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From: culberts@hplwbc.hpl.hp.com (Bruce Culbertson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.nsc.32k
Subject: Re:  requested clarification of minix issues
Message-ID: <9006081924.AA02248@hplwbc.hpl.hp.com>
Date: 8 Jun 90 19:24:31 GMT
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In response to Jordan's questions, here is my current thinking on
distributing Minix for the pc532.  I would appreciate your comments.
This is not final!

Here's what I might distribute:

	min.Z, 103K, a minimal file system with all the files
	necessary for booting, plus a few commands

	minix.tar.Z, 252K, includes the OS image, nm output of
	the image so you can patch your disk info into it, all
	sources (not cdiff's) needed to recompile the image,
	libc.a, and a handful of other things

After someone proves they have a legal copy of Minix by mailing
me their official Minix boot disk with the Prentice-Hall copyright
on it, I would return the disk and e-mail the above files to the
individual.  (Is e-mail secure enough for this?  I would be sending
plain-text copyrighted sources.)  The above files could be divided
into 7 pieces of less than 64K bytes each (is that the e-mail
limit?) for e-mailing.  I really would like to avoid copying floppies
and mailing them by conventional mail.

The files I have already mentioned do not include cc, as, ld, ar,
ranlib, etc.  However, these can be legally distributed by putting
the binaries on the BU.EDU archive.  Naturally, special arrangements
will have to be made for those without access to the archive.

The files I have now mentioned, in addition to a standard Minix
distribution, are sufficient to build the whole works.  The
particular Minix version should not be too critical.  I will
post critical gotcha's, like how to fix fsck so it will not
cream your disk.

The latest Minix version is 1.5.10.  It is supposed to be stable
for quite some time because Dr. Tanenbaum has other things to
do.  However, it will not be distributed from Prentice-Hall until
fall.  Prentice-Hall currently is selling 1.3 (plus older versions --
beware).  You can get 1.5.10 by buying some version from Prentice-Hall,
getting an upgrade kit from an archive, and applying a million diff's.
Or, better, get it from a friend who already did all that.

I am aware that getting the latest Minix version is a real pain.
However, it is a problem I do not intend to solve.  I think you
will do just fine with Minix-pc532, even if you do not have the
latest version.  The important thing is that you have the right
sources for the OS image, which you get from the above procedure.

My port is based on 1.3.  I intend to upgrade it to 1.5.10, but I
don't know when.  I might have a look at it this weekend.

So, what do you think?

Bruce Culbertson