Frank.Neumann@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de (Frank Neumann) (04/23/91)
Hello out there, I was just wondering if someone does work with AmigaMinix and can tell me how far the recent version (I think the latest kernel I saw was dated April 4th) does support harddisk usage ? The problem is that I am going to purchase AmigaMinix next weekend on a fair, but it isn't really worth the price if it doesn't work with harddisks. (You know, I've had to work with just one floppy drive for 3 years, and now that I have a harddisk, I don't want to miss it). My system consists of an Amiga 500 with 2.3 MBytes RAM and a 65 MBytes Seagate harddisk (via Omti-Controller). I heard that Commodore's controller is already supported now, but that can't be all, can it ? Please help me decide whether to buy it or not. So long, Frank -- + Frank Neumann, Hauptstr. 107, 2900 Oldenburg, FRG The Amiga is it. + + InterNet: Frank.Neumann@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de + + UUCP: neumann@uniol.uucp \\// InHouse:amigo@faramir + + Zerberus: neumann@uniol.zer BitNet:295391@DOLUNI1.BITNET IRC: Franky + + Alan Turing's letzte Worte: 'Mein Gott - es ist voller Blanks..' (ME) +
sreiz@cs.vu.nl (Steven Reiz) (04/24/91)
Frank.Neumann@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de (Frank Neumann) writes: >a 65 MBytes Seagate harddisk (via Omti-Controller). I heard that Commodore's >controller is already supported now, but that can't be all, can it ? Well, to be honest, yes, that's all, at this moment. Our current harddisk driver supports the Commodore A590 and will support the Commodore A3000, A2091 and A2090 (SCSI drives only) very very soon. Someone is working on a driver for GVP harddisks, and I'm confident that that driver is going to be a working product very soon as well. Several people are working on other drivers, but I cannot guarantee that those projects will ever produce something that works reliably. The major problem with harddisk drivers is not that they are very hard to write (generally they are not), but to obtain enough low-level information about the harddisk controller. If you can obtain that information somehow, for example by asking the manufacturer for it, I'm very sure that you could write your harddisk driver yourself, maybe with some help from us. The kind of information that you need is basically a list of offsets in the board controller, something like: offset: 3, size: byte, purpose: block count offset: 16, size: long, purpose: dma buffer pointer With complicated controllers, eg. SCSI, you often need some information about the protocol to use (in which order to access the registers, what to do in case of errors etc.) as well. I happen to have an OMTI (or at least some kind of ST506) controller myself so I would be very willing to help you out here and there if you, or someone else, could give us this information. So, GENERAL REQUEST! Does anyone out there have this information about OMTI or compatible ST506 controllers? Regards, Steven Reiz (sreiz@cs.vu.nl)
Tyler Sarna <tsarna@cub> (04/25/91)
Frank Neumann <Frank.Neumann%ARBI.INFORMATIK.UNI-OLDENBURG.DE@VM1.NoDak.EDU> writes: > I was just wondering if someone does work with AmigaMinix and can tell me > how far the recent version (I think the latest kernel I saw was dated > April 4th) does support harddisk usage ? The problem is that I am going to There is an Apr 22 version on ftp.cs.vu.nl. It is supposed to support the C= A2091, A590, and A3000 SCSI interfaces. Other people are working on drivers for different controllers, but they are not far along enough yet to discuss. > purchase AmigaMinix next weekend on a fair, but it isn't really worth the > price if it doesn't work with harddisks. (You know, I've had to work with > just one floppy drive for 3 years, and now that I have a harddisk, I don't > want to miss it). My system consists of an Amiga 500 with 2.3 MBytes RAM and > a 65 MBytes Seagate harddisk (via Omti-Controller). I heard that Commodore's > controller is already supported now, but that can't be all, can it ? > Please help me decide whether to buy it or not. The Omti is just a ST-506 -> SCSI interface for a hard disk, isn't it? What kind of Amiga -> SCSI interface are you using? That is, who makes the piece that actually connects to the 86 pin SOTS bus on the left side of the 500? Secondly, how on earth does one get such an odd number as 2.3 Megs of Ram? -- Tyler "Ty" Sarna tsarna@polar.bowdoin.edu "I protest Captain! I am NOT a merry man!" -- Lt. Worf