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Graphical Minix Layer

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Joel

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Jun 27, 2005, 6:28:29 AM6/27/05

I was wondering if it eas possible to build layers ontop of minix to
allow enhanced functionality. I know that minix is used for education
purposes, so don't want to alter the kernel or primary applications,
just allow the user to run a graphical application or gui like any other
program. Regards, Edward Smith.

Felix M Wells

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Jul 16, 2005, 3:58:00 PM7/16/05

I don't know if X would run on Minix as I don't know if there's a
sockets layer (I think that's what they're called but I could be wrong)
for it.

awoo...@hampshire.edu

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Jul 17, 2005, 8:59:44 AM7/17/05

Kees Bot and Philip Homburg made X run on their Minix-vmd variant of
Minix, so it can be done. See http://www.minix-vmd.org/.

There is a project called Microwindows. It is described thus:
"Microwindows is an Open Source project aimed at bringing the features
of modern graphical windowing environments to smaller devices."
There was some interest in porting it to standard Minix a few years
ago, and I posted the little bit I knew about this at
http://minix1.hampshire.edu/microwin.html. This was almost three years
ago, and I've not hrard more about it.

I believe someone is working on X for the Minix 3 project which you
may have seen discussed on this newsgroup. If you haven't been
following the newsgroup on a regular basis you can get caught up by
looking at
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.os.minix?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8.
Look for the "Status of Minix 3" thread.

- Al

contatenated_with pierre .dot lerouzic @atwanadoo.dotfr Jean-Pierre Le Rouzic

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Aug 13, 2005, 4:19:43 PM8/13/05

"Felix M Wells" <fe...@felixwells.org> a écrit dans le message de
news:dbbos8$7i9$1...@nwrdmz03.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com...

I think it requires three layers:
* A GUI builded upon the widget layer, there are many simplified GUI, xfce
is an interesting one.
* a widget layer like GTK or QT
* X server or perhaps Kdrive xfbdev

An alternative is to use
* a GUI using the intermediate layer.
* a widget layer (like GTK adapted to nano-X)
* microwindows (nano-X)

I made some experiments and the first case seems more realistic in a short
term for a small group.
The only problem is the difficulty to find working source code, I was
astonished that project like DSL (Damn Small Linux) do no put sources on a
WEB site but send them by mail upon request.

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