From zero to login in 15 minutes

This guide boots the Ixolo [VERSION] ISO in a QEMU virtual machine. You need a Linux host with about 2 GB of free RAM and a few minutes. Nothing is installed on your disk: the ISO runs live.

1. Install QEMU

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt install qemu-system-x86 ovmf
# Fedora
sudo dnf install qemu-system-x86 edk2-ovmf
# openSUSE
sudo zypper install qemu-x86 qemu-ovmf-x86_64

KVM makes the guest run at close to native speed. Check that you can use it:

ls -l /dev/kvm     # must exist and be readable by your user

2. Download the ISO

Get ixolo-[VERSION]-amd64.iso from the download page and check it:

sha256sum ixolo-[VERSION]-amd64.iso
# expected: [SHA256]

3. Boot it

qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -cpu host -m 2G -smp 2 \
  -cdrom ixolo-[VERSION]-amd64.iso

The boot menu waits 10 seconds and then starts the first entry, Regular MINIX 3. The tree still uses the upstream name in its menus and messages.

Boot with UEFI instead of BIOS

The ISO is hybrid: the same image boots on UEFI firmware, through GRUB. Point QEMU at an OVMF firmware image. The path depends on your distribution:

Distribution	OVMF image
Debian / Ubuntu	`/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE.fd` (`OVMF_CODE_4M.fd` on newer releases)
Fedora	`/usr/share/edk2/ovmf/OVMF_CODE.fd`
openSUSE	`/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64.bin`

qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -cpu host -m 2G -smp 2 \
  -drive if=pflash,format=raw,readonly=on,file=/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64.bin \
  -cdrom ixolo-[VERSION]-amd64.iso

Under UEFI the console is drawn on the firmware’s framebuffer instead of VGA text mode.

No graphics: serial console

To use the guest from your terminal, add -nographic. A login runs on the first serial port (tty00) as well as on the screen, so a login: prompt appears in your terminal once the system is up. Under BIOS you will not see the boot menu or the kernel messages there; to get them on the serial port too, pick the serial console entry in the menu (it adds console=tty00 to the kernel command line). Press Ctrl-a x to quit QEMU.

4. Log in

At the login: prompt type root and press Enter. The live system has no root password.

login: root
# uname -a

uname reports Minix 3.4.0: the version string has not been changed yet.

5. See it heal

Every driver is an ordinary process. QEMU’s default network card is an Intel 82540EM, so the system started the e1000 driver for it. Kill it and watch the Reincarnation Server (RS) bring it back:

ps -ax | grep e1000      # note the PID
kill -9 <pid>
ps -ax | grep e1000      # a new PID: RS restarted it

The network interface (em0) survives the restart: the TCP/IP server reattaches to the new driver process and keeps its configuration. The break-a-driver lab explains what happened, step by step.

About the desktop

The experimental LXQt desktop is built separately from the rest of the system, and only images built with MKDESKTOP=yes carry it: the development snapshots from CI do not. On an image that has it, boot with UEFI (see above), log in and run startlxqt. See The desktop for its state and how to build it.