[comp.os.minix] MacMinix & System 7.0-how I made it work

TRADER@cup.portal.com (Paul Vincent McGinnis) (06/02/91)

Boy, I can't believe how dumb I was!! I was having problems getting 
MacMinix to work with System 7.0. I realized that on the old system
software, I never used to run MacMinix 1.5.10 with MultiFinder because 
of a strong dislike of MultiFinder crashing unexpectedly with numerous
Mac applications.

Under the regular Finder, MacMinix would use whatever RAM you had free.
You didn't have to bother with changing the default RAM parameters in
the Information box (CMD-I) for the macboot application. System 7.0 is
a glorified form of MultiFinder. If you are like most users, you will 
have to boost the memory available to macboot. Here's how:

1) Click on 'macboot' and highlight it. Hold down the Cmd & I keys (Cmd
  is the key with the Apple or "propeller").
2) In the Info box there is a field called "Current Size". For macboot
   this defaults to 1000K. For most users, this probably won't be large
   enough. You have to set this field to whatever RAM you want to give
   MacMinix. In my case, with a 400K RAM disk and 384K heap the smallest
   that seemed to work was 1536K (1.5 Mb). I set mine to 2560K (2.5M)
   because I have a fair amount of spare RAM left out of my 5 Megs
   even though System 7.0 is a memory hog.
3) Click the close box and you are ready to run MacMinix.

My suspicion, based on what I saw is that the heap & stack collided because
of the way MacMinix allocates memory. Speaking of memory, you don't have
to play around with System Heap size anymore to be able to run all your
cdev's, INIT's, and desk accessories on System 7.0. (You used to have to
boost System Heap size with a program like BootMan if you had a lot of
junk in your System Folder & System). System 7.0 memory allocation can 
allocate the needed memory automatically.

The only thing that didn't seem to work after I managed to get MacMinix 
running was my desk accessories. All MacMinix does is beep when you try to
start one. Any ideas??? (Desk accessories run differently in System 7.0 -
they can even be executed as standalone applications).

Paul McGinnis / TRADER@cup.portal.com
"OOOPS?!? What do you mean 'ooops'?? I  heard you say 'oops'..."
^------- actual quote from nervous Marketing type about mainframe programmer

KENC@vaxb.acs.unt.edu (Ken Corey, CSCI Major...) (06/03/91)

>I was having problems getting
>MacMinix to work with System 7.0. I realized that on the old system
>software, I never used to run MacMinix 1.5.10 with MultiFinder because
>of a strong dislike of MultiFinder crashing unexpectedly with numerous
>Mac applications.
> 
>Under the regular Finder, MacMinix would use whatever RAM you had free.
>You didn't have to bother with changing the default RAM parameters in
>the Information box (CMD-I) for the macboot application. System 7.0 is
>a glorified form of MultiFinder. If you are like most users, you will
>have to boost the memory available to macboot. Here's how:

(grin)   And I thought that anyone playing with MacMinix had already done
this...;)  Yes, Mine's set at aroun 2100K right now too...

>The only thing that didn't seem to work after I managed to get MacMinix
>running was my desk accessories. All MacMinix does is beep when you try to
>start one. Any ideas??? (Desk accessories run differently in System 7.0 -
>they can even be executed as standalone applications).

Apparently, system 7 doesn't have enough memory available or some such, but
clicking on the finder first, and THEN activating the DA works just fine.  At
least...on my system it does...;)  This happens in MacKermit as well. 
MacKermit runs fine in the background, but it won't accept a desk accessory
event on system 7, so, I click on a finder item in the background, and then
select the DA.  Works like a charm.

\  Ken Corey, VAX/Unix Programmer/Operator  (And GOD am I confused...;)  /
 \          kenc@vaxb.acs.unt.edu  ken@isect.lonestar.org               /