Minix 1.1 with QEMU

[Will Senn]

    Long time user, first time
      poster :)
      
      So, I'd like to be able to run Minix 1.1 on my Macbook Pro
      mid-2012 w/16gb RAM (MacOS 10.14.6 Mojave). Qemu will run pretty
      ancient OS'es such as DOS 2.0, which I use all of the time.
      However, I'm having some difficulty getting Minix to run. I am
      able to boot the first floppy, but when I change to the second
      floppy, the system freezes and I can't tell what is going on.
      Here's what I did to get this far:
      
      brew install qemu
      
      qemu-system-i386 --version
      QEMU emulator version 5.1.0
      
      mkdir ~/workspaces/retro-workspace/minix-1.1
      cd ~/workspaces/retro-workspace/minix-1.1
      aria2c
      http://download.minix3.org/previous-versions/bzipped/Intel-1.1.tar.bz2
      tar xvjf Intel-1.1.tar.bz2 
      cp Intel-1.1/floppy_disk1 ./Disk01.img
      cp Intel-1.1/floppy_disk2 ./Disk02.img
      cp Intel-1.1/floppy_disk3 ./Disk03.img
      cp Intel-1.1/floppy_disk4 ./Disk04.img
      
      
      qemu-system-i386 -drive
file=Disk01.img,format=raw,if=floppy,media=disk,readonly=off,index=0,snapshot=on
      \
        -boot a \
        -no-fd-bootchk \
        -monitor telnet::2222,server,nowait -serial mon:stdio
      
      Qemu boots to the Minix 1.1 Boot screen and says to swap to floppy
      2, so in the monitor:
      change floppy0 Disk02.img raw
      
      I press l (el) and it scans the disk, lists the files on the disk
      and reports no errors, but when I press =, it does a carriage
      return and just sits there. I'm pretty sure this is the Minix
      going bye bye and not necessarily QEMU, but I'm wondering if there
      is a way to see what QEMU thinks it is doing or if it is what's
      hung? Usually, at this point, Minix reads the disk contents into a
      Ramdisk and boots Minix.
      
      Food for thought... Minix expects to run on an IBM PC (5150), IBM
      PC XT (5160), or compatible, and therefore the I/O is written for
      whatever floppy controller was extant at that time (I'm guessing
      here), so if that's different than modern day floppies, I suppose
      this could cause the problem I'm experiencing here. Is there a way
      to see the floppy controller activity in QEMU? Similarly, I gather
      it expects a CGA compatible monitor (EGA/VGA, etc should be fine).
      
      I appreciate your help on this. 
      
      Minix 1.1 works 'ok' in 86Box and other IBM PC emulations, so I
      know the floppies are fine.
      
      Thanks!
      
      Will
      
      
      
    
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