ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) (03/14/89)
I just talked to Prentice-Hall. The upgrade kit is now in stock and they are shipping it. It consists of all the 1.3 sources plus the binaries of the 1.3 C compiler (same as 1.2 compiler). It also has the ELLE binary and miscellaneous files, like the spelling dictionary. The combination of this kit and either 1.1 or 1.2 (for either PC or AT) gives you all the sources etc. that are contained in 1.3, but you have to compile them yourself using the compiler supplied. The upgrade kit costs $29.95 + tax + shipping. The full 1.3 distribution will be available next week and costs $79.95. This contains all the binaries as well. If you have 1.1 or 1.2, you don't need need this, but if you have neither, you won't be able to boot MINIX with just the upgrade kit since it does not contain a boot diskette or a root file system. These items should be available in Europe in about 1 month. If you have been faithfully copying and installing everything I have posted in the past year or so, you should have everything except the compiler binaries. Thus there is no point for people with 1.2 who have upgraded from the net to get either of these items. People with 1.1 might want the upgrade kit to get the compiler. It is about 10-15% faster and produces better code than the 1.1 compiler. P-H's phone number for credit card orders is (201) 767-5937. Andy Tanenbaum (ast@cs.vu.nl)
jcmorris@mbunix.mitre.org (Joseph C. Morris) (03/17/89)
In a recent article AST reported that Prentice-Hall has the MINIX 1.3 upgrade kit available. I ordered the kit today; to save some time here is some of the info I came up with: - The telephone order desk can be reached at (201) 767-5937. There is a WATS (800-series) number, but it is for customers with established accounts only. Individual orders are accepted only on the toll line. - As AST stated, the price is $29.95 plus shipping, handling, and your state's tax ripoff. - The ISBN number of the upgrade is 0-13-584723-0. - There is apparently a large market for MINIX. When I called I started out by saying that I wanted to order an update package for some P-H software, and the clerk immediately asked if I was referring to MINIX. It's amazing how smoothly things can go when both sides agree about what is being discussed. - P-H forecast a 3-4 week delay for delivery. - The P-H people offered to ship the product with an invoice to be paid, but will also take VISA or Master Card for prepayment. When I first ordered THE DISKS a few years ago I found that P-H was living down to its reputation of being one of the slowest publishers in the country. Several bookstores I checked with said that they would not stock something as unusual as THE DISKS because of the problems they had with normal P-H products; nobody had a good word to say about P-H delivery schedules. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to get the update package. Joe Morris (and a tip o'the Irish hat to AST for his usual fine job)
usenet@cps3xx.UUCP (Usenet file owner) (03/23/89)
in article <46558@linus.UUCP>, jcmorris@mbunix.mitre.org (Joseph C. Morris) says: > > In a recent article AST reported that Prentice-Hall has the MINIX 1.3 > upgrade kit available. I ordered the kit today; to save some time here > is some of the info I came up with: > > When I first ordered THE DISKS a few years ago I found that P-H was living > down to its reputation of being one of the slowest publishers in the country. > Several bookstores I checked with said that they would not stock something > as unusual as THE DISKS because of the problems they had with normal P-H > products; nobody had a good word to say about P-H delivery schedules. I bought the "DISKS" for 1.2 with manual off the shelf. I was in San Jose for a week and was checking out the COmputer Literacy bookshops and came across it on the shelf. They only had it packaged with the manual, but it was great to pay for it and carry it out without waiting for the shiiping horrors I had heard about P-H. > It > will be interesting to see how long it takes to get the update package. What will be REALLY interesting is I sent in the registration card that was in the back of the manual for 1.2 and checked the book stating that I wanted all future MINIX updates for $29.95. I wonder when I'll be getting the update as a result of the card. I realize Andy is off the net for a couple of weeks, but does any know is this $29.95 package a bunch of diffs I'll have to patch into my system or a whole new set of disks? John H. Lawitzke UUCP: Work: ...rutgers!mailrus!frith!jhl Dale Computer Corp., R&D ...decvax!purdue!mailrus!frith!jhl 2367 Science Parkway ...uunet!frith!jhl Okemos, MI, 48864 Home: ...uunet!frith!ipecac!jhl
