A

INSTALLING MINIX 3

This appendix explains how to install MINIX 3. A complete MINIX 3 instal-

lation requires a Pentium (or compatible) with at least 16-MB of RAM, 1 GB of
free disk space, an IDE CD-ROM and an IDE hard disk. A minimal installation
(without the commands sources) requires 8 MB RAM and 50 MB of disk space.
Serial ATA, USB, and SCSI disks are not supported at present. For USB CD-
ROMS, see the Website: www.minix3.org.

A.1 PREPARATION
If you already have the CD-ROM (e.g., from the book), you can skip steps 1
and 2, but it is wise to check www.minix3.org to see if a newer version is avail-
able. If you want to run MINIX 3 on a simulator instead of native, see Part V first.
If you do not have an IDE CD-ROM, either get the special USB CD-ROM boot
image or use a simulator.

1. Download the MINIX 3 CD-ROM image

Download the MINIX 3 CD-ROM image from the MINIX 3 Website at
www.minix3.org.

2. Create a bootable MINIX 3 CD-ROM

Decompress the downloaded file. You will get a CD-ROM image file with
extension .iso and this manual. The .iso file is a bit-for-bit CD-ROM image.
Burn it to a CD-ROM to make a bootable CD-ROM.
629
630 INSTALLING MINIX 3 APP. A

If you are using Easy CD Creator 5, select ‘‘Record CD from CD image’’

from the File menu and change the file type from .cif to .iso in the dialog box that
appears. Select the image file and click ‘‘Open.’’ Then click ‘‘Start Recording.’’
If you are using Nero Express 5, choose ‘‘Disc Image or Saved Project’’ and
change the type to ‘‘Image Files,’’ select the image file and click ‘‘Open.’’ Select
your CD recorder and click on ‘‘Next.’’
If you are running Windows XP and do not have a CD-ROM burning pro-
gram, take a look at alexfeinman.brinkster.net/isorecorder.htm for a free one and
use it to create a CD image.

3. Determine which Ethernet Chip you have

MINIX 3 supports several Ethernet chips for networking over LAN, ADSL,
and cable. These include Intel Pro/100, RealTek 8029 and 8139, AMD LANCE,
and several 3Com chips. During setup you will be asked which Ethernet chip you
have, if any. Determine that now by looking at your documentation. Alternatively,
if you are using Windows, go to the device manager as follows:
Windows 2000:Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager
Windows XP: Start > Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager
System requires double clicking; the rest are single. Expand the + next to ‘‘Net-
work adapters’’ to see what you have. Write it down. If you do not have a sup-
ported chip, you can still run MINIX 3, but without Ethernet.

4. Partition your hard disk

You can boot the computer from your CD-ROM if you like and MINIX 3 will
start, but to do anything useful, you have to create a partition for it on your hard
disk. But before partitioning, be sure to back up your data to an external med-
ium like CD-ROM or DVD as a safety precaution, just in case something goes
wrong. Your files are valuable; protect them.
Unless you are sure you are an expert on disk partitioning with much experi-
ence, it is strongly suggested that you read the online tutorial on disk partitioning
at www.minix3.org/doc/partitions.html. If you already know how to manage par-
titions, create a contiguous chunk of free disk space of at least 50 MB, or, if you
want all the commands sources, 1 GB. If you do not know how to manage parti-
tions but have a partitioning program like Partition Magic, use it to create a
region of free disk space. Also make sure there is at least one primary partition
(i.e., Master Boot Record slot) free. The MINIX 3 setup script will guide you
through creating a MINIX partition in the free space, which can be on either the
first or second IDE disk.
If you are running Windows 95, 98, ME, or 2000 and your disk consists of a
single FAT partition, you can use the presz134.exe program on the CD-ROM
(also available at zeleps.com) to reduce its size to leave room for MINIX. In all
other cases, please read the online tutorial cited above.
SEC. A.1 PREPARATION 631

If your disk is larger than 128 GB, the MINIX 3 partition must fall entirely in
the first 128 GB (due to the way disk blocks are addressed).
WARNING: If you make a mistake during disk partitioning, you can lose
all the data on the disk, so be sure to back it up to CD-ROM or DVD before
starting. Disk partitioning requires great care, so proceed with caution.

A.2 BOOTING
By now you should have allocated some free space on your disk. If you have
not done so yet, please do it now unless there is an existing partition you are wil-
ling to convert to MINIX 3.

