64Copy Central

This page mainly covers working with NIBTOOLS v0.5.4 and higher under DOS, my environment of choice for C= 1541 imaging work. Earlier version of NIBTOOLS (called MNIB) have much more cryptic output and thus are much harder to troubleshoot. I've created a boot CD with all the latest tools to help with imaging under DOS, visit my imaging page to download it.

I have only once attempted to use OpenCBM under Windows to use NIBTOOLS over an XAP1541 cable, but it didn't work. All I received were timeout messages during the transfer. I find that using OpenCBM under Windows is still a very immature platform as it is all command-line based and thus is not very intuitive when in Windows.

Technical and troubleshooting information for NIBTOOLS is scarce, so I thought I would try to put some together. Using my imaging boot CD, I've managed to test a good number of systems, and using my 1541 and newly built XAP1541 cable, I've put together a list of machines and hardware and whether they work or not. Just remember that MNIB/NIBTOOLS requires a parallel X cable and a parallel-enabled 1541/71 drive.

When NIBTOOLS does' t work it's very difficult to determine what's wrong. You can pipe the output of NIBTOOLS to a log file, so the entire transfer session is logged. Some small messages still get to the screen and are not logged, but most are. Here are the session logs where the transfer failed: MNIB 0.35, MNIB v0.45.1, NIBTOOLS v0.5.4. The best solution is to try another machine. Using my boot CD makes this very easy, as it only takes a few seconds to boot and test. NIBTOOLS has no command line options which affect the communications to the drive, so if it doesn't work then either you have a bad or incompatible cable or your machine is simply not compatible. "Not compatible" means that MNIB can't generate the proper timing to communicate to the drive or the cable will not work with your parallel port chipset.

When NIBTOOLS works, it's a joy to watch. It can read a disk in about 15-20 seconds, not including the initialization time to download the code to the drive. Here are the session logs where the communications and transfer worked: MNIB v0.35, MNIB v0.45.1, NIBTOOLS v0.5.4

Some indications that things aren't going to work are already evident in the initial messages that NIBREAD puts out. The "Drive Version" line is supposed to show the entire initialization message that the drive generates: "73, CBM DOS v2.6 1541, 00, 00". Many times this will get truncated down either a little bit or a lot. Many other times NIBREAD will hang on the "Uploading floppy-side code" and the system requires a reboot.

What I have found is that most machines over 800Mhz won't work with NIBTOOLS. This is especially true of the Pentium 4 single-core and hyperthreaded CPU's I've tried. Strangely, my tests of Intel dual core and Intel core2 duo machines showed much better results. I tested MNIB v0.35 and NIBTOOLS v0.45.1 and v0.5.4. The results for 0.35 were so bad that I've not included it as I can't recommend using such an old version. The results for 0.45.1 and 0.5.4 were so close that I've lumped them together. Here's the chart:

Email the author: Peter Schepers | Last updated: Mar 23, 2009