richard@ucf-cs.ucf.edu (01/14/90)
I am interested in running minix on a Zenith Z-386. A friend gave me a copy of minix v1.2 that he compiled with the AT-wini driver. The system will boot into the first menu. I can perform file system checks and list the file system on the root file system. All seems ok. Then, when I put a 360K floppy root file system into my 1.2M drive 0 and press the = key, the floppy drive activates, the head lifts and drops several times (I can hear this happening), and I get the following message: Unrecoverable disk error on device 2/0, block 1 File system panic: Diskette in drive 0 is not root file system. Press space to reboot. I tried again with the kernel compiled with the standard XT driver and the same thing happens. I have run this file system on an AT at work and it works fine. The drive controller was supplied with the system and has the label WD1003A-ZDS. I am reading this as meaning that the controller was actually made by Western Digital for Zenith Data Systems. The controller controls two floppies (drive 0 is a 5.25 1.2M and drive 1 is a 3.5 1.44M) and a 44M hard drive. I have a 1M memory card with the top 384K (available as EMS only) disabled. I have spoken to one local person who says he believes the problem is that there is a sequence of instructions that is legal on a 286 that is not legal on a 386. This is hard for me to believe. Although I am not a assembly programmer, I thought the instruction set on the 386 was a superset of the 286 instruction set. However, I guess anything is possible. The sequence of instructions he claims is legal on the 286 but illegal on the 386 is LOCK, then NOP. He says this is used by AST for debugging purposes in some .s files. However, I would like to verify this information before starting to modify the code, given my inexperience. Also, I have another aquaintance who has the distribution of v1.3, which I want to try before modifying code. If anyone out there is running on a 386 machine and can verify or deny the LOCK, NOP claim, I would appreciate hearing about it. Or, if any one is running on a Z-386 and can tell me what is going on, I'd like to hear from you, also. I will start checking comp.os.minix on a fairly regular basis, but since most people out there are interested in v1.5, I would be happy to receive direct replies at richard@ucf-cs.ucf.edu. Thanks, Richard Dunn-Roberts richard@ucf-cs.ucf.edu Visual Systems Lab Institute for Simulation and Training 12424 Research Parkway, Suite 300 Orlando, FL 32826 (407) 658 5074
anderson@vms.macc.wisc.edu (Jess Anderson) (01/14/90)
In article <12500001@ucf-cs.ucf.edu>, richard@ucf-cs.ucf.edu writes... ]I am interested in running minix on a Zenith Z-386. A friend gave me a ]copy of minix v1.2 that he compiled with the AT-wini driver. The system ]will boot into the first menu. I can perform file system checks ]and list the file system on the root file system. All seems ok. ]Then, when I put a 360K floppy root file system into my 1.2M drive 0 ]and press the = key, the floppy drive activates, the head lifts and ]drops several times (I can hear this happening), and I get the following ]message: ] ] Unrecoverable disk error on device 2/0, block 1 ] File system panic: Diskette in drive 0 is not root file system. ] ] Press space to reboot. I get this about every tenth attempt to boot Minix on my AT clone. I don't think your machine has a reset button, but mine does, and I get better results with a cold boot than a warm one. You'd have to cycle the power, I think. This is with out-of-the-box 1.3 for AT. I just try again; it's never happened twice in a row. Rather odd. ]If anyone out there is running on a 386 machine and can verify or deny ]the LOCK, NOP claim, I would appreciate hearing about it. Or, if any ]one is running on a Z-386 and can tell me what is going on, I'd like ]to hear from you, also. 1.3 will boot fine (without the problem above), but I don't do much Minix on that machine because the hard disk is a SCSI which means it won't work (yet). ==Jess Anderson===Academic Computing Center=====Univ. Wisconsin-Madison===== | Work: Rm. 2160, 1210 West Dayton St., Madison WI 53706, Ph. 608/263-6988 | | Home: 2838 Stevens St., 53705, 608/238-4833 Bitnet: anderson@wiscmacc | ==Internet: anderson@macc.wisc.edu====UUCP:{}!uwvax!macc.wisc.edu!anderson==
evans@ditsyda.oz (Bruce Evans) (01/16/90)
In article <12500001@ucf-cs.ucf.edu> richard@ucf-cs.ucf.edu writes: >I am interested in running minix on a Zenith Z-386. A friend gave me a >copy of minix v1.2 that he compiled with the AT-wini driver. The system >[...] > Unrecoverable disk error on device 2/0, block 1 > File system panic: Diskette in drive 0 is not root file system. The 1.2 floppy driver had problems on fast machines. This was fixed in 1.3. There is a probably-better fix in 1.5.0. >If anyone out there is running on a 386 machine and can verify or deny >the LOCK, NOP claim, I would appreciate hearing about it. Or, if any Yes, LOCK had to be changed for the 386 to stop it locking the bus for too long on certain instructions. For some reason it was disallowed for harmless instructions like NOP too. So LOCK, NOP generates an exception in the video driver and Minix panics. The crash becomes worse when the video driver is called again to print the panic message... Bruce -- Bruce Evans evans@ditsyda.oz.au