680 lines
29 KiB
Plaintext
680 lines
29 KiB
Plaintext
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce,comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.admin,news.answers,comp.answers
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From: mdw@sunsite.unc.edu (Matt Welsh)
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Subject: Linux Installation HOWTO
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Keywords: Linux, HOWTO, FAQ, installation
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Summary: How to obtain and install Linux, the free UNIX implementation for
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Intel 80386/80486 based machines.
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Organization: Linux. It's not just for breakfast anymore.
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Followup-To: poster
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Approved: linux-announce@tc.cornell.edu (Matt Welsh)
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Archive-name: linux/howto/installation
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Last-modified: 1 Dec 1993
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The Linux Installation HOWTO
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by Matt Welsh, <mdw@sunsite.unc.edu>
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v1.3, Last Modified 1 Dec 93
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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This document describes how to obtain and install the Linux software.
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It is the first document which a new Linux user should read to get
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started.
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0. Introduction
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Linux is a freely-distributable implementation of UNIX for 80386 and
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80486 machines. It supports a wide range of software, including
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X Windows, Emacs, TCP/IP networking (including SLIP), the works.
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This document assumes that you have heard of and know about Linux,
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and just want to sit down and install it.
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0.1 Other sources of information
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If you have never heard of Linux before, there are several sources
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of basic information about the system. One is the Linux FAQ,
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available from sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/docs. This directory
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contains many other documents about Linux, including the Linux
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INFO-SHEET and META-FAQ, both of which are good introductory documents
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about Linux. Also take a look at the USENET newsgroups comp.os.linux
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and comp.os.linux.announce.
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Another source of online Linux documentation is the Linux HOWTO
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archive, on sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO. The file INDEX
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in that directory explains what Linux HOWTOs are available.
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The Linux Documentation Project is writing a set of manuals and books
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about Linux, all of which are freely distributable on the net.
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The directory /pub/Linux/docs/LDP on sunsite.unc.edu contains the
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current set of LDP manuals.
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The book ``Linux Installation and Getting Started'' is a complete
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guide to getting and installing Linux, as well as how to use the
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system once you've installed it. It contains a complete tutorial
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to using and running the system, and much more information than
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is contained here. This HOWTO is simply a condensation of some of
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the most important information in that book. You can get
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``Linux Installation and Getting Started'' from sunsite.unc.edu in
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/pub/Linux/docs/LDP/install-guide.
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0.2 New versions of this document
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New versions of the Linux Installation HOWTO will be periodically
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posted to comp.os.linux.announce, comp.os.linux, and news.answers.
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They will also be uploaded to various Linux FTP sites, including
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sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO.
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0.3 Feedback
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If you have questions or comments about this document, please feel
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free to mail the author, Matt Welsh, at mdw@sunsite.unc.edu. I welcome
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any suggestions, criticism, cheques, or money orders. If you find
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a mistake with this document, please let me know so I can correct it
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in the next version. Thanks.
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1. Hardware Requirements
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What kind of system is needed to run Linux? Any ISA, EISA or VESA
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Local Bus 80386 or 80486 system will do. Currently, the MicroChannel
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(MCA) architechture (found on IBM PS/2 machines) is not supported.
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Any CPU from the 386SX to the 486DX2 will work. You do not need a
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math coprocessor, although it is nice to have one.
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You need at least 4 megabytes of memory in your machine. Technically,
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Linux will run with only 2 megs, but most installations and software
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require 4. The more memory you have, the happier you'll be.
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Of course, you'll need a hard drive and an AT-standard drive
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controller. All MFM, RLL, and IDE drives and controllers should work.
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Many SCSI drives and adaptors are supported as well; the Linux FAQ
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(see above) contains more inforamation on SCSI.
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Linux can actually run on a single 5.25" HD floppy, but that's only
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useful for installation and maintenance.
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Free space on your hard drive is needed as well. The amount of
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space needed depends on how much software you plan to install. Most
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installations require somewhere in the ballpark of 40 to 80 megs.
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This includes space for the software, swap space (used as virtual
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RAM on your machine), and free space for users, and so on.
