Conference hydra::amiga_v1

4132.0. "Minix (Unix o/s) for Amiga (this is NOT CBM's Unix!) - $170.00!" by WJG::GUINEAU () Tue Sep 18 1990 13:19

with source!!

Article 65738 of comp.sys.amiga:
From: [email protected] (Alexei Rodriguez)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: MINIX on the Amiga...
Reply-To: [email protected] (Alexei Rodriguez)

1. WHAT IS MINIX 1.5
     MINIX 1.5 is a new version of an operating system that is very similar to
UNIX.  MINIX has been written from scratch, and therefore does not contain any
AT&T code--not in the kernel, the compiler, the utilities, or the libraries.
For this reason it can be made available with the complete source code
(on diskette).  It runs on the IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2, 386, and most clones.
Versions are also available for the Atari ST, Macintosh, and Amiga.

     This version (1.5) is a major improvement over all previous releases, with
many new features, fewer bugs (hopefully), much better performance, and
proper documentation. The old versions have been in widespread use all over
the world for 3 years.  There are probably tens of thousands of users.


2. MINIX 1.5 FEATURES (IBM, Macintosh, Atari, and Amiga versions)
  - System call compatible with V7 of the UNIX operating system
  - Full multiprogramming (multiple programs can run at once)
  - Kernighan and Ritchie compatible C compiler
  - Shell that is functionally identical to the Bourne shell
  - Five editors (emacs subset, vi clone, ex, ed, and simple screen editor)
  - Over 175 utilities (cat, cp, ed, grep, kermit, ls, make, sort, etc.)
  - Over 200 library procedures (atoi, fork, malloc, read, stdio, etc.)
  - Spelling checker with 40,000 word English dictionary
  - Full source code (in C) supplied on diskettes (OS, utilities, libraries)
  - Easy-to-read manual telling all about MINIX and how to install and use it


4. HARDWARE REQUIRED
		Commodore Amiga 500 or 2000 with at least 1M of RAM. One 720K
		diskette drive is sufficient. A hard disk is not neccesary
                (or even supported).  To use a hard disk with the Amiga, 
                someone familiar with how this disk works will have to write
                a driver for it.  If this driver is then posted to the net,
                it will be possible to use a hard disk with MINIX on the Amiga.


5. PARTIAL LIST OF UTILITIES INCLUDED IN MINIX 1.5
  animals ar ascii at atrun backup badblocks banner basename bawk btoa cal cat
  cdiff cgrep chgrp chip chmem chmod chown clr cmp comm compress cp cpdir
  crc cron ctags cut date dd de df dhrystone diff diskcheck dosdir dosread
  doswrite du echo ed elle ex expand expr factor fgrep file find fold fortune 
  fsck gather getlf getty grep gres head ic id ifdef indent inodes kill last
  leave ln login look lpr ls m4 machine mail make man mined mkdir mkfs mknod
  modem more mount mref mv nm nroff od passwd paste patch pr prep pretty
  printenv printroot ps pwd readall readfs recover ref rev rm rmdir roff rz
  sed shar size sleep sort spell split strings strip stty su sum sync sz tail
  tar tee term termcap test time touch tr traverse treecmp true tset tsort ttt
  umount unexpand uniq unshar update users uud uue vi vol wc whatsnew whereis
  which who whoami width write 


6. PARTIAL LIST OF LIBRARY FUNCTIONS INCLUDED IN MINIX 1.5
  abort abs access alarm atoi atol bcmp bcopy chmod chown chroot
  ctermid ctime ctype curses cuserid doprintf dup dup2 fgetc fgets fopen 
  fork fpathconf fprintf fputc fputs fread freopen fseek fstat ftell 
  fwrite getcwd getdents getegid getenv geteuid getgid getutil gtty index 
  ioctl isatty kill link lock lrand lsearch lseek malloc memccpy 
  memchr memcmp memcpy memmove memset message mkdir mkfifo mknod mktemp 
  nlist open opendir pathconf pause peekpoke perror rand read readdir 
  regexp regsub rename setbuf setgid setjmp setuid signal sleep sprintf 
  stat strerror strlen strncat strncmp strncpy strpbrk strrchr strspn 
  system telldir termcap time times tmpnam ttyname umask umount 


7. CONTENTS OF MINIX 1.5 REFERENCE MANUAL
  Chap.  1 INTRODUCTION
  Chap.  2 INSTALLING MINIX ON THE IBM PC, XT, AT, 386, AND PS/2
  Chap.  3 INSTALLING MINIX ON THE ATARI S
  Chap.  4 INSTALLING MINIX ON THE COMMODORE AMIGA
  Chap.  5 INSTALLING MINIX ON THE APPLE MACINTOSH
  Chap.  6 USING MINIX
  Chap.  7 RECOMPILING MINIX
  Chap.  8 MANUAL PAGES
  Chap.  9 EXTENDED MAN PAGES
  Chap. 10 SYSTEM CALLS
  Chap. 11 NETWORKING
  App.   A MINIX SOURCE CODE LISTING
  App.   B CROSS REFERENCE MAP


