Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
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From: jch@dm.unibo.it (Juliusz Chroboczek)
Subject: Minix success report and questions
Message-ID: <JCH.95Sep2180453@maddalena.dm.unibo.it>
Lines: 44
Sender: news@dm.unibo.it
Reply-To: jch@cs.unibo.it (Juliusz Chroboczek)
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Bologna, Italy
Date: Sat, 2 Sep 1995 16:04:53 GMT

  I just installed Minix 1.7.0 beta on a 286/12, 1Mb RAM and 20Mb HD.
It works great --- thank you AST & KJB!  The installation went without
a problem, except that I could not load root into the ram disk (not
enough core).  That was no problem, though, as I have two floppies.

  After playing with it for a few days, I've got zillions of stupid
questions to ask.  Here is a sample.

o Why are the console and the other ttys in a single driver?  It seems
  that they are handled completely differently.

o Am I right in understanding that (a fixed number of) virtual
  consoles would be trivial to implement?  Simply associate each
  console with a different area of RAM, and implement a key that swaps
  a virtual screen with the physical one, and changes the base
  addresses of the screens.  Or am I missing something?

o From both reading the source and experimenting (cp /dev/fd0 /dev/fd1),
  I've got the feeling that FS is single-threaded which, with, as FS
  calls the device drivers synchronously (i.e. FS sleeps until the
  transfer is finished), often slows the system to a crawl.  Is there
  any patch available to this?  Preferable with code that a Minix
  newbie can understand.

o The Unices I know have two sets of devices for disks -- raw and
  cooked.  Why doesn't Minix need that?

o Is there any way to get more then 64Kb+64Kb (on a 286) other than
  forking for each segment of RAM?

o Are there any patches to get ptys (that's something I've never
  really understood in Unix, and I'd love to get my hands on some
  source)?  Process groups?  Job control?

o Should I buy AST's book now, or wait for a new edition (this type of
  book costs about twice as much here than in the States).

o Who are AST and KJB anyway?

  And, well, perhaps c.o.minix could become a little more technical
now.  I've been seeing installation questions all the time...


                                        J. Chroboczek
