lbr@holos0.uucp (Len Reed) (04/05/91)
I want to put Unix on my home PC. It's a 386-33 ISA machine. Is it possible to buy Unix without a development system and run GCC? Price is a paramount concern for this system. I'm considering ESIX and Microport, both of which sell 2-user V.3 versions for under $400. If I add GCC to one of these will I be okay, or do I need the development system to get the /usr/include stuff and who knows what else? I don't need most of the stuff that comes with the development system: SCCS (I use RCS), make (I use dmake and Gnu-make), lex (...flex), yacc (...bison or Berkeley yacc), etc. Another reason I don't want to buy the development system is that I may eventually spring for V.4 (maybe in a year) and much or all of what I spend now will be wasted. -Len -- Len Reed Holos Software, Inc. Voice: (404) 496-1358 UUCP: ...!gatech!holos0!lbr
ken@dali.cc.gatech.edu (Ken Seefried iii) (04/06/91)
In article <1991Apr4.161804.4842@holos0.uucp> lbr@holos0.uucp (Len Reed) writes: >I want to put Unix on my home PC. It's a 386-33 ISA machine. Is it >possible to buy Unix without a development system and run GCC? Price >is a paramount concern for this system. This question should probably go in the FAQ. Currently, it isn't possible to use gcc without the SCO Dev Sys. GNU relies on the host machines header files and libraries. -- ken seefried iii ken@dali.cc.gatech.edu "If 'ya can't be with the one you love, honey, love the one you're with..."
cirian@einstein.eds.com (Steve Cirian) (04/08/91)
In article <1991Apr4.161804.4842@holos0.uucp>, lbr@holos0.uucp (Len Reed) writes: > I want to put Unix on my home PC. It's a 386-33 ISA machine. Is it > possible to buy Unix without a development system and run GCC? Price > is a paramount concern for this system. > I had the same plan as you, and purchased the runtime version of Microport's Sys V R 3.2. The runtime version does not include a compiler, networking, or X. I got the runtime package for $200, and have been fairly happy with it. I also planned to get the Gnu C compiler, and 386X, and try to get by as cheaply as possible for my home system. Here are my observations on Microport, and on my strategy: Microport makes a decent Unix, but I have had a few problems: 1) When rebooting my machine after it has been running for more than 10 minutes it hangs, and just repeats the memory check and self test. I do not get the usual "Booting Microport Unix..." message. One person out there in Netland suggested that the way that Microport Unix interprets the interrupt that is generated by my video card as an error. His system had the same video card (a Paradise VGA+16), and the sane problem. I am going to try to convince my roommate to let me rip apart his new PC and let me borrow his card to see if it makes a difference. 2) I have not been able to print. 3) FYI - this one was my fault, not Microport's, but I thought I would mention it, since it might be of general interest. I experienced several system crashes, where the system woul give me the following message: "Operating System Not Found". My system seemed to run fine for a few weeks, and then would mysteriously crash. I am almost certain the cause of this was a virus. My roommate used a program on my DOS partition, which apparently hosed the boot sectors, which in turn hosed UNIX. I had to reload 3 times before he discovered the virus on his new PC, and I am pretty sure this is what messed up my computer. (He owes me, so I am going to borrow his video card.) 4) Microport does not include decent doco. The only thing that comes with the runtime package is a hardcopy of the man pages for the basic set of commands. This booklet also includes brief summaries of how to perform a few tasks, such as enabling serial ports, adding a printer, and mounting a floppy (Microport tells you how to do it, but not which device files correspond to which type of floppies (DD, HD, 3.5, 5.25)). Online man pages are not included. I have recieved several phone calls from their sales staff, trying to get me to purchase additional doco and support, but I do not wish to do so until I know if their version of Unix can be made to function properly on my box. I have not had much time to tinker around with my system, and have to reply to Microport's support staff with some answers to some of the questions they had, so to be fair to them, I guess I can't complain too much until I get them the answers I promised them. As far as my stratgey of putting together a cheap system, one kind person said he would be willing to mail me Gnu's c compiler, lex, and bison on floppies once he got it compiled, but he has not had time to work on it lately, so I can't comment on how that compiler will work out. I was going to get 386X via anonymous ftp through one of the mailer sites, but decided that it wouldn't be fair to have that amount of data mailed to me across the net via uucp. (In case anyone has this and would be willing to send it to me on floppies (I will pay for the cost of the floppies, postage, etc), please email me.) Steve Cirian -- ___ ___ ___ > Electronic Data Systems > Steve Cirian, Systems Engineer /___ / | /__ > 750 Tower Drive > cirian@einstein.eds.com /___ /__/ ___/ > Troy, Michigan 48007 > ...uunet!edsews!einstein!cirian >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
rbraun@spdcc.COM (Rich Braun) (04/09/91)
The other problem (besides the fact that SCO doesn't give you include files for its standard functions without the D.S.) with bringing up gcc et al without the Development System is the lack of binary distribution sites. Currently, one has to use the Development System to compile gcc; then one can use gcc to compile other items like rcs, emacs, et al. The Free Software Foundation won't mail you a tape of SCO binaries, either; they distribute source code only, with one exception: VAX/VMS. Uunet doesn't provide an SCO archive directory for Gnu binaries, and SCO is not interested in maintaining public-domain binaries within its archive directory on uunet (though maybe they'd be willing to let someone else be caretaker if someone's interested.) To date, no SCO binary distribution site has been made available for anonymous ftp. -rich
mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us (Marc Unangst) (04/10/91)
rbraun@spdcc.COM (Rich Braun) writes: > The other problem (besides the fact that SCO doesn't give you include > files for its standard functions without the D.S.) with bringing up There's an even worse problem than that (you can probably fake the include files by getting the BSD ones and modifying them), and that is there is no libc.a for GCC right now; in fact, there is no PD libc.a that runs under System V; the closest you're going to get are the Minix/386 libc.a (which is V7, not System V) and 4.4BSD libc.a (when it's released). Without libc, you're not going to be able to link anything, so the compiler is sort of useless. -- Marc Unangst | mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us | "Bus error: passengers dumped" ...!umich!leebai!mudos!mju |
thomax@utopia.in-berlin.de (Thomas Kaulmann) (04/12/91)
cirian@einstein.eds.com (Steve Cirian) writes: >I had the same plan as you, and purchased the runtime version of Microport's >Sys V R 3.2. The runtime version does not include a compiler, networking, or >X. I got the runtime package for $200, and have been fairly happy with it. I >also planned to get the Gnu C compiler, and 386X, and try to get by as cheaply >as possible for my home system. but where do you get the header files from? -- #define OPTIMIST 1 main() { if ( OPTIMIST ) get_Fun(); } get_Fun() { exit(); } /* what else?!? */