Hoshi's Old MacMiNT Page

Japanese version is here.

New version is here.

Contents:

• What's MacMiNT?
• Where to fint it?
• How to install?
• Other tools
• Customizing MacMiNT

What's MacMiNT?

MacMiNT is a Macintosh port of MiNT, a multitasking OS for Atari ST. It runs a lot of UNIX programs like tcsh, gcc, emacs, diff, patch, rcs, etc. and you may compile free software with few fixes. Although original MiNT have TCP/IP and X Window System, MacMiNT doesn't support them.

Where to fint it?

You may find the files needed to install MacMiNT at:

US and Europe sites

MacMiNT specific files MacMiNT_18May94.sit, futilb.zoo, macgcc258b.tar.gz, mcmnt108.tar.gz, byacc.tar.gz may be found at:

• ftp://nic.switch.ch/software/mac/src/macmint/
• ftp://suniams1.statistik.tu-muenchen.de/incoming/MacMiNT/
• ftp://archive.cis.ohio-state.edu/pub/mac-unix/macmint/

Other files (common to Atari MiNT) may be found at:

• ftp://atari.archive.umich.edu/atari/
• ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/atari/umich.edu/

Japanese site

In Japan, most necessary files may be found at:

• ftp://ftp.iij.ad.jp/pub/mac/MacMiNT/

CD-ROM

A japanese magazine called `UNIX USER' had an article about MacMiNT in June 1995, and the bundled CD-ROM includes some MacMiNT files.

How to install?

Sorry, not translated yet...

Other tools

The setup scripts in MacMiNT distribution doesn't install the elvis editor, nor text manipulation utilities like cat and sort. You must install them by yourself.

elvis (vi clone)

To install elvis, you need elvis17.zoo. Put it to the save folder and type:

% cd /usr/bin
% zoo x: /save/elvis17.zoo elvis.ttp
Zoo: elvis.ttp -- extracted
%

Because this elvis is compiled for Atari, its default end-of-line code is CR/LF. To let it to LF only, add following line to /mint/elvis.rc:

set nocrlf

GNU Text Utilities

To install the text utilities, you need txtutl16.zoo. Put it to the save folder and type:

% cd /save
% zoo x txtutl16.zoo
% cp textutils-1.6/src/*.ttp /usr/bin
% rm -r textutils-1.6

Revision Control System (RCS)

To install RCS, you need rcs5601b.tar.gz and rcs5601b-update.tar.gz. Put them to the save folder and type:

% cd /save
% tar zxf rcs5601b.tar.gz
% cp rcs5601b/bin/*.ttp /usr/bin
% tar zxf rcs5601b-update.tar.gz
% cp rcs5601b-update/rcsdiff.ttp /usr/bin
% rm -r rcs5601b rcs5601b-update

You need diff.ttp (which is installed by setup/normal.sh) to use RCS.

Customizing MacMiNT

Here is some ways of customizing your MacMiNT environment:

Minix File System (minix.xfs)

MacMiNT has following restrictions inherited from MacOS File System:

• You can't specify owner, group, and permission.
• You can't create files with name Makefile and makefile.
• You can't use hard links. Symbolic links are not the true ones as they are implemented as aliases.

With the Minix File System, you can eliminate these limitations.

To install the Minix File System, you need mfs609s.zoo and macmfs.zoo. Put them to the save folder and type:

% cd /src
% mkdir macmfs
% cd macmfs
% zoo x /save/mfs609s.zoo
% cd ..
% zoo x /save/macmfs.zoo
% cd macmfs
% crlf -u * docs/* fsck/* minixfs/*
% patch -p1 < diff.mfs
(patch fails one hunk for minixfs/hdio.c, but it's okay.)
% make
% make install

It will install minix.xfs to /mint, fsck.ttp, minit.ttp, mfsconf.ttp, and mount.ttp to /usr/bin.

Next, create the file which minix.xfs will use as the file system.

1. Somehow, create a file with some size (like 10MB), name it `MFS', and put it the the /mint directory.
2. Quit and relaunch MacMiNT. JET should say `MinixFS is drive: A' if it recognizes the MFS file.
3. Type `minit -b ??? -i ??? a:'. ??? means the number of blocks and i-nodes, respectively. (I don't know how to calculate these magical numbers... sorry.)

Minix File System should have been constructed in the file /mint/MFS. Try the following commands which are impossible on MacOS File System.

% cd /a
% touch test
% touch Test
% touch TEST
% ls -al

By the way, you need 1.08 or newer kernel to use Minix File System. And, if you use the JET compiled by THINK C, you must fix filesys.c to set up and restore A5 register in rwabs() and getbpb() functions.

xMac File System

Although Macintosh uses CR (0x0d) as end-of-line character, MacMiNT uses LF (0x0a) just the same as UNIX does. It is annoying to convert with crlf every time. The xMac File System is such a radical extension that exchanges CR and LF on every read and write system calls. With the xMac File System, you may grep or diff directly to Mac TEXT files, and you can manage the THINK C source files with RCS on MacMiNT.

To install the xMac File System, you need mcmnt108-patches.tar.gz, and as it patches MacMiNT 1.08 kernel sources, you must have compiled the MacMiNT 1.08 kernel. Put mcmnt108-patches.tar.gz to the save folder and type:

% cd /src/mcmnt108
% tar zxf /save/mcmnt108-patches.tar.gz
% patch < mcmnt108-patches/makefile.patch
% patch < mcmnt108-patches/filesys.c.patch
% cp macfs.c macxfs.c
% patch < mcmnt108-patches/macxfs.c.patch
% make

Then, move the new kernel to /mint directory and reboot MacMiNT.

Now you have the xMac File System /x, in addition to the normal file system /r. Try the difference between

% vi /r/Macintosh\ HD/hello\ f/hello.c

and

% vi /x/Macintosh\ HD/hello\ f/hello.c

If you use that directory every day, it is convenient to add the following line to /mint/mint.cnf:

sln "u:\x\Macintosh HD\hello f" u:\xhello