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| Newer page: | version 4 | Last edited on Sunday, November 28, 2004 12:52:40 am | by AristotlePagaltzis | |
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@@ -1,695 +1 @@
-See also LinuxInstallationNotes
-----
-
-
-Linux Install From PPA-Zip drive mini-HOWTO
-
-
-
-----
-
-!!!Linux Install From PPA-Zip drive mini-HOWTO
-
-!!by Kevin Snively,
-k.snively@seaslug.orgv01.04, 29 April 1998
-
-
-----
-''This document describes how to install Linux from a parallel port zip drive using the Slackware Linux distribution.''
-----
-
-
-
-
-!!1. Prelude
-
-
-*1.1 Intro:
-
-*1.2 Background:
-
-*1.3 Advantages:
-
-*1.4 Material:
-
-*1.5 Conventions:
-
-*1.6 Other reading:
-
-
-
-
-
-!!2. Slackware
-
-
-*2.1 Making the first zip disk.
-
-*2.2 Making the second zip disk.
-
-*2.3 Making the boot floppy.
-
-
-
-
-
-!!3. The install:
-
-
-*3.1 Round 1.
-
-*3.2 Round 2.
-
-*3.3 Library Trouble
-
-
-
-
-
-!!4. Thank you
-----
-
-!!1. Prelude
-
-!!1.1 Intro:
-
-
-
-The following method has been written for use with the Slackware
-Linux distribution. It assumes some familiarity with it's
-installation. The installer will also need access to a working Linux
-system of any distribution. It also assumes the destination system
-has 4 to 6 megs ram. More powerful systems can use this method also
-but you will probably be able to find a faster easier way. It is not
-intended to be used by first time installers or by people new to Linux.
-Only issues specific to the use of a zip drive as source media will be
-covered here.
-
-
-
-
-!!1.2 Background:
-
-
-
-
-I have an OLD 486/20 slc with a 120 meg hd, 4 megs ram and a 2400
-baud modem that I wanted to run Linux on. It has no cdrom drive or
-pcmcia connectivity, and will never see a network card (parallel port
-style). There is nothing left that can be upgraded on this unit.
-
-
-Linux has been at the cutting edge from the start but also breathes
-new life into some older 386 and 486 hardware. The documentation
-says "386 with 2 megs ram no math coprocessor" but try to find a
-distribution that will do it today. Slackware can be placed on a 4
-meg machine with some work and a prayer. The following system greatly
-reduces the work. Prayer always helps, even with the best of systems.
-
-
-I've used the following system with 3 other laptops, and one 386
-desktop machine. The lamest being a 386 with 4 megs ram & 60 meg HD
-no math coprocessor. While this system works well I'd like to be able
-to do similar tricks with Debian, !RedHat, Caldera Lite, and some of
-the other popular distributions offering more choice to Linux users I
-help this way.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-!!1.3 Advantages:
-
-
-
-Installing from cdrom or Ethernet are the methods of choice when
-available. In cases where floppy disk install appears to be the only
-choice a parallel port zip drive offers numerous advantages. These
-include better speed than a floppy disk, and fewer disk changes. In
-addition on systems with minimal ram "6 megs. or less" the ability to
-install a swap file on the root disk uncomplicates the install greatly
-by freeing you from the need to creat one on the hard disk before
-running setup. When installing Slackware the swap file allows
-installers to choose the __color.gz__ root disk or __text.gz__. The __color.gz__ is not recommended for floppy based
-installs on machines with such limited resources. With a zip disk you
-may also produce an emergency boot disk during the initial install, by
-freeing the first floppy drive. Something not possible during a normal
-floppy based install on systems of this type.
-
-
-
-
-!!1.4 Material:
-
-
-
-
-This method has been used with Slackware Ver's. 3.1, through 3.4
-A full Slackware install requires 2 zip disk's not counting source
-packages if they are desired. You will need one parallel port zip
-drive & cables, and a 1.44 meg boot disk. Pencil and paper are
-optional for making a few notes during install.
