Re: [hatari-devel] Partition/GEMDOS drive ID assignment question

[Eero Tamminen <oak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

On 29.8.2025 21.24, Uwe Seimet wrote:
> > If data copy is from image to GEMDOS HD, directory is often empty.
> >
> > When done in another direction, GEMDOS HD directory normally has other
> > things in it than single-letter subdirs, e.g. DESKTOP.INF file, some
> > program, or standard Atari folders like AUTO/ etc..
>
> I am wondering: How do you know that this is what most users do?

Human nature (laziness). GEMDOS HD multi-drive feature is not mentioned 
in Hatari GUI or its help output, and people do not read documentation 
unless they need to. User would also need to create those drive-letter 
subdirs.

=> Why s/he would do any of that if s/he does not need it?


Btw. I think a typical GEMDOS HD usage scenario is that user provides 
Hatari a program file (e.g. game) they want to run.  Hatari will then 
implicitly use directory of that program as GEMDOS HD drive.

User can do this directly by giving program as Hatari argument, dragging 
program to Hatari application icon (if OS desktop supports such thing), 
or just by invoking the Atari program directly, and OS then running it 
[1] with Hatari.


	- Eero

[1] E.g. on Debian derived Linux distros, a "binfmt_misc" handler 
recognizing Atari binaries is there after you install "hatari" package.

On other Linux distros, you can check presence of such handler from 
whether Hatari is listed here:
	ls /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/

If not, you can try this script: 
https://framagit.org/hatari/hatari/-/blob/main/tools/hatari-tos-register.sh

NOTE: For this to work, your Atari programs need to have execute flag 
set, and your default Hatari configuration needs settings (machine type) 
compatible with the program you want to run.  After that, 
double-clicking on Atari program e.g. in your file manager, will launch 
Hatari so that it runs that program.

As to Windows/Mac (and some other OS) desktops, one could install Hatari 
as an application handling files with the "*.tos", "*.prg" (and other 
Atari) file name extensions.  This method does not need Atari program 
files to be set as executable.