MINIX 3.0 Released

Today, Andy Tanenbaum has officially announced the release of MINIX 3.0, the third stable version of this rather legendary operating system. The launch of v3 has been accompanied by a new website and a new logo. From the new website: "MINIX 3 is a new open-source operating system designed to be highly reliable and secure. It is based somewhat on previous versions of MINIX, but is fundamentally different in many key ways. MINIX 1 and 2 were intended as teaching tools; MINIX 3 adds the new goal of being usable as a serious system on resource-limited and embedded computers and for applications requiring high reliability." Read on for more information.

In this announcement, posted in comp.os.minix June this year, Andy Tanenbaum announced he and his group were working on an updated version of MINIX, which had its last major release in 1996 with version 2.0. However, in an email conversation, Andy Tanenbaum asked me not to announce this; he did not want the press all over it until the official release, planned for the end of October. Which is now.

Now, why is MINIX considered legendary? Well, because MINIX, in combination with Andy Tanenbaum's books on operating system design, was the blueprint for what later would become the biggest free and open source operating system of the world-- yes, Linux. In Linus Torvalds' autobiography, "Just for Fun", Linus says that Tanenbaum's book "Operating Systems: Design and Implementation" and MINIX were what "launched me to new heights". More on this here.

That book, co-authored with Albert S. Woodhull, explains the inner workings of the MINIX operating system, and as a result the MINIX source code was sold together with the book. "Operating Systems Design and Implementation" has therefor also been revised, in order to reflect MINIX 3.0.

MINIX 3.0 is released under a BSD-like license, and can be freely downloaded, altered, and so forth. In contrary to the Linux kernel (monolithic) and the WinNT/OSX kernels (hybrid), MINIX is a microkernel operating system. This crucial difference between MINIX and Linux led to one of the most famous flamewars in computer history, between Torvalds and Tanenbaum, held in comp.os.minix. You can read an abstract here. As a result of MINIX being a microkernel, that part of the kernel that lives in kernelspace consists of only 3800 lines of code. All device drivers (except the clock) live in userspace.

Over 300 UNIX programs are available for MINIX 3. It is POSIX-compliant, available for x86 (ARM7 and PPC ports under way) and supports up to 4GB of memory. A port of X Windows is also underway.

On the website, it is made clear that MINIX 3.0 is by no means as complete and full-featured as BSD or Linux. It is also explained that besides the traditional education market, MINIX 3.0 is also aimed at the embedded market, and applications where the GPL is too restrictive.

Got to find my DOS disks and Manuals.....

NAME

     dosminix, mkfile - Running MINIX 3 under DOS

SYNOPSIS

     C:\MINIX> boot disk0.mnx     (Typical example)
     C:\MINIX> mkfile size disk

DESCRIPTION

     This text describes running MINIX 3 under DOS.  The DOS ver-
     sion  of the Boot Monitor, described in monitor(8), grabs as
     much memory as DOS is willing to give, loads  MINIX  3  into
     that  memory  from the active partition of a "file as disk",
     and jumps to the MINIX 3 kernel to let MINIX 3 take control.
     As  far  as  DOS  is concerned MINIX 3 is just a part of the
     boot.com program.

     In the example above disk0.mnx is the "file as disk".  It is
     a  file  of many megabytes that is used by MINIX 3 as a disk
     of four  partitions.   These  partitions  will  normally  be
     /dev/dosd1 through /dev/dosd4, with /dev/dosd0 for the whole
     "disk".  The Boot Monitor will set the dosd0  boot  variable
     to  the name of the disk (its first argument), the root file
     system will be the active partition, usually dosd1.   It  is
     better to use the special name bootdev to indicate this dev-
     ice, usually in the setting rootdev=bootdev.

     Once MINIX 3 is running it  will  operate  the  same  as  if
     started from a regular disk partition until it is shut down.
     On shutdown from protected mode it will return to  the  Boot
     Monitor prompt, and with the exit command you leave the Boot
     Monitor and return to DOS.  Shutting  down  from  real  mode
     will reboot the machine, just like when run from a disk par-
     tition.  (This more or less crashes DOS, but DOS is used  to
     such abuse.)

  EMM386

     MINIX 3 can't run in protected mode (286 or 386 mode) if DOS
     is  using a memory manager like EMM386.  You can either tem-
     porarily comment out EMM386  from  CONFIG.SYS,  or  you  can
     press F8 on startup to bypass CONFIG.SYS.  This is only pos-
     sible with the later DOS versions.

