HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: flebbe@wega.tat.physik.uni-tuebingen.de (Olaf Flebbe)
Subject: Re: Basic MINIX ST questions (long)
Organization: TAT (Theoretical Astrophysics Tuebingen), U. of Tuebingen, FRG
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 09:50:49 GMT

adw@cci632.cci.com (Allen Williams (co-op)) writes:


> As the book was for the IBM PC, I have some questions about the Atari
>specific version of Minix. These are basic questions but hopefully not
>something people are tired of hearing:

>  	I know there is no paging of memory for Minix, as there isn't
>	any good hardware support. However, is memory accesses outside
>	the process space restricted? Can I write an user program to
>	diddle with the kernel or file system space? If so, is this
>	just one of those things you're not supposed to do but can
>	do anyway? If I access memory outside my program space, will a
>	core dump be generated?
Yes, you can access memory outside your private user space. But you
are not supposed to do it. A bus error (causing an core dump)  will be
generated simular to TOS if you want to read/write on memory below
some magic address. esp. referencing NULL will do an core dump.

>	How are memory holes handled? I'm afraid I'm not clear on this
>	feature. Is memory compacted as the holes become too small or
>	too numerous, or does one have to reboot Minix when no new
>	processes can be created due to none of the holes being big enough?

There is no memory garbage colletion. When a new process come into life,
the kernel checks for the first chunk of memory which fits. One has to
kill processes to if there are big holes left.
	
>	On the Atari, how is program expansion handled? For the IBM PC
>	in the minix book, there is a system call called "brk" which will
>	allow the program to grow upward toward the program stack. I think
>	this was due to a limitation of the 286's 64k segmentation. I would
>	think that Atari Minix won't have this limitation. Do I use a
>	malloc() call, and the memory manager will allocate any free memory for
>	my process, and not just the memory between my process and the stack?

Each program has a fixed upper limit for its memory. Each executable
has this size written somewhere in the file.
From this fixed amount sbrk (or brk) can get its memory. malloc is a
library function calling brk(). There is a program called chmem which can
increase/decrease the amount of memory which the program can allocate. 

[Hardware hacking]
>	Perhaps a small controller could provide some rudimentary memory
>	management, such as keeping track of the pages assigned and making
>	sure that the cpu doesn't stray from the proper areas of memory
>	it's supposed to access. It sounds like a bit of work, and I
>	would like to hear of other people's efforts in this matter.
If you want to design a mmu: Do it. Or change the 68000 to a 68030 and
let the MMU do the work. I don't know whether the TT version of minix
--which still doesn't exists officialy -- do some MMU work on this. Perhaps
Frans Meulenbroeks can tell you something on the MMU.
--
  Olaf Flebbe,  Theoretische Astrophysik Tuebingen
  Internet:     flebbe@tat.physik.uni-tuebingen.de
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: dbenn@leven.appcomp.utas.edu.au (David Benn)
Subject: Re: Misc. AmigaMINIX questions
Organization: University of Tasmania at Launceston
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 92 02:33:03 GMT

In article <Btx307.ELF@cs.vu.nl>, sreiz@cs.vu.nl (Reiz Steven) writes:
>
>dbenn@leven.appcomp.utas.edu.au (David Benn) writes:
>
>These problems (specially Elvis crashing with exceptions), sound like the
>binaries may be corrupted. Have you tried the original binaries from floppy?
>

I thought this was probably the case. 
I'll recopy the binaries from the original disks -
hmmm, thought I'd done this... 

>For 1.5.10.1 you just need the boot disk. The patch tarfile contains, besides
>Makedev and format, only source patches.
>

Right. 

>For 1.5.10.2 you can also just use the new boot disk, but to have full use of
>the virtual consoles you'll have to edit a file on the root filesystem
>(/etc/ttys, I think). You don't have to recompile, because the binaries
>are included (actually just minix.img).
>

Thanks for the help.

Regards...

