I guess it is time to state this again, to run MacMinix under system
7 you need to use version 1.5.10.7, the upgrade patch from version
1.5.10 and 1.5.10.1 is on plains(see faq sheet for address)

I also have a patch to enable protected memory on 68030 accelerators for
use with MacMinix, but you will need to free up the MMU for me first ie
turn off compact virtual.

I am using a SE with a Magic Railgun(a.k.a. Novy quick30) 16Mhz board with
4MB 32-bit ram.

Hi there!  I've downloaded the stuff on the 'star' machine, in the directory
/minix/cdiffs, and the READ_ME file says that the stuff consists of
patches for MINIX 1.6.16.  My questions are:

1) is this stuff stable?
2) is it generic MINIX or machine-specific (the READ_ME doesn't say much)?
3) can I use it to patch AmigaMINIX 1.5.10.2?

I'll summarize any replies I get.

Thanks!

Alan L. Batongbacal
ala...@cs.vt.edu

I just received another copy of the Amiga MINIX disks from Prentice-Hall,
since my first disks had a large number of bad sectors.

All the latest disks but one copied okay, with a PC (the manual recommends
you use an Amiga utility which can copy PC disks). When booting the system,
the boot and root phases go smoothly. However, when inserting the /usr
disk, I get a heap of sector unreadable (or such like) errors and some disk
not writable errors after the /dev/dd0 mounted message. Sometimes the login
prompt comes up and other times not.

My df0: has always been a little flakey, so there could be something wrong
there (with the write protect problem). On booting MINIX, how does one
specify the boot drive (ie: before inserting root), eg: dd1? dd2? (rather
than dd0). I should add that by "flakey" I don't mean severely. df0: just
sometimes says that a disk is write-protected when it's not.

Also, I've heard that a lot of people have had similar problems with the
Amiga MINIX disks. Now I'm well aware that there are patches for Minix 1.5.
But SURELY (!!!!) I don't need the patches JUST to get the darn thing to
start doing SOMETHING past the /usr mounted stage??? If so, then the $250
is a total rip-off.

I'd appreciate some responses on this, because I'm getting a little fed up
with trying to get Minix going on my Amiga.

in earnest...

--
db...@leven.appcomp.utas.edu.au
David Benn - Applied Computing, University of Tasmania at Launceston.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Everything should be as simple as possible, but not simpler.

Just to let you know your problems aren't unique:

I had a bad disk in my original set.  They were quickly replaced (thanks for
that, P-H) but the second set had a bad one too; luckily a different one than
the first set, which I had copied, so I now had a complete set.

Although Minix is running now, it goes through disks at a furious rate.  The
typical situation is sudden unrecoverable read or write errors, frequently in
groups of 5 consecutive blocks.  The transfer command is particularly prone
to corrupting disks this way; when transferring from the Amiga to the Minix
side I usually write a half dozen disks in hope that one will read.

I don't think patches are the answer; I've patched up to 1.5.10.2 and not
seen any improvement, although the patches are worthwhile anyway.  My advice
on muddling by is to keep everything write-protected whenever possible; this
includes /usr at boot and login time (Minix will gripe about the write-protect
when it tries to write /usr/adm/wtmp, but that's harmless).

I have admittedly old hardware (6 year old A1000 with a 68020 add-on) but it
has never had disk drive problems.

Can anyone out there offer explanations or (hopefully) suggestions?

Steve McKenna
stmcke...@nap.amoco.com
Amoco Research Center
Naperville, IL, USA

From article <1992Aug21.034442.17...@nap.amoco.com>, by stmcke...@nap.amoco.com (Stephen T. McKenna):

I'll agree to that, in my case it was the Amiga boot disk.  Thankfully, I had
down-loaded the 1.5.10.1 & 1.5.10.2 patches and got a good .img file...

[omitted...]

I have yet to get transfer to work.  But CrossDos has solved most of my
problems.

On the subject of 1.5.10.2, I cannot get it working with the supplied "ttys"
file and haven't had time to write Michael.  Any suggestions???

