Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!munnari.oz.au!bruce!cechew
From: cechew@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU (Earl Chew)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Minix-386 HELP!!
Keywords: Correct CRCs, Init doesn't start.
Message-ID: <3402@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU>
Date: 27 Nov 90 19:07:10 GMT
References: <2176@tuvie>
Distribution: comp
Organization: Monash Uni. Computer Science, Australia
Lines: 57

In <2176@tuvie> hp@vmars.tuwien.ac.at (Peter Holzer) writes:

>which all matched and came finally to the point of making a
>bootable disk with shoelace. 

Did you follow the shoelace documentation when you came to this part?

>When I booted the disk, shoelace printed its sign on the screen,
>the parameters, its own load address and segment sizes and,
>while making horrible noises with my disk drive continued to
>load the kernel, mm, fs and init. After this it said "Starting
>Minix", cleared the screen, told me how much memory the computer

This is good. At least shoelace appears to be working. What you haven't said is
how you've set up /etc/config. This is important. In particular, where is your
root directory going to be after Minix starts, how big is your ram disk, and
where is your ram disk image kept.

>has, Minix needs, etc. and then -- nothing.

>The kernel is obviously running, because I get characters I type
>echoed, but I do not get a login prompt. When I type F1, all the
>tasks and MM and FS (both waiting for ANY) are displayed, but no
>init! 

Ensure that /etc/ttys, /bin/login, /etc/getty, /etc/gettytab, /etc/rc,
/etc/passwd and /bin/sh are present on the boot floppy (you can leave
out getty* if you don't need it). Trying to make a minimal boot disk is
an interesting process :-( You will find that if one component is
missing, the system will freeze after printing that Minix is loaded.
You *must* have /etc/rc, even if it is empty! The reason you don't see
init is that it probably choked and died (because one of the above was
missing) --- someone ought to fix it before 1.6.

>2. The base addresses that shoelace displays and those I get by
>   pressing F1 don't match. Shoelace says the MM is loaded at 
>   1C100 (112.25k) and FS at 2EC00 (187k), but with F1 I get 87k
>   for MM and 112k for FS.

Shoelace doesn't lie (at least I don't think so). You should chase this one.

>3. When I get into shoelace's command interpreter and tell it to
>   use /dev/ram as root partition, FS panicks with the message:
>   'cannot report to MM' (That may be because I have not enough
>   memory for a 1.2Meg RAM disk, it would leave only 400k for
>   Minix and programs)

If you've elected to use a 1.2Mb floppy and initialised it with
mkfs /dev/at0 1200, and you're using this to initalise the ram disk (either
because ram disk is root or you're wanting to initialise the ram disk) then
you'd better have enough *physical* memory.

Earl
-- 
Earl Chew, Dept of Computer Science, Monash University, Australia 3168
EMAIL: cechew@bruce.cs.monash.edu.au PHONE: 03 5655447 FAX: 03 5655146
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