#24 Floppy change for 'faked' floppy drive

[Erik Heckers]

Hello!

I'm running DOSEMU on computers not having a
floppy drive anymore. What I have are the
images of my original MS-DOS 6.22 disks:

dos1.img
dos2.img
dos3.img

I cannot remember if I used the images
directly ('binding' dos1.img to a:) or if I
had to unpack the data inside the image first
(mapping a: to a directory dos1)

When running the install program of MS-DOS 6.22
from floppy 'dos1' you are asked to
insert floppy 'dos2' at some point and that
was where I failed to continue,
because there was no way of changing the
'faked' floppy in a way that is recognized by
the MS-DOS 6.22 installer.

There should be a way to replace the image
file or directory that is mapped to drive a:
while dosemu is running!

Any ideas how to do this already today?

I can imagine the following future solutions:
1) a 'special key' to force a 'disk changed signal'.
Really changing the disk (replacing the image,
moving directories, etc ...) has still
to be done by the user in another shell/window
2) a 'special key' to trigger the 'disk changed signal'
but the DOSEMU config file tells which image
or directory to use next (e.g. by 'binding' a drive
letter
to a list of images or directories)
3) DOSEMU automatically detects (every x seconds)
if a image file or a directory has been replaced
(e.g by comparing new/old inode?) and automatically
triggers the 'disk changed signal'.

Erik.

[Stas Sergeev]

Logged In: YES
user_id=501371

Have you tried just replacing the image files behind
dosemu's back? I used to install the software that way
under dosemu (but it was long ago, so I may be wrong),
and it worked out right. Dosemu just waits for a few
seconds, and if there is no activity on floppy, it "shuts
down the FDD motor" by closing an image file. That's
where you can just replace it. You can just use symlink
I think.
Have you tried that?

[Erik Heckers]

Logged In: YES
user_id=109357

Okay, I now use a generic image file floppy_a and replace
that one with the disk images while dosemu is running (cp
dos2.img floppy_a, ..., cp dos3.img floppy_a).
What does not work is to use a symbolic link and change that
one while dosemu is running , e.g. fl1oppy_a -> diskX.img.