The lonely world of Amiga UNIX

[Failure]

Catchy title, no?  :-)

Well I am still plugging away with AMIX.  I have been able to do some things with it now that I had not been able to do before, largely due to the positively ancient gcc compiler bundled with 2.03.  I kept trying compilers until I got...I think it was 2.4.5(?) to compile with AMIX gcc.  Then I worked my way up the chain until I got to 2.7.2.3 and could not get anything further to compile.  It was always a problem with "collect2".

With this I am having much better success compiling things.  I  have for example wget and apache, which I could not compile with AMIX's old gcc.  But frustratingly, other things I would really love to have...like gettext, perl, and lynx, failed at various stages.  Even amiwm -- which is kind of funny...

Basically the software either won't configure at all, or if it does configure, it compiles all the way through and fails to link.  perl for example configures fine, but unlike most of them only compiles part of the way before erroring out.  I think the core problem is that the C headers/libraries are so old.  Pretty much everything has warnings during compilation.  When I tried to use the C++ includes it was humorous, since the screen filled instantly with warnings about "this method is obsolete yadda yadda".  Suffice to say, I have not been able to get *anything* using C++ to compile.  Including "hello world".

I am not sure how much effort I will put into getting stubborn software to compile, given how dead AMIX is.  But I admit that I am still having fun playing with it!

The system has been pretty reliable, but it panics (for the uninitiated, this is like a flashing red box ;-)) occasionally when linking very large binaries (like gcc).  It is up 5 days at the moment, and has been compiling pretty much non-stop as well as running Apache.

[Dalamar]

I've been having similar results.  I have also hooked a friend  into looking at C code for the date command and such to try to fix the Y2k issues.  I have had the system up for 15 days and it's been very stable.  I'm having a blast with it,  but it is frustrating not being able to get PERL running for example.  Do you have the binaries for 2.7.2.3 packed up so I don't have to compile again?  

[Matt_H]

Well, I appreciate the work you've been doing! :-)

I'm back at college now, and my AMIX A3000 is at home; I've only got my A4000T with me. Working with AMIX has reversed my opinions of *ix systems - it's far less daunting now, and I really find myself missing my AMIX box and Linux on my AmigaOne.

My A3000 is only the 16MHz model; I'm in the market for the 25MHz version. I also need some more hardware to make it really usable (2065, 2410). If I can get at least the 2065, I'll probably bring it into service as a full machine.

I think this is the most activity AMIX has seen in the past 5 years. ;-)

[corsavert]

Does NetBSD count? or Minix? Trying to make NetBSD go on my A500/030/882/10Mb/2Gb. Based on my minimal Linux exposure it's a tough crawl. Got Minix going (not bad but doesn't like the 030). Can't even get BSD to boot the installer yet. It will come. I just think it'll be kind of cool to run the same OS on my 15-year-old Ami and my new 2.2Ghz laptop.

Corsavert

[DonnyEMU]

Remember that by Unix standards Amiga Unix (Amix) is kinda dated. It's really System V release 4 of ATT Unix. It uses open look at a windows manager over X and you might want to compile and add a newer windows manager for it amongst other things..

Calling Linux and Amix the same OS is a bit misleading..

[Failure]

@Dalamar

Hey, I do have binaries of gcc 2.7.2.3 packaged up, and for now they can be found right on the 3000UX here:

http://bfe.homelinux.net/software/

I am looking at redoing the files library at amix.failsure.net so that AMIX machines using wget can fetch the files directly.  Before I had wget compiled I was dling the files on a Linux machine, and using old rcp to copy the files over, so this wasn't a problem.

@Matt_H

Learning to swim by drowning?  I had the same experience, installing Debian in 1997 (my "friend" suggested this as my first Linux distro as a joke).  Everything was easy after that.

I have had A2065 in an eBay favorites search for a couple months now, looking to pick up a spare.  In that time I have seen none come up for sale.  Same for A2410.  I think in terms of X I have settled on using it over the network, but I will still jump at an A2410 if it comes around.  Someone posted on the forums asking for help on one of those cards, and it was I could do to keep from posting "SELL THAT TO MEH!"

@corsavert
Is that a 50MHz 030?  I would be curious if it will boot AMIX at all.  If you are bored, please try the boot floppies :-)  I imagine it might boot but with no HD support.

and finally @DonnyEMU

Unfortunately AMIX uses X11R4.  It does not appear to support MIT shared memory (Xshm is the symbol, I think) and probably many other things.  So far I have not been able to get other window managers to compile.  Someone did a port of X11R5 some time ago but I cannot find it now :-/

[corsavert]

@failure

It's a CSA MegaMidgetRacer 030/36 (slightly overclocked 33). The chip is actually a 50 but the RAM on the board will only go 36. FPU @ 50 though. I'll give the boot flops a try but don't have a lot of hope unless Amix will support GVP HD II+ controller.

[Matt_H]

@ corsavert

That setup would probably work for AMIX with a C=590 controller on the expansion port.

There might be a patch for GVP controllers under AMIX on the Gateway CDs (AMIX parts of which I keep forgetting to upload!), but I seem to recall it being for version 2.1c, which is not widely available. Even then it might only work with A2000 GVP boards.

[Xand]

    I just acquired a very yellowed and very abused A3000UX. It was sitting in someone's cellar (along with a 500 that I rescued). Mice had built a nest in it and messed up the motherboard rather badly. There were no hard drives and the floppy drives look questionable. Oddly enough it has 3.1 ROMs,    DMAC 4, and Ramsey 7 (I forgot to check the Buster). I cleaned it last weekend and will be trying it out on this Saturday.
    If it still works, I just happen to have a 3070 and a two user AMIX setup that I'll be trying to install. Do you know if it will work with 3.1 or will I have to find some original ROMs?

@Failure
Thanks for the files...

     

[Failure]

@Xand

I believe someone has successfully installed AMIX on a 3.1 ROM'd system.  I personally stuck the old AMIX 1.1 install I had into a 3.1 machine and it booted just fine.

BTW, are you saying you have the AMIX install media on tape?  What release do you have?

Also, the install media on my site will not work for using the tape installation method.  You will want to check the mmhart site for boot floppies...the 2.03 floppies should(!) install 2.1 fine.

[Xand]

@Failure
Yes, I have the tape, the two boot floppies, the manuals, and the box. I'll check the release when I get home later.

I was grabbing the GCC stuff, not the install media.

[Failure]

I found the site with X11R5 and some other stuff:

ftp://ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de/pub/amiga/amix/

Yay :-)  I am going to try this once I get my installation back up and running.

[Dalamar]

I'm curious to see what version you have on that tape.  If it's more recent than 2.03 I think you are my new friend.  :-)  

I have AMIX on a 3.1 system and it works perfect.

[Xand]

@Dalamar
I had a soccer game last night so I didn't get home until REALLY late. I'll check tonight or tomorrow and let you know.

I'm glad to hear that it runs on 3.1. I feel a dual boot system coming on...

[Failure]

If that is actually 2.1 release you have on tape, I believe I have the patch disk necessary to bring it up to 2.1c.  That should make it work with all the patches Matt_H has from the Gateway CDs.

Even if it's not 2.1, you at least have the opportunity to install with a functioning package management system -- something my hack does not allow for.