How can I install Nachos?

Question

I'm trying to install Nachos on 12.10. All methods I've tried failed -- I tried various ways, but unfortunately none of them worked.

I need to run the Nachos system to understand the nature of operating systems. Can any person help me to solve this installation problem?

Answer 1

The README is here: http://homes.cs.washington.edu/~tom/nachos/README.

It should explain how to install everything ;)

The directions might change, but now they include these steps:

To get started, you should:

1. use ftp to fetch the nachos.tar.Z file (turning on binary mode first)
2. uncompress nachos.tar.Z
3. tar -xf nachos.tar
4. lpr paper.ps -- print out the paper describing nachos
5. lpr doc/*.ps -- print out the sample assignments
6. cd code; make print -- print out the nachos source code
7. cd code; edit Makefile.dep -- select host machine type
8. cd code; make all -- compile nachos source code
9. cd c++example; lpr *.ps *.h *.cc -- print out C++ primer

You won't have to use lpr -- you can print out documentation as you normally would under Ubuntu, or use evince or another program to view the .ps files.

The Wikipedia page on Nachos (or, Not Another Completely Heuristic Operating System) may provide more context.

It mentions several successors to Nachos:

As Nachos has not been in active development for a number of years, and possesses a number of recognized flaws [...], successor projects have been initiated. In 2004, Stanford University created Pintos, a Nachos-inspired system written in C and designed to run on actual x86 hardware. In 2000, Dan Hettena at UC Berkeley ported Nachos to Java as Nachos 5.0j, in an effort to make Nachos more portable, more accessible to undergraduates, and less susceptible to subtle bugs [...]. Another Java-based version was created by Professor Peter Druschel at Rice University.