19.7 MiNT

MiNT

MiNT is a preemtive multitasking kernel. The major differences between this and the TOS that is built into your Falcon are:

The MiNT kernel itself provides the ability to load several programs into memeory and give them each a 'timeslice' of processor time. These timeslices 'cycle'. In many cases (using a utility called nice) you can even set priorities for which program(s) should get more CPU time. With some know-how, you can also get really fancy with MiNT and make it a multi user system that designates a maximum amout of RAM and processor time that particular users can use, and that applications can grab for themselves.

MiNT also allows various drivers and plugins to be booted with the kernel. For instance...one can install MiNT-Net sockets, device drivers, or the intellegent bits to deal with various hard disk partitions (such as EXT2). Common drivers are PPP, Plip, ext2, minix, serial devices, alternate consoles, mouse drivers, ethernet boards, virtual consoles, and more.

MiNT is as POSIX compatable as possible. This is mostly of interest to those who program, or wish to compile standard ANSI C sources (usually written with unix based machines in mind). This means that given the right compiler and libraries, one can compile a plethora of code targeted to unix (the hardware itself doesn't matter). One example is the ability to download sources for something like IRC (Internet Relay Chat), Pine (Email and News Group clinet), or TinyFugue (A glorified telnet client designed for text based multi user games/chats) from the net and compile it right away with few to no changes to the code.

MiNT is just the base of things and in and of itself only supports basic disk operation and vt52 screen manipulation.

Other aspects of a complete MiNT setup include the AES, and the GEM routines. This is the part of your Atari OS that invloves drawing and manipulating windows, icons, dialogues, and dealing with the data inside them.

One Example is the GEM/AES that is built into the Falcon. You see it almost immediately when you boot up your Falcon upon the desk-top. The built in GEM/AES/Desktop of the Falcon can indeed run with MiNT, but, it lacks the ability to launch more than one application, and also has limits as to how many windows can be open at once, etc.

Notice, when you installed MultiTOS...
You put a file called mint.prg into the auto folder.
You put a file called MINT.CNF into a folder called MULTITOS or MINT.
You put a file called GEM.SYS into a folder called MULTITOS or MINT.
You put a file called GEM.CNF into a folder called MULTITOS or MINT.

mint.prg is the kernel.
MINT.CNF is a text file that sets userdefined parts of MINT.
GEM.SYS is the GEM/AES/Desktop part of things.
GEM.CNF is a text file that sets userdefined parts of GEM, such as paths and file extension information.

Now, when you boot your Falcon, mint.prg is one of the first things to load...and once all of your auto folder programs get loaded it usually looks for GEM.SYS (you can address what mint will load, and how it loads at boot-time inside the mint.cnf file). If mint.cnf does not contain the line exec file.prg or gem file.prg, or these programs don't exist as stated, it will load the built in GEM/AES/Desktop.

One common misconception about MiNT is that it requires a unix partition and all sorts of complicated set-up files. This is not entirely true. Really, it depends upon what you wish to do, the set of tools you intend to use, and how important security is. The reason most people go ahead and install a complete set of unix tools is because so many clients and things already exist that were written with unix in mind. I.E. The ncurses screen driver makes it a breeze for a program to compile and not worry about if it should use VT52, VT102, etc., or lynx can compile and use standard calls to MiNT-Net for it's http access. Also, many of the already existing programs intended for unix will want to check up on security issues with files...like ownership and permission. It's easier to just install it all than it is to try to strip out uneeded stuff.

Since Atari released the commercial version of MultiTOS (shipped with Falcons, and also sold seperately for ST use), Atari itself did one major improvement to the GEM/AES/Desktop part that eventaully made it out to the FreeMiNT community. This is known as AES 4.1.

AES 4.1 does offer some advantages over the initial MultiTOS release, thoe I can't name any from the top of my head. Most of the improvements, if I recall correctly involve the AES part of things. This is dealing with how GEM applications get multitasked and windows and such are kept up with so the system doesn't get confused about what GEM objects belong to what application(s).

Since MultiTOS and AES4.1...
Several improvements and enhancements have been made by others. Geneva for instance, works with some mint kernels. It replaces the AES and gives the Atari a new, faster, look and feel. N.AES (commercial) was next on the scene with a more complete AES designed to properly take advantage of more mint offerings. The latest AES replacement to date is called XAAES and is free/opensource.

All of these AES changes give GEM the ability to more properly and efficently multitask GEM applications. They all give the system a slightly different look and feel. One example of things you begin to see with these newer AESes would be more gadgets in the windows, like iconify, hide, or even the maclike ability to double click the top of a window and see it shrink into something like a tool bar. The ability to drag a window halfway off the left edge of a screen. Real time window scrolling in the back ground. The ability to define what fonts get used where and their sizes. Common pipes, and clipboard standards. New file selectors that offer more options, and support for long (fat32,ext2) filenames. The list goes on...but this should give you a basic idea of what a multitasking GEM and AES is all about.

