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SCSI2SD and Apple IIGS?

Johnnya101

Well-known member
You could. Whenever you get the money, save your self hours and get a floppy emu! HD emulation, floppy emulation it's awesome.

 
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NJRoadfan

Well-known member
Yes, the LCIII works perfectly for writing 800k disks, although you need them in DiskCopy format (I don't think there are any 68k utilities for writing 2MG files to disk). That's how I did it back in the day before ADTPro and fancy floppy emulators. From a performance standpoint, the SCSI card is going to be MUCH faster then the FloppyEmu running in SmartPort mode on a IIgs.

Replacement gears for your drives can be found on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/262859261833

 

agent_js03

Well-known member
You could. Whenever you get the money, save your self hours and get a floppy emu! HD emulation, floppy emulation it's awesome.
Yeah that is what I was thinking. I figure as much time as I spend on these machines, and also considering how many I use and for which data transfer is virtually impossible due to the 800k limitation, maybe I ought to just save money and cough up the dough.

 

agent_js03

Well-known member
Yes, the LCIII works perfectly for writing 800k disks, although you need them in DiskCopy format (I don't think there are any 68k utilities for writing 2MG files to disk). That's how I did it back in the day before ADTPro and fancy floppy emulators. From a performance standpoint, the SCSI card is going to be MUCH faster then the FloppyEmu running in SmartPort mode on a IIgs.

Replacement gears for your drives can be found on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/262859261833
Yeah I actually was able to convert them to DiskCopy format by loading them up as disk drives in Basilisk and then generating DiskCopy disk images from them there.

Thanks for finding those replacement gears. While they are cheaper than some of the others I have found, I still have a hard time paying that much for a tiny piece of plastic. It feels a little like... extortion. I mean all the guy has to do is 3d print them. That probably costed a few cents to reproduce. I know the floppy emu is way more expensive but still... Maybe one day when I care enough I will repair these things, as they hold collector's value. But now I think I would try every other option before trying that one.

I'm still kind of disappointed that I was not able to get netbooting over appletalk working for the IIgs. I tried everything I could think of, and followed the directions to a tee. It seems like a lost cause.

 

Johnnya101

Well-known member
Yeah I've got a 3d printer. Those cost at most 5 cents each...

But hey when your pretty much the only choice...

 

agent_js03

Well-known member
If you have a Localtalk-to-Ethernet bridge, you could try A2SERVER's built in netbooting.

http://appleii.ivanx.com/a2server/

I don't have any experience setting up AppleShare 3.0 to netboot Apple IIs.
That's exactly what I tried, haha. I used the Asante Localtalk to Ethernet bridge and connected it to a raspberry pi configured with a2server to netboot. I even connected to it with a powerbook 3400c and was able to access the file server. I then used the Powerbook 3400c as a localtalk to ethernet bridge just to make sure that it wasn't a problem between the iigs and asantetalk, still no go. It just goes to "check startup disk" and there is no error or anything or message to indicate that it even tried to boot over appletalk.

I don't know if I need to change the settings on my modem port or not, I didn't see any info on that anywhere. Any diagnostic help would be appreciated.

 

agent_js03

Well-known member
Yeah I've got a 3d printer. Those cost at most 5 cents each...

But hey when your pretty much the only choice...
We have a 3d printer at work. I wish he would have been nice and just uploaded the model so that I can print it myself... I suppose I could go through the trouble of learning CAD so that I can design the gear myself, but that's a pretty big time investment.

 

NJRoadfan

Well-known member
If its a ROM 01

-Set Slot 7 to "Appletalk"

-Set Slot 1 or 2 to "Your Card", connect your LocalTalk network to the corresponding port.

-Set boot to "Appletalk"

ROM 3

-Set Slot 1 or 2 to "Appletalk", connect your LocalTalk network to the corresponding port.

-Set boot to "Appletalk"

 

agent_js03

Well-known member
If its a ROM 01

-Set Slot 7 to "Appletalk"

-Set Slot 1 or 2 to "Your Card", connect your LocalTalk network to the corresponding port.

-Set boot to "Appletalk"

ROM 3

-Set Slot 1 or 2 to "Appletalk", connect your LocalTalk network to the corresponding port.

-Set boot to "Appletalk"
Yep... It's a ROM 01 and that's exactly what I did. Slot 2 to "Your Card" and plugged into the modem port. No go. It just goes straight to "Check startup disk."

 

theslownorris

Well-known member
"There is no point in running a SCSI-2 drive on an Apple II. Its simply too slow to take advantage of it"

Sure man, a given, BUT I am configging this thing ALL WHICH WAYS to see if I can get the thing to fully work with ANY machine I have... I have not had much luck.

I've been trying to put the v6 in my Uncle's Color Classic and reclaim my v5 for my Mac Plus or IIgs. I found the v6 to be very finicky.

I have formatted a 2gig HFS partition on my ROM1 IIgs w/ scsi2 enabled and disabled (Dang if I didn't space trying to read/write to it).

I have formatted and read/wrote to it with a Performa 6400/180 over db25 using the scsi2sd's onboard termination useing Apple's utility (patched).

However, after formatting with my IIgs the Uncle's Color Classic recognizes it (SCSI2 disabled), but locks up system 7.5.3 when attempting to write to the device. Additionally, after a couple of boots it now refuses to mount at all. Apple's SCSI utility state's "unsupported" and the patched version, as well as Lido crash with an error -39.

The wiki says v6 has issues of term and using over db25.