-
-
-At least two systems are required to use this install method. The
-first (host) system is used to prepare the installation media and
-must contain a working Linux system. The second will be the target
-system. Once the media has been prepared it can be used to install to
-as many target systems as you like. I work from cdrom but you can
-down load your distribution from the Internet if you have a fast
-enough connection. For me this is not practical.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-!!1.5 Conventions:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-let (floppy) represent the path to and directory you
-mount your 1.44 meg floppy disk on.
-let (zip) represent the path to and directory you
-mount your zip disk on.
-let (cdrom) represent the path to and directory you
-mount your cdrom on.
-let (verx.x) represent the distribution version you
-are installing.
-
-
-
-
-If you down load your disk images please let (cdrom)/slakware the path
-and directory to those images. My parallel port zip drive shows up on
-my system as
-
-
-/dev/sda4
-
-
-I've never seen it come up as any thing else unless I run fdisk on it
-and change the partition table, creating more than one partition on
-the disk. Then I always get corrupt disk error messages when I try to
-use it. You may however mark the partition type 83 Linux etc... if
-you wish with out trouble. You also need to know the device names of
-your cdrom and 1.44 meg floppy drives. Mine are
-
-
-/dev/hdc cdrom
-/dev/fd0 1.44 meg floppy
-
-
-I'll use my device names, you use yours ;-|)
-
-
-About Slackware and slakware (note the missing c in slakware).
-Slackware is the name of the overall distribution and slakware is the
-name of the directory where Patrick Volkerding places the stable "not
-experimental or developmental" packages for installation. Whenever
-I'm writing about slakware I'm writing about the directory.
-
-
-
-
-!!1.6 Other reading:
-
-
-
-
-
-Linux Installation and Getting Started by Matt Welsh
-
-
-If you are having trouble accessing your zip drive please see the
-Linux
-ZIP drive mini-HOWTO by Grant Guenther
-
-
-When you have completed your install I can not recommend strongly
-enough that you work through the
-Small-Memory mini-HOWTO by Todd Burgess
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-!Slackware
-
-
-I also recommend the LOWMEM.TXT document from the Slackware
-documentation on your cdrom or Slackware ftp site. This document
-discribes a system that eleminates many of the difficulties discribed
-in that document.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-----
-
-!!2. Slackware
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-!!2.1 Making the first zip disk.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-1) Attach zip drive to host system, insert blank zip disk
-into the drive and boot the system to Linux
-
-
-2) Login. You probably need to login as root or the user you log in
-as will need to be able to write file systems, mount and unmount disks
-etc....
-
-
-3) Install an ext2fs file system on the zip disk.
-with the command:
-
-
-/sbin/mke2fs -b 1024 /dev/sda4
-
-
-4) Mount the zip disk with:
-
-
-mount /dev/sda4 /(zip)
-
-
-5) Insert your cdrom into its drive and mount it:
-
-
-mount /dev/hdc /(cdrom)
-
-
-6) Make a directory to install the slakware disk
-images in:
-
-
-mkdir /(zip)/slakware
-
-
-7) Make a writable ( non zip disk ) temporary directory on your
-main disk to work in. May I suggest:
-
-
-mkdir /root/slakware/(verx.x)
-
-
-8)
- Copy the root disk image to the above named
-directory:
-
-
-cp /(cdrom)/rootdsks/text.gz /root/slakware/(verx.x)/
-
-
-9) Change directories to the one the root disk image
-was copied to and decompress it with the commands:
-
-
-cd /root/slakware/(verx.x)
-gunzip text.gz
-
-
-10) Install a 1.44 meg floppy with a dos or ext2fs file
-system on it in its drive and copy the root disk image to
-it this time with the dd command:
-
-
-dd if=text of=/dev/fd0
-
-
-11) Mount the 1.44 meg floppy with the command:
-
-
-mount /dev/fd0 /(floppy)
-
-
-12) Copy the root disk image to the zip disk:
-
-
-cp -dpR /(floppy)/* /(zip)/
-
-
-13) In order to ease the install process later we will want
-to create a swap file on the zip disk of about 8 megs. with:
-
-
-dd if=/dev/zero of=/(zip)/swap bs=1024 count=8208
-
-
-14) Initialize the swap file with:
-
-
-/sbin/mkswap /(zip)/swap 8208
-
-
-15) Next with your favorite text editor you will need to edit the
-file __/(zip)/etc/rc__ and after the line __/bin/mount
--av -t nonfs__ insert a new line
-
-
-/sbin/swapon /swap
-
-
-16) Copy the disk images to the zip disk:
-
-
-cp -r /(cdrom)/slakware/
[[a-ty
]* /(zip)/slakware/ &
-
-
-include the square brackets [[a-ty]* exactly as shown above. the & sign
-at the end of the line will make this command execute in the
-background. It takes about 20 min to complete. Use this time for some
-coffee and reading more HOWTO's.
