Figure 2.4. Giving the name of the MINIX system that will be installed.

Creating a virtual machine in VirtualBox is a very simple, but necessary subtask. After some clicks with using the default settings the new virtual MINIX system will be launched soon.

Figure 2.5. Launching the virtualized MINIX.

At first startup, we must give from where we want to boot. All we have to do is to choose the downloaded image file.

Figure 2.6. Starting the installation.

From this point we have to give some settings that must be applied mutatis mutandis.

Figure 2.7. Loading the system from disk.

We must follow the instructions which appeared on the screen: the installation will start after we have logged in as root and entered setup.

Figure 2.8. We accept defaults, mutatis mutandis.

During the next installation steps we may accept the defaults by pressing Enter, mutatis mutandis. Then (after unmounting the installer disk image in the menu item Devices/CD/DVD Device) we are able to boot the new MINIX system from the hard disk.

Figure 2.9. MINIX starts from hard disk now.

In the next section we are going to take possession of the newly installed MINIX.

The first kernel compilation is an obligatory task for all students. Let's do it together now!

Using the command cd /usr/src we enter the directory that contains the MINIX kernel-tree. Then we open the source file kernel/main.c with vi editor. The usage of vi is not masochism, because the installed MINIX has no other editors now.

Figure 2.10. Opening the source file kernel/main.c with vi.

In this source file, search for the function announce().

/*===========================================================================*
          * announce *
          *===========================================================================*/
          static void announce(void) { /* Display the MINIX startup banner. */
          printf("\nMINIX %s.%s. " #ifdef _VCS_REVISION "(" _VCS_REVISION
          ")\n" #endif "Copyright 2012, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The
          Netherlands\n", OS_RELEASE, OS_VERSION); printf("MINIX is open
          source software, see http://www.minix3.org\n"); printf("nORBi a
          kernelben\n"); printf("%c%s",0x1B,"[47;30m"); }

Figure 2.11. The modification of the function announce() in the kernel/main.c source file.

All we did was to write a message during booting. The Hungarian language message nORBi a kernelben roughly means „the author is in the kernel” that is similar to a „Hello, World!„ message from the kernel. This message will be printed in boot time. In addition, the video mode of the terminal is changed to gray background and black foreground. The description of the used ANSI escape codes, for example, can be found in Wikipedia.

After saving the source (using Shift+zz key combination in vi) the make install command compiles the kernel sources, then the system must be rebooted by the command shutdown -r.

Figure 2.12. The booting of the newly compiled kernel.

In the case of the newly compiled kernel we can see the message from the kernel and the changed video mode as well.

Figure 2.13. The message from the kernel.

Installing the packages

Handling packages and the packages themselves are always changing... At first in Minix3, we could use packman package manager program and for example the emacs editor could be installed from package. At this moment MINIX's package manager is pkgin and emacs cannot be installed from package.

Before listing the available packages we must enter the command pkgin update, after this we are able to choose from packages using command pkgin av|more.

Figure 2.14. The first step of managing packages.

export PS1="\[\033[47;30m\][minix@\u]\w > " clear bash
            exit

 export PS1="\[\033[47;30m\][minix@\u]\w
            > " clear