cbmlink - Remote control and data transfers for Commodore 8-bit computers

cbmlink -c protocol device [options]

This manual page documents briey the cbmlink command.

cbmlink implements data communications between an 8-bit Commodore computer and another computer system. Once a small server process has been loaded and started in the Commodore, cbmlink can transfer data between the system where it is run and the Commodore. On the Commodore side, cbmlink can access main memory, les and entire disks. Access to les and disks is implemented by downloading and invoking an extension program on the Commodore.

CBMLINK follows the usual Unix command line syntax, with options starting with a dash (`-').

-b bank

Specify the memory bank for -s and -l memory transfers. The default is 1 for the Commodore B series (the 600 and 700 series), and 0 for all other Commodores. On a Commodore 128, banks 0-3 are for MMU-based memory access, and banks 4-15 are for the PIA-based internal memory extension. Banks 16-255 refer to the rst 15,360 kilobytes of a Commodore RAM Expansion Unit.

-c protocol device

Specify the protocol and the interface name used for accessing the Commodore. For a C2N232 device connection, you may use something like -c c2n232 /dev/ttyS0. For a null modem connection, also the default bit rate of 19200 can be overridden: -c serial 38400,/dev/ttyS0. A PC64 cable connected to the rst parallel port of a PC compatible can be accessed via -c pc64 0x3bc.

-d drive[,secondary]

Specify the device number for remote le and disk operations, and secondary address for remote le operations. The default device number is 8, and the default secondary address is 0 for -fr and 1 for -fw.

-dc command

Execute a disk drive command and read the drive status. Beware that the UJ (reset) command may lock up the communications.

-dd pattern

Fetch the disk directory by reading a remote le $pattern. The output is partially translated from PETSCII to ASCII. To get the raw directory, type -fr '$pattern'.

-dmc,address1,address2 le.prg

Save the memory bytes from address1 up to but excluding address2 in a dual disk drive's controller address space to a program le. Write address1 to the rst two bytes of the le. Note that the drive may act strangely once this command has been issued.

-dmco,address1,address2 le.bin

Save the memory bytes from address1 up to but excluding address2 in a dual disk drive's controller address space to a binary le. Note that the drive may act strangely once this command has been issued.

-dml le.prg

Load a program at its specied absolute address in the disk drive's main address space. The rst two bytes of the le indicate the 16-bit loading address (least signicant byte rst), and the remaining bytes contain the le data. At most 64 kilobytes can be transferred at a time.

-dmlo,address le.bin

Load a binary le (not containing a starting address) to the specied address in the disk drive's main address space.

-dmlr,address le.prg

Load a program, ignoring its address bytes, to the specied address in the disk drive's main address space.

-dms,address,address le.prg

Save the memory bytes from address1 up to but excluding address2 in the disk drive's main address space to a program le. Write address1 to the rst two bytes of the le.

-dmso,address,address le.bin

Save the memory bytes from address1 up to but excluding address2 in the disk drive's main address space to a binary le.

-dr[0|1][,interleave[,start[,end]]] le

Read a disk in unit 0 (default) or 1 to an image le. Optionally, an interleave factor (number of sectors to skip) may be specified to improve the transfer speed. When it differs from 0, le must be seekable. The default is 10. Also, the default start and end tracks of 1 and 1000 can be overridden.

-ds

Query the disk drive status.

-dw[0|1][,interleave[,start[,end]]] le

Write an image le to a disk in unit 0 (default) or 1, starting from track 1, sector 0. If the le is shorter than the capacity of the disk, the rest of the disk will be left intact. Optionally, an interleave factor (number of sectors to skip) may be specified to improve the transfer speed. When it differs from 0, le must be seekable. The default is 10. Also, the default start and end tracks of 1 and 1000 can be overridden.

-fr le...

Copy the specied les from the Commodore to the local le system. As the le names are not translated between PETSCII and ASCII, it is best to use upper-case le names on the local system, which correspond to lower-case Commodore le names.

-fw le...

Copy the specied les from the local le system to the Commodore. As the le names are not translated between PETSCII and ASCII, it is best to use upper-case le names on the local system, which correspond to lower-case Commodore le names.

-qf name,id

Quick format a Commodore 1541 disk.

-qr le

Read a 1541 disk to an image le. The interleave is adjusted dynamically.

-qw[,interleave] le

Write a seekable image le to a 1541 disk, starting from track 1, sector 0. If the le is shorter than the capacity of the disk, the rest of the disk will be left intact. Optionally, an interleave factor (number of sectors to skip) may be specified to improve the transfer speed.

-l[p] le.prg

Load a program at its specied absolute address. The rst two bytes of the le indicate the 16-bit loading address (least signicant byte rst), and the remaining bytes contain the le data. At most 64 kilobytes can be transferred at a time. The options beginning with -lp support the P00 le format by skipping the 26-byte le header.

-l[p]b le.prg

Load a program, relocated to the start of the BASIC text area.

-l[p]o,address le.bin

Load a binary le (not containing a starting address) to the specied address.

-l[p]r,address le.prg

Load a program, ignoring its address bytes, to the specied address.

-s,address1,address2 le.prg

Save the memory bytes from address1 up to but excluding address2 in the specied bank to a program le. Write address1 to the rst two bytes of the le.

-so,address1,address2 le.bin

Save the memory bytes from address1 up to but excluding address2 in the specied bank to a binary le.

-r

Disable the remote server and perform a RUN command in order to start a BASIC program.

-j,address

Disable the remote server and jump to the specied address in order to start a machine language program.

-jc,address

Disable the remote server on a Commodore VIC-20 or VIC-1001, install some code at address and invoke an auto-start cartridge that has been loaded previously with one or more -l switches.

On the Commodore VIC-20, the keyboard is connected to the cassette write line. When using the C2N232 device on this computer, it is better not to not touch the keyboard during data transfers.

On the Commodore 64, the Action Replay cartridge may cause problems with some cables.

Other cables than c2n232, serial, pc64 and kontros have not been tested with this release.

The cbmlink utility and the C2N232 cassette drive emulator device were designed and implemented by Marko Mkel <msmakela@nic.funet.fi>. Some of cbmlink is based on prlink, which was designed and implemented by Marko Mkel and Olaf Seibert. The quick disk routines are based on the work of Daniel Kahlin and Andreas "pitch" Andersson.

c2n(1), cbmconvert(1).