DeskLink2 is a Tandy Portable Disk Drive emulator or "TPDD server" written in C.
$ make clean all && sudo make install
$ sudo make uninstall
$ dl -h
DeskLink2 v2.1.001-19-g14a2925
Usage: dl [options] [tty_device] [share_path]
Options Description (default setting)
-0 Raw mode - no filename munging, attr = ' '
-a c Attribute - default attr byte used when no xattr (F)
-b file Bootstrap - send loader file to client
-d tty Serial device connected to the client (ttyUSB*)
-n Disable TS-DOS directories (enabled)
-g Getty mode - run as daemon
-h Print this help
-i file Disk image filename for raw sector access
-l List loader files and show bootstrap help
-m # Model - 1 = FB-100/TPDD1, 2 = TPDD2 (1)
-p dir Path - /path/to/dir with files to be served (./)
-r RTS/CTS hardware flow control (false)
-s # Speed - serial port baud rate (19200)
-u Uppercase all filenames (false)
-v Verbosity - more v's = more verbose
-w WP-2 mode - 8.2 filenames for TANDY WP-2
-z # Milliseconds per byte for bootstrap (8)
The 1st non-option argument is another way to specify the tty device.
The 2nd non-option argument is another way to specify the share path.
TPDD2 mode accepts a 2nd share path for bank 1.
TPDD2 mode does not support TS-DOS dfirectories.
Examples:
$ dl
$ dl ttyUSB1
$ dl -vu -p ~/Downloads/REX
$ dl -w /dev/cu.usbserial-AB0MQNN1 ~/Documents/wp2
$ dl -m2 -p /tmp/bank0 -p /tmp/bank1
$
$ dl -l
DeskLink2 v2.1.001-19-g14a2925
Available support files in /usr/local/lib/dl
Loader files for use with -b:
-----------------------------
TRS-80 Model 100/102 : DSKMGR.100 TINY.100 D.100 TEENY.100 TSLOAD.100 TS-DOS.100 PAKDOS.100
TANDY Model 200 : TEENY.200 DSKMGR.200 TSLOAD.200 TS-DOS.200 PAKDOS.200
NEC PC-8201/PC-8300 : TEENY.NEC TS-DOS.NEC
Kyotronic KC-85 : DSKMGR.K85 Disk_Power.K85
Olivetti M-10 : TEENY.M10 DSKMGR.M10
Disk image files for use with -i:
---------------------------------
Sardine_American_English.pdd1
Disk_Power.K85.pdd1
Filenames given without any path are searched from /usr/local/lib/dl
as well as the current directory.
Examples:
dl -b TS-DOS.100
dl -b ~/Documents/LivingM100SIG/Lib-03-TELCOM/XMDPW5.100
dl -vb rxcini.DO && dl -vu
dl -vu -i Sardine_American_English.pdd1
$
Several of the above settings can alternatively be supplied via environment variables, as well as a few other hacky extra options
Docs from the past versions of this program. They don't exactly match this version any more.
README.txt from dlplus by John R. Hogerhuis
dl.do from dl 1.0-1.3 the original "DeskLink for *nix" by Steven Hurd
$ dl -vu
$ dl -l
$ dl -vb TS-DOS.100
Bootstrap a REXCPM
$ dl -vb rxcini.DO && dl -vu
(Full directions for REXCPM)
Update a REX#
$ dl -vb 'rx#u1.do' && dl -vu
There is a short list of filenames that are specially recognized:
DOS100.CO, DOS200.CO, DOSNEC.CO, DOSM10.CO, DOSK85.CO
SAR100.CO, SAR200.CO, SARNEC.CO, SARM10.CO, SARK85.CO
When a client requests any of these filenames, dl2 first looks in the current directory (the current directory that the client is CD'd into within the share path). If a file matching the requested filename is there, it is used, the same as for any other file.
Failing that, it looks in the root of the share path
Failing that, it looks in /usr/local/lib/dl
And some of those files are bundled with dl2 and installed in /usr/local/lib/dl:
DOS100.CO, DOS200.CO, DOSNEC.CO
SAR100.CO, SAR200.CO
SARNEC.CO is known to have existed, but is currently lost.
