Files
oldlinux-files/Minix/1.7.1/README.html
2024-02-19 00:21:39 -05:00

118 lines
4.7 KiB
HTML

<head>
<title>Minix 1.7.1</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>HOW TO GET AND INSTALL MINIX 1.7.1</h2>
This directory and subdirectories contains Minix version 1.7.1, a small
educational UNIX-like system for IBM PC's and compatibles.
<br><br>
Before installing Minix, do the unthinkable and read the installation manual
in the file <b>usage.8</b>.
On a UNIX machine you can unpack <b>man.tar.Z</b> and use a reasonably smart
pager (one that understands backspace overstrikes) to read the man pages.
The same manual pages can be found in <b>man.zip</b> as flat text for use
under MS-DOS. Note that the ZIP file contains subdirectories that you may
or may not want to keep intact.
<br><br>
<pre>
<a href="man.tar.Z">man.tar.Z</a> - Installation manual pages (UNIX)
<a href="man.zip">man.zip</a> - Installation manual pages (MS-DOS)
</pre>
Alternatively, by WWW you can view the
<a href="http://nano.am.cs.vu.nl/man/Minix/1.7.1/whatis.html">whole manual page set</a>.
The page to start with is
<a href="http://nano.am.cs.vu.nl/man/Minix/1.7.1/man8/usage.8.html">usage(8)</a>.
<hr>
Before fetching Minix, you should get the checksum list (to verify correct
transmission and unpacking). If you do not already have it, you will need
the program to compute the checksums on your machine, crc.c:
<pre>
<a href="crclist">crclist</a> - CRC's of all the files here
<a href="crc.c">crc.c</a> - Command to make CRC checksums
</pre>
Eventually, you may also want these files:
<pre>
<a href="changes-1.7.0-1.7.1">changes-1.7.0-1.7.1</a> - List of changes between 1.7.0 and 1.7.1
<a href="upgrade-1.7.0-1.7.1">upgrade-1.7.0-1.7.1</a> - How to upgrade from 1.7.0 to 1.7.1
<a href="bugs">bugs</a> - List of bugs in 1.7.1
<a href="fixes/">fixes/</a> - Fixes to bugs in 1.7.1
</pre>
<hr>
Minix for the Intel architecture comes in three flavors:
<pre>
- 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)
</pre>
For the regular distribution, use the <b>i386</b> directory. For the small
distribution, use the <b>i86</b> directory. For the tiny distribution, use
the both the <b>i86</b> and <b>xt</b> directories. All these directories
contain the executable programs of Minix. In addition, the <b>src</b>
directory contains the full Minix source code, which is identical for all
three flavors (the code contains #ifdef's where the difference matters).
<hr>
<b>Two</b> versions of the distribution have been prepared. If you are
reasonably experienced in dealing with UNIX or Minix and are
downloading to a UNIX or Minix system with 10MB of free disk space, and a
connection that can transfer megabyte files without loss (even if this is not
the target system), just fetch whichever of the following you need:
<pre>
<a href="ftp://ftp.cs.vu.nl/pub/minix/1.7.1/i386.tar">i386.tar</a> - 386 binaries
<a href="ftp://ftp.cs.vu.nl/pub/minix/1.7.1/i86.tar">i86.tar</a> - 8086/286 binaries
<a href="ftp://ftp.cs.vu.nl/pub/minix/1.7.1/xt.tar">xt.tar</a> - Replacement files for tiny systems
<a href="ftp://ftp.cs.vu.nl/pub/minix/1.7.1/src.tar">src.tar</a> - Full sources for all versions
</pre>
Under all other circumstances, use the second distribution, which consists
of many 720K floppy disk images (you can also use bigger diskettes, but
remember that the size of the images is still 720K).
<pre>
<a href="i386/">i386</a>: ROOT USR USR.01 USR.02 USR.03 USR.04 USR.05
<a href="i86/">i86</a>: ROOT USR USR.01 USR.02 USR.03 USR.04 USR.05
<a href="xt/">xt</a>: README TINYROOT TINYUSR1 TINYUSR2 (360K images)
<a href="src/">src</a>: SRC.01 SRC.02 SRC.03 SRC.04 ... SRC.08
</pre>
The <b>USR.</b><i>nn</i> and <b>SRC.</b><i>nn</i> series of diskette images
were created by commands like this one, so they are just a compressed tar
file cut to pieces:
<pre>
<b>tar cf - * | compress | vol 720 /dev/fd0</b>
</pre>
The two installation floppies can be combined on a 1.2 Mb or 1.44 Mb
diskette, the other images can be combined on 1.44 Mb floppies, turning
them into 1440K images:
<pre>
<b>cat ROOT USR >/dev/fd0</b>
<b>cat USR.01 USR.02 >/dev/fd0</b> (odd/even pairs)
<b>cat USR.03 USR.04 >/dev/fd0</b>
...
<b>cat SRC.01 SRC.02 >/dev/fd0</b>
...
</pre>
<b>/dev/fd0</b> is a random floppy device name. You have to find out what
your Operating System names it today. Under MS-DOS you can use the
<b>WrtDsk</b> command in the <a href="../dosutil/">../dosutil</a> directory
to write the floppy images.
<p>
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!
<pre>
Kees J. Bot (kjb@cs.vu.nl)