HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Subject: Minix Tape Streamer Drivers
Distribution: world
Organization: private
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 17:24:11 +0000

  
  I use Minix386 and now having upgraded to a 200 meg hard disk find
  the need to back it up, however I lack the funds for a SCSI controller
  and corrosponding tape streamer. In the computer press I have seen
  tape streamers running off a floppy disk controller , has anyone
  tried these with Minix  and if so are there device drivers available.
  I would be grateful of any help as I now live in dread of a hard disk
  crash.

                       Yours hopefully,
                        Philip H. Jones
  
  **************************************************************************  
  |  Philip H Jones     email --  phil@plisgyn.demon.co.uk                 |
  |                     phone --  081-521-9966                             |
  |                                                                        |
  |                                                                        |
  **************************************************************************
From: mika@rosvo.north.de (Mika U. Kirschke VIP, Bremen)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: wanted: build >64k
Date: 27 Sep 92 18:02:57 GMT
Article-I.D.: rosvo.92092794
Organization: Private UUCP Site

Hello!
I'am looking for a build for a ST_MINIX, that can work up a
stack+malloc >64K. I would be thankfull, if somebody could
tell me where I can get that.

Ciao..
          Mika 
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: naber_michael@tandem.com (Michael H. Naber)
Subject: Re: MacMinix and System 7
Organization: Tandem Computers
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 15:18:36 GMT

In article <frain.717549073@depot.cis.ksu.edu.cis.ksu.edu>, frain@cis.ksu.edu (Jerry Frain) writes:
> 
> 
> I just got MacMinix 1.5, and I am wondering if anyone has it running
> well under System 7.  I've got an SE/30, 4MB RAM, System 7.  I've had
> to run 6.0.8 to get Minix to run on it.  I've tried ditching my inits,
> virtual memory, Mode32, etc, but nothing seems to help.
> 
> The Macboot program crashes non-deterministically on `illegal
> instruction', when I do get it booted, I have other problems.  I can
> be more specific, but I figured it is a System 7-specific problem, and
> maybe someone has patches?
> 
> Currently, I have Minix configured for no RAM disk, and 512K on the
> macboot heap configuration dialog box.
> 
> I've ftp'd the macboot from plains.nodak.edu in the `updates'
> directory, and I've tried recompiling it myself, nothing seems to
> help.
> 
> Any hints appreciated.
> 
>   --Jerry Frain, frain@cis.ksu.edu
> 
> 
> 
Jerry,

MacMinix, as distributed by Prentice-Hall, just doesn't run under MultiFinder
well, either system 6 or 7.  There are patches at plains in the directory
   ftp_contrib/mcminix (or some such name)
Retrieve the README files first to determine which set of patches you need.
Then, to generate a system 7 friendly MINIX, boot up system 6 without
MultiFinder, apply the patches and compile everything (commands, kernel,
filesystem, memory manager) - follow the instructions in the patch kit.

Michael (Naber_Michael@Tandem.com)
From: lac@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Les Carr)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: experiences using Minix for ug teaching
Date: 30 Sep 92 15:21:49 GMT

I am just about to start into an "Architectures and Operating Systems"
course for 2nd year undergraduates. I was wondering if anyone had some
useful tips about the sort of practical assignments that can be
reasonably performed by average/good students? I am sure that there
must be lots of hidden gotchas waiting out there...
It looks like "implement named pipes" should be dead easy and "implement
paging/swapping" is pushing it too far(!) but how about "implement symbolic
links" or "/dev/fd/" or "/proc" ??

Secondly, any tips on practical issues like maintaining a pristine
Minix on each of a dozen PCs shared between 50 kernel hackers?
-- 
L.Carr@ecs.soton.ac.uk               Les Carr
Tel: +44 703 593649                  Dept of Electronics and Computer Science
Fax: +44 703 593045                  University of Southampton SO9 5NH England
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: brad@molly.jpl.nasa.gov (Brad Pickering)
Subject: Re: MacMinix in 32 bit mode?
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 19:06:35 GMT

Thanks to those who responded.  The consensus is that MacMINIX works in 32
bit mode if it is loaded low enough in memory (8M or 16M?).  So I wrote
a short program but made it take up a lot of room in memory.  I start this
short program then start MacMINIX then quit from the short program.  This
is not too much of a hassel.  The hassel is that on the Quadra this only
works with the '040 cache turned off.  I will probably look into getting
MacMINIX to work with '040 cache on, but if anybody else is working on this
and needs me to test it on a Quadra 950, let me know.

