Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!mcvax!botter!ast
From: ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Help with MINIX!
Message-ID: <1821@botter.cs.vu.nl>
Date: 6 Jan 88 23:09:08 GMT
References: <91200003@uiucdcsp>
Reply-To: ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum)
Organization: VU Informatica, Amsterdam
Lines: 17

In article <91200003@uiucdcsp> kchen@uiucdcsp.cs.uiuc.edu writes:
>
>
>I just got version 1.2 MINIX and tried to run it on my PC/XT clone. However,
>I found that if my hard disk (20MB, using WD controller) is on my PC, I can
>not boot MINIX from floppy drive at all! 

I get lots of mail of this sort.  Perhaps it is worth posting a generic
answer.  If you are working on a noname clone and are having strange
problems, the first thing to do is go find a friend with a different brand
of machine, preferably a real IBM if you can find one (or at least a clone
on which MINIX is known to work).  If it works on the friend's machine,
at least you know that your floppies are ok and the problem has to do with
clone incompatibilities.  When it won't boot at all, the first thing that
comes to mind is a nonstandard controller.

Andy Tanenbaum (ast@cs.vu.nl)