1. Boot from the CD-ROM

Insert the CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive and boot the computer from it.
If you have 16 MB of RAM or more, choose ‘‘Regular;’’ if you have only 8 MB
choose ‘‘small.’’ If the computer boots from the hard disk instead of the CD-
ROM, boot again and enter the BIOS setup program to change the order of boot
devices, putting the CD-ROM before the hard disk.

2. Login as root
When the login prompt appears, login as root. After a successful login as
root, you will see the shell prompt (#). At this point you are running fully-
operational MINIX 3. If you type:
ls /usr/bin | more
you can see what software is available. Hit space to scroll the list. To see what
program foo does, type:
man foo
The manual pages are also available at www.minix3.org/manpages.

3. Start the setup script

To start the installation of MINIX 3 on the hard disk, type
setup
After this and all other commands, be sure to type ENTER (RETURN). When the
installation script ends a screen with a colon, hit ENTER to continue. If the screen
suddenly goes blank, press CTRL-F3 to select software scrolling (should only be
needed on very old computers). Note that CTRL-key means depress the CTRL
key and while holding it down, press ‘‘key.’’
632 INSTALLING MINIX 3 APP. A

A.3 INSTALLING TO THE HARD DISK

These steps correspond to the steps on the screen.

1. Select keyboard type

When you are asked to select your national keyboard, do so. This and other
steps have a default choice, in square brackets. If you agree with it, just hit
ENTER. In most steps, the default is generally a good choice for beginners. The
us-swap keyboard interchanges the CAPS LOCK and CTRL keys, as is conven-
tional on UNIX systems.

2. Select your Ethernet chip

You will now be asked which of the available Ethernet drivers you want in-
stalled (or none). Please choose one of the options.

3. Basic minimal or full distribution?

If you are tight on disk space, select M for a minimal installation which
includes all the binaries but only the system sources installed. The minimal
option does not install the sources of the commands. 50 MB is enough for a
bare-bones system. If you have 1 GB or more, choose F for a full installation.

4. Create or select a partition for MINIX 3

You will first be asked if you are an expert in MINIX 3 disk partitioning. If so,
you will be placed in the part program to give you full power to edit the Master
Boot Record (and enough rope to hang yourself). If you are not an expert, press
ENTER for the default action, which is an automated step-by-step guide to for-
matting a disk partition for MINIX 3.

Substep 4.1: Select a disk to install MINIX 3

An IDE controller may have up to four disks. The setup script will now look
for each one. Just ignore any error messages. When the drives are listed, select
one. and confirm your choice. If you have two hard disks and you decide to
install MINIX 3 to the second one and have trouble booting from it, please see
www.minix3.org/doc/using2disks.html for the solution.

Substep 4.2: Select a disk region

Now choose a region to install MINIX 3 into. You have three choices:
(1) Select a free region
(2) Select a partition to overwrite
(3) Delete a partition to free up space and merge with adjacent free space
For choices (1) and (2), type the region number. For (3) type
delete
SEC. A.3 INSTALLING TO THE HARD DISK 633

then give the region number when asked. This region will be overwritten and its
previous contents lost forever.

Substep 4.3: Confirm your choices

You have now reached the point of no return. You will be asked if you want
to continue. If you do, the data in the selected region will be lost forever. If
you are sure, type:
yes
and then ENTER. To exit the setup script without changing the partition table, hit
CTRL-C.

5. Reinstall choice
If you chose an existing MINIX 3 partition, in this step you will be offered a
choice between a Full install, which erases everything in the partition, and a Rein-
stall, which does not affect your existing /home partition. This design means that
you can put your personal files on /home and reinstall a newer version of MINIX 3
when it is available without losing your personal files.

6. Select the size of /home

The selected partition will be divided into three subpartitions: root, /usr, and
/home. The latter is for your own personal files. Specify how much of the partition
should be set aside for your files. You will be asked to confirm your choice.

7. Select a block size

Disk block sizes of 1-KB, 2-KB, 4-KB, and 8-KB are supported, but to use a
size larger than 4-KB you have to change a constant and recompile the system. If
your memory is 16 MB or more, use the default (4 KB); otherwise, use 1 KB.

8. Wait for bad block detection

The setup script will now scan each partition for bad disk blocks. This will
take several minutes, possibly 10 minutes or more on a large partition. Please be
patient. If you are absolutely certain there are no bad blocks, you can kill each
scan by hitting CTRL-C.

