tsarna@POLAR.BOWDOIN.EDU (Tyler Sarna) (01/02/91)
[please respond via e-mail. My comp.os.minix feed is being stubborn]
Hello! Santa brought me Minix 1.5 for the Amiga this Christmas. I'm
having a few problems however.
a) ECS agnus. I have the ECS Agnus (aka Super, Obese, and 1 Meg Agnus).
Minix doesn't like this. I am using "killchip" at the moment, but I'd
like a more reasonable solution.
b) File system corruption, which happens quite frequently. This may a
problem with the FS itself (as some people I have talked to have
suggested), due to the FS not being sync'd when the machine crashes (it
does this often too. Also, sometimes the screen memory gets overwritten.
The diskcopy program, for instance, reads into a buffer which apparently
gets allocated on top of the screen memory. I am using Project D to copy
disks instead).
c) I understand that Minix is up to 1.5.10, and that FS and Agnus
problems have been fixed. I have looked around on several FTP sites, but
found only PC and ST patches.
d) Hard disk drivers. I know that several are being worked on. Which
ones are being done? How are they coming along? If anyone is working on
a GVP Series II driver, I'd be glad to help any way I can (testing,
programming, etc).
e) 680x0 compatibility. I should hope that this is being worked on. When I
disable my '020 I also loose my expansion memory (32-bit memory on the
'020 card). Is anybody working on this? How is it coming along? Again,
I'd be glad to help out.
f) Bad boot disk. I knew about the above problems before I went ahead
with Minix, but I was unprepared for this. Apparently P-H has been
shipping these bad disks for quite a while, and, rather than fixing the
problem, they put a sticker on the box saying that the backup minix.img
on the disk can be used instead. This is idiotic.
Minix is something that I have wanted on the Amiga for quite a while (I
considered doing a port myself a couple of years back). It is currently
useless though. I hope that these initial problems can be overcome,
because it really is nice.
Anyway, Happy new year!
------///------------------------------------------------------------
/// Tyler "Ty" Sarna E-Mail: tsarna@polar.bowdoin.edu
\\\/// "...and save up to 100% on brands you've never heard of!!!!"
--\XX/---------------------------------------------------------------laverman@cs.rug.nl (Bert Laverman) (01/03/91)
I know I'm not an AmigaMinix user, but I had to get this off my chest: > d) Hard disk drivers. I know that several are being worked on. Which > ones are being done? How are they coming along? If anyone is working on > a GVP Series II driver, I'd be glad to help any way I can (testing, > programming, etc). Hear, Hear! at last an Amiga user who doesn't just complain about the lack of Harddrive support, but also offers to do something! If AmigaMinix ever manages to crawl up from it's current starting problems, it's with THIS kind of users. > e) 680x0 compatibility. I should hope that this is being worked on. When I > disable my '020 I also loose my expansion memory (32-bit memory on the > '020 card). Is anybody working on this? How is it coming along? Again, > I'd be glad to help out. This is a more general project. I've heard about several groups working on it. It would also be nice for Minix-ST, since the new TT is out (32MHz 68030, lots of memory, SCSI drive in basic model plus port for extensions, etc.) > ... > Minix is something that I have wanted on the Amiga for quite a while (I > considered doing a port myself a couple of years back). It is currently > useless though. This was a problem with the early releases of ALL Minix versions, but for Intel machines, STs and Macs there are makers as well as users. > I hope that these initial problems can be overcome, > because it really is nice. It gets better the longer you look at it ;-) > Anyway, Happy new year! Same to you. Bert Laverman bert@arrakis.nl.mugnet.org -or laverman@cs.rug.nl
jrw@quintro.uucp (Jon R. Wahlmann) (01/04/91)
In article <9101021544.AA13996@polar.bowdoin.edu> tsarna@POLAR.BOWDOIN.EDU (Tyler Sarna) writes: >[please respond via e-mail. My comp.os.minix feed is being stubborn] > >Hello! Santa brought me Minix 1.5 for the Amiga this Christmas. I'm >having a few problems however. An excellent Christmas present! >a) ECS agnus. I have the ECS Agnus (aka Super, Obese, and 1 Meg Agnus). >Minix doesn't like this. I am using "killchip" at the moment, but I'd >like a more reasonable solution. Have you tried the solution that Steven Reiz came up with? I have tried working with this on a friend's ECS agnus 2000, but without much luck. The binaries were corrupted and I haven't had a chance to recompile them. Here is the "README" from