Installing MINIX 3 using USB

This is an step by step guide to install MINIX using USB on Intel PC.

Disclaimer: this is only a workaround, because there is no actual USB support. Use it as your own risk!

Please make sure your system meets the Installation Requirements first.

First step is to make a bootable USB of your favorite Linux or *BSD flavor, in which you can install Qemu. Persistency USB is recommended. Tough normal USB without persistency can also be used if Qemu can be installed on ram, as don't needed after a succeeded install.

Second step is to boot target machine with live USB, set up network, download and install Qemu. Alternatively, if there are network issues with the live USB, Qemu can be installed by downloading packages or source first. Don't worry, Internet connection wouldn't be needed during MINIX install.

Third step is to download iso from here and save it in your persistent USB or any normal FAT USB. If having network issues, download it before second step. Save it as normal iso file, don't do anymore.

Now it's time to use Qemu. Other virtualization or emulation platforms could also work, but Qemu is an open source emulator that is ported to nearly all OSes. Issue a command like this (explained below). Be patient it may be very slow if not used in conjunction with KVM:

qemu-system-i386 -m 512 -drive file=/dev/wd0c,format=raw,media=disk -cdrom /tmp/minix_R3.3.0.iso -boot d &

qemu-system-i386 -m 512

Fire up a VM using x86 platform and 512MB memory.

-drive file=/dev/wd0c,format=raw,media=disk

Target machine physical hardisk. An OpenBSD live USB is used in this guide. If NetBSD, change wdXc to wdXe. For linux change wdXc to sdX (where X is the hard disk letter, e.g.: sda, without partition number). This is very important, the idea is to point to whole physical hard disk, not to a partition! The installation program in the VM need to write Master Boot Record and Partition Boot Sector in the hard disk to boot the kernel, if can't access to, the system won't boot natively when rebooted.

-cdrom /tmp/minix_R3.3.0-588a35b.iso -boot d

Boot from MINIX iso as CD-ROM.

When the above command is issued, the VM starts, now install normally, by following Installation guide.

Be carefull with partitions if there any other OS in the machine. During installation, select the appropriate target machine's native ethernet card, not what MINIX selects automatically, this only will work within Qemu.

When the installation is finished, shutdown virtual machine.

At this point, if you don't have any bootloader installed, install one. There are some bootloaders that doesn't require a partition, like GAG. Or edit the one you are using if multibooting.

Shutdown live USB and reboot natively from hard disk, and congrats, you have MINIX installed via USB!

Now you should also read Post Installation guide.

Tested and succeeded whit Acer AO751h Netbook/Ultrabook with 3.3.0 (stable) and 3.2.1 (previous stable), everything works but wireless. Tested whit no success yet with snapshot, don't boot.