9. Wait for files to be copied

When the scan finishes, files will be automatically copied from the CD-ROM
to the hard disk. Every file will be announced as it is copied. When the copying is
complete, MINIX 3 is installed. Shut the system down by typing
shutdown
Always stop MINIX 3 this way to avoid data loss as MINIX 3 keeps some files on
the RAM disk and only copies them back to the hard disk at shutdown time.
634 INSTALLING MINIX 3 APP. A

10. Install packages

To start, boot your new MINIX 3 system For example, if you used controller 0,
disk 0, partition 3, type
boot c0d0p3
and log in as root. Under very rare conditions the drive number seen by the BIOS
(and used by the boot monitor) may not agree with the one used by MINIX 3. Try
the one announced by the setup script first.

The MINIX 3 distribution comes with a large number of software packages. To

install them, type
packman
and choose one of the options, depending on whether you want to install all the
binaries, all the binaries and sources, or select the packages you want. When you
have finished installing packages, exit packman by choosing option 5. If you have
installed the X Windows package, you can start it now by typing
xdm

A.4 TESTING
This section tells you how to test your installation, rebuild the system after
modifying it, and boot it later. To start, boot your new MINIX 3 system. For
example, if you used controller 0, disk 0, partition 3, type
boot c0d0p3
and log in as root. Under very rare conditions the drive number seen by the BIOS
(and used by the boot monitor) may not agree with the one used by MINIX 3. Try
the one announced by the setup script first. This is a good time to create a root
password. See man passwd for help.

1. Compile the test suite

To test MINIX 3, at the command prompt (#) type
cd /usr/src/test
make
and wait until it completes all 40 compilations. Log out by typing CTRL-D,

2. Run the test suite

To test the system, log in as bin (required) and type
SEC. A.4 TESTING 635
cd /usr/src/test
./run
to run the test programs. They should all run correctly but they can take 20 min on
a fast machine and over an hour on a slow one. Note: It is necessary to compile
the test suite when running as root but execute it as bin in order to see if the setuid
bit works correctly.

3. Rebuild the entire operating system

If all the tests work correctly, you can now rebuild the system. Doing so is
not necessary since it comes prebuilt, but if you plan to modify the system, you
will need to know how to rebuild it. Besides, rebuilding the system is a good test
to see if it works. Type:
cd /usr/src/tools
make
to see the various options available. Now make a new bootable image by typing
su
make clean
time make image
You just rebuilt the operating system, including all the kernel and user-mode
parts. That did not take very long, did it? If you have a legacy floppy disk drive,
you can make a bootable floppy for use later by inserting a formatted floppy and
typing
make fdboot
When you are asked to complete the path, type:
fd0
This approach does not currently work with USB floppies since there is no MINIX
3 USB floppy disk driver yet. To update the boot image currently installed on the
hard disk, type
make hdboot

4. Shut down and reboot the new system

To boot the new system, first shut down by typing:

shutdown
This command saves certain files and returns you to the MINIX 3 boot monitor.
To get a summary of what the boot monitor can do, while in it, type:
help
636 INSTALLING MINIX 3 APP. A

For more details, see www.minix3.org/manpages/man8/boot.8.html. You can now

remove any CD-ROM or floppy disk and turn off the computer.

5. Booting Tomorrow
If you have a legacy floppy disk drive, the simplest way to boot MINIX 3 is by
inserting your new boot floppy and turning on the power. It takes only a few
seconds. Alternatively, boot from the MINIX 3 CD-ROM, login as bin and type:
shutdown
to get back to the MINIX 3 boot monitor. Now type:
boot c0d0p0
to boot from the operating system image file on controller 0, driver 0, partition 0.
Of course, if you put MINIX 3 on drive 0 partition 1, use:
boot c0d0p1
and so on.
A third possibility for booting is to make the MINIX 3 partition the active one,
and use the MINIX 3 boot monitor to start MINIX 3 or any other operating system.
For details see www.minix3.org/manpages/man8/boot.8.html.
Finally, a fourth option is for you to install a multiboot loader such as LILO or
GRUB (www.gnu.org/software/grub). Then you can boot any of your operating
systems easily. Discussion of multiboot loaders is beyond the scope of this guide,
but there is some information on the subject at www.minix3.org/doc.

A.5 USING A SIMULATOR

A completely different approach to running MINIX 3 is to run it on top of
another operating system instead of native on the bare metal. Various virtual
machines, simulators, and emulators are available for this purpose. Some of the
most popular ones are:

d VMware (www.vmware.com)
d Bochs (www.bochs.org)
d QEMU (www.qemu.org)
See the documentation for each of them. Running a program on a simulator is
similar to running it on the actual machine, so you should go back to Part I and
acquire the latest CD-ROM and continue from there.