running "musicprose" from .img file

About Mini vMac and all other 68k emulators, including SoftMac, Executor, and MESS.

Moderators: Cat_7, Ronald P. Regensburg

Post Reply
zxcvb2
Space Cadet
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2022 1:37 am

running "musicprose" from .img file

Post by zxcvb2 »

i got an .img file for musicprose which i found in a .sit (identical file was hosted in 2 different places i found)
according to the sites, it's supposed to be for system 1-6.
i was able to extract the .sit sucessfully, to be sure i did it in linux using unar, and also in basilisk using stuffit 5.5 (ironically, stuffit 4 in mini vmac or basilisk didn't work), both .img files that got extracted had the same hash, so i assume it's the correct file

however, when i try to drag this file into my mini vmac system 6.0.8, it comes up with the error:
"The disk is damaged: Do you want to initialize it?"

similarly, i tried to mount it as a volume in basilisk on system 8.5 (even tho the program may not work for system 7+),
but i don't even get a chance to try to run in it basilisk either, i get a similar error:
"The disk is unreadable by this Computer.
Do you want to initialize the disk?"

i'm ready to give up on this, but thought i might make an account and post here first to see if anyone else knows how to get it working
admittedly, i don't really know what i'm doing, and maybe i'm just missing something simple
i've also considered that the disk actually is corrupt and no one ever checked, but i'll be optimistic
thanks
thecloud
Student Driver
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2015 4:39 am

Re: running "musicprose" from .img file

Post by thecloud »

Not all .img files are the same; some have different compression schemes. The particular disk image you have is a 'NDIF' format image, created by Disk Copy 6.x which only ran on System 7 and later. ('NDIF' stood for "new disk image format" and wasn't compatible with Disk Copy 4.2 on older systems.) The image isn't corrupt, you just need the right tool to open it: Disk Copy 6.x.

I was able to mount the image (and run the app from it) on system 7.5.5, using Disk Copy 6.3.3. It did not mount by dragging it to Mini vMac, presumably because Mini vMac only supports the older uncompressed Disk Copy 4.2 format.
zxcvb2
Space Cadet
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2022 1:37 am

Re: running "musicprose" from .img file

Post by zxcvb2 »

thanks a lot, disk copy 6.3.3 worked like a charm, i never would have found this on my own.
my setup in basilisk has something wrong with the sound (i'm acually in 8.1 not 8.5 like i originally said)
the system alert sounds all just play default beeps, and musicprose can't play sound (but a game i tried, troubled souls could play sound but the sound died after a couple minutes) rather than tinker around with 8.1, i will probably just experiment with other combinations of emulators and 7+ os versions. i already tried installing quicktime 2.5 which fixed someone's sound issue in 7.1, but that didn't work.

but, i was able to just copy the extracted files to a .dsk for mini vmac to use in system 6.0.8, and musicprose and sound worked in that.
before the .dsk idea, i was just trying to copy from basilisk to "This PC" but that ended up with a lot of files that were 0 bytes... is this a known issue?
i think i knew of this years ago. files can be copied from from "This PC" fine, but not the other way around (although some files seemed to work)

do you have os/emulator combinations that are your favorite?
i've kind of just been using either whatever's in a guide, or whatever i find first

anyway, these are all extra random questions sorry, you've already solved my issue thanks.

the whole reason i was doing this was i had seen these videos of someone just playing arrangements songs on an actual mac, and it actually sounds ok, and is kind of a neat way to present a song
i tried to find out what software they were using in the comments, people did ask every once in awhile what program it was, but the person never answered (not to say that this is on purpose), however i was able to identify it by looking at screenshots of a bunch of old mac music notation software.
thecloud
Student Driver
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2015 4:39 am

Re: running "musicprose" from .img file

Post by thecloud »

Glad it worked! Not sure what the sound issue is, though.

