A2PI/GSport/FUSE

Hello,

I have recently started playing around with the RPI connected to the A2Pi card, with the installed Rasapple II software (great hardware/Software combination).

Being a new user to Linux and its commands I have some questions:

1. From reading and seeing on youtube, i can mount my physical drives from the A2 (cffa3000 (slot2), Scsi HD (slot7), by installing FUSE and using A2MOUNT. Is this preinstalled on A2PI? If not, how do i install FUSE (steps would be appreciated)?

2. I prefer running GSport from the RPI login rather than going to lx terminal. That being said, how can i activate FUSE and A2MOUNT if i go this route?

3. I know that in LX terminal, Alt-4 will shutdown GSport and go into rpi prompt. Running raw gsport (Rpi login) pressing Alt-4 will completely shutdown the RPI and i would need to restart it, is there a soft command where i can just get back to the RPI prompt?

Thank you.

According to the manual:

Part III: FUSE ProDOS driver.
The FUSE driver (File system in User SpacE) for Apple II Pi works closely with the Apple II
environment to reflect the FUSE operation into a ProDOS MLI call. The FUSE driver knows very little
about the details of ProDOS. ProDOS itself does most of the work so that compatibility is guaranteed.
fusea2pi:
fusea2pi is the actual FUSE device driver. At start up it calls the ProDOS on_line function to retrieve
all the ProDOS volumes available to the Apple II. fusea2pi then makes a directory for each volume
named after the volume. In addition, each volume is made available as a raw device file named after it's
position in the ProDOS device table. The two default 5¼ drives in slot 6 are always made available for
non-ProDOS format floppies that can still be accessed in a raw mode. This way, volumes can be easily
backed up (copied elsewhere) and emulators can have access to the physical media.
ProDOS file names are munged in the same way that CiderPress attaches the meta information, type
and aux, to the end of the file name, separated by '#'. Also, file names are displayed in upper-case. The
decision to munge the file names in this was it in order to make a very visual distinction between the
ProDOS files and regular *nix files.
The driver can run directly, but the helper script a2mount is the recommended way to mount ProDOS
volumes. Run as:
fusea2pi [fuse options..] [+rw]
The last option (must be last) is a fusea2pi only option which allows the raw device files to be
write-able. By default, they are read-only. It can be potentially dangerous to write to the raw device
while Linux accesses the mounted file system. If an emulator is going to be writing to the raw device
files, it is best to leave the mounted file system alone until the emulator is exited.
a2mount:
The a2mount script calls the fusea2pi and fills in some additional parameters to give your user name
the ownership of the files. This is the preferred way to call fusea2pi. It can accept up to two parameters:
one is the mount point, the second is the option +rw argument to make the raw device files write-able.
Run as:
a2mount [+rw]
fusermount:
To unmount the ProDOS file system, call the FUSE command as:
fusermount -u
Any additional users, which should have the ability to mount the ProDOS devices, need to be added to
the ‘fuse’ group with the following command:
sudo addgroup fuse

When running the full-screen frame-buffer GSport emulator, the only way to cleanly exit the emulator
is with ALT+F4 (SolidApple+OpenApple+4).

Apple II storage media:
Another exciting feature of the Apple II Pi is access to the underlying Apple II storage media from
Linux. To facilitate the access from GSport, raw device files that look like normal Linux files but in
actuality map to the physical devices underneath are made available. GSport can use the raw device
files to gain access to the physical media, although with a performance hit (it is, after all, running on
real Apple II hardware at 1 MHz). GSport can be configured to use files for different disk mappings
through the config.txt file or through the F4 Configuration Panel. There is no requirement that Apple II
Pi devices have to mapped to the same GSport slot/drive device. The FUSE driver has an option to
make the raw device files write-able; by default they are read-only. This can be very dangerous, as
Linux thinks it has exclusive use of the file system. If GSport has write access to the device file, it is
best to stay out of the Linux mapped ProDOS file system until GSport has exited.
GSport exit:
Apple II Pi and GSport work together to provide an experience closer to an accelerated Apple IIgs than
an emulator running in a window on a foreign machine. Be careful, it is actually hard to differentiate
which environment you are really running. Take a moment before you just switch off the power when
you are done! Always exit GSport with SolidApple+OpenApple+4 (ALT+F4), then shutdown Linux
with:
sudo halt
Apple II User:
There is a special user account that can quickly launch the GSport full screen emulator and halt Apple
II Pi on exit that makes the Apple II Pi behave more like a traditional Apple II accelerator. Simply login
in as username: apple2 with an empty password. The default GSport environment will be run. If you
don’t have the pre-configured SD card, the apple2 user can be installed with:
sudo apt-get install apple2user
Exit the emulator with the ALT-F4 (OpenApple+ClosedApple+4) key combination. This will shut the
Apple II Pi down safely.

Actually, reading the manual posted above does answer your questions, it just may be a little terse (understatement).

For the Linux newbie, the apple2 user login is meant to get you directly into the gsport emulator. The physical drives will be mounted under Linux, but to get access to them will require entering the gsport configuration screen (F4) and inserting the mounted physical drives into the virtual emulated drive slots. They will be mounted in the /home/apple2/prodos directory as files with the .po extension. When exiting the emulator, it does indeed shut down the machine. Again, this is for the Linux newbie.

Once you are comfortable with how gsport works in this environment, you can move on to the full Linux environment by logging in as the pi user. You then can start and stop the gsport emulator from the command line, returning back to Linux. First, everything you need is already installed in the Raspple II image. To run gsport just like the apple2 user, make sure there is a directory named "prodos" by typing 'mkdir prodos'. To mount the physical apple drives as per the manual, type 'a2mount prodos'. Then type 'gsport' to start the emulator.

If you are running lxterm under the X desktop, gsport will run in a window. If you are logging straight into a console terminal, gsport will run full screen (recommended).

Actually, reading the manual posted above does answer your questions, it just may be a little terse (understatement).

...which is exactly why I posted it.