the archive that he posted a while back. You might try contacting him directly if you have any questions about it. > This version of minix fixes a bug that prevented minix from > running on amigas with more than 512 kb chip ram, and removes > some other peculiarities from the minix loader. > > > Steven Reiz (sreiz@cs.vu.nl) >b) File system corruption, which happens quite frequently. This may a >problem with the FS itself (as some people I have talked to have >suggested), due to the FS not being sync'd when the machine crashes (it >does this often too. Also, sometimes the screen memory gets overwritten. >The diskcopy program, for instance, reads into a buffer which apparently >gets allocated on top of the screen memory. I am using Project D to copy >disks instead). I can sympathize. I've had similiar problems. But, there are people working on making the floppy drive more robust so, perhaps FS corruption will be kept to a minimum. >c) I understand that Minix is up to 1.5.10, and that FS and Agnus >problems have been fixed. I have looked around on several FTP sites, but >found only PC and ST patches. I believe the version that Steven Reiz posted is considered to be 1.5.10. >d) Hard disk drivers. I know that several are being worked on. Which >ones are being done? How are they coming along? If anyone is working on >a GVP Series II driver, I'd be glad to help any way I can (testing, >programming, etc). Don't know about others, but as for the GVP Series II driver, I know of someone who happens to be working (or about to) on writing a Minix version of the driver. Hopefully he will be able to get the driver written soon, as there are quite a few people who have expressed interest. This person is ideal for the job since he was the one who wrote the driver for the AmigaDos side. >e) 680x0 compatibility. I should hope that this is being worked on. When I >disable my '020 I also loose my expansion memory (32-bit memory on the >'020 card). Is anybody working on this? How is it coming along? Again, >I'd be glad to help out. Don't know about any plans here, but I wouldn't mind helping out as well. >f) Bad boot disk. I knew about the above problems before I went ahead >with Minix, but I was unprepared for this. Apparently P-H has been >shipping these bad disks for quite a while, and, rather than fixing the >problem, they put a sticker on the box saying that the backup minix.img >on the disk can be used instead. This is idiotic. Here again, I can sympathize. I was a bit pissed when I first tried loading Minix and found that it wouldn't get any where. Fortunately, when copying the boot disk, I discovered that the minix.img was corrupted but the backup was just fine. So, I removed the last remnants of minix.img and copied the backup to minix.img. I haven't had any problems since then. >Minix is something that I have wanted on the Amiga for quite a while (I >considered doing a port myself a couple of years back). It is currently >useless though. I hope that these initial problems can be overcome, >because it really is nice. It's not THAT useless! I have been running it for a couple of weeks now while I've been waiting for my GVP Series II upgrade. I've been having a ball! Once I get the new controller, I should have five meg of memory available to work with, so, I'll probably just create a huge ram disk and load all three USR disks into it along with the compiler/libraries disk. Should be fairly usable then. At least that's a temporary solution until the device driver is written. >Anyway, Happy new year! Likewise! Here's hoping for that device driver! :-) >------///------------------------------------------------------------ > /// Tyler "Ty" Sarna E-Mail: tsarna@polar.bowdoin.edu > \\\/// "...and save up to 100% on brands you've never heard of!!!!" >--\XX/--------------------------------------------------------------- -Jon --=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-- Jon Wahlmann quintro!jrw@lll-winken.llnl.gov or tiamat!quintro!jrw@uunet Daytime: Glenayre Electronics, Quincy, IL, 62301 (217) 223-3211 x115 Evening: 21 Wilmar Orchard, Quincy, IL, 62301-6801 (217) 224-6918 -- -Jon --=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--
tsarna@POLAR.BOWDOIN.EDU (Tyler Sarna) (01/06/91)
