578 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
578 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
Linux Install From PPA-Zip drive mini-HOWTO
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by Kevin Snively, k.snively@seaslug.org
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v01.04, 29 April 1998
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This document describes how to install Linux from a parallel port zip
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drive using the Slackware Linux distribution.
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______________________________________________________________________
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Table of Contents
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1. Prelude
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1.1 Intro:
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1.2 Background:
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1.3 Advantages:
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1.4 Material:
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1.5 Conventions:
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1.6 Other reading:
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1.6.1 Slackware
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2. Slackware
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2.1 Making the first zip disk.
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2.2 Making the second zip disk.
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2.3 Making the boot floppy.
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3. The install:
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3.1 Round 1.
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3.2 Round 2.
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3.3 Library Trouble
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4. Thank you
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______________________________________________________________________
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1. Prelude
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1.1. Intro:
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The following method has been written for use with the Slackware Linux
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distribution. It assumes some familiarity with it's installation. The
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installer will also need access to a working Linux system of any
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distribution. It also assumes the destination system has 4 to 6 megs
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ram. More powerful systems can use this method also but you will
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probably be able to find a faster easier way. It is not intended to
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be used by first time installers or by people new to Linux. Only
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issues specific to the use of a zip drive as source media will be
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covered here.
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1.2. Background:
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I have an OLD 486/20 slc with a 120 meg hd, 4 megs ram and a 2400 baud
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modem that I wanted to run Linux on. It has no cdrom drive or pcmcia
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connectivity, and will never see a network card (parallel port style).
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There is nothing left that can be upgraded on this unit.
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Linux has been at the cutting edge from the start but also breathes
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new life into some older 386 and 486 hardware. The documentation says
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"386 with 2 megs ram no math coprocessor" but try to find a
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distribution that will do it today. Slackware can be placed on a 4
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meg machine with some work and a prayer. The following system greatly
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reduces the work. Prayer always helps, even with the best of systems.
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I've used the following system with 3 other laptops, and one 386
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desktop machine. The lamest being a 386 with 4 megs ram & 60 meg HD no
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math coprocessor. While this system works well I'd like to be able to
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do similar tricks with Debian, RedHat, Caldera Lite, and some of the
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other popular distributions offering more choice to Linux users I help
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this way.
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1.3. Advantages:
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Installing from cdrom or Ethernet are the methods of choice when
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available. In cases where floppy disk install appears to be the only
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choice a parallel port zip drive offers numerous advantages. These
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include better speed than a floppy disk, and fewer disk changes. In
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addition on systems with minimal ram "6 megs. or less" the ability to
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install a swap file on the root disk uncomplicates the install greatly
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by freeing you from the need to creat one on the hard disk before
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running setup. When installing Slackware the swap file allows
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installers to choose the color.gz root disk or text.gz. The color.gz
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is not recommended for floppy based installs on machines with such
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limited resources. With a zip disk you may also produce an emergency
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boot disk during the initial install, by freeing the first floppy
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drive. Something not possible during a normal floppy based install on
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systems of this type.
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1.4. Material:
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This method has been used with Slackware Ver's. 3.1, through 3.4 A
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full Slackware install requires 2 zip disk's not counting source
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packages if they are desired. You will need one parallel port zip
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drive & cables, and a 1.44 meg boot disk. Pencil and paper are
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optional for making a few notes during install.
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At least two systems are required to use this install method. The
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first (host) system is used to prepare the installation media and must
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contain a working Linux system. The second will be the target system.
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Once the media has been prepared it can be used to install to as many
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target systems as you like. I work from cdrom but you can down load
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your distribution from the Internet if you have a fast enough
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connection. For me this is not practical.
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1.5. Conventions:
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let (floppy) represent the path to and directory you
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mount your 1.44 meg floppy disk on.
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let (zip) represent the path to and directory you
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mount your zip disk on.
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let (cdrom) represent the path to and directory you
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mount your cdrom on.
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let (verx.x) represent the distribution version you
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are installing.
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If you down load your disk images please let (cdrom)/slakware the path
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and directory to those images. My parallel port zip drive shows up on
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my system as
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/dev/sda4
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I've never seen it come up as any thing else unless I run fdisk on it
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and change the partition table, creating more than one partition on
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the disk. Then I always get corrupt disk error messages when I try to
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use it. You may however mark the partition type 83 Linux etc... if you
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wish with out trouble. You also need to know the device names of your
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cdrom and 1.44 meg floppy drives. Mine are
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/dev/hdc cdrom
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/dev/fd0 1.44 meg floppy
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I'll use my device names, you use yours ;-|)
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About Slackware and slakware (note the missing c in slakware).
