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225 lines
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<TITLE>UMSDOS HOW-TO: Installation/UN-installation and some tricks</TITLE>
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<LINK HREF="UMSDOS-HOWTO-8.html" REL=next>
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<LINK HREF="UMSDOS-HOWTO-6.html" REL=previous>
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<LINK HREF="UMSDOS-HOWTO.html#toc7" REL=contents>
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<A HREF="UMSDOS-HOWTO-8.html">Next</A>
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<A HREF="UMSDOS-HOWTO.html#toc7">Contents</A>
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<HR>
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<H2><A NAME="s7">7. Installation/UN-installation and some tricks</A></H2>
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<P>The installation of a <EM>Umsdos</EM> is not much different
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from the installation of an ordinary (<EM>Ext2 based</EM>) <EM>Linux</EM>
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system.
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<P>There are two main differences.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss7.1">7.1 The pseudo-root <CODE>/mnt/linux</CODE></A>
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</H2>
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<P>The normal steps for an installation are
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<P>
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<OL>
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<LI>Setting a partition with fdisk and formatting it.</LI>
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<LI>Mounting it as /mnt relative to our installation
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root disk.</LI>
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<LI>Copy all packages into <CODE>/mnt</CODE>.</LI>
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</OL>
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<P>With <EM>Umsdos</EM>, the step 1 is not required (wasn't it the goal
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of <EM>Umsdos</EM> not to reformat ?).
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<P>It is possible to install a <EM>Umsdos</EM> system just by copying
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all packages into <CODE>/mnt</CODE>. This will certainly work. But it
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will create a
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bunch of subdirectories into your <EM>DOS</EM> root directory (C:) and
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you won't like it. This is the reason all <EM>Umsdos</EM> installation
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use the pseudo-root. And this is the major difference between
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a normal <EM>Ext2</EM> installation and a <EM>Umsdos</EM> one: All files
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are copied into <CODE>/mnt/linux</CODE>.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss7.2">7.2 Preparing <CODE>/mnt/linux</CODE></A>
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</H2>
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<P><CODE>/mnt/linux</CODE> is not an ordinary directory. It has to
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be promoted so it will correctly handle <EM>Linux</EM> long file name
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and special files (links, device). The step required to
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setup <CODE>/mnt/linux</CODE> are:
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<P>
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<OL>
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<LI><CODE>mkdir /mnt/linux</CODE></LI>
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<LI><CODE>umssync /mnt/linux</CODE></LI>
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</OL>
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<P>That's it!
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss7.3">7.3 Making sure <CODE>/mnt/linux</CODE> is correctly setup</A>
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</H2>
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<P>Even if the setup of <CODE>/mnt/linux</CODE> is pretty simple, there
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are many installation package out there who get it wrong. How can ?
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<P>The biggest installation problem come from an incompatible
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<CODE>umssync</CODE> program. <EM>Umsdos</EM> has been update in
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linux 1.1.88 (Can't remember exactly) and a flaw was uncovered
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in <CODE>umssync</CODE>. To avoid confusion in the <EM>Linux</EM>
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community, it was decided to raise the compatibility
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level required for all <EM>Umsdos</EM> tools. Old version
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of the tools were simply rejected.
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<P>It sounds like many distribution did not update their
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<CODE>umssync</CODE> utility on the installation disk.
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<P>There are still many distribution like this out there. The net result
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is that the directory <CODE>/mnt/linux</CODE> is not promoted at all
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and will truncate all long file name and will reject all special
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file.
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<P>It is possible to do a test very early during the installation to
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find out if something went wrong. Thanks to the pseudo console
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mechanism of <EM>Linux</EM>, you can do that without leaving the
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installation program. Do the following steps:
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<P>
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<OL>
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<LI>Press <CODE>Alt-F2</CODE> (<CODE>Alt</CODE> key at the same time
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as the <CODE>F2</CODE> key).</LI>
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<LI>login as root.</LI>
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<LI><CODE>cd /mnt/linux</CODE>
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If this fail, you are trying this too early. A good time
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to do this is at the end of the packages selection.</LI>
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<LI><CODE>>TOTO</CODE></LI>
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<LI><CODE>ls -l</CODE>
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You should see an empty file <CODE>TOTO</CODE> in uppercase. If you
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see it in lowercase, something went wrong. Try to do
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the <CODE>umssync</CODE> step again. <CODE>umssync</CODE> can be use over
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and over without problem.
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<CODE>umssync .</CODE>
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If there is no error message, try the <CODE>TOTO</CODE> test again.
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If
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<CODE>TOTO</CODE> appears fine, then all is OK. Something is strange
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in this installation, but you just save it. Continue
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</LI>
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<LI>Press <CODE>Alt-F1</CODE> to get back to the installation screen.</LI>
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</OL>
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<P>If the test fail, the best fix is to get a newer installation
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root disk. You can generally fix this root disk by installing
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a newer version of <CODE>umssync</CODE>. This is not difficult but
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required a working <EM>Linux</EM> system. You simply have to
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mount the root disk floppy and replace the offending
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<CODE>umssync</CODE> with a new one.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss7.4">7.4 Oops releasing pseudo root ...</A>
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</H2>
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<P>Most <EM>Umsdos</EM> installation which fail, do this by printing
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this strange message. This is not a bug in <EM>Umsdos</EM> although
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the message looks strange. Here are the known causes.