Brad
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: meulenbr@prl.philips.nl (Frans Meulenbroeks)
Subject: Re: ST Minix for a TT...
Organization: Philips Research Laboratories Eindhoven, Netherlands
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 10:50:29 GMT

fessel@quba.quantum.de (Jan-Hinrich Fessel) writes:

>In article <1992Sep28.090106.1@gst-soft.demon.co.uk>, user@gst-soft.demon.co.uk (GST Software Products) writes:
>> 
>> In order to save me having to mod the interrupt handler and the
>> screen driver etc, has anybody got any patches for the ST 1.5 as
>> produced by PH that provides 68030 support and TT High res screen?
>> 
>TT-Med will do just fine for me ;-)

I have already running minix on my TT in med res. 
Diffs against ST 1.5 will be posted soon (I hope later this month).
-- 
Frans Meulenbroeks        (meulenbr@prl.philips.nl)
	Philips Research Laboratories
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: tvf@cci632.cci.com (Tom Frauenhofer)
Subject: Re: The death of minix?? Nay ...
Organization: Northern Telecom, Network Applications Systems, Rochester, NY
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 16:09:04 GMT

In article <1992Oct1.081406.21521@udel.edu> S90405184@hsepm1.hse.nl writes:
>This is really a god idea. What wuld you use to hook them tgether?
                  ^^^
>something like a RS-232 net? Nt fast, but cheap.
>
>Jan Evert
>
>Sorry, my kbd is a little funky, god should be good, of course.
                                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Kinda depends on the God, Doesn't it, Squire? ( :-)

(Agnostics of the world Unite!  You have nothing to blame but your keyboards!)

>-- 
>Mail System (MMDF)
--
Thomas V. Frauenhofer, WA2YYW, tvf@cci.com, ...!uunet!uupsi!cci632!tvf
Mandlebratwurst: The Meal that Eats Itself!
From: little@carina.hks.com (Jim Littlefield)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: MacMinix and System 7
Date: 28 Sep 1992 16:36:21 GMT
Organization: Hibbitt, Karlsson & Sorenson, Inc.
NNTP-Posting-Host: carina.hks.com
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

Michael H. Naber (naber_michael@tandem.com) wrote:
: 
: MacMinix, as distributed by Prentice-Hall, just doesn't run under MultiFinder
: well, either system 6 or 7.  
:    ftp_contrib/mcminix (or some such name)
: 
Does it run well enough to rebuild it WITHOUT running system 6? I just ordered
a copy of MacMinix and really don't want to install system 6.

--

Jim Littlefield <little@hks.com>
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: "Yue-Herng Lin" <yhlin@kiwi.ucs.indiana.edu>
Subject: Re: variable # of arguments
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 21:55:03 -0500

Try this,

int foo(s)
char *s;
{
    char **p;
    for (p=(char **)&s;*p;p++)
       printf("Argument: %s\n", *p);
}
main()
{
    foo("First","Second","Third");
}

Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: al@escom.com (Al Donaldson)
Subject: Re: Frustrated by vfprintf
Reply-To: al@escom.COM (Al Donaldson)
Organization: ESCOM Corp., Oakton VA (USA)
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 16:01:18 GMT

u31b3hs@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (Michael Haardt) writes:
>Perhaps you use the original Minix tsort, which is broken.  

Last week I upgraded my experimental system from a 1.5.8 foundation 
to Prentice Hall 1.5.  This included a change to tsort, which had 
worked well for all these months.  I tried building a new libc.a last 
night and found that it contained only _dup(), not really sufficient 
for building most programs.  Because I had changed tsort, I was 
already thinking that was the problem, but now Michael confirms it.

I mention this because it seems that there's a lesson here -- just
because something works in 1.5.8 doesn't mean that it will work 
in 1.5.10.  From what I hear about 1.6.30-something, we're headed
down the same path.  Reminds me of the saying by Henry Spencer that 
he was thinking of `upgrading' from SunOS 4.0.something to 3.5.

The other lesson is that just because something compiles, doesn't mean
that it works.  I fell into this trap myself, but it seems to me that 
a fairly simple way to test a change to tsort (or lorder or ar) is to 
try to build libc.a from scratch.  Particularly before Prentice Hall 
starts stamping out disks for 1.5.

