Message-ID: <5173@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 5-Mar-85 23:31:44 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.5173
Posted: Tue Mar  5 23:31:44 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 5-Mar-85 23:31:44 EST
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 37

I have recently acquired Venix for the PC/AT and have run into a few problems,
and was wondering if others out there (there MUST be others :-) ) had run
into them as well....
 1) date/time on bootup is sort-of correct..month, day and time are correct,
    year is always 1970
 2) awk(1) does not handle the BEGIN pattern correctly..it hangs the process
 3) curses(3) routine getstr does not return when RETURN pressed..have to
    hit ^J (that took a while to stumble into)
 4) awk(1) does not handle this type of command line properly:
	awk -f prog filename
    it just hangs there

Some observations:
 1) though I could not find it anywhere in the manuals, I have discovered
    that kill -2 1 causes /etc/ttys to be re-read..sure beats re-booting as
    the manual's way to re-configure your ports
 2) arbitrary-length reads directed at a tty in raw mode
    block until the number of characters
    requested are input. THIS IS MENTIONED in ONE (1) PLACE as far as I can
    see, and not well marked.
   (in thinking about this, it might be why getstr screws up)
    This means, among other things, that stdio can not be used in raw
    mode (I have some public software which does this), as the old
    _filbuf does a read of BUFSIZ. cute
 3) performance is pretty good

Has anyone put the floating point processor in? how does venix live with it?
How about the AST Advantage card??? Anyone with it?
And of course, the 64 dollar question, what about second source hard disks?

I would appreciate hearing from those hearty souls who are running Venix
on a PC/AT....

   as they say, thanks in advance
-- 
     Jerry J. Deroo
	{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!jerry

Message-ID: <161@sesame.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 7-Mar-85 21:43:04 EST
Article-I.D.: sesame.161
Posted: Thu Mar  7 21:43:04 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 11-Mar-85 05:28:01 EST
References: <5173@utzoo.UUCP>
Organization: Free-Access Unix in Boston
Lines: 75

I have VENIX running on my AT, and in fact wrote the Hard Disk driver
which is used by VENIX.  Some responses to your questions follow:

 >  I have recently acquired Venix for the PC/AT and have run into a few problems,
 >  and was wondering if others out there (there MUST be others :-) ) had run
 >  into them as well....
 >   1) date/time on bootup is sort-of correct..month, day and time are correct,
 >      year is always 1970
Not a problem on my machine.  Check that you have used IBM's 'setup' properly.

 >   2) awk(1) does not handle the BEGIN pattern correctly..it hangs the process
Sorry- I avoid using awk on any machine.  It's too slow even when it works.

 >   3) curses(3) routine getstr does not return when RETURN pressed..have to
 >      hit ^J (that took a while to stumble into)
You probably want to use CBREAK rather than RAW mode.

 >   4) awk(1) does not handle this type of command line properly:
 >  	awk -f prog filename
 >      it just hangs there
 >  
 >  Some observations:
 >   1) though I could not find it anywhere in the manuals, I have discovered
 >      that kill -2 1 causes /etc/ttys to be re-read..sure beats re-booting as
 >      the manual's way to re-configure your ports
This is the historic method used by V7 derivatives.

 >   2) arbitrary-length reads directed at a tty in raw mode
 >      block until the number of characters
 >      requested are input. THIS IS MENTIONED in ONE (1) PLACE as far as I can
 >      see, and not well marked.
 >     (in thinking about this, it might be why getstr screws up)
 >      This means, among other things, that stdio can not be used in raw
 >      mode (I have some public software which does this), as the old
 >      _filbuf does a read of BUFSIZ. cute
This is very true,  although it has hidden benefits for things like
uucp that want to read 64 bytes RAW, and need all of them before anything
can be done.

 >   3) performance is pretty good
 >  
 >  Has anyone put the floating point processor in? how does venix live with it?
 >  How about the AST Advantage card??? Anyone with it?
 >  And of course, the 64 dollar question, what about second source hard disks?
I haven't been able to get the FPP, but it does work on machines that have it.
I have an Advantage card in my machine, and am about to load it up with those
$8.00 256K RAM chips that are now available.  As far as second source hard
disks and VENIX go, here's the poop:  If the disk matches one of IBM's disk
types as listed in the TR, fine.  If it doesn't, you'll need a later version
of my disk driver, that can handle 'odd ball' disks.  In particular, the
Maxtor-140 is one of these.

 >  
 >  I would appreciate hearing from those hearty souls who are running Venix
 >  on a PC/AT....
 >  
 >     as they say, thanks in advance
 >  -- 
 >       Jerry J. Deroo
 >  	{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!jerry

One further bit of advice:  Pop for the $1.59 and get a 15Mhz crystal for
the AT.  The 15Mhz seems to work well, and even though it runs the 80286
over spec, it won't be running the 80287 over spec.  The 286 will be running
at 7.5Mhz and the 287 will be running at 5Mhz.  I think this is
a reasonable compromise.  With a 15Mhz crystal, the 80286 out benchmarks
a 10Mhz 68010 when running the drystone benchmark (balanced statement
mix, variable types, but no floating point or disk).

