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Author Topic: MINIX  (Read 5149 times)

SymbolicFrank

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MINIX
« on: March 16, 2018, 01:12:57 pm »
Any Intel CPU is actually a VM running on MINIX, which runs on a hidden x86 core.

Is MINIX a free pascal/Lazarus target platform, and how could we flash and run the executable on the CPU die? Then we don't need another OS on top.

marcov

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Re: MINIX
« Reply #1 on: March 16, 2018, 01:32:45 pm »
Any Intel CPU is actually a VM running on MINIX, which runs on a hidden x86 core.

Is MINIX a free pascal/Lazarus target platform, and how could we flash and run the executable on the CPU die? Then we don't need another OS on top.

Respectively: No(which you could have gathered yourself by looking at the directories in e.g. rtl/), and "ask Minix/Intel".

SymbolicFrank

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Re: MINIX
« Reply #2 on: March 16, 2018, 01:39:19 pm »
Would we want it?

Thaddy

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Re: MINIX
« Reply #3 on: March 16, 2018, 01:51:08 pm »
Looks to me like "embedded", which we have... You do not need an OS to run  Freepascal code, Only a cpu.
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Bart

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Re: MINIX
« Reply #4 on: March 16, 2018, 02:07:20 pm »
Well, I would love to have Minix on my portable IBM XT (8088 processor, 640 kB memory, 20 Mb harddisk), which currently runs MSDOS 5.0. With MSDOS I'm unable to connect to the www, as MSDOS does not have built-in network capabilities, so I'm unable to install FreePascal (and FreePascal does not offer to ship the installer on  5.25" floppy disks).
(I suppose Minix does have network capabilities.)

Bart

marcov

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Re: MINIX
« Reply #5 on: March 16, 2018, 02:31:48 pm »

SymbolicFrank

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Re: MINIX
« Reply #6 on: March 16, 2018, 02:51:01 pm »
Well, for anything dedicated, like POS, industrial and servers. Startup time: one second? No need to install and update anything else.

It's like a big micro-controller with lots of peripherals in just about any form factor.

marcov

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Re: MINIX
« Reply #7 on: March 16, 2018, 03:08:40 pm »
Well, for anything dedicated, like POS, industrial and servers. Startup time: one second? No need to install and update anything else.

And no place to store persistent state.
 
But anyway, w.a.a.a.y.p.

SymbolicFrank

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Re: MINIX
« Reply #8 on: March 16, 2018, 03:15:34 pm »
The only major peripheral not directly available is the screen; drives, internet, USB etc. are usable. And you can add drivers, of course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iffTJ1vPCSo

Thaddy

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Re: MINIX
« Reply #9 on: March 16, 2018, 04:48:19 pm »
did you look at Ultibo? No need for Minix (Although I like it a lot for sentimental reasons: Andy Tanenbaum is a very good teaching professor)
« Last Edit: March 16, 2018, 05:33:09 pm by Thaddy »
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marcov

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Re: MINIX
« Reply #10 on: March 16, 2018, 07:20:49 pm »
The only major peripheral not directly available is the screen; drives, internet, USB etc. are usable. And you can add drivers, of course.

Then you can also boot from them, and don't need difficult things like flashing your main processor and all limitations that come with that.

Thaddy

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Re: MINIX
« Reply #11 on: March 16, 2018, 09:30:50 pm »
The only major peripheral not directly available is the screen; drives, internet, USB etc. are usable. And you can add drivers, of course.
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Ñuño_Martínez

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Re: MINIX
« Reply #12 on: March 19, 2018, 06:06:49 pm »
Well, I would love to have Minix on my portable IBM XT (8088 processor, 640 kB memory, 20 Mb harddisk), which currently runs MSDOS 5.0. With MSDOS I'm unable to connect to the www, as MSDOS does not have built-in network capabilities, so I'm unable to install FreePascal (and FreePascal does not offer to ship the installer on  5.25" floppy disks).
(I suppose Minix does have network capabilities.)

Bart
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Thaddy

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Re: MINIX
« Reply #13 on: March 19, 2018, 07:29:35 pm »
FreeDos is NOT a Micro kernel. It isn't even a kernel: re-entrance problems.
Minix is one of the first micro-kernels and therefor rather popular or hated by people who studied computer science.
I explained why it is rather popular with me: the people who wrote it (not just Andrew) teached it to me.
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SymbolicFrank

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Re: MINIX
« Reply #14 on: March 20, 2018, 12:36:44 pm »
Ok, I'll explain.

Unfortunately, I have to use Windows (7, 8.1 and 10) for most things I do. If I have a choice, I always use Linux (Ubuntu, mostly). On my job because almost all commercial apps still run on Windows here in the Netherlands. And at home because I like video games.

Half a year ago, I tried installing Windows 7 on an Intel M.2 SSD. Well, it doesn't work. So I upgraded to Windows 10. And even so, it took me a whole weekend to figure it all out. I had to create the UEFI partitions and content myself. UEFI has no drivers for M.2 or USB3, for example. There are no management tools. It's garbage. And I hate Windows 10!

So, is Linux better? It depends. For my own computer, yes, if I don't want to play video games.

There are a lot of prerequisites and dependencies. And many sysadmins and service providers use a VM, Docker or other containers. The best way to build the application is first to install free pascal and/or Lazarus on the server, and if your local PC runs Windows, to use an X-Windows server, and compile and debug it there.

Many layers of bloatware I don't want. Which have to be updated all the time, and the update of each component can break other stuff.

Even so, why would I want more than 3 active Operating Systems all the time, or 4 when using a VM? It's crazy. I just want one, and a minimalistic one if possible. Where I can configure everything to my own requirements.

With an Intel PC, the lowest-level OS is MINIX. That'll do, thank you very much. I'm going to reformat everything that doesn't require Windows and put Linux on it.

A Raspberry Pie and things like that are cool for hobby work, but rarely useful commercially. They don't fit in the server rack, for example. But I'm going to try to get rid of crap like UEFI and Windows as much as possible.


And last but not least: I'm a geek, I like tinkering. It's a nice puzzle. A kind of hacking I like. And I want to see how it works.

 

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