But then maybe this is another one of the horns (thanks, Will!) of 
that daemon I added and the changes I made to process groups.  :-)

Al
From: fpp@minor.UUCP (Frank Pursel)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Alternate shell
Keywords: MINIX, shell
Date: 3 Oct 92 22:42:53 GMT
Organization: UUCP

Where can I get a copy of 'ssh'.  I've read here that it is an enhanced 
borne shell.  I'd love to be able to call back and edit previously typed 
commands.  I've checked plains and they don't seem to have it.  Can anyone
point me in the right direction or mail me a copy?  BTW.. I have bcc or
ACK as compilers and I don't have a 32 bit OS running.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Frank Pursel jwt!minor!fpp

I just don't have a signature...
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: djk@bby.com.au (David James Keegel)
Subject: Re: (none given) was Re: Signal handling
Organization: Burdett, Buckeridge & Young, Melbourne, Australia
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 09:05:15 GMT

al@escom.com (Al Donaldson) writes:

] The reason I had this problem was that I have a daemon process running
] in the background that had the console opened for stdout and stderr.

Even if you hack at the FS so that you can control the tty again after
you log out, I would have thought it would be undesirable for a daemon
to have access to the console for both input and output, when someone
else (or nobody) might be logged in.

Most daemons I know of will close their stdin, stdout and stderr before
fork()ing.  In the absense of a syslog(), perhaps the daemon's output/
errors could end up in a file or be mailed to root.
-- 
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| David Keegel   <djk@bby.com.au>   Ph: +61 3 614-8922   Fax: +61 3 614-8742 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: kduling@dante.nmsu.edu (Kevin J. Duling)
Subject: Frustrated by vfprintf
Organization: New Mexico State University
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1992 19:27:06 GMT

Since early August I've been pulling my hair out in frustration.  I've
been trying to install a few games and needed to build the curses
package.  With the first, most basic I guess, curses package posted I
managed to get Wanderer to run.  Life, gomoku, sokoban, worm, and a
few others won't work, however, because a number of functions aren't
defined in the first pc-curses posting.

So, off I go delving into minnie to find more goodies and patches for
curses.  Bruce Evans' patches go in smoothly and the demo for curses
is now lightning fast (if anything CAN be fast on an 8088).  But the
games I have still won't compile.

Delving still deeper in the 'hundred' file for minnie, I see Michael
Haardt has another patch for curses.  Again, the patches go in
relatively smoothly and it builds the new libcurses.a file nicely.  

Then disaster strikes....  unresolved references: _vfprint

I had no clue to what this '_vfprint' thing was and couldn't even find
a reference to it in any of the curses files.  There is, however, a
file called 'vfprintf.c'.  So...I hunt through the documenation some
more and find that Mr. Haardt had similar problems and wrote the
vfprintf.c file.  Great!  Wonderful!  Marvelous!  Um... now what?

I've tried appending vfprintf.s to libc.a...and to libcurses.a.  I even
extracted everything in libc.a into a seperate directory, lordered and
tsorted it all into a new libc.a...  I *STILL* get "unresolved
references: _vfprint".

This morning I looked at myself and saw I had very little hair left to
pull out over all of this.  And if I wanted to have anything left at
all, I'd better post to the net and beg and plead for some insights.

Just so you know, I have PC Minix 1.5.10 (PH, actually), ACK cc (I'd
like to move to bcc, but can't figure out what goes where), plenty of
disk space, 640k memory, shared-text, virtual consoles, and a
partridge in a pear tree.

Help?!



Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: suriano@iitmax.iit.edu (candice suriano)
Subject: Help! Can't boot Toshiba 3300SL
Organization: Illinois Institute of Technology
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 01:51:21 GMT


I can't seem to get MINIX to boot on a Toshiba 3300 SL.  I know
the disks are O.K. because these same disks will boot a Toshiba 2200 SL.
As far as I know the only difference is in the clock speed.  The 2200 is
20 MHZ and the 3300 is 25 MHZ.  

I get the "booting MINIX 1.5" message, then a disk read failure automatic
reboot.

I've tried rebuilding the system with more retries for the fdc. This
had no effect.  The system still won't boot.

The Toshiba 3300SL is a 25 MHZ 386 laptop.  I'm not sure what chip is 
used for fdc or the hard disk controller.

Does any one have any suggestions?  Thanks in advance.