  Windows 95
     Press F8 at startup to make the boot menu  visible.   Choose
     "Command  prompt", or "Safe mode command prompt" to run DOS.
     Use the "safe mode" if EMM386 is started in CONFIG.SYS.

     Typing F8 at the right moment isn't easy, so you may want to
     change  the  way Windows boots by editing the MSDOS.SYS file
     found in the root directory of your Windows system.  This is
     alas  not  trivial.  Open a window on your main drive, click
     on "View" and  choose  "Options."   In  the  Options  window
     choose  "View"  and  enable "Show all files".  The MSDOS.SYS
     file should now  be  visible,  among  several  other  hidden
     files.   Right-click  on the MSDOS.SYS icon, choose "Proper-

     ties" and disable "Read-only".  Bring MSDOS.SYS into a  sim-
     ple  text  editor such as Notepad.  In the [Options] segment
     add the following lines (or change existing lines into):

          BootMenu=2
          BootMenuDelay=5

     The first setting makes the Windows boot menu  always  visi-
     ble, and the second line changes the delay before booting to
     5 seconds.  Take care not to change anything else, or things
     will  go  horribly  wrong.   Save MSDOS.SYS and exit.  Don't
     forget to make MSDOS.SYS read-only again, and also hide  all
     the hidden files again, unless you like it this way.

  DOS compatibility box
     The 16-bit version of standard MINIX 3 can be  run  in  real
     mode  in a DOS box.  This is somewhat surprising, because it
     means Windows 95 simulates devices like the keyboard, timer,
     and  interrupt  controller  well enough to fool MINIX 3 into
     thinking that all is well.  Alas it  doesn't  work  as  well
     under  Windows NT.  Keypresses get lost if you type to fast,
     and using the floppy occasionally locks MINIX 3 up.  This is
     a bit disappointing, because it is the only way to run MINIX
     3 under NT.  Under Windows 95 one is better off putting  the
     system  in  DOS at boot and then to run MINIX 3 in protected
     mode.

     One thing that is better under NT is that the  Boot  Monitor
     is  able  to  get  a so-called "Upper Memory Block", thereby
     raising useful memory to about  750K.   Windows  95  however
     hogs  leftover UMB memory in a process named vmm32, whatever
     that may be.  To get some of this memory you can put BOOT /U

     at  the  start of autoexec.bat.  The monitor will grab a 64K
     UMB if it can get it, and keep that memory safe for  use  by
     MINIX 3 when it is later started from Windows.

     The easiest way to start MINIX 3 is to give all MINIX 3 disk
     files  the  suffix MNX.  Doubleclick on the disk you want to
     run to make the "Open With" window appear.  Click on "Other"
     and  browse  to  the  BOOT.COM program.  Set the name of the
     .mnx files to "MINIX 3 "disk" file" in the  description  box
     if  you  want  everything right.  In the future you can just
     click on a MINIX 3 disk file to run it, you  don't  have  to
     start  a  DOS  box  first.   (To make it perfect use "View",
     "Options", "File  Types",  choose  "MINIX  3  "disk"  file",
     "Edit", "Change Icon", "Browse", select MINIX.ICO.)

     When MINIX 3 shuts down it will try to reboot what it thinks
     is  a  PC.  Windows seems to assume that the DOS session has
     exited.  Right-click on the BOOT.COM program,  "Properties",
     "Program",  and  enable  "Close on exit" to make the DOS box
     disappear automatically when MINIX 3 thinks it reboots.  You
     may  also  want  to lock the font to 7x12, or any other font
     that isn't ugly.

     MINIX 3 disk files are opened in a write-exclusive mode.   A
     second MINIX 3 session can only open it read-only, which may
     lead to a "can't open root device" error.

License

Copyright (c) 1987,1997, 2006, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands All rights reserved. Redistribution and use of the MINIX 3 operating system in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
Neither the name of the Vrije Universiteit nor the names of the software authors or contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
Any deviations from these conditions require written permission from the copyright holder in advance

Disclaimer

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS, AUTHORS, AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL PRENTICE HALL OR ANY AUTHORS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Aggregated Software

In addition to MINIX 3 itself, the distribution CD-ROM and this Website contain additional software that is not part of MINIX 3 and is not covered by this license. The licensing condtions for this additional software are stated in the various packages. In particular, some of the additional software falls under the GPL, and you must take care to observe the conditions of the GPL with respect to this software. As clearly stated in Article 2 of the GPL, when GPL and nonGPL software are distributed together on the same medium, this aggregation does not cause the license of either part to apply to the other part.

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