Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!vsi1!wyse!mips!sultra!dtynan
From: dtynan@sultra.UUCP (Dermot Tynan)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: computer follies
Summary: DON'T LAUGH
Message-ID: <2403@sultra.UUCP>
Date: 16 Sep 88 23:39:51 GMT
References: <5856@ihlpf.ATT.COM> <57438@ti-csl.CSNET> <741@etive.ed.ac.uk> <6473@dasys1.UUCP>
Organization: Ultrasystems DSI, Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 20


OK, I wasn't going to post this, I'm embarassed.  If anyone laughs, there'll
be blood spilt.  At home, I run Minix on my XT, and as of yet, do not have a
backup program running.  On the 10Mb hard disk, is all the source, some
business accounts, etc.  Anyway, Minix uses half of memory as a RAM disk, so
I thought I'd remove that 'feature' from the source.  The kernel uses this
RAM disk as the root device.  Not bothering to sit down and stare at the code,
I just made a quick change.  I changed the root device from the RAM disk to
the hard disk, and rebooted the system.  I wanted the HD to appear as /, etc.
As the system booted, I noticed that the floppy drive was active, as was the
hard disk.  It occurred to me this wasn't good.  When the system came up, it
barfed because /usr/bin was missing, etc.  It was then I realized that the
Minix kernel does an 'mkfs' on the root device, on powerup, and copies
everything from the floppy to the root device.  I still don't have the nerve to
turn on the system.  Gues what I'll be doing for the weekend...
						- Der
-- 
Reply:	dtynan@sultra.UUCP		(Dermot Tynan @ Tynan Computers)
	{mips,pyramid}!sultra!dtynan
	Cast a cold eye on life, on death.  Horseman, pass by...    [WBY]