[comp.os.minix] MINIX on ATronics XT Turbo Clone

dhb@bek-mc.caltech.edu (David Bilitch) (05/18/87)

I now have MINIX running comfortablly on my system.  The ATronics XT
runs at either 4.77 or 8 MHz clock rates.  Minix seems to run fine at
either speed.

I have a Rodime 204 disk running using an adaptec ACB-2070A.  I am using
the com_out routine in the xt_wini driver provided by Don Dugger.  One
oddity with this is that the disk formatted with strange parameters.  The
documentation I have claims I should have 8 heads 17 sectors/track and
320 cylinders.  When I format I get 8 heads 25 sectors/track and can only
format to 206 cylinders.  I was able to determine the actual parameters
thanks to the posted edpart program.  I have hard coded these parameters
into xt_wini and fsck.  All testing seems to indicate that the hard disk
is working fine.  If anyone can shead some light on the disk parameter
discrepancies I would appreciate it.

I have created three partitions on the hard disk as follows:

1 - Minix root FS
2 - Minix usr FS
3 - DOS

I run the root FS off the hard disk and set the RAM disk size to zero
in kernel/main.c(load_ram).

The posted clock speed changing program work on the ATronics.  However, the
easiest way I've found to run Minix in TURBO mode is to switch TURBO on at
the fsck menu (using the BIOS software switch) before starting Minix.

Dave Bilitch
...!seismo!cit-vax!bek-mc!dhb or dhb@bek-mc.caltech.edu