USB installation

[Iggo]

Hi, I would like to install minix3 on a laptop with a broken cdrom,
for which I'm trying to write a nic driver (dp83815).
I got the 3.1.2 old usb image. Does someone know how to create an
installation usb key with latest release??

Thank you, Iggo.

[Erik van der Kouwe]

Hi,

I don't know whether USB boot still works, but I often use another
approach to install operating systems without having to burn a CD-ROM.
This works if you already have Linux installed and you could almost
certainly adept it to work from Windows.

- Boot Linux and open a console
- wget "http://www.minix3.org/download/minix_R3.1.5-r5612.iso.bz2"
- bunzip2 minix_R3.1.5-r5612.iso.bz2
- sudo kvm -hda /dev/sda -cdrom minix_R3.1.5-r5612.iso -boot d
- Install the operating system as you would normally (be careful,
don't touch the partition(s) of the running OS)
- Shutdown the VM
- Add an entry for MINIX in /boot/grub/menu.lst using chainloader +1
(or your bootloader's equivalent)
- Reboot
- Select MINIX in the boot menu
- Log in as root
- Use netconf to select the correct network card

You can use qemu rather than kvm if preferred, with the same
parameters. You can specify the amount of memory (in MB) with the -m
switch if needed (I think the default is enough for MINIX, but for
many others it isn't).

With kind regards,
Erik

[Olej]

Hi

Erik van der Kouwe:

> - sudo kvm -hda /dev/sda -cdrom minix_R3.1.5-r5612.iso -boot d

I think that /dev/sda is a USB-flash in your computer? is it right?

> - Add an entry for MINIX in /boot/grub/menu.lst using chainloader +1
> (or your bootloader's equivalent)

New GRB menu position (not Linux) is pointed like this:
title ZZZ
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

What I must point as bootable USB-flash device in GRUB menu (in
rootnoverify)?
Or write full text of your /boot/grub/grub.conf .

Thank you.

[Olej]

Hi.

Iggo:

There is script:
/usr/src/tools/release.sh
It must create new bootable image.
But I didn't try do it, yet.

[Erik van der Kouwe]

Hi,

> > - sudo kvm -hda /dev/sda -cdrom minix_R3.1.5-r5612.iso -boot d
>
> I think that /dev/sda is a USB-flash in your computer? is it right?

It is Linux' name for the first harddisk (although it can be /dev/hda
too depending on the way the harddisk is connected), I thought OP
wanted to use USB to install MINIX. This avoids the need for both CD-
ROM and USB.

> > - Add an entry for MINIX in /boot/grub/menu.lst using chainloader +1
> > (or your bootloader's equivalent)
>
> New GRB menu position (not Linux) is pointed like this:
> title ZZZ
>         rootnoverify (hd0,0)
>         chainloader +1
>
> What I must point as bootable USB-flash device in GRUB menu (in
> rootnoverify)?
> Or write full text of your /boot/grub/grub.conf .

This is what I have, to boot from the first partition of he first HD:

title MINIX
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
savedefault
boot

With kind regards,
Erik

[Iggo]

Thank you very much... I'lost a lot of time because the notebook has
no os... so I decide to install xubuntu... which fails.. then I try
knoppix which doesn't have qemu
so I'm compiling it to try the "qemu installation".
Unluckily I'm waiting for problems because in my first attempts (I
installed minix 3.1.5 on a notebook with cdrom and after I swap the hd
with the notebook without cdrom)
minix said there was problems with DMA (as he needs the no_dma_init
(don't remember exactly) set in monitor) but after a restart monitor
wasn't able to find kernel image anymore...

I'll let you know.

Is there someone taking care of minix documentation?

Why source code of drivers is (imho) so pourly commented?
Surely the support of the newsgroup and the chat is great... but one
can't always relay on them..
I don't know the real goals of minix, but I fear that this lack in
documents, could prevent its diffusion and cause it to die...

Do someone else think like me?

Regards, Iggo.

[Iggo]

First attempts were not so good...
Qemu -hda /dev/sda4 (it's an eide hd)...
Booted, installed, rebooted from prompt (boot c0d0) everithing is
fine.
Added :

title MINIX
rootnoverify (hd0,3) '(fourth primary partition)
chainloader +1
savedefault
boot

To /etc/grub/menu.lst and after restart I choose MINIX from the list
and... TADA...

