[comp.os.minix] Booting MINIX from HD

eric@dlcdev.UUCP (04/02/87)

	Hi. Does anyone know how to get MINIX to boot from a hard disk with
	one partition for DOS and one for UNIX. Sorry for any and all gross
	ignorance revealed by this question. Thanks in advance.


					Eric Van Tassell
					Data Language Corp.
					617-663-5000
					clyde!bonnie!masscomp!dlcdev!eric
					harvard!mit-eddie!dlcdev!eric
					dlcdev!eric@eddie.mit.edu

kwg@unh.UUCP (Kevin W Gale) (03/29/88)

Does anyone have code to allow MINIX to boot from a hard disk?

If so could you send it to me please!


                                    Thanks in Advance
                                    Kevin


-- 

May the source be with you!
                                    Kevin W. Gale   seismo!uunet!unh!kwg

locke@convex.UUCP (03/31/88)

I don't use MINIX, but I've read some about DOS + other OS.

Assuming you have reformatted your HD so it now has MS-DOS
and MINIX; you must tell your computer that you want to boot off
a different partition.  This is done by using the command 'fdisk',
which sets partition changes and also sets up your partition to boot
off of.

I advise that before you try this, copy fdisk onto a DOS floppy
so you can later use the floppy to come up in DOS and change
the boot partition back if need be. (pain in the A huh?)

Warning: I've never done it. Check it out.

V050KY8G@ubvmsc.cc.buffalo.edu (04/01/88)

There has been much discussion on the net these days about booting MINIX 
directly from the system's hard disk.  One user suggested just using the 
standard DOS FDISK program to make the MINIX partition the current 
partition.  This is, as I understand it, quite insufficient!   What the 
boot ROM does (I'm pretty sure) is load the 1st sector of the partition 
into memory and then executes it, something like floppy.  There is no other 
way for the boot ROMs to know what should be loaded from where, short of 
specifying a sector count and possibly a starting sector in the partition 
table.  The point is that this may be inappropriate for the new OS.  It may 
have a vastly differing layout for the disk, and MINIX is no exception 
(inodes, zones, blocks, etc. VS. FAT, clusters, etc.), so what probably 
happens (don't know enough about hard disk boot, or I would have done it a 
long time ago!! :-)) is something like floppy (read in a more sophisticated 
and customized bootstrap program from first sector).

Last time I was on BITNET's Relay with one Glen "Inode" Overby, ND State U,
he said he was working on getting MINIX to boot directly from hard disk.  
As I understand it, he is one of the keepers of LISTSERV@NDSUVM1, which has 
this mailing list thing-a-ma-bobber that lets me receive the comp.os.minix 
postings.  He also has set up the ability to receive V1.1 -> V1.2 diffs in 
a few files over BITNET.  Maybe you could contact him (I personally haven't 
been on relay at the same time as him in months).  His electronic mailing
address should be:

     NU070156 @ NDSUVM1

As an intereim measure, however, I have modified the MINIX kernel slightly. 
 Once the boot program on floppy has done its stuff, my 1.1 system loads 
everything else from the hard disk, simply by changing the #define for the 
BOOT_DEV to the proper hard disk partition (i.e., root file system/ RAM 
disk).  That at least helps the boot time SOME.