]

I've used the HFS Utils package to copy files to and from .hda files. It can also read Mini vMac style "floppy" images. https://www.mars.org/home/rob/proj/hfs/
It works very well, but it's all command line and requires getting used to. There is a GUI app, but it's XWindows, so i don't easily have a way of using it. It would be great to have a modern gui wrapper.

Exactly what I’m after, in GUI form of course.

 

[joshc]

the SCSI2SD starting to flake out changed my mind

What does this mean? I’ve used SCSI2SDs for a while and never had issues. Isn’t a failing SD card more likely to be the cause of flakiness?

I used DiskJockey to create a new image…but then realized that these “.hda” images are not mountable normally by a Mac

Basilisk can mount and use them.

 

[Forrest]

Well there is ZuluSCSI, that lets you move files via USB…

I don’t want to start a war - I own both.

 

[jmacz]

I set up an ftp server which houses my copies of software I download. If they are smallish, I transfer them to my vintage mac via ftp. For larger images/isos, I use hfs utils like @Andy said. I have so many of the ZuluSCSIs, both internal and external form factors. I leave the internal ones alone and use the external ones to move files around.

 

[zefrenchtoon]

Just to let you know ...
If you make an image using DiskCopy 6.5 and its "Device image" feature, then you will get a dmg which is in fact an hda. I use it to backup all my spinners HDD (SCSI or not) to use the images then in my BlueSCSI.

Also, if you BlueSCSI is recent, you can use its Initiator mode to backup your SCSI2SD content as an "hda" image directly on your BlueSCSI.

BlueSCSI does not care of the extension, it can be whatever you want.

BlueSCSI images are only bit for bit image of any device (same as those made using "dd" command line utility on *NIX systems)
Also, you should be able to "mount" the image on a *NIX system using the "mount" command line utility (never tested but it should work I think)

Finally, I agree that using emulators is painful but Toolbox tools are here for this goal.
I use emulators mainly to prepare images before putting them in my BlueSCSI.

Also, you can go on their github or discord to ask for new features like the one you told about SCSI2SD (the one which mount images)

 

[LaPorta]

What does this mean? I’ve used SCSI2SDs for a while and never had issues. Isn’t a failing SD card more likely to be the cause of flakiness?


Basilisk can mount and use them.

Yes, most of my SCSI2SDs work fine, but the issue my SE had was that if you flipped it on, the SCSI2SD disk LED would stay lit and there woul,d be no activity: the SE could not see it on the SCSI chain and it wasn't doing anything. Only with a quick power on/off flick would it restart and work normally. I talked through it with the developer, and they couldn't figure out why it happened.

Basalisk is what I was trying to avoid: having to use an emulator.

 

[LaPorta]

Just to let you know ...
If you make an image using DiskCopy 6.5 and its "Device image" feature, then you will get a dmg which is in fact an hda. I use it to backup all my spinners HDD (SCSI or not) to use the images then in my BlueSCSI.

Thank you for all that info, I will have to try these various things and see how they work. Much appreciated!