New to Minix 2

[Jerome Sevilla]

Hey, I just got Minix 2 running.
I want to have gcc on it and bash. I'm currently downloading tendra to
try it out.
How do I do it? Can anyone show me how?

[Antoine Leca]

Jerome Sevilla wrote:
> Hey, I just got Minix 2 running.
> I want to have gcc on it and bash.

You are basically out of luck for gcc; when MINIX 2 was mainstream
(10-15 years ago) the computers did have a lot less memory than now, and
furthermore from version 3 up GCC became very memory-hungry.

A workaround could be to have a look at Minix-VMD, it does use GCC.

Of course an even more sensible idea is to switch to MINIX3, but it
should be some reason for you to choose MINIX 2...


Antoine

[Jerome Sevilla]

Antione Leca wrote:
> should be some reason for you to choose MINIX 2...

Yes, I got a copy of the book Operating Systems: Design and
Implementation Edition 2 by Andrew Tanenbaum.
So I'm using Minix 2 along with the book.

> You are basically out of luck for gcc; when MINIX 2 was mainstream
> (10-15 years ago) the computers did have a lot less memory than now, and
> furthermore from version 3 up GCC became very memory-hungry.

What about old versions of gcc?
Like, a version of gcc that was developed the same year Minix 2 was
released (1997)? or later versions(not so later)?

> A workaround could be to have a look at Minix-VMD, it does use GCC.

I'm still checking it out..
I'll get back to you after with this.

I tried downloading old versions of bash. I got bash 2.0 and bash
1.14. I just tried to untar them
on my Minix 2 but there is an error, something like 'make: couldn't
not run MakeFile; error 02' (I forgot the whole line)
Is there a proper way in porting bash?

Sevv

[Martijn van Buul]

* Jerome Sevilla:

> Antione Leca wrote:
>> should be some reason for you to choose MINIX 2...
>
> Yes, I got a copy of the book Operating Systems: Design and
> Implementation Edition 2 by Andrew Tanenbaum.
> So I'm using Minix 2 along with the book.

I'd suggest sticking with the compiler that Minix 2 ships with, then: ACK.

>> A workaround could be to have a look at Minix-VMD, it does use GCC.
> I'm still checking it out..
> I'll get back to you after with this.

Minix-VMD isn't quite the same as Minix 2; if you want to use Minix to
follow the book it may not be the best choice.

> I tried downloading old versions of bash. I got bash 2.0 and bash
> 1.14. I just tried to untar them
> on my Minix 2 but there is an error, something like 'make: couldn't
> not run MakeFile; error 02' (I forgot the whole line)

that's.... not helpful. I assume that you try to run configure?

Bash 2.05b should compile with Minix 2.0, but it's been at least 10 years
since I've tried. Don't expect things to work the same as with Linux; you
may find out that sticking with ash may not be a bad idea.

--
Martijn van Buul - pi...@dohd.org

[Antoine Leca]

Jerome Sevilla wrote:
> Antione Leca wrote:
>> should be some reason for you to choose MINIX 2...
>
> Yes, I got a copy of the book Operating Systems: Design and
> Implementation Edition 2 by Andrew Tanenbaum.
> So I'm using Minix 2 along with the book.

I second Martijn here, if you are with the Book, VMD is not an option.

>> You are basically out of luck for gcc; when MINIX 2 was mainstream
>> (10-15 years ago) the computers did have a lot less memory than now, and
>> furthermore from version 3 up GCC became very memory-hungry.
>
> What about old versions of gcc?

I am fearing that nobody ever tried GCC 2.7.2 or 2.8.1 with 512 MB of
memory on MINIX386 2.0.2 back in 1999...

The trick here is chmem(8)... You will certainly need to increase the
heap space of several programs, including cc1, gas, gld, sh etc.

The basic work of porting GCC/binutils to Minix a.out format has been
done, so you should be able to hack it easily, either as part of the Sun
port included on the CD material, or as part of Minix-VMD.
http://www.minix3.org/previous-versions/CD-ROM-2.0/SMX/
http://www.minix-vmd.org/pub/Minix-vmd/gnu/

Also have a look at binutils-2.16 as ported for MINIX3.1, it might help
since it should use the exact same a.out format as MINIX2

> I tried downloading old versions of bash. I got bash 2.0 and bash
> 1.14. I just tried to untar them
> on my Minix 2 but there is an error, something like 'make: couldn't
> not run MakeFile; error 02' (I forgot the whole line)

Does bash require GNU make?
Minix make conforms to POSIX.2:1993 but not much more (it has include,
but no VPATH feature, for example.)
ALso GCC almost certainly requires GNU make, and perhaps bison as well.


Antoine

[Jerome Sevilla]

Martijn van Buul wrote:
>I'd suggest sticking with the compiler that Minix 2 ships with, then: ACK.

Yeah, I didn't know Minix 2 came with Minix cc until you mentioned it.
I'll just use that. I tried Tendra but the space allocated for Minix 2
in Minix Over Qemu is only 65MB. So, stick to Minix cc.

Antoine Leca wrote:
> The basic work of porting GCC/binutils to Minix a.out format has been
> done, so you should be able to hack it easily, either as part of the Sun
> port included on the CD material, or as part of Minix-VMD.http://www.minix3.org/previous-versions/CD-ROM-2.0/SMX/http://www.minix-vmd.org/pub/Minix-vmd/gnu/

I got the book from Booksale, so it's just a second hand book. The CD
that originally came with it isn't in there anymore. So I'm using
Minix Over Qemu (http://oslab.hpclab.ceid.upatras.gr/software.php)
because the ROOT and USR links for download on the ftp site of Minix 2
are broken and not working. So Minix over Qemu is what I found
alternatively.

I'll look into all the links you've suggested. I'm in a middle of a
class in school right now as I'm typing this.

As for bash 2.0, it has auto configure (./configure) but I'm not
really sure if its working or not. Configure took almost 6 hours and I
didn't see any progress and didn't see it finish( I got tired of
waiting so I shut it down).

As you may know, I'm a complete newbie when it comes to all these.
Can anyone send me the ROOT and USR and also other binaries needed for
complete installtion. Or show me a working link where to download all
these files as the ftp files/links aren't working. I want to install
it on a real machine not just a virtual machine.

sevv
jsevvv(at)gmail(dot)com

[Antoine Leca]

Jerome Sevilla wrote:
> As you may know, I'm a complete newbie when it comes to all these.
> Can anyone send me the ROOT and USR and also other binaries needed for
> complete installtion.

2.0.0 (the thing on the CD you are missing):
* CD dump files by files (including non-Intel)
http://www.minix3.org/previous-versions/CD-ROM-2.0/
* the interesting stuff, linked from nice HTML pages
http://www.minix3.org/iso/Intel-2.0.0/
http://www.minix-vmd.org/pub/minix/2.0.0/

2.0.3 (the last stable version, 2001)
http://www.minix3.org/iso/Intel-2.0.3/
http://www.minix-vmd.org/pub/minix/2.0.3/

2.0.4 (the latest 2.x version, not released, 2003)
http://www.minix3.org/iso/Intel-2.0.4/
http://www.minix-vmd.org/pub/minix/2.0.4/

There are currently (08:45Z) permissions problems at minix3.org because
of the new redesign for 3.2.0, I guess it will be solved quickly.

You can find more things at
http://www.minix3.org/previous-versions/
previous versions of MINIX3 includes MINIX2
http://www.minix-vmd.org/pub/minix/
Minix 2, preserved just before Minix 3 development started.
http://www.minix-vmd.org/
Many informations about MINIX in the 1995-2003 period.


Antoine