#question please
26 messages in this thread
Hi. Just question boy again. Now that I got a hang of downloading stuff,
I'm hooked. So here's my question, is there a difference with all the
different decompressors? I mean I got like 4 different lha-lzh programs,
do I need all of them and if not which one is best. Thanks again for the
help…
tony
Tony,
I believe you downloaded LHA132.RUN to begin your download addiction.
That one will do just fine for you. The others work too, but there is
another compression scheme that lha132 will handle that will cause the
others to choke.
No need for the other ones. I have them and don't use them.
Chris
Tony:
Generally speaking, LHA132.RUN will handle all of your .LHA and .LZH
files. You will need ARC.EXE for some files, and PKAZIP (if you plan to
get files from PC users). Those tend to be the most widely used
compression formats.
I keep a floppy disk(s) around that contains every de-compression program
I can find. Seems like as soon as you take one off your hard drive, the
next file you download requires it!
Anyway, all that I keep on my hard drive is:
ARC
LHA/LZH
ZOO (which rarely gets used)
PKAZIP (for my msdos files)
SIT (on my AMAX mac hard drive partition…for mac files)
// Michael
\X/ …on AutoPilot
sorry for intruding… but I am a VERY new amiga user. I have this vague
idea that a file must be uncrunched after DLing so I got a few LZH
handlers. the problem is I don't have the vaguest idea how to use them. I
can run LHA132.run (is that right?) but I don't know how to get it to unpak
anything. Am I on the right track at all? HELP!!! <please?>
Fern
Patrick…
Which landfill does your family operate?
…from lovely Oakwood Village <g>
// Michael
\X/ …on AutoPilot
Fern,
Don't ever hesitate to jump in here and ask questions. The major purpose
of this forum is to help people with any kind of problems related to
Amigas, and answering questions is the only way we can do that.
If you have LHA132.RUN on a floppy disk, and the disk is in df1:, here is
what you would do:
MAKEDIR DF1:LHA
CD DF1:LHA
RUN DF1:LHA132.RUN
This will unpack the files in the archive into a directory named LHA.
Next, look at the directory of the files by just typing:
DIR
You will see several files, one of which is called simply LHA, and another
is LHA.DOC or LHA.TXT (I cannot remember which.) You need to read the
.DOC or .TXT file for instructions in use of the program. Copy LHA to
your C: directory so it will be handy whenever you need it. Just type:
COPY LHA C:
Now, whenever you want to unpack a file, make a directory for it, CD to
that directory, and then type:
LHA -m -x x PATH:FILE.LHA – where PATH tells what disk or directory the
packed file is in, and FILE is the name of the .LHA file.
If this does not make sense or if you need more help – don't hesitate one
bit to jump in. We all want to help.
Betty
Hi…
Thank you for the help. I tried what you directed. I have only the
built in drive so this is what I did
MAKEDIR "volume name:LHA" CD "volume name:LHA" RUN "volume name:LHA132.RUN"
What happened was the screen started scrolling quickly with what looked
like a command choice line. I let it scroll for about 5 minutes. What did
I do wrong? Did I do anything right? Sheesh… this is frustrating.. To
tell you the truth, though, I like learning through trial and error. I end
up understanding better once I FIGURE IT OUT! aarrrrgggg!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Fern
I was not aware that you have only one drive. OK – let's make a disk
called DL: (for downloads.) Put LHA132.RUN on that disk.
Then, let's do a really old Amiga trick that I hardly ever see done any
more. Let's make a RAM: disk and put some commands into it:
MAKEDIR RAM:C
COPY C:MAKEDIR RAM:C
COPY C:CD RAM:C
COPY C:RUN RAM:C
PATH RAM:C ADD
That should save you lots of disk swapping, because your Amiga will now
locate the MAKEDIR, CD, and RUN commands in RAM:c instead of asking for
your Workbench disk.
NOw, put DL: into your drive and do what you did before, basically:
MAKEDIR DL:LHA
CD DL:LHA
RUN DL:LHA132.RUN
You should see several filenames scroll on your screen as it unpacks.
When it finishes, you should be able to type DIR and see a list of the
files. It should NOT scroll for more than a few seconds. I cannot
imagine what could have caused it to scroll for so long.
