Hi, Anybody have a stupid DOS trick for importing binary files over a com: port? I have a floppy-less laptop that I want to get Kermit.exe into. If it isn't simple then I'll just write a Hex/Bin program for each side and send the file ASCII. It would have to be .BAS on the laptop side. I realize that taking the drive out and mounting it in the host machine is a good solution, but I wanted to try this first while keeping the machine together. TIA, John A.

On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 13:22:34 -0500 "Joe R." <rigdonj(a)cfl.rr.com> wrote: I suspect that it would be just as difficult to get Laplink.exe installed on the machine as it is to get kermit.exe over there. I have one machine, an Omnibook 300, which is one of the first completely disketteless laptops. It has a mechanism built in to 'inject' llremote.exe (a tiny laplink TSR that actually works peer-to-peer well too) into any other DOS based machine. Digging into the dialogues in the 'remote install' program of Laplink on the Omnibook, it tells you to type the following two lines: MODE COM1:2400,N,8,1,P CTTY COM1 I assume that the remote end (the Omnibook 300) then seizes a console into the target system and uses some variant of 'COPY CON' to inject the laplink remote access TSR program. Can't the plain old DOS copy command be used in the same fashion, i.e.: MODE COM1:9600,N,8,1,P COPY COM1 filename.exe entered at the 'receiving' system (at the right points in time) A null modem connection would be established, and the commands: MODE COM1:9600,N,8,1,P COPY filename.exe COM1 would be issued from the machine 'sending' the file. Please update me and/or correct me if someone else on the list has more experience with this. Haven't done a lot of this kind of stuff in ages. I converted over from CP/M to DOS back in the day over a three-wire interface. I used to say 'the universal file transfer format is a piece of copper wire.' -Scott

At 10:59 PM 1/3/05 -0600, you wrote: It should. However COPY will normally stop when it hits a CTRL/Z. (And many files have CTRL/Zs in them other than the EOF.) HOWEVER there is a switch that you can use to make COPY copy the entire file length regardless of the preense of embedded CTRL/Zs. I don't remember what the switch is but it should be easy to find out. Joe

I had previously given some wrong information (so,... what's new?) You CAN do /B copies TO a device (I shoulda remembered; I used to have to do that to load certain fonts into laserjets) But you cannot, without appropriate additional software, do /B copies In the case of DOS 6.22, the message "Cannot do binary reads from a device" is at offset 970F in COMMAND.COM 9700 43 C 9710 61 6E 6E 6F 74 20 64 6F-20 62 69 6E 61 72 79 20 annot do binary 9720 72 65 61 64 73 20 66 72-6F 6D 20 61 20 64 65 76 reads from a dev 9730 69 63 65 0D 0A 0D 42 52-45 41 4B 20 69 73 20 25 ice...

On Tue, 4 Jan 2005, Tom Jennings wrote: Well, ... in DOS 4.00, it is at offset 7CCC. It may have been there since QDOS? Although admittedly, I do not know whether earlier versions actually included the test for the error to DISPLAY the message. Perhaps some with older DOS currently installed could try: COPY /B CON: filename to see whether it notices? But use of the built-in DOS device drivers in order to use COPY /B is NOT the only way. PC-DOS 3.30 (but probably NOT MS-DOS 3.30) has REC35.COM bundled with DOS. That was mostly because IBM started using 3.5" drives on PS/2 WITHOUT usually having a 5.25" drive present, and needed a way to do format conversion. Or,... you could write and debug a small bootstrap program for loading a binary file through a port. [Left as an exercise for the reader] The "operator" of the machine can then type it into DEBUG or,... Disassemble it into a text file of the source code with no labels, comments, etc. insert an "A <crlf>" at the beginning, and add at the end: N filename <crlf> R CX nnnn <crlf> W <crlf> Q <crlf> For example: A JMP 106 DB 1A DB 1A DB 1A DB 1A MOV AH, 2 MOV DL, 42 INT 21 INT 20 N test.com R CX E W Q COPY that text file (yes, you can do it /A) into the machine, with a filename on the order of TESTCODE.DAT Have the "operator" of the machine type DEBUG < TESTCODE.DAT <crlf> It will produce a .COM file that CAN include ^Z characters. One of the computer magazines (PC? PCWORLD?) used that briefly as a way to distribute programs to their readers, some of whom could not have managed without it. Another way they did it was as DATA statements in a BASIC program. The redirection into DEBUG has the advantage of not hiding the code as thoroughly, and thus being less insulting to our intelligence. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com

On Mon, 3 Jan 2005, John Foust wrote: That sounds a bit much for the task at hand... ! debug will assemble for you! It jsut won't do symbols. I am surprised that no one pointed out that the input, store, incremnt could more easily be done by: mov dx, DATAPORT ... es:insb djnz label

On Wed, 5 Jan 2005, John Foust wrote: theexactsizeofKERMIT is simply derived from the DIR command. The only catch is if dir says kermit.com = 67000 bytes, and you send only 66999, then the kludge will wait for 67000 bytes... for ever. The solution is easy: copy/b some short crap file to the port. IBM feces comm. port data is trivial RTFM. All from http://wps.com/FidoNet/source/DOS-C-sources/Old%20DOS%20C%20library%20sourc… DATAPORT= base + MDATA ; You're not paying me enough STATPORT= base + MSTAT ; to do arithmetic. and RDA is... RDA. ; ; 8250 hardware configuration ; base dw 3f8h ; COM1 base port intnum db 12 ; COM1 interrupt intmsk db 11101111b ; MDATA equ 0 ; modem data port MLINE equ 3 ; line control MLSTAT equ 5 ; line status MCNTRL equ 4 ; modem control MSTAT equ 6 ; modem status MBAUDL equ 0 ; baud rate low MBAUDH equ 1 ; baud rate high INTENB equ 1 ; interrupt enable register INTID equ 2 ; interrupt ID FIFO equ 2 ; 16550 FIFO control DLAB equ 80h ; baud reg. access bit RDA equ 01h ; character avail TBE equ 20h ; buffer empty MODE equ 03h ; 8 bits, no parity MMODE equ 00001000b ; enable interrupt RTS equ 2 ; RTS bit DTR equ 1 ; DTR bit, CTS equ 10h ; CTS bit, B300 equ 0180h ; 300 baud B1200 equ 0060h ; 1200 baud B9600 equ 000ch ; 9600 baud Me? Never!

WHAT VERSION of DOS? After 3.30? or 5.00?, there was a DOS program called something like INTRLINK. Prior to that, you'll have to write some code in DEBUG or in BASIC to be able to do "BINARY" files (anything that contains character 26) For "non-binary" files, you can copy from a COM port. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com