QNX 2 in a virtual machine

Let's fast forward to 1988 ... Microsoft just released MS-DOS 4.01, and IBM started selling OS / 2 1.1 (the author of this article on Habr only dreamed about BK-0010 and didn’t even think about such high matters as operating systems) . At that time, QNX 2 was ahead of others for years by a number of characteristics. And even now, more than a quarter of a century later, QNX 2 is still working on industrial equipment, in “clean rooms” , avionics and military equipment. On Habré there was a note about QNX system which worked 15 years without stopping !

Finding a working set of floppy disks with QNX 2 took some time, the search was difficult and overhead. Fortunately, I managed to find what I was looking for. Let's just see how the system is installed on modern hardware under VMware Workstation.

Installation is pretty straightforward. Booting from the Boot diskette ends with a login prompt.

After logging in with qnx, you will need to change the diskette to Boot Utilities and start the installation. The script will guide us through all the installation steps.

First of all, you need to select a disk controller. For compatibility mode, QNX 2 provides operation through int 13 (in real mode).

Then the disk is partitioned. QNX 2 uses partitions with identifiers 7, 8, or 9. At one of the following installation steps, you will be prompted to mark the partition as bootable.

Then you need to choose a kernel. QNX 2 can work in real mode or in protected mode on the AT286.

The installation script copies data from distribution diskettes, configures the bootloader and the active partition. After that, you can configure the video subsystem.

The OS also allows you to select network settings. Unfortunately, QNX then only supported ARCnet controllers . After installation is complete, you are prompted to remove the diskette and reboot the machine. Below is the screen that appears after the first boot from the hard drive.

As a PS, you should not assume that QNX 2 is a dead or irrelevant system. Many OS of those years and even much later are abandoned and completely forgotten. This is not the case with QNX 2. The OS is still used in the world of embedded systems, and the manufacturer QNX still supplies licenses for it.