how to extract cab files without messing up file names

Not sure where to post this question. I want to extract cab files to test out stuff on the Sharp Brain. This is a royal pain because my Brain (PW-A7200) does not really cope well with cab files. TestCE will install them, but if the machine is reset or the batteries run down Program Files and Windows folders are reset too. Not all cabs work in TestCE and you can't install to storage card.

So I could install cabs on another HPC like J720 and then copy folders over to the Brain's storage card but this is a huge pain. So I installed cabextract on my PC and I can extract them but it screws up all the file names . See the first shot below.


Apparently, the first file--the one ending in 000-- is just a list of all the files. See the second shot.

Surely, there's something that can automatically extract and rename the contents of cab files?

btw, Ark is just a GUI frontend to cabextract and lots of other archive programs. You get the same results at the command line.

Edited by hassilon 2023-12-14 9:57 PM








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cabmess.png (80KB - 0 downloads)
file_list.png (57KB - 0 downloads)

This is my favorite win32 program to extract cabs

https://www.hpcfactor.com/scl/2052/Unknown_or_not_specified/MSCEInf/version_2.6

Sometimes I sidestep MSCEInf and use a ZIP extractor on my PC to extract the files. I've known for a long time that the .000 file is an .inf file that provides the unextracted names of the other files. Change .000 to .inf or .txt and you can read it. The only problem with this method happens when you have two files whose names start with the same characters. (The names are in the shortened 8.3 format, so longer names incorporate ~1, ~2, etc as the last two of the first eight characters to abbreviate them. But then you have to guess which file is which. )

@CE Geek, the ~1, ~2 represent the order they are listed in the .000 file

I think you're thinking of the file extensions (.001, .002, etc), C:Amie.

Yes?

Those are the 3 in 8.3; ie, they're after the dot. The ~1, ~2, etc are before the dot, at the end of the 8. Eg, from the Pocket On-Schedule CAB, ADOCED~1.017 and ADOCED~2.018 for adocedb30.dll and adocedb31.dll, respectively.

As:





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CAB Ordinals.jpg (146KB - 0 downloads)

I haven't needed to pull apart many cabs after all; I found Miosoft for Brain and it is has just about everything: TotalCmdr, WordPad, Notepad, uBook, SpreadCE, Mobibook, Alreader, Calc98 and a bunch of games....

Also, TestCE works fairly well at installing CABs. Have not had much trouble moving stuff from Program Files or Windows to Storage Card.
Minesweeper and Taipei from Ent. Pack work fine running from the card.
Strangely bloaty crashtacular-on-other-hpcs games like Powder and FAngband run well on the Brain A7200.

Edited by hassilon 2023-12-17 4:03 PM

Even though it’s in Japanese , I highly recommend checking out @watamario15 Sharp Brain Wiki

https://brain.fandom.com/ja/wiki/Brain_Wiki

They’ve spent a lot of time with it

I know it’s slightly off topic in this thread but thought it relevant if you’re getting into the Brain in general

I've been looking at the Brain fandom but it is slow going and I have to use google translate a lot. "Sharp Brain" is an unfortunate choice of names in English: search engines give you mostly hokey alternative medicine crap that is supposed to make your brain work better.

Does this tool happen to work for you by the way?

https://www.hpcfactor.com/scl/1407/Hou_Ming/wceload_Extension_tool_for_Sigmarion_III/version_1.0

I know it’s for the Sig but it allows for changing of settings. I don’t know if it’ll work on the Brain though.

No special enabling tool is necessary on the Brain A7200 : when you try a CAB from a different arch, TestCE (on the Brain Wiki and in SCL) complains that the CPU architecture is wrong but lets you go ahead and install the CAB anyway. I think my question is more or less solved....or at least mooted by Miosoft for Brain having just about everything except a few rogue-like games.

If you want me to test wceload_ext anyway, I will do it for science.

Nono, that’s not necessary. I was just trying to think of ideas for you.
I’m sorry we couldn’t get it working how you wanted though.

Just FYI: For Japanese translation I recommend using DeepL than Google translate. DeepL almost always produces a better result than Google translate.