[comp.unix.i386] Microport 286 binaries on SysV3.2?

evan@telly.on.ca (Evan Leibovitch) (05/05/89)

I have been unsuccessful in attempts to make the Microport 286 DWB
work on my Enix 3.2 (now to be renamed OSIX :-Q). Did Microport do
something to AT&T COFF that makes it different from original AT&T
specs?

If the answer to the above is yes, is there a fix - either to the
binaries themselves, or a technical description of the Microport
binary file format? Folks at Everex tell me they'd like to build in
support for Microport 286 binaries if they know the file layout.

Thanks.
-- 

Evan Leibovitch, SA of System Telly, located in beautiful Brampton, Ontario
    evan@telly.on.ca / {uunet!attcan,utzoo}!telly!evan / (416) 452-0504
For a dollar you can still buy: A piece of paper with the Queen's face on it

plocher%sally@Sun.COM (John Plocher) (05/09/89)

+---- In <1989May5.060529.18967@telly.on.ca> Evan Leibovitch writes:
| I have been unsuccessful in attempts to make the Microport 286 DWB
| work on my Enix 3.2 (now to be renamed OSIX :-Q). Did Microport do
| something to AT&T COFF that makes it different from original AT&T
| specs?
+----

I'm not suprised.  Microport *never* recompiled the DWB 286 stuff from
source.  The binaries came directly from Intel in STL (Single Task
Loadable) format.  V/286 had special support for this type file (gen'd by
Intel's development tools), but it was NEVER part of an AT&T standard.

Why, do you ask, didn't Microport ever recompile the sources?  Because
we didn't have them.  DWB/286 was version 1 from AT&T, DWB/386 was
version 2.  All we had was DWB-Ver2 source, and it didn't compile on the
286 :-(

The code generated by Microport's 286 compiler DOES generate COFF files,
and these files DO run under 386 Unix - both Microport's and all the other
3.2 releases.  Everex shouldn't have to do anything to make those things
work - ATT already did it.  As for the STL format DWB, ha!  Even I don't
know what STL looks like internally.

    -John Plocher

(BTW - I liked your .signature :-)

>For a dollar you can still buy: A piece of paper with the Queen's face on it

(in strange colours, though!)

mike@cimcor.mn.org (Michael Grenier) (05/09/89)

From article <1989May5.060529.18967@telly.on.ca>, by evan@telly.on.ca (Evan Leibovitch):
> I have been unsuccessful in attempts to make the Microport 286 DWB
> work on my Enix 3.2 (now to be renamed OSIX :-Q). Did Microport do
> something to AT&T COFF that makes it different from original AT&T
> specs?

The DWB that comes with Microport V/AT is not in COFF format but 
in RTL format. You can port the 286 software development system and other
commands if you want but the Documenters workbench is a bit tough. Since
it is DWB version 1.0 anyway, I recommend that you buy it.

    -Mike Grenier
     mike@cimcor.mn.org

pcg@aber-cs.UUCP (Piercarlo Grandi) (05/09/89)

In article <1989May5.060529.18967@telly.on.ca> evan@telly.on.ca (Evan Leibovitch) writes:

    I have been unsuccessful in attempts to make the Microport 286 DWB
    work on my Enix 3.2 (now to be renamed OSIX :-Q). Did Microport do
    something to AT&T COFF that makes it different from original AT&T
    specs?

The DWB executables for SV/AT are NOT in COFF format, but in some funny
Intel semi compatible format. I don't remember the name... You can find
it in the /etc/magic file of SV/AT. As far as I know, they are the only
applications ever to have appeared in that funny format.

-- 
Piercarlo "Peter" Grandi           | ARPA: pcg%cs.aber.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
Dept of CS, UCW Aberystwyth        | UUCP: ...!mcvax!ukc!aber-cs!pcg
Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, UK | INET: pcg@cs.aber.ac.uk