The others probably never existed, but dl2 will recognize and serve them up if available just for completeness.
This allows TSLOAD and the TS-DOS and SARDIN features in Ultimate ROM 2 to work "by magic" at all times without you having to actually place copies of these files in every directory and subdirectory in the share path.
You can override the bundled versions of these files without touching the /usr/local/lib/dl files by placing say a different version of DOS100.CO in the root of a share path, and it will be in effect for all directories in that share path.
$ dl -i disk_image.pdd1
or
$ dl -i disk_image.pdd2
This is support for disk image files that allow use of raw sector access commands on a virtual disk image file.
Limitations: Only supports using the disk image for sector access. It doesn't provide access to the files in a disk image as files, just as raw sectors.
If the file exists, it's size is used to set the emulation mode to tpdd1 vs tpdd2.
If the file doesn't exist or is zero bytes, then the last 5 characters in the filename are used, ".pdd1" or ".pdd2", case insensitive.
One example usage is the Sardine spell checker.
Another is installing Disk Power for Kyotronic KC-85
There are 2 ways to create disk image files so far:
- One way is to use pdd.sh to read a real disk from a real drive, and output a disk image file.
- Another way is to run
dl -i filename, where the file either doesn't exist or is zero bytes, and then use a client (like TS-DOS or pdd.sh) to format the "disk". When dl2 gets the format command, it will create the disk image.
More details about the disk image format disk_image_files.txt
The ROOT and PARENT labels are not hard coded in TS-DOS. You can set them to other things.
In both cases the length is limited to 6 characters.
The ROOT label is ROOT in the original Travelling Software Desk-Link.
This is what is shown for the current directory name in the top-right corner of TS-DOS when the current working directory is at the top level directory of the share path, like the root directory of a disk.
Almost anything may be used for the ROOT label.
The PARENT label is PARENT in the original Travelling Software Desk-Link.
This is shown as a virtual filename in the top-left filename slot when not in the root directory, and you press Enter on it in order to move up out of the current subdirectory to it's parent directory.
This is is limited to things that TS-DOS thinks is a valid filename.
Sadly, .. can not be used, but here are a few examples that do work.
$ ROOT_LABEL=/ PARENT_LABEL=^ dl
$ ROOT_LABEL='-root-' PARENT_LABEL='-back-' dl
$ ROOT_LABEL='-top-' PARENT_LABEL='-up-' dl
$ ROOT_LABEL='0:' PARENT_LABEL='^:' dl
or you can confuse someone...
$ ROOT_LABEL='C:\' PARENT_LABEL='UP:' dl
Also included is a bash script to read a binary .CO file and output an ascii BASIC loader .DO file,
which may then be used with the -b bootstrap function to re-create the original binary .CO file on the portable.
All KC-85 platform machines are supported including TRS-80 Model 100, TANDY 102 & 200, Kyotronic KC-85, Olivetti M10, NEC PC-8201 & PC-8300.
It's simple and doesn't handle all situations or do anything fancy like relocating, but it handles the common case and serves as a reference and starting point for making a custom loader.
See co2ba
Tested on Linux, Mac, FreeBSD, and Windows.
- File/filesystem access on disk images - Currently can only use disk images for sector access.
- Verify if the code works on a big-endian platform - There are a lot of 2-byte values and a lot of direct byte manipulations because the protocol & drive uses MSB-first everywhere while most platforms today do not.
- Figure out and emulate more of the special memory addresses accessible in tpdd2 mode. We already do some.
- Fake sector 0 based on the files in the current share path so that if a client tries to read the FCB table directly it works.
- Fake entire disk image in ram based on current share path files. Option to save the image as long as we're there.
real attr handling using xattr
Enable by building with -DUSE_XATTR
$ make clean all CXXFLAGS=-DUSE_XATTR && sudo make install
DeskLink for ms-dos 1987 Travelling Software
1.0-1.3 DeskLink for *nix 2004 Stephen Hurd
1.4 DeskLink+ 2005 John R. Hogerhuis
1.5 2019 Brian K. White
2.0 DeskLink2 2023 Brian K. White