smagt@cs.vu.nl (Smagt v der PPP) (11/24/89)
I have problems starting MINIX on a Schneider PC with hard disk card installed. When the hard disk is removed, everything works perfectly. However, when I put it in MINIX is unable to read the root floppy. The kernel, doing a transfer(), awaits a message from HARDWARE. Quite the same situation as when you leave the disk door open. Any suggestions? Patrick van der Smagt
Stickey@cs.vu.nl (Stickey) (11/28/89)
In article <4617@koto.cs.vu.nl> smagt@cs.vu.nl (Smagt v der PPP) writes: >I have problems starting MINIX on a Schneider PC with hard disk card >installed. When the hard disk is removed, everything works perfectly. >However, when I put it in MINIX is unable to read the root floppy. >The kernel, doing a transfer(), awaits a message from HARDWARE. Quite >the same situation as when you leave the disk door open. > >Any suggestions? > >Patrick van der Smagt > I know what you mean. I'm having the same kind of problem, though not with a Schneider. My machine is a Laser XT-3 turbo-clone (10 Mhz) with a 8086 CPU, one 360K floppy and a 20 Meg HD (Seagate ST-225, I think, but I'll have to check). My HD-controller is a NEC, and it looks pretty standard. All MS-DOS stuff runs ok, but Minix has a few problems: - If I boot without the XT-wini driver, all goes well. - If I boot with the XT-wini driver, three things can happen: - Minix reads the root floppy and works, though the HD-driver cannot access the drive ("Harddisk won't reset"). - The whole stuff hangs. No floppy light burning bright, or whatever. All I can do is press the RESET button on the front of my computer. - The floppy-led goes on, and stays that way. This is exactly the same situation as Patrick's. Kernel is waiting for HARDWARE. At first I didn't think much of this. Usually after 2 or 3 trials I could get it up and running. However, the HD-driver still couldn't access the harddisk. When I compiled a version using the BIOS-WINI, things really went wrong. There was just NO WAY I could get Minix to read the root floppy. Again, the stuff was either completely hanging or the kernel was waiting for HARDWARE. My guess is that the harddisk driver (and especially the BIOS-version) somehow blocks or garbles interrupts from the floppy. What I do know is that something is wrong, because none of the drivers I tried (XT, AT or BIOS) managed to access the harddisk. What is wrong ? Is the harddisk driver using the wrong ports or instructions ? If anyone knows the answer, PLEASE tell me. If I don't get a reply I might do something desperate, like calling Laser Europe and try to get some answers (again). _________________ /_________________\ // . . \\ || ******** <o> || || * GAME * . || || <-O->* OVER * . || || | ******** . || || __*_-__^___^^__*_ || \\_________________// \-----------------/ /_/_/_/_/|\_\_\_\_\ /_/_/_/_/_|_\_\_\_\_\ /_/_/_/_/__|__\_\_\_\_\ |______________________| Steven Bakker (sbakker@cs.vu.nl).