Art Mercer
Sr. Consultant, Academic Computing Resources
040H Library Annex
Wright State University
Col. Glenn HWY
Dayton, OH 45435

EMail:
        amer...@eve.wright.edu
 <or>
        amer...@wright.bitnet
PHONE:  (513)873-4038

---

   On the subject of 1.5.10.2, I cannot get it working with the supplied "ttys"
   file and haven't had time to write Michael.  Any suggestions???

I ran into some problems with this and after looking around and talking to
Michael, I found it was a couple things as I remember. One was that the getty
program needed to be put in /etc or maybe /bin. It is one, but acutally needs
to be in the other. The other problem was with the ttys file, but I don't
remeber exactly what it was that needed to be changed. Let me know and I'll
boot up Minix and take a look for more details.

   Art Mercer
   Sr. Consultant, Academic Computing Resources
   040H Library Annex
   Wright State University
   Col. Glenn HWY
   Dayton, OH 45435

   EMail:
           amer...@eve.wright.edu
    <or>
           amer...@wright.bitnet
   PHONE:       (513)873-4038

   ---
--
Alan Bair                       AMCU DSCS
Motorola, Inc.                      (Design Software &
Mail Stop OE-320                     Computer Services)
6501 William Cannon Dr. West    
Austin, TX  78735-8598          ab...@parsons.sps.mot.com

Thanks for that. At least I know it wasn't just me.
I'll keep your tips in mind.

Now for the good news! Although I consistently got errors by using a PC
diskcopy program (on a PC in fact), when using transfer -f in AmigaDOS
mode, followed by diskcopy in Minix, things worked just dandy. I noticed a
couple of weird things however:

        1. If I tried to write protect my originals when diskcopying
           Minix seemed to assume that the target disk was
           write-protected too. Does Minix only check for the write
           protected status of the source disk?

        2. If I used a disk that I had previously used to copy one
           of the Minix originals onto (via PC diskcopy), it would
           come through the transfer -f okay, but a Minix diskcopy
           would fail to work correctly, instead giving a heap of
           bad sector errors.              

Along with the PC diskcopy failures, 2 leads me to conclude that the floppy
drivers must be very sensitive in Minix...

Now that I have Minix up and running, I intend to install the patches, and
customise things a little.

I apologise for the severe tone of "voice" I used in my last posting. I
guess I was just getting a tad frustrated.

Oh, BTW, can someone give me an answer to the question I posed last time
about how to get Minix to accept the ROOT and /usr disks in a different
drive at boot time? The prompt for the ROOT disk says that the bootdev can
be specified. Does this mean just another disk apart from ROOT in dd0? Or
can I specify the 2nd or 3rd disk drive...?

Regards...

--
db...@leven.appcomp.utas.edu.au
David Benn - Applied Computing, University of Tasmania at Launceston.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Joyous distrust is a sign of health;

Are these functions already available from somewhere? I'm wanting to do some
process group stuff with minix, but the functions are defined in the headers
and yet are missing from the library routines.

--
Adam David. (ad...@rhi.hi.is)

I sent a message about this a couple of weeks ago, and haven't received
any response.  I'm asking the question again, in the hope that someone
will at least say "No, sorry, it doesn't exist!" (email, please :-)

Since my Amiga MINIX system is set up for dial-in at various times
throughout the day, I wish to be able to make sure that users who logout
don't leave any forgotten processes behind.  So, what I require is a
SIGHUP patch for the tty driver.

I've already added DTR control to my kernel, so making the system hang up
isn't a problem.  I just wish to have SIGHUP sent to the tty's process
group whenever CD drops.

I am aware of such patches for the PC, and I'm perfectly willing to
port one of them.  However, I feel that I'd be wasting my time if someone
else has already done it.

So, does a SIGHUP patch exist for Amiga MINIX?  For any other m68k MINIX?

Thanks in advance.

  - mark
--
------------------------------------------------------------------
         'Do not expose your LaserWriter to naked flame...'
new...@iagu.itd.adelaide.edu.au         - Apple LaserWriter Manual
------------------------------------------------------------------

am willing to sel for half price ($80). Reply off-line.

Daniel Schwepker
d...@hti.dnet.hac.com