Running on Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

This page describes the process of installing MINIX 3 on Microsoft Virtual PC 2007.

Installation of Microsoft VirtualPC 2007 on a windows machine.

Before you install Minix 3, you will need to create a new virtual machine configuration. The VM configuration specifies the parameters of your Virtual machine, e.g., how much memory you want the VM to use, how big you want the virtual hard disk to be, etc.

Once the console window has appeared click the “New. . .” button (right side above “settings”).

Click “next” in the wizard that pops-up

Ensure “create a virtual machine” is selected (radio button is marked), click next then name your VM, if you do not specify a location then the default will be used (my doc > my VMs)

Select “Other” from the “Operating System:” dropdown list and click next.

You can leave the RAM at its recommended level, or set VirtualPC to adjust the ram as and when. (I selected 60mb of ram and dont seem to have much trouble). click next once satisfied.

First time use or if you dont have an existing Virtual hard disk you need to select “A New virtual Harddisk”.

Clicking “Next” at the hard disk location screen should be fine.

“Finish” will setup the VM and its harddisk file.

Assuming you have downloaded and decompressed a MINIX 3 ISO image from the download page, you can mount the ISO file:

Once you have your Virtual Machine Started (be quick here) from the Virtual PC console Select “Capture ISO image” option from the “CD” menu.

Then you can follow the normal installation instructions.

When the installation is over, type

shutdown

When you get the d0p0s0> prompt, select “Action” → “close” → “Turn off”.

Now, you have installed Minix 3 on the virtual machine. First thing that needs to be sorted is that, next time you boot, you want to boot from the operating system, and not from the CD image.

1. Select the “Release MINIX3.*.*r*.*.*” option from the “CD” menu.

Great, now you can boot into the newly installed operating system.

You should read Post Installation for some configuration tips.