-
-
-17) External zip drives have two lights--mine are green and yellow;
-the internal drives appear to have only one. When my zip disk has
-finished receiving information the yellow light goes out and I'm
-left with just the green power light. on internal drives the single
-"status?" light will go out.
-
-
-It is now time to prepare the floppy and zip disks for removal from
-their drives by unmounting them:
-
-
-cd
-umount /dev/fd0
-umount /dev/sda4
-
-
-
-
-18) Life will be easier later if we check the root disk's file system
-before we try to use it with the command:
-
-
-/sbin/e2fsck -f /dev/sda4
-
-
-
-
-When disk activity ends if there are no errors you may remove the zip
-disk from the drive and label it Slackware Root disk. I also include
-the version number in pencil.
-
-
-
-
-!!2.2 Making the second zip disk.
-
-
-
-If the X window system is to be installed or you will be needing one
-of the other prebuilt kernels it is now time to build the 2nd. zip
-disk.
-
-
-
-
-
-x1) Insert disk 2 in the zip drive. I like to write an ext2fs file
-system on this disk also, but if it has a M$ Dos file system that
-will work also. I use the up arrow key on my keyboard to recall
-previously used commands from my history file because I'm a bit lazy,
-but if you want to retype the command repeat instructions 3), 4), and
-6) above.
-
-
-x2) Copy the X11R6 "X Window" packages to zip
-
-
-cp -r /(cdrom)/slakware/x* /(zip)/slakware/ &
-
-
-again in the background. This will take about 1/2 as long as step 9)
-did. If your system was slow then it will be again. More coffee and
-HOWTO reading.
-
-
-
-
-
-x3) There is also room on this disk for the custom kernels directory.
-It is classy to install one that meets the system's needs as closely
-as possible to go with the one needed to access the zip drive. Make
-this kernel the system default. So now we will make a directory for
-that and then copy the information to it:
-
-
-mkdir /(zip)/kernels
-cp -r /(cdrom)/kernels/* /(zip)/kernels/ &
-
-
-This will take another 10 or 15 min. Dispose of the used coffee? Read
-more Linux Documentation?
-
-
-x4) When disk activity is at an end unmount the disk and run fsck on
-it:
-
-
-umount /dev/sda4
-/sbin/e2fsck -f /dev/sda4
-
-
-x5) When e2fsck is done with the disk and the command prompt returns
-to the screen eject the disk and label it.
-
-
-
-
-!! 2.3 Making the boot floppy.
-
-
-
-
-b1) I now make a 1.44 meg boot disk. Use the
-__/(cdrom)/bootdsks.144/iomega.s__ image. Install a new 1.44 meg
-floppy disk in the proper drive. The command to make the disk is:
-
-
-dd if=/(cdrom)/bootdsks.144/iomega.s of=/dev/fd0
-
-
-
-
-b2) Check the file systems of the boot disk:
-
-
-/sbin/e2fsck -f /dev/fd0
-
-
-When disk activity ends if there are no errors you may remove all your
-disks, write protect your boot floppy and label it including version
-number.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-----
-
-!!3. The install:
-
-
-After connecting everything up to the target machine and putting the
-zip disk in place I boot the machine with the appropriate boot disk.
