FAQ alpha

------- Blind-Carbon-Copy

To: vandys
Subject: FAQ alpha
Date: Wed, 09 Nov 1994 08:17:53 -0800
From: Andrew Valencia <vandys@cisco.com>

Here's the alpha version of the VSTa FAQ. Feel free to mail me suggestions
on where it can be improved.

                                                        Regards,
                                                        Andy

v0.2 FAQ for VSTa:

        Frequently Asked Questions About VSTa

1. What is VSTa?

VSTa is a copylefted operating system created by Andy Valencia
(vandys@cisco.com) and later enhanced by numerous others. It uses a
microkernel organization, in which the "kernel" code is very small (~40k)
and all filesystems and drivers reside in "user" mode processes. At user
level it looks substantially like a POSIX-type system.

2. What does "VSTa" stand for

The "Valencia Simple Tasker". Actually, the 40K in the kernel suports
kernel preemption, shared memory MIMD multiprocessors, and virtual memory.
It really isn't all that simple!

3. What does VSTa run on?

VSTa was originally written for the i386 PC. It has since run on 2 meg
386sx processors and 16 meg Pentium processors. The DMA system currently
does not correctly support > 16 meg ISA bus access. Most of the code is
there (bounce buffers and such) but it is not completely implemented.

VSTa has driver support for ST-506, IDE, and Adaptec 1542[bc] disk
interfaces. It supports floppy drives, MGA and CGA monitors, RS-232
interfaces, parallel interfaces, NE2000 LAN cards, and bus or serial mice.
Under SCSI, it also supports CDROM.

VSTa has a port to the Amiga with 68030 in progress. At last status report
the kernel would boot and run simple tasks, and interrupt handling was being
brought up next.

VSTa has people looking at ports to R3000's and SPARC's. No bootable code
has been reported yet.

4. How do I get VSTa?

Cygnus has kindly made some space available at their FTP site:

        ftp.cygnus.com:pub/embedded/vsta

Cisco also has it available, although their FTP daemon makes it more
of a chore:

        ftp.cisco.com:vandys/vsta

Other mirror sites exist and will be added here as verified.

5. How do I boot it?

See the file vsta_*.readme on the FTP site. This will point you to the
files "license" and "readme" in the vsta.tz compressed archive. These
provide information on the terms and conditions for use of VSTa. Then it
points you to doc/roadmap.txt in the same archive, which tells you how
to boot up the system.

6. Ok, I booted it, but how do I find out more about its design?

The FTP sites hold an aging introduction paper. The mailing list archives
at the FTP sites contain several messages which describe the design of
various parts (booting, VM, scheduling, ...) of the system. If you are
searching for a particular topic, a hypertext index:

        http://ftoomsh.socs.uts.EDU.AU/mlists/vsta

provides a powerful interface for searching all message list traffic.

The doc/ subdirectory holds a skeletal amount of documentation on the basic
kernel interfaces. More will be added (time permitting :->).

Finally, the code itself has relatively consistent and numerous comments.

6. I created a root user, but nothing works for me!

The protection system uses your ID for the default protection on object
creation. You should specify a non-zero length ID, and add a root ID as one
of the "extra" ones. See the file /vsta/etc/group.

7. I boot up, and see the disk blink, but my screen doesn't show anything

The default in boot/boot.lst is for a CGA system. MGA cards place text at a
different address; add the -mga flag to the "cons" server.

The kernel debugger also needs to be flagged this way; you need to edit
the file os/mach/dbg_ibm.c and then rebuild your kernel.

8. Does it network?

An initial port of KA9Q has been done. It uses the ne2000 driver and can be
used to telnet and FTP. Some code has been written to provide a /tcp server
so that, for instance, a telnetd can be run to allow logins via the net.

9. What's being developed for VSTa?

Ports are in various states of progress for the m68k, R3000, and SPARC.
People are working on a windowing system, a Linux filesystem, a BSD
filesystem, a /proc filesystem, more networking. For SCSI, tape support is
in progress. A list, maintained by Gavin Nicol (gtn@ebt.com) is posted to
the mailing list periodically.

10. What list is that?

We run a VSTa mailing list. Send a subscription request to:

    vsta-request@cisco.com

There's no list server, so feel free to use English. Once you're on the
list, send to:

    vsta@cisco.com

and the message will be distributed to all members.

A digest format is available; specify this in your subscription request
if you prefer it. Our digest algorithm is to wait up to three days to
collect three messages.

------- End of Blind-Carbon-Copy
Received on Wed Nov 9 07:57:06 1994