laverman@cs.rug.nl (Bert Laverman) (01/10/91)
Hello,
I'm posting this question, although I think probably C.E. Chew is the
most likely person to answer it. This is the damnedest situation, because
allthough the archives are overflowing with his software (shoelace,
estdio), I can't find his email address. Earl (that is your name isn't
it? sorry if I goof), I hope you can help me.
The question is simply: how portable do you think is Shoelace?
(apart from the assembly files offcourse)
It seems like a wunderfull package to be able to run. Atari harddisks
have partition tables and can be bootable in much the same fashion as
are PC/XT/AT disks. (Haven't heard of anyone ever booting his/her hardisk
on anything else than TOS, but I'm removing TOS from it, so I would
like to try)
I'm not really interested in the ability to run programs before starting
Minix, but Shoelace does seem to give the system a single-user mode to
fall back to, opening up ways for making a really nice shutdown(1).
Currently I have to switch to TOS if I want to park my disk... :-(
Like you mention in the Shoelace docs, booting from floppies is cumbersome.
There exists a program called MINIX.PRG, to start from TOS, but using it
damages the reboot vectors, so the only way to stop Minix is by switching
off the power :-(.
Summarizing; If it can be done with PC's, why not with ST's?
Hopefully awaiting responses,
Bert Laverman
Disclaimer: Don't blame my Boss,
He doesn't know what I'm saying either.
_____________________________________________________________________
/ \
| "The only problem with parameterization is that |
| you never have enough parameters" - J.B. Goodenough |
| at the RMISE Reuse Workshop |
\_____________________________________________________________________/
Bert Laverman
Dept. of Computing Science laverman@cs.rug.nl
National Univ. of Groningen bert@arrakis.nl.mugnet.org
P.O.Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen
The Netherlands (+31 50)/(050) 633948archer%segin4.segin.fr@relay.prime.com (Vincent Archer) (01/10/91)
Bert Laverman <laverman@cs.rug.nl> said: [about shoelace being portable] > It seems like a wunderfull package to be able to run. Atari harddisks > have partition tables and can be bootable in much the same fashion as > are PC/XT/AT disks. (Haven't heard of anyone ever booting his/her hardisk > on anything else than TOS, but I'm removing TOS from it, so I would > like to try) There was such a package for ST. The stpart program from Steve Kirkendall (kirkenda@cs.pdx.edu) contains code to make an atari HD bootable directly under Minix. There's still a problem with your autoboot HD (once that cannot be bypassed, sigh :-), and it's that you can NEVER use TOS with your HD again, even if you try to boot from the HD utility disk... > Currently I have to switch to TOS if I want to park my disk... :-( That's why I still have a bootable TOS. Once minix-st support minor device 15 (that was one reserved for disk park, if I remember the my patch .2 or .3 correctly), there will be no reason to support my small 1Mo partition... > Like you mention in the Shoelace docs, booting from floppies is cumbersome. > There exists a program called MINIX.PRG, to start from TOS, but using it > damages the reboot vectors, so the only way to stop Minix is by switching > off the power :-(. I haven't been able to even boot Minix using the .PRG booter. :-( > Summarizing; If it can be done with PC's, why not with ST's? Everything that PCs can do, 68000s can do better! :-) Vincent Archer Email: archer%segin4.segin.fr@relay.prime.com Thou shalt run lint frequently and study its pronouncements with care, for verily its perception and judgement oft exceed thine. -- 1st commandment for C programmers