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It's conceiveable that you could run a minimal Linux system in 10
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megs or less, and it's conceiveable that you could use well over
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100 megs or more for all of your Linux software. The amount varies
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greatly depending on the amount of software you install and how
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much space you require. More about this later.
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Linux will co-exist with other operating systems, such as MS-DOS,
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Microsoft Windows, or OS/2, on your hard drive. (In fact you can even
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access MS-DOS files and run some MS-DOS programs from Linux.)
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In other words, when partitioning your drive for Linux, MS-DOS
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or OS/2 live on their own partitions, and Linux exists on its
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own. We'll go into more detail later.
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You also need a Hercules, CGA, EGA, VGA, or Super VGA video card and
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monitor. In general, if your video card and monitor work under MS-DOS
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then it should work under Linux. However, if you wish to run
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X Windows, there are other restrictions on the supported video
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hardware. The Linux FAQ contains more information about X Windows.
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In all, the suggested setup for Linux is not much more than is
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required for most MS-DOS or MS Windows systems sold today. If you
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have a 386 or 486 with at least 4 megs of RAM, then you'll be
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happy running Linux. Linux does not require huge amounts of
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diskspace, memory, or processor speed. I run Linux on a crappy
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386/16 MHz (the slowest machine you can get) with 4 megs of RAM,
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and am quite happy.
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2. Getting Linux
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2.1 Linux Distributions
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Before you can install Linux, you need to decide on one of the
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"distributions" of Linux which are available. There is no single,
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standard release of the Linux software---there are many such releases.
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Each release has its own documentation and installation instructions.
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Linux distributions are available both via anonymous FTP and
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via mail order on diskette, tape, and CD-ROM. The Linux Distribution
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HOWTO (sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/Distribution-HOWTO)
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includes a list of many Linux distributions available via FTP and mail
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order.
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The most popular release of Linux is the Softlanding Linux System
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release, or SLS. Most Linux users worldwide use SLS---it is one
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of the most complete and easy-to-install releases available.
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It consists of about 30 disks, divided up into a number of
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disk "series" which contain differnt types of software. For
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example, the c disk series contains compilers and programming
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utilities, and the x disk series contains the X Windows software.
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You pick and choose which disks and packages you want to install.
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This document focuses on getting and installing the SLS release,
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because it is so popular. Information on other releases can be
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found in the Linux Installation and Getting Started manual from
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the LDP. You can also find other releases of Linux on various
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FTP sites, including sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/distributions.
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See the Distribution-HOWTO (menutioned above) for details.
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Why SLS? I have looked over the many other Linux distributions,
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and frankly, SLS is the easiest to document. MCC Interim is a bit
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outdated (0.99.pl10) and doesn't include X. Slackware requires you
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to have a 3.5" floppy drive (not everybody does). Similar problems
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exist with other distributions. I'm no big SLS fan, but, it's a
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very complete and full-featured system without any unusual hardware
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requirements. It's also quite up-to-date.
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If you would rather install a distribution other than SLS (I
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fully recommend the MCC-Interim distribution), check out
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sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/distributions. Many other distributions
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can be found there, and they include their own coherent set of
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instructions.
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The instructions here should be general enough to be applicable to
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releases other than SLS. I hate to be biased towards a single
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release, but I don't have time to keep up with them all!
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2.2 SLS Space Requirements
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The following series of SLS disks are available.
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a1-aN: The minimal base system
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b1-bN: Base system extras, like man pages, emacs etc.
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c1-cN: The compiler(s), gcc/g++/p2c/f2c
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x1-xN: The X-windows distribution (+idraw and doc)
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t1-tN: TeX (document processing)
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s1-sN: Source code for critical system components
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d1-dN: Documentation for various things
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You must get the "a" series diskettes; the rest are optional.
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I suggest at least installing the a, b, and c series, as well
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as the x series if you plan to run X Windows.