" Not bootable. Hit any key to reboot"

After that Linux boot runs ok, and also the qemu has not problems.

I tried to put the boot flag from gparted on minix partition and to
boot every partition (hd0,1...2...3), no way.

Maybe, Minix doesn't like to be installed on "first emulated
partition" and booted from "forth real partition")?

I'll do some experiments... in the while, if you have any ideas, you
are welcome!

Regards, Iggo.

[Erik van der Kouwe]

Hi,

> Qemu -hda /dev/sda4 (it's an eide hd)...

You want to give the VM access to the whole disk. This way, it cannot
access the partition table and creates a new partition table inside
partition 4, effectively making subpartitions. Inside these
subpartitions, MINIX creates subpartitions of its own. I don't think
that GRUB can cope with this.

You should use:
qemu -hda /dev/sda ...

Be careful not to touch the partition(s) of the running OS from the VM
when installing MINIX.

With kind regards,
Erik

[Lakshmi Narasimhan Vaikuntam]

Hi lggo,

You might want to have a  look at this blog entry. Requirement is that you have a Linux machine.
http://psychoticspoon.blogspot.com/2009/01/booting-multiple-livecds-from-single.html

The idea is that you  create multiple partitions in it. In the first partition, you install a boot loader called gujin. In the second partion, you can dump the minix iso.
Once you reboot the computer, you have to boot from usb and select the iso from the entry. You will see the screenshots in the blog entry. I have set up my 2GB usb stick with 4 partitions using which I try out Linux live cds.

The usb partitions that I had became unrecognisable in Windows, not even FAT16 partitions were recognised. If you face the same issue, you can get it back by undoing the partitioning that you might have done and create one partition for the entire usb stick.

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[Iggo]

To Erik, thanks, I got the point...
Tomorrow I'll try but... What do you think about an Hd image in qemu
and after a dd if=minix.img of=/dev/sda4 and finally the menu.lst as
above?
I've several virtual machines, and could a useful way to test them on
real hardware.

By the way, tomorrow I'll do some research, but does anyone know about
dma issues in the ide driver of minix?

To Lakshmi Narasimhan Vaikuntam, thank you very much, now I need to
sleep, tomorrow I'll look at the link you posted and I'll post my
results.

Best regards, Iggo.

[Erik van der Kouwe]

Hi,

> Tomorrow I'll try but... What do you think about an Hd image in qemu
> and after a dd if=minix.img of=/dev/sda4 and finally the menu.lst as
> above?
> I've several virtual machines, and could a useful way to test them on
> real hardware.

The problem would be the same, minix.img would contain a partition table
in which MINIX has created a partition with subpartitions.

You might be able to do this from within the MINIX VM though by making
both the image and the actual disk available (-hda and -hdb QEMU
switches). I think that you could even just copy the files and create a
new filesystem like this (untested, strictly at own risk! this assumes
that you specified the harddisk with -hdb and want to install to the
fourth partition):

mkfs /dev/c0d1p3 /
installboot -d /dev/c0d1p3 /usr/mdec/bootblock boot

With kind regards,
Erik

[Antoine Leca]

Lakshmi Narasimhan Vaikuntam wrote:
> http://psychoticspoon.blogspot.com/2009/01/booting-multiple-livecds-from-single.html

>
> The usb partitions that I had became unrecognisable in Windows, not even
> FAT16 partitions were recognised.

Sorry for the off-topic comment (I tried to comment directly at your
blog but cannot.)

You might try to create the extended partition of type 85 (recognized
only by Linux) instead of 5. This way, Windows won't try to interpret
your partitions, and since it will see only one FAT partition on the USB
disk, it will be fine and might allow you to mount the FAT partition

(For unclear reasons, Windows refuse to mount USB (removable) disks with
more one partition.)


Antoine

[Iggo]

Another one failure...

Used qemu, with -hda /dev/sda.
Cdrom image boots, I use setup, choose the partition created with
gparted,
Setup talls me it creates 3 subpartitions for root home e usr...
And after that a long serie of
"err -105"
six hex strings 0Xnnnn
"VFS: fs_sendrec:request.c1022: error sending message. FS_e:109726
req_nr: 2592"

Could that be linked to the problem I mentioned before about DMA?

To Erik, about dd of an image, I often use prebuilt qemu image to
create bootable usb keys and they worked,
for this reason I thought it could also work for an HD partition
instead of an USB key.

Thank you, sad Iggo.