Candi Suriano
suriano@iitmax.iit.edu
From: frain@cis.ksu.edu (Jerry Frain)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: MacMinix and System 7
Date: 26 Sep 92 23:10:27 GMT
Organization: Kansas State University, Dept. of Computing and Information Sciences
NNTP-Posting-Host: depot.cis.ksu.edu


I just got MacMinix 1.5, and I am wondering if anyone has it running
well under System 7.  I've got an SE/30, 4MB RAM, System 7.  I've had
to run 6.0.8 to get Minix to run on it.  I've tried ditching my inits,
virtual memory, Mode32, etc, but nothing seems to help.

The Macboot program crashes non-deterministically on `illegal
instruction', when I do get it booted, I have other problems.  I can
be more specific, but I figured it is a System 7-specific problem, and
maybe someone has patches?

Currently, I have Minix configured for no RAM disk, and 512K on the
macboot heap configuration dialog box.

I've ftp'd the macboot from plains.nodak.edu in the `updates'
directory, and I've tried recompiling it myself, nothing seems to
help.

Any hints appreciated.

  --Jerry Frain, frain@cis.ksu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: Nelson Cheuk-Fai Ko <cko@silver.ucs.indiana.edu>
Subject: variable # of arguments
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 03:33:07 GMT


could anybody give me some help on
writing a procedure with variable # of arguments?

i have only minix 1.3 and the c compiler in the package.

i can't find the <varargs.h> or <stdarg.h>.

or have i missed something? or need another c compiler?

thanks

nelson (cko@silver.ucs.indiana.edu)
From: H.Regan@bradford.ac.uk (H REGAN)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: (none given) was Re: Signal handling
Date: 28 Sep 92 19:10:54 GMT
Organization: University of Bradford, UK
Originator: 90465160@muser


Hi,

just a thought about the TTY process not being told what
the parrent process group is. I think TTY_OPEN is not used
in tty.c. Instead, there is a kludge in fs/device.c to convert
a call through dmap[] on opening to a straight dmap[] read call.

I can't remember the exact details, but noticed it when implementing
DTR on the the tty - you must keep track of opens & closes so
DTR is only dropped on the last close.

Hope this helps,

HR
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: "EIS::BURGESS" <BURGESS%EIS.decnet@hsdp3.brooks.af.mil>
Subject: RE: Minix Tape Streamer Drivers
Originator: mmdf@louie.udel.edu
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 14:21:00 GMT

Phil@plisym.demon.co.uk writes:
>  I use Minix386 and now having upgraded to a 200 meg hard disk find
>  the need to back it up, however I lack the funds for a SCSI controller
>  and corrosponding tape streamer. In the computer press I have seen
>  tape streamers running off a floppy disk controller , has anyone
>  tried these with Minix  and if so are there device drivers available.
>  I would be grateful of any help as I now live in dread of a hard disk
>  crash.
>
>                       Yours hopefully,
>                        Philip H. Jones
>

Phil, 
  The answers to your questions are Yes and No.  I have been researching a 
method of doing this for the better part of six months, and am not really 
making a great deal of headway.  With the help of the folks on the networks, 
I have been able to order the correct documentation, talk to the right 
software authors, and generally get just about everything I need to do it.  
On a vanilla AT/XT using a 'floppy tape' drive, there is VERY little chance 
of implementing the tape format as described by the manufacturers.  With a 
little more cajoling, the system might be able to be convinced to work with a 
smaller implementation of the same general principles.  The good news is that 
this smaller implemetation would be a) more redundant and b) more robust and 
more likely to find and repair more errors.  All I have to do now is actually 
start writing code and trying implement it.
  I am still plodding along with it though, and expect sometime before the 
turn of the century I will have a hardware driver and software package that 
can back up to a floppy tape drive.  It won't be able to read any other tape 
formats but the  Minix format, but that's OK with me.  Once the software is  
written, a simple DOS interface using the same format should be possible.
If you (or anyone in net land) is interested in this, drop me a line.

TSgt Dave Burgess
NCOIC, Armstrong Lab MIS
Brooks AFB, TX

-- 
Mail System (MMDF)
From: lac@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Les Carr)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: sherver for vanilla SUNOS?
Date: 30 Sep 92 15:07:47 GMT

are the 'sherver' sources (distributed a la Minix 1.5) able to
be compiled on a plain Sun? I don't want to have to get hold
of Amoeba, and I would like my students to be able to copy
files from their Minixed PCs into their UNIX directories.