8. MINIX BOOK
     The author of MINIX, Andrew S. Tanenbaum, has written a book describing
how operating systems in general and MINIX in particular work internally.
The book describes an earlier version (and includes a source listing), but
it is still useful for understanding how MINIX works inside, even if some
details are now different.  The bibliographic information is:

     Title:      Operating Systems: Design and Implementation
     Author:     Andrew S. Tanenbaum
     Publisher:  Prentice-Hall
     ISBN:       0-13-637406-9

Paperback versions are also available in English (outside North America only),
French, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese.  The books can be ordered from any
bookstore.


9. HOW TO ORDER MINIX 1.5
     MINIX 1.5 is being sold by Prentice-Hall.  The product numbers and prices
are as follows:

  - MINIX 1.5 for the IBM: 5 1/4"   (0-13-585076-2)  $169 
  - MINIX 1.5 for the IBM: 3 1/2"   (0-13-585068-1)  $169
  - MINIX 1.5 for the Amiga	    (0-13-585043-6)  $169
  - MINIX 1.5 for the Atari	    (0-13-585035-5)  $169
  - MINIX 1.5 for the Macintosh     (0-13-585050-9)  $169 (available Oct. 1)

Sales tax and shipping are extra; Prices are slightly higher outside the U.S.

All versions include the executable binaries, a detailed manual, the complete 
source code (on diskettes), and an attractively typeset, cross-referenced
listing of the operating system code.

     P-H is making a big effort to get software stores to keep MINIX in stock.
The easiest way to order it is to go to a software store and ask them for
it.  If they don't stock it, they can always order it.  Alternatively, you
can order directly by email, FAX, phone, or mail from Prentice-Hall as follows.

In North America and the Far East
  To order by email:	[email protected]
  To order by FAX:  	(201) 767-5625
  To order by phone:	(800) 624-0023  or  (201) 767-5969
  To order by mail:	Microservice Customer Service
			Simon & Schuster
			200 Old Tappan Road
			Old Tappan, NJ 07675


In UK/Europe
  To order by email:	[email protected]
  To order by FAX:	+1 (201) 767-5625 (US number)
  To order by phone:	+44 (442) 231-555 (UK number)
  To order by mail:	Order Dept.
			Prentice-Hall International
			66 Wood Lane End
			Hemel Hempstead
			Herts. HP2 4RG ENGLAND


For email and FAX orders, please include the product name and number, your
name and address, and your MasterCard or VISA card number and expiration date.
If you wish delivery by Federal Express (costs extra), please indicate so.

MINIX can also be ordered from the following addresses:

In England:	The MINIX Center
		Forncett End
		Norwich
		Norfolk NR16 1HT England
		0953-89345

In Germany:	Steve Steinkrauss
		Feldtorweg 24
		D3406 Bovenden 1
		Germany

In the Benelux:	Fred van Kempen
		Postbus 184
		2100 AD Heemstede
		Holland
		Tel: +31 23 287935
		FAX: +31 23 294229

In Scandinavia:	Frank O'Donell
		P.O. Box 88
		1371 Asker
		Norway

In Spain and	Deborah Worth
   Portugal:	Appartado Numero 50672
		Madrid
		Spain

In Italy:	Jim Blaho
                Piazza Santo Spirito 17
                50125 Florence
		Italy

In Greece:	Vassilis Zahos
		Kritonos 5-7
		GR 11634 Athens
		Greece

In Turkey:	Atilla Gullu
		Milli Mudafaa Cad 14/7
		Kizilay Ankara
		Turkey


     If you have previously purchased MINIX from Prentice-Hall, you can get
a discount of $60, but only if you order by mail and include the label from 
the original PH boot disk (or the entire disk) with your letter.  Not valid for 
email, phone or FAX orders since you must enclose the original boot disk label
(not a photocopy).  Mail orders can be by credit card or check for $169.  You 
will be billed for tax and shipping.


10. LEGAL STATUS OF MINIX
     Although MINIX is supplied with the complete source code, it is 
copyrighted software.  It is not public domain.  It is also not like GNU.
However, the copyright owner, Prentice-Hall has granted permission to bona 
fide universities to copy the software for use in courses and in university 
research projects.  It is also permitted for MINIX owners to change the 
software to suit their needs and to distribute diff listings containing 
their changes freely.  The shrink-wrap license that comes with MINIX states
that you may legally make two backup copies of the software.  Prentice-Hall
is being much less strict than other software vendors.  Please do not abuse
this.  Companies that wish to embed MINIX in commercial systems or sell 
MINIX-based products should call (212) 995-7788 to discuss licensing terms.