hinton@netcom.UUCP (Greg Hinton) (03/24/89)
In article <46558@linus.UUCP>, (John H. Lawitzke) says: >in article <46558@linus.UUCP>, jcmorris@mbunix.mitre.org (Joseph C. Morris) says: >> >> In a recent article AST reported that Prentice-Hall has the MINIX 1.3 >> upgrade kit available. >: >: >I realize Andy is off the net for a couple of weeks, but does any know >is this $29.95 package a bunch of diffs I'll have to patch into my >system or a whole new set of disks? I received the 1.3 upgrade package from P-H yesterday. I paid $6 to have it sent Fed Ex Standard, which just takes a week (to California). They said regular mail would take 2 to 3 weeks. Here are the label titles & top-level directories for each of the six disks: 1: Binaries total 50 -rw-rw-rw- 1 ast 1202 Nov 2 09:00 READ_ME drwxrwxrwx 2 ast 96 Nov 2 09:00 ast drwxrwxrwx 2 ast 192 Nov 2 09:00 compiler -rwxr-xr-x 1 ast 12036 Nov 2 09:00 compress drwxrwxrwx 2 ast 176 Nov 2 09:00 etc drwxrwxrwx 2 ast 64 Nov 2 09:00 include -rwxr-xr-x 1 ast 30626 Nov 2 09:00 patch 2: Operating System Sources total 4 drwxrwxrwx 2 bin 96 Nov 2 09:00 fs drwxrwxrwx 2 bin 64 Nov 2 09:00 h drwxrwxrwx 2 bin 144 Nov 2 09:00 kernel drwxrwxrwx 2 bin 96 Nov 2 09:00 mm 3: Networking Sources total 2 drwxrwxrwx 8 bin 160 Nov 2 09:00 amoeba drwxrwxrwx 2 bin 64 Nov 2 09:00 lib 4: Documentation & Test total 3 drwxrwxrwx 2 bin 64 Nov 2 09:00 doc drwxrwxrwx 2 bin 336 Nov 2 09:00 test drwxrwxrwx 2 bin 304 Nov 2 09:00 tools 5: Library & Commands, Part 1 total 3 drwxrwxrwx 2 ast 80 Nov 2 10:04 bin drwxrwxrwx 6 bin 96 Nov 2 09:00 commands drwxrwxrwx 3 bin 80 Nov 2 09:00 lib 6: Commands, Part 2 total 1 drwxrwxrwx 2 bin 128 Nov 2 09:00 commands Here's part of the READ_ME file on disk 1: This set of disks contains all the source code of MINIX 1.3 and some of the binaries. The contents of this disk are as follows: ast - profiles for ELLE compiler - parts of the new C compiler etc - file for /etc include - header files from /usr/include patch - binary of the patch program compress - compress/decompress files The remaining disks contain the sources and various data files. It is up to the user to recompile them. Before attempting this, locate and read the documentation (in file doc.a.Z). To save space, many of the files in this distribution are compressed archives indicated by the suffixes .a.Z. : : Rather than diff's, full source is supplied for the files that have changed. Everything seems to be here, except source for elle and patch. Those are supplied only as binaries. Most of the last day has been spent re-compiling libc.a, the commands, and the kernel. I recompiled the kernel using my ST-238 device driver & built the boot disk using the binaries supplied for fs, mm, etc. On bootup, while reading the root disk into the ram disk, trap() kept getting called between each block access, so I kept getting the message: Unexpected trap. This may be due to accidentally including in your program a non-MINIX library routine that is trying to make a system call. After recompiling fs, the problem went away. I wasn't patient enough to figure out which module was at fault. After that, things have gone pretty smoothly, with only a couple of minor hitches: I can't get the dos* programs to work right, so I've gone back to the 1.2 versions. Also, since I don't have a valid /etc/termcap, more doesn't work. Again, I've just gone back to 1.2. If anyone would like to mail me an /etc/termcap, I'd appreciate it. Also, if someone could mail me source for elle and patch, I'll name my first-born son (or daughter) after you. Thanks... Greg Hinton {amdahl | sun}!dlb!netcom!hinton
jcmorris@mbunix.mitre.org (Joseph C. Morris) (03/25/89)
On 16 March I called Prentiss-Hall to order the MINIX 1.3 upgrade;
for the benefit of others planning to do so I posted to the net a
short summary of the critical info (phone number, etc.). I also
wondered just how long the P-H people would take to ship the disks,
since they were incredibly slow in shipping the original disks and
have an abysmal reputation for slow response to orders from bookstores.