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Approximate disk space requirements are:
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Tiny base system: 15 Meg (Only a)
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Main base system: 45 Meg (a, b and c)
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Main base system + X11: 70 Meg (a, b, c and x)
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Full system: 90 Meg (a, b, c, d, s, t and x)
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2.3 Getting the SLS Release from the Internet
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The SLS release of Linux may be found on any number of FTP sites
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worldwide. The Linux META-FAQ lists several of the Linux FTP
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sites; we suggest that you try to find the software on the FTP
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site nearest you, to reduce net traffic. However, two of the major
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Linux FTP sites are sunsite.unc.edu and tsx-11.mit.edu.
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The SLS release may be found on
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sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/SLS
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as well as
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tsx-11.mit.edu:/pub/linux/packages/SLS
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2.3.1 Downloading the files
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You need to download the following files. Make sure that you use
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binary mode when FTPing these files!
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* READ.ME, RELEASE, and SLS.FAQ. These files are text files giving
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up-to-date information on the latest release of SLS.
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* a1.3 or a1.5. These are binary images of the SLS "a1" boot disk.
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If you have a 3.5" boot floppy drive on your system, get a1.3.
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If you have a 5.25" boot drive, get a1.5.
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* rawrite.exe. This is an MS-DOS program used to create the SLS
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a1 disk from the a1.3 or a1.5 image. On tsx-11.mit.edu, this
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program is found in
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/pub/linux/dos_utils/rawrite.exe
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And on sunsite.unc.edu, it is found in
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/pub/Linux/system/Install/rawrite2.exe
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(Note that "rawrite2.exe" is a newer version of rawrite which is
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faster, but doesn't work on all drives. If you have problems with
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it, try the other version.)
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* The files in the directories a2, a3, and a4. These files will
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be copied later to MS-DOS disks; they make up the a2, a3, and a4
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disks in the SLS series. When downloading these files, keep them
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in separate directories; that is, don't mix the a2 files up with
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the a3 files, and so on.
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Make sure that you get the file "diska2", "diska3", and so on on
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each disk. In FTP, if you use "mget *.*", you will probably
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miss files without a "." in the filename. Therefore, use "mget *"
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to get all files.
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* Files in the directories b1, b2, etc., depending on what disk
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series you are installing. For example, if you are installing the
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'b' disk series, get the files in the directories b1 through b7.
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As with a2-a4, above, be sure to keep the files in separate
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directories when you download them.
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2.3.2 Making the disks
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Once you have the files downloaded, you need to create the install
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disks. The a1 disk needs to be the type of disk that you boot from;
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i.e., either a high-density 3.5" disk or a high-density 5.25"
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disk. The disk must be MS-DOS formatted. Also be sure to use a
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brand-new floppy if possible; bad blocks on the floppy will cause
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you much trouble later.
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To create the a1 disk, run the "rawrite" program from MS-DOS. It
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will prompt you for the file to write to the disk (such as a1.3
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or a1.5) and the disk to write it to (such as A: or B:).
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After the disk has been written, it will no longer be recognized
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by MS-DOS; it is complete overlaid with the SLS a1 image.
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To create the rest of the SLS, disks, simply use the MS-DOS
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"copy" command. All of the rest of the SLS install disks must
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be of the same type (either HD 3.5" or HD 5.25"), but they do not
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need to be the same type as the a1 disk. All of the disks must
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be MS-DOS formatted before you begin.
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For example, to create the a2 disk, simply copy the files from
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the directory "a2" to the floppy, with the command
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C:\> copy a2\*.* A:
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Do likewise for every disk that you downloaded.
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NOTE: It is possible to install SLS from the hard drive. If you
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have all of the SLS disk images (a2, a3, a4, and so on) in the
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directory "\install" on the MS-DOS partition on your drive, you
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can install from there (and you don't need to copy all of the files
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to floppies). For example, the a2 files need to be in the directory
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C:\install\a2, the a3 files in C:\install\a3, and so on. However,
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you do still need to make the a1 disk with rawrite, as explained
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above.