That being said, my experience with v6 has been poor and I'm beginning to wonder if it works at all (latest firmware). Perhaps my machines are simply too old to play nice? (The Performa I used was not mine, and I own no machines of that era).

However, v5 simply seems to work nicely and exactly as it should. The v6 has been a trifle. (PM me if you wanna swap something for it :) ).

 

NJRoadfan

Well-known member
The Apple Rev. C SCSI card is a very early implementation of SCSI, I'm not surprised its having problems with the v6. On the Macs, have you tried other drive prep tools like Silverlining or FWB?

Also looking at the compatibility list, you know the v6 is buggy if its having problems working with an Adaptec AHA-2940 series card. That was one of the most stable and common implementations of SCSI around for close to a decade!

 
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agent_js03

Well-known member
Seven months later, I decided to start playing with the IIGS again. I ordered the gears and fixed the floppy drives (woohoo!) I have a floppy emu and used this to copy 6.0.1 onto physical floppy disks. Now I just need to dig out the old LC III and format a sd card with 32mb image and I should be able to just pop in the System 6 disk, open advanced disk utils, initialize the disk and install.

 

roughana

Member
I recently got my v5.0 SCSI2SD working. For those who come after me, here's what I have configured.
The standard default SCSI2SD config worked, although I also added a second SCSI device just to see what it would look like. I configured the SCSI2SD with a microUSB cable (after I found one that did data and not just power) from a Windows laptop using the scsi2sd-util.exe
On the Apple IIgs, I used a RamFAST SCSI card, db25-SCSI cable, and an external SCSI drive case. I found that the SCSI2SD v5 did not need the power cable connected to the external SCSI case to work - obviously the power over the SCSI cable was enough to power the SCSI2SD.
I used the RamFAST SCSI utilities in the Firmware (0 on boot) to create several 32MB partitions.
I used System 6.0.x Finder (booting from another device) to launch System 6.0.4 installer which I then used to install System 6.0.4 on my partition of choice.
I also copied the RamFAST driver from the ROM partition (there's an option to have it show up) into the System drivers folder.
I also used Finder to copy Total Replay over to another partition.

Subsequently I also discovered that Ciderpress can be used to do a volume copy to the microSD card when it is inserted in the Windows machine.
This seemed to be faster than copying within the Apple II environment.

What I would like to be able to do eventually is to use a web-enabled SD card, via microSD adapter within the external SCSI case to replace a partition with content. I accept that this may not be possible if the web-enabled config and the SCSI2SD config will conflict with each other on the (micro)SD card blocks. I'm still learning where things physically reside.

Happy to elaborate further on any of the above if requested.
 

Skate323k137

Well-known member
I've been using a BlueSCSI with a GGLabs scsi card on my IIgs, it's been essentially plug and play.

And while a floppyEMU is a must have for floppy images on an AppleII, it's notably slower as a HDD than other solutions of course.
 

NJRoadfan

Well-known member
Good to know that the v5 works with the RamFAST. That card can be a pain with its non-standard SCSI implimentation (card doesn't take a SCSI ID for itself on the bus).
 

roughana

Member
> On the Apple IIgs, I used a RamFAST SCSI card
RamFAST Rev D ROM 3.01EZ in slot 7 set to Your Card
> and an external SCSI drive case
without a SCSI terminator.
 

cruff

Well-known member
Good to know that the v5 works with the RamFAST. That card can be a pain with its non-standard SCSI implimentation (card doesn't take a SCSI ID for itself on the bus).
If you aren't implementing/supporting the SCSI disconnect/reconnect feature then the controller really doesn't need an ID for itself.
 

NJRoadfan

Well-known member
Some SCSI hard drives had problems with the RAMFast cards. Here is an excerpt from the Apple II FAQ:


005- Will a SCSI-2 hard drive work with an Apple 2 system?
Usually, yes. I'm on my second Quantum drive that is described as "SCSI- 2".

There is a major caveat to this answer. Some newer drives require a host which implements the arbitration phase of the SCSI communication dialogue. The RamFAST doesn't do this, and as a result there are some drives that cannot be used with a RamFAST SCSI card. A notable example is the Quantum Fireball series. However; the Trailblazer and all older Quantum models work fine.
 

roughana

Member
I'm returning to say I have an issue with the once-previously-working setup (see my post above). After some extended period (~4 months) of inactivity I tried to use it again. The drive is not booting properly. It displays the GS/OS splash screen and then loading seems to stop. The thermometer fills completely very quickly but no icons are displayed so I believe that nothing is being loaded. The shift boot modifier displays "No Inits/DAs" but again the boot sequence does not complete. I am unable to get the text boot mode initiated. Access to control panel is still possible.

However, if I boot off another device (CFFA3000) then the partitions from the SCSI2SD device are accessible. So it is still somewhat working.
I tried switching boot partition to another system partition but that has the same non-booting behaviour.

Very strange. I've tried multiple IIgs hosts/RAM cards and multiple RamFAST cards without any difference in behaviour.

I'm not sure what is going on.
 

roughana

Member
And I'm back again to report that after setting up a new microSD card the setup is working again.

On top of that, I have just tested the Apple Hi Speed SCSI card with the same setup. The Apple Hi Speed card does not supply termination power, so I had to supply external power (I am using an external HD case) to power the SCSI2SD. I also had to remove the external terminator.

On the Hi Speed SCSI card, I have my dips set to turn DMA On, and SCSI ID 3 (down, down, up, up).
 
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