Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!pyrdc!pyrnj!rutgers!mailrus!um-math!hyc
From: hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: ST-MINIX questions
Keywords: ST, MINIX, SUPRA-HARD DISK DRIVE, X-WINDOWS
Message-ID: <413@stag.math.lsa.umich.edu>
Date: 21 Sep 88 22:16:08 GMT
References: <507@uvicctr.UUCP> <22214@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
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Reply-To: hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu)
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In article <22214@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> amra@orange.cis.ohio-state.edu (Nasir K Amra) writes:
>I have the following questions about ST_MINIX:
I have a preliminary version of ST Minix, current as of a couple months ago.

>1. What exactly comes with the software when you buy it from P-H?
The system I received came on 9 single sided floppy diskettes, 1 in TOS
format with a collection of TOS compatible Minix utilities. The others
consisted of a boot disk, a disk for the root partition (which is loaded
into a RAMdisk), two disks of user commands (pretty much the contents of
/bin on a regular Unix system), two disks of compiler system (include files,
compiler executables, libraries, archiver, etc.) and two disks of source
code, in compressed ar format. The RAMdisk is fairly flexible - its size is
equal to the size of the filesystem contained on the root diskette. The mkfs
command allows one to create filesystems larger than will actually fit onto
a diskette - this is useful for creating a RAMdisk with extra empty space
in it. The floppies are standard 360K format, formatted by any TOS disk
formatting utility. I used DCFORMAT to generate my working copy, using 82
tracks, 10 sectors per track, Twister format. Works just fine. My working
system (on a Mega 4) boots off an 820K floppy with a 1640K filesystem on it.
I load all the binries onto it, (excluding the compiler disks) taking about
550K of the RAMdisk, leaving the rest as workspace.

>2. Will it run from a supra 30 meg hard disk drive without any modifications?
I was unable to get Minix to recognize my Supra 20. I suspect it had something
to do with my old set of Supra formatting software, and an incompatible disk
partition map. I.e., the docs mention formatting and partitioning with Atari's
HDX.PRG, which I do not have. In any case, I was unable to use my Supra. I have
since gotten a newer update of their software (along with a new host adapter
card I ordered) as well as ICD's software, but my drive died before I could
try things out. (Totally unrelated; don't ask...)

>3. Does it carry with it the same 64K limitations that the IBM MINIX has?
This *is* a 68000, after all. No 64K limitations.

>4. How big is the binary code , i.e. how much space in ram does it take up?
I don't remember exactly, but I'd say around 100K for the kernel and 140K for
the default RAMdisk.

>5. Has X-windows ever been ported to MINIX?
Not to my knowledge, and so far I'm the only person I've seen who's seriously
talked about doing it so far. We need a standard network library.

>6. Where can one find out more information about the Amoeba networking protocol.
>(Tenanbaum's OS book does not mention Amoeba)
Wish I knew more, but all the code, and I presume all the available docs,
have already been sent out to this newsgroup.

>7. Are there usefull programs and source code not included in P-H's distribution
>of MINIX that is available, and if so where I can I get them?
Read this newsgroup, get stuff you missed from sites archiving this group.

I'm beginning to think that porting ARC to Minix would be of more immediate
use than porting GCC (should be easier, too!) and will probably get that
going fairly soon. (Trouble with bootstrapping - how do you decide where to
start?)
--
  /
 /_ , ,_.                      Howard Chu
/ /(_/(__                University of Michigan
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