386SX PC-104 formfactor system with 4MB ram.
alexi...@gmail.com
load /boot/image/image". I have previously installed debian 2.1(slink)
on it and tho the process was anoying, it worked. Can somebody suggest,
what can be done?
Harald Arnesen
M E Leypold
Harald Arnesen <har...@skogtun.org> writes:
I disagree. My impression was, that 4MB should be quite enough for
plain Minix 3 (i.e. without X11 and Gnu tools).
Regards -- Markus
M E Leypold
alexi...@gmail.com writes:
I'm not sure, since I'm not running Minix 3 presently and I don't know
wether the Minix 2 tricks are applicable to Minix 3. It seems to me
what fails is to load the ram disk (not the actual kernel). In Minix 2
the trick was not to use the ram disk (there are variables in the boot
monitor which control this), but run directly from floppy disk. The
price you had to pay for that was, that you needed 2 disk drives to do
anything useful (like installation), since one drive was mounted as /
and you couldn't of course unmount that. I'm not sure, wether there is
a documented way to run Minix 3 from disk (instead of CD). You would
need to run from floppy, since / needs to be writeable which a root
image on the CD will be not.
4 MB should be enough to run plain Minix 3: As far as I have
understood following the discussion in c.o.m the hardware requirements
haven't increased so much and it was possible to run Minix 2 in 1 MB
in protected mode (with some tricking, see above) and I considered 4
MB always plenty (and with this much buffering available it was
"blindingly fast" even on a 10 Mhz 286 :-).
Regards -- Markus
awoo...@hampshire.edu
> alexi...@gmail.com writes:
> > Im trying to boot Minix3 on it, but all I get is "Not enough memory to
> > load /boot/image/image". I have previously installed debian 2.1(slink)
...
> I'm not sure, since I'm not running Minix 3 presently and I don't know
> whether the Minix 2 tricks are applicable to Minix 3. It seems to me
> what fails is to load the ram disk (not the actual kernel). In Minix 2
> the trick was not to use the ram disk (there are variables in the boot
...
> 4 MB should be enough to run plain Minix 3: ...
I think you are probably correct -- I suspect a useful subset of Minix
3 should work in 4 MB RAM. Of course there are a lot of programs
recently ported to Minix that will not.
Your problem is that a way to start up Minix 3 using media other than
the CD-ROM is not provided. During installation from the CD-ROM a 4 MB
RAM disk is created to accommodate the 4 MB root partition on the
CD-ROM.
There are actually a little over 2 MB of files on the installation
root partition, but I think you could probably identify some things
not needed during initial installation and cut this down to something
that would fit on a floppy disk. If you can borrow another system with
enough RAM to get started you could start Minix running in RAM the RAM
disk on that, then create a boot floppy that you could use to start up
your little system. Use a 1.44 MB RAM disk or use the floppy as the
root device. Once you get a root partition created on the hard disk
copy the stuff from the CD-ROM root partition that wouldn't fit on a
floppy.
--
+----------------------------------+
| Albert S. Woodhull |
| awoo...@hampshire.edu |
| http://minix1.woodhull.com/asw/ |
+----------------------------------+
The idea is to die young as late as possible.
M E Leypold
awoo...@hampshire.edu writes:
> M E Leypold <development-2006-8e...@m-e-leypold.de> wrote:
>
> > alexi...@gmail.com writes:
>
> > > Im trying to boot Minix3 on it, but all I get is "Not enough memory to
> > > load /boot/image/image". I have previously installed debian 2.1(slink)
> ...
> > I'm not sure, since I'm not running Minix 3 presently and I don't know
> > whether the Minix 2 tricks are applicable to Minix 3. It seems to me
> > what fails is to load the ram disk (not the actual kernel). In Minix 2
> > the trick was not to use the ram disk (there are variables in the boot
> ...
> > 4 MB should be enough to run plain Minix 3: ...
>
> I think you are probably correct -- I suspect a useful subset of Minix
> 3 should work in 4 MB RAM. Of course there are a lot of programs
> recently ported to Minix that will not.
Yes, but are these additional tools (like /usr/gnu/bin/gcc or
whatever) or are they really required by "core Minix".
> Your problem is that a way to start up Minix 3 using media other than
> the CD-ROM is not provided. During installation from the CD-ROM a 4 MB
Not my problem, the OP's. But thanks for the confiramtion of my
impression that there are no other boot media the CDROM presently.
> RAM disk is created to accommodate the 4 MB root partition on the
> CD-ROM.
What would be useful, would be a guide how to dump the root partition
image from the CD to a prepared temporary (?) partion at the hard disk
and start with a floppy.
Another useful tool for that would a disk which starts fdisk as
initial process (the root fs would only contain device files and
/bin/fdisk (or was it parted? My memory fails.)
(I'm seriously tempted to do it myself, but don't have the time
now. Maybe in some months.)
> There are actually a little over 2 MB of files on the installation
> root partition, but I think you could probably identify some things
> not needed during initial installation and cut this down to something
Well. This is certainly more than in the olden days of Minix 2. Any
comment what changed? Have some of the older tools been replaced by
newer ones which are larger or what are the additional tools? I
certainly never missed anything in the shell system (well, almost :-).
> that would fit on a floppy disk. If you can borrow another system with
> enough RAM to get started you could start Minix running in RAM the RAM
> disk on that, then create a boot floppy that you could use to start up
> your little system. Use a 1.44 MB RAM disk or use the floppy as the
> root device. Once you get a root partition created on the hard disk
> copy the stuff from the CD-ROM root partition that wouldn't fit on a
> floppy.
I _will_ have a look.
> +----------------------------------+
> | Albert S. Woodhull |
> | awoo...@hampshire.edu |
> | http://minix1.woodhull.com/asw/ |
> +----------------------------------+
By the way: minix1.hampshire.edu is still linked from an inumerable
number of places (like the bochs documentation etc). May I cautiously
suggest either http-redirection from minix1.hampshire.edu -> minix1.woodhull.com or a CNAME entry into DNS?
> The idea is to die young as late as possible.
:-)
Regards -- ;arkus