3b1 3.51a kernel

[Lenny Tropiano]

In article <1603 at lll-lcc.aRpA> dre at lll-lcc.aRpA (Douglas R. East) writes:
|>I have a major problem with the kernel on my 3.51a fix disk that I wonder
|>if anyone else is having problem with.  After installing the fixes and
|>rebooting, the processer hangs.  I get the loader information (Searching
|>floppy, Searching hard disk...) and it does appear to be reading the
|>kernel from the disk (lots of *'s) but then nothing, ever--the familiar
|>"real memory ... available memory ..." message does not appear.  Obviously
|>the kernel is hanging.  Since everyone else seems to have a working 3.51a
|>kernel, I suspect that the floppy AT&T sent is corrupted.  A sum(1) on the
|>kernel is:
|>
|>	11710 165 UNIX3.51a
|>
...
Well my sum(1) of /UNIX3.51a returns ..

45337 165 /UNIX3.51a

Hmm... as for the problem you are experiencing sounds like something with
init hanging.  I had this problem when a bad block corrupted an /etc/init
program.  The best thing to do is this...

Boot the system with the "Floppy Boot Disk"... when it tells you insert
the "Floppy Filesystem" and press return.  When the question comes up and
says:

	You are about to destroy all data ... (Y/N)?  

Interrupt this with a "<DEL>" (ie. <SHFT><ESC>) and you will get a "#"
running a single user floppy UNIX.  You can then cd to "/mnt" (which
is the hard disk mounted) and rename the UNIX3.51a and relink UNIX3.51
to /unix.

Note:  You will have to prefix your path with "/mnt" to get anything on
the hard disk.  (ie. /mnt/bin/ls, /mnt/bin/ln, etc..)  Then sync a couple
of times, and reboot.

If this solves your problem you have a corrupted /unix.   If not, do a
Non-destructive Surface test from diagnostics.

|>It is 168915 bytes.  Can anyone please confirm (or deny) this?  File(1)
|>does report correctly what UNIX3.51a is.  From what I can tell, all the
|>other fixes are ok (I'm using the new ATE right now--much better!).  Then
|>again, I haven't tested the tam library or the modem fix...

Yes, my UNIX3.51a is:

-rwxr-xr-x  2 root    root     168915 Mar 26 22:01 /UNIX3.51a*

|>
|>This brings up another question, has anyone or can you build a bootable
|>floppy which you can run, of course, a minimal system under?  [...]

Yeah, I been experimenting with this with minimal luck.  I know that the
".vl and .sl" extentions on the fdfmt and fdfmt10 command create floppies
with the system loader on it.  I've booted them with a copy of /unix and
other stuff and it still seems to want to boot off the hard disk.

|>all I needed to do was relink /unix with /UNIX3.51.  

That's what I said ... oh well now you know the trick..
Use with caution.

Hopefully someone will post the details on how to make a bootable standalone
UNIX off a floppy, before I do...  ;-) 

-Lenny
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