If the answer is no, is there a hacked sherver that will work?
-- 
L.Carr@ecs.soton.ac.uk               Les Carr
Tel: +44 703 593649                  Dept of Electronics and Computer Science
Fax: +44 703 593045                  University of Southampton SO9 5NH England
From: englhp@rosie.uh.edu (Lester, Samuel H.)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Gcc and Emacs for 68k (was Re: MacMinix and System 7)
Date: 29 Sep 92 15:07:00 GMT
Article-I.D.: rosie.29SEP199210074026
Organization: University of Houston
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <frain.717627179@depot.cis.ksu.edu.cis.ksu.edu>, frain@cis.ksu.edu (Jerry Frain) writes...
>frain@cis.ksu.edu (Jerry Frain) writes:
> 
>Now I am curious about where to get the 32-bit gcc for m68k, and emacs

An older version of these can be obtained from atari.archive.umich.edu.  The
latest versions are on ftp.thp.uni-koeln [134.95.64.1] which however has
been down for some time, or at least when I have tried to ftp them, so you
will have to ftp to ftp.Uni-Koeln.DE [134.95.80.1] and cd to the directory
/thp.  These last two sites are in Germany and so as you may already know
courteous ftp times are 6 hours off (of EDT--I don't know when Germany
changes off daylight savings, but I think it's earlier than here).

For a more complete list of Minix archives and other fancy stuff, be sure to
get the MInix Info Sheet and the Minix FAQ sheet.

Samuel
From: craig@kralizec.zeta.org.au (Craig Dewick)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: source code to standard library functions
Date: 29 Sep 92 21:02:03 GMT
Organization: Kralizec Dialup Unix Sydney: +61-2-837-1183 V.32


Hi.

I'm trying to get access to the source code of the standard library functions
provided with Unix/Minix/etc., but so far I've had no luck.
 
Is is possible to gain access to source for these functions somewhere?

The reason I want access to this source is that I'm trying to port some Unix
stuff to my sort-of-Unix 68k-based system, but the Unix compatibility library
does not have all the functions I need, so I've got to get the code for them
and add it to the library.
 
Any help will be appreciated.
-- 
 Craig Dewick               |      - Railway Preservation Industries P/L -
 Send email to:             |      actively supporting the preservation of
 craig@kralizec.zeta.org.au |           Australia's railway heritage.
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: delozier@Condor.mcs.kent.edu (Greg Delozier)
Subject: Re: MacMinix and System 7
Organization: Kent State University
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 02:06:24 GMT

In article <1992Sep28.193025.2275@tandem.com> naber_michael@tandem.com (Michael H. Naber) writes:
>In article <1a7ca5INN8la@argo.hks.com>, little@carina.hks.com (Jim Littlefield) writes:
>> 
>> Michael H. Naber (naber_michael@tandem.com) wrote:
>> : 
>> : MacMinix, as distributed by Prentice-Hall, just doesn't run under MultiFinder
>> : well, either system 6 or 7.  
>> :    ftp_contrib/mcminix (or some such name)
>> : 
>> Does it run well enough to rebuild it WITHOUT running system 6? I just ordered
>> a copy of MacMinix and really don't want to install system 6.
>> 
>> --
>> 
>> Jim Littlefield <little@hks.com>
>> 
>> 
>Jim,
>
>>From my experience, NO.  I was getting crashes anywhere from 3 minutes to half
>an hour into anything I was doing.  Occasionally, this would even corrupt the
>file system and the recovery was just long enough to experience another.
>
>I REALLY recommend that you apply the patches & compile under system 6 FINDER.
>
>Michael (Naber_Michael@Tandem.com)
>

I don't know if this is a common experience, but I have put a little time and
energy into installing McMinix 1.5.10.7 (I think...) on a Mac Classic II, and
then on a Mac CX, both running system 7, AutoIdle, and about everything else
except virtual memory (which Minix doesn't like) and I never have *any*
problems with it. I bought this thing second hand from a person who had applied
the system 7 patches from, I believe, the plains archive, and I also am using
the gcc compiler available there. 

It is a *very* reliable system and a good addition to my Mac. I depend on it
working when I need it, and it hasn't let me down yet. 

If there's some way to do so, I'd  be happy to share a diff file of the kernel
patches and so forth...  

Anyway, don't gove up on the system 7/Multifinder business. Once it works,
it's absolutely great!

-greg

Greg DeLozier/Senior Analyst, Loral Defense/Graduate Student, Kent State Univ.