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HOW TO GET AND INSTALL MINIX 2.0.2

This directory and subdirectories contains Minix version 2.0.2, a small educational UNIX-like system for IBM PC's and compatibles.

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 text
Alternatively, with a web browser you can view the whole manual page set. The page to start with is usage(8).
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: 
  crclist               - CRC's of all the files here
  crc.c                 - Command to make CRC checksums
Eventually, 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.
Minix for the Intel architecture comes in four flavors: 
  - 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:

386, 486, Pentium 

  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.)

286 with 2M+ memory
286 with a 1.44M floppy drive
8086/286 with two 720K floppy drives 

  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"

8086/286 with little memory and a 720K floppy drive 

  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"

8086/286 with little memory and a 360K floppy drive 

  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

Running under DOS in 386 mode 

  dosminix.txt          - README (also present in ZIP file)
  i386/DOSMINIX.ZIP     - Bootstrap and 40M "disk"

Running under DOS in 8086/286 mode
Running under Windows in a DOS box in 8086 mode (experimental) 

  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=2
Increase 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)