11. NEWS ABOUT MINIX
     Since its introduction in January 1987, there has been a large an
active USENET newsgroup about MINIX, comp.os.minix.  It currently has
about 25,000 members.  Over 12,000 messages have been posted to this
group so far.  These messages have contained questions, bug reports,
bug fixes, new software, and diff listings to allow current users to
update to new releases for free.  It is the intention to continue this
policy into the indefinite future.  MINIX users on Bitnet can be put on
a mailing list by sending mail to: [email protected].  Various
archives store newsgroup traffic for newcomers to the newsgroup.


12. FUTURE PLANS
     The major current project is bringing MINIX into conformance with
the IEEE POSIX P1003.1 and P1003.2 standards.  This will (hopefully)
occur with V2.0, perhaps in 1992.  V2.0 will also be provided with an
ANSI C compiler.  Various people are currently working on 32-bit versions
of MINIX for the 386, and numerous other projects.  To keep up, subscribe
to the comp.os.minix newsgroup.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, for those of you that do not read comp.newprod, here is the posting
about the 1.5 release of MINIX. Although I deleted some stuff about the IBM
and Mac versions, this is the main of the post. Although nothing was mentioned
about student discounts, I wonder if my 25% (or is that 40%?) discount at local
computer stores is valid? Hmm. There are a few questions that I have about 
MINIX as a whole so here goes:

	Will it multi-task under amiga? (Boot Amiga and then go Minix or is
	it a hog?)
	
	Does MINIX multitask?

	I saw a post about GUI for MINIX but the problem was lack of 
	graphics.lib. Anybody have any suggestions.

	Also, how hard would it be to write a hard drive driver for 
	MINIX? 

Please, these are honest questions. If they seem ignorant, sorry. I am anxious
to get my A3000 and be able to work in my room with no hassles or load 
problems from the computers here. Thanks to all.

			Alexei
			[email protected]

I just ordered a copy. Should arrive in 3 weeks...

Looks like I'll have to write a hard disk driver for it...

john

	Does MINIX have an M68000 assembler? My wife is taking the MCC technical
writing course which includes sessions on C and M68000 MACRO. I figured we were
all set with SAS/C v5.05. But, NO, the instructor wants all assignments done
under UNIX (or ULTRIX which is what MCC uses for their VAXEN). Anyway, we
live in Groton and I can just see the toll call $ mounting. At least with
the C she can get it debugged here then adjust any incompatible function
calls and download it for final debugging on their system. But the M68000
under Unix is a bit tougher. They use Apollo workstations. Anyway, unlike
the ladies in another thread in this conference, Cindy spends more time on
the Amiga than I do.

Verell

If it doesn't, I'm sure you could find a Unix compatible one somewhere, right?

Question: Minix claims to be 

"System call compatible with version 7 of the Unix operating system".  

What's this (v7)? AT&T is currently (almost :-)  shipping release 5.4

john

> What's this (v7)? AT&T is currently (almost :-)  shipping release 5.4


	V7 was the last truly public version of UNIX, before it split
	between the BSD, AT&T, etc. commercial variants.

	It's only because V7 was public that Tannenbaum can get away
	with what he is doing.

>	V7 was the last truly public version of UNIX, before it split
>	between the BSD, AT&T, etc. commercial variants.

So it's AT&T based, and is equivelent to system 5 release ?

john

> So it's AT&T based, and is equivelent to system 5 release ?

	Don't want to get out my depth here, as I'm not an expert
	on the genealogy of UNIX, but V7 begat System III which
	begat System V.

	So no, V7 is earlier than System V and does not have all the
	features of System V. I believe Minix is actually only a
	subset of V7 in any case.

	There is a conference, CIMBAD::MINIX, where you may be able
	to get more details.

>	There is a conference, CIMBAD::MINIX, where you may be able
>	to get more details.

I'll check it out. Thanks for the pointer!

john

Amiga Minix as shipped from Prentice Hall had some bugs when used on machines
with 1meg chip memory. It has since been fixed and a patched version available
on the net via ftp (I may keep in on wjg as well).

All in all, minix is pretty good. It's not a full modern Unix system in some respects. It's based on an older version of AT&T Unix and so doesn't
support many of the newer features or any BSD stuff. Although some users
have written many extensions to it. In general it provides a good unix
environment espically geared toward learning. It comes with full source.

