About MinNT

[peter8777555]

About MinNT

There are many Windows PE on the internet.
The Windows PE are more powerful.
Why need the MinNT ?

Windows Driver Kit Version 7.1.0
Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4 (ISO)

If i need NTVDMX64 only,do i need those files ?

Thank you.

[leecher1337]

1. The name may be misleading, this is not a Windows PE component. As stated in the minnt.txt, it's a build system developed by @stephanosio that tries to replace the classic NT build system having the advantage that you don't need to have a fixed drive letter for building and you don't need to prebuild parts of the NT kernel for compilation (no bld-ntos.cmd needed), as it already contains then necessary libs.

2. These kits are needed, because some header, .lib and .dll files are missing in the MinNT repository. The good news is, that you don't need to install anything on your dev-machine, as can be seen by the prepare.cmd, you just need the ISOs where the required files get pulled out and applied to MinNT repository (you can delete them after prepare.cmd runs through successfully). This is required mainly for legal reasons. The EULA for the SDK and DDK states, that you are not allowed to redistribute files from it, therefore I cannot put them into my repository. So you need to go the long route and let the prepare.cmd extract them from the .ISO for you.

Still, at the current state, patches haven't been ported to MinNT, so you still won't be able to build the NTVDM (without patches, it wants to build the MONITOR v86 version which fails on assembling), but I hope that as soon as I port the patches to it, we may be able to get a NTVDMx64 with a newer sourcecode base that is more closely to the NTVDM that is in use by recent Windows versions.

I hope that answers your questions so far.

[peter8777555]

OK,it is very clear.

GOOD NEWS:
you don't need to install anything on your dev-machine,
as can be seen by the prepare.cmd, you just need the ISOs
where the required files get pulled out and applied to MinNT repository

I like this good news.

So,the NTVDMX64 on 16/09/2019 is FINAL version for using OLD sourcecode base ?
Next version,it will be a NEW version for MinNT build for using NEW sourcecode base ?

Thank you for good project.

[leecher1337]

Well, I lied.. You need 7-zip installed to unpack the stuff, but it is a useful utility anyway ;-)
Will add this information to minnt.txt on next commit.

I'm planning to split repository patchsets into minnt and old-src patchset, so nothing will be lost, but haven't decided if I will continue to support old-src tree. If minnt tree works as expected, new patchsets most likely will only be in minnt tree, but contributors can always port them to old-src and send pull-requests, it's trivial to port the patches, in most cases just the offsets within the patch file need to be adjusted accordingly.

[peter8777555]

7-Zip is my sweet heart tool -:D

Support your idea.
If the new patchsets are more better,i support your idea.

[peter8777555]

I have questions.

What is different about the MinNT and OpenNT ?

OpenNT:
The main goal of this project is to produce fully functional Windows NT builds
for x86, MIPS, Alpha and PowerPC architectures for legacy systems, as well as
to add new features implemented in modern NT operating systems to the NT 4 source tree (hence, NT 4.5).

So,does the OpenNT is a FULL OS ?
I can normal install to PC.

MinNT:
Mini file size NT ?
What is the main goal ?

The MinNT/OpenNT base on NT 4 source tree.
The NT4 build for "x86" build in NTVDM,it "orginal" can support 16-bit programs.
I confuse your NTVDMX64 and origal NTVDM.
I know the NTVDMX64 with more enhance features.
(Due to Microsoft drops 16 bit sub system support,so NTVDMX64 come back the 16 bit sub system)

[stephanosio]

Just to clarify what's what:

OpenNT: the name of the project that no longer exists

old-src: the original hack-job to build the leaked NT 4 source code as is with minimal amount of changes; it comes with its own build environment. I referred to it as old/obsolete because the original plan was to get all the components refactored into the MinNT and other component-specific repositories, as the original NT 4 source tree is just a big mess.

MinNT (Minimal NT): initiative to isolate only the essential core components (such as kernel and subsystems) out of the leaked NT 4 source code and refactor them to NT 5.1-esque source tree; the MinNT repository does not come with its own build environment and uses NTOSBE as its build environment.

NTOSBE (NT Operating System Build Environment): the unified build environment for OpenNT Project. The main goal was to provide single unified build environment that can be used to build all OpenNT components (not including then-declared-obsolete old-src, of course).

[peter8777555]

To : stephanosio

Thank you for detail info.

[peter8777555]

minnt.txt

equirements

• MinNT repository with NTVDM with latest commits as of Apr 16, 2017
  (q160765803-minint4-85fac4faadc7)
  opennt.net site contains some hints on where to find it.

==> It seem needs more and more hints and LUCKY to find it.

[peter8777555]

To : stephanosio

I am lucky boy.

Thank you.

[peter8777555]

To: leecher1337

leecher1337 : q160765803-minint4-85fac4faadc7
stephanosio : MinNT-20170416-85fac4faadc77203db8ddc66af280a75c1b717b0.zip

Both of them are the same ??

It likes HASH
85fac4faadc7
85fac4faadc77203db8ddc66af280a75c1b717b0

I try to MD5/SHA1/SHA256/SHA384/SHA512/ HASH,but NG.

Suggestion:
You can show the HASH,the users can confirm the correct version.

Thank you.

[leecher1337]

I can hereby confirm that the version posted above is exactly the version you need :-)

[peter8777555]

I have downloaded ALL files.

By the way,
GRMSDK_EN_DVD.iso
GRMWDK_EN_7600_1.ISO

The filename shows English edtition.
Does it include to build multilingual(None English) MinNT ?

[leecher1337]

They are just needed for .lib files and .dlls required for building, language doesn't matter in this regard.