Atari Portfolio data transfer over serial interface to modern Linux
There are already great tutorials on transferring data from/to the Atari Portfolio digital assistant for MacOS and Windows. Here is how to have it talk to Linux – the quick and shell way.
The biggest obstacle is to get some XMODEM software onto the Portfolio, as the serial connection can be quite unreliable. After a one time bootstrap procedure using a copy over the serial device, subsequent transfers become much more reliable and convenient.
Alternatively to the complicated one time setup procedure, you may also just use the XTERM.COM from the dip Utilities card, that you might still find on eBay.
Prerequisites
- Atari Portfolio
- Atari Serial Interface HPC-102
- USB to D-sub serial adapter cable
- Null modem adaptor or cable – only needed if the D-sub of the USB adaptor isn’t female
- A Linux device with USB interface and the minicom and coreutils packages installed
- A copy of XLOAD.COM and XTERM2.COM on your Linux device