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2.4 Getting the SLS release via mail
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SLS is available from the address below for a $3.50/disk US
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($4.50/disk Canadian) copying charge. Add $1.00/disk for 3.5"
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disks, and $15.00 for shipping and handling. Mail payment, either
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cheque or money order, in advance, to Softlanding. Visa and
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Mastercard are now also accepted, Because people keep asking about
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prices, Softlanding has provided this commonly ordered configurations
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price sheet:
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NAME #DISKS SERIES 5 1/4 DISKS 3 1/2 DISKS
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-------------------------------------------------------
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TINY 4 a US $29.00 US $33.00
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BASE 17 a,b,c,d,s US $74.50 US $91.50
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MAIN 24 a,b,c,x US $99.00 US $123.00
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FULL 30 a,b,c,x,d,s,t US $120.00 US $150.00
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When ordering, ensure that you specify the bootdisk type (3.5 or
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5.25). Softlanding is also now offering support subscriptions for
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SLS. Individual support, (one user, one machine) is $100.00 per
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year. Group support, primarily for resellers and corporate sites
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is $1000.00 per year. CDROM ($99) and QIC-150 tape ($150) also
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available.
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Softlanding Software
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910 Lodge Ave.
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Victoria, B.C., Canada
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V8X-3A8
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Quite a few people distribute SLS and other Linux distributions
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via mail for other prices; watch comp.os.linux.announce for
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details.
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3. Installing the Software
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3.1 Repartitioning
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Before you can install the Linux software, you need to repartition
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your drive to make space for Linux. On most systems, your drive
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is already dedicated to partitions for MS-DOS, OS/2, and so on.
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You need to resize these partitions in order to make space for
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Linux.
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The problem with resizing partitions is that there is no way to
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do it (easily) without deleting the data on those partitions.
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Therefore, you will need to make a full backup of your system before
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repartitioning. In order to resize a partition, we simply delete
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the partition(s), and re-create them with smaller sizes.
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NOTE: There is a non-destructive disk repartitioner available for
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MS-DOS, called FIPS. Look on sunsite.unc.edu in the directory
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/pub/Linux/system/Install. With FIPS, a disk optimizer, and a little
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bit of luck, you should be able to resize MS-DOS partitions without
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destroying the data on them.
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If you're not using FIPS, however, the classic way to modify
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partitions is with the program "fdisk". For example, let's say
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that you have an 80 meg hard drive, dedicated to MS-DOS. You'd
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like to split it in half---40 megs for MS-DOS and 40 megs for
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Linux. In order to do this, you need to run "fdisk" under MS-DOS,
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delete the 80 meg MS-DOS partition, and re-create a 40 meg
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MS-DOS partition in its place. You can then format the new partition
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and reinstall your MS-DOS software from backups.
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Use of MS-DOS "fdisk" should be self-explanatory. The mechanism
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used to repartition for OS/2 and other operating systems is similar.
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3.2 Creating partitions for Linux
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After repartitioning your drive, you need to create partitions
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for Linux. Linux will require at least two partitions on your
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drive: one for the software itself, and one for swap space.
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(You can create multiple filesystems for Linux, each one on its own
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partition. If you have previous UNIX experience, you will know how
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to creatively partition your drive. However, most users simply use
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one large root filesystem for all of the Linux software.)
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In order to create these partitions, first boot the SLS a1 disk.
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At the "LILO" prompt, press <ctrl> or <alt> to get a boot menu.
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Follow the instructions there. In mose cases, all you need to
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do is press <return>, unless you want to boot without the ramdisk.
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After the system boots, login as "root" (no password). If you login
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as "install" instead, you will be given an installation menu,
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which will basically let you execute the steps below. However, for
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this document, we will show you how to run the same commands by
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hand.
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3.2.1 Using fdisk
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After logging in as root, run the command
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fdisk <drive>
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where <drive> is the name of the drive that you wish to create
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Linux partitions on. Hard drive device names are:
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/dev/hda First IDE drive
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/dev/hdb Second IDE drive
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/dev/sda First SCSI drive
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/dev/sdb Second SCSI drive
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...and so on. For example, to create Linux partitions on the
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first SCSI drive in your system, use the command
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fdisk /dev/sda
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If you use "fdisk" without an argument, it will assume /dev/hda.
