cwr@pnet01.cts.com (Will Rose) (01/17/91)
frost@chado.fidonet.org (Thomas Frost) writes: > Recently my trusty backup computer, a PC/XT clone, lost its 20 >meg hard disk. It still has the secondary 10 meg drive (when I get >around to making it DOS bootable), and everything else seems in >working order. > My question: is it worth the time and effort to put Minix >onto this beast? It's got 640 K RAM, generic CGA graphics, and (as I >mentioned) the 10 meg drive. I have no plans to replace the 20 meg at >present, so anything I do will have to fit on the 10 meg or on 360 K >floppies. I've run Minix on a 10MHz XT clone with 640K of memory and a 40mS hard disk for a couple of years now; it's quite effective (at least, version 1.5 is). You will need 20MB of disk space, tho', to do anything useful (15MB is the bare minimum) and you will need a 1.2MB or (better) 1.44MB drive for backup. While you can *run* Minix on a PC with just one floppy (and I have), there's not a lot you can do with it once you've booted it up. On my XT, rebuilding the whole system (library and kernel and commands) takes 8-10 hours; this isn't a handicap, since I just run a script file overnight. But if you were doing a lot of kernel rebuilding, without some short-cut like shoelace, you might find it slow. For general work it's acceptably fast. Below is the source tree of my HD - since it's in a 19MB partition, which has ~500K of free space, I assume the minix binaries and libraries and so on take up around 6MB. Blocks Directory (1KB) Name 13835 /usr/src 3596 /usr/src/commands - official commands 26 /usr/src/fs 35 /usr/src/include 1515 /usr/src/lib - official stuff plus maths libraries minus dictionary 2942 /usr/src/minix - official kernel plus shoelace 115 /usr/src/patches 0 /usr/src/tmp 657 /usr/src/upd15 4827 /usr/src/utils - things I find interesting Actually getting Minix running shouldn't be a problem (he lied fluently); if Minix will talk to your HD controller then there is no problem, if it will not then the fix could take minutes or days. It's a lot easier if you have another machine running Minix on which to reompile the kernel - I would hate to try rebuilding 1.5 on floppies. But it could be done. The 'killer application' that makes Minix useable is Steve Kirkendell's vi, which is rock solid, full-featured, and quick. Don't leave home without it. Good luck - Will ----------------------------------------------------------------------- "If heaven too had passions | Will Rose even heaven would | UUCP: {nosc ucsd hplabs!hp-sdd}!crash!pnet01!cw grow old." - Li Ho. | ARPA: crash!pnet01!cwr@nosc.mil | INET: cwr@pnet01.cts.com UUCP: {nosc ucsd hplabs!hp-sdd}!crash!pnet01!cwr ARPA: crash!pnet01!cwr@nosc.mil INET: cwr@pnet01.cts.com
allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KB8JRR) (01/28/91)
As quoted from <6985@crash.cts.com> by cwr@pnet01.cts.com (Will Rose): +--------------- | >present, so anything I do will have to fit on the 10 meg or on 360 K | >floppies. | | I've run Minix on a 10MHz XT clone with 640K of memory and a 40mS hard | disk for a couple of years now; it's quite effective (at least, version | 1.5 is). You will need 20MB of disk space, tho', to do anything useful | (15MB is the bare minimum) and you will need a 1.2MB or (better) 1.44MB | drive for backup. While you can *run* Minix on a PC with just one floppy +--------------- The 360K drive is dead? My XT clone is out of slots, so I can't just drop a 1.2MB controller in. (Not to mention that there seems to be no way to disable the motherboard floppy controller.) ++Brandon -- Me: Brandon S. Allbery VHF/UHF: KB8JRR on 220, 2m, 440 Internet: allbery@NCoast.ORG Packet: KB8JRR @ WA8BXN America OnLine: KB8JRR AMPR: KB8JRR.AmPR.ORG [44.70.4.88] uunet!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!ncoast!allbery Delphi: ALLBERY
ghelmer@dsuvax.uucp (Guy Helmer) (01/28/91)
In <1991Jan27.170806.55@NCoast.ORG> allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KB8JRR) writes: >As quoted from <6985@crash.cts.com> by cwr@pnet01.cts.com (Will Rose): >+--------------- >| you will need a 1.2MB or (better) 1.44MB >| drive for backup. >+--------------- >The 360K drive is dead? My XT clone is out of slots, so I can't just drop a >1.2MB controller in. (Not to mention that there seems to be no way to disable >the motherboard floppy controller.) Minix still runs (slowly) on my AT&T PC6300 with 360K drives. I have only backed up my 15Mb onto floppies once, though, and I nearly had to use every floppy I own :-( >++Brandon -- Guy Helmer helmer@sdnet.bitnet, uunet!dsuvax!ghelmer Dakota State University Computing Services ------------------- (605) 256-5315 MidIX -- networks, databases, DOS, UNIX, & MINIX ------------- (605) 256-2788