VBRANDT%DBNUAMA1.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu (06/08/89)
Hello all, if this is a somewhat stupid question, please forgive me, but I'll ask anyway. Are Minix-PC and Minix-ST media compatible ? The reason I ask is this: I have Minix-ST on my Mega ST4 and the recently posted Min2DOS package on my AT clone. I tried to read a Minix-ST disk in the 3.5" 720KB drive on my AT, but always got a message like 'No Minix filesystem'. This was one of the ORIGINAL distribution disks (SS). I use 830KB disks for Minix-ST, but they don't work either. I think both versions really *should* be compatible, so it's most likely that I did something wrong or overlooked something. I guess I could dig up the answer looking closely at the Minix-ST floppy disk driver source and compare it with the PC driver in The Book, but I don't really have the time to do so. I am merely looking for a convenient and fast way to convert files posted in this list from 1.2MB 5.25" DOS disks (that's how I download them) to Minix-ST 3.5" disks (that's how I want to use them). Any and all info is most welcome. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bitnet: VBRANDT@DBNUAMA1 Volker A. Brandt UUCP: ...!unido!DBNUAMA1.bitnet!vbrandt Angewandte Mathematik ARPAnet: VBRANDT%DBNUAMA1.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (Bonn, West Germany)
hcj@lzaz.ATT.COM (HC Johnson) (06/09/89)
In article <17162@louie.udel.EDU>, VBRANDT%DBNUAMA1.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu writes: > > Hello all, > > if this is a somewhat stupid question, please forgive me, but I'll ask > anyway. Are Minix-PC and Minix-ST media compatible ? > > The reason I ask is this: I have Minix-ST on my Mega ST4 and the recently > posted Min2DOS package on my AT clone. I tried to read a Minix-ST disk in the > 3.5" 720KB drive on my AT, but always got a message like 'No Minix filesystem'. The media are not compatible because the logical information is stored differently. The problem starts in the super block which contains shorts and longs. shorts are stored byte reversed between the two machines. longs stagger the imagination. Then if you do get a file, if its a tar or ar, again shorts and longs. I did port the utilities to read minix FS to my 80386 based UNIX and was able to read and recover files from the P-H 1.3 upgrade as all xx86 computers do shorts and longs the same. Only pure source could be ported to the ST. (Oh yes, it didn't run there even tho' it compiled). Howard C. Johnson ATT Bell Labs att!lzaz!hcj hcj@lzaz.att.com
kirkenda@psueea.uucp (Steve Kirkendall) (06/10/89)
In article <618@lzaz.ATT.COM> hcj@lzaz.ATT.COM (HC Johnson) writes: >In article <17162@louie.udel.EDU>, VBRANDT%DBNUAMA1.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu writes: >> if this is a somewhat stupid question, please forgive me, but I'll ask >> anyway. Are Minix-PC and Minix-ST media compatible ? > >Then if you do get a file, if its a tar or ar, again shorts and longs. Whoa! Tar should work. All numbers in a tar archive are represented as a fixed-length string of ASCII digits, which give the number in octal. Thus, tar archives are immune to byte ordering dependencies. I haven't tried this with Minix tar, but in the past have been able to carry tar-format tapes between '286 machines running SCO Xenix, and a Unisys 5000/80 (a 680x0 machine running SysV). I never had the slightest trouble. To make a tar archive, GIVE THE NAME OF THE RAW DEVICE AS THE NAME OF THE ARHCIVE FILE THAT TAR SHOULD USE. For example, this command stores all files & directories in your current directory on the disk in drive /dev/rfd1... $ tar c /dev/rfd1 . You can store one archive per disk. Note that the disk will not have a file system on it; it will have a tar archive on it instead. Another option: format the 3.5" disk under MS-DOS, and then use the tos/dos utilities to put the files on the disk in MS-DOS format, which is more standardized. This may require more work, since the tos/dos utilities do not handle subdirectories very well. I have used Minix-ST's tos utility to put files on a 3.5 disk which I then read on a '286 machine running MS-DOS, so the tos and dos utilities must be compatible. -- Steve Kirkendall ...uunet!tektronix!psu-cs!kirkenda
chasm@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Charles Marslett) (06/10/89)
In article <1371@psueea.UUCP>, kirkenda@psueea.uucp (Steve Kirkendall) writes: :: In article <618@lzaz.ATT.COM> hcj@lzaz.ATT.COM (HC Johnson) writes: :: >In article <17162@louie.udel.EDU>, VBRANDT%DBNUAMA1.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu writes: :: >> if this is a somewhat stupid question, please forgive me, but I'll ask :: >> anyway. Are Minix-PC and Minix-ST media compatible ? :: :: You can store one archive per disk. Note that the disk will not have a file :: system on it; it will have a tar archive on it instead. :: :: Another option: format the 3.5" disk under MS-DOS, and then use the tos/dos :: utilities to put the files on the disk in MS-DOS format, which is more :: standardized. This may require more work, since the tos/dos utilities do :: not handle subdirectories very well. :: :: I have used Minix-ST's tos utility to put files on a 3.5 disk which I then :: read on a '286 machine running MS-DOS, so the tos and dos utilities must be :: compatible. Yes, we seem to have slipped up with our file system: the Atari version is definitely not as compatible with the PC version as their native operating systems are -- mostly because the Atari one was "upgraded", but also because it does cost a couple of clock cycles to swap bytes (then, it costs a lot of clock cycles to run compiled code! [Snide criticism, not fully deserved, but fun to shove in ;^)]). :: -- Steve Kirkendall :: ...uunet!tektronix!psu-cs!kirkenda Charles Marslett chasm@killer.dallas.tx.us