📄 monitor.8
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MONITOR(8) Minix Programmer's Manual MONITOR(8)
NAME
monitor, edparams - load and start Minix, modify boot parameters
SYNOPSIS
edparams device [command ...]
boot.com virdisk
DESCRIPTION
This text describes the Boot Monitor, a boot time interactive program
designed not only to load and start Minix, its most important task, but
to also provide an easy to use interface to configure Minix and to boot
other operating systems.
The monitor is controlled with an environment that is modeled after the
Bourne shell. This environment is filled at startup with default values
that depend on the machine the monitor is running on and the environment
settings saved into the boot parameters sector (the second sector on a
device). When the environment is loaded, the monitor executes the
function named main, which by default starts a simple menu.
The environment can be manipulated at boot time from the monitor prompt,
but may also be edited using edparams on a given device. Edparams
simulates the monitor as much as it can, echoing commands it can't
execute between brackets. It can also be used in Makefiles and scripts
by giving it commands as arguments.
The MS-DOS version of the monitor, usually named boot.com under DOS,
boots Minix from a "DOS virtual disk". (See below.)
COMMANDS
The monitor is best described by the commands you can type to the '>'
prompt. This is known as the "monitor mode". You can enter this mode by
hitting the Escape key. These are the monitor commands:
name = [device] value
Set environment variable.
Changes the value of name to value. The optional word device marks
name as being subject to device translation. (See the section on
devices.) These (name, value) pairs are passed to the kernel who
uses them to configure itself. These variables are passed by
default:
rootdev
This is the device used as your root device. It is by default
set to ram, which means that the device specified by
ramimagedev will be loaded into the RAM disk and used as root.
If you change this variable then a physical device will be used
as root, and the RAM disk will be uninitialized and have the
size specified by ramsize.
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MONITOR(8) Minix Programmer's Manual MONITOR(8)
ramimagedev
Describes the device to use to initialize the RAM disk if
rootdev is set to ram. It's by default set to bootdev, a
special name for the device the monitor booted from.
ramsize
The size of the RAM disk. If the RAM disk is used for the root
file system then the root file system is stretched out to
ramsize if possible.
processor
Set by default to 86, 186, 286, 386, 486, ... depending on the
hardware you have. You can set it to a smaller value to test
your kernel in a more limited environment.
bus
The type of system bus, either xt, at or mca. This answers
basic questions like: "How many interrupt controllers and how
to initialize?" Or: "Does the keyboard have LEDs?"
memsize
Kilobytes of conventional memory. This is the amount of RAM
within the first megabyte.
emssize
Kilobytes of extended memory.
video
Describes capabilities of the VDU: mda, cga, ega or vga.
chrome
Either color or mono.
console
If set to a hexadecimal value makes the monitor set the BIOS
video mode to this value. This allows the use of video modes
with more rows or colums than the standard 80x25 mode. The
kernel must of course be able to handle a nonstandard mode.
More parameters may follow the mode number. Warning: Not all
monitors can handle all of the modes, some may generate
frequencies that can damage your monitor. Read the manual of
card and monitor for details.
Two variables are only used by the monitor, even though they are
passed to the kernel too:
image
The name of the file containing the kernel image, by default
minix. If it refers to a directory however then the newest
file inside the directory is chosen to be the kernel image.
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MONITOR(8) Minix Programmer's Manual MONITOR(8)
The names inside /minix/ are best set to the Minix version you
are using, which looks good when the monitor prints its name.
Rules for pretty printing image names:
A '/' or '_' is changed to a space.
The first letter is changed from lowercase to uppercase.
An 'r' if followed by a digit changes to " revision ".
label
If set then only processes marked with this label or without a
label are loaded from the image.
Installboot -boot will create functions to select images and labels.
These functions will set label and image and echo what you selected.
The two numbers separated by a colon used as an image name tell the
starting sector and sector count of the image on disk.
name() { ... }
Define function.
Functions may be used to bundle a set of commands, so that you can
easily boot Minix with a different set of parameters then normal.
E.g.
ram() { rootdev=ram; boot }
will allow you to run Minix with the root device on RAM for a
change, if you normally use a real device as root. The only pre-set
function is main with default value menu, which is the default
command executed by the monitor. You can use newlines after the ')'
token, the monitor will then use a '+' prompt and ask for the rest.
name(key) { ... }
Define kernel selecting function.
The menu command uses functions like these to add menu entries to
select a different kernel from a boot disk. Installboot -boot
produces these functions when the images are labeled. The label AT
would give:
AT(a) {label=AT;image=42:626;echo AT kernel selected;menu}
With the menu option:
a Select AT kernel
Typing a will then execute the AT function above.
name(key,text) { ... }
User defined menu option.
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MONITOR(8) Minix Programmer's Manual MONITOR(8)
This variant may be used to make any menu entry you like:
dos(d,Boot MS-DOS) { boot hd1 }
Text may be anything, even parentheses if they match.
name
Call function.
If name is a user defined function then its value is expanded and
executed in place of name. Try a recursive one like 'rec()
{rec;xx}' one day. You can see the monitor run out of space with
nice messages about using chmem(1) to increase it's heap.
boot [-opts]
boot device
Boot Minix or another O.S.
Without an argument, boot will load and execute the Minix image
named by the image variable. With options the variable bootopts is
first set to -opts before Minix is started, and unset when Minix
returns. With a device argument, boot loads the boot sector of
device into memory and jumps to it, starting another operating
system. You would normally use partitions on the first hard disk
for this command (hd[1-4]), using hd0 will also work (choosing the
active partition). One can also boot devices on the second hard
disk (hd[5-9]) if the bootstrap writer did not hardwire the disk
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