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Use of fdisk is simple. The command "p" displays your current
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partition table. "n" creates a new partition, and "d" deletes
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a partition.
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To Linux, partitions are given a name based on the drive which
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they belong to. For example, the first partition on /dev/hda is
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/dev/hda1, the second is /dev/hda2, and so on.
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NOTE: You should not create or delete partitions for operating
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systems other than Linux with Linux fdisk. That is, don't create
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or delete MS-DOS partitions with this version of fdisk; use MS-DOS's
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version of "fdisk" to do that. If you try to create MS-DOS partitions
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with Linux fdisk, chances are MS-DOS will not boot correctly.
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Here's an example of using fdisk. Here, we have a single
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MS-DOS partition using 61693 blocks on the drive, and the
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rest of the drive is free for Linux. We will create two Linux
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partitions; one for swap, and one for the root filesystem.
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First, we use the p command to display the current partition table.
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As you can see, /dev/hda1 (the first partition on /dev/hda) is
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a DOS partition of 61693 blocks. (1 block == 1024 bytes).
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Command (m for help): p
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Disk /dev/hda: 16 heads, 38 sectors, 683 cylinders
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Units = cylinders of 608 * 512 bytes
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Device Boot Begin Start End Blocks Id System
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/dev/hda1 * 1 1 203 61693 6 DOS 16-bit >=32M
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Command (m for help):
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Next, we use the n command to create a new partition. The root
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partition will be 80 megs in size.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Command (m for help): n
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Command action
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e extended
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p primary partition (1-4)
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p
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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A primary partition is simply one of the 4 partitions on your drive.
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An extended partition allows you to create multiple logical partitions
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within it; this allows you to go over the four-partition limit on
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the drive. In most cases, you should only use primary partitions
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unless you need more than 4 partitions on a drive.
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|
|
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Partition number (1-4): 2
|
|
First cylinder (204-683): 204
|
|
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (204-683): +80M
|
|
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
The first cylinder should be the cylinder AFTER where the last
|
|
partition left off. In this case, /dev/hda1 ended on cylinder 203,
|
|
so we start the new partition at cylinder 204.
|
|
|
|
As you can see, if we use the notation "+80M", it specifies a
|
|
partition of 80 megs in size. Likewise, the notation "+80K" would
|
|
specify an 80 kilobyte partition, and "+80" would specify just an
|
|
80 byte partition (not really possible since partitions must be
|
|
at least 1 block in size).
|
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Warning: Linux cannot currently use 33090 sectors of this partition
|
|
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
If you see this warning, you can ignore it. It is left over from an
|
|
old restriction that Linux filesystems could only be 64 megs in
|
|
size. However, with newer filesystem types, that is no longer the
|
|
case... partitions can now be up to 4 terabytes in size.
|
|
|
|
Next, we create our 10 meg swap partition, /dev/hda3.
|
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Command (m for help): n
|
|
Command action
|
|
e extended
|
|
p primary partition (1-4)
|
|
p
|
|
|
|
Partition number (1-4): 3
|
|
First cylinder (474-683): 474
|
|
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (474-683): +10M
|
|
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Again, we display the contents of the partition table. Be
|
|
sure to write down the information here, especially the size of
|
|
each partition in blocks. You need this information later.
|
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Command (m for help): p
|
|
Disk /dev/hda: 16 heads, 38 sectors, 683 cylinders
|
|
Units = cylinders of 608 * 512 bytes
|
|
|
|
Device Boot Begin Start End Blocks Id System
|
|
/dev/hda1 * 1 1 203 61693 6 DOS 16-bit >=32M
|
|
/dev/hda2 204 204 473 82080 81 Linux/MINIX
|
|
/dev/hda3 474 474 507 10336 81 Linux/MINIX
|
|
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Note that the Linux swap partition (here, /dev/hda3) has type
|
|
"Linux/MINIX". We need to change the type of the swap partition to
|
|
"Linux swap" so that the installation program will recognize it.
