MINIX 2.0.4 files at minix1.woodhull.com modified: 27 Jun 2006

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

Minix 2 and Minix 3

Please note the link to the Minix 3 website above. Minix 3 is the current version of Minix, described in the current (3rd) edition of Operating Systems Design and Implementation. You probably don't want to install Minix 2, described on this page, unless:

• You are studying Minix using the 2nd edition of the text, possibly a translated edition in a language for which the 3rd edition is not yet available.
• You want to use Minix on an older computer with limited disk space or RAM, or an old slow CPU.
• You want to port Minix to another small system and want to start with the smaller and simpler Minix 2 package.

About Minix 2.0.4

This directory and subdirectories contain MINIX 2.0.4, a small UNIX-like system for IBM PC's and compatibles. The prime objective of Minix is education. Major parts of it can be studied and understood by one person in a limited amount of time. Minix is a redesign, using a modern microkernelish setup. Read the Minix 2 Info Sheet (http://www.disi.unige.it/person/DoderoG/minix/info-20.htm) for more information. Read it first if you have a Web browser.

Minix is open source, see the Minix license-to-use. (Translation in normal language: Redistribution allowed. Keep the Copyright notice. Don't hide the Copyright notice. Don't say we endorse what you do with it. Don't blame us if it blows up in your face.) The Minix license changed in April 2000, and applies retroactively to all previous Minix distributions, even though they still carry the old, more restrictive license within.

You can find the following directories here:

Files with suffix .Z are compressed, files with suffix .tar are archives of files, files with suffix .TAZ are compressed archives made with the standard Unix (and Minix) compress utility. Use one of

uncompress file.Z
tar xvf file.tar
zcat file.TAZ | tar xvfp -

to uncompress or unpack compressed files, archives, and compressed archives.

Minix1.woodhull.com is hosted on a commercial ISP. Only the latest Minix 2 distribution (2.0.4) and tools for installing Minix are posted here. Al Woodhull's Minix-based servers formerly at Hampshire College and the University of Massachusetts have been taken off-line, and the current site has been streamlined by removing older Minix distributions, which are still available elsewhere, for instance on the Minix3.org website.

In addition to Minix 2.0.4 itself, this site provides contributed software packages and other information. Please note that the contributions here are all intended for use with Minix 2. Many items here may also be useful with Minix 3; the documentation for any item posted later than mid-2005 (when test versions of Minix 3 were released) probably tells whether the package also works with Minix 3. It is likely that older packages will work with Minix 3 as well, many simple programs are binary-compatible and most others can be recompiled for Minix 3. Minix 3 is capable of supporting many programs that won't work with Minix 2 because they require lots of memory or gnu libraries or the gcc compiler. So if you are looking for something for Minix 3 check out the Minix3.org software page first for new packages ported to Minix 3. But if you are looking for something to use with Minix 2, or something that has not yet been ported to Minix 3, look in these directories under /pub here:

• contrib/ - Contributed software for Minix 2
• contrib-old/ - Non-current versions of stuff from contrib
• ct_net/ - Net support add-ons from Claudio Tantignone
• demos-2.0/ - Various ready-to-run Minix 2.0 binary packages
• inet/ - Network applications and utilities from Michael Temari
• info/ - Documentation in text form, including RFC files relevant to Minix networking
• refman.1.5/ - Minix 1.5 Reference Manual. Includes documentation for Amiga, MacIntosh, and other versions not yet updated to Minix 2.0
• sun-minix/ - Fixes and patches for Sun Minix

Some newer archives are compressed with gzip, which was not part of the original Minix 2 distribution, but which has since been ported. These files are identified by a .gz or .tgz suffix, and are handled similarly to files made with the standard compress program:

gunzip file.gz
gunzip < file.tgz | tar xvfp -

If you don't have gzip installed, it is available here. There is more information at pub/contrib/gzip-133.txt and the package can be downloaded from pub/contrib/gzip-133.tar.Z.