As for why the files you copied to a PC were 0 bytes, that's because the PC filesystem doesn't understand the concept of a resource fork. Macintosh files had two distinct parts, a "data fork" and a "resource fork". The latter was organized like a registry, so an application developer could access a particular resource by looking up its resource type and ID. All application binaries (and many document files) used the resource fork exclusively, which meant the data fork would be empty. To preserve the contents of both file forks when copying Macintosh files to another platform, or transferring files via modem, you would normally archive the file first into a data-only version, such as a StuffIt archive or a BinHex file.

I really like Mini vMac for most old stuff up through system 7.5.5, and this is one of the only places it falls short next to Basilisk or SheepShaver: it's hard to transfer files from your host OS to the emulator, because there's no shared directory. You can open disk images, but they have to be "old" MFS or HFS images, and those aren't writable by current host systems. There is a special app you can run on Mini vMac, called 'ImportFl' (see https://www.gryphel.com/c/minivmac/extras/index.html) which will let you drag a file into Mini vMac. The catch is that file has to be data-only, such as a StuffIt archive.
zxcvb2
Space Cadet
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2022 1:37 am

Re: running "musicprose" from .img file

Post by zxcvb2 »

thecloud wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 4:12 am Glad it worked! Not sure what the sound issue is, though.

As for why the files you copied to a PC were 0 bytes, that's because the PC filesystem doesn't understand the concept of a resource fork. Macintosh files had two distinct parts, a "data fork" and a "resource fork". The latter was organized like a registry, so an application developer could access a particular resource by looking up its resource type and ID. All application binaries (and many document files) used the resource fork exclusively, which meant the data fork would be empty. To preserve the contents of both file forks when copying Macintosh files to another platform, or transferring files via modem, you would normally archive the file first into a data-only version, such as a StuffIt archive or a BinHex file.

I really like Mini vMac for most old stuff up through system 7.5.5, and this is one of the only places it falls short next to Basilisk or SheepShaver: it's hard to transfer files from your host OS to the emulator, because there's no shared directory. You can open disk images, but they have to be "old" MFS or HFS images, and those aren't writable by current host systems. There is a special app you can run on Mini vMac, called 'ImportFl' (see https://www.gryphel.com/c/minivmac/extras/index.html) which will let you drag a file into Mini vMac. The catch is that file has to be data-only, such as a StuffIt archive.
thanks for sharing your knowledge. i tried searching for why the files would be 0 bytes, and never found an answer anywhere. it's great to have an explanation to that mystery.

i am aware of importfl and have played around with that (it works like magic to me). i also noticed an exportfl, but haven't had to use that yet

oh and one thing i wanted to touch on again is the original .sit file... it seems like it can only be opened in the "newer" stuffit version that i found for basilisk... is there a version that could open it on mini vmac?
Last edited by zxcvb2 on Sat Jun 04, 2022 7:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
thecloud
Student Driver
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2015 4:39 am

Re: running "musicprose" from .img file

Post by thecloud »

Yes, you can open that original .sit file in Mini vMac. Again, it's a question of having the right tools. You need StuffIt Expander 4.0 on System 6: https://www.gryphel.com/c/sw/archive/stuffexp/
This disk image mounts directly in Mini vMac and contains an installer app which decompresses and installs StuffIt Expander.

Remember we talked about the resource fork of a file? Part of that includes metadata containing the file's type and creator, which are four-character codes. Unlike the PC world where the file extension tells you what kind of file it is (like .exe or .dat), classic Macintosh files are recognized by a four-character code. When you drag the .sit file into ImportFl in Mini vMac, it seems to preserve the file's creator code ('SITx', for StuffIt Expander), but changes the file type to 'BINA' which is binary data. So StuffIt Expander won't be able to open the file directly, because it doesn't understand files of type 'BINA'. What it *does* understand are files with the type 'SIT!'.

So there are two approaches here. The first, and possibly simplest, is to use the workaround mentioned at https://www.gryphel.com/c/sw/archive/stuffexp/ : put the file in a folder, then hold down the command key when selecting Expand.

The second is to actually fix the file's type. You can do that with a copy of ResEdit. Select "Get File/Folder Info..." and choose the file, then change 'BINA' to 'SIT!' in the Type field and close the window, saving changes when prompted.

Image
Post Reply