[comp.os.minix] ST-MINIX questions

amra@orange.cis.ohio-state.edu (Nasir K Amra) (09/22/88)

I have the following questions about ST_MINIX:
1. What exactly comes with the software when you buy it from P-H?
2. Will it run from a supra 30 meg hard disk drive without any modifications?
3. Does it carry with it the same 64K limitations that the IBM MINIX has?
4. How big is the binary code , i.e. how much space in ram does it take up?
5. Has X-windows ever been ported to MINIX?
6. Where can one find out more information about the Amoeba networking protocol.
(Tenanbaum's OS book does not mention Amoeba)
7. Are there usefull programs and source code not included in P-H's distribution
of MINIX that is available, and if so where I can I get them?



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Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject:ST-MINIX questions
Summary: 
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Organization: The Ohio State University Dept of Computer and Information Science
Keywords: ST, MINIX, SUPRA-HARD DISK DRIVE, X-WINDOWS

I have the following questions about ST_MINIX:
1. What exactly comes with the software when you buy it from P-H?
2. Will it run from a supra 30 meg hard disk drive without any modifications?
3. Does it carry with it the same 64K limitations that the IBM MINIX has?
4. How big is the binary code , i.e. how much space in ram does it take up?
5. Has X-windows ever been ported to MINIX?
6. Where can one find out more information about the Amoeba networking protocol.
(Tenanbaum's OS book does not mention Amoeba)
7. Are there usefull programs and source code not included in P-H's distribution
of MINIX that is available, and if so where I can I get them?

hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu) (09/22/88)

In article <22214@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> amra@orange.cis.ohio-state.edu (Nasir K Amra) writes:
>I have the following questions about ST_MINIX:
I have a preliminary version of ST Minix, current as of a couple months ago.

>1. What exactly comes with the software when you buy it from P-H?
The system I received came on 9 single sided floppy diskettes, 1 in TOS
format with a collection of TOS compatible Minix utilities. The others
consisted of a boot disk, a disk for the root partition (which is loaded
into a RAMdisk), two disks of user commands (pretty much the contents of
/bin on a regular Unix system), two disks of compiler system (include files,
compiler executables, libraries, archiver, etc.) and two disks of source
code, in compressed ar format. The RAMdisk is fairly flexible - its size is
equal to the size of the filesystem contained on the root diskette. The mkfs
command allows one to create filesystems larger than will actually fit onto
a diskette - this is useful for creating a RAMdisk with extra empty space
in it. The floppies are standard 360K format, formatted by any TOS disk
formatting utility. I used DCFORMAT to generate my working copy, using 82
tracks, 10 sectors per track, Twister format. Works just fine. My working
system (on a Mega 4) boots off an 820K floppy with a 1640K filesystem on it.
I load all the binries onto it, (excluding the compiler disks) taking about
550K of the RAMdisk, leaving the rest as workspace.

>2. Will it run from a supra 30 meg hard disk drive without any modifications?
I was unable to get Minix to recognize my Supra 20. I suspect it had something
to do with my old set of Supra formatting software, and an incompatible disk
partition map. I.e., the docs mention formatting and partitioning with Atari's
HDX.PRG, which I do not have. In any case, I was unable to use my Supra. I have
since gotten a newer update of their software (along with a new host adapter
card I ordered) as well as ICD's software, but my drive died before I could
try things out. (Totally unrelated; don't ask...)

>3. Does it carry with it the same 64K limitations that the IBM MINIX has?
This *is* a 68000, after all. No 64K limitations.

>4. How big is the binary code , i.e. how much space in ram does it take up?
I don't remember exactly, but I'd say around 100K for the kernel and 140K for
the default RAMdisk.

>5. Has X-windows ever been ported to MINIX?
Not to my knowledge, and so far I'm the only person I've seen who's seriously
talked about doing it so far. We need a standard network library.

>6. Where can one find out more information about the Amoeba networking protocol.
>(Tenanbaum's OS book does not mention Amoeba)
Wish I knew more, but all the code, and I presume all the available docs,
have already been sent out to this newsgroup.

>7. Are there usefull programs and source code not included in P-H's distribution
>of MINIX that is available, and if so where I can I get them?
Read this newsgroup, get stuff you missed from sites archiving this group.

I'm beginning to think that porting ARC to Minix would be of more immediate
use than porting GCC (should be easier, too!) and will probably get that
going fairly soon. (Trouble with bootstrapping - how do you decide where to
start?)
--
  /
 /_ , ,_.                      Howard Chu
/ /(_/(__                University of Michigan
    /           Computing Center          College of LS&A
   '              Unix Project          Information Systems

bww@hpqtdla.HP.COM (Brian Woodroffe) (09/30/88)

Re using Minix upon an Atari-ST; What sort of ST is needed?

I ask this question against the following background; the PC
version requires at least 512k bytes of memory (but better
640k) and two 360k floppies are required to 'self generate'
a new system (ast's book).  Second, there was some mention a
while a go that things ran better on Mega-ST's with hard discs
- no surprise!

So, can a new ST-Minix system be generated upon the following:-
(1) main memory 512k bytes; one 360k floppy?  (old 520-STFM)
(2) main memory 512k bytes; one 720k floppy?  (new 520-STFM)
(3) main memory 1024k bytes; one 720k floppy?  (1020-STFM)

Thank you,
Brian Woodroffe,
Internet -- bww%hpqtdla@hplabs.HP.COM

martin@lakesys.UUCP (Martin Wiedmeyer) (10/19/88)

I would like to be able to access my ST via modem with a terminal. 

	1) Does the RS-232 port work on ST-MINIX (I've heard that it
	   is not operative on the earlier versions of PC-MINIX.)

	2) Will the ST be able to support terminal emulation of an incoming
	   call?

I hope it will! ;-)

-- 
|	Marty Wiedmeyer				                           |
|       Lake Systems, Milwaukee, WI                                        |
|       UUCP: uwvax!uwmcsd1!lakesys!martin                                 |
|	Disclaimer: I take the heat for my own (mis)statements.....        | 

wheels@mks.UUCP (Gerry Wheeler) (10/21/88)

In article <1125@lakesys.UUCP>, martin@lakesys.UUCP (Martin Wiedmeyer) writes:
> 1) Does the RS-232 port work on ST-MINIX (I've heard that it
> is not operative on the earlier versions of PC-MINIX.)

As distributed, ST MINIX does not have a driver for the serial port. 
However, given that the PC folks have managed to do it, I expect someone
will cover that base real soon.  If anyone is working on it, perhaps
they could let us know how it's going. 

-- 
     Gerry Wheeler                           Phone: (519)884-2251
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