Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!lll-winken!quintro!jrw From: jrw@quintro.uucp (Jon R. Wahlmann) Newsgroups: comp.os.minix Subject: Re: AmigaMINIX developments? Message-ID: <1991Jan4.154934.2436@quintro.uucp> Date: 4 Jan 91 15:49:34 GMT References: <9101021544.AA13996@polar.bowdoin.edu> Reply-To: jrw@quintro.UUCP (Jon R. Wahlmann) Organization: none Lines: 109 In article <9101021544.AA13996@polar.bowdoin.edu> tsarna@POLAR.BOWDOIN.EDU (Tyler Sarna) writes: >[please respond via e-mail. My comp.os.minix feed is being stubborn] > >Hello! Santa brought me Minix 1.5 for the Amiga this Christmas. I'm >having a few problems however. An excellent Christmas present! >a) ECS agnus. I have the ECS Agnus (aka Super, Obese, and 1 Meg Agnus). >Minix doesn't like this. I am using "killchip" at the moment, but I'd >like a more reasonable solution. Have you tried the solution that Steven Reiz came up with? I have tried working with this on a friend's ECS agnus 2000, but without much luck. The binaries were corrupted and I haven't had a chance to recompile them. Here is the "README" from the archive that he posted a while back. You might try contacting him directly if you have any questions about it. > This version of minix fixes a bug that prevented minix from > running on amigas with more than 512 kb chip ram, and removes > some other peculiarities from the minix loader. > > > Steven Reiz (sreiz@cs.vu.nl) >b) File system corruption, which happens quite frequently. This may a >problem with the FS itself (as some people I have talked to have >suggested), due to the FS not being sync'd when the machine crashes (it >does this often too. Also, sometimes the screen memory gets overwritten. >The diskcopy program, for instance, reads into a buffer which apparently >gets allocated on top of the screen memory. I am using Project D to copy >disks instead). I can sympathize. I've had similiar problems. But, there are people working on making the floppy drive more robust so, perhaps FS corruption will be kept to a minimum. >c) I understand that Minix is up to 1.5.10, and that FS and Agnus >problems have been fixed. I have looked around on several FTP sites, but >found only PC and ST patches. I believe the version that Steven Reiz posted is considered to be 1.5.10. >d) Hard disk drivers. I know that several are being worked on. Which >ones are being done? How are they coming along? If anyone is working on >a GVP Series II driver, I'd be glad to help any way I can (testing, >programming, etc). Don't know about others, but as for the GVP Series II driver, I know of someone who happens to be working (or about to) on writing a Minix version of the driver. Hopefully he will be able to get the driver written soon, as there are quite a few people who have expressed interest. This person is ideal for the job since he was the one who wrote the driver for the AmigaDos side. >e) 680x0 compatibility. I should hope that this is being worked on. When I >disable my '020 I also loose my expansion memory (32-bit memory on the >'020 card). Is anybody working on this? How is it coming along? Again, >I'd be glad to help out. Don't know about any plans here, but I wouldn't mind helping out as well. >f) Bad boot disk. I knew about the above problems before I went ahead >with Minix, but I was unprepared for this. Apparently P-H has been >shipping these bad disks for quite a while, and, rather than fixing the >problem, they put a sticker on the box saying that the backup minix.img >on the disk can be used instead. This is idiotic. Here again, I can sympathize. I was a bit pissed when I first tried loading Minix and found that it wouldn't get any where. Fortunately, when copying the boot disk, I discovered that the minix.img was corrupted but the backup was just fine. So, I removed the last remnants of minix.img and copied the backup to minix.img. I haven't had any problems since then. >Minix is something that I have wanted on the Amiga for quite a while (I >considered doing a port myself a couple of years back). It is currently >useless though. I hope that these initial problems can be overcome, >because it really is nice. It's not THAT useless! I have been running it for a couple of weeks now while I've been waiting for my GVP Series II upgrade. I've been having a ball! Once I get the new controller, I should have five meg of memory available to work with, so, I'll probably just create a huge ram disk and load all three USR disks into it along with the compiler/libraries disk. Should be fairly usable then. At least that's a temporary solution until the device driver is written. >Anyway, Happy new year! Likewise! Here's hoping for that device driver! :-) >------///------------------------------------------------------------ > /// Tyler "Ty" Sarna E-Mail: tsarna@polar.bowdoin.edu > \\\/// "...and save up to 100% on brands you've never heard of!!!!" >--\XX/--------------------------------------------------------------- -Jon --=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-- Jon Wahlmann quintro!jrw@lll-winken.llnl.gov or tiamat!quintro!jrw@uunet Daytime: Glenayre Electronics, Quincy, IL, 62301 (217) 223-3211 x115 Evening: 21 Wilmar Orchard, Quincy, IL, 62301-6801 (217) 224-6918 -- -Jon --=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--