Please give it another try, and if things go wrong this time, I'll try to
think of something else. But this worked for me, and I think it ought to
work for you.
I remember well how frustrating it is when things ought to go right, and
they just won't. But keep on trying. It will work out faster than you
think.
Betty
]
Fern,
The problem was likely the use of the RUN command. Try what you did before
but instead of RUN "volume name:LHA132.RUN" just type "LHA132.RUN" (no
quotes, of course.) Since you already were in the directory by virtue of
the CD command, you don't have to type the entire pathname again.
Hope this helps, 8)
David
David..
Ok… by hit and miss I happened to try just typing lha132.run and it
worked! Imagine my smile after much frustration. but… NOW what? How can
I use it? I tried to print out the manual but it is to big for my memory.
SHEESH! It is supposed to unpack LZH as well I believe. Any advice as to
where t o go from here?
Thanks for all the help everyone! (With all this help I should understand
this fairly quick)
Fern
Fern,
Ah yes, Victory always feels good. 8)
Use the system supplied MORE command to view the manual on your screen.
Depending on your system configuation you might or might not have it in
your command path. The command to use when you're in the directory that
has the manual text file is:
run more lha.man
More is probably in your SYS:Utilities drawer in case you get an unknown
command error message.
Hope this helps, 8)
David
Fern,
Copy LHA from your new directory to your c: directory. If you unpacked
LHA to a directory called LHA on df0:, this should work.
First, put your COPY command into that RAM:C we set up before, so you
won't have to swap disks so much. Then, type:
COPY C:COPY RAM:C
Then, with your downloads disk in the drive, type:
COPY DF0:LHA/LHA RAM:C
Then, with your workbench in the drive, type:
COPY RAM:C/LHA DF0:C
You will now have LHA in your commands directory where it is easy to get
to. Now, all you really HAVE to know about using that file is this line:
LHA -m -x x path:filename.xxx
Where path is the name of the directory that your packed file is in,
and the filename has either .lha or .lzh on the end. Type the .lha or the
.lzh so LHA will know which one it is working on.
I would suggest that you make a little batch file that sets up a small
RAM:C for you automatically each time you boot your computer. You can
type such a file in any editor – even ED. Type exactly the things that we
have suggested and save the file under a name you will remember – say
RAMSTUFF. Then, in your STARTUPII (if you are using 1.3) or USER-STARTUP
(if you are using 2.04) put the name of that file (RAMSTUFF or whatever)
on a line by itself and save your startup file out again. This will set
up that minimal c: directory for you so you will always have it. It saves
lots of time and disk swapping when you have only one drive. Any time you
see that you are being asked for the Workbench often in order to get a
particular command, you can add that command to your RAMSTUFF file, and it
will become a part of that file every time, too. I've not used the RAM:C
for a very long time, but I do remember how helpful it was.
I do hope this is helpful rather than confusing! If you need me to
restate it, please ask again.
Thank you. The problem I am having with the c dir is that I get the
message that WB is full. I have tried to put just what seems essential (to
me) on a separate WB disk. Still, I run out of room rather fast. There
must be a way to handle this , any suggestions?
My latest success has been unpacking a small game called Poing which I
downloaded in order to try my hand at unpacking an LHA file. Well, after
much trial and error I was able to do it and my family enjoys the game.
The trouble now is that I can't figure out how to get the unpacked files
(Poing, Poing.doc, and Poing.info) copied to a disk and available for
everyone in the house. I assume Poing.info is an icon.
I have also been able to unpack a program called Pool.lzh. But I can't get
that one to run at all. With Poing all I did was type in POING and it ran.
With Pool.lzh the extracted files are BILLIARDS, BILLIARDS.INF, and a doc
file. I tried typing BILLIARDS as I did with poing but no luck. Needless
to say i tried typing a lot of things with no luck.
I am making progress but it all is still very confusing and I am still not
sure what I am doing even when I get results.
Thank you all again, and any continued help would be greatly appreciated.
Fern
Fern,
There are lots of files in the WB you can delete (copy of WB!).
