189 lines
8.3 KiB
HTML
189 lines
8.3 KiB
HTML
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<HTML>
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<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="SGML-Tools 1.0.9">
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<TITLE>4mb Laptop HOWTO: The Installation</TITLE>
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<LINK HREF="4mb-Laptops-6.html" REL=next>
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<LINK HREF="4mb-Laptops-4.html" REL=previous>
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<LINK HREF="4mb-Laptops.html#toc5" REL=contents>
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<A HREF="4mb-Laptops-6.html">Next</A>
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<A HREF="4mb-Laptops-4.html">Previous</A>
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<A HREF="4mb-Laptops.html#toc5">Contents</A>
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<HR>
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<H2><A NAME="s5">5. The Installation</A> </H2>
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<P>This section does not give much detail on the Slackware installation process.
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In fact, it assumes you are familiar with it. Instead, this section concentrates
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on those areas where special care or unusual steps are required.
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<H2><A NAME="ss5.1">5.1 Boot the machine</A>
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</H2>
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<P>Make a boot-disk from one of the images. I recommend you use bareapm.i
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on a laptop and bare.i on a desktop - unless you have a parallel-port IDE device
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(pportide.i). Boot the laptop from it. When the boot: prompt appears, type
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"mount root=/dev/hdax" where x is the temporary root partition. Log in as root.
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Then activate the swap partition.
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<H2><A NAME="ss5.2">5.2 Floppy/Parport CD-ROM Install</A>
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</H2>
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<P>In both these cases, no extra work should be necessary to access the installation
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media. Simply run setup.
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<H2><A NAME="ss5.3">5.3 Network/PCMCIA Install</A>
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</H2>
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<P>Slackware has supplementary disks with tools for these and instructions
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for their use greet you when you log in. Use the network disk on a desktop
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PC with ethernet card or a laptop with pocket ethernet adaptor. Use the PCMCIA
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disk for PCMCIA install. Once your network adapter/PCMCIA socket has been identified,
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run setup.
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<H3>PCMCIA install on the Aero </H3>
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<P>The Slackware installation process runs the PCMCIA drivers from the supplementary
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floppy. Because the Aero has a PCMCIA floppy drive, this means you can't remove
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the floppy drive to insert the PCMCIA CD-ROM/ethernet card. The solution is
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simple: the Slackware PCMCIA setup routine creates /pcmcia and mounts the supplementary
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disk there, so
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<P>
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<OL>
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<LI>Create the /pcmcia directory yourself</LI>
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<LI>Mount the supplementary disk to /mnt. Be sure to specify the type as vfat
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- if you don't, it'll be incorrectly identified as UMSDOS and long filenames
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will be mis-copied.</LI>
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<LI>cd /mnt;cp -dpPr ./* /pcmcia/</LI>
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<LI>Unmount the floppy.</LI>
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<LI>Run pcmcia. When the script complains that there is no disk in the drive
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simply hit Enter: Card Sevices will start. Connect your PCMCIA device and hit
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Enter.</LI>
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<LI>Run setup</LI>
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</OL>
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<H2><A NAME="ss5.4">5.4 Set-up</A>
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</H2>
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<P>The Slackware set-up program is straightforward. Start with the Keymap
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section and it'll take you forward step by step.
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<H3>AddSwap </H3>
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<P>You do need to do this step so it can put the correct entry in fstab but
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make sure it doesn't run mkswap - you're already using the partition.
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<H3>Target </H3>
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<P>In this section Slackware asks which partitions will be mounted as what
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and then formats them if you want.
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<P>The safest bet here is to leave your temporary root partition out altogether
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and just edit fstab later once you know you don't need it for it's temporary
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purpose anymore. If you're going to reuse it as /home then it is OK to designate
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it as /home - obviously, don't format it now! If you intend to re-use it as
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a part of the directory structure that will have files placed in it during
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installation (/var, for example) then you absolutely must ignore it in this
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step: after the installation is complete you can move the files across.
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<H3>Select </H3>
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<P>Here you choose which general categories of software to install. I chose
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as follows:
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<P>
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<UL>
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<LI>A - Base Linux System</LI>
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<LI>AP -Non-X applications</LI>
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<LI>F - FAQs and HOWTOs</LI>
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<LI>N - Networking tools and apps</LI>
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<LI>Y - BSD games collection</LI>
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</UL>
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<P>I wouldn't recommend adding to this - if anything, prune it back to A,
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AP and N. That gives you a core Linux setup to which you can add according
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to your needs.