-- 
		Rick Richardson, PC Research, Inc.

	{genrad|ihnp4|ima}!wjh12!talcott!sesame!{rick|pcrat!rick}
		{cbosgd|harvard}!talcott!sesame!{rick|pcrat!rick}
			rick%sesame@harvard.ARPA 

Article-I.D.: whuts.114
Posted: Wed Mar 13 16:57:10 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 14-Mar-85 06:17:29 EST
References: <5173@utzoo.UUCP> <161@sesame.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 82

 >  I have VENIX running on my AT, and in fact wrote the Hard Disk driver
 >  which is used by VENIX.  Some responses to your questions follow:
 >  
 >>  I have recently acquired Venix for the PC/AT and have run into a few problems,
 >>  and was wondering if others out there (there MUST be others :-) ) had run
 >>  into them as well....
 >>   1) date/time on bootup is sort-of correct..month, day and time are correct,
 >>      year is always 1970
 >  Not a problem on my machine.  Check that you have used IBM's 'setup' properly.
 >  
 >>   2) awk(1) does not handle the BEGIN pattern correctly..it hangs the process
 >  Sorry- I avoid using awk on any machine.  It's too slow even when it works.
 >  
 >>   3) curses(3) routine getstr does not return when RETURN pressed..have to
 >>      hit ^J (that took a while to stumble into)
 >  You probably want to use CBREAK rather than RAW mode.
 >  
 >>   4) awk(1) does not handle this type of command line properly:
 >>  	awk -f prog filename
 >>      it just hangs there
 >>  
 >>  Some observations:
 >>   1) though I could not find it anywhere in the manuals, I have discovered
 >>      that kill -2 1 causes /etc/ttys to be re-read..sure beats re-booting as
 >>      the manual's way to re-configure your ports
 >  This is the historic method used by V7 derivatives.
 >  
 >>   2) arbitrary-length reads directed at a tty in raw mode
 >>      block until the number of characters
 >>      requested are input. THIS IS MENTIONED in ONE (1) PLACE as far as I can
 >>      see, and not well marked.
 >>     (in thinking about this, it might be why getstr screws up)
 >>      This means, among other things, that stdio can not be used in raw
 >>      mode (I have some public software which does this), as the old
 >>      _filbuf does a read of BUFSIZ. cute
 >  This is very true,  although it has hidden benefits for things like
 >  uucp that want to read 64 bytes RAW, and need all of them before anything
 >  can be done.
 >  
 >>   3) performance is pretty good
 >>  
 >>  Has anyone put the floating point processor in? how does venix live with it?
 >>  How about the AST Advantage card??? Anyone with it?
 >>  And of course, the 64 dollar question, what about second source hard disks?
 >  I haven't been able to get the FPP, but it does work on machines that have it.
 >  I have an Advantage card in my machine, and am about to load it up with those
 >  $8.00 256K RAM chips that are now available.  As far as second source hard
 >  disks and VENIX go, here's the poop:  If the disk matches one of IBM's disk
 >  types as listed in the TR, fine.  If it doesn't, you'll need a later version
 >  of my disk driver, that can handle 'odd ball' disks.  In particular, the
 >  Maxtor-140 is one of these.
 >  
 >>  
 >>  I would appreciate hearing from those hearty souls who are running Venix
 >>  on a PC/AT....
 >>  
 >>     as they say, thanks in advance
 >>  -- 
 >>       Jerry J. Deroo
 >>  	{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!jerry
 >  
 >  One further bit of advice:  Pop for the $1.59 and get a 15Mhz crystal for
 >  the AT.  The 15Mhz seems to work well, and even though it runs the 80286
 >  over spec, it won't be running the 80287 over spec.  The 286 will be running
 >  at 7.5Mhz and the 287 will be running at 5Mhz.  I think this is
 >  a reasonable compromise.  With a 15Mhz crystal, the 80286 out benchmarks
 >  a 10Mhz 68010 when running the drystone benchmark (balanced statement
 >  mix, variable types, but no floating point or disk).
 >  
 >  -- 
 >  		Rick Richardson, PC Research, Inc.
 >  
 >  	{genrad|ihnp4|ima}!wjh12!talcott!sesame!{rick|pcrat!rick}
 >  		{cbosgd|harvard}!talcott!sesame!{rick|pcrat!rick}
 >  			rick%sesame@harvard.ARPA 

I'm currently running an AT with a 80287 and 512K, but no hard disk.  Could you
give me a source for a 15Mhz crystal?  Sure would appreciate it.

Max Robin AT&T BellLabs                
ZZ
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