The Minix 2 FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) modified: 7 Sept 2006

For MINIX 3 go to http://www.minix3.org. (Minix 3 released Oct 2005)

These are Minix 2 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). The Hints section is now a separate page.

• Q: Where is the Minix 2 FAQ?
  A: (Short answer: you are looking at it).
  
  
• Q: Where can I get Minix (or Minix software, or information about Minix)?
  
  
• Q: Where can I ask for help with Minix?
  A: (Short answer: go to the comp.os.minix newsgroup or subscribe to the Minix-l mailing list).
  
  
• Q: Somebody must have seen my problem before. Are there archives of the newsgroup and the mailing list?
  
  
• Q: The web page I was looking for is gone!
  A: Click here for suggestions about finding lost websites and pages.
  
  
• Q: Why are replies to really old news posts appearing on comp.os.minix?
  
  
• Q: Where can I get information about using Minix in teaching?
  A: There is a Teaching with Minix HowTo page here which pulls together links that may be relevant to teaching. Also there is a list of links to course web sites that refer to Minix. (These are all the sites known to ASW, please let me know if one should be added).
  
  
• Q: I want to learn Operating System principles by studying the OSDI/2e text, but I want to install the most complete and bug-free version of Minix available. The text describes Minix 2.0.0, will I have difficulty if I install Minix 2.0.4?
  A: The text describes a subset of Minix. A description of the source code of Minix compiled with all possible features would have required a much bigger book. Most of the basic system files described in the text have not changed much with subsequent releases. Line-numbered listings printed in the appendix may not correspond exactly to the text, but the offsets will usually be small. There are a few parts of the source code that have changed significantly. The Minix 2.0.4 Changes document discusses these specifically as they affect study based on OSDI/2e.
  
  
• Q: I used Minix 2.0.0 previously, and when I upgraded to 2.0.4 I was confused by a number of changes in the way Minix works, for instance, the nomenclature of disk devices has changed, and old shell scripts sometimes fail. Is there a document to help with this?
  A: The disk nomenclature change occurred between releases 2.0.2 and 2.0.3, and there were other changes introduced at that time as well, including new tools for accessing MS-DOS or Windows files, and changes in shell behavior that affect shell scripts. ASW wrote a Minix 2.0.3 Upgrade Gotchas article at the time, which has been updated since the release of Minix 2.0.4, and it may be helpful. Another thing you should do: unless you have installed a ready-made Minix 2.0.4 image that has been completely updated with all available fixes and patches (such as the Minix 2.0.4 virtual machine for VMWare Player posted in June 2006), you should check the Minix 2.0.4 fixes directory for updates. The 204fixes.txt file in that directory is updated every time a new item is posted, read it to see if it describes a fix for a problem you have encountered.
  
  

Questions about this website

• Q: Minix 3 is available, why do you continue to support a website primarily oriented toward Minix 2?
  A: Minix 2 is still useful. Although Minix 3 and the Operating Systems Design and Implementation, 3rd edition text are now available, Minix 2 and the OSDI 2nd ed. book are still in widespread use. Many professors have course materials based on Minix 2 that they wish to use, and it may be several years before translations of the new edition of the text to languages other than English are available.
  
  
• Q: Why did you split the Hints/FAQ page into two pieces?
  A: It became too big and unwieldy to use and to edit. You are looking at the new FAQ page, the hints are now on a separate page. Actually I split the old Hints/FAQ page into three parts, the documentation section is also now a separate page. Everything that used to be here is still here, however, and I think I've added links in the right places so you can still find everything.
  
  
• Q: How did you decide what to leave in the FAQ and what to put in the Hints page?
  A: Items in the FAQ are answers to general Questions that really seem to be Frequently Asked. I also added a section for questions about this website. Items on the Hints page are generally technical, and are often answers to questions that nobody actually asked even once, not to mention frequently, but that I thought somebody ought to have asked. In some cases they are answers to questions that I asked. In fact, I (ASW) am possibly the major user of this site -- I run a local server with a copy of this site at home and I use these pages constantly for reference. (And yes, at home it runs on Minix!)
  
  
• Q: Well, this site looks nicer, but now I can't find some information I know I saw on this website before you reorganized it.
  A: This one needs a three part answer:
  1. I retained the old, messy top-level page with all of its links just for this. Click here to see it.
  2. This site is running on a server at a commercial web-hosting service, and initially I didn't have enough disk space for everything that was on my old Minix-based site. So at first I just put a subset of the web pages and none of the download files here. Now I have more space, and I think most of the original content of my old site has been restored. But, I decided not to continue serving some things, for instance old versions of Minix (pre-2.0.4) and some other things that are obtainable elsewhere. A few things may have been lost or accidentally deleted, as well, see the next part of this answer ...
  3. If you need something and can't find it let me know. If I used to have it on line it may be on a retired hard disk in a box in a closet. Also, it's possible that a link on an older page may need updating. Please send e-mail to <asw@woodhull.com>.
     
     
• Q: What happened to ASW's minix1.hampshire.edu site?
  A: It was getting cranky and ASW was too busy to fix it. More info here.
  
  

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