-- 
dbenn@leven.appcomp.utas.edu.au
David Benn - Applied Computing, University of Tasmania at Launceston.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To prefer the hard facts over our dearest illusions, that is 
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: leno@grumpy.cray.com (Scott J. Leno)
Subject: Question init.c <--> /etc/utmp
Summary: init ignores /etc/utmp if /usr/adm/wtmp doesn't exist
Keywords: init login utmp wtmp
Organization: Cray Research, Inc.
Date: 25 Aug 92 13:54:57 CDT

  I have been looking into why I seem to be logged in several times when I
 run the who command. It stems from init not zeroing the /etc/utmp entry
 when I log off. This happens because I do not have a /usr/adm directory.
 init tries to place a utmp entry in the /usr/adm/wtmp file. If it fails
 it returns without trying to make the entry in the /etc/utmp file. I
 realise that I could just create the /usr/adm/wtmp file but login works
 with one and/or the other without any trouble. 

  As it stands now login writes a utmp entry to /etc/utmp, but init never
 gets to zero it out when I log off. I have made mods to init to fix this,
 if anyone is interested, I will post them.

   peace, love and good karma,
      Scott
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: Kelvin Collage <hilander@silver.lcs.mit.edu>
Subject: Re:  MINIX or Coherent?
Originator: mmdf@louie.udel.edu
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 17:36:46 GMT


welp i went from coherent to minix

i thought coherent was a better package
but compatibility with Minix and other uni :) was what made me switch

i am still finding out more about minix ( i just installed it 2 mnths ago)

both minix and coherent can exist on the same hard drive (different partition)
as dos.. in fact they both come with dos utils..
and coherent comes with a boot program ... minix - you can dload mxboot..

umm that is my 2cents ... 

hilander@silver.lcs.mit

btw coherent has a new version out.. sounds good
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Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: rda612c@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au (js [schwobby])
Subject: mouse driver
Summary: mouse driver
Keywords: mouse driver
Organization: Monash University, Caulfield Campus
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 02:13:17 GMT

Hi newsgroup.


Anybody seen or know about a mouse driver for minix(not MINI-X)?
thanks in advance.

regards
      schwobby

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
rda612c@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au  | Jobst "Schwobby" Schmalenbach
19 York Street, Sth Caulfield, 3162, Australia, 69 - 3 - 5237348B
............Perfection means, that there is nothing left to take away.
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: IKBE1%EBCCUAB1.BitNet@pucc.princeton.edu
Subject: Help with vfprintf
Originator: mmdf@louie.udel.edu
Organization: Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 19:34:51 GMT


I was trying to compile the ksh shell for MINIX when the compiler
complained about the function

        vfprintf

It is defined in stdio.h, but it is not in the library libc.a and I can't
find the source code where it should be. The only one similar is vsprintf.

Could anyone help me whith this.
Thanks.


Victor Moreno
LBE-UAB Barcelona Spain
ikbe1@cc.uab.es
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From: newton@iagu.itd.adelaide.edu.au (Mark Newton)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: error when compiling c68 v4 source code for c68.
Date: 1 Sep 92 00:12:15 GMT
Organization: University of Adelaide, South Australia

In article <9208290342.AA04722@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> glalonde@vnet.ibm.com ("Glen Lalonde") writes:
>The file msgout.c had an include of varagrs.h, this file is not on
>my system(MacMinix 1.5.10) anyone else have trouble compiling it?
>Can I just use stdargs.h?????

Nope.

I had that error too.  So, I grabbed varargs.h out of some GNU source
that I had lying around.  It works without any problems.

This isn't actually the first ting that I've seen that needs varargs.h,
so it's probably worth installing it in /usr/include.

   - mark
-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------
         'Do not expose your LaserWriter to naked flame...'
newton@iagu.itd.adelaide.edu.au         - Apple LaserWriter Manual
------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: cwr@crash.cts.com (Will Rose)
Subject: Re: uucico (probably outdated)
Organization: CTS Network Services (crash, ctsnet), El Cajon, CA
Date: 31 Aug 92 02:38:28 PDT

Olaf Kirch (okir@monad.swb.de) wrote:
: 
: I want to report a bug on a certain uucico implementation, of which I
: neither know its official name, nor if it's still used by anyone but me.
: The source files say it was written by Lamb, Lynne, Housel, van Kempen,
: and some 'cwr', and version is 3.9. as of May 30, 1991. I'm posting this
: bug report to te net, since I don't know if there's still anybody
: maintaining this  version. (and I don't have his/her address :-)

Thanks for the report (I'm cwr) but I suggest you drop that version,
which from it's date is a late alpha.  If it had had a number, it would
have been 1.1; it was ok on the IBM PC, but not so good on other versions
of Minix and it wasn't too reliable. Try and get hold of 1.2, which was
posted around October 91, and had a small set of bug fixes around January
92 to make it 1.2.1.  Warren Toomey's archive has the master copies.

