Chapter 3: Software; Mass Storage - Sinclair Q68 User Manual

Chapter 3: Software

Mass Storage

The Q68 relies on SDHC memory cards for mass storage. For use with the Q68, they must be partitioned
and the first primary partition must be in FAT32 format.
The different files the Q68 needs, must the be put into that FAT32 partition, which should be possible by
copying from any Linux, Windows or MAC machine. However, make sure to understand the special pre-
cautions for these files as described in the following chapter.
Q68 Container Files
The Q68 is not an emulator which indirectly accesses files by the underlying PC or MAC operating softwa-
re. Instead, it is a QL-native hardware device, and files in the FAT32 partition serve only as containers for
direct lowlevel access by QL-native drivers.
To access these containers efficiently, the Q68 expects the container files not to be fragmented in the
FAT32 file structure. Once the Q68 has found the beginning at a container file, it assumes the rest of that
container file lies in continuous sectors on the card. Moreover, these container files must be located within
the first 16 root directory entries of the FAT32 partition.
The best way to achieve this, is to make sure that before writing the the container files, the card is freshly
formatted. Then write each container file immediately after formatting the card.
The container files follow a specific naming scheme. The file name of a container file must have 1 to 8
characters, followed by a decimal point and a three letter extension. Names for ROM or RAM images
(usually holding an operating system) are machine specific. Therefore they have the „Q68_" prefix and the
extension „SYS", indicating a system file. Containers with a QLWA filing system use the extension „WIN".
At the time of writing this manual, the Q68 comes with the SMSQ/E operating system. SMSQ/E can either
be in a RAM image container named „Q68_RAM.SYS" or in a small boot filesystem container named
„Q68_SMSQ.WIN". The main filesystem for SMSQ/E is recommended to be named „QLWA.WIN" by
default.
While the „WIN" extension reminds of the „QXL.WIN" filename known from emulators, the Q68 demands
continuous physical sectors - in contrast to those emulators. Therefore, the string „QLWA" is used, which
was used in the past as SMSQ/E partition type name for harddisks in the Atari und Q40/Q60 machines.
Preparing an SDHC Card
This cannot be done on the Q68 itself yet. To prepare a new card, the following procedure is recommen-
ded:
Linux: Use gparted or the command-line version parted.
•
Then format the entire disk as FAT32, or at least the first partition if you have more.
Windows: Download and install the SD Association's Formatting tool from:
•
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/eula_windows/
Then open the installed tool, set "Format Size Adjustment" to „On" and click „Format"
MAC: Download and install the SD Association's Formatting tool from:
•
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/eula_mac/
Then open the installed tool, select "Overwrite Format" and click „Format"
Now you can write the container files. First the operating system container, then the QL filesystem contai-
ner.