|
|
In order to do this, use the fdisk "t" command:
|
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Command (m for help): t
|
|
Partition number (1-4): 3
|
|
Hex code (type L to list codes): 82
|
|
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
If you use "L" to list the type codes, you'll find that 82 is the
|
|
code corresponding to Linux swap.
|
|
|
|
To quit fdisk and save the changes to the partition table, use the
|
|
"w" command. To quit fdisk WITHOUT saving changes, use the "q"
|
|
command.
|
|
|
|
3.2.2 Rebooting the system
|
|
After running fdisk and creating Linux partitions, reboot the system
|
|
(again with the SLS a1 disk), and login as root. It is important to
|
|
reboot after modifying the partition table, because the kernel only
|
|
detects partition sizes at boot time.
|
|
|
|
|
|
3.3 Creating filesystems and swap space
|
|
After rebooting the system, you need to prepare the filesystems and
|
|
swap space on the new partitions.
|
|
|
|
3.3.1 Using mkswap
|
|
First, the swap space. For this we use the command
|
|
mkswap -c <partition> <size>
|
|
where <partition> is the partition name, such as /dev/hda3, and
|
|
<size> is the size of the partition in blocks.
|
|
|
|
For example, if you created a swap partition on /dev/hda3 of
|
|
size 10336 blocks, use the command
|
|
mkswap -c /dev/hda3 10336
|
|
The -c option tells mkswap to check for bad blocks on the
|
|
partition when preparing the swap space. If you see any "read_intr"
|
|
error messages during the mkswap operation, this means that
|
|
bad blocks were found (and flagged). So you can ignore these errors.
|
|
|
|
To enable swapping on the new device, use the command
|
|
swapon <partition>
|
|
For example, for our swap space on /dev/hda3, we use
|
|
swapon /dev/hda3
|
|
|
|
We should now be swapping with 10 megs of extra virtual RAM on
|
|
/dev/hda3.
|
|
|
|
3.3.2 Using mke2fs
|
|
Next, we need to prepare the root filesystem, using the command
|
|
mke2fs. This creates an "ext2fs" type filesystem, which is just one
|
|
of the several types of filesystems available. ext2fs is the most
|
|
flexible and popular filesystem type to use; it allows filesystems
|
|
of up to 4 terabytes in size and 256-character filenames.
|
|
|
|
Several other filesystem types are still in use, such as the Minix
|
|
filesystem and the extended filesystem. However, because of the
|
|
limitations on these filesystem types, ext2fs is the most popular.
|
|
|
|
The syntax of the mke2fs command is
|
|
mke2fs -c <partition> <size>
|
|
For example, if we are creating a filesystem on /dev/hda2 with a
|
|
size of 82080 blocks, we use the command
|
|
mke2fs -c /dev/hda2 82080
|
|
|
|
Again, the -c switch tells mke2fs to check for bad blocks on the
|
|
partition.
|
|
|
|
If you are using more than one Linux filesystem, you will need to
|
|
use mke2fs for each one.
|
|
|
|
|
|
3.4 Installing the software
|
|
Installing the SLS release is simply a matter of using the
|
|
doinstall command. Before you begin, make sure that you have
|
|
a blank, high-density MS-DOS formatted diskette on hand. This
|
|
diskette will be used to create an SLS boot disk after the
|
|
installation procedure is complete; therefore, the diskette
|
|
must be of the type (either 3.5" or 5.25") that you will boot
|
|
from on your system (like the a1 disk).
|
|
|
|
To install the software, use the command
|
|
doinstall <partition>
|
|
where <partition> is the name of the Linux root partition.
|
|
For example, if your root partition is /dev/hda2, use the command
|
|
doinstall /dev/hda2
|
|
|
|
doinstall will prompt you for the install media (such as floppy,
|
|
or hard drive), and other information (such as what packages you
|
|
wish to install). The rest should be self-explanatory.
