jimc@ucla-cs.UUCP (04/07/87)
I got AST's book yesterday. Wow! MINIX is a monumental achievement.
I have a few questions:
1. Will A 640K distribution boot on a 256K PC, and will there be enough
free memory to run mount, ls, size and chmem? The user can then adjust
the sizes of make, etc. so they fit. It is understood that the "C"
compiler is too big. I anticipate increasing memory to 640K and would
like to get the "right" distribution, with cc, the first time. If
somebody has both the 256K and the 640K distribution, a diff file on
the sizes would help in shrinking the 640K version. Thanking in
advance...
2. In DOS, an AT-type 1.2Mb drive can read (and sort of write) 360Kb discs.
Will the MINIX boot block do the same? In other words, will a 640K
360Kb distribution boot in an AT?
3. Do I read kernel/floppy.c correctly, that if you do "mkfs /dev/fd0 720"
on an AT drive you will successfully get a 720 Kb filesystem (with auto
track spacing selection)? And that, the NR_SECTORS being hard-coded at
9 sectors per track, you aren't going to get 1.2Mb unless you recompile
the driver -- which would be feasible? It would seem prudent for AT-oid
owners, who might have to change machines later, to get the 360Kb
distribution and to make up a working 720Kb disc following the
instructions in sect. D.5.
4. Do I interpret C.3.2 correctly, that fsck can be run on any filesystem
during system boot, but it can't be run as a command once MINIX is up?
James F. Carter (213) 206-1306
UCLA-SEASnet; 2567 Boelter Hall; 405 Hilgard Ave.; Los Angeles, CA 90024-1600
UUCP:...!{ihnp4,ucbvax,{hao!cepu}}!ucla-cs!jimc ARPA:jimc@CS.UCLA.EDUstuart@bms-at.UUCP (04/11/87)
In article <5420@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>, jimc@CS.UCLA.EDU writes: > 1. Will A 640K distribution boot on a 256K PC, and will there be enough You won't be able to boot because the root file system is too big. You need a minimal root file system from a friend. > 2. In DOS, an AT-type 1.2Mb drive can read (and sort of write) 360Kb discs. > Will the MINIX boot block do the same? In other words, will a 640K > 360Kb distribution boot in an AT? It would except that the hard disk driver won't work. > 3. Do I read kernel/floppy.c correctly, that if you do "mkfs /dev/fd0 720" > on an AT drive you will successfully get a 720 Kb filesystem (with auto > track spacing selection)? And that, the NR_SECTORS being hard-coded at > 9 sectors per track, you aren't going to get 1.2Mb unless you recompile > the driver -- which would be feasible? It would seem prudent for AT-oid The actual floppy shipped keeps track of diskette type independantly for each drive and tries a new density after it gets a lot of errors. This results in automagically adjusting to whatever type of diskette happens to be inserted. It does support 15 sectors / track for the 1.2 Meg diskettes. > 4. Do I interpret C.3.2 correctly, that fsck can be run on any filesystem > during system boot, but it can't be run as a command once MINIX is up? Yes. I would like an fsck that runs under MINIX, especially since fsck can't handle my 35M hard disk even though the MINIX driver works fine. This is because fsck uses BIOS, and there are more than 65535 sectors on my disk. -- Stuart D. Gathman <..!seismo!dgis!bms-at!stuart>