NAME
setup - Install MINIX 3 on a hard disk
SYNOPSIS
setup
DESCRIPTION
This appendix explains how to install MINIX 3. Standard
MINIX 3 requires a Pentium (or compatible) with at least
16-MB of RAM, at least 200-MB of free disk space, an IDE
CD-ROM and an IDE hard disk. Serial ATA, USB, and SCSI disks
are not supported at present. For USB CD-ROMS, see the Web-
site: www.minix3.org.
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 available. 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.
Download the MINIX 3 CD-ROM image from the MINIX 3 Website
at www.minix3.org.
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.
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 and do not have a CD-ROM burning
program, take a look at
alexfeinman.brinkster.net/isorecorder.htm
for a free one and use it to create a CD image.
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 Mgr
Windows XP:
Start> Control Panel> System> Hardware> Device Mgr
System requires double clicking; the rest are sin-
gle. Expand the + next to Network adapters to see
what you have. Write it down. If you do not have a
supported chip, you can still run MINIX 3, but
without Ethernet.
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
medium 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 experience, 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 partitions, create a contiguous chunk of free disk
space of at least 200 MB (even better: 400 MB or more). If
you do not know how to manage partitions but have a parti-
tioning program like Partition Magic, use it to create a
region of free disk space of at least 200 MB. 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.
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.
BOOTING
By now you should have allocated at least 200 MB of free
space on your disk. If you have not done so yet, please do
it now unless there is an existing 200-MB (or larger) parti-
tion you are willing to convert to MINIX 3.
Insert the CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive and boot the com-
puter from it. If you have 16 MB of RAM or more, choose
Regular; if you have only 8 MB choose small. If the com-
puter 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.
When the login prompt appears, login as root. After a suc-
cessful 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.
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.
INSTALLING TO THE HARD DISK
These steps correspond to the steps on the screen.
When you are asked to select your national keyboard, do so.
This and other steps have a default choice, in square brack-
ets. 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 conventional on UNIX systems.
You will now be asked which of the available Ethernet driver
you want installed (or none). Please choose one of the
options.
If you are tight on disk space, select M for a minimal ins-
tallation which includes all the binaries but only the sys-
tem sources installed. 200 MB is enough for a bare-bones
system. If you have 400 MB or more, choose F for a full ins-
tallation.
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 formatting 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 an error mes-
sages. 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 an existing partition to free up space and
merge with adjacent free space
For choices (1) and (2), type the region number. For (3)
type
delete
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.
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 Reinstall, 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.
The selected partition will be divided into three subparti-
tions: 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.
Disk block sizes of 1-KB, 2-KB, 4-KB, and 8-KB are sup-
ported, 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.
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.
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.
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, in which case try
other drive numbers. This is a good time to create a root
password. See man passwd for help.
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,
To test the system, log in as bin (required) and type
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.
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 boot-
able 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
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
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.
If you have a legacy floppy disk drive, the simplest way to
boot MINIX 3 is by inserting your new boot floppy and turn-
ing on the power. It takes only a few seconds. Alterna-
tively, 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 par-
tition 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. Dis-
cussion of multiboot loaders is beyond the scope of this
guide, but there is some information of the subject at
www.minix3.org/doc.
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:
o VMware (www.vmware.com)
o Bochs (www.bochs.org)
o 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.