GEOS download section
Learn to use Wraptor
NOTE: You can skip the process of following through this tutorial and downloading and setting up all the individual files if you would prefer to get the entire GEOS set in D64 or D81 disk image files. Using Wraptor as described on this page is not necessary with these disk images, nor is the use of Convert 2.5 as described a little later on. All the work has already been done for you. However, you can learn a great deal about GEOS if you at least read all these tutorial pages. Go here to get the disk images.
First, we need a way to get our GEOS files onto a disk in a usable GEOS format.
NOTE: If you already have Wraptor V3 and know how to use it, you can skip this page and move on to the NEXT STEP.
Wraptor is a Commodore program that runs outside of GEOS. It was first introduced on a Loadstar disk. We'll need to use Wraptor to help build our GEOS boot disk.
GEOS files are different from normal Commodore files. They can be made up of 2 or more parts all tied to one single directory entry. Normal file copiers are not designed for copying a GEOS file. Likewise, terminal programs, web browsers, and other communications programs don't understand how to transfer a GEOS file over a phone line or the internet. It's also not possible to store a GEOS file on a remote internet site because chances are that site knows nothing about how a GEOS file is constructed.
Once we have GEOS booted up and running, we can copy and move files around our disks without any problem. But without GEOS running, it's a real problem. But we can deal with it.
In order to make a GEOS file easy to transfer from one place to another, we have to put it into a normal file format. Many times you'll see filenames that end with .CVT. These files are most likely GEOS files that have been converted to a format that can be transferred by any computer system or file copier. There are utilities available that run within GEOS for converting files between the GEOS format and a .CVT format. The most commonly used program is called "CONVERT 2.5". But CONVERT 2.5 is a GEOS program and we won't be able to use it until we get GEOS up and running.
So, instead we need a non-GEOS program to do the work for us. This is where Wraptor comes in. Now, Wraptor cannot work with .CVT files either. It has its own method of converting GEOS files to and from a normal file format. In fact, it goes a little further in that it can not only convert GEOS files, but it can also combine multiple files into one big file while at the same time compressing the data to make the resulting file smaller for faster transfer. This allows several needed files to all be kept together in one single archived file. Wraptor'd files are normally stored with filenames ending in .WR3.
Once you download an archived file originally created by Wraptor, you can use Wraptor to "unwrap" the archive and it will rebuild all the files onto a disk for you. The first thing you must do is download Wraptor and get familiar with it. It runs in 64 mode, in case you're using a 128. After downloading Wraptor and putting it onto a Commodore disk, load it up and experiment with it. It works equally well with normal Commodore files. You will need to use it to unwrap the GEOS files you will be downloading later on, so for the time being try it out on some normal Commodore files. Have it wrap up a few files into one archive. Then use it to unwrap them back into individual files. Unwrapping is what you will be doing after you download some files here. Get to know Wraptor and how it can read the source archive from one disk and unwrap the files onto a disk in another drive. For this, you will need to learn how to set the source and destination drives.
Here's the Wraptor program (8K) you need to download. It's in a ready to run format. This is Wraptor V3.
Here's an earlier version (32K) of Wraptor you can download. This version contains the documentation for Wraptor in case you can't figure out how to use the software. This file is an .sda type file. An .sda file is a "self-dissolving archive". Just load it and run it in 64 mode and it will dissolve itself into multiple files containing the main program and the documentation.
Once you've become familiar with Wraptor, continue on to the next step and start downloading the files you'll need to get your GEOS system up and running.
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