In the C: directory get rid of EDIT, a larger and cumbersome text
editor, as well as DiskDoctor (I call it DiskQuack). In system directory
get rid of most everything you don't use on a daily basis, same in
utilities and to make a boot disk with just POING on it you can make a
really stripped down WB and delete both of those directories. In LIBS get
rid of translator.library (unless Poing speaks), in L get rid of
speak-handler. The C directory holds the most and many of the commands are
not needed to get your Amiga (and) game running. You can edit the
startup-sequence to just a single line like:
loadwb
be sure to leave LoadWB in the C directory
The Pool.LHZ has a file called Billiards.INF this is the icon, rename it to
be BILLIARDS.INFO
Here are a couple of the tricks I used to use to beat the disk swapping and
disk full problems.
First if you have any extra ram make the ram: disk like Betty suggested.
Second, format a floppy disk and Label it C [C], with that name it will
override the C: assignment of the c directory on you WB disk. So when you
need a command you don't have on the WB but on your C disk swap disks type
the command you need plus a space and a question mark. Example: (don't use
this on LHA)
AM-102:4> dir ? [You'll see the next line of text appear]
DIR,OPT/K,ALL/S,DIRS/S,FILES/S,INTER/S:
Now swap disks, put the one in you want to look at and finish the command
string.
DIR,OPT/K,ALL/S,DIRS/S,FILES/S,INTER/S: DF0:DL
Now you'll read the DL directory of the other disk that isn't the WB.
Same for Copy
AM-102: 4>copy ?
FROM/M,TO/A,ALL/S,QUIET/S,BUF=BUFFER/K/N,CLONE/S,DATES/S,NOPRO/S,COM/S,NOREQ/S:
swap disks and finish the command ram:Billiards df0:
What your doing is loading the command but not applying it immediately,
this way you have time to swap disks and force the command on a different
disk.
[ MORE ]
[ continuation ]
If this isn't clear please let me know and I'll try to help some more.
Chris
Chris…
Thank you. I will try that. I have had some more successes: I was
able to uncrunch poing and billiards and put them on a disk so when it is
clicked on from the WB screen. (The children have been taking full
advantage of this.) I DL'ed a program called intruder. It was very long.
I was only partially successful in unpacking it though. It filled up the
disk. Is there a way to have the unpacked files put on a disk other than
the one the packed file is on? The problem is seems to be that the packed
file is taking up too much space. I had deleted every file and dir on the
disk except the packed file. There must be a way. I tried: LHA -m -x x
"volume":file.lzh empty: thinking this may force the program to put the
files on the "empty" disk but got only error messages.
Boy, ya'll (<—— damn yankee) were right when you said I would get the
hang of it. I am glad of my successes but still keep running into dead
ends.
Thank you VERY much.
Fern
Fern,
Working with a single disk drive is hard, much harder than working with
two. I had to do that for quite a while when I bought my first Amiga, and
I remember how hard it was. I'm trying to remember all the things I did
to make life easier for myself in those days.
Do you have 512K or 1M or more of memory? If you have only the 512K, then
you don't have room for a very big RAM: disk. If you have 1M, then you
can afford to put more of the workbench things into RAM: in order to
prevent disk swapping. I've already told you how to make a RAM:C
directory for this, and I hope it is being helpful.
For games, you might like to make a minimal Workbench that could boot your
machine and then copy the game onto that. You could then boot the machine
with the game disk. Are you using version 1.3 of the operating system, or
version 2.04? That makes a difference.
In any case, you can delete all the fonts from the Workbench disk and just
use the system default font. Put a copy of the Workbench into the drive
and type: DELETE DF0:FONTS ALL
For a game disk, you can also delete all of the Utilities (DELETE
DF0:UTILITIES ALL) and the Tools (DELETE DF0:TOOLS ALL). Then, from the
C: directory, you can safely delete a few of the commands from a game
disk: DELETE DF0:C/EDIT and then follow that plan to delete AddBuffers,
Delete, SetDate, MakeLink, Avail, DiskChange, Install, BindDrivers,
DiskDoctor, Protect, Sort, Break, and ED are some others you should be
able to play a game without needing. Delete all of those.
You should then have quite a lot of room left on your disk. Keep this one
as a sample onto which you can copy other things you want on a separate
bootable disk. Make a copy of this one, and name in POING. Then, copy
the files from POING this disk (now also named POING), and you should be
able to boot with that disk. The POING icon (Point.info) should appear
when you select this disk icon, and the game ought to work from the icon.
