[comp.os.minix] 'shoelace' under minix-386 - a minor problem

jolley@phcoms.seri.philips.nl (Graham Jolley) (12/17/90)

Over the weekend I got 'shoelace' up and running
under minix-386. Its another really nice piece of
software!

I only had one slight problem. 
THE 'bootlace' CODE PRODUCED USING 'bcc' WAS TOO BIG TO
LOAD INTO THE BOOTBLOCK. As I remember it was about
1140 bytes or so.

I got round this by loading up 16bit minix 1.5.10 and
making bootlace using the ACK compiler. Everything
else was compiled/assembled/linked using bcc.

I assume the problem must be something to do with
the size of the code produced from the (I think)
2 'C' modules used in producing bootlace as the
remainder are assembler and presumably generate
the same code under both compilers. 

Has anybody else experienced the same thing and
is it fixable?

PS - My disk seems to have developed a badspot
which I'm trying hard not to rub! As I remember
the MINIX badblocks program has or had a problem
marking such blocks. Can someone refresh my memory?

Thanks in advance
Graham Jolley

cechew@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU (Earl Chew) (12/18/90)

In <567@phcoms.seri.philips.nl> jolley@phcoms.seri.philips.nl (Graham Jolley) writes:

>I only had one slight problem. 
>THE 'bootlace' CODE PRODUCED USING 'bcc' WAS TOO BIG TO
>LOAD INTO THE BOOTBLOCK. As I remember it was about
>1140 bytes or so.

Yes. Bcc is fast, but the penalty you pay is that the code is too big :-(
Perhaps one day Bruce will get an optimiser going.

>Has anybody else experienced the same thing and
>is it fixable?

Yes --- with an optimiser.

>PS - My disk seems to have developed a badspot
>which I'm trying hard not to rub! As I remember
>the MINIX badblocks program has or had a problem
>marking such blocks. Can someone refresh my memory?

There was a problem and there is a patch available. Unfortunately, I've applied
the patch and removed it from the Unix box here. Maybe it's available from one
of the archives? You can use de to check that the block has indeed been mapped
out.

Earl
-- 
Earl Chew, Dept of Computer Science, Monash University, Australia 3168
EMAIL: cechew@bruce.cs.monash.edu.au PHONE: 03 5655447 FAX: 03 5655146
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