Discussion:
[minix3] Minix 3.1.0 on Virtualbox 4.3.20 - networking, floppy, and scrolling
Will Senn
2014-12-22 01:29:59 UTC
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I have 3 questions, one for networking, one for transferring files without
a network, and one about scrolling in the console. First, a little
background.

As mentioned in a previous post, I am working through the 3rd Edition of
the Tanenbaum book in an attempt to learn about OS development. In order to
minimize differences between the version of Minix I'm using for the
practical side of things and the theory in the book, I have chosen to use
the book version of the OS, 3.1.0. In order to run the OS, I am dependent
on a virtualization platform as I don't have any spare PC's laying around.
All of my computers are either Intel Macs or Raspberry Pi's and I don't
think Minix is working on Pi's yet. I tried QEMU and Bochs and wasn't
satisfied with either. Virtualbox is generally my goto platform and it
seems to work ok with Minix. I was able to get Minix 3.2.1 working on it
with networking and X windows - yay! I was able to get Minix 3.3.0 working
on it with networking, X windows isn't available for 3.3.0 - semi-yay. But,
with Minix 3.1.0, I wasn't able to get networking or X windows working on
it. I'm most concerned with networking. I tried the lance driver and there
were no reported errors, however ping yahoo.com or any ip address other
than localhost simply doesn't repond.

1. My networking question is, can someone point me to some troubleshooting
steps for the network or if there's a relevant thread that I missed that
explains how to use/troubleshoot networking on 3.1.0 in Virtualbox 4.3.x, I
would appreciate the steer in that direction?

In the absence of a working network (and ssh or somesuch), the only
workable solution I found for transferring files between Minix and the
host, was to create a floppy image using dd on my Mac, mounting it in
Virtualbox, and using mtools to format, copy, and confirm the copy. After
the operation, it appears necessary to shutdown Minix in order to mount the
floppy image in OS X.

2. My floppy question is, does this seem like a reasonable approach, or is
there some more elegant solution out there already?

It appears that the console in Minix doesn't support scrolling via the
arrow keys and I suspect it doesn't support any other key combination
either. I searched for this in the list and elsewhere and most of the time,
folks were directed toward using the more command. While this works, it's
not ideal.

3. Is there no way to scroll back in the console?
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Antoine LECA
2014-12-22 10:06:50 UTC
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Post by Will Senn
2. My floppy question is, does this seem like a reasonable approach, or is
there some more elegant solution out there already?
I am not sure, but I feel that un-mounting the floppy from MINIX then
un-mounting it from VirtualBox should make its content available
directly from the (MacOS) host, without need to shut down MINIX.
Post by Will Senn
3. Is there no way to scroll back in the console?
No.

Antoine
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Robby Tanner
2015-03-27 20:30:00 UTC
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Post by Will Senn
2. My floppy question is, does this seem like a reasonable approach, or is
there some more elegant solution out there already?
How about using shared folders....? I haven't tried it.
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Robby Tanner
2015-03-31 20:53:45 UTC
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Post by Will Senn
1. My networking question is, can someone point me to some troubleshooting
steps for the network or if there's a relevant thread that I missed that
explains how to use/troubleshoot networking on 3.1.0 in Virtualbox 4.3.x, I
would appreciate the steer in that direction?
Hi Will,

Thought I'd update you on my progress. Maybe we can get this sorted out. I
am using VirtualBox (VB, for the remainder of this post) 4.3.18 r96516. VB
networking was configured to use NAT and I changed the driver from
"PCnet-FAST III (Am79C973) (default) to "PCnet-FAST II (Am79C970A)". When I
installed Minix 3.3.0 from the downloaded ISO and selected the "Lance"
driver (which I believe is option 9), it could see the network. However,
3.1.0 (option 6 for the Lance NIC driver) it doesn't connect to the
network. Ideally, I want to get networking going in the environment that
ships with the book. Somewhere between 3.1.0 and 3.3.0 a change was made
that allowed the Lance driver to function inside VB. Perhaps there is a
backport available.....

Cheers,
Tanner
Post by Will Senn
In the absence of a working network (and ssh or somesuch), the only
workable solution I found for transferring files between Minix and the
host, was to create a floppy image using dd on my Mac, mounting it in
Virtualbox, and using mtools to format, copy, and confirm the copy. After
the operation, it appears necessary to shutdown Minix in order to mount the
floppy image in OS X.
2. My floppy question is, does this seem like a reasonable approach, or is
there some more elegant solution out there already?
It appears that the console in Minix doesn't support scrolling via the
arrow keys and I suspect it doesn't support any other key combination
either. I searched for this in the list and elsewhere and most of the time,
folks were directed toward using the more command. While this works, it's
not ideal.
3. Is there no way to scroll back in the console?
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