-Before logging in it is a good idea to use the scroll back feature
-built into Linux and check to see all your hardware was detected
-properly. To do this hold the shift key and use the page up and page
-down keys as appropriate. Getting a login prompt at all usually means
-the boot time errors were not too bad.
-
-
-
-
-!!3.1 Round 1.
-
-
-
-Slackware will present some instructions. Please read them Carefully.
-Login as root and fdisk root and swap partitions on the target drive
-if needed. Reboot the machine if you ran fdisk and __Carefully__
-reread the instructions on the screen if there are any, then login as
-root.
-
-
-Even on machines with only 4 megs. of ram you will not need to create
-a swap partition until prompted to do so in the setup program. We
-already have swap running on the zip disk. Run the Slackware setup
-program:
-
-
-setup
-
-
-CAREFULLY read and follow the instructions the menus provide.
-The first thing setup will want to do is create and initialize
-your swap partition on your hard drive this is ok despite the
-dire warnings and will not affect the swap file on the zip drive.
-
-
-You do not want to allow /dev/sda4 to be automatically mounted
-and when questions come up about this in the menus. Do not
-add it unless this zip drive is dedicated to the target machine
-full time.
-
-
-When you get the menu that asks where the source of the installation
-media is select item number 4. "Install from a premounted directory".
-The next screen will ask for its name, it is /slakware.
-
-
-I recommend installing only the "a" disk set at this time. It
-will crash the install if the person selecting packages gets
-greedy and fills the disk before lilo is written and the kernel
-is installed. During basic install I install the kernel from the
-boot disk only. There are relatively few choices to be made from
here
-and the Slackware documentation from the cdrom or your ftp site
-will do you much better than I can from here.
-
-
-Leave the zip drive and disk in place after the initial install
-is complete. Remove the floppy when prompted to do so and reboot.
-If all is right in the world Bill, er, your friend/customer will
-have a working Linux system come up.
-
-
-
-
-!!3.2 Round 2.
-
-
-
-After rebooting the system login as root and mount the zip disk again:
-
-
-mount /dev/sda4 /mnt
-
-
-Check available drive space:
-
-
-df
-
-
-Run setup again from your new system:
-
-
-setup
-
-
-Choose "s" SOURCE from the menu and press the enter key.
-Select item number 4. "Install from a premounted directory" and press
-the enter key again.
-
-
-Enter the directory name. This time use:
-
-
-/mnt/slakware
-
-
-Choose the packages you want or need. All are available except those
-which start with "x". When you're finished installing packages from
-this disk exit setup and run:
-
-
-umount /dev/sda4
-
-
-
-
-You may now remove the disk and if X will be installed insert the 2nd
-zip disk and work through setup again this time only packages beginning
-with X will be available. If you will be installing a custom kernel
-from the prebuilt kernels you may also do this while the 2nd. zip disk
-is installed.
-
-
-
-
-!!3.3 Library Trouble
-
-
-
-Some times I have trouble with the links for the libraries either on
-the root zip disk or on the final destination machine. There are two
-possible fixes for this.
-
-
-Fix 1) If the system boots to a command prompt and you can login as
-root in single user mode try the command:
-
-
-ldconfig
-
-
-If things are not broken so badly that this command will not run then
-reboot and watch for library related errors. If there are none your
-in business.
-
-
-Fix 2) If __ldconfig__ can not repair things you will need to
-re master the root floppy disk and recopy the files from it as in
-instruction
-8) through 12) or reinstall Linux
-to the destination system as appropriate.
-
-
-
-----
-
-!!4. Thank you
-
-
-This mini-HOWTO brought to you by the letters G. N. and U. and the
-Linux documentation project.
-
-
-Special thanks to Dr. Randolph Bentson whose devotion to Linux
-inspired me to give something back to the people who gave us the
-__ONE TRUE OPERATING SYSTEM.__
-
-
-I hope this helps someone.
-Sincerely
-Kevin Snively
-P.O. Box 1013
-Everett Wa. 98206-1013
-USA
-
-
-
-
-
-k.snively@seaslug
.org
-
-
-root@aldrovanda
-
-
-----
+Describe
[HowToInstallFromZIP
] here.