I'll take a look at the snags anyway; after months of procrastination,
I've finally got the VT100 emulator for cu finished.  All I had to do
was steal it from Minicom, it really shouldn't have taken so long.
However, that means 1.3 can be beta tested and I'll check that none
of those bugs are still hanging around.  I added Wietse Venema's fix
to the 'g' driver; after a year of news feeds, I hadn't noticed a
problem.  1.3 is no great change from 1.2, so it isn't worth hanging
around for; you can now use cu to run an editor, and multiple bang
paths are supported, and the dialling code is very different (possibly
better, or possibly not).

Good luck - Will
cwr@crash.cts.com

Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: owwww! you booted me in the HEAD! <hilander@silver.lcs.mit.edu>
Subject: minix-vga
Originator: mmdf@louie.udel.edu
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 04:54:27 GMT

i just tried to install minix-vga

i copied all the files respectively into the kernel , mm, and fs directories
and went to compile them

seems like whenever i go to compile something..
there are always a bunch of undefined variables..

in this case it was  while making the kernel..
protect.c line #221 VGA_BASE & VGA_SIZE undefined...

maybe i didn't uncompress some files? when i installed minix?
(to never have anything compile correctly due to occurring errors
 relating to undefined variables is too much to be a coincidence
  that the suppliers of the software letf loose ends)

thanks .. for your time...       (^^letf= left.. heh.. )

hilander@silver.lcs.mit.edu
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Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: Dennis Cheng-Zen Yang <dennis@solar.csie.ntu.edu.tw>
Subject: multithread file system questions 
Originator: mmdf@louie.udel.edu
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 06:55:53 GMT

Hi
	I've heard about multithread file system on minix. I have several
questions about it :

  1) Can this file system be installed on 286 or XT PC ?
  2) Where is its multithread feature in the filesystem ?
  3) Where can I ftp this one ?
  4) If I've installed shoelace, will it conflict with it ?
  5) If there is a list about its history, it would be appriciated

Also, If there is some one have used it, your experiences will be invaluable.

Thanx !

-- 
Dennis Cheng-Zen Yang                    Inter: dennis@solar.csie.ntu.edu.tw
Computer System Lab.                     Tel  : 886-2-3630231 ext 3236 or 3016
Dep. of Computer Sci. and Info. Eng.     ___  ___   ,
National Taiwan University              /    <__   /
				       <___  ___> <___
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Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: leno@grumpy.cray.com (Scott J. Leno)
Subject: Re: Question init.c <--> /etc/utmp
Keywords: init login utmp wtmp
Organization: Cray Research, Inc.
Date: 26 Aug 92 08:31:07 CDT

In article <meulenbr.714819852@cstw168> meulenbr@prl.philips.nl (Frans Meulenbroeks) writes:
>leno@grumpy.cray.com (Scott J. Leno) writes:
>>  As it stands now login writes a utmp entry to /etc/utmp, but init never
>> gets to zero it out when I log off. I have made mods to init to fix this,
>> if anyone is interested, I will post them.
>In /etc/rc add the line:
>>/etc/utmp
>which will clear the file whenever the system is booted.
  The probelm is that when I log out and then in again as a another user
 there are now two entries in /etc/utmp and it appears that I am logged in
 twice from the same tty. I do have the above line in my /etc/rc, and I
 don't see logins across boots, but I see several users logged in on the
 same tty after the machine has been up for a while. Init fails to clear
 the utmp file because the /usr/adm/wtmp file is not writeable (doen't
 exist). 
>No need to change init.
  If you look, init won't try and write to /etc/utmp if it fails to write
 to /usr/adm/wtmp. This ends up making it look like the same tty has
 several people logged in on it.
>Good luck,
  Thanks,
      Scott


Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: adw@cci632.cci.com (Allen Williams (co-op))
Subject: Basic MINIX ST questions
Organization: Computer Consoles Incorporated
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 17:12:17 GMT


 I've purchased Andy T.'s Minix textbook, and I found it interesting and
a sight better more informative than the dull and boring OS book I used
for an OS class I took. I especially appreciated the extra detail in file
systems, somtheing that was glossed over in the class.

