[comp.os.minix] mx386 upgrade problems -- help!

rt2@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Rens Troost) (04/06/91)

Help! I've gotten almost all the way through the minix386 tutorial, and the
kernel built with no problems, but now I can't get shoelace to compile. The
file shoe.c wants to include varargs.h, which is not in my (PH1.5)
distribution. Should I grab a generic one from a sun box? is there a more
recent version of shoelace (I have 1.5)?

Actually, though, I'd rather avoid shoelace, as I do a fair bit of
kernel-building. Has anyone gotten the normal build process working with
this setup? Or does shoelace actually cut down turnaround time? (It took me
less than 4 minutes to compile FS, 'make image', and reboot on my 386 befor
I started this endeavor!)

Any help much appreciated!

-Rens
rt2@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu
rens@gnu.ai.mit.edu

nall@cs.utk.edu (John Nall) (04/07/91)

In article <1991Apr6.144159.22831@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> rt2@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Rens Troost) writes:
>
>Actually, though, I'd rather avoid shoelace, as I do a fair bit of
>kernel-building. Has anyone gotten the normal build process working with
>this setup? Or does shoelace actually cut down turnaround time? (It took me
>less than 4 minutes to compile FS, 'make image', and reboot on my 386 befor
>I started this endeavor!)

The reason that I advised using Shoelace at the time I wrote the tutorial
had to do with problems that have since been corrected (or at least have
had corrections posted to the net).  If I were writing it today, I would
not put in the part about Shoelace.  (Although I personally like it, and
use it, it makes the process a little more complicated the first time
around).

Also, while I have the soapbox :-)........ I've had several people send me
e-mail who quite obviously have bought P-H Minix 1.5, immediately grabbed
the 386 stuff, and tried to upgrade.  For a seasoned systems guy, this is
probably ok. But for those who are using Minix as a learning tool (which
it was designed to be, as I understand it), I highly recommend becoming
completely familiar with "standard" Minix before upgrading.  A lot of my
tutorial language is pretty casual - it is definitely NOT a Heathkit
manual!

John Nall

eesrajm@cc.brunel.ac.uk (Andrew J Michael) (04/07/91)

In article <1991Apr6.144159.22831@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>, rt2@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Rens Troost) writes:

(Stuff deleted)

> 
> Actually, though, I'd rather avoid shoelace, as I do a fair bit of
> kernel-building. Has anyone gotten the normal build process working with
> this setup? Or does shoelace actually cut down turnaround time? (It took me
> less than 4 minutes to compile FS, 'make image', and reboot on my 386 befor
> I started this endeavor!)
> 
> Any help much appreciated!
> 
> -Rens
> rt2@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu
> rens@gnu.ai.mit.edu


I run MINIX/386 quite happily without shoelace because I couldn't ever get
shoelace to work on my machine.  There have been various bug-fixes and
suggestions posted since, but quite frankly I couldn't be bothered to get
a 16-bit system running again just to fiddle with shoelace. **

Use Bruce's sources as supplied, but be careful which compiler you use to
compile things like menu and db.  I just keep the binaries of these handy
in case of accidents.  If you get any problems drop me an email.

** - This is NOT intended as a criticism of shoelace.  It's just my laziness.


Andy Michael


-- 
Andy Michael                                     "You might think that.  I
85 Hawthorne Crescent                             couldn't possibly comment."
West Drayton					    - `House of Cards'
Middlesex            email: eesrajm@brunel.ac.uk                             
UB7 9PA           or Andrew.Michael@brunel.ac.uk

grundy@rtf.bt.co.uk (Martin Grundy) (04/08/91)

I had your problem after I got shoelace from plains.NoDak.edu.

However, upon looking in the shoelace directory, I found varargs.h there :-)

The problem is that the include statement in shoe.c says:-

	#include <varargs.h>

The solution:-

	Either  1)      Copy varargs.h to /usr/include

	or      2)      Edit shoe.c to read #include "varargs.h"

	or      3)      Edit the makefile to add a "-I ." to the
			CFLAGS definition.

	I think I used option 3.

Hope this helps :->

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jay@hermix.UUCP (Jay Skeer) (04/12/91)

  I have used the normal, non-shoelace, procedure to build boot disks
for minix386.  To do so you must solve a problem: build will gladly
make immages with larger than 64k data or code space, the boot block
(or is it init?) format allows it too.  But, the actual loader
doesn't.  It ought to be fixed.

  Since the only place this bug bites is the FS, I just recompiled it
with only 30 buffers (same as the pc) rather than 300.

j'

hermix!jay@rand.org