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From: dlr@daver.bungi.com (Dave Rand)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.nsc.32k
Subject: Re: Minix and the PC532
Message-ID: <m0iGlxZ-00004iC@daver.bungi.com>
Date: 24 Sep 90 06:06:32 GMT
Sender: news@daver.bungi.com
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Approved: news@daver.bungi.com

[In the message entitled "Minix and the PC532" on Sep 23, 19:51, Paul Nakada writes:]
> 
> I've got a question about Minix and the pc532...  What form of
> distribution aree people working from?  Do you get the latest pc Minix
> 1.5 and apply patches?  Is someone distributing full pc532 Minix
> source (i doubt it)?  How does one go about building Minix in the
> first place when there is no other OS for the target machine?

A question? :-)

1. The current software is MINIX 1.3. John Connin and Bruce Culbertson
are the main driving force moving to 1.5.

2. No, you can go from any MINIX version. We only require that you have
purchased a valid copy of MINIX.

3. Yes, once you have "proven" ownership (by sending Bruce one of
your original disks), he sends you back a complete source release.

4. This is the hard part, and thankfully was done quite a whil ago by
Bruce Culbertson. He built his own system, based on the 32016, and
ported MINIX to it by using his UNIX system as a cross-development
platform. Because I was too slack (took too long), he then moved
his system on to the PC532. Since the Series 32000 is pretty compatible,
it turned out to be not too hard to make the transition.

> 
> Could somone give me a quick conceptual secription of what it takes to
> get the pc532 from a bare machine at the monitor prompt to building
> and running a multiprocess OS?  Thanks a bunch.


The current release assumes that you have at least one other operational
computer system. First, you format your hard disk. While this is not
required (!), it does make modifying the system a bit friendlier. You can
actually run the system with a remote hard drive over a serial link, if
you want.

Once your drive is formatted, you place a primative mini-root filesystem
on the hard drive, by copying the software over a serial link to the
pc532's ram. The monitor has built-in download capability. Once the
miniroot is in RAM, you write it to the SCSI device with the monitor.

The same steps are taken with the kernel, and the rest of the files on
the filesystem.

You then do a;

	read 0 2000 80
	run 2000

and get a login: prompt. Nothing to it. Bruce has made the installation
pretty flawless (tell that to Karl Swartz at 2 am :-). Full instructions
are included in an installation guide on the floppies.

MINIX is a _lot_ of fun to work with. The system is reliable, and easy to
extend and modify. It has been a great source of entertainment lately!


-- 
Dave Rand
{pyramid|mips|bct|vsi1}!daver!dlr	Internet: dlr@daver.bungi.com