Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!watdragon!lion!kcollinsthom From: kcollinsthom@lion.waterloo.edu (Kevyn Collins-Thompson) Newsgroups: comp.os.minix Subject: Re: MINIX on HP Vectra??? Message-ID: <8577@watdragon.waterloo.edu> Date: 20 Sep 88 19:28:48 GMT References: <590001@hpsad.HP.COM> Sender: daemon@watdragon.waterloo.edu Lines: 31 > Does anybody out there have minix running on an HP Vectra? Well, I also have attempted running MINIX 1.2 on a Vectra, but soon came to the conclusion that it's not possible without a lot of work and more detailed info about exactly how HP's Human Interface Loop works. The Vectra uses its HP-HIL hardware to grab data from the keyboard, and then attempts, through a chain of interrupts, to make it look like the keycode was procured in standard PC-compatible fashion. Only problem is, HP-HIL uses a couple extra non-standard interrupt vectors in this chain. (MINIX overwrites these with a pointer to a trap routine, hence the TRAP message as soon as you press the '=' key in the first menu). Special routines in the Enhanced Vectra BIOS are also used, I believe, at points in the chain. Modifying one line in the MINIX kernal so that these vectors are left alone fixed the problem temporarily, but I was only able to use MINIX for a couple of minutes before the machine inevitably hung. This isn't surprising, considering the HP-HIL driver was still using the BIOS. One true working solution to this HP-HIL mess would be a bigger mess: to rewrite the HP-HIL driver as part of MINIX and get around the BIOS. That would not only be a pain, but you would need the manuals containing the proprietary info on HP-HIL. Sorry about lack of details; I did this way back last March while working at HP. There might be other problems in addition to those caused by HP-HIL, but this is definately a major one. ------ Kevyn Collins-Thompson ...uunet!watmath!lion!kcollinsthom