Before installing Minix, do the unthinkable and read the installation manual usage(8). It is in the following files in various forms:
usage.ps - PostScript usage.t - Troff -man source usage.txt - Flat ASCII textAlternatively, with a web browser you can view the whole manual page set. The page to start with is usage(8).
crclist - CRC's of all the files here crc.c - Command to make CRC checksumsEventually, you may also want these files:
changes-2.0.2 - List of changes between 2.0.0 and 2.0.2 psman/ - All manuals in PostScript form bugs - List of bugs in 2.0.2 (none as yet) fixes/ - Fixes to bugs in 2.0.2 (none as yet) misc/ - Additional documents: installation example, network config, XT installation. alpha/ - Changes destined to be in the next distribution.
- Regular (for 386, 486, and Pentium machines) - Small (for 8086 and 286 machines) - Tiny (for 8086 and 286 machines with small memories and/or 360K diskette drives) - Running under DOS/Windows. (Recommended; trivial to install.)The bits and pieces of each flavor are distributed over the i386, i86, xt, and src directories, depending on architecture (386+ or 8086/286), size (XT), or source files (src). (Take a peek in those directories if you want to know the file sizes.) You need the following files, and only those files, for each flavor:
i386/ROOT.MNX - Installation root floppy image i386/USR.MNX - Installation /usr floppy image i386/USR.TAZ - Binary /usr files (386 executables.) src/SYS.TAZ - Operating system sources (libary, kernel, etc.) src/CMD.TAZ - Commands sources (cp, ls, mkdir, etc.)
i86/ROOT.MNX - Installation root floppy image i86/USR.MNX - Installation /usr floppy image i86/USR.TAZ - Binary /usr files (8086 executables.) src/SYS.TAZ - Operating system sources (libary, kernel, etc.) src/CMD.TAZ - Commands sources (cp, ls, mkdir, etc.) xt/XTBOOT.MNX - Boot this first if you get "read error 04"
All of the above and: xt/README - Tips for installation on PCs with little memory xt/TINYROOT.MNX - Tiny installation root floppy image xt/XTBOOT.MNX - Boot this first if you get "read error 04"
All files in the two sections above and: xt/TINYUSR1.MNX - Tiny installation /usr floppy part 1 xt/TINYUSR2.MNX - Tiny installation /usr floppy part 2
dosminix.txt - README (also present in ZIP file) i386/DOSMINIX.ZIP - Bootstrap and 40M "disk"
dosminix.txt - README (also present in ZIP file) i86/DOSMINIX.ZIP - Bootstrap and 40M "disk"
The files with names ending in .MNX are sector-by-sector copies of Minix boot floppies. The .TAZ files are compressed UNIX tar archives. The .ZIP files are archives that can be unpacked by the Windows utilities PKZIP or WinZip.
The two installation floppies ROOT.MNX and USR.MNX can be combined on a 1.2 Mb or 1.44 Mb diskette. The .TAZ files must be distributed over several floppies. Example for UNIX:
cat ROOT.MNX USR.MNX >/dev/floppy dd if=USR.TAZ of=/dev/floppy bs=1440k count=1 skip=0 dd if=USR.TAZ of=/dev/floppy bs=1440k count=1 skip=1 dd if=USR.TAZ of=/dev/floppy bs=1440k count=1 skip=2Increase the "skip" count until dd writes a diskette partially. /dev/floppy should be the name of the floppy device. You have to find out what your Operating System names it today. Under MS-DOS you can use the FDVOL command found in the ../dosutil directory to write the floppy images.
Be careful when you install Minix, many of the commands are potentionally dangerous in a way that a simple typing mistake may destroy all other data on your system. So make backups first! (The DosMinix version, however, is relatively safe.)
Kees J. Bot (kjb@cs.vu.nl)