 I've ordered Minix for my Atari ST from the address in the FAQ, but I sent
the order last week so it might be a bit early for it to arrive. 

 As the book was for the IBM PC, I have some questions about the Atari
specific version of Minix. These are basic questions but hopefully not
something people are tired of hearing:

  	I know there is no paging of memory for Minix, as there isn't
	any good hardware support. However, is memory accesses outside
	the process space restricted? Can I write an user program to
	diddle with the kernel or file system space? If so, is this
	just one of those things you're not supposed to do but can
	do anyway? If I access memory outside my program space, will a
	core dump be generated?

	How are memory holes handled? I'm afraid I'm not clear on this
	feature. Is memory compacted as the holes become too small or
	too numerous, or does one have to reboot Minix when no new
	processes can be created due to none of the holes being big enough?
	
	On the Atari, how is program expansion handled? For the IBM PC
	in the minix book, there is a system call called "brk" which will
	allow the program to grow upward toward the program stack. I think
	this was due to a limitation of the 286's 64k segmentation. I would
	think that Atari Minix won't have this limitation. Do I use a
	malloc() call, and the memory manager will allocate any free memory for
	my process, and not just the memory between my process and the stack?


	Has anyone done any hardware hacking for the ST to make it run better
	with Minix? I have two Atari computers, one which I'm willing to
	donate to science (it won't read from the floppy but runs OK from
	a hard drive).
	
	I was thinking of building a memory mangler for the ST, based on
	my understanding of how Minix works. If a process has a lower and
	upper limit that it can access (if my supposition about malloc() 
	above doesn't hold true), then perhaps when the cpu is in user mode
	and it tries to access memory outside this range, an interrupt is
	generated and the kernel kills the process and generates a core 
	dump. 

	Perhaps a small controller could provide some rudimentary memory
	management, such as keeping track of the pages assigned and making
	sure that the cpu doesn't stray from the proper areas of memory
	it's supposed to access. It sounds like a bit of work, and I
	would like to hear of other people's efforts in this matter.

 Well, I think that's enough questions to ask for now. I would be deeply
appreciative to hear from other Atari (or any other computer) Minix
hackers!

                                                      Derrick
	
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: Frank.Neumann@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de (Frank Neumann)
Subject: Re: Help with vfprintf
Organization: University of Oldenburg, Germany
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 01:41:06 GMT


Hi there,
Victor Moreno wrote:

>I was trying to compile the ksh shell for MINIX when the compiler
>complained about the function

>        vfprintf

>It is defined in stdio.h, but it is not in the library libc.a and I can't
>find the source code where it should be. The only one similar is vsprintf.

This is from ftp.thp.uni-koeln.de, /pub/minix/portable/vfprintf.c:
---------- cut here ------------------------------------------
#include <lib.h>
#include <stdarg.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int vfprintf(file, fmt, args) FILE *file; char *fmt; va_list args;
{
  _doprintf(file, fmt, args);
}
------------ cut here again -----------------------------------

Just compile this with
cc vfprintf.c -c -o vfprintf.o
and link it to the rest. That should be all.

Bye,
Frank
-- 
+ Frank Neumann, Hauptstr. 107, 2900 Oldenburg, FRG   The Amiga is it.   +
+       InterNet: Frank.Neumann@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de         +
+       UUCP: neumann@uniol.uucp   \\//    InHouse:amigo@faramir         +
+ Zerberus: neumann@uniol.zer BitNet:295391@DOLUNI1.BITNET IRC: Franky   +
+ "All die Manta-Computer-User - Hauptsache vorne leuchtet 33Mhz auf..." +
+        - Stefan Schulze in fido.ger.amiga, 04.08.1992                  +

Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: pdhatchm@socs.uts.edu.au
Subject: Re: multithread file system questions
Originator: mmdf@louie.udel.edu
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 15:06:44 GMT

> 
> Hi
> 	I've heard about multithread file system on minix. I have several
> questions about it :
> 
>   1) Can this file system be installed on 286 or XT PC ?

