[comp.os.minix] error message

dean@ndmath.UUCP (Dean Alvis) (09/03/87)

I hope someone can help interpret the following error message. After
trying to run a command of the form "dosread 1 file", the message
	dosread: cannot execute
appears. The dosread program was located on /dev/fd0, which was
mounted on /usr at the time. The DOS disk was on /dev/fd1, which was
unmounted at the time. Also, the permissions on dosread seem normal:
rwxr-xr-x. All this took place on a 256K system under Minix 1.1.
What am i missing?

dean

ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) (09/04/87)

In article <278@ndmath.UUCP> dean@ndmath.UUCP (Dean Alvis) writes:
>
>I hope someone can help interpret the following error message
>	dosread: cannot execute
> All this took place on a 256K system under Minix 1.1.

The 256K system was not tested as thoroughly as the others.  I was not
really sure whether anyone really had 256K any more.  My guess is
that dosread was too big to fit into memory, so the exec failed.
On a 256K system, with any strange behavior, the first thing to think
about is not enough memory.  Try chmem to make dosread smaller.
But if you make it too small, it will exec, but not work properly.
It is tricky to get it right.  Sorry about that.
Andy Tanenbaum (ast@cs.vu.nl)

fdg@sortac.UUCP (Fred Gant) (09/04/87)

In article <278@ndmath.UUCP> dean@ndmath.UUCP (Dean Alvis) writes:
>
>I hope someone can help interpret the following error message. After
>trying to run a command of the form "dosread 1 file", the message
>	dosread: cannot execute
>appears. The dosread program was located on /dev/fd0, which was
>mounted on /usr at the time. The DOS disk was on /dev/fd1, which was
>unmounted at the time. Also, the permissions on dosread seem normal:
>rwxr-xr-x. All this took place on a 256K system under Minix 1.1.
>What am i missing?
>
>dean
You didn't indicate your location when you issued the command.  
My first guess is that you were not in the directory which contained
dosread.  Dosread must be in your path or you must be in the where
dosread resides or you must give the complete path on your command
line, such as /usr/commands/dosread -a 1 file >/usr/commands/file.new.

You will note that I assumed an ascii file to be read into the commands
directory.  I don't mean to belittle you by this simplistic reply but
since you can not mount a DOS disk on a MINIX directory and you noted
that it was not mounted, I thought the answer might be this simple case.

Fred Gant 
AT&T Network Systems, 
Atlanta, Georgia