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From: ji@close.columbia.edu (John Ioannidis)
Newsgroups: comp.os.mach
Subject: Re: Mach 2.5 on i386 -- HW requirements
Message-ID: <1990Nov20.183657.15800@cs.columbia.edu>
Date: 20 Nov 90 18:36:57 GMT
References: <36800@nigel.ee.udel.edu>
Sender: news@cs.columbia.edu (The Daily News)
Reply-To: ji@close.UUCP (John Ioannidis)
Organization: Columbia University Department of Computer Science
Lines: 33

In article <36800@nigel.ee.udel.edu> danson@udel.edu () writes:
>I read recently on the hardware requirements for Mach 2.5 on a
>i386 platform.  I have a couple of questions:
>
>1.  is an Ethernet board MANDITORY for Mach to run?  Our school has
>    internet capability but I'm not sure on the availability of an
>    ethernet board.
>

No, Mach will run without an ethernet board. It's just that you can't
load it without one; you have to boot with the two boot floppies and
SUP over the files. In the age of $200 ethernet controllers, I don't
see why this is a problem. There is one catch; the boot floppies you
get (at least the ones we got) had a kernel compiled only for the 3Com
3c501 controller (although mach also supports the WD8003 and the
PC-586). You'll have to borrow a 3c501 to bring it up.


>2.  Has X been modified to run on Mach i386 yet?
>

Yes, it runs fine, but it's monochrome-only (even on a color VGA). 
The Microsoft mouse is not quite supported (I think the supported mouse is
the Logitech); we had to modify the kernel driver to fool X into thinking
it was talking to a different mouse. Everything else runs fine, including
vtwm (a must with a puny 640x480 screen). 

/ji

In-Real-Life: John "Heldenprogrammer" Ioannidis
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