Re: [MiNT] 1.15.10 (fwd)

[joy@sophics.cz (Petr Stehlik)]

On Fri, 10 Nov 2000 17:30:50 +0100 (CET), Konrad M. Kokoszkiewicz wrote:

KMK>IMHO, the fact that actually so many people have the mp disabled, and that
KMK>new developments are not compatible with memory protection relying on the
KMK>fact that "you can always disable this in MiNT", it is a misuse of that
KMK>feature. The basic MiNT operation is and always has been the protected
KMK>mode, just because it is so. AFAIK, nobody complains that Linux protects
KMK>the memory. Nobody should complain the same on MiNT.

Well. Linux, for example, supports all FastRAM extensions for Falcon.
MiNT does not. This means that MiNT 1.15.10b does not boot on most
Falcons out of the box - even if users renamed the MINT to MINTNP as
they always did in order to use MiNT successfully with FastRAM.

KMK>Notice that so far I only spoke about the memory protection itself, not
KMK>the way it can be disabled. This one (the way) is even less documented, if
KMK>anything can be less documented than undocumented ;)

Someone else already wrote here that documentation to various hardware
extensions that aren't supported by MiNT MP does contain the hint
"rename MINT to MINTMP".

KMK>First, it is my personal opinion, which says, that setting system options
KMK>by renaming the kernel binary is a completely broken and brain damaged
KMK>idea. Over years, I got completely bored & tired messing in the auto
KMK>folder whenever I wanted to change that setting, mostly just for a while

You got bored but most people set their boot managers long time ago to
use this feature and were satisfied.

KMK>opinion, but I think that this is much more convenient and elegant way.

It would be, if the default mode was with MP _disabled_. Remember that
all machines boot with MP disabled but only some of them can boot with
MP enabled.

KMK>obviously I don't think that a MiNT extension should be cancelled just
KMK>because a boot manager is too primitive to be accommodated to that.

The extension is fine but the first boot is a problem (actually every
boot until the user notices he/she must hold Shift key and then disable
the MP and save the settings).

KMK>It is always possible to restore this.

Most people already found this trap and set the boot menu properly so I
think it will not be necessary to restore it. I would just strongly vote
for MP being disabled by default (when no .ini file is found). Even
better idea is to make MiNT Falcon030FastRAM aware, release Thing 1.29
(that is supposed to handle all those VA MP problems) and fix the
remaining ill-behaving programs so that all people could enjoy the
pre-enabled MiNT MP.

KMK>am sure it will turn over, that there is no real need for 'mintnp.prg',
KMK>other than conservative thinking.

You are an exception that you use plain Falcon030. If you had any
FastRAM extension (as >50% Falcon people have) you would understand.

Petr