Presently it only runs on a 68000 but me ant some others are working on a 
68020/030 port.

It does not as of yet support hard disks. I wrote a letter to GVP requesting
information needed to write a driver for thier boards. I have since heard
rumor that gvp is currently writing a Minix hard disk driver for the Amiga (yeh!).

Steve Reiz is also working on adding hard disk and other enhancements to
Amiga Minix.

Worth the money? It depends on what your after. If you want a complete 
Unix system like what CBM will be selling, wait and buy it (for mucho $$).
If you want a usable Unix system that you can learn the internals of, or just
learn unix user level stuff for a VERY moderate price, then get Minix. As stated
above it's 2 major shsortcomings (hd support and 020/030 support) are being
fixed as I type...

I have yet to really sit down and play so stay tuned...

john

    Hi,
    
    Does anyone have an update on the Hard disk driver for minix yet?	
    
    I phoned the minix centre and they said that they are still working on
    it. I used to use v1.1 on the ST and was impressed, despite the miriad
    bugs in it. V1.5 sounds far more stable and at about 150 pounds which
    includes a 700 page manual and full source code, I'll certainly buy
    it if I can lay my hands on an HD driver.
    
    Dave.
    

Steve Riez is working on a Minix HD driver for the A590  - to which commodore
has supplied him information.

Steve did the Amiga minix port.

I had sent a letter to gvp requesting them to do one or at least
release info on thier products.

Steve had since talked to them and they claimed they were doing a Minix
driver but it was on temporary hold due to more important work (problems?)

we can only hope.

It's a shame CBM never set a register interface standard for hard disk boards.

john

    
    Howdy, John in particular, and others,
    
    Don't know if this will help the situation, but I took a chance.
    I uploaded a "SCSI driver for PC MINIX" to TAPE::[UPLOAD] as
    SCSI_MINIX.LZH.  It includes a text file describing cable pinouts,
    a text file describing the driver, and a scsi.tar file (the driver?).
    It supposedly includes source, and should be "easily" modifiable.
    Posted to .minix newsgroup from Japan (MIX BBS).
    
    Also, John, I've had inquiries from DEC folks about the compress.arc
    on WJG.  Is it ok to pass out the pointer to non-amiga types, internal,
    to WJG::AMIGA:?  How 'bout posting to dec.general?
    
    By the way, can I do anything with a .tar file on VMS?  Like see what's
    in it, for instance?
    
    I hope, if someone, wants to try to port this, it will do the trick,
    I know I can't (yet).  It looks like I might get to learn U*X for
    work, however, so I might be buying MINIX myself.
    
    Dennis M.	(INTERNET,UUCP) [email protected]
    Campbell	(UUCP)		...!decwrl!dwomv2.enet!campbell
		(INTERNET)	campbell%[email protected]
		(EASYNET)	DWOMV2::CAMPBELL
---
    
    

>    By the way, can I do anything with a .tar file on VMS?  Like see what's
>    in it, for instance?

You need DECShell, a VMS layered that, among other things, implements the tar
utility ... anyway if you DUMP or EDIT the tar file, you should have a slight
idea of what's in: you should find a stream file and format is more or less:
DIRECTORY_NAME/xxxxxxxxx y zUSERNAME+GROUPNAME j k
DIRECTORY_NAME/FILENAMExxxxxxxxx w j k
file content
...
DIRECTORY_NAME/FILENAMExxxxxxxxx w j k
filecontent
...

and so on ...
(x, y, z, j, k are digits describing the file and its position in the archive)

I'll try to have a look at it on an ULTRIX system ...

Cheers, Mauro.

re: .12

I've just re-uploaded the scsi driver after the extraction of the tar files
to TAPE::USER2:[UPLOAD]MINIX_DISK.LZH for people not dealing with ULTRIX
systems ...

Sure, tell the world about WJG:: 
I'll just SUSPEND fal$server processes that eat my system :-) (kidding)


I already have the scsi driver (look in WJG::MINIX:) and a bunch of other
things.


The SCSI driver will be good from a generic "deal with a SCSI device and
file system interface to Minix" point of view.  The problem is that the
hardware register interface and protocol to the PC scsi modules is most
definetly different than on Amiga. 

Worse than that, the Amiga does NOT have a hard disk interface (register level)
standard and all the controllers do it differently. AND the vendors will NOT
give that information out. I've asked GVP and even wrote a letter to the
VP of Engineering at GVP asking for info...


Steve Reiz ([email protected]) is doing an A500 CBM controller (A590?) version 
since CBM supposedly was sending him the info.


RE: tar on VMS:

	copy WJG::X11R4:TARREAD.EXE

and make it a foreign command (tar :== $device:[directory]tarread).

Then you can use tar archives...

john