<continued>
Betty,
I have made an appointment for MAX: to have the OS2. chip and the
two accelerator upgrade chips installed tonight. 🙂
The next time I Whap! around it ought to be under OS2 –! Right?
I dunno'…I really find it difficult to believe that it will
actually work for me just like that. <snap> I aways do things inside out
and backwards the first time. Guess I'll be back in here for another round
of tips from the Rescue Rangers. 🙂
If you don't hear from me for a week or so –send out the
cavalry.
Vicki
……from a hopeful beginning
– via Whap!
If it doesn't please tell us exactly what happens and we should be able to
help you get it to work that way.
I would suggest that you then do the same thing with your BILLIARDS game.
In this case, though, you need to change BILLIARDS.INF to BILLIARDS.INFO.
You also need to read BILLIARDS.DOC. (Now that I think of it, perhaps you
should add MORE to your RAM:C disk, so you will have a reader available
without putting in the Workbench!) That may tell you how to set up the
game so it will run, if it fails to run by clicking on the BILLIARDS icon
that will appear after you have renamed BILLIARDS.INF to BILLIARDS.INFO.
Even though it is an icon file, it will not be displayed as an icon until
you have changed the name. Without reading the docs, I can't tell you
more about that one.
Please keep on asking questions. We're glad to help. We've all been
though this frustration ourselves, you know. It really does get easier
after a while.
Betty
THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I HAVE EVER USED A MODEM AND I'M NEW TO THE AMIGA DO
YOU ALL AMIGA USERS ENJOY COMPUSERVE AND WHAT ARE TYMNET AND TELENET?
Tobin,
I am really not the one to direct questions to. I am very new to this
myself. I will tell you that without the help of the sysops on this forum
I would not be having any of the successes I have been experiencing. I am
sure they will tell you not to hesitate to ask any questions of them (even
if you think they are dumb questions). Welcome to the world of
telecommunications. You will love your modem. You could take a look in the
different libraries and see a host of programs available to you to
download. (Downloading is easy, it is what to do with a file after you
have it that I am learning now.) Just BROWSE a bit and you will see what is
there. I wish you luck. I am enjoying the learning experience (not
necessarily the frustrations).
Fern
Tobin,
Welcome to the Amiga Forums, if you need any help please ask. We all
enjoy helping fellow Amigans. One thing you'll learn right away is that to
express yourself with the keyboard the use of all caps is considered
SHOUTING so how about releasing the caps lock on your keyboard? OK! Of
course the first time use of a modem is kinda worthy of a couple of shouts
and hoots!
Chris
Tobin,
First thing to learn about using a modem and a service like CompuServe is
to turn off the caps lock. We reserve all caps for times when we are very
angry and are SHOUTING at people.
Yes, we do like CompuServe, and we love our Amigas – and like to talk
about them.
Tymnet and Telenet are telephone systems that do not belong to CompuServe,
but through which you can connect to CompuServe or to other networks if
you do not live close enough to a CompuServe node to call directly. There
is an additional charge made by those networks for the use of their
system, so it's better to use a CompuServe node if you have one
available.
Betty
Tobin,
Hello! –have YOU ever come to the right place!!!!
BTW (by the way) I'd like to know more about "tymnet and telenet" also.
Glad you asked the question.
Vicki
….from a one year old modem and a 29 month old Amiga
– via Whap!
Tobin,
Welcome to the Compuserve Amiga Forums.
Tyment and Telenet are names of communications networks through which you
can access Compuserve, although they are not part of Compuserve itself.
Compuserve also has its own communications network, which is significantly
less expensive in terms of communications surcharges that Tymnet & Telenet,
if you live in an area where there is a local Compuserve access telephone
number.
Communications surcharges are charges that you pay to access the Compuserve
system, and are over and above the connect time charges that you pay to
Compuserve.
Hope this helps,
David
Fern –
WELCOME! I am new myself, having used CS for about a month. It's
definitely the best thing I've ever done with my ol' Ami500. I've talked to
people all around the world via CB Simulator, downloaded (ALMOST) free
Public Domain programs and Shareware, and a million other things. The
SYSOPs are super, make them earn their pay!
-Garry