Yesterday (23 March, exactly one week after I ordered the disks) my
post office delivered them to my mailbox. It appears that someone at
P-H has managed to fix whatever was causing the agonizing delays which
had been plaguing too many P-H customers in the past. I have no idea
who that might be, but my thanks to him or her.
On the other hand...
I've got two potential squawks about the upgrade; one or both may turn
out to be misplaced since I've not had a chance to take a deep look at
the files:
1. There is no printed documentation with the update package. Aside
from the address label and stickers on the diskettes, the only
printed material is (1) the shrink-wrap license agreement and (2)
a sticker on disk #1 saying that technical questions should be
directed to ast@cs.vu.nl (yes, they give the USENET address). There
is no information about how to install the updates. (The
instructions are in machine-readable form on disk #4, but you
have to know enough to mount the disk to MINIX and retrieve the
data.) It's not that difficult for somebody with a decent experience
level, but it's not something you want a newly-minted novice to have
to figure out on his/her own.
2. The shrink-wrap license (which is specifically for MINIX; it's not the
usual boiler-plate text) seems to withdraw the permission P-H previously
gave for limited redistribution of the MINIX machine readable material.
It says something like "you may not transfer ownership of the machine
readable material except as provided elsewhere in this agreement", but
nowhere in the license does it have a discussion of the conditions which
must be met. I haven't checked main to see if they've changed the
copyright header in the machine-readable material.
I probably won't get a chance to work with the updates for several weeks
(minor stuff like tax forms and off-site meetings and such). Does anyone
among the bleeding-edge crowd have any experience installing the updates?
Joe Morrishinton@netcom.UUCP (Greg Hinton) (03/30/89)
In article <28@netcom.UUCP> hinton@netcom.UUCP (that's me) writes: > : >I can't get the dos* programs to work right, so I've >gone back to the 1.2 versions. Also, since I don't have a valid >/etc/termcap, more doesn't work. Again, I've just gone back to 1.2. dosread.c compiled okay once I figured out that it needed the -i switch (separate I&D). That was documented in the comment header at the beginning of the file. RTFM! I also found /etc/termcap in the /etc directory of disk #1, right where it belonged. >If anyone would like to mail me an /etc/termcap, I'd appreciate it. No need for that. >Also, if someone could mail me source for elle and patch, I'll name >my first-born son (or daughter) after you. That offer is still open. I've had a hard time retrieving archives from listserv@vm1.nodak.edu. Files always end up truncated. Anyone else have that problem? Anyone know a solution? Are there any other minix archive sites accessible by UUCP? I'll still be (almost-)eternally grateful if some kind-hearted person would e-mail me the elle & patch sources. Thank you... Greg Hinton {amdahl|sun}!dlb!netcom!hinton ** Don't use "hinton@netcom.UUCP" ** ** That goes to the wrong netcom!! (Grrrrr...) **
ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) (04/01/89)
In article <46925@linus.UUCP> jcmorris@mbunix (Morris) writes: >1. There is no printed documentation with the update package. True. Since this is an upgrade kit, it is presumed you already have MINIX up and running. In that case, all you have to do is mount the disks and see what is on them. There are some READ_ME files in various places too. Basically, the upgrade kit simply contains all the 1.3 sources in full (no cdiffs), plus the binaries of the compiler, patch, and ELLE. >2. The shrink-wrap license (which is specifically for MINIX; it's not the > usual boiler-plate text) seems to withdraw the permission P-H previously > gave for limited redistribution of the MINIX machine readable material. It is macro-driven boiler plate. They put MINIX in as parameter 1 and added my email address near the end so you will bug me and not them. There has been no change in the distribution policy. I don't think their lawyers quite understand what is going on, and based on my limited experience with them so far, I am not planning to explain it to them in the foreseeable future. Andy Tanenbaum (ast@cs.vu.nl) P.S. I just received my own set of the upgrade disks today, but I haven't had a chance to open the package yet and see what's in it. It comes in a plain white wrapper instead of the yellow box. Dumb as it may sound, not waiting for the company that manufactures the yellow boxes to produce n boxes saved about a month. Although many hackers think of software as pure intellectual content, with the physical representation being irrelevant, contracting out to get someone to make boxes (different sizes for the 5.25" PC and 3.5" Atari disks), putting stickers on them, doing the shrink wrapping, etc. are all distinct steps, which is why it takes so long between my giving them the disks and their shipping them.