[comp.os.minix] Problem with AT clone hard disk

ESC1319@DDAESA10 (Alun Saunders) (07/01/87)

Hello everybody,

I have just got hold of my MINIX disks at long last, and have a small (well,
not so small, really) problem with the hard disk task.

Everything works perfectly well with the floppies, however after setting up
a hard disk partition according to the instructions, and making a file system
on it, things start to go wrong. I created all the necessary directories to
duplicate the /usr diskette, no problem. I then copied all the /usr/bin files
to the bin directory on the hard disk, apparently no problem. However, when
I came to execute *some* of the files off the hard disk, I got streams of
"Unexpected trap: vector < 16" messages. After a while I discovered that the
original file (in this case /usr/bin/wc) and the copy on the hard disk were
not the same !!! In fact, one block (1k) in the middle of the file was
completely corrupt. Re-copying the file solved the problem.

Moving the MINIX partition from the 'end' of the disk (an area previously
unused, and therefore possibly suspect) to the beginning (an area obviously
OK) disn't make any difference. Nor did switching between 10MHz and 6MHz.

I realise that I don't have a 'standard' disk controller (this one appears
to be Japanese, made by a company called NCL), but I do have a standard (ie
not specific to that disk controller/drive combination) PHOENIX BIOS, so it
must be standard enough for that. I am currently engaged in comparing the
AT_WINI.C listing with the IBM AT BIOS listing to see if I can find any
differences, but if anybody knows of a cure, or has simply experienced the
same problem I would be glad to hear from you.

Thanks in advance,

Alun Saunders
c/o European Space Operations Centre
Robert-Bosch-Strasse 5
D-6100 Darmstadt

James@udel.UUCP (07/02/87)

In-Reply-To: <304@louie.udel.EDU>


I had a simular problem.  Have you applied any of the
patches to at_wini.c supplied on the net?  

I fixed up the command[6] line, and the problem went away.

j.b.