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<H3><A NAME="sec:installpackages"></A> Install </H3>
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<P>Choose the Expert installation method. This allows you to select/reject
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for installation individual packages from the categories you chose in the Selection
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step.
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<A HREF="4mb-Laptops-7.html#sec:appendixA">Appendix A</A> goes through the precise choices I made .
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<P>This part takes about 3 hours for a PCMCIA network install. You are prompted
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to select individual packages before the installation of each category, so
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you can't just walk away and leave it to run through.
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<H3>Configure </H3>
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<P>Once the packages are all installed, you are prompted to do final configuration
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for your machine. This covers areas like networking, Lilo, selecting a kernel
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etc. Some points to look out for:
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<P>
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<UL>
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<LI>If you did a PCMCIA install, don't accept the offer to configure your network
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with netconfig. This will ruin your pcmcia networking. Wait until you've rebooted
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and then edit /etc/pcmcia/network.opts</LI>
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<LI>This is the point where you should install a kernel. For a laptop the bareapm
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kernel is best, for a desktop simply the bare one.</LI>
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</UL>
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<H3>Exit </H3>
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<P>The set-up process is finished but you are not.<B> Do not reboot yet! </B>There
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is another vital step to complete.
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<H2><A NAME="sec:prebootconfig"></A> <A NAME="ss5.5">5.5 Pre-reboot Configuration</A>
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</H2>
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<P>On a normal machine you would simply reboot once the installation is complete.
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If you do that here you may have to wait 6 or 8 hours for a login prompt to
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appear and another half hour to get to the command prompt. Before rebooting
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you need to change or remove the elements that cause this slowdown. This involves
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editing config files so you need to be familiar with vi, ed or sed.
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<P>At this stage your future root partition is still mounted as /mnt so remember
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to at that to the paths given here.
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<P>
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<DL>
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<DT><B>/etc/passwd</B><DD><P>Edit this to change root's login shell to ash. ash really
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is the only practical login shell for 4mb RAM.
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<DT><B>/etc/rc.d/rc.modules</B><DD><P>Comment out the line 'depmod -a'. You only need
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to update module dependencies if you have changed your module configuration
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(recompiled or added new ones, for example). On a standard system it only takes
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a second or two and so it doesn't matter that it's needlessly performed each
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time. On a 4mb laptop it can take as much as 8 hours.
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When you do change your
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module set-up you can simply uncomment this line and reboot. Alternatively,
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change this part of the script so that it will only run if you pass a parameter
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at the boot-prompt. For example:
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<HR>
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<PRE>
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if [ "NEWMODULES" == "1" ] ; then
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depmod -a
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fi
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</PRE>
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<HR>
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<DT><B>/etc/rc.d/rc.inet2</B><DD><P>This script starts network services like nfs.
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You probably don't need these and certainly not at start-up. Rename this script
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to something like RC.inet2 - that will stop it from being run at boot and you
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can run it manually when you need it.
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<DT><B>/etc/rc.d/rc.pcmcia</B><DD><P>On the Aero you should also rename this script,
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otherwise you'll lose the use of your floppy drive on start-up. It's worth
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considering for any other small laptop as well - you can always run it manually
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before inserting a card.
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</DL>
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<P>Once these changes have been made, you are ready to reboot.
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<H2><A NAME="ss5.6">5.6 Post-reboot Configuration.</A>
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</H2>
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<P>If you made the changes recommended in section
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<A HREF="#sec:prebootconfig">Pre-reboot configuration</A> then the boot process will
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only take a few minutes, as opposed to several hours. Login as root and check
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that everything is functioning properly.
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<H3>Re-use the temporary root. </H3>
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<P>Once you are sure the installation is solid you can reclaim the partition
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you used as the temporary root. Don't just delete the contents, reformat the
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filesystem. Remember, the mke2fs that came with the mini-Linux is out of date.
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<P>If you intend to re-use this partition as /home, remember not to create
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any user accounts until you have completed this step.
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<H3>Other configuration tweaks. </H3>
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<P>In such a small RAM space, every little helps. Go through SlackWare's BSD-style
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init scripts in /etc/rc.d/ and comment out anything you don't need. Have a
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look at Todd Burgess' Small Memory mini-HOWTO
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<A HREF=" http://eddie.cis.uoguelph.ca/~tburgess/"> http://eddie.cis.uoguelph.ca/~tburgess/</A> for more ideas.
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<HR>
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<A HREF="4mb-Laptops-6.html">Next</A>
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<A HREF="4mb-Laptops-4.html">Previous</A>
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<A HREF="4mb-Laptops.html#toc5">Contents</A>
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