Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!julian!uwovax!7103_300
From: 7103_300@uwovax.uwo.ca (Eric Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Problem with large hard disk partition (ATARI)
Message-ID: <1226@uwovax.uwo.ca>
Date: 9 Jan 89 21:57:00 GMT
Lines: 36
Organisation: University of Western Ontario, Canada


   A friend recently ran into a problem installing Minix on his
Megafile 60. Mounting a large (32Mb) partition followed by a smaller
one produced a "file table overflow" message. Trying to mount both
of them from /etc/rc produced a fatal file system panic. Apparently
mount reads a lot of information from disk, and a 32Mb partition's
super block info, etc. fills up the buffer cache. We recompiled
Minix with a bigger buffer cache, and the problem went away.
So if you ever plan on using Minix on a big (>16Mb) partition, I would
suggest applying the following patch:

*** fs/const.h.orig	Thu Nov 14 20:35:46 1988
--- fs/const.h	Thu Jan  9 20:49:48 1989
***************
*** 1,7 ****
  /* Tables sizes */
  #define NR_ZONE_NUMS       9	/* # zone numbers in an inode */
! #define NR_BUFS           20	/* # blocks in the buffer cache */
! #define NR_BUF_HASH       32	/* size of buf hash table; MUST BE POWER OF 2*/
  #define NR_FDS            20	/* max file descriptors per process */
  #define NR_FILPS          64	/* # slots in filp table */
  #define I_MAP_SLOTS        4	/* max # of blocks in the inode bit map */
--- 1,7 ----
  /* Tables sizes */
  #define NR_ZONE_NUMS       9	/* # zone numbers in an inode */
! #define NR_BUFS           40	/* # blocks in the buffer cache */
! #define NR_BUF_HASH       64	/* size of buf hash table; MUST BE POWER OF 2*/
  #define NR_FDS            20	/* max file descriptors per process */
  #define NR_FILPS          64	/* # slots in filp table */
  #define I_MAP_SLOTS        4	/* max # of blocks in the inode bit map */
============================================================
Eric R. Smith                      email:
Dept. of Mathematics               7103_300@uwovax.uwo.ca
University of Western Ontario      7103_300@uwovax.bitnet
London, Ont. Canada N6A 5B7    (a shared mailbox: put my name on
ph: (519) 661-3638              the Subj: line, please!)