[again, I can't seem to get myself subscribed to the info-minix mailing list. I've tried twice. Please e-mail me, or better yet, get me subscribed!] > From: uunet!easy!lron@uunet.UU.NET (Dwight Hubbard) (Dwight Hubbard) > Well, if you do find the patch could you mail it to me as I don't have > FTP access. :-( Ok, it's on it's way to you. > My boot disk has had no real problems. My biggest problem is I can't > figure out how to up the size of the Ram disk (I'm having nightmares of > trying to compile the Minix kernal with 2 floppy drives and a 160K ram > disk) Yes. to change the size of the ram disk, you're supposed to use "/etc/setup_root", but this file doesn't exist! Could some ST user please mail me theirs? I'm probably opening up a huge can of worms, but.... I've decided to try to write a AmigaMINIX hard disk driver. This driver will be for the GVP Series II controller, but can serve as a model for other Amiga drivers. I'm playing around with some of the basic code under AmigaDOS now, using the SCSIdirect interface to make "read" and "write" functions. Since SCSIdirect is an AmigaDOS ".device" level standard, it have to be rewritten with actual low-level code. I'll call GVP on monday and try to get this info from them. If they, for some reason, fail to give me any info, would a Amiga/68k assembler guru be willing to help me decypher dissasembled listings of GVP's device driver? Anyone out there with AmigaMINIX and a Series II that could beta-test for me? Also, when (if?) I get this driver up and running, I will next work on 680x0 compatibility. Does anyone have any ideas as to where the problem(s) lie? The methods for making 680x0-incompatible code are, as far as I know: a) using "unused" 68000 instructions that are used on the 0x0. This sounds like it might be one of the problems (does AmigaMINIX perhaps use one of these codes or FPU traps to implement systems calls?) b) timed instruction loops. Seems unlikely, but it might be used in keyboard or floppy routines. Anyone have MINIX running on a faster 68000? If so, that proves that this is not the problem. c) hosing the 0x0 VBR (vector base register) or other 0x0-only registers, or not saving extra 680x0 registers (if they need to be saved?) d) using the high 8 bits of pointers as "free" data storage. The 68000 doesn't use these 8 bits, but the 0x0 do. Does MINIX use these bits? e) self-modifying code. writing over code in causes discrepencies between the instruction cache and what's in memory. The CPU may try to execute wierd combinations of new and old code. This doesn't sound like a problem in AmigaMINIX. Any of the 68000 MINIX authors want to 'fess up to what they did wrong in their ports? ;-) Finally, some of the responses to my previous post indicated that since I could use the minix.img.bu and was told so that everything is OK. Everyting is *NOT* OK. It's like being sold a new car. All of the cars come from the factory with punctured left-front tires. Instead of fixing the tires, they affix a sticker to the windshield which says, "Your front left tire is punctured. When you receive your vehicle, please replace the tire with the spare in the trunk". Would YOU trust a car manufacturer like that? I wouldn't... At any rate, thanks for your replies. Take care, ------///------------------------------------------------------------ /// Tyler "Ty" Sarna E-Mail: tsarna@polar.bowdoin.edu \\\/// "...and save up to 100% on brands you've never heard of!!!!" --\XX/---------------------------------------------------------------
bsyme@cs.strath.ac.uk (Brian J Syme IE88) (01/10/91)
In article <40480@nigel.ee.udel.edu> laverman@cs.rug.nl (Bert Laverman) writes: > >> d) Hard disk drivers. > >Hear, Hear! at last an Amiga user who doesn't just complain... Are the necessary interface specifications for the CBM 209x cards available from somewhere? Where? CATS? -- <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> <> Brian Syme <> Why make things difficult, when with just a <> <> bsyme@cs.strath.ac.uk <> little more effort you could make them <> <> <> impossible. <> <><><><><> *WARNING* Signature dying of old age... ><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
david@starsoft.UUCP (Dave Lowrey) (01/11/91)
In article <5330@baird.cs.strath.ac.uk>, Brian J Syme IE88 writes: > In article <40480@nigel.ee.udel.edu> laverman@cs.rug.nl (Bert Laverman) writes: > > > >> d) Hard disk drivers. > > > >Hear, Hear! at last an Amiga user who doesn't just complain... > > Are the necessary interface specifications for the CBM 209x cards > available from somewhere? Where? > > CATS? > Someone has written a driver for Amiga Minix & the A590 (Correct number??). Since they don't own a 209x controller, they are looking for people who own Amiga Minix to test it on their machines. Check out the msg in comp.os.minix (I no longer have a copy of it). Dave ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- These words be mine. The company doesn't care, because I am the company! :-) Dave Lowrey | david@starsoft or {uhnix1,lobster}!starsoft!david Starbound Software Group | Houston, TX | "Dare to be stupid!" -- Weird Al Yankovic