The desktop.
MultiTOS and AES 4.1 both come with desktops that look and act very similar to that built into the Falcon. The major difference being the ability to launch more than one GEM application at one time. Neither of these desktops recognize long filenames.

Geneva , N.AES , and XXAES all treat the desktop a bit differently. By default, they don't have one at all. You define an alternate desktop that hopefully is multitasking friendly. Or, you can run them without a desktop. Tara Desk is free/opensource. It's a small and fast bare bones DeskTop, but is reported to exist quite happily under MiNT as a multitasking aware desktop. Thing is shareware, and is also packaged with N.AES (tho' the version that comes with N.AES only works with N.AES). Jeenie is yet another very powerful desk-top, commercial, that is reported to get along very well with MiNT. NeoDesk and Ease aren't bad either, but neither of these will notice long filenames, and have lagged behind in some protocol advances such as the AVSERVER (a desktop protocol that assists in having one program, or the desktop launch another and send along instructions or pass files).

The file selector is another thing to consider. The one that comes with MultiTOS, AES 4.1, and Geneva is very basic, and is unable to deal with long filenames. XXAES and N.AES both have newer, more advanced file selectors. In any case, you can replace the file selector with one of your choice, such as Freedom or BoxKite.

GDOS and the VDI
This is a part of the Atari OS that deals with Screen draws, fonts, and driving printers. GDOS can be used for other things as well, but these are the most common uses.

NVDI is commecial, quite good and quite common. It speeds up screen draws considerably, and can also support some graphics cards. NVDI also has a GDOS that can use vector fonts on screen and with your printer (Speedo, TrueType and Post Script).

fVDI (free/opensource) was initally intended to replace the built in Atari VDI as a part of Dolmen. Dolmen was to be a new OS streamlined and optimized for beefed up Falcons (CT2, CT060), Future Falcon Clones, and other TOS machines like Hades and Medusa. Like NVDI, fVDI is supposedly much more effecient at working with screen draws. fVDI is REQUIRED to run some graphics cards, such as the ATI RAGE PCI cards that can be installed with a Falcon BUS to PCI bridge. fVDI is also more or less the new standard for opensource VDI work due to the ARAnyM project which seeks to put TOS/GEM compatability on any hardware platform. fVDI does not include GDOS. If you intend to use a GDOS with fVDI, you can use the standard Atari one that does NOT support variable sized vector fonts, or you can use the commercial Speedo GDOS (Speedo, TrueType, PostScript), or the GDOS portion of NVDI.

A good VDI replacement is very much worthwhile in any Falcon set-up. ESPECIALLY with MiNT. The machine feels MUCH faster!

Music Applications and MiNT...
Logic supposedly will work under MiNT, MagiC, or Geneva. I don't own it, can't find it anywhere for sale, so can't try it personally :/

CuBase doesn't like MiNT, and it doesn't like MagiC...I've never gotten it to run under any MiNT/AES or MagiC variant myself. Steinberg's own MROS task switcher doesn't work on my Falcon either. So far, the only reliable task switcher I've found for the Falcon and Steinberg music software is Geneva (without MiNT...thus a cooperative multitasking switcher...works by system inturrupts as opposed to preemtive time slice sharing like MiNT/MagiC or the Geneva-MiNT combo).

I haven't succeeded in getting Avalon to run on my Falcon, but some users with a Dongle Switcher (Combiner, Mindex+, CartMaster) have reported that if they launch CAF FIRST, press play then stop, and have an STe sound emulator installed, they can at least get it working, under single TOS or Geneva.

Sample C works fine for me on all of my Ataris, under any OS.

Zero-X supposedly will work under MiNT, tho' I don't have it yet to try.

Notator/Creator does not work at all on a Falcon.

KCS Level II, Omega, Copiest, Band In A Box etc... I've not tried these under MiNT, but because they frequently draw to SCREEN rather than working with windows...I'd assume they'd be quite messy...if they work at all. I have used these under Geneva however. Geneva allows you to 'hold the screen' for the topped application. In some cases under geneva, it's best to run the program in a 'single tasking mode' that puts any other running application to sleep, and avoids issues of screen droppings or other conflicts that may arise.

There are boocoups of other MIDI apps out there...many free these days. I haven't tested any but those listed above with MiNT. Give them a try and let us know what happens ;)

Brian Roland <BJRoland@bellsouth.net>