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<P>
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<UL>
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<LI>The most common one
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<P>The <EM>Slackware</EM> installation try to setup a swap
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file very early during the installation. To do so, it asks
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you to select a partition (dos drive), then mount it and
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set the swap file.
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<P>When installing a <EM>Slackware</EM> system, you must setup
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the target partition prior to install. This normally
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mounts the <EM>DOS</EM> partition on <CODE>/mnt</CODE>, creates
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the <CODE>/mnt/linux</CODE> directory and applies <CODE>umssync</CODE>
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on it.
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<P>This is where most problems come from. Most user just
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forget the "setup target partition" step and go directly
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to the rest of the installation. Since <CODE>/mnt</CODE> is
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already mounted, this mistake goes unnotice.
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This means that <CODE>/mnt/linux</CODE>
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was not created properly (Not promoted). All special files
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and links and long names can't be created properly.
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<P>
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</LI>
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<LI>Invalid umssync utility
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<P><CODE>/mnt/linux</CODE> was improperly setup-ed. Generally caused
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by an improper <CODE>umssync</CODE> utility on the installation
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root disk.
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</LI>
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<LI>Old bug in umsdos
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<P>There was a bug in <EM>Umsdos</EM> prior to <EM>Linux 1.2.2</EM>. The
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pseudo-root mode would not activate properly if the
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file <CODE>/etc/init</CODE> was missing. <CODE>init</CODE> is now located
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in <CODE>/sbin</CODE>. You can fix it by getting a newer kernel.
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This is recommended because another bug was uncover and fixed
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in 1.2.2.
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<P>If you can't upgrade, do this
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<P>
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<OL>
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<LI>Boot from you installation disk.</LI>
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<LI>Login as root.</LI>
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<LI><CODE>mount -t umsdos /dev/hdXX /mnt</CODE>
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where <CODE>/dev/hdXX</CODE> is your <EM>DOS</EM> partition.</LI>
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<LI><CODE>cd /mnt/linux/etc</CODE></LI>
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<LI><CODE>ln -s ../sbin/init init</CODE></LI>
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<LI><CODE>cd /</CODE></LI>
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<LI><CODE>Ctrl-Alt-Del</CODE></LI>
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<LI>Boot your <EM>Umsdos</EM> normally.</LI>
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</OL>
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</LI>
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</UL>
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<P>Unfortunatly, the first two (Installation problems) produce a completly
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unusable installation. Uninstall it (See next section) and install
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again.
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<P>
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss7.5">7.5 How to UN-install a <EM>Umsdos</EM> system</A>
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</H2>
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<P>One neat thing about <EM>Umsdos</EM> and its pseudo-root
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mechanism, is that you can UN-install it without pain. You
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just boot <EM>DOS</EM> and recursively delete the <CODE>linux</CODE>
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directory. That's all. <EM>Umsdos</EM> requires no special
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drivers in the config.sys, nor it creates anything
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special outside of the <CODE>linux</CODE> directory.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss7.6">7.6 Moving a <EM>Umsdos</EM> system to another <EM>DOS</EM> drive</A>
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</H2>
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<P>This can be done from <EM>Linux</EM> or from <EM>DOS</EM>.
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You just have to copy recursively the <CODE>linux</CODE> directory
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from one drive to the other. After that you will have to
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adjust you boot mechanism (generally loadlin command) and
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the <CODE>/etc/fstab</CODE> file.
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<P><EM>Umsdos</EM> can live on any <EM>DOS</EM> drive. There is no
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need to install it on the <CODE>C:</CODE> drive, nor it is important
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to have it on the first hard drive. It does not matter at
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all.
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<P>In fact, one may decide to have several <EM>Umsdos</EM> installations
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on different drive just to do experiments.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss7.7">7.7 About installing 50 <EM>Umsdos</EM> systems.</A>
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</H2>
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<P>How about installing a bunch of <EM>Linux</EM> systems in no time ?
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<P><EM>Umsdos</EM> systems are living in a <EM>DOS</EM> world. You can
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take advantage of this if you wish to install <EM>Linux</EM> easily.
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<P>You can install and configure a <EM>Umsdos</EM> system at your site.
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When you are satisfied with the configuration and the different
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packages you have selected, you can boot <EM>DOS</EM> and copy
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the complete <CODE>linux</CODE> directory to your <EM>DOS</EM> file
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server. Then you go to other <EM>DOS</EM> station and simply
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copy the files on the network drive to the local drive.
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That's it. Only adjust the boot script (<EM>Loadlinx</EM>) and go.
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<P>With minimal adjustment (Host name, IP number), anyone will
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be able to install a <EM>Linux</EM> system in a matter of minute.
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<P>Interest readers may note that installing <EM>Linux</EM> systems
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by copying running system also works for any other <EM>Linux</EM>
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systems, including <EM>Ext2</EM> based one.
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<P>One beauty of <EM>Linux</EM> is that there is no hidden files which
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have to be install by magic installation program.
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<P>
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<HR>
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<A HREF="UMSDOS-HOWTO-8.html">Next</A>
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<A HREF="UMSDOS-HOWTO-6.html">Previous</A>
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<A HREF="UMSDOS-HOWTO.html#toc7">Contents</A>
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