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Slackware is the name of the overall distribution and slakware is the
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name of the directory where Patrick Volkerding places the stable "not
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experimental or developmental" packages for installation. Whenever I'm
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writing about slakware I'm writing about the directory.
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1.6. Other reading:
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Linux Installation and Getting Started by Matt Welsh
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If you are having trouble accessing your zip drive please see the
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Linux ZIP drive mini-HOWTO by Grant Guenther
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When you have completed your install I can not recommend strongly
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enough that you work through the Small-Memory mini-HOWTO by Todd
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Burgess
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1.6.1. Slackware
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I also recommend the LOWMEM.TXT document from the Slackware
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documentation on your cdrom or Slackware ftp site. This document
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discribes a system that eleminates many of the difficulties discribed
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in that document.
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2. Slackware
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2.1. Making the first zip disk.
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1) Attach zip drive to host system, insert blank zip disk into the
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drive and boot the system to Linux
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2) Login. You probably need to login as root or the user you log in
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as will need to be able to write file systems, mount and unmount disks
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etc....
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3) Install an ext2fs file system on the zip disk. with the
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command:
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/sbin/mke2fs -b 1024 /dev/sda4
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4) Mount the zip disk with:
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mount /dev/sda4 /(zip)
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5) Insert your cdrom into its drive and mount it:
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mount /dev/hdc /(cdrom)
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6) Make a directory to install the slakware disk images in:
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mkdir /(zip)/slakware
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7) Make a writable ( non zip disk ) temporary directory on your
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main disk to work in. May I suggest:
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mkdir /root/slakware/(verx.x)
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8) Copy the root disk image to the above named directory:
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cp /(cdrom)/rootdsks/text.gz /root/slakware/(verx.x)/
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9) Change directories to the one the root disk image was copied to
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and decompress it with the commands:
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cd /root/slakware/(verx.x)
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gunzip text.gz
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10) Install a 1.44 meg floppy with a dos or ext2fs file system on it
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in its drive and copy the root disk image to it this time with the dd
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command:
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dd if=text of=/dev/fd0
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11) Mount the 1.44 meg floppy with the command:
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mount /dev/fd0 /(floppy)
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12) Copy the root disk image to the zip disk:
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cp -dpR /(floppy)/* /(zip)/
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13) In order to ease the install process later we will want to cre<72>
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ate a swap file on the zip disk of about 8 megs. with:
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dd if=/dev/zero of=/(zip)/swap bs=1024 count=8208
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14) Initialize the swap file with:
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/sbin/mkswap /(zip)/swap 8208
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15) Next with your favorite text editor you will need to edit the
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file /(zip)/etc/rc and after the line /bin/mount -av -t nonfs
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insert a new line
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/sbin/swapon /swap
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16) Copy the disk images to the zip disk:
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cp -r /(cdrom)/slakware/[a-ty]* /(zip)/slakware/ &
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include the square brackets [a-ty]* exactly as shown above. the & sign
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at the end of the line will make this command execute in the back<63>
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ground. It takes about 20 min to complete. Use this time for some
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coffee and reading more HOWTO's.
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17) External zip drives have two lights--mine are green and yellow;
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the internal drives appear to have only one. When my zip disk has
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finished receiving information the yellow light goes out and I'm left
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with just the green power light. on internal drives the single
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"status?" light will go out.
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It is now time to prepare the floppy and zip disks for removal from
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their drives by unmounting them:
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cd
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umount /dev/fd0
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umount /dev/sda4
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18) Life will be easier later if we check the root disk's file system
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before we try to use it with the command:
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/sbin/e2fsck -f /dev/sda4
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When disk activity ends if there are no errors you may remove the zip
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disk from the drive and label it Slackware Root disk. I also include
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the version number in pencil.
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2.2. Making the second zip disk.
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If the X window system is to be installed or you will be needing one
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of the other prebuilt kernels it is now time to build the 2nd. zip
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disk.
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x1) Insert disk 2 in the zip drive. I like to write an ext2fs file
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system on this disk also, but if it has a M$ Dos file system that will
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work also. I use the up arrow key on my keyboard to recall previously
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used commands from my history file because I'm a bit lazy, but if you
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want to retype the command repeat instructions 3), 4), and 6) above.
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x2) Copy the X11R6 "X Window" packages to zip
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cp -r /(cdrom)/slakware/x* /(zip)/slakware/ &
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again in the background. This will take about 1/2 as long as step 9)
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did. If your system was slow then it will be again. More coffee and
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HOWTO reading.
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x3) There is also room on this disk for the custom kernels directory.
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It is classy to install one that meets the system's needs as closely
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as possible to go with the one needed to access the zip drive. Make
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this kernel the system default. So now we will make a directory for
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that and then copy the information to it:
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mkdir /(zip)/kernels
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cp -r /(cdrom)/kernels/* /(zip)/kernels/ &
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This will take another 10 or 15 min. Dispose of the used coffee? Read
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more Linux Documentation?
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x4) When disk activity is at an end unmount the disk and run fsck on
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it:
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umount /dev/sda4
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/sbin/e2fsck -f /dev/sda4
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x5) When e2fsck is done with the disk and the command prompt returns
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to the screen eject the disk and label it.
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2.3. Making the boot floppy.
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b1) I now make a 1.44 meg boot disk. Use the
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/(cdrom)/bootdsks.144/iomega.s image. Install a new 1.44 meg floppy
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disk in the proper drive. The command to make the disk is:
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dd if=/(cdrom)/bootdsks.144/iomega.s of=/dev/fd0
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b2) Check the file systems of the boot disk:
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/sbin/e2fsck -f /dev/fd0
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When disk activity ends if there are no errors you may remove all your
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disks, write protect your boot floppy and label it including version
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number.
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3. The install:
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After connecting everything up to the target machine and putting the
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zip disk in place I boot the machine with the appropriate boot disk.
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Before logging in it is a good idea to use the scroll back feature
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built into Linux and check to see all your hardware was detected
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properly. To do this hold the shift key and use the page up and page
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down keys as appropriate. Getting a login prompt at all usually means
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the boot time errors were not too bad.
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3.1. Round 1.
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Slackware will present some instructions. Please read them Carefully.
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Login as root and fdisk root and swap partitions on the target drive
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if needed. Reboot the machine if you ran fdisk and Carefully reread
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the instructions on the screen if there are any, then login as root.
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Even on machines with only 4 megs. of ram you will not need to create
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a swap partition until prompted to do so in the setup program. We
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already have swap running on the zip disk. Run the Slackware setup
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program:
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setup
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CAREFULLY read and follow the instructions the menus provide. The
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first thing setup will want to do is create and initialize your swap
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partition on your hard drive this is ok despite the dire warnings and
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will not affect the swap file on the zip drive.
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You do not want to allow /dev/sda4 to be automatically mounted and
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when questions come up about this in the menus. Do not add it unless
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this zip drive is dedicated to the target machine full time.
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When you get the menu that asks where the source of the installation
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media is select item number 4. "Install from a premounted directory".
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The next screen will ask for its name, it is /slakware.
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I recommend installing only the "a" disk set at this time. It will
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crash the install if the person selecting packages gets greedy and
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fills the disk before lilo is written and the kernel is installed.
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During basic install I install the kernel from the boot disk only.
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There are relatively few choices to be made from here and the
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Slackware documentation from the cdrom or your ftp site will do you
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much better than I can from here.
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Leave the zip drive and disk in place after the initial install is
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complete. Remove the floppy when prompted to do so and reboot. If
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all is right in the world Bill, er, your friend/customer will have a
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working Linux system come up.
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3.2. Round 2.
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After rebooting the system login as root and mount the zip disk again:
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mount /dev/sda4 /mnt
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Check available drive space:
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df
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Run setup again from your new system:
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setup
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Choose "s" SOURCE from the menu and press the enter key. Select item
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number 4. "Install from a premounted directory" and press the enter
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key again.
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Enter the directory name. This time use:
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/mnt/slakware
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Choose the packages you want or need. All are available except those
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which start with "x". When you're finished installing packages from
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this disk exit setup and run:
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umount /dev/sda4
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You may now remove the disk and if X will be installed insert the 2nd
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zip disk and work through setup again this time only packages
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beginning with X will be available. If you will be installing a custom
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kernel from the prebuilt kernels you may also do this while the 2nd.
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zip disk is installed.
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3.3. Library Trouble
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Some times I have trouble with the links for the libraries either on
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the root zip disk or on the final destination machine. There are two
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possible fixes for this.
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Fix 1) If the system boots to a command prompt and you can login as
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root in single user mode try the command:
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ldconfig
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If things are not broken so badly that this command will not run then
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reboot and watch for library related errors. If there are none your in
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business.
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Fix 2) If ldconfig can not repair things you will need to re master
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the root floppy disk and recopy the files from it as in instruction
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``8)'' through 12) or reinstall Linux to the destination system as
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appropriate.
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4. Thank you
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This mini-HOWTO brought to you by the letters G. N. and U. and the
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Linux documentation project.
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Special thanks to Dr. Randolph Bentson whose devotion to Linux
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inspired me to give something back to the people who gave us the ONE
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TRUE OPERATING SYSTEM.
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I hope this helps someone.
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Sincerely
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Kevin Snively
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P.O. Box 1013
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Everett Wa. 98206-1013
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USA
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k.snively@seaslug.org
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root@aldrovanda
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