|
|
|
|
If you are using more than one filesystem for Linux, you need
|
|
to specify extra parameters to doinstall. For example, if your
|
|
root filesystem is on /dev/hda2, and your /usr filesystem is
|
|
on /dev/hda4, use the command
|
|
doinstall /dev/hda2 /dev/hda4 /usr
|
|
|
|
3.5 After installation
|
|
During installation, you will be given the option of either
|
|
creating a "boot floppy" (which you can use to boot Linux),
|
|
or to install LILO on your hard drive. LILO (which stands for
|
|
``Linux Loader'') is a boot loader program capable of booting
|
|
Linux and other operating systems on your hard drive. You select
|
|
the default operating system when installing LILO and can override
|
|
the default at boot time. More on this later.
|
|
|
|
If you created a boot floppy, you should be able to boot from it
|
|
and you will be running your very own Linux system. Login as
|
|
"root", and off you go.
|
|
|
|
If you installed LILO, you should have been prompted with a
|
|
number of options to define the operating systems that you wish
|
|
to boot from LILO. With LILO installed on your hard drive, you
|
|
should be able to boot from the hard drive and the default
|
|
operating system will start up. To override the default OS at
|
|
boot time, hold down <shift> or <ctrl> (or press <caps lock>)
|
|
while the system is booting; you will be presented with a boot
|
|
menu. At this menu, type "tab" to see a list of choices; just
|
|
type the name of the operating system that you wish to boot.
|
|
|
|
If you have a strange configuration (i.e., you're running OS/2's
|
|
Boot Manager, or something along those lines) then you may not
|
|
wish to install LILO at first (this automated installation procedure
|
|
has to make certain assumptions about your system, which may not be
|
|
correct if you have something like OS/2's Boot Manager). Instead,
|
|
you can modify the LILO configuration scripts yourself to suit
|
|
your needs; the main file is /etc/lilo/config. The LILO FAQ on
|
|
sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/docs/faqs should explain some of the
|
|
rudiments of editing this file; the lilo(8) man pages should also
|
|
help. LILO is not very difficult to configure.
|
|
|
|
After booting your system and logging in as root, one of the
|
|
first things you should do is create an account for yourself.
|
|
The "adduser" or "useradd" commands may be used for this
|
|
purpose, and should be fairly self-explanatory. After that, the
|
|
system is all yours... have fun!
|
|
|
|
|
|
4. Miscellaneous
|
|
I don't like to be biased towards the SLS release, however, in
|
|
order to document multiple releases of Linux, this file would be
|
|
much, much longer. It is simpler and more coherent to cover the
|
|
specific instructions for a single release of Linux. The book
|
|
``Linux Installation and Getting Started'' will in the future
|
|
cover releases other than SLS. However, because the installation
|
|
procedures are so varied, covering them all would be very confusing
|
|
both to myself and to the reader.
|
|
|
|
However, the basic concepts in this document still hold, no matter
|
|
what release of Linux you choose. For example, all releases require
|
|
you to run fdisk, mkswap, and mke2fs. The only real difference is
|
|
the method used to create the installation disks (if needed) and
|
|
the analogue to the "doinstall" command. If you choose to use a
|
|
release of Linux other than SLS, the READMEs and installation
|
|
instructions that come with that release should be easy to understand
|
|
in the context of the material presented here.
|
|
|
|
Some distributions of Linux have an automated installation program
|
|
which takes care of most of these details for you!
|
|
|
|
If you would like a more complete discussion of Linux installation
|
|
(instead of the "quick" examples given here), read the book
|
|
``Linux Installation and Getting Started", from sunsite.unc.edu
|
|
in /pub/Linux/docs/LDP. This document is intended only to get
|
|
new users started with Linux without a great deal of background.
|
|
The book, on the other hand, contains a complete discussion of
|
|
Linux, from start to finish, including tutorials on how to use the
|
|
system once you have installed it.
|
|
|
|
Please mail me (mdw@sunsite.unc.edu) if any part of this document
|
|
is confusing or incorrect. I am open to any suggestions and comments.
|
|
I also like to help answer questions about Linux installation, if you
|
|
have any.
|
|
|
|
Best of luck with your new Linux system!
|
|
|
|
Cheers,
|
|
mdw
|
|
|