	Yes.. I managed to get it going on a 286.. but I had to modify setjmp/longjmp 
	to get it to work. I might be able to dig out the changes if you need them. 

	Also it uses up a fair bit of memory. So if you have a lot of patches applied 
	like vga drivers etc then dont expect to get more than two or so threads
	(And two threads only actually gives you a single threaded file system..)

	Oh and btw first you will hasve to upgrade to minix 1.6.16 to get the patches
	to work..

good luck,

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Hatchman                      |    <this line intentionally left blank>
Systems Programmer,                |    pdhatchm@socs.uts.edu.au (prefered)    
Sydney Futures Exchange, Australia |       paulh@uts.edu.au 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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From: jds@cs.umd.edu (James da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: SIGHUP with a MUGNET kernel
Date: 26 Aug 92 19:28:12 GMT
Organization: University of Maryland, Department of Computer Science

grundy@rtf.bt.co.uk (Martin Grundy) writes:
>marcel@comsat.hacktic.nl (Marcel Kat) writes:
>>I have a problem with the SIGHUP package as posted in Februari this year.
>>
>>As soon as an interference occurs on the 'mains', like when i put
>>a light on, Minix or more likely INIT goes in a SUSPEND state.
>>As a result a reboot is the only way out. It happens about 3 times a day.
>
>I installed the SIGHUP package (from James de Silve) on my Minix386 and
>have noticed a similar thing, although not so serious.  If I apply power
>to a modem when it is already connected to the com port, it *sometimes*
>crashes the system.  It has never trashed the filesystem though (yet:-) -
>it probably does a sync().

For what it's worth, I ran a BBS under Minix/386 with the SIGHUP patches
for some months, and I don't recall this type of failure occurring.  And I
haven't received any patches to the SIGHUP code to date.

I no longer run Minix, so I can't help, but since the SIGHUP changes are
small, I suggest you put on your kernel-hacker hat and start putting in
some diagnostics so that you can pinpoint the source of failure.  I suppose
it's possible that the SIGHUP patch is not getting along with MUGNET-
specific changes.  I don't know.

If you do have a fix for the SIGHUP patch, please send it to me so that I
can pass it on to any others that have problems.

Thanks,
Jaime
............................................................................
: Stand on my shoulders, : jds@cs.umd.edu  :		      James da Silva
: not on my toes.	 : uunet!mimsy!jds : Systems Design & Analysis Group
From: glalonde@VNET.IBM.COM ("Glen Lalonde")
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: C68 v4 working.
Date: 1 Sep 92 16:30:41 GMT

After using the varargs.h and vprintf.c, I was able to build c68 v4 and
it works ok! I used MacMinix to build it but I don't think you will have
any trouble on any other machine either. I tested it by compiling itself
once after it was compiled with the supplied c68(binary).

The real test will come this weekend when I try to compile up my
Kernel with it, macminix kernel with protected memory extentions.

Glen
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
From: I never liked room temperature <hilander@silver.lcs.mit.edu>
Subject: oh no mr bill!
Originator: mmdf@louie.udel.edu
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 01:48:50 GMT


Welp.. i had minix u p and running ver 1.5
and i went to recompile the kernel , etc to get ps to work
properly and my system crashed.. 

since then  i get a ...

 make error of -

    make kernel

	make:don't know how to make klib.x

and then i kept on getting a 

	kernel panic  exception in kernel, mm or ff
 	hit any key to reboot

and i reinstalled minix again.. repartitioned my hard drive..
and used my untouched minix install disks..

and it said 
 
   invalid opcode
	process # -8 , pc = 0x0007:0x00000F0F

i know i didn't corrupt my install disks in any way?
this is too strange....

		any ideas?
(using a 286 running with 5 megs of memory.. and a 71 meg hd)

hilander@silver.lcs.mit.edu
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From: ara@zurich.ai.mit.edu (Allan Adler)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: trouble with demo disk
Date: 2 Sep 92 20:05:27 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence Lab.

Thanks to the many replies I received, I learned about rawrite and obtained
it. That let me install the demo for minix and it works fine.

Is there an inverse to rawrite, e.g. rawread? If so where does one
get it?

Allan Adler
ara@altdorf.ai.mit.edu
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix