Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!killer!chasm
From: chasm@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Charles Marslett)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Can't boot Minix
Summary: Anyone using fancy HDs?
Keywords: Minix, Tandy
Message-ID: <7095@killer.DALLAS.TX.US>
Date: 10 Feb 89 12:45:35 GMT
References: <659@unocss.UUCP>
Organization: The Unix(R) Connection, Dallas, Texas
Lines: 37

In article <659@unocss.UUCP>, mlewis@unocss.UUCP (Marcus S. Lewis) writes:
> I am a newcomer to this group, and I have been plowing through 47 pages of
> news articles, to no avail.  I have a friend who has no access to USENET
> who just bought Minix 1.2 and he can't boot it on a Tandy 1000 EX.
> I booted it on a Compaq 286 with no problems (that's a slick OS!) but when
> he tries on his machine, he gets a repeating message to the effect that
> the Winchester is getting a message from -1, the screen gets trashed and the
> drive light never goes out.  It announces the Ram disk has been loaded, 
> please insert the next disk, and that's the end of that. No further dialog
> withthe machine is possible until it is rebooted with MS-DOS.

In a possibly unrelated issue, has anyone run Minix on a machine with one
of the "first party DMA" disk controllers that Tandy and several others
are now selling?  These controllers are very fast and usually used with
larger drives.  Since they (optionally) can do their own DMA transfers
they may require some special care to avoid their new features -- the
features have to be optional, since the ROMs on IBM ATs can boot up with
the drive.  I believe WD makes one and Adaptec makes another.

More interesting, perhaps, is anyone trying to get the DMA working with
Minix?

This may apply to the Tandy EX question, too, if the disk controller
it is using is one of these (sorry, I don't have one, and don't know
the names).

-

> Marc Lewis

--
   Charles
===========================================================================
Charles Marslett
STB Systems, Inc.  <== Apply all standard disclaimers
Wordmark Systems   <